The players’ faces spoke volumes, and they correlated with a statement the coach had made just two hours earlier. One point is not enough, the team has to win, said Bo Henriksen, the coach of FSV Mainz 05, in an interview with DAZN before the game at 1.FC Heidenheim. And then there was only one – which resulted in disappointed expressions and slumped shoulders among the protagonists, even though the fans also cheered them up with their songs after the final whistle.
The Mainz team were very much in a position to realistically assess the 1-1 draw with the newly promoted team, who had thus secured their place in the league. “That’s a bit too little but still okay overall,” said goal scorer Jonathan Burkardt, commenting on the third draw in a row. “It’s sobering at first, but we didn’t deserve more,” said goalkeeper Robin Zentner.
It was particularly sobering because, like a week earlier, the team had given up a lead in the same result against 1.FC Köln and conceded a header goal after a cross from the half field. “It’s very annoying,” said Zentner, who was not to blame for the goal and who made several strong saves. “It’s incredibly difficult to defend these crosses” – in this case Omar Traoré’s – “in the box. We have to do that on the outside.”
Not lost seven times in a row
There, left-back Anthony Caci gave the Heidenheim right-back too much space, but Edimilson Fernandes didn’t cut a happy figure in the middle. The central defender moved in the same direction as Tim Kleindienst, but did not seriously prevent him from heading the ball. Sports director Martin Schmidt was also annoyed by this scene, “but Kleindienst is no stranger and scored his obligatory goal.” Zentner attested to the striker: “He’s doing it extremely well.”
The same could be said about Jonathan Burkardt’s finish in the 37th minute. Until then, his reshaped team had been missing Nadiem Amiri’s ideas and passes as well as Brajan Gruda’s dribbling, and the team had little use for almost 60 percent of the ball possession. Then Burkardt took a running path that underlined his coach’s words from the previous week: “If Jonny goes into the penalty area with all his cleverness, it will be dangerous.” In fact, the attacker shot a perfectly timed Caci cross from the left in a technically high quality directly into the goal with the right instep.
After the break, the game gradually tipped towards Heidenheim, even though Burkardt had the chance to make it 2-1 after a through pass. A scene that annoyed him. “That was really badly done,” said the goalscorer afterwards. At the first contact with his left foot, he let the ball jump too far and when keeper Kevin Müller came towards him, he made the wrong decision: “I could have chipped.”
His coach would have “wished for a little more courage with the ball” in the second half, but in no way wanted to denigrate the draw, which he felt was a fair result. “We got another point away from home again,” said Henriksen. And it was the seventh game in a row that they didn’t lose.
This counter definitely has one good thing: with a five-point lead over 1.FC Köln and a goal difference that is 13 goals better, Henriksen’s Mainz team will hardly fall back from the relegation to a direct relegation spot. They did not use the template that VfL Bochum provided with their victory at Union Berlin to overtake the Köpenick team. “But,” said sports director Martin Schmidt, “the gap to 15th place has become smaller.”