Three goals in 138 minutes of competitive play, then Benjamin Girth was put out of action by a shoulder joint burst. He was in good form in the test against Sittard.

For Benjamin Girth, things have not yet gone according to plan at MSV Duisburg. The attacker joined the Zebras from Eintracht Braunschweig a week before the transfer deadline. His debut with two goals in the cup against Victoria Mennrath and a goal in his league debut against Oldenburg was promising. Then a shoulder joint dislocation put him out of action and he was out of action until the start of winter preparation.

In the 1-1 draw against the Dutch first division team Fortuna Sittard, the attacker then made his first appearance over 90 minutes. In the test matches against Vitesse Arnhem (2:1) and VfB Oldenburg (2:3), he had been given one half of playing time each. “Everything is good so far,” Girth said of his shoulder. “I feel good. It’s holding, it’s firm. From there, everything fits.”

Against the Eredivisie club, the Magdeburg native then also scored his second goal of the preparation. Shortly after the goal, Girth almost set up another goal with a miss, then by Gordon Wild. However, the referees disallowed the goal due to offside.

“It was a decent performance from us. We addressed the things we maybe didn’t do so well before, analysed them and definitely did better. That gives us confidence,” he said, giving the Zebras a positive report card. About his goal, Girth said: “It’s nice for a striker to score. But it was more important that the processes work better, that we are stable defensively, that we create a lot of scoring chances and that the community structure gets even better.”

They definitely succeeded in doing that. And Girth will also be allowed to add a few more to his three competitive goals in just 138 minutes of play so far.