For BVB coach Marco Rose, the Bundesliga clash with Mainz 05 is also an encounter with his own past. As a player, the 45-year-old experienced both good and bad days for FSV – and found a true friend in Bo Svensson, the current head coach of Mainz. On Saturday, it’s a reunion.
When Marco Rose meets his Mainz counterpart Bo Svensson with BVB on Saturday, it will not only be a meeting of two football coaches, but of two long-time companions. Both played together at the 05ers, experienced many great and a few not so great days together there and are now friends, as Rose says, “the contact is still good”. Which is by no means a matter of course in the professional circus.
“I don’t begrudge Bo the success he has in Mainz. Personally, but also because Mainz 05 has played and still plays a very important role in my life. “
MARCO ROSE
So it will be a warm reunion when the two cross paths in front of an expected crowd of more than 60,000 at Signal Iduna Park. “I really don’t begrudge Bo the success he has in Mainz. Personally, but also because Mainz 05 played and still plays a very important role in my life,” says Rose, who kicked for FSV between 2002 and 2011 and gained his first experience as a coach in the 2010/10 season as a playing assistant coach for Mainz’s second team.
He is all the more pleased to see how his old team-mate Svensson has got the 05ers back on track since he took office in January 2021. The Mainz side had previously only picked up six points from 14 games, but with the Dane they managed to catch up, which resulted in 12th place in the table and the most successful second half of the season in the club’s history.
“Excellent job” and “one of the best goalkeeping coaches in Europe “
The Mainz side are also steady on the road this season, sitting ninth after seven matchdays, five points behind BVB in third. “I am happy for Bo. He is doing an excellent job there together with Christian Heidel, Martin Schmidt and the others who are still there. Stephan Kuhnert, for example, who I can’t forget, he’s one of the best goalkeeping coaches in Europe,” Rose said. “Mainz have developed fantastically over the past three quarters of a year and have made a comeback in the Bundesliga as a result. “
Sportingly, it should be quite challenging for BVB to win the first home match after the international break. All the more so, as there are still question marks behind numerous important players. Rose emphasises the “unbelievably stable defence” of Mainz when he talks about the qualities of the upcoming opponent. It is “unpleasant” to play against FSV and “difficult” to create chances. “But they also have excellent footballers in midfield and in Karim Onisiwo and Jonathan Burkardt physically strong strikers who can cause you problems if you’re not careful and run into counters.”
However, neither the Mainz qualities nor the friendship with Svensson will change Rose’s will to win. Dortmund has a lot planned for the intensive interim sprint between the international fixtures in October and November. In the league, BVB wants to establish itself at the top, and in the Champions League, where they will meet Ajax Amsterdam twice, they want to secure a place in the last 16. A win against Mainz would be just the thing to get them going. Friendship or no friendship, a shared past
