Schalke botched the second division: Terodde strikes – still pushes frustration

The great euphoria is followed by the great disappointment. Almost 20,000 Schalke fans witness how the relegated from Gelsenkirchen is defeated by HSV despite an early lead at the start of the season. Once again, overcoming frustration is the order of the day. The change for the better is also missing in the 2nd division.

Of course, it was a gross exaggeration when Dirk Oberschulte-Beckmann turned to the fans in the Schalke Arena shortly before the start of the game and said: “You don’t understand your own word anymore.” It really wasn’t that loud, but the full-time stadium announcer’s emotions predominated because after 16 months he was finally able to welcome blue and white supporters again. 19,770 spectators were allowed to enter the arena at the start of the new season against Hamburger SV, which would mean that many other second division stadiums would be “sold out!” report.

And since guest fans had been consistently excluded due to the corona, nobody was disturbed by these moving moments before the start of the game when the visitors roared the club song. “With fans”, coach Dimitrios Grammotzis was certain in the run-up to the match, “Schalke would not have been relegated in the first place.”

For a very short time you could actually have forgotten that the start of the new first division season did not take place on the green rectangle below. 30 years after the last relegation, the Schalke squires had to play in a second division game again. At the final whistle, Schalke continued as it had ended in the first division season. With 1: 3 (1: 0) they lost to a much more effective guest team from HSV, which was not only the better in the second half, but also wanted the three more than the home side. The mood was naturally completely different after the 90 intense minutes than before the game started. “We gave everything,” said the goalscorer Simon Terodde, who scored in the first game with his new employer against his former club. “But in the end you just stand there empty-handed.”

“The first day of the game is not decisive”

Initially, there was great commitment among the newly formed Gelsenkircheners. It seemed as if the team had taken the words of sports director Peter Knäbel to heart, who had demanded before the game “to show a performance with which the fans can identify”. After five minutes Terodde had a first chance, after seven minutes the 33-year-old scored to make it 1-0 after Dominick Drexler had conquered the ball in midfield and Marius Bülter had sent his strike colleague on the trip.

Terodde, who has never scored less than 24 goals in the past four years of the second division, lived up to his reputation as a top scorer early on. That’s why they signed him to Schalke. And when goalkeeper Michael Langer was able to defuse a foul penalty owed by Florian Flick to David Kinsombi and kicked by Robert Glatzel (30th), it smelled like a successful start to the season, especially since the hosts saved the wafer-thin lead in the break.

From the perspective of the hosts, part two of yesterday’s performance failed completely. Three hits from Robert Glatzel, who corrected his missed penalty (53rd), Moritz Heyer (86th) and Bakery Jatta (90th) sealed the fate of the blue-whites in the final phase, but also clearly. The extensive clean-up work did not have any effect, at least initially. The defeat against HSV in the so-called best second division of all time was proof that Schalke’s way back to division one will be long, hard and rocky. “We are very disappointed that we are giving up the game late,” said Drexler, who has only been with the team for a few days after the Royal Blues’ first second division game in 30 years. “The fact that we lost a game sucks, you just have to put it that way. Nevertheless, I know what it takes to be persistent, the first matchday won’t be decisive.”

Fans encourage

The collective, in which, apart from Malik Thiaw, Florian Flick and goalkeeper Michael Langer, there was none of the starting XI players who had a contract with S04 last season, obviously needs a lot of patience. The upheaval that the club’s leaders ordered the kicker ensemble was anything but minimally invasive. So far, the Gelsenkirchen second division team has signed eleven new players, almost one and a half dozen had to leave the club. Time is an extremely important factor here. On this disappointing evening, the fans of the traditional Gelsenkirchen club also knew this, who briefly acknowledged the performance with whistles after the game, but then reacted defiantly and encouraged their team. Almost as if those bad 18 months that completely turned the blue and white football world upside down had not happened when a Champions League participant became a relegated club and the club had reached the brink: debts, listless professionals and fans who hunted down the arena and tried to beat up their players.

The indomitable spectators wanted to preserve the mood of optimism, which was gently germinating before kick-off, despite the defeat at the beginning. The week before the guest appearance at Holstein Kiel must now show how coach Grammozis will be able to moderate this false start. In any case, the self-confidence that Schalke had gained in good preparation was pulverized on Friday evening by a biting guest. During the week the coach had avoided the A-word at all costs, after this first unsuccessful appearance it should be clear to everyone how far away the return to the House of Lords actually is. “The second division is intense, it’s brutal, the games are on a knife edge,” said Grammozis after the game. “No game will be a sure-fire success here.”

“So many scoring chances should have been enough”

The blue and white kicker ensemble can at least stand up because, despite the Hanseatic euphoria brake, the royal blues also showed a lot of good approaches. By the 65th minute, Schalke had several good chances to shoot in, the two best of which were awarded by Thomas Ouwejan (55th) and Terodde (61th), who could have put Schalke back in the lead after equalizing. That was encouraging, and Grammozis’ chief trainer saw it no differently. “So many scoring chances should have been enough to take at least one point from this game.”

But it wasn’t like that. Now he hopes that players who are on hold can further enhance the quality of the team. The Belgian Dries Wouters, for example, who can be used flexibly in defensive midfield. Or Salif Sané, who will be the defense chief in the future. But both are still struggling to keep up with form and fitness. Keeper Ralf Fährmann will hopefully return as quickly after his Covid illness as Danny Latza, who had to leave the field last night after only 30 minutes injured. The Schalke market is also hoping for more money in order to become active again on the transfer market. Big change candidates like Ozan Kabak, Amine Harit, Omar Mascarell, Mathew Hoppe and Matija Nastasic are still in the shop window of the Revierklub. Above all, Kabak and Harit are supposed to fill the miners’ tight coffers with double-digit million redemptions. One can only hope that all these top-class players do not end up being slackers. That would cost the Gelsenkircheners dearly.