SVE favourites for the DFB cup in Hildesheim 

SV Elversberg have begun the new 2. Fußball-Bundesliga season with two draws. Nevertheless, Horst Steffen is still happy. 

‘My team still needs some time’, head coach Horst Steffen told colleagues at Kicker, exuding a level of calm that SVE are entitled to hold after two winless matches against Magdeburg and Köln to kick off the new season. They even managed to fight back from behind against the Cologne team: ‘catching up on Köln is definitely worthy of praise’, Horst Steffen added. SVE can be very happy with gaining a point against one of the top favourites in the league. In Steffen’s view, his team are far from at their full potential. ‘In both games, we had times when things went as they should and times when they didn’t go as I would have liked. This is most likely because some of us are not yet at full strength’, the coach said in the press conference after the game. He mentioned the prospect of further new additions and asked for patience: ‘It will be some time for the process to become clear and for us to be running smoothly.’ Until then, he will be delighted with every point that SVE gains. So draws against Köln and Magdeburg are a success: ‘And we can develop further. We still have huge potential to improve.’ The huge rise in performance between the first and second halves against Köln makes this clear: during the first half, only Köln was truly playing football and SVE remained in the running thanks to their goalkeeper Nicolas Kristof, but the tide turned completely in the second half. SVE played enthusiastically, refused to leave the Köln players in peace, and played like a brand-new team, not just because of the substitutions. This is proof of what the team can achieve if the cogs connect. Next, Horst Steffen and his coaching team must work on keeping this performance up for the whole 90 minutes on the day. New additions and more time on the pitch together will help with this, so the DFB cup is coming at just the right time to work on making things more automatic. 
 
Next up, Elversberg face VfV 06 Hildesheim in the DFB cup. The second-division team is the clear favourite: ‘This is a new situation for us. We want to improve with every passing week. We have not yet reached our limits, so we want to make further progress in Hildesheim’, Steffen said. A win is a must against the Oberliga team. It would be the second time in the Saarland club’s history that they have made the second round of the DFB cup. If they take this match as seriously as it deserves, it could be a step forward, both towards achieving the club’s full potential and into the next round of the cup. The two clubs and coaches are looking forward to seeing what happens – as are the fans. After the cup, things then continue for SVE in the league against Karlsruher SC – running even more smoothly and getting closer to their full potential.