The Borussia Dortmund U19s are preparing for a German A-Junior Championship final for the third season in succession and the 11th time overall. FSV Mainz 05 will be the opposition on Sunday. Only VfB Stuttgart (10) have won the title more times than BVB (9). Facts and figures on the 53rd final.

The final venue: Contrary to the original plans, the match at 11:00 CET on Sunday 23 April will not take place at the Bruchwegstadion but at the Mewa-Arena in Mainz. BVB fans can order tickets via the FSV Mainz 05 Ticket Shop. The home side are expecting around 15,000 spectators. BVB set the attendance record for a final in 2017. 33,400 spectators came along that day to see the final against Bayern Munich, which the Black & Yellows won via a penalty shootout.

Final history: Mainz 05 have reached the final of the German A-Junior Championship for the second time. André Schürrle, who later represented his country, helped the Rhenish-Hesse side beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 at the Bruchwegstadion in 2009. Mario Götze had earlier scored for BVB to make it 1-1. It is the only one of their 10 finals the Black & Yellows have lost. With nine final triumphs (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022), BVB are second behind VfB Stuttgart in terms of titles won (10). A win would see the Black & Yellows go level with the Swabians.

The route to the final: Mainz 05 topped the Bundesliga Süd/Südwest table from start to finish, ending the campaign with 38 points from 16 games and an impressive 56-17 goal difference. Karlsruher SC finished second (36 points), ahead of 1. FC Nuremberg (34). FSV’s only two defeats were against FC Bayern Munich (2-0) and Karlsruher SC (1-0). In the Final Round of the German Championship, Benjamin Hoffmann’s team won the first leg of their semi-final against 1. FC Cologne 1-0 and then booked their ticket for the final courtesy of a 0-0 draw in the return leg in front of over 5,000 spectators in Cologne.

As in the previous year, BVB went through the season in the western division unbeaten and claimed the Western German Championship with 37 points from 15 games and a 33-9 goal difference. 1. FC Cologne (35) finished second, with FC Schalke 04 (34) in third. The Black & Yellows won 4-0 away to Hertha BSC in the first leg of their German Championship semi-final, with a 1-0 win for the Berlin side not enough to turn it around in the return leg.

Two title-winning coaches

The coaches: Mike Tullberg succeeded Michael Skibbe as the U19 head coach at BVB, who have yet to lose a single Bundesliga game under the 37-year-old, in spring 2020. Following a corona break of almost two years, the Danish former pro guided the team to the DFB-Pokal final (3-1 loss to VfB Stuttgart) and to victory in the German Championship Final (2-1 win against Hertha BSC) in the 2021/22 season. In addition, Tullberg has steered Borussia Dortmund to back-to-back quarter-finals in the UEFA Youth League. “With his ambitious work, Mike is able to develop both the team as well as every single player individually,” said Youth Coordinator Lars Ricken in praise of the sterling job the U19 head coach has done.

Benjamin Hoffmann, has been working at Mainz 05 since 2019 and has extended his contract until 2026, was employed in various roles at BVB between 2007 and 2019. He helped the Borussia U17s reach the Final of the German Championship in 2016 (2-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen), then twice won the title with the U19s (against Bayern Munich in 2017 and VfB Stuttgart in 2019); in 2018, the Black & Yellows lost to Hertha BSC in the semi-final (4-0 loss, 3-1 win). Hoffmann guided the Mainz 05 U19s to successive second-place finishes in 2019/20 and 2020/21, which were both cancelled due to corona, and then to fifth position last season. They reached the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal in the current campaign but suffered a 2-1 extra-time defeat to FC Schalke 04.

Match format: If the final is still level at the end of normal time, there will be then be extra time consisting of two lots of 15 minutes. If there is still no winner, the German champions will be determined in a penalty shootout.

Referee: The DFB Refereeing Committee has appointed Ben Henry Uhrig from SC Egenbüttel in Hamburg to take charge of the final. The 22-year-old has overseen 13 matches in the Oberliga Hamburg and eight A-Junior-Bundesliga games this season, including the BVB U19s’ 1-0 victory against MSV Duisburg.

Television: Sky will broadcast the final from 10:45 CET on Sunday. The match can also be watched free-of-charge on the Sky Sport YouTube channel, on Skysport.de and in the Sky Sport app. (wiwi)