Kaiserslautern fans cheer on their soccer team during a game at Fritz Walter Stadium. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
The 1. FC Kaiserslautern will try to jumpstart its season following a sputtering open when it hosts SV Darmstadt 98 on Sunday.
The Red Devils are in 12th place going into the fourth week of 2. Bundesliga play with a 1-2 record after dropping a 2-1 contest in Elversberg last weekend.
Along with allowing a late goal against Elversberg, the team from Betzenberg also lost Simon Asta for at least the rest of 2025 with a knee injury. To fill the void, FCK brought in Paul Joly from French first-division team AJ Auxerre on a loan for the rest of the season.
Kaiserslautern coach Torsten Lieberknecht is facing his old team when the Lilies come to Fritz Walter Stadium for the 1:30 p.m. match. He coached Darmstadt from July 2021 to September 2024, leading the 98ers into the Bundesliga in 2023.
The team was relegated back to the German second division the next season and Lieberknecht left Darmstadt after a bad start to the 2024-2025 campaign. He took over in Kaiserslautern on April 23.
Kaiserslautern’s slow start this season already has some fans calling for his head, so the pressure is on for the team to perform if it wants to reach its goal of improving upon last season’s seventh-place finish and push for promotion.
Besides Asta, both Daniel Hanslik and Kenny Prince Redondo are out with Achilles tendon problems. If Joly is not ready to start, Faride Alidou is expected to slot into Asta’s spot in the lineup.
Fritz Walter Stadium is almost sold out, with only a handful of tickets remaining on the FCK website.
Following a break for national team action next weekend, the Red Devils are back in action Sept. 14, when they play in Fürth. They return to the Betzenberg on Sept. 19 for a Friday evening game against Preussen Münster.
August 28, 2025 16:01
