Silke Bannick, the press spokeswoman for FSV Mainz 05, raved about the “magical atmosphere” that prevailed at the start of the Bundesliga season in the arena at the Europakreisel on Thursday.
And expressed their hope that there would be a repeat this Saturday against the game association Greuther Fürth (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).
Maybe better not to the last detail, because the magic around the 1-0 of the Mainz rump eleven against RB Leipzig costs the club 15,000 euros. This penalty was imposed by the sports court of the German Football Association, because after their completely unexpected victory, the 05 players not only went to the stands before, but closed them to play the "Humba" with the fans - a clear violation of the Hygiene requirements. The club is allowed to donate a third of the sum to a social institution in the field of health care.
Bo Svensson did not want to comment on the subject.
"I take note of the penalty," said the coach.
Similar to sporting director Christian Heidel, he described it as “not the smartest decision to take the curve”, but with a view to the exceptional situation on the first day of the game, he also called for “a little understanding for this mistake.
You have to look at it in human terms. "
All professionals available again
One week after the 2-0 defeat at newly promoted VfL Bochum, Svensson are theoretically back at all of the professionals. That means they are out of the quarantine, which not only the players and coaches who tested positive for Corona, but also the non-vaccinated contacts had to go to last week. However, it does not mean that they are all ready for use again. They were without training for up to two weeks, apart from the spinning bikes that the club delivered to their homes.
"It gives us a good feeling that everyone is back in training," said Svensson. “But that doesn't stop the subject. Now we have to bring those affected back to the stress, in order to bring them to their top level as quickly as possible. ”How long this will take in individual cases, he cannot say. "There are eleven different types of players, one of whom can cope with such a break better than the other."
At one point, however, the squad has also shrunk this week: The Mainz team loaned Luca Kilian to 1. FC Köln until the end of the season. With six players, the central defense has so far been lavishly equipped, and in preparation it hadn't looked as if Kilian, who came from Paderborn a year ago, could push himself in front of one of the others in the internal ranking. Neither in front of the established Moussa Niakhaté, Stefan Bell, Jeremiah St. Juste and Alexander Hack nor in front of David Nemeth, who was also brought in summer 2020, but was awarded again.
"Six were one too many, there was an inquiry from Cologne, and Luca was already not satisfied with his playing time last season," reported Svensson. In this respect, his temporary change made sense for everyone involved. "Going into the season with five people is a good number when you're playing with a back three."