Following their decisive opening-day loss to 1. FC Nürnberg (0–3), second-division soccer club Dynamo Dresden is looking to bounce back. “There must be—and there will be—a response,” announced coach Thomas Stamm ahead of Sunday’s first home game (1:30 p.m./Sky) against Darmstadt 98. In this context, he noted that not only the players but also the coaching staff had conducted a very self-critical review of the Nuremberg match.
Stamm focused particularly on the team’s presence and alertness during the opponent’s set pieces. “Of the seven goals we conceded in total during preseason and in Nuremberg, five came from set pieces. We’ve gone over that again,” Stamm said, also with an eye toward the Darmstadt match. “We’re going to face a lot of physical pressure,” said the coach, highlighting the immense height and physicality of some of the 98 players. “We can’t let them get into the dangerous areas.” We have to do everything we can to minimize the number of corner kicks, Stamm insisted.
But free kicks near the goal must also be avoided as much as possible. “It’s about how you win duels and how many set-piece situations you allow,” said Stamm. If you feel like you have to defend 800 corner kicks, there’s a high probability that you’ll end up conceding goals as a result.
