Borussia vs. Mainz – Mixed emotions for many reasons
It’s matchday # 13 or should we say matchday # 1 after the tragic death of Hannover’s and German international goalkeeper Robert Enke?
One thing is for sure: It will be no easy way for the most of all players and fans to change to daily business! Nearly two weeks after the suicide of Robert Enke most of us still have Robert’s tragic fate in mind and probably will watch the next matches with mixed emotions. Will Robert’s death have a sustainable impact on our way of thinking about football, job or private life? From today’s point of view there’s no final answer, but hopefully life will go on without forgetting the tragedy around Robert Enke! We have always to remember: Yes, football is important, but it’s not the most important thing in life!
After this reflective introduction let’s take a look on Saturday:
We play in our Westfalenstadion against Mainz 05. After some years in the second league, Mainz returned this season into the Bundesliga. Currently at position 6 and ahead of teams like Bayern, Stuttgart or Borussia, the team seems to be a surprise for many fans and experts. And many so called experts see in new coach Thomas Tuchel, the essential person who is responsible for the success of Mainz. All these experts see a lot of parallels between Tuchel and Borussia’s coach Jürgen Klopp, who worked 18 years for Mainz as player and coach. Jürgen Klopp gave the right answer regarding comparisons between Tuchel and him. “We only see each other once by accident and that was before Thomas Tuchel became coach in Mainz”. Nevertheless the match on Saturday will be a special match for Jürgen Klopp against his former club. But not only for Jürgen Klopp. Before Neven Subotic and Markus Feulner wore the black and yellow shirts both also played for Mainz. Mohamed Zidan as well spent a successful time in Mainz before he changed to Bremen, Hamburg and finally Borussia Dortmund. Other examples for the relationship between Mainz and Borussia are Jürgen Klopp’s assistant Zeljko Buvac and scout Peter Krawietz. Both were together with Klopp on Mainz’ payroll before they start to work for Borussia. Due to all these facts it should be clear that a lot of people on or near to the green will see the match also with some emotions.
For Mainz the situation seems to be uncomplicated. Only defender Zsolt Löw (fifth yellow card in Mainz’ last match against Nürnberg) will not join the team. All other regular players are able to play and according to coach Tuchel “curious to play in the Westfalenstadion with around 80.000 people watching the match”.
In Borussia’s squad the assumptions two days before the match are not so positive. Definitively out of the team are long time injured Sebastian Kehl, Tamas Hajnal, Leonardo Dede, Tinga and Damien Le Tallec. For Patrick Owomoyela, Kuba, Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender it will be a race against time to play or not. Also Mohamed Zidan is currently not in best healthy condition. In Egypt’s qualification match against Algeria (0:1, which means Egypt will miss the world cup in South Africa next year) he was only able to play the second half and he hopefully will return to Dortmund in time. These are all massive personal handicaps for our team but on the other side also a real chance for players like Markus Feulner or Marcel Schmelzer to show that they are more than substitutes.
In spite of all these troubles and uncertainties only one thing counts for Borussia: A win! Only three further points will help us to climb up in the league!
Henry, 20.11.2009
