“The team have to fight, they mustn’t give up and must do everything to represent Schalke 04 the way our fans expect them to,” the Royal Blues’ sporting director, Horst Heldt, had vowed before the Revierderby. “And in case all of that won’t be enough, we will at least plough up Dortmund’s pitch.”
Ultimately, the visitors from Gelsenkirchen failed on both accounts on a loud, thrilling Sunday afternoon that lived up to all the pre-match hype. But there was no disgrace in the 3-2 defeat. The Black and Yellows are simply a class above most sides in Europe under Thomas Tuchel, and S04 coach André Breitenreiter was right to point out that unlike other teams, who had been “slaughtered” in the Signal Iduna Park this season, his men had kept on battling and done their bit to make it one of the best derbies in recent years.
Schalke could have even snatched a draw on another day. At the same time, however, a scoreline of 4-1 or 5-1 would have also fairly summed up proceedings. “We had plenty of gilt-edged chances to make it 4-1, there was no need at all to make it a close game in the end,” the BVB coach, Tuchel rebuked after the game. Dortmund hadn’t been able to shake off the derby nerves entirely, taking a while to get going against Breitenreiter’s resilient team, then gifting their opponents two goals with sloppy play at the back. The way Klaas-Jan Huntelaar expertly poached two goals told its own story, however. A deep, predominantly reactive Schalke had no choice but to feed off scraps against a BVB team brimming with Spielfreude, a joie de jouer, if you will.
Shinji Kagawa, who later celebrated in style, slurping Udon noodles, scored the opener from a Matthias Ginter cross. Ginter also helped Dortmund retake the lead after Huntelaar’s equaliser with another header before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang effectively put the match beyond Schalke with his 14th strike of the season. The Gabonese striker took off his shirt to reveal a Batman logo and the line “Do you remember”, which either referenced loving on the floor in Belsize Park or last year’s derby celebration extravaganza, in which he featured heavily in a super-hero double-act with Marco “Robin” Reus. The latter could not feature due to injury but had been in, as it later transpired, on the pre-planned joke, unlike Tuchel. Still, the 42-year-old could afford to take a magnanimous view of the striker’s bookable offence. “He’s not allowed to do that again, apart from in the return leg,” Tuchel smiled.
Breitenreiter’s pre-game realism, misunderstood as defeatism in some quarters, had been vindicated. For all of Schalke’s commitment, work-rate and the individual class of young players like Leroy Sané, freshly called up by Jogi Löw’s Germany, their 19-mile journey east was really a “bonus game”, an emotionally charged but free hit against their much better neighbours. BVB looked every inch the club that is roughly 22% ahead of their close rivals in money-terms – Schalke posted revenues of €213m (£162m) in 2013-14, Dortmund €261m (£186m) – and then some: they’re a settled side with a clearly defined playing style, good depth on the bench and a vast array of stars performing at the top of their game. The Royal Blues should not feel despondent that they can’t quite compete with a team scoring 71 goals in 22 games in all competitions – one less than Barcelona and Real Madrid have notched up in their combined 34 games this season (fortunately for Tuchel’s men, nobody has yet told them that their league form is adversely affected by the Europa League, which for them started at the end of June with two qualifying rounds – they have fielded strong teams throughout).
The foundations at BVB were solid enough to make do without any new costly signings. Leverkusen all-rounder Gonzalo Castro was the most expensive recruit at €11m (£7.8m). All they needed was a bit of fresh impetus, courtesy of Tuchel, to recover from last year’s near-catastrophe, to go back to their former selves and perhaps beyond.
Schalke, by contrast, remain a work in progress under their new man in charge. Breitenreiter’s first weeks in the job have been encouraging, the results broadly in line with expectations. The Royal Blues are one point off third place. Their only problem, albeit a fairly grave one, is that their arch enemies are thriving so much more down the road, for half a decade now. That relative unhappiness explains why Horst Heldt will bite the bullet at the end of the season. When he took over in 2010, Schalke were Champions League regulars and had more money (€140m turnover) than Dortmund (€110m), who were then still recovering from near-bankruptcy and had not heard Uefa’s elite hymn being played in front of the Yellow Wall in seven seasons. But while the Black and Yellows re-established themselves as the second force in German football, winning titles and plaudits under Jürgen Klopp, Heldt’s managerial appointments post-Ralf Rangnick (who resigned in 2011, due to exhaustion) were more hit and miss with transfer dealings chequered at best.
Christian Heidel, who has been so successful with a small budget at Mainz, is being lined up to succeed Heldt at the end of the season. Dortmund, though, will be the better side for years to come, especially if they manage to keep their best players in the way they have done quite brilliantly this summer. Their sole complaint after taking the derby spoils was strictly relative, too. “With 29 points, we’d be top in Spain, England and Italy but Bayern Munich don’t play there,” sporting director Michael Zorc shrugged, with a smile. “That’s our only problem this year.”
Talking points
• Bayern won again, of course, 4-0 against brave/naive (delete as appropriate) VfB Stuttgart to set yet another record with a points tally of 34 after 12. Zorc felt that the Bavarians’ five-point lead made all talk of a BVB challenge superfluous (“it won’t get tight at the top”) but at Säbenerstrasse, they’re concerned that the dominance will not last forever. Talks with Pep Guardiola over his contract extension have been officially delayed until mid-December, perhaps out of fear that the Catalan will say no. “There’ll be a Christmas surprise, one way or the other,” said Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. This column’s money is on the other.
• In Augsburg, meanwhile, Claudio Pizarro became the oldest goal-scorer in league history with a fine volley in Bremen’s 2-1 away win. The 37-year-old was slightly upstaged by Salomon Kalou, however. The Ivorian netted a hat-trick for Hertha at Hannover, to ensure that Pal Dardai’s men go into the international break in fourth spot. High times in the capital indeed, federal spoilsports notwithstanding.
Results
Hannover 1-3 Hertha, Mainz 2-0 Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim 0-0 Frankfurt, Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-0 Ingolstadt, Bayer Leverkusen 1-2 Köln, Bayern Munich 4-0 Stuttgart, Darmstadt 1-1 HSV, Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Schalke, Augsburg 1-2 Werder Bremen.
