A very different kind of game

On Tuesday, the 1. FSV Mainz 05 players started the training week with a session open to the public, ahead of their opening Bundesliga fixture on Saturday against 1. FC Union Berlin at the MEWA ARENA (kick-off 15:30 CEST).

The players already have 120 minutes in the legs after Friday night’s victory in the first round of the DFB-Pokal at SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Now focus must switch to the match against Union, which will be a reunion with Bo Svensson and Babak Keyhanfar, who are both starting their tenures in Berlin-Köpenick this season. “Denmark may be a small country, but I don’t know him personally,” Bo Henriksen told the media after training. “I played against him once 25 years ago. On Saturday, we’ll say hi to each other, but after that the game is the most important thing,” said the Mainz head coach, making it clear that full concentration is on the actions on the pitch.

“We will have to be smart”

The 3-1 win in Wiesbaden was a standard first-round tie in the DFB-Pokal. The Danish coach and his team were fully aware of the fact that it could be tricky. “The teams in the second and third divisions possess lots of quality and are physically very strong,” said Henriksen. The 120 minutes served as a good indication for Henriksen of where the 05ers are at both performance-wise and physically. New arrival Kaishu Sano gave his coach the impression that “he could have run for 150 minutes.” Above all, the opening 15 minutes before Wiesbaden opened the scoring showed the way in which the 05ers want to go about things. “Much of our play was in the half-spaces, which was really good to see. But we always need to maintain our intensity. That is one of the things we need to do better. It was a good final test before Saturday.”

However, the game at the MEWA ARENA is likely to be a completely different affair against an opponent who, unlike the third-division team, will probably deploy a high pressing game most of the time. “Every game has its own story,” emphasised Henriksen, who wants to maintain a possession-based approach as much as possible, but only if the opponent allows it. “If that's not possible, we have a different plan. We have to be clever and read the game.”

“We have confidence”

In terms of the squad, the game against Wiesbaden showed that the 05ers have plenty of options, even after the departure of Brajan Gruda. Sano played his first competitive match for Mainz, while centre-backs Stefan Bell and Maxim Leitsch feel almost like new signings for Henriksen. Paul Nebel and Nikolas Veratschnig got their first minutes under their belts and Armindo Sieb operated on that right side of attack. The fact that the 05ers are still open to making more signings is no mystery, especially at centre back. “It is important that we have options in every position. I am satisfied that we have a good squad,” said Henriksen, viewing the squad as already well equipped. “We will not sign anyone just to make up the numbers.”

With trust in their own abilities, and in the knowledge that they have not lost a home match since the start of February, the 05ers are raring to go for the Union game. “We have confidence,” said Henriksen, with high hopes for Saturday.