BThe match between FSV Mainz 05 and RB Leipzig on the 26th match day of the Bundesliga was overshadowed by the duel between FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. But anyone who followed Rheinhessen’s performance against the Champions League participants could hardly help but be impressed. The reactions ranged from astonishment to sheer enthusiasm: With the 3-0 win in Leipzig, Mainz increased their tally to 20 points – exactly as many as they had scored in the entire first half of the season.
Mainz have now been unbeaten for seven games, the team only lost one game in the second half of the season (1:2 at Union Berlin), they are the second-best club in the second half of the season behind BVB – and before the home game this Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker to the Bundesliga and on Sky) against Werder Bremen suddenly a serious candidate for a place that entitles you to participate in an international competition: So what has happened since the winter break that Bo Svensson’s team is now delivering so stable? That in Leipzig, where they had previously only recorded defeats with the exception of a draw, even without their strikers Karim Onisiwo and Jonathan Burkardt, they came up trumps and dominated their opponents in a fighting and playful way?
“Bo, the coaching team and the team drew the right conclusions from the first half of the season,” says sporting director Martin Schmidt: “The team’s ambition has grown, and now they don’t give up again after a good performance.” Svensson also shys away from the difference too many colleagues not to speak openly about the mistakes and shortcomings of individual actors, which may also inspire the ambition of the individual.
“An intelligent and funny boy”
Before the winter break, the coach was often dissatisfied even after successes, he missed consistency not only over several matchdays, but also within individual games. An example of this was the 1-0 win in Mönchengladbach, in which the goal coincided with a red card against Borussia – and Mainz couldn’t get anything together in the remaining 40 minutes and had to be happy not to lose despite being outnumbered to have.
The 05ers are a long way from such games in the back series, although sometimes a performance like the 1-1 win against Hertha BSC creeps in, with which they don’t live up to their own expectations and, above all, those of their coach. Basically, they have been operating stably at a high level for weeks. Two reasons for that are: Ludovic Ajorque and Andreas Hanche-Olsen, who the club signed in January. Both were integrated in terms of sport and personality without any initial difficulties, both became regular players straight away, and both helped significantly to raise the Mainz game to a higher level.
Ajorque’s contribution looks more spectacular simply because of his imposing stature. It is impressive how the 1.97 meter tall Frenchman claims and forwards balls, how he creates space for his neighbors. At Hertha BSC, the center forward saved a draw with a 16-meter shot into the corner. In Leipzig he made it 2-0 with a sensitive direct acceptance, with which he refined one of many nice moves and became a “Goal of the Month” contender.
Central defender Hanche-Olsen is less of a focus, but makes no less important contribution. “He’s a warrior,” says Martin Schmidt about the Norwegian, but not one who gets down to business wildly and impetuously, but who contests his uncompromising duels with precise timing. “Andreas plays boldly and with power, he always wants to play hard and train hard,” says Bo Svensson. “And he’s a smart and funny boy.”
“It took a lot of mental strength”
The newcomers were accompanied by greater competition as the second building block in Mainz’s upswing. Because Anton Stach, for example, was rid of his hip problems, which he had been lugging around with him for a long time before Christmas. Because Leandro Barreiro found his way out of his low and refills his passionate approach with quality content – in Leipzig he helped create all three goals. And because Dominik Kohr is no longer on his own in defensive midfield, as was all too often the case in the first half of the season.
Jae-sung Lee often had his mind on the World Cup in the early part of the season. “Playing there for South Korea kept him very busy and took a lot of mental strength,” says Svensson. Since then, a completely different Lee has been seen, not only because of his five goals. The fact that Marcus Ingvartsen, in addition to his status as a reliable penalty taker, scores one or two goals from the game, as a penalty area striker also in the manner of a dust collector, does the rest of the offensive yield. The 21 Mainz goals from the first half of the season are compared to 22 in the second half of the season – and there are still eight matchdays to come.
Betting on a small squad from the start of the season, in which nobody has to feel left out, is now paying off. But if you want to play, you have to deliver, even in training. If you don’t do that, the trainer publicly writes the words “hypothetical qualities” in your testimony, as recently did the striker Delano Burgzorg. “The competition never sleeps, and it’s not just the usual suspects, there are also young people coming up,” says Svensson. First and foremost Nelson Weiper, the youngest Bundesliga player in the club’s history – and one who knows how to assert himself despite being just 18 years old.