Freiburg’s Grifo with a double pack: At Schalke, only the choreo is suitable for the Bundesliga

Freiburg’s Grifo with a double pack
At Schalke, only the choreo is suitable for the Bundesliga

The new Schalke coach Reis is no magician. In the game against SC Freiburg, the giants from the Ruhr area held the 0-0 lead for almost 45 minutes, but then the misfortune took its course again. The surprise team from Breisgau never leaves any doubt as to who will be the winner.

New coach, old trope: After the days of chaos at Schalke 04, Thomas Reis was unable to stop the promoted team from falling. With the ex-Bochumer on the bench, but without the surprisingly resigned sports director Rouven Schröder, the royal blues lost 0: 2 (0: 1) to SC Freiburg and after the seventh competitive game in a row remain bottom of the table in the greatest relegation distress.

A beautiful choreo does not bring victory, but creates identity.

(Photo: IMAGO/Moritz Müller)

Curious: Reis lost two games in a row in the Veltins Arena – seven weeks ago his last with VfL Bochum, now his debut with Gelsenkirchen. Vincenzo Grifo scored twice (45th + 1st and 61st, penalty after video evidence) for Freiburg, who claimed third place in the table with 24 points – they have never been in such a good position in their Bundesliga history after twelve match days.

“There has to be more for sure. We won’t stick our heads in the sand, it will definitely be very difficult. The week was a bit turbulent,” said Reis at DAZN. Attacker Sebastian Polter took a similar view: “There’s still a long way to go in the season to collect points. We just have to start at some point.”

50 days after his 3-1 draw in the tram derby, after which he had been given a leave of absence from Bochum, Reis switched to his preferred 4-3-3 system at his new employer and relied on Sebastian Polter in the center of the attack instead of second division record scorer Simon Terodde . The attacker scored ten Bundesliga goals in Bochum last season but has only scored once against his former club since the transfer to Schalke.

At least the choreo was good

Reis is already the 16th coach to sit on the Schalke bench in Freiburg since Christian Streich took office at the end of 2011. The Breisgauer cult coach, who seriously considered a move to Gelsenkirchen nine years ago, had already won 1-0 against his colleague on August 26th.

After the blue smoke of a choreography by the Schalke fans in the north stand had cleared, the prank team quickly took the initiative. The shaky Schalke defense got into trouble again and again. On the other side, the Freiburg defense had no problem stopping the Royal Blues’ imprecise attacks.

After just over half an hour, Reis had to make a change: left-back Thomas Ouwejan left the field injured for Kerim Calhanoglu. The substitute had Schalke’s first chance to score a little later, but just missed the target with a long-range shot (35′). When the hosts had shed their uncertainty and made the game more balanced, Freiburg took the lead: Grifo flicked the ball into the far corner.

After the break, the guests pushed for the 2:0. Schalke were initially lucky that the ball did not land in the goal. Then Reis brought on Terodde for Polter – but the goal fell for Freiburg. After a foul by Calhanoglu on Woo-Yeong Jeong, referee Christian Dingert initially allowed the game to continue, but he also awarded a penalty after Cologne cellars intervened. Only in the final phase did Schalke show more enthusiasm and had good chances.

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