The suffering of the last: someone has to tell the Schalke now

The suffering of the last
Somebody has to tell Schalke now

By Tobias Nordmann

FC Schalke 04 remain bottom of the table in the Bundesliga for the first half of the season. The Royal Blues also lose against 1. FC Köln. The hopes now rest on Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. But the euphoria he triggered was initially shattered by sport.

What the heck, someone has to tell Schalke about it. All right: Dear Schalke, don't despair, it will get worse. And soon. Very soon. On Sunday it's against FC Bayern. You can hear about the autumn champion in the Ruhr area that something could always happen if you play the ball for a long time, behind the high defense, but it's also like this: To long balls behind the very high defense of the Munich team To play, you need (a) footballers who can do this precisely and (b) footballers who use the corresponding passes. Regarding (b) it can be said: With Matthew Hoppe someone seems to be playing at Schalke who has these skills.

Schalke 04 – 1.FC Cologne 1: 2 (0: 1)

Gates: 0: 1 Czichos (31st), 1: 1 Hoppe (57th), 1: 2 Thielmann (90th + 3)
Schalke:
Ferryman – Becker, Kabak, Nastasic (71st Mascarell), Kolasinac (72nd Oczipka) – Stambouli, Serdar – Raman (72nd Boujellab), Uth, Harit – Hoppe; Trainer: Big.
Cologne: Timo Horn – Cestic, Bornauw, Czichos (46th Katterbach) – Ehizibue (72nd Rexhbecaj), Skhiri, Jannes Horn – Hector (81st Salih Özcan), Drexler (88th Arokodare) – Wolf, Duda (88th Thielmann); Trainer: Gisdol.
Referee: Daniel Siebert (Berlin)
Yellow cards: Stambouli (3), Boujellab (2) – Jannes Horn (4)

But to (a)? Difficult, very difficult. At least based on the painful 90 minutes that Wednesday evening against 1. FC Köln. This duel for relegation was lost with 1: 2. That's pretty bitter, especially since a draw would have been possible at this very low level. But unfortunately, from the perspective of the traditional club in the Revier, there was still the 93rd minute, a counterattack by the Cologne team, a defensive performance of their own that had nothing to do with a defensive performance. And finally the merciless shock. A shock that reads like this in numbers: For the first time in 27 years, the club finished the first half of the season last. With only seven points, only three teams were worse in history.

No team has been relegated on matchday 17. That alone is mathematically impossible. But there is a long way from mathematically impossible to still possible on the pitch. Very far. Very, very far. Despite Sead Kolasinac, who also injured himself in the middle of the second half against Cologne. And despite Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who still had calves against Cologne. Now it is precisely these two who stand alone for the Schalke hope. Flanked a bit by Hoppe and the more form-strong Amine Harit, best man against Cologne, as well as some higher power that prevents Cologne, Mainz and Bielefeld from regularly collecting points. So, and only so, the relegation meltdown seems to be averted.

Euphoria? Smashed!

Every form of the delicate euphoria that had triggered the return actions of the grouching buddy Kolasinac and the aging star striker Huntelaar were suddenly shattered that Wednesday evening. And that in a game that was devoid of any art called football. Bad passes, misunderstandings and a spectacular lack of dynamism – everything that coaches hate, both teams delivered in large quantities, with all the commitment that you can and must expect when the table is about everything. The first two goals, the one from Cologne by Rafael Czichos (31st) and the one from Schalke by Hoppe (57th), were a high degree of dropouts, negligence and coincidences. Only at the conclusion can one assume very reasonable intent.

The fact that Huntelaar said after the game "that the second half was very good", well, a lot of others didn't say that. With which he was right, in a distant truth: "Unfortunately we didn't win, but we were close to it." At least if shortly before it thinks that it was shorter than the Cologne team. They weren't actually involved in contributing anything creative to the game before the way out of the royal blue siege opened in minute 93 without any overwhelming danger to the royal blue gate. Just opened it. "It's bitter," said Schalke's coach Christian Gross. But he wasn't entirely dissatisfied either. He had seen "many good moments". And so the "courageous appearance of the team despite the defeat made him confident. We have to look ahead."

Ummm … maybe better not. Not towards Sunday.

. (tagsToTranslate) Fußball (t) Fußball-Bundesliga (t) Fußball (t) FC Schalke 04 (t) 1.FC Cologne