Sports director Tomasz Kasica (Mainz 05): "We have arrived in the league".
Newcomers 1. FSV Mainz 05 are spending the break in the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) on the high of their first success in the top flight. With a 3:1 win at play-off candidates TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, the team from Rheinhessen is knocking on the door of the upper half of the table as the season continues. Sporting director Tomasz Kasica gives an interim summary in an interview after the first weeks in the TTBL.
Tomasz Kasica, for 1. FSV Mainz 05 all good things came in four instead of three in their first season in the Table Tennis Bundesliga - at the fourth attempt your team managed its first victory with a 3:1 coup at play-off contender TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen. Can you say with a clear conscience that Mainz has arrived in the TTBL, despite the later cup exit?
In any case, we have arrived in the league. But it was especially important for our self-esteem to get confirmation that we can win against any other team, after all Ochsenhausen was not just any opponent. The victory also showed us that we have chosen the right path. But we also know that this league will remain exciting until the last match day and that we cannot rest on our laurels.
Does the success in Ochsenhausen also have an effect on the atmosphere in your team beyond the cup exit in the bridging phase of the break in the TTBL until the next encounter with cup winner and runner-up 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT?
Of course, we had only proclaimed the cup as a bonus. So we are still happy to see that we are in a position to win against all of them. As a result, we go into our match against Saarbrücken with a broad chest and the same determination and ambition as in Ochsenhausen.
What is your interim conclusion after the early part of the season?
It has been the expected quantum leap for us. We have learned a lot, but a lot is still new for us. But we hope for further development as a team and a club.
Which hopes have been fulfilled?
At our first home game against Borussia Düsseldorf, many spectators came with a mixture of euphoria and curiosity. That showed us that our project of also presenting ourselves as a city with table tennis is being accepted. But we are also happy for every one of our players who has already won a match. It's great to realise that we are competitive - not all newcomers have been like that in the past.
Have other expectations also been disappointed?
Honestly, we wouldn't have thought that the difference between the 2nd division and the TTBL is still so big after all, that the gap is not even so wide financially, but above all structurally.
Before the start of the season, you predicted that being in the Bundesliga would do something to your team and your players. Have you noticed anything in that respect yet?
The appreciation for us has increased, we are seen more positively. Our players already have different market values than they did before the start of the season, and our opponents now prepare differently for games against us than they did a few weeks ago. But we also notice that we can get people interested in table tennis.
According to the standings, your players can confidently knock on the door to the top half when the season continues against cup winners and runners-up 1 FC Saarbrücken-TT. Is that a realistic goal against the background of the success in Ochsenhausen?
Even if everyone is beatable for us, we saw in the cup that sometimes you don't perform as well as hoped. That's why we shouldn't look so much at the standings. For us, the development is in the foreground, and I can already see that.
The 650 spectators at your home debut against champions Borussia Düsseldorf were the best attendance of all TTBL matches before the season break. Was that already the outlier in the spectator statistics that can often be observed at Düsseldorf guest matches, which was also reinforced by the character of the home debut in the highest class, or does this record reflect the fundamental fan potential in your region?
I believe that this audience forms a core. Everyone who was in the hall for the game came of their own accord to be there, and not because we sold tickets with special promotions. The fans also feel that our players fully identify with us as a club and can therefore become an additional player for us. This also creates such an atmosphere with us that even the people from Düsseldorf were quite impressed and filmed it. That's why I believe in the potential and am sure that a similar number of visitors will come against Saarbrücken.