There are clubs where every footballer grimaces when they appear as the next opponent on the schedule. This includes Mainz 05, which under coach Bo Svensson often shows frighteningly intense and unruly sport, in which the opponents feel as if they have to piggyback an 85-kilo man like Karim Onisiwo across the pitch, the Rheinhessen are so close to you the heels. The same can be said about the opponent on Saturday afternoon, because nobody likes to play against 1. FC Köln either, because the Rhinelanders under coach Steffen Baumgart seem incredibly willing and almost never have enough.
The question this time was who would annoy the opponent more. And the answer seemed to be very clear, because in their third away game in six days, Mainz showed themselves superior in almost every respect, led after goals from Johnny Burkardt (14th, deflected long-range shot) and Onisiwo (54th, brazen shot into the net). distant corner) with 2:0 and had robbed Cologne of any fun in the game. “You could see that the boys were restless,” admitted Steffen Baumgart, “good football looks different.”
That was the moment when the Cologne coach revived his team: with a three-man substitution in the 58th minute, which quickly bore fruit because Mainz did not sort themselves out quickly enough. Less than two minutes later, Modeste headed a corner kick to the second post, where midfield rascal Ellyes Skhiri had an easy time reducing it to 1:2 from three meters (60′).
The fact that Kilian scores a goal costs Cologne coach Baumgart a team meal
Suddenly you noticed how much the Mainzers had invested and how much the tireless Cologne manner affected them. It was symptomatic how the hapless Marc Uth prepared the equalizer: once again he had dribbled his way down, but he didn’t see the idea of giving up the ball and so it tumbled to the edge of the penalty area to substitute Dejan Ljubicic, whose right-footed shot over the fingertips by goalkeeper Zentner flew into the goal.
The Cologne greed was not satisfied with the 2:2. And since football has a sense for strange stories, in the 82nd minute the ball fell at the feet of Luca Kilian, the Cologne loanee from Mainz, who had decisively deflected the shot to Mainz 1-0 in the first half – his first Bundesliga but saved the goal for exactly the right game. And which is expensive for the coach. Steffen Baumgart clarified afterwards: “I’ve always said that if he scores a goal, I’ll invite the team to dinner. Nevertheless, he remains a wooden foot for me,” he said visibly amused.
The spectacle in front of almost 50,000 spectators would have called for a different tone if Ingvartsen had volleyed into the goal in added time and not over it (90+2). As it is, Mainz only got one point this week instead of a possible nine, and FC clearly outperformed FSV in terms of will and passion. It would probably be too early for the sporting development of this Cologne team to play internationally in late summer. But it’s hard to defend yourself against it.