Mainz mishap evokes more painful memories of failed Dortmund

Photograph: Uwe Kraft/AFP/Getty Images

Not them again, already. Mainz already defined Borussia Dortmund’s 2023 once and now, as the year winds down in Westfalen, they could be in danger of doing so again. Sunday’s traditional Christmas gathering at Signal Iduna Park, with carols and entertainment in front of 73,056 spectators, may have meant a moratorium on complaints and worries for a team that has gone from touching the distance of history to sleepwalking through the winter. However, 48 hours later, in the same place, concerns tripled again.

“It’s just not working at the moment,” said captain Emre Can after dropping more points on Tuesday, and there was no arguing after Dortmund extended their current Bundesliga run to just one win out of eight, and no victory in the last four. Seven months after the 05ers’ last visit, a match that would haunt Dortmund’s dreams for decades as the Bundesliga title slipped from their hands in horror, was not comparable in terms of losses. The draw with Mainz earlier in the spring had been ruinous and this was a symptom rather than a cause. This second tie highlighted, however, how difficult the lingering effects of the first remain.

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If Mainz were to be the harbinger of doom again, and what a week of painful memories it has been for BVB, now Augsburg goalkeeper Finn Dahmen denied them three points on Saturday after having kept them at bay on that fateful day in May : They were just the setting for this nativity. The drama created was all Dortmund’s own, just as it had been in that desperate climax to their dream of winning the title.

Mainz are struggling, with Bo Svensson out and Jan Siewert guiding the team in the meantime. They reached 16th place, the relegation playoff spot, and were almost spectators from the start. Julian Brandt’s delightful free kick to break the deadlock was a poor expression of the extent of the home team’s dominance, with Jamie Bynoe-Gittins and (after Brandt’s goal) Marcel Sabitzer pinging aluminum.

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However, as with most years in the post-Jürgen Klopp era, an act of self-sabotage always feels like it’s in office. The concession of a sloppy goal to Sepp van den Berg from a set piece just before half-time sent the teams back to the locker room on equal terms, and the doubts began. There were chances to get a much-needed win for Dortmund earlier. until the end, but it really wouldn’t have deserved it considering the rest of the second half game. “It’s an unsatisfactory ending to an unsatisfactory first half of the season,” Brandt bluntly summarized afterwards. Can’s comment on Dortmund’s current stagnation was not an attack on the coach, but there is little escape with whom responsibility for the apathetic and reportless performances rests.

The last time BVB fired a coach mid-season was when Lucien Favre was sacked in mid-December 2020 after a 5-1 humiliation at home to Stuttgart, which marked the beginning of the first Terzić era. , keeping the seat warm for Marco Rose. arrival the following summer. The manner of that particular implosion in front of the Yellow Wall brought the long-term angst to a crescendo, but it’s worth noting that Favre’s team were just two points off the top four when they were eliminated. Today Dortmund is six points behind fourth-placed Leipzig. That Germany is currently in pole position to be one of two nations to receive five Champions League places in next season’s reformatted competition is no cause for consolation just yet.

Terzić can argue that his track record of good second halves of the season bodes well; It must be remembered that his team was sixth in last year’s Winterpause and still reached the last game of the season with the title in their hands, in addition to winning the DfB Pokal, defeating Leipzig in the 2021 final, in his period intermediate. There is also empathy from above, with the unconditional support of the coach so far and of the general director Hans-Joachim Watzke, who has underlined the emotional difficulty of trying to overcome the definitive anguish of last season, not to mention the loss of his best player, Jude Bellingham. . Watzke has always stressed that Terzić will be the coach for the duration of the match, “full stop”.

Werder Bremen 1-1 RB Leipzig, Dortmund 1-1 Mainz, Hoffenheim 3-3 Darmstadt, Union Berlin 2-0 Cologne, Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach, Heidenheim 3-2 Freiberg, Stuttgart 3-0 Augsburg, Leverkusen 4- 0 Bochum, Wolfsburg 1-2 Bayern Munich

He, sporting director Sebastian Kehl and adviser Matthias Sammer will meet this week to discuss the future, and there is still no certainty that they will give Terzič time. However, even if Watzke is forced to make a decision he would rather not make, the problems run deeper. There is also pressure on Kehl, whose recruiting has done little to address the team’s imbalances or weak areas. However, the lack of joint thinking in recruitment predates his arrival in the summer of 2022. The feeling that everyone has seen this before was reinforced by the disappointing ratings for the Mainz match, with a modest 2.9 million viewers on Saturday the 1st for the free final match. On-Air Game of the Year: The network’s lowest audience for a live game this season.

Terzić’s appearance on the field during Sunday’s Christmas show, walking with his daughters in You’ll Never Walk Alone, underscored everything he is. A good club man, there with his people, where he belongs. If he leaves, it will hurt, both for him and for the club. The problem is that the next starter will not have a magic wand to solve everything, and BVB knows it.

Talking points

• Everyone hails Leverkusen, leader and still undefeated heading into Christmas after a first part of the season that not even the imperturbable Xabi Alonso would have dared to dream of. They bid farewell to 2023 with a 4-0 demolition of Bochum, giving strong hints as to how they might cope without a group of players, led by Victor Boniface, heading to the African Cup of Nations in January. Patrik Schick started in place of Boniface and scored a hat-trick. “With this quality behind me, with Florian [Wirtz] and jonah [Hofmann], it’s very easy to score goals,” Schick told Sky. “It’s a dream for the strikers.”

• As against Stuttgart, Bayern came through their game in Wolfsburg despite some injuries, including Raphaël Guerreiro, who “spent the whole night in the bathroom”, according to Thomas Tuchel, but had an excellent performance in midfield . Harry Kane’s long-range shot (21st Bundesliga goal) proved to be the winner after Max Arnold unexpectedly made it 2-1, so the champions had to attack after the break, which they did. “I think a lot of players are happy that there is now a little break,” Manuel Neuer said somewhat understatedly.

• Stuttgart, meanwhile, go into mini hibernation in third place after defeating Augsburg 3-0, with Serhou Guirassy scoring his 17th goal of the season.

• Three cheers for Heidenheim too, with the Bundesliga debutants in ninth place after another thrilling comeback, recovering twice to beat Freiburg. “It’s sensational,” coach Frank Schmidt said of his team’s 20 points, significant in a season in which the bottom six so far accumulate a point per game or less. “No one would have believed we could do it.”