FC Schalke continues to stagger through the 2nd Bundesliga. On matchday 4, coach Thomas Reis’ team lost 0:2 (0:1) against Holstein Kiel.
Actually, this chant should disappear from the arena for at least a year. “We’re here, we’re here, every game, it’s clear, whether at the bottom or at the top, it doesn’t matter, we’re here”, that was the anthem of the FC Schalke 04 fans in the first division relegation battle when their team was once again hopelessly behind. On Friday evening, in the second division home match against Holstein Kiel, the lines became the constant chant of the second half. Schalke lost with 0:2 (0:1), highly deserved, and a false start has turned into a thick crisis. The relegated team lags far behind expectations.
During the week, coach Thomas Reis and sports director André Hechelmann had expressed boundless confidence in the squad. Reis suggested that a little more aggressiveness would go a long way to creating a beautiful combination football. But what happened in the first 45 minutes was not worthy of a second division top team. It would not even have been worthy of a relegation candidate.
Reis had tried a lot of tactical things. The talents Keke Topp and Assan Ouedraogo moved into the starting eleven – but they did not play in their favourite position, nor did the experienced Paul Seguin. The Schalkers looked wild at times, the gaps were big, and Holstein Kiel took advantage of that with some simple but dangerous counterattacks.
In the 15th minute, the first dangerous one led to the 0:1. Topp lost the ball, Kiel’s Tom Rothe life Henning Matriciani away and shot the ball at the inside post, Oskar Pichler dusted successfully. On the second counterattack (27th) the ball was in the net again – Steven Skrzybski had hit the post, Pichler was offside on the follow-up shot. Skrzybski was the centre of attention twice more. In the 40th minute he ran away from Schalke’s Ron Schallenberg – who pulled the emergency stop, red card. Immediately before the break, Skrzybski again ran alone towards goalkeeper Marius Müller, but shot at him. At the break, the score was 0:1 – and the Schalkers were very, very well served with it.
Schalke’s offensive actions were through and manageable. Out of twelve crosses, only one arrived. Goal scorer Simon Terodde was mostly effectively guarded by two opponents. Only one defended himself: Assan Ouedraogo. The 17-year-old escaped from the Kiel opponents time and again, only he dared to do something. He missed his best chance in the 42nd minute when Kiel goalkeeper Timon Weiner deflected his shot with his fingertips for a corner. But even this best chance did not change the opinion of the spectators when referee Deniz Aytekin ended the first half: They whistled loudly.
Reis made two substitutions at the break, bringing on Yusuf Kabadayi and Joey Müller – but the game seemed to be over early on. There was no sign of the Schalkers putting up a fight. They had lost their courage. In the 59th minute, Ouedraogo tried again with a dribble, but the ball was pushed off his foot. Kiel counter-attacked again, Tom Rothe crossed the ball from the left side into the penalty area, where Shuto Machino beat Müller, who was making his professional debut, and scored to make it 2:0.
The rest became an exhibition game for the Kielers, who could hardly believe their luck to win so easily in the arena and to be able to easily defend a lead in front of a large crowd. Many Schalker fans among the 60,403 spectators left the arena early. There was only one more round of applause when Assan Ouedraogo was substituted in the 76th minute. Sadly, the game rippled along until the final whistle.
When Schalke play SV Wehen Wiesbaden in a week’s time (2 September, 1 p.m./Sky), they will probably have a new player: left-back Derry John Murkin is said to be coming from Dutch first-division club FC Volendam. Will it stay with one addition, as Hechelmann planned? After this performance, the sporting director is likely to reconsider this decision.