The Schalke man who can do everything
Henning Matriciani plastered BVB for dinner
By Tobias Nordmann, Gelsenkirchen
03/12/2023 8:34 p.m
FC Schalke 04 fought a surprising draw against BVB. In terms of football, the team from Gelsenkirchen is clearly inferior, but when it comes to passion, the royal blues are fully opposed, embodied perfectly by Henning Matriciani.
And suddenly at least 55,000 of the more than 61,000 spectators were amazed at Henning Matriciani. And most of Schalke probably didn’t know what should surprise them more. About the 22-year-old’s flying tackle in the 90th minute or about the breakout afterwards? When Matriciani straightened up, seeing the ball banished from the danger zone, the full-back went (yes, you can say so) freaked out. Clenched both fists and screamed and screamed. With his sliding tackle against Mo Dahoud’s shot from the shallows of Gelsenkirchen-Erle, he had finally set fire to the arena emotionally.
Matriciani had secured the 2: 2 (0: 1) in the district derby against Borussia Dortmund. In the 90 minutes he had finally grown into a new cult player. They had had a heart for this reserved defender in Gelsenkirchen for a long time. But again and again the veneration was put to the test. Because the native of Lippstadt did not always act as resolutely and confidently as on this Saturday evening. In the disastrous first half of the season he had become one of the faces that expressed the lack of competitiveness of the squad in the Bundesliga. You could never blame him for his professional attitude. But he was just a man who played for SV Lippstadt 08 and then for the S04 reserve in the Regionalliga West until almost three years ago. Far removed from the level of the highest German division.
Resurrection after total failure against RB
Matriciani experienced just how far on January 24 of this year when his team lost 6-1 at home to RB Leipzig. The “Kicker” threw the grade 6 at him. Means: total failure. But the 22-year-old stuck with it and continued to bite. Like now, almost two and a half months later. Matriciani took on anything and everything that stalked his unfamiliar left side. That was about Marius Wolf and Donyell Malen. Two technically strong and lightning fast BVB players. And when after ten minutes he had won a duel against Wolf (positional play) and Malen (straight tackle), the arena had already been over the moon twice. Together with Marius Bülter, he formed a stable labor axis – that alone has potential for unrestricted warmth in the Kumpel- und Malocherklub.
And if his first name weren’t too long and his last name too complicated, he would probably already (or very soon) have a cult reputation like Yves Eigenrauch once did. The man-marker alongside Johan de Kock (he watched the 100th Revierderby live in the stadium) was a crowd favorite in one of the most respected teams in the club’s history, the Eurofighters, and was indispensable. Eigenrauch was perhaps the strangest worker the club had ever had. He wore brightly colored clothes, read Dürrenmatt on the team bus and rarely spoke to the media because, so the story goes, he wasn’t particularly interested in professional football. No one knows what Matriciani thinks about all these things. On Saturday evening, too, he crept through the catacombs and waved off talks with the waiting journalists.
The fans cult every defensive action
So others had to talk about the full-back and his perspective on things. About Ralf Fährmann, another cult figure of the Royal Blues who suddenly resurrected. “He’s an absolute monster of mentality. If you can say eat up your opponent, then he did it. He’s proved to perfection how you can work on your opponent in an uncomfortable way all the time.” It was by no means the case that Matriciani had everything under control that evening. BVB kept attacking from his side and sometimes Wolf and Malen broke through. But Schalke couldn’t be shaken off. And he was always there when things got really dangerous. He had pushed his limits. That’s what they love in Gelsenkirchen. And so they sanctified every successful defensive action with thunderous applause.
And so the emotional worlds are divided. Schalke reveled in happiness, sang enthusiastically about their own myth, while Dortmund struggled with their self-confidence close to arrogance. “I hope that these two points don’t really hurt us in the end,” said the disappointed sporting director Sebastian Kehl, evaluating the draw as “incredibly annoying” and “completely unnecessary”. After the setback, which was as painful as it was difficult to explain, the gap to FC Bayern is two points again. Not bad in numbers, emotionally all the more so. “We’re at the top, but an absolutely top team just closes the door in a game like this,” admitted coach Edin Terzic and announced an “open and honest analysis”.
Marriage proposal for super tackle
When this surreal game became wilder and wilder, when Schalke threw BVB to the ground and snatched control from them, the heavily scolded defender grew to unimagined size. Coach Thomas Reis, who kissed this ensemble that was thought dead (also thanks to winter reinforcements such as central defender Moritz Jenz or striker Michael Frey) in a remarkable way, was amazed at the Lippstadt native: “He’s just a cool guy. You can put him anywhere, he always tries to retrieve the best possible.” And that evening at the latest, he rose from all the ridicule that had rained down on him. Not just the man with the lawn mower and such. The wind turned via Twitter. Matriciani even received marriage proposals and strong Ballon d’Or recommendations for his sliding tackle. One user was even sure: “In the 70s he would have become a world footballer.” The newly acquired world fame also caught on in the currywurst talks in the city. One stands in a snack bar in Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke and is amazed. “You, the Madridschiania, kehr, he has the Lüdenscheider (Editor’s note: Dortmunder in Schalke speaking) cleaned up for supper.”*
“Henning has already been viewed critically, so I’m particularly pleased. He always tries to perform as best as possible, even in unusual positions,” says Reis. Is there one of them that Matriciani wouldn’t stand for? “I don’t know,” said his coach. “I think he would put himself in the goal and try everything.” They would definitely be amazed at Schalke, but they would no longer be surprised.
*Have you, like us, also wondered what “kehr” means? With this beautiful expression, people in the Ruhr area express their admiration, but also their anger, said our author. The editorial office.