Bo Svensson had promised a lot when he had prophesied so much before the Mainz encounter with 1. FC Köln: “There will be a lot on offer for the spectators, I can promise that.” A programmatic note that will give the 25,500 spectators a taste should, but was ultimately not quite redeemed. In the end, 1. FSV 05 in particular could be happy that, thanks to Burkardt’s sixth goal of the season (41st minute), they retained a point from this hard-fought home game and thus finished eighth after the twelfth Bundesliga matchday.
Cologne, ranked twelfth, were better over long stretches and made up the deficit with Özcan’s header (48th) to make it 1-1. “You can’t be satisfied for more than ninety minutes, because we mastered the Mainz team for 75 minutes,” was the ambiguous résumé of Cologne trainer Baumgart, “but when you’ve seen the last ten minutes, you have to be satisfied.” The Mainz defensive routinist Stefan Bell, on the other hand, complained about the lack of “power” in his team in the first half. “It wasn’t our best game,” admitted the central defender.
Two adrenaline-charged teams from the two carnival strongholds first sought and found an open exchange of blows, without conjuring up the greatest danger in this wild initial phase. The threatened Mainz when the game had calmed down a bit and the Cologne benefited from the fact that their opponent left them too much space in midfield. So the Cologne team moved forward again and again at full speed. The Slovak Duda had the greatest opportunity when the central midfielder initially failed with his low shot to goalkeeper Zentner and put the margin over the goal from a free path (20th). Ljubicic’s header was similarly threatening after a Cologne corner kick, which missed its goal by a touch (30). The Cologne season shooter Modeste (eight hits so far) did not aim precisely enough when Zentner was able to parry his shot (35th).
The young Mainz star Jonathan Burkardt demonstrated how goals can be scored. At least as bad for Cologne after that was Modeste’s foot injury, which the center forward suffered in a rude foul by Bell (42nd), who graciously got away with the yellow card. The Frenchman had to be replaced by Andersson in stoppage time in the first half.
Shortly after the restart, FC equalized to the overdue 1-1 with Özcan’s header after Uth’s free kick. “We rehearsed this move for weeks,” said the shooter about his first Bundesliga goal. Coach Svensson was so tense about the uncertain situation that he quarreled with Cologne assistant coach McKenna and, like his colleague, received a yellow card from referee Aytekin (59th). Meanwhile, it was more hard than hearty on the lawn, which meant that the level of play on both sides decreased by the minute.
In the final sprint, Mainz finally dominated. Burkardt’s second goal of the day was prevented by central defender Kilian, who had switched from Mainz to FC, with his last effort (87th). Substitute Szalai set another exclamation mark with a low shot, which Horn parried (90th). In the end, both teams could somehow be satisfied with the draw.
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