Alemannia Aachen is away to VfL Osnabrück on the first matchday of the new third division season. The Alemannen are traveling with major personnel concerns. “That must be in our DNA” – Becker euphoric about the team and Remmert
Euphoria at Schalke? We haven’t seen that in a long time. But even the captain couldn’t contain himself after the opening win against Hertha BSC. No, very few people expected that. FC Schalke 04 started the new second division season with a 2-1 home win over promotion contenders Hertha BSC. But at least as impressive as the result was the performance under new coach Miron Muslic: fierce, aggressive, and committed. “That’s exactly how I imagined it. It’s really wonderful,” said captain Timo Becker after the game on Sky. He had just been singing and celebrating with the fans.
“I don’t think many people expected that,” said the defender, emphasizing: “All I ever read is that Hertha are the favorites and so on. Today we saw the Schalke mentality. We have a different approach now. You could see that. We brought the arena to boiling point. That’s how I imagined it, that’s how every game here has to be.”
He runs 35 km/h, weighs 90 kilos, you can’t knock him off his feet that easily. He’s got a powerful shot, a great body. He has huge potential to go far
Timo Becker on Peter Remmert
One player who particularly embodied this mentality was someone most people hadn’t even expected to see in the starting line-up: youngster Peter Remmert. It was symbolic how the 20-year-old went down after a tackle in the penalty area, refused to give up and, while lying on the ground, set up Moussa Sylla to make it 1-0.
“That was the craziest assist I’ve ever given. I was lying on the ground, didn’t hear the whistle, and saw Moussa. So I thought I’d try to slide it in. All the better that he scored.”
Remmert had only found out officially yesterday that he would be playing. After the final whistle, he spoke of goose bumps. You believed him. Becker was not surprised that Remmert was allowed to start from the beginning. “I see him in training and I saw him in the preparations. He scored superbly in the test matches. The boy threw himself into it, which is exactly what we need, and that’s exactly how he set up the goal. I’m mega proud of him.“
What sets the youngster apart? ”He runs 35 km/h, weighs 90 kilos, you can’t knock him off his feet that easily. He has a powerful shot, a great body. He has huge potential to go far.”
The same goes for FC Schalke 04 – if the team continues to play as aggressively as it did on Friday evening. “That has to be in our DNA, that’s what the coach demands,” said Becker, adding: “I believe that if everyone gives it their all, we’ll see some more good games here.”
en to the Bremer Brücke.
Alemannia Aachen kicks off the 2025/26 third division season on Saturday (August 2, 2 p.m.) with an away game at VfL Osnabrück. 1,400 Alemannia fans will make the trip to Lower Saxony. New coach Benedetto Muzzicato, who has taken over from Heiner Backhaus, who left for Eintracht Braunschweig, is hoping for a successful start to the season. But with just a few days to go before the kickoff, there are major concerns in the imperial city. The squad is still missing several new signings and there are persistent injury worries. In their last test match against second division side Fortuna Düsseldorf (0-4), Alemannia could only field a mini squad, which was filled with youth players. On Saturday, Muzzicato will probably only have 14, at most 15, players available at the Bremer Brücke. At least Jeremias Lorch and Lamar Yarbrough, who were recently injured, are returning, while Valmir Sulejmani’s participation is still in doubt. On the other hand, captain Mika Hanraths, Florian Heister, Kevin Goden, and Bentley Baxter Bahn are definitely out. “The team is almost picking itself,” said the Alemannia coach at the pre-match press conference about the thin squad.
Due to the many absences, it was hardly possible to prepare properly, and Muzzicato’s game plan has not been communicated as desired under these circumstances. “It’s still a long way from how I imagine it,” said the 46-year-old, who also had to reduce the intensity in recent days to prevent more players from getting injured.
“We have a lot of guys who don’t even know how good they are on the ball because they haven’t had to play for two years,” said the German-Italian about the tactical change the club is aiming for. Unlike his predecessor, who relied on strong pressing against the ball, Muzzicato wants to be more courageous when in possession. It will therefore take time to get the old routines out of their heads. “I’ve always shown the guys that we have to make the best of it. Because in the end, no one cares if you’ve only trained with twelve people for three weeks,” said the Aachen head coach, who does not want to use the difficult personnel situation as an excuse.
On Thursday, the club confirmed that Mika Hanrath will remain captain of Alemannia. During his absence due to injury, Sasa Strujic will take over the captain’s role on the pitch. The team council also includes Danilo Wiebe, Bentley Baxter Bahn, Lukas Scepanik, Gianluca Gaudino, and 19-year-old youngster Faton Ademi.