Dortmund defeat for Heidenheim “certainly not a disaster” – Football

For 1. FC Heidenheim, it was a brief trip to the top of the table. After two wins from the first two games, the FCH was in first place for one matchday. But after the 2:4 defeat on Friday evening at Borussia Dortmund, the lead in the table is gone again. “But we can put it into perspective,” said Patrick Mainka in an interview with SWR Sport.

Heidenheim with a bad start

The central defender – like the entire Heidenheim defense – had a lot of work to do with Dortmund’s lightning-fast attackers Donyell Malen, Karim Adeyemi and Serhou Guirassy. “We were simply bad in the first 20 minutes. We were just running after them and had no access at all,” said Mainka. “We can be quite satisfied with the rest of the game.”

However, Heidenheim was already trailing 2-0 at this point (Malen, 12th minute & Adeyemi 17th). After that, things went much better for coach Frank Schmidt’s team. Marvin Pieringer’s goal (39th) brought new hope. Even after another setback (again Adeyemi, 41st), Heidenheim fought back (Maximilian Breunig, 74th, from a penalty). “I’ve never heard the whistles so loud as when we scored the penalty,” said Mainka. “Respect to Maxi Breunig for staying so cool.”

No happy ending for Heidenheim this time

But instead of the late equalizer after a brilliant comeback like last year (2:2), Heidenheim had to watch as Emre Can put the final point in injury time – also from the penalty spot. “We earned respect again, even if it wasn’t quite enough. You can just see that we never give up.”

Coach Frank Schmidt was also pleased: “It was an open game right up until the end, even after falling behind early on. That speaks volumes for my team,” said the 50-year-old. “With a bit more luck, we’ll take something away from this.”

Defeat does not throw Heidenheim off course

He therefore forgives his players for the hectic start and the early 0-2 deficit: “We can’t always talk about ourselves, whether we are overwhelmed or do something bad. This is Borussia Dortmund and they did really well.” This defeat is “certainly not a disaster”.

3,000 fans in the Heidenheim block

Therefore, Mainka and Co. were rightly celebrated by the fans who had travelled with them in the Heidenheim block: “We really appreciate the fact that 3,000 Heidenheimers came here for us on a Friday evening,” said Mainka.

It was therefore easy to look ahead to the next game: “We annoyed Dortmund, but it wasn’t quite enough. And so we’ll try to fight for three points again next week against Freiburg.” Next Saturday (from 3:30 p.m. live in the audio stream on Sportschau.de), 1. FC Heidenheim will play again at their home ground Schlossberg: “And at home we are a force.”