Mainz feel “ready” to contest five games in 14 days | OneFootball

Bundesliga European representatives Mainz 05 find themselves facing down a grueling schedule as competitive play draws near. Bo Henriksen’s Rheinhessen  must contest two Conference League playoff games in addition to their opening round Pokal fixture and two Bundesliga matches. Between August 18th and August 31st, the Palatinate club must play five games in 14 days.

Mainz are due to face Dynamo Dresden in the first round of the domestic cup on August 18th. Club management attempted to appeal to the DFL to get the Dresden match postponed, but were rejected. Three days after that, it’s off Scandinavia to face either Norway’s Rosenborg or Sweden’s Hammarby. Three days after that, Mainz must travel back to host Köln in their Bundesliga opener.

The second leg of the Conference League playoff and a Bundesliga match against Wolfsburg round out the final three days of August. At present, Mainz maintain a squad of only 28 professionals. Defensive midfielder Sota Kawasaki – signed precisely one month ago – ended up being the final addition. Since then, two players have been loaned out.

Mainz completed a loan deal to send Korean attacking midfielder Hong Hyun-seok to Ligue 1 outfit Nantes. Shortly after that, Mainz settled the matter of slumping attacker Marco Richter. The 27-year-old was sent back to the 2. Bundesliga, this time on loan to Darmstadt.

Die Nullfünfter can at least take solace in the fact that several players have returned from injury in time for the big run. Andreas-Hanche Olsen, Jae-Sung Lee, and Niklas Tauer all returned to match fitness in recently pre-season friendlies.

Some promising young players have also stepped into the breach. Young talents such as Kacper Potulski, Daniel Glieber, Lovis Bierschenk, and the highly-touted Ben Bobzien have made their mark in training camp and in friendlies.

It’s perhaps for this reason that neither Henriksen nor starting keeper Robin Zentner felt the need express concern after the German side completed its final pre-season friendly against Racing Strasbourg on Saturday.

Henriksen and Zentner don’t share the sentiments of sporting CEO Christian Heidel, who has been extremely vocal about the unfair schedule and especially critical of the German league association.

“We’re looking forward to the five games,” Zentner said on Saturday. “There’s nothing we can do about it anyway and we have a large, solid squad at our disposal.“

“We are ready,” Henriksen glibly added.

GGFN | Peter Weis