Two misses in one game
Bo Svensson’s words for his unlucky penalty-keeper Ludovic Ajorque didn’t exactly sound like more sympathy. “He has to deal with that now,” said the 1. FSV Mainz 05 coach about the situation for his centre-forward. The Frenchman played twice on Sunday against 1. FC Union Berlin and could have brought his team back to 1: 2 and 2: 3 – but twice Frederik Rönnow parried the 29-year-old’s low shots. In the end, Mainz lost 4-1 (0-2) at the start of the Bundesliga.
Two missed penalties in one game and within 26 minutes, according to a database query by Transfermarkt, that has never happened to any other professional in the Bundesliga. “Of course it’s strange, two missed penalties,” said Svensson. And his Berlin counterpart Urs Fischer couldn’t remember ever having experienced that either.
There was no doubt about Ajorque and there is no doubt now. Svensson said they’ll fix it. In the previous week, the center forward had scored from the point in Mainz’s 1-0 victory in the cup at SV Elversberg. His last five penalties for Racing Strasburg before moving to Mainz were also spot on. Svensson was therefore rather surprised when asked whether it was a consideration to choose another shooter for the second penalty.
A possible change of shooter for future penalties was also not an issue for the Dane shortly after the final whistle. “I didn’t give it much thought until now,” said the 05 coach. Far more irritating than Ajorque’s double miss was the positional errors in defence, which helped Union center forward Kevin Behrens score three header goals and set another Bundesliga record. “There are very, very many things that we need to learn from this game,” said Svensson.
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