For Dortmund, the name ‘LEE’ in spring is a nightmare.

For Borussia Dortmund, the name ‘LEE’ in spring is a nightmare.

FSV Mainz 05 defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-0 in the 33rd round of the 2023-2024 Bundesliga at the Meba Arena in Mainz, Germany, at 1:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Mainz lined up in a 3-4-2-1 formation. Jonatan Burkhardt was up front, with Lee Jae-Sung Lee and Brayan Gruda in the attacking two. Anthony Cassi, Nadim Amiri, Leandro Vareiro, and Zilvan Wiedmer made up the midfield, while Andreas Hanche Olsen, Dominique Core, and Sepp van den Bergh formed the back four. Robin Zentner was in goal.

Dortmund started in a 4-3-3 formation. Jamie Baino-Gittens-Yusufa Mukoko-Daniel Marlon formed the attacking combination, while Felix N’Mecha-Marco Reus-Salih Özgünzan lined up in midfield. Mateu Moray-Nico Schlotterbeck-Niklas Zuerle-Marius Wolf formed the back four, with Alexander Meyer pulling on the goalkeeping gloves.

The opening goal came in the 12th minute. Amari’s through ball was played in by Wiedmer from the right side of the box, where Bahreiro slotted it home.

Mainz doubled their lead shortly afterward. In the 19th minute, Dortmund defender Meyer made a mistake in passing and Lee Jae-sung intercepted the ball and wasted no time in firing a shot that rattled the net.

Mainz took advantage and extended their lead to three.

In the 23rd minute, Baheiro picked up the ball on the right flank of the box and passed it to Lee Jae-sung, who was unmarked, and Lee made it 3-0 with a quick left-footed shot.

Lee Jae-sung went for the hat trick. In the 34th minute, a low cross from the right flank was met by Lee Jae-sung, who was able to get in on goal, 안전놀이터 추천 but his shot went wide of the target.

The first half ended with a 3-0 lead for Mainz.

At the start of the second half, Dortmund made a substitution. Malone, Özuzan, and Moray were brought off the bench in favor of Jayden Sancho, Julian Brandt, and Ian Martensen.

Dortmund didn’t create many chances. Mainz had six shots in the entire second half, two on target, while Dortmund had just one shot on target despite enjoying 72% possession in the second half. There were no shots on goal. The match ended with a 3-0 victory for Mainz.

In this game, Lee Jae-Sung played around 87 minutes before being subbed off.

In addition to his two goals, Lee also had four shots, 37 touches of the ball, an 84% passing success rate, three chances created, and eight touches in the opponent’s box, and he was actively harassing the Dortmund defense.

After the game, the German publication Bild gave Lee the highest rating of 1. German media generally give players ratings between 1 and 6. The closer to one, the higher the score, with one being a ‘perfect score’.

With the three points, Mainz sits in 15th place in the league with 32 points (6 wins, 14 draws, 13 losses), two points clear of ‘relegation zone’ 16th-place Union Berlin (30 points). Dortmund, who failed to add to their points tally, remain fifth in the league with 60 points (17 wins, 9 draws, 7 losses).

It was an unexpected finish for Dortmund.

With two games to go before the end of the season, Dortmund remained in fifth place, 14 points behind sixth-place Eintracht Frankfurt. There was no chance of an upset, and next season’s Bundesliga is a guaranteed UEFA Champions League spot for the fifth-place finisher.

In this situation, Dortmund rotated heavily. Daniel Marlon, fresh off his return from injury, started up front and Jamie Vyno Gittens started in place of Karim Adeyemi, who was at his best in the win over Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). The ‘old man’ Mats Hummels was benched in favor of Niklas Jülle. Up front, he put his faith in Mkhitaryan instead of Niklas Fulkruk. In goal, Meyer instead of Gregor Korbel, who has been the best goalkeeper in the Bundesliga this season.

Even with the rotation in place, it was an “embarrassment” for Dortmund to concede three goals without scoring a single goal. Mainz is a team that has been bouncing around the bottom half of the table all season, and at one point dropped to the bottom of the league.

In fact, it’s not the first time Mainz have troubled Dortmund at this stage of the season. In the last round of last season, Mainz also caused Dortmund a lot of heartache.

The 2022-2023 season was the one in which Dortmund came closer to winning the league than ever before. Heading into the final league game, Dortmund was in first place with 70 points. Second-place Munich had 68 points, which meant they were out of the running for the title.

Dortmund hosted Mainz in the final round.

The general consensus was that Dortmund, who had a chance to win the title for the first time in 11 years, would have no trouble knocking out Mainz, who had no chance of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League and no relegation threat. Furthermore, Mainz had lost four league games in a row before this match and looked completely off-balance offensively. In those four games, they had scored three goals and conceded 13.

Dortmund couldn’t beat Mainz and allowed Munich to pull off the upset as they beat Cologne. In this match, Lee Jae-sung rang Dortmund’s bell with an assist on a sharp cross.

If Lee Jae-sung caused Dortmund pain last season, he has given them hope this season. The win was a valuable three points for Mainz. After a decent run last season, finishing ninth in the league with 46 points, Mainz struggled in the 2023-2024 season. Six losses in the first 10 league games of the season meant that they failed to pick up enough points and remained in the relegation zone until the end of the season.

They met Dortmund with just two games left to finish the season. Lee Jae-sung scored the lone goal to break down Dortmund’s “yellow wall” and give the team hope of staying up.

The final game of the league will be played on April 18th. Mainz will host VfL Wolfsburg. With two points separating them from 16th-place Union Berlin, Mainz need only a draw in that match to stay in the top flight.