Dortmund's Shinji Kagawa on the ball. (China Post)I haven't gotten to watch much Bundesliga action this year. Our cable system only carries Goal TV on the Spanish Tier, so the only ones I get to watch are on ESPN3. Last night I decided to take in the Dortmund vs. Mainz 05 match. Dortmund came into the match unbeaten in their last 17, and winners of all their matches since the winter break.
I was very impressed. Honestly, Dortmund might be the most impressive team I've personally watched outside of Barcelona this year. Not being really familiar with the Bundesliga, I'm not sure what kind of competition Mainz puts up, but Dortmund was really in control for about 98% of the match.
Dortmund came out of the chute with a few good chances in the first ten minutes. Sven Bender sent a shot just off target in the 6th minute, and Lukasz Pizczek had another trickle just wide in the 9th. Mainz was lucky to escape the first ten without damage.
However Dortmund pushed into the lead in the 26th minute. Shinji Kagawa had a shot blocked, but the rebound fell right to Jakub Blaszczykowski, who banged the ball into the goal to make it 1-0 to the Yellow Blacks. That was also the score at half time.
Mainz managed to hang around throughout the second half though. Dortmund created many more chances, but just couldn't break through for the second. Mainz took advantage of that in the 71st minute, as a former Dortmund man came back to haunt his old team. Mohamed Zidan took a pass from Adam Szalai and slotted the ball past the Dortmund 'keeper to make it 1-1. Dortmund would have the last laugh though, as Kagawa slipped the Mainz defense and scored the go ahead goal after a nice centering pass from Pizczek in the 77th. Dortmund held on for the 2-1 win to move a step closer to defending their Bundesliga title.
