Eintracht Frankfurt loses against Mainz 05: absurdity in the Waldstadion

Everyone would have understood if Kauã Santos had rushed to the catacombs immediately. Instead, the Eintracht Frankfurt goalkeeper took his towel at the final whistle, packed up his two drinking bottles, and then gathered with the team in the center circle. A noticeable number of teammates clapped the 1.96 meter tall Brazilian on the shoulder, who desperately needed the encouragement on that cold, wet Saturday afternoon in the Waldstadion.

Eintracht Frankfurt’s substitute goalkeeper, who had stepped in at short notice for Kevin Trapp, who had the flu, couldn’t have been much more unfortunate than in the seemingly grotesque 1:3 home defeat in the neighborhood duel against FSV Mainz 05. Santa Claus could hardly have brought the guests better presents as the keeper in the yellow robe.

“This is a learning experience for him,” coach Dino Toppmöller would later say. “It wasn’t his day today, he still has a great career ahead of him.” However, no one could deny the fact that the talent, who was spotted in Rio de Janeiro in 2023, made two outrageous mistakes in the last home game of the year. “This is extremely annoying, a shame and bitter,” stated sports director Markus Krösche, who tried to protect Santos: “He is a young goalkeeper. He made decisions that weren’t good. He will learn from it and it will make him stronger.”

After all, the 21-year-old has already shown a number of convincing, if not completely flawless, performances as a replacement for Trapp in a long phase in the autumn, so that his working paper at Eintracht now even runs until 2030. But what had gotten into him when the young goalkeeper first passed the beleaguered Ellyes Skhiri in front of the penalty area, then his arc lamp used his upper arm to put the ball behind the line to make it 0-1 (16th)? This was reminiscent of Tomislav Piplica’s award-winning header own goal from Energie Cottbus in 2002, when he became a cult figure because of such mishaps.

The least thing that the unlucky Santos could do was that a shot from Paul Nebel, slightly deflected by defense chief Robin Koch, went through the net to make it 0-2 (27th). When Mainz’s home team made it 0-3, the goalkeeper had his feet and hands involved again because he wasted the ball again in the build-up and then inadequately blocked Jae-sung Lee’s shot (58′). Just blaming the goalkeeper was too easy for Koch, who was entrusted with the captain’s armband. “Nothing worked out in the game,” said the national player, alluding to the failure at the back and front.

Eintracht also used an excess of opportunities that could hardly be surpassed in terms of absurdity. In the end, 49 crosses, 17 corners and 34 shots on goal had no real result. Sometimes striker Omar Marmoush fired the ball over the box, sometimes the high-class technician Can Uzun didn’t hit the ball fully. The frustration in the stands and on the lawn was palpable. “We just have to shoot the balls into the goal. “Can puts the ball in 99 times in 100 cases,” complained coach Toppmöller.

At Eintracht, the good impression is clouded – despite third place in the table

The despair over this wasteful handling – the exception was the 1:3 by Rasmus Kristensen (75th) – was also so great because the Zero Fives were outnumbered for long stretches due to the second sending off of the season against Nadiem Amiri. The Mainz driver caught Skhiri on the ankle early in the game (21st). “The truth is also: We can’t concede two more goals with one man – no matter how they come about,” said Toppmöller.

For the Hessians, the good impression of the first half of the season has now finally been tarnished by five competitive games without a win, even if their coach defiantly reminded that third place in the table was difficult: “I am convinced that we will come out of the winter break with fresh strength. “On the Mainz side, the interruption comes almost at the wrong time. “Even if one or two goals were scored fortunately for us: we defended intensively and passionately earned the three points,” said sports director Niko Bungert.

Coach Bo Henriksen once again couldn’t stop grinning – the fifth win in the sixth Bundesliga game in a row felt like an early gift for the Rheinhessen, which crowned a year with a lot of happiness. “We had the courage to go for the second and third goals when we were outnumbered,” summed up Dane Henriksen, who didn’t want to hide a crucial fact in the press conference: “It wasn’t the most deserved win, but we had a really good goalkeeper . We did everything, but we also have to say that Robin Zentner was the best player on the pitch today.”

In the end, the 30-year-old always played the spoilsport when self-sacrificing front men like the outstanding former Frankfurt players Danny da Costa and Dominik Kohr had not already thrown themselves into the shots or headers. “That was really hard work,” said Zentner afterwards, “that feels very good.” That’s why a crate of beer from a Frankfurt brewery was dragged into the Mainz dressing room in the match winner’s wide cross.