Borussia Dortmund missed the chance to go top of the table after losing 2-0 (0-0) at FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday night. Okazaki gave the hosts the lead on 66 minutes before an own goal by Ginter secured all three points for Mainz.

34,000 in the sold out Coface Arena saw BVB have very much the better of things for over an hour but witnessed a string of wasted opportunities. Ramos alone failed to take any of a whole series of first half chances while Immobile, in the second period, contrived to miss a penalty with 70 minutes on the clock. Dortmund struck the woodwork twice and also had the ball cleared from the line on two further occasions.

The Scenario:

Mainz (7th in the table) played Dortmund (4th). Of the last eight meetings between the clubs, BVB had won seven and drawn the other with the last defeat coming way back in April 2010. With Hannover 96 going down in Paderborn earlier in the day, Bayern only drawing with Hamburg SV and Bayer Leverkusen not in action until Sunday BVB had the chance to go top of the table with a win in Mainz.

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Piszczek wins a headed duel.

Personnel Matters:

Following the sensational performance and 2-0 win over Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League there were five changes to the BVB starting line-up. Neven Subotic (troublesome adductor muscle) was replaced by Matthias Ginter in central defence while Pisczsek returned allowing Durm to switch from right to left. Kehl, suffering from a similar injury to Subotic, was also out with Jojic coming in while Mkhitaryan was rested to allow Kagawa a start. Ramos replaced Immobile up front while still unavailable for selection in Mainz were Hummels, Kuba, Gündogan, Kirch, Reus, Sahin and Ji, all injured. Ex BVB man Jonas Hofmann was in the Mainz starting eleven.

Tactics:

Both teams started in 4-2-3-1 formations focussing on a pressing game so the game was always going to have pace. Kasper Hjulmand, the Mainz head coach went on Sky tv ahead of the game to say, “We will look to attack high up the field, but we will need to take care not to leave BVB too much room in behind us because they are so dangerous on the break.” In reality, Mainz tended to hunt the ball within the confines of their own half, happy to let Dortmund control the game. Of two teams seemingly set up to play attacking football, Borussia was the more technically adroit and aggressive playing as if at home from the start and with a back four often defending on the halfway line.

The Game and Analysis:

Despite dominating, there were none of the fireworks that so set alight the first 45 minutes against Arsenal. Mainz were well organised and both teams tried but failed to create too many chances. On 14 minutes Adrian Ramos ought to have given BVB the lead when he could only head an Aubameyang cross wide of the post. In truth, the Columbian was offside but the officials seemed not to have noticed that. As early as the third minute Piszczek had the ball stolen from his foot as Junior Diaz made a last ditch tackle.

Mainz general manager Christian Heidel observed post match that “we allowed ourselves to be dominated by BVB in the opening 15 minutes.” Gradually the home side came into the game more and more and also began to gat chances such as when Okazaki, played in by Allagui tested Roman Weidenfeller from close range on 36 minutes. Not long after Weidenfeller had to do well to deny old team mate Jonas Hofmann.

The last bit of meaningful action, though, saw BVB on the front foot again. Piszczek did some fine work down the right to give him the chance to fire a good cross to the near post where Ramos could only turn the ball onto the post. And so, whilst BVB had dominated, the 0-0 scoreline was probably fair despite Dortmund enjoying 61 percent of possession and 9-6 attempts on goal.

The second half saw the same pattern continue with Dortmund creating chances; first Ramos, again on the end of a Großkreutz pass was denied by the ubiquitous Junior Diaz. A minute later Aubameyang tried his luck from a narrow angle only for Diaz to once again provide the block. For almost an hour Mainz were toothless up front with BVB creating what chances there were.

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Adrian Ramos missed two good first half chances.

And as so often is the case, missing those chances came back to bite BVB as a long ball from Karius landed at the feet of Jairo (on for Allagui) who managed to elude Sokratis before squaring the ball to Okazaki who slid the ball home to grab the home side an unexpected lead on 66 minutes with his fourth game of the season. By this stage Ramos and Kagawa had made way for Mkhitaryan and Immobile.

And it was the Italian who, was immediately involved in the action when Okazaki charged down his shot with his arm. The ensuing penalty, correctly awarded by referee Perl, was taken by Immobile but his effort was not overly well-placed and Karius was able to swoop down to his right and make the save. This seemed to unsettle the visitors and a few gaps seemed to appear in their defence, and Mainz duly took advantage of one of these gaps to extend their lead when Jairo charged down the right and crossed into the centre where Ginter was only able to turn the ball into his own net.  

Borussia Dortmund certainly tried to get back into the game in the last fifteen minutes but time and again, the final ball, the final shot was just not good enough. At the end just one Borussia player could have any satisfaction; Mitsuru Maruoka came on for Bender with ten minutes to go to make his Bundesliga debut.

 

Teams & Goals

Bundesliga, Matchday 4
1. FSV MAINZ 05 – BORUSSIA DORTMUND 2-0 (0-0)

1. FSV Mainz 05: Karius - Brosinski, Jara, Bell, Junior Diaz - Geis, Baumgartlinger - Allagui, Moritz, Hofmann – Okazaki
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller – Piszczek, Sokratis, Ginter, Durm – Jojic, Bender – Aubameyang, Kagawa, Großkreutz – Ramos
Substititions: 60. Samperio for Allagui, 82. Koch for Moritz, 87. Djuricic for Hofmann - 65. Mkhitaryan and Immobile for Kagawa and Ramos, 79. Maruoka for Bender
Goals: 1-0 Okazaki (66., Samperio), 2-0 Ginter (74., own goal, Samperio)
Corners: 1-7 (HT 1-2), Chances: 4-7 (2-2)
Referee: Perl (Munich), Yellow cards: Okazaki, Geis - Großkreutz
Attendance: 34,000 (sold out), Weather: clear, 20 degrees

Prospects:

The games come thick and fast with BVB taking on bottom-of-the-table VfB Stuttgart at the Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday (kick off 2000 CET). It will be the Black n Yellows fourth game in twelve days.