The Sync: Mainz 1–0 Schalke

Mainz assured us of a lower divi­sion team in the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal. This evening they they upset Schalke 04 at home in front of a sold out Bruch­weg. Most of the game had been a dom­i­na­tion of pos­ses­sion by Schalke lead­ing to no end prod­uct, fol­lowed by occa­sional coun­ters by Mainz lead­ing to no end product.

It was a rather dull affair, which wasn’t fair to the bois­ter­ous fans of either club whom brought the sense of Car­ni­val, which Mainz is known for, to the game. But two stoic defen­sive per­for­mances were over­shad­owed by a late goal by Aristde Bance as he caught Bor­don and Rafinha flat­footed on a free­kick by Flo­rian Heller to slot a set piece home for the only goal of the match.

The south­west­ern club is through to the semi­fi­nals of the DFB Pokal for the first time in their his­tory, hav­ing been quar­ter final­ists on four occa­sions. The magic of the cup is alive in the Rhein­land tonight.

5 Ran­dom Things You Didn’t Know About Mainz-Schalke

1. Schalke are begin­ning to resem­ble Chelsea in too many ways. They dress in blue and have ties to Russ­ian oil. They play soul­less, mind-numbing foot­ball. They are both man­aged by over­rated Dutch train­ers. They have a sense of enti­tle­ment, which has them bet­ter at histri­on­ics than foot­ball. They will gang up on a ref­eree over the most mean­ing­less of calls. They lack any con­cept of sports­man­ship. And they have a bunch of over­paid prima donnas.
2. It feels like Bor­don has returned too soon. He looks vis­i­bly frag­ile, which is not how I can ever remem­ber Bor­don look­ing. In addi­tion, Krsta­jic was forced to mark Atis­tide Bance, much like he had to do with the lone striker against Frank­furt. When they face a 4–4-2, Bordon’s early return could truly be exposed. Not that his effort isn’t commendable
3. Bor­don was mark­ing Bance on the goal. Bance had been a non-factor most of the match. It seemed to show how few options Jorn Ander­sen has up top when he stuck with the even­tual hero for so long. He did lit­tle as a tar­get man, and Mainz looked bet­ter on the deck, but he pro­vided lit­tle in the box when they did so. How­ever Bance timed a run off a deep free­kick and was left alone to slot home the only goal late in the game. So whether lack of options or tac­ti­cal per­sis­tence, Ander­sen was rewarded with his faith in Bance.
4. If Mainz man­age to secure pro­mo­tion, we can look for­ward to see­ing a very com­pact orga­nized side that will hit on the counter. They should be able to com­pete at the top level because of their strong defense (and this is con­sid­er­ing that their center-halves were rested); how­ever, there would be a worry that their dou­ble six part­ner­ship of Karhan and Pekovic are both on the wrong side of 30. How­ever we were denied a chance to see Roman Neustädter tonight, who is a crit­i­cal mid­fielder to the Zweite side. I was very impressed with two of their young defend­ers: Tim Hoog­land and Niko Bungert.
5. Kevin Kuranyi is done at Schalke. He’s not the same player he once was. Whether it’s Rutten’s tac­tics or his own atti­tude, it’s time for him to start anew else­where. He was absent today until he was subbed at half. But all is not not lost, he’s a very tal­ented player, and a change may be all that is needed.
   
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   The Sync: Mainz 1–0 Schalke , 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

   Tagged as: 1. FSV Mainz, Aristide Bance, Kevin Kuranyi, Niko Bungert, Tim Hoogland