Germany’s one remaining Champions League representative, Schalke 04, are off the pace in this season’s Bundesliga title race – which might be a good thing for their European hopes given their traditional propensity for self-destruction. Last year they blew it once more. Three years ago this week the mounting hype of their 2004/05 campaign was about to reach its usual conclusion…
If it’s midweek, it’s time for Behind The Wall, Brian O’Driscoll’s Bundesliga editorial from Berlin. This week, we visit one of Germany’s best-loved breweries, the Schalke Bottling Plant.
The Schalke Bottling Plant
Another roller-coaster week in the Bundesliga then with Schalke 04 hitting the heights on one Sunday before plumbing the depths seven days later. Let’s face it, as great as it would be for German football, no European football even, for Schalke to finally land a maiden Bundesliga shield, the reality is they are going to have to show something approaching a backbone for the remainder of the season…oh, and stay off the booze.
Let’s look critically at the Koenigsblauen. Have they the coach to win the title? Have they the players to win? What of the club itself? Is it geared to success or a Borussia Dortmund in disguise?
Taking Ralf Rangnick first, it is now clear that the former Hannover 96 boss has the technical ability to manage at this level. Coveted by the Deutsche Fussball Bund prior to the Klinsmann coronation, Rangnick cut his teeth at the Niedersachsen club winning the zweite liga title in 2002 and taking Hannover back into the big time. Since succeeding Jupp Heynckes, he has exceeded all expectations. The tunaround in the team’s fortunes suggest that he knows how to get the best out of a temperamental bunch of players, a group that had effectively refused to play for his Champions’ League-winning predecessor. No, Rangnick has been almost flawless this season, and a strong contender for coach of the season with Falko Götz, Jürgen Klopp, and Uwe Rapolder. You can add Felix Magath if Bayern do something special between now and May, but given the financial backing he has had, success is almost a given.
So to the players. Well, the talent is undoubtedly there. Frank Rost is one of the best goalkeepers in the Bundesliga, and has been for years. It’s criminal that he barely makes the national squad any more, with Oliver Kahn, Jens Lehmann, and Timo Hildebrand monopolising Klinsmann’s affection. Given the national coach’s inability to understand the basics of goalkeeping psychology, and his predeliction for musical chairs, Rost’s personality must have grated to earn international exclusion at a time of club hegemony. Schalke’s defence is solid, marshalled well by Mladen Krstajic and Marcelo Bordon, and the middle of the park has been illuminated by Brazilian Lincoln, a contender for German footballer of the year. Up front is the current holder of that auspicious title, the conceited, arrogant, and irrepressible Ailton. Talent is not in question. Attitude, however, is.
After beating Bayern 1-0 at the Arena last Sunday week, all the talk in Gelsenkirchen was of a squad out to enjoy their win, to celebrate the diminution of their main title rivals. Ask yourself a simple question: would Bayern have celebrated a win at Schalke to the extent that the coach had to reassure a questioning media, perplexed by talk of drink, debauchery, and whatever you’re having yourself, at training the following day? Schalke have beaten Bayern twice this season, but the war is being won by the Bavarians.
With the opportunity to press home their league leadership at plucky Mainz on Sunday, Schalke blew up within a minute, and were eventually and deservedly beaten 2-1. Did the players bottle it? No, they drank it. The bottle that is.
Schalke, Germany’s third-best supported club, have never won the 1. Bundesliga despite being founder members in 1963. Sure, they’ve taken German titles prior to the formation of the federal professional league, but they’ve never triumphed in the pro era. Their loyal, lusty, gregarious fans deserve better, and were seconds away from their ultimate dreams four seasons ago when Swedish defender Patrick Andersson scored a goal for Bayern in Hamburg to snatch the title in the last-minute of the last day of the season. They’ve taken four years to recover. Drink wasn’t a factor, apparently.
Rudi Assauer has spent a fortune building a side capable of going that extra minute, and has pillaged champions Werder Bremen for some of their best players (Krstajic, Ailton, Ernst) over the last twelve months. The idea is obviously to buy proven winners, men who have fought the Bayern beast before – and won. However, German publication Focus recently suggested that the Gelsenkirchen club is €80 million in debt, and whispers from Bavaria suggest that failure to land the big one will have Schalke going down the same road as local rivals Borussia Dortmund. For the sake of German football, it is to be hoped that the second of Bayern’s two biggest genetic rivals avoids that fate.
So will Schalke land it this time? Everything is in place, financial backing, huge support, a magnificent stadium, an inspirational coach, and talented players. However, to this observer, attitude is suspect. Expectation will weigh down on the players from now until the season ends. Celebrating victorious battles hardly augurs well for a valedictory and successful prosecution of war. Bayern will gladly give up six points to this Schalke side if this Schalke side gives up the ghost when it really counts. On Sunday in Mainz, they threw it up.
Brian A. O’Driscoll
Originally Posted at Goal.com: 25/03/2005 01:02
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