A good performance – but sadly without a happy ending! 

Our SV Elversberg put up a good fight against the Bundesliga team from Mainz, but ultimately had to admit defeat.

DFB Cup, full stadium, attractive opponents and a great atmosphere. Only the result did not fit the picture on this match day, with our Elv ultimately having to concede a 0:1 defeat. Horst Steffen made two substitutions: Luca Schnellbacher, a double scorer in the cup duel against FSV two years ago, and captain Kevin Conrad were replaced by Paul Stock and Robin Fellhauer. SVE also acted tactically with a straight three-man backfield – ‘to better cover the width of the field and be able to close the half-spaces’, as Steffen explained after the game. ‘With a four-man backfield, diagonal balls fly around your ears and then they cross two their strikers who have strong headers – something that we wanted to avoid’. The Mainz team, where Bo Svensson was not allowed on the bench due to a red card last year, also deployed their usual straight three-man backfield. SVE’s plan worked for the most part, although Mainz ultimately earned a well-deserved win. A Mainz goal in the first half was disallowed for a supposed offside, but Ludovic Ajorque scored the first goal after a questionable penalty. Substitute Paul Stock had a fantastic chance towards the end of the game, but failed to score on an empty goal.

’Mainz offered very little, but were physically very present. To win this game, everything had to go perfectly, but that just wasn’t the case. We have offered a good performance twice in the championship, but today was not like against Leverkusen – the goalkeeper kept us in the game for a long time’, Steffen noted after the game. So SVE has nothing to be ashamed of, as they put up an excellent fight against a Bundesliga team. Next Friday they are heading to Kaiserslautern in Betzenberg.