analysis
The 1. FSV Mainz 05 loses Borussia Dortmund because it lacks determination beyond the good approaches. Trainer Bo Henriksen sees the game as a “good reminder” to always end up with “100 percent”.
Football, said Bo Henriksen, “Is not robotic”. Turning a team via app that also wins at Borussia Dortmund at the end of the month after she had already done this at RB Leipzig and Borussia Mönchengladbach at the beginning of the month, the Danish trainer, who was chosen as the “coach of the year” in his homeland.
This could also happen in Germany, but then something historical would probably have to happen. The 1st FSV Mainz 05 has never played in the Champions League. In the coming season it could be so because this season a few teams have difficulties that can usually be found in front of the Mainz.
The BVB is one of them. So far, he completed better every season than the 1st FSV, and after the game on Sunday (30.03.2025) it seems at least possible that this series will hold. But seven game days before the end of the season, the deficit is still seven points, and in the 1: 3 in Dortmund there was no sign that the Mainz would collapse under the load of a possible too high expectations externally and internally.
Henriksen: “A good reminder”
“It was a good reminder that we have to give 100 percent in every game”said Henriksen, who referred to a reminder last season and probably deliberately moved over it. At that time there was a 1: 8 at FC Bayern.
The Mainz in Dortmund were far from a debacle. In many situations there was a little, sometimes more, sometimes less, but it was also evident that the 1. FSV is mainly due to its own strengths where it is, and this fourth place entitled to participate in the Champions League.
In Dortmund, Bo Henriksen spoke more often of the consequence that his team otherwise distinguished, but was missing this time. If he wanted to infer this with short video sequences, he would only have to cut the two header doors together, which BVB each achieved according to corner thrusts by Nico Schlotterbeck. A bit pressed, but not disturbed, Emre Can and Maximilian Beier came to the successful completion.
A bit pressed, but not disturbed: Maximilian Beier heads 3-0 for BVB.
More possession of the ball, better pass rate, little Determination
“If you don’t give everything, you have problems”Henriksen criticized, and that also applied to other areas. It often looked pretty good how the Mainz in their basic order with a triple chain, a flexible midfield and with striker Jonathan Burkardt, who was often supported by Paul Nebel in the forefront, played, but it was very rare.
Mainz had a higher proportion of ball possession (54 to 46 percent) and a better pass rate than the opponent (82 percent compared to 77 percent), but did not develop any danger in the first half because the determination was missing. Kaishu Sano and next to him in the central midfield The German international Nadiem Amiri were pleasing, but in doubt often the safe pass that does not get the opponent into trouble.
At the transition from the middle to the third of the attack, the Henriks team lacked ideas, courage and thus also the means of playing out opportunities.
The Mainz sports director Niko Bungert hoped that the defeat in Dortmund “Little Wachrüttler” was who showed “That it is not enough to first get in in the second half”.
In the coming week a game will be under completely different conditions. The bottom of the table Holstein Kiel is then a guest in Mainz. “We still have seven games in which we can achieve something great”said Bungert – and also something historical.