Looking at Mainz tomorrow, here we sit in 11th place, taking two points out of a possible six. Should we be concerned? I don’t think so… yet.

Ribery’s out with a groin strain, and van Gaal has hinted there might be a surprise star in his role. Hmmmmm…. Olic, perhaps? (Or now that I think about it, I’ll go with my fave: Bastian Schweinsteiger. You heard it here first--- or possibly second.) van Gaal will start Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose up front, I’m sure. He’s tried out Jose Ernesto Sosa and Thomas Mueller in the Ribery slot; both with varying degrees of success.

And honestly, if Miro and Gomez hadn’t missed a couple of sitters (/ headers), we’d be looking at 6 points from two matches. Errrr… that is, if the linesmen were still as blind as they were in the Hoffenheim match.

My only experience with FSV Mainz, so far, is to be “stuck” in the Mainz Hauptbanhof in the fall of 2004, with a…. ahem… few supporters on their way to a match. The Stadion am Bruchweg is small to the Allianz, comparatively. But I’m sure it’s as loud and rowdy as it was in the train station.