Great Performance, an Unfortunate Loss

Our 05ers started out full of confidence in the home match against Champions League finalist Borussia Dortmund. Thomas Tuchel's side created their first chances in front of Dortmund's goal early on. Sebastian Polter left Erik Durm no other choice but to foul him and give the 05ers the first free kick of the match (3). After a free kick from Johannes Geis, the former Mainzer Manuel Friedrich managed to clear the ball out (8). Geis created some problems for Roman Weidenfeller with two distance shots (9/11). The result was two corner kicks, both taken by Geis.

The first shot on goal for Dortmund came from Durm in the 13^th minute, but Karius easily neutralized it. Mainz continued to play with 100 percent effort. Our 05ers had further solid actions in the time before the 25^th minute. Joo-Ho Park sent in a beauty of a square pass, but Nicolai Müller could not quite get to it in time (14). After Stefan Bell sent the ball on with a flick-on header, Shinji Okazaki fired off a bicycle-kick goal shot, but Weidenfeller was on his toes to save (17). Another counter-attack chance was whistled dead by referee Aytekin when he failed to decide for an advantage for the 05ers (16).

Around the half-hour mark the guests started to make more appearances in front of Mainz's goal. Elkin Soto looked alert and cleared the ball away from a charging Robert Lewandowski (25), Marco Reus fired a free kick into the wall (28), and Loris Karius pulled a cross from Lukasz Piszczek out of the air before it could get dangerous (30). The pace slowed some at this point, but the best chances of the match so far came just before the end of the first half.

Bell started the end spurt with a header into the crossbar after a Geis corner-kick (42). On the other side of the pitch, Karius was able to deflect a shot from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the crossbar (43). Both teams headed scoreless into the locker rooms.

The second half started similar to the first, a confident aggressive Mainz side fighting for every inch of turf and also creating the first goal opportunities. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, substituted on over half-time, promptly fired a shot off from a difficult angle past the far post (48). A quick counter-attack, started by Geis, lead to a Okazaki chance that sailed high (55).

It was still anyone's match. Bell stopped the advance of the substituted Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the Mainz penalty box (68). Shortly thereafter, Borussia was awarded a free-kick. Aubameyang gave the BVB the 0:1 lead with a precision shot that ricocheted off of the near post and into the goal (70).

A foul against the substituted Yunus Malli set-up a chance to draw even for our 05ers. Choupo-Moting stayed cool and slotted home the 1:1 (74). But both sides continued to exchange blows. Then suddenly the fleet-footed Aubameyang was in the Mainz penalty box. He got around Karius, who had charged out to challenge him. Elkin Soto had to resort to using his hand to block the Dortmunder's close angle shot. He was awarded a red card for his efforts while the BVB received a penalty kick. Lewandowski did the honors and restored the guests' lead (78).

But our 05ers did not give up. With the courage that comes from desperation, they tried to battle their way back. Malli started an attack but unfortunately Malli could not get to Pospech's cross before Weidenfeller (81). Then Geis missed the goal by a hair's breadth with a direct free-kick (83). A corner-kick from Geis set-up Benedikt Saller for a flat distance shot but Weidenfeller wrapped up the ball and the points for Dortmund (89).

Lewandowski added a cherry on top with a sovereign penalty kick (Karius fouled Durm) in stoppage time... a bitter defeat after an excellent showing by our 05ers.

1. FSV Mainz 05 – Borussia Dortmund 1:3 (0:0)