FC Schalke 04: disillusioned in the November rain – sport

Dimitrios Grammozis and his Schalke team were warned twice about their next opponent, Darmstadt 98. Through the balance of the lilies from the past four games – ten points with 12: 2 goals – and through the report of a training spy, which Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht personally unmasked, but still invited to stay – with the condition to send greetings to Gelsenkirchen pay.

Whatever the agent reported, it didn’t help. The 51,327 expectant spectators experienced an anything but boring game, but also a Darmstadt 98 that remained an insoluble puzzle for Schalke. After the 2: 4 against the guest from Hesse, the loyal royal blue people went sobered into the rainy November Sunday. His team had made every effort to turn fate, but they couldn’t prevent the better team from leaving the field as the winner in the end. The ecstatic jubilation of the highly motivated Darmstadters after the all-important goal to 4: 2 (89th minute) was like the ecstatic jubilation of the highly motivated Karlsruhe and the highly motivated Auer after they had conquered points in the famous arena – celebrities are not necessarily an advantage in the second division.

Dimitrios Grammozis is not responsible for the latter, but the playfully disappointing appearances of his team and the recent downward trend are. For the Schalke coach, who has always been suspicious of him, things should now be uncomfortable, he has to hope that his superiors don’t get nervous. Especially since Simon Terodde’s goals are missing at the moment, which allowed Schalke to get used to the new world in a reasonably tolerable way.

The stories of the unpredictable league are true

A year ago, when relegation was still a threat, the vision of a game against Darmstadt 98 on Sunday at half past one would have been seen in Gelsenkirchen as the epitome of horror, now the horror is proving to be reality. After completing the first third of the season, Schalke know that all the stories from the unpredictable league, in which there is no favorite in any game, are true. Lilien trainer Lieberknecht said it was “a privilege to be able to play here” and made a plausible recommendation: “Just carry on like this.” With this strategy, some supposedly small clubs have marched into the first division – while the well-known competitors had to remain in the lower class. A typical second division topic that should worry Schalke.

After the two defeats in the cup at 1860 Munich and Heidenheim, Lieberknecht’s colleague Grammozis relied on his most experienced skills and preferred the veteran Dominick Drexler to the young Uruguayan Rodrigo Zalazar. That was a debatable decision even before kick-off, and it became more and more questionable with every minute of the game. Drexler often demanded and received the ball, but he usually took it too long and too slowly, which was one of the reasons why Schalke never had a stable game of their own despite the early 1-0 after an own goal by Luca Pfeiffer (7th) found. The midfield with Drexler, the indisposed captain Danny Latza and Viktor Pálsson did insufficient work forwards and backwards: It did not open the way to the top, and it left the back team alone again and again. Darmstadt’s doubly successful striker Philipp Tietz had an outrageous amount of space on his counter-goals (11th, 63rd).

Schalke stood in their own way in a wild hectic

“We made far too many mistakes in the build-up game and ran into counterattacks far too often,” said Schalke’s substitute striker Marvin Pieringer, who spoke out of dismay. With a strong individual action, he shot the 2: 3, the stadium raged and was ready for the exciting final minutes – before Benjamin Goller destroyed all dreams again after a bad pass from Pálsson. They “didn’t want to stay in the opening for too long”, explained Grammozis, but it was just then that they “unfortunately made the crucial mistakes”.

During the first half it almost looked like the lilies were about to teach their opponent a lesson. They were more aggressive, more energetic, stronger, more refined and better at play. Schalke only came dangerously in front of the opposing goal after corner kicks and free kicks by the good left-back Thomas Ouwejan, after all, regularly. Only after the 3: 1 did the Darmstadters adopt a strategy to conserve their strength, they withdrew and left the ball to Schalke. Driven by the substitute Zalazar, the home side took the opportunity, in the penalty area it was for Terodde, who was in Thomas Isherwood had a relentlessly painful opponent, even closer. Schalke ran up, Schalke had chances, but Schalke stood in their own way in the wild rush. “We plowed and made, we were in the game properly, but there were just too many ball losses and play errors. We invited Darmstadt to score goals,” said captain Latza guiltily.

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