Karlsruher SC vs Shimizu S-pulse

KSC goalkeeper Robin Himmelmann kept his side level early with a sharp close-range save from a header inside five minutes. Meiko Wäschenbach squandered an immediate chance at the other end, firing wide from a few metres out, and Niclas Dühring rattled the crossbar from distance on 14 minutes.

Shimizu struck first against the run of play. A long ball caught out the KSC defence and Kengo Kitazume finished past Himmelmann to make it 1-0 on 17 minutes — a near-identical pattern to the first match, where the Japanese side had also scored on the counter.

Karlsruher responded eight minutes later. Tim Civeja pulled the ball back from the right flank into the centre, where Dühring arrived to slot home the equaliser on 25 minutes. The score remained 1-1 at half-time.

A planned block substitution on 35 minutes saw coach Maximilian Senft swap all but goalscorer Dühring — who took the captain's armband from Marvin Wanitzek — for a largely U23-based line-up. The second half became a lower-intensity affair, with fatigue from the double-header visibly setting in.

After 65 minutes, referee Robert Hartmann — a Bundesliga official — halted play following consultation between both clubs. A severe thunderstorm warning for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area prompted the decision to end the match early.

Niclas Dühring (KSC) — The only player to feature across both halves of the double-header, he scored the equaliser, hit the bar earlier, and took the captain's armband after the mass substitution. A strong audition for more first-team minutes.

Kengo Kitazume (Shimizu S-Pulse) — Took his goal with composure after Shimizu's long-ball tactic unlocked the KSC backline for the second time in the day.

Robin Himmelmann (KSC) — Made a crucial reflex save from point-blank range early on that kept the scoreboard blank before Shimizu's opener.

The provider payload for this fixture contains events from the first match of the double-header (the 1-3 loss), not the second. The 1-1 scoreline is correct but the goals timeline — 56', 64', 78', 88' — belongs to the earlier game, where Kosuke Kinoshita, Shio Fukuda, Ryo Germain and Yuto Tsuji scored. By contrast, the second match produced goals at 17' (Kitazume) and 25' (Dühring) before the 65th-minute abandonment.

With 400 spectators in attendance at the Stadion am Gröben, the match was played against a backdrop of the Bavarian Alps — a fitting end to KSC's training camp in Neukirchen am Großvenediger, Austria.

For Karlsruher SC, the double-header served as a fitness exercise with 32 players used across the two matches, including seven U23 call-ups. New signing Viktor Bergh made his debut on the left side in the first match. The 2. Bundesliga side now turn their attention to their season opener against Arminia Bielefeld on 8 August 2026.

Shimizu S-Pulse continued their European pre-season tour with a mixed day — a convincing 3-1 win followed by an interrupted 1-1 draw. The J1 League side gained valuable minutes against a German opponent with a physical edge.

A pre-season friendly that delivered exactly what it was designed to: minutes in legs, tactical experimentation, and a look at squad depth. The early abandonment due to weather prevents any strong conclusions about the 1-1 result, but KSC's U23 players held their own against a top-flight Japanese side in the second half. The defining moment of the day for KSC was probably the first match's 1-3 scoreline, not this curtailed draw.