The meeting of SV Darmstadt 98 and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim will be the first time the two have clashed since 2007, when they met in the Regionalliga Süd; Darmstadt ran out 2-0 winners in front of 4,000 spectators. Both sides have an equal record in the fixture, winning four times and drawing twice.
Dirk Schuster and Markus Gisdol have led in both their opening games but both are yet to register a win in the Bundesliga season. The newly-promoted Darmstadt have drew twice from winning positions, whereas Hoffenheim have be pegged back twice to not pick up a single point. Gisdol's side conceded late on against Bayer Leverkusen, and they had a good solid point snatched from underneath them by Bayern Munich.
The two points in two games for Schuster’s side is their best start in their top-flight history. Hoffenheim travel to Darmstadt with the harrowing stat that they’re currently three games without a win on the road. Including last season, they’ve only managed three points from their last ten away fixtures. Their last win came on matchday 30 of the 2014-15 season against Hannover 96.
Team News
There are no major injuries plaguing the Darmstadt side and they host Hoffenheim with a clean bill of health. In their opening two games, Schuster only made two changes to his side. Against Schalke 04 he gave a starting place to Mario Vrancic over Mario Sailer as well as György Garics instead of Florian Jungwirth, who have played alternatively played and both are set to battle it out for that starting right back position again.
Summer signing Junior Diaz is in contention for a starting place but it will be hard for the Costa Rican to get into the squad as Fabian Holland has started and played the full ninety minutes in both games.
Only two notable players are absent for Markus Gisdol, the midfield duo of Kai Herdling and Jiloan Hamad will both miss their trip to Darmstadt. The 24-year-old Swede will miss the game due to a cruciate ligament tear, which he suffered at the start of April. Gisdol named an unchanged side in the opening day defeat to Bayer Leverkusen and last weekend’s defeat to the champions.
On both occasions, he opted to go for the front three of the diamond of Stefan Zuber, Kevin Volland and Kevin Kuranyi. One of the Hoffenheim regulars is Niklas Süle, who returns to Darmstadt after transferring from the junior side to Hoffenheim’s youth set-up in 2010. Süle was only in Darmstadt’s youth teams for a little under six months.
New signing Eduardo Vargas may be in the squad for the trip but he remains a doubt as he still recovering from the Copa America. Whether the Hoffenheim boss believes going unchanged for the third time will be the lucky one, remains to be seen.
Pre-match comments
Darmstadt manager Dirk Schuster spoke on Thursday afternoon of his men’s intent to carry on their solid start to their Bundesliga return: “All the players are fit and firing ahead of the match,”.
However, the boss came under question over his team's credentials following the opening two games of the Bundesliga, “We hope that we can send out the strongest eleven in the match." Following on from that, Schuster went on to talk about his side's shock point against an in-form Schalke. The 47-year-old added, “no one had expected us to get anything from the game against Schalke.”
Schuster’s feet are firmly on the ground and he isn’t letting the Bundesliga hype get to him. However he did admit that it is still a surreal experience to be managing at the top level of German football: “It is still very special to be able to manage in the Bundesliga.”
Schuster, in his press conference, noted that his side's matchday three opponents which pose a “huge challenge”. "Their objective is different from ours and they’ll be looking to being in the Europa League come May, they will come to us to get all three points,” the Darmstadt manager said.
He is aware that Hoffenheim will come to the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor to right their previous wrongs, “Hoffenheim performed well in their opening two games and will be looking to secure the three points this weekend."
Also speaking on Thursday was Hoffenheim manager Markus Gisdol. He has been at the helm of Hoffenheim since 2013 and his contract is set to expire in 2018. His record against Darmstadt is good, in four games against the Lilies he has won two and lost just the once.
The 46-year old dismissed Darmstadt as being “easy” opponents, saying: “Anyone who believes this match is already won has already lost.” Gisdol also praised Darmstadt’s rise to the Bundesliga: “Darmstadt have moved up the divisions quickly and have formed a great team along the way.”
Darmstadt were also likened to Atletico Madrid by Gisdol, "Their football is good and consistent in the simplest form. They play like one team I can think of internationally. That’s Atletico Madrid." He continued, "It’s is remarkable and we need to be aware of the firepower they possess."
The Hoffenheim boss continued to play down the fact that Darmstadt will be an easy game because of their stature, “Darmstadt are a team that are widely underestimated.” Gisdol concluded by showing his desire to get back to winning ways, “The season hasn’t gone to plan, we lost the first two games but normal service resumes, we took positives from the two defeats [to Leverkusen and Bayern Munich]."
Story so far
Darmstadt’s busy summer saw them bring in eight new signings, they started off their campaign against Hannover 96. Marcel Heller, arguably their star player, bagged himself a brace to put his side ahead; only to be denied of a dream start by team-mate Aytac Sulu, who had a nightmare opening day, conceding a penalty and scoring an own goal two minutes after the hour mark to level the game.
Darmstadt then travelled to Gelsenkirchen to play Andre Breitenreiter’s Schalke Once again his side lead through Konstantin Rausch, who opened his Bundesliga account nine minutes into his second game for Darmstadt, finishing brilliantly after finding Ralf Fährmann’s left hand corner.
But once again, they were denied the three points in the second half, this time through Julian Draxler who met Franco di Santo’s cross to find the bottom corner. Darmstadt need to get points on the board whenever and wherever they can as they have a very tough few games coming up and don’t want to be left in the rut. They have to host Bayern Munich as well as away trips to Bayer Leverkusen and league leaders Borussia Dortmund.
Hoffenheim’s season has already been filled with great starts. On the opening day Stefan Zuber sprung the offside trap to poke home, giving Hoffenheim the lead at the BayArena but the hosts heavy pressure eventually broke down the defence and Stefan Kießling and Julian Brandt put the visitors firmly back in their place and sent them home empty handed.
It was the same case for Hoffenheim as they welcomed Bayern Munich. It took them nine seconds to get the breakthrough, as David Alaba’s miscued pass was pounced upon by Kevin Volland, who poked under his international compatriot but before half time Bayern levelled. A nifty bit of skill from Douglas Costa left Pavel Kaderabek for dead and his shot was well saved Oliver Baumann but when your champions but Thomas Müller was on hand to knee the ball home.
Hoffenheim were awarded a penalty after Jerome Boateng’s handball, he ultimately saw red. From the resulting penalty, Eugen Polanski stepped up but he was denied by the post from and with seconds left Douglas Costa turned provider once again. The Brazilian burst to the by-line, pulling back to Robert Lewandowski and the Pole made no mistake in prodding the ball home; giving Pep Guardiola’s side all three points.
