Status: 24.08.2024 17:54
Holstein Kiel has lost the first Bundesliga game in its club history. The Schleswig-Holstein team suffered a narrow 2:3 (0:2) defeat at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday afternoon. However, the KSV put in a good performance against the Kraichgau team.
Coach Marcel Rapp’s team appeared a little nervous at the beginning in the Sinsheim stadium, but then became more and more confident despite falling behind early on. The KSV did a lot of things right in the forward movement, and working against the ball will have to be a main focus in training in the coming weeks. The North Germans wobbled a few times in defense.
Andrej Kramaric (6th penalty, 37th, 87th) scored all the goals for Hoffenheim, who missed further good chances. Alexander Bernhardsson (63rd) and Shuto Machino (89th) were successful for Rapp’s team. In the final phase, the “Storks” were outnumbered after a yellow-red card was shown to substitute Andu Kelati (82nd).
“We want to improve step by step and from matchday to matchday and become smarter so that we can score points. Because you can’t buy anything by saying that we can keep up. We want to play for points and stay in the league. We still have to work hard for that,” said captain Lewis Holtby.
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Four KSV professionals with Bundesliga experience in the starting eleven
The excitement before kick-off was written all over the faces of the Holstein pros. The Kiel players nervously tugged at their shirts in the belly of the Sinsheim Arena before referee Tobias Stieler (Hamburg) led them onto the pitch. Holtby, one of four KSV players in the starting eleven with Bundesliga experience alongside Timo Becker, Patrick Erras and Tymoteusz Puchacz, then won the toss and decided to play towards his own fans.
Around 1,600 “Störche” fans accompanied the team to Sinsheim. What are they dreaming of? It was written on a banner in the visitors’ block. “Make history” was written on the poster painted in Kiel’s club colors. After the historic promotion, the team on the Fjord is now hoping to stay in the league.
This would be nothing short of a miracle for the club with the smallest budget of all first division clubs. But even in the second division, the “small-budget storks” impressively demonstrated that they could make up for monetary disadvantages with unity, leadership skills and a meticulous coach.
AUDIO: Holstein captain Holtby: “We still have to work hard” (2 min)
Early Kiel deficit through Kramaric penalty
However, the first Bundesliga minutes in the club’s history were extremely unfortunate. First, a promising counterattack was stopped by referee Stieler, who inadvertently stopped a pass from Shuto Machino with the back of his head (2nd).
Shortly afterwards, the Kiel defense was not aware of a long ball from Tim Drexler to Marius Bülter. Keeper Timon Weiner was also a step too late and brought the attacker down. Kramaric calmly converted the resulting penalty to make it 1-0.
Becker misses two chances to equalize
With temperatures around 35 degrees, the early deficit did not make Holstein’s task any easier in the Sinsheim sauna. But Rapp’s eleven did not appear shocked at all and played boldly forward. Becker had two good equalizing chances (25th, 26th) for the underdog, who would have deserved the 1:1 in this phase. But Hoffenheim then took control again. When the Kraichgau team came down the wings at speed, it was almost always dangerous. This was the case in the 38th minute: Bülter crossed precisely from the left to Kramaric, who left Weiner no chance of defending with a header.
Afterwards, the guests had their keeper to thank for not being hopelessly behind at half-time. The 25-year-old made brilliant saves against Kramaric (44th) and Adam Hlozek (45th+2).
AUDIO: Holstein coach Rapp: “We played decent football” (2 min)
Porath celebrates Bundesliga comeback after eight years
For the second half, Rapp brought on former Hoffenheim player Kelati and Finn Porath. Marco Komenda and Puchacz stayed in the dressing room. While Kelati celebrated his first division debut at his old stomping ground – he had only played for TSG’s second team – Porath brought exactly 60 seconds of Bundesliga experience to the pitch. On November 20, 2016, he got a taste of the upper echelons as a “joker” for Hamburger SV. HSV’s away opponents at the time were TSG Hoffenheim.
Almost eight years later, the Eutin native played his second game in the top division. While the 27-year-old had achieved a 2:2 draw with the Hamburg team against the Kraichgau team, he now had to accept defeat with the KSV in Sinsheim.
Bernhardsson gives Holstein hope again
It was a defeat that fell into the category of “bitter”. Holstein also showed a very courageous and footballing performance after the break. But the Schleswig-Holsteiners were not rewarded for their hard work. Like Becker in the first half, Machino also missed two very good chances in the period (58th, 61st) before Bernhardsson headed a Porath cross into the net and scored the first Bundesliga goal in Kiel’s club history.
The spectators now saw an open exchange of blows in which anything seemed possible for KSV. But because Kelati was then sent off for repeated fouls and Kramaric beat Weiner for a third time with a tap-in, the guests were finally on the losing track. Machino’s goal to make it 2:3 ultimately did nothing to change that.
Matchday 1, 24.08.2024 15:30
Hoffenheim
3
Holstein Kiel
2
Tore:
- 1:0
Kramaric (6., Foulelfmeter)
Hoffenheim:
O. Baumann – Drexler, Stach, Akpoguma – Kaderabek, Grillitsch (69. Geiger), Prass (89. Nsoki) – Prömel, Kramaric (90. Moerstedt) – Hlozek (59. Berisha), Bülter (68. Bruun Larsen)
Holstein Kiel:
Weiner – Ivezic, Erras, Komenda (46. Porath) – T. Becker, Knudsen (79. Remberg), Holtby (82. M. Schulz), Puchacz (46. Kelati) – Machino – Bernhardsson, Pichler (54. Arp)
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