Mainz 05 is facing a landmark home game against VfL Bochum (Saturday from 3:30 p.m. live in the radio report and in the ticker of both sports shows). Winning is a must, and Dominik Kohr should help with that.
“With the way I play, it’s sometimes unavoidable to get yellow cards, that’s what I’m known for,” says Dominik Kohr and goes on to say that his way of playing football primarily serves to help his team and also sends a signal to the opponent to give what is coming to him.
After the “1:8 Bayern Watschn” coach Bo Henriksen rubbed one statistic in particular under his team’s nose: the foul statistics. The Mainz team only committed seven fouls and received one yellow card. For comparison: In the 1:2 defeat against leaders Leverkusen there were 15 fouls and five yellow cards. In other words: Against Bayer, Mainz were close to their opponents and therefore close to winning a point in Leverkusen.
Too far away from the opponent
Against Bayern, on the other hand, they were far too far away from the opponent and therefore very far away from taking anything worth counting from Munich. “Away in Munich you have to be present, constantly stand on the opponent’s feet and not let them come into the game at all,” says Dominik Kohr, summing up a potentially successful approach, but one that didn’t actually take place in Munich – perhaps also because the 30th -year-old was not there because of his yellow-red suspension.
The “Hard-Kohr” card account
In his 270 Bundesliga games so far, Dominik Kohr has received 84 yellow cards, five yellow-red cards and one red card. He is one of the defensive midfielders with the most cards and joins well-known players such as Stefan Effenberg, Martin Wagner and Luiz Gustavo.
“Sometimes sparks fly and then you shake hands.”
At the start of the week there was an announcement from Bo Henriksen before training, and then it got down to business. Dominik Kohr puts it this way: “The Bayern game is a thing of the past. We now have to look forward and that means giving full throttle in training, presenting ourselves and getting involved in every duel.” The final game was extremely physical with lots of tackles. The physio had to cool and treat him a few times. But no one was injured. “Sometimes things fly, but after training everything is fine again and we shake hands,” says Dominik Kohr in an exclusive interview with SWR Sport after training. That’s exactly what the coach wants, as he isn’t worried about his players getting injured and possibly being out against Bochum. “Hey, if you’re afraid of everything in life, then you’ll never win anything. Of course I don’t want my players to knock themselves out senseless, but it’s important to me that they show character, heart and passion. And that’s what they have today shown in training.”
“I now see every game as a final!”
Mainz 05 still have nine games left and the relegation spot in sight. The seventeenth place in the table can still achieve this goal on their own, because their direct competition, such as Darmstadt and Cologne, are coming to Mainz for their home game, as Bochum is now doing. Dominik Kohr doesn’t particularly highlight any game and says: “I now see every game as a final. We still have nine games left and we can still get 27 points and can fight our way out on our own. And that should be our goal.” Dominik “Hard-Kohr” is fully in relegation battle mode. Now all we have to do is take action – first on Saturday, 3:30 p.m., against Bochum.
Broadcast on Thursday, March 14, 2024, 7:30 p.m., SWR Aktuell Rhineland-Palatinate, SWR RP
