The match of the 20th round of the German championship between Werder Bremen and Schalke was not a game for the champion title - the titles are not won in February. It was a match for the initiative - which of the rivals is now considered the main favorite. Bayern have withdrawn from the struggle for victory, Stuttgart is still too crude, and so it turns out that there is no one else - either Werder Bremen or Schalke. The Bremen club has the brightest and most staged game in the Bundesliga and scored 18 goals more than the closest pursuers in the championship. Schalke doesn’t seem to have such strong trump cards in their hands - the team is not famous for either brilliant attack or supernatural defense. A club from Gelsenkirchen cannot, like Werder Bremen, score three goals in each match, but, as it turns out, Werder Bremen himself is very good at beating. For the second time in the championship, Schalke decisively outplayed the opponent, and most notably, the formidable attack Werder Bremen did not score a goal in these matches.
In the first round, Schalke head coach Mirko Slomka surprised colleague Thomas Schaaf with unrealistic speeds - players in blue uniforms (still without the Gazprom logo) flew through the Auf Schalke field, and the Bremen just looked at them, mouths open with amazement. We have not seen such fast football in the Bundesliga for a long time, but what is there in the Bundesliga - we have not seen it anywhere in Europe. Pulling the opponent in midfield, Schalke instantly switched from defense to attack, and the three-headed attack of the “Blue Kings” tore apart the poor defense of the “Bremen”. I must say that Schalke did not show anything like it either before or after - and it seemed to many that this victory was won more in the mood. However, on Sunday evening, Schalke again defeated Werder Bremen with the same weapon, and then it became clear to everyone: Mirko Slomka not only knows how to play against Werder Bremen, he also knows how to implement his plan on the field.
On paper, “Werder Bremen” is very easy to cope with - squeeze in the center of the field, prevent the ball from playing calmly, quickly transfer the tall, viscous defense to dead ends, do not lose concentration for 90 minutes, and so on and so forth. This plan is absolutely perfect and has only one, but a significant flaw - it is almost impossible to put into practice. In practice, because Schalke somehow succeeds. From the very first minutes of the match, the guests began to break the game of Werder Bremen, applied small foul tactics, just a little - they knocked the ball away from their goal and did not even care about their own attack. They didn’t care because they knew that behind the back in the shoulder bag was the company’s fast transition from defense to attack, and Werder would certainly provide chances. In fact, Schalke is much worse when the opponent plays openly in the second number, and it’s a pleasure to play against open teams to Gelsenkirchen.
Having angered the players of “Bremen” with constant fouls, “Schalke” gradually moved on to his game. Schalke did not threaten his opponent with a counterattack, but simply scored a goal in the first of them. Defender Krstaich intercepted the ball in midfield, connected to the attack, gave it to Lincoln. The Brazilian dispatcher beat the defender and gave the ball to Lovenkrandts on an empty net. A hit in an acrobatic jump - and Schalke already leads 1-0. And the whole attack is like one breath, without minimal loss of pace, the corporate identity of Schalke 04. And then - you can already play on the account.
I could not even believe that throughout the 90 minutes of the game, the Slomki team will maintain the same level of play - football players in blue uniforms managed everywhere. The defenders did not lose a single horse martial art, the midfielders brilliantly took the lead, and striker Kuranyi, a well-known “amateur” of rough work, plowed on the defensive like a beginner. What can I say, if the young right-handed defender Hoogland, who appeared at the base due to Rafinha’s disqualification, played as if nothing had happened, and even allowed himself — this is in Bremen — to regularly connect to the attacks. Whatever the Werder football players did, nothing worked - for the entire match, the Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer entered the game a number of times. The concentration of the Schalke players was enough until the very end.
The second effective counterattack of Schalke looked like a much more likely event in such a game than the return ball of Werder Bremen. And she passed - the defense of Bremen again rolled out for one, two or three, and all the same Levekrandts buried the chances of the owners. Everything happens in football, but the Schalke advantage was too great. Mirko Slomka won this match both before the game and during it - a complete, clear victory.
Of course, this does not make Schalke an undisputed favorite - Werder Bremen has perfectly learned how to beat medium-sized teams with which Schalke sometimes has problems. After all, you won’t play with them like with the Bremen - you need other methods and other tactics. However, if people remained in Germany who considered coach Slomka to be an empty place, then I think the current match made them reconsider their position. For to win against Werder Bremen as Slomka did, and even twice - this is not just luck. This coach has ideas in his head and, no less important, he knows how to implement them on the field. Does Schalke need a world-famous coach?
Kirill DEMENTYEV
WERDER - Schalke 04 - 0: 2 (0: 1)
Goals: 0: 1 - Levenkrands (20), 0: 2 - Levenkrands (74).
WERDER: Reincke, Mertezakker, Naldo, Schulz (Rosenberg, 64), Wome, Fritz, Borowski (Wranjes, 64), Diego, Jensen, Hugo Almeida (Hunt, 64), Klose.
SCHALKE 04: Neuer, Bordon, Hoogland, Krstaich, Rodriguez, Bayramovich (Hamit Altıntop, 77), Ernst, Lincoln (Benish, 86), Varela (Halil Altıntop, 70), Kuranyi, Levenkrands.
Warnings: Jensen (12), Bayramovich (22), Varela (29), Neuer (68), Lincoln (82), Fritz (82), Vranjesh (84), Diego (88), Krstaich (89).
February 4th Weserstadion.
Judge: Wolfgang Stark (Ergolding).