Bundesliga in the star check
Schalke 2020 – or: If you also have to justify yourself for the racism of others
Served: Schalke’s Ozan Kabak at 1: 4 in Mönchengladbach
© Marius Becker / dpa
Cabinet of curiosities Bundesliga: The bottom of the table draws hope from a 1: 4, a miracle striker does not hit the goal from a meter and a half, and in the “one-two” people talk stupid. Well: the latter is not really strange, it’s a habit – but this time it was really particularly stupid.
That’s how the game day went
All results of the 9th matchday, the table and statistics for reading can be found here in stern-Ticker.
Excitement of the game day
Manuel Neuer has held up like the world champion he is in recent months. It can happen that the opponent believes that he can only score a goal against him with unfair means. Just like the Stuttgart team after the home 1: 3 against the record champions. Neuer was fouled at the score of 1: 1 when VfB midfielder Tanguy Coulibaly threw him off balance with a grip on the right forearm – the subsequent goal for the Swabians was consequently denied by referee Osmers.
But that didn’t prevent the Stuttgart from complaining a lot after the game. Sports director Thomas Hitzlsperger called the decision “borderline”, because: “I think it’s not so serious that Manuel completely loses his concept.” The injured VfB professional Nicolas Gonzales wrote offended on Instagram: “You use the VAR when you want.” And coach Pellegrino Materazzo said after the game about the supposed “Zupferle”, as the “Bild” newspaper called it: “Manuel Neuer was on the way down before he was even touched. That is not a foul that you whistle Must. For me it would have been a completely normal goal. ” Which Materazzo is twice wrong, after all, there are only fouls that you have to whistle – because those that you don’t have to whistle aren’t either. And: It would not have been a “normal” goal because it would have fallen against Manuel Neuer. And he can hardly be defeated in the “normal” way, so that a small foul against him should obviously be allowed in principle. Otherwise it would be kind of unfair.
You should see this gate (again)
Some observers were of the opinion before the season that Union Berlin would go “all in” with the commitment of Max Kruse, based on his passion for gaming. But the risk pays off, as the Köpenickers are unbeaten in eight games after the 9th matchday and the 32-year-old was involved in more than half of his team’s 21 goals with six goals and five assists – of which he against the final score Eintracht Frankfurt scored the most beautiful self, from 20 meters into the corner.
“The 3: 3 was of course a fantastic goal”, then even Union coach Urs Fischer, who was always critical, raved like a fan: “I looked at the goal again from the back-goal camera. The trajectory is really extraordinary. He has it already met great. ”
Match day winner
Congratulations to Geißbockheim: Anyone who, after 18 games without a win, ends their series with a 2-1 away win at Borussia Dortmund, must be called the winner of the day.
However, 1. FC Köln also benefited from the hundred percent of the game day that was awarded, which occurred in stoppage time when, of all people, miracle striker Erling Haaland with his misstep one and a half meters in front of the goal proved that goal machines are sometimes just people.
Game day loser
The reactions after the 1: 4 at Borussia Mönchengladbach showed how hopeless the situation at Schalke really is. Team manager Sascha Riether, for example, described the bankruptcy as a “step forward”, and club icon Benedikt Höwedes also spoke on the football talk show “Doppelpass” that this game really gave him hope.
Speaking of “one-two”: Apart from the fact that the miners who have not won 25 Bundesliga games are now only missing six such failures to set Tasmania Berlin’s supposedly eternal record from the 1965/66 season, Königsblau suddenly had another one on Sunday Excitement on the cheek – when Steffen Freund drew a connection between the undisciplined behavior of the suspended Schalke players Nabil Bentaleb and Amine Harit and their nationality in the said Sport1 program.
Bentaleb is one of the best players: “But he is of French-Algerian origin,” said Freund. “If you have a squad planner, you have to know that a lack of discipline comes quickly if he is not the one who is set.” But it is important to “maloch” on Schalke: “And then I’ll be with Harit – of course he can’t do that either, with his roots,” said Freund. Harit is a France-born Moroccan international.
In the same broadcast, Freund later tried to explain his statements. “I heard in the public media that it came across as racist,” said the 50-year-old, who was apparently surprised in all seriousness. “Of course, that was not meant.” However, origin plays a role, how you grow up as a person and with regard to the mentality: “In Tottenham, if he didn’t like the game, he simply left the field,” said Freund, who, like Bentaleb, previously played for the Hotspurs.
Strangely enough, the association then found itself compelled to justify it. “The pause for thought for #Harit and #Bentaleb has nothing to do with their roots!” Wrote FC Schalke 04 on Twitter. “For us, that has basically nothing to do with origin.”
Mmh. You can blame Schalke for a lot in this accursed year 2020 – but at least THAT nobody had said. Not even Steffen Freund.
Picture of the game day © Friedemann Vogel – Pool/Getty Images
He was omnipresent around the globe on this football weekend. And in the German Bundesliga, too, the football legend Diego Maradona, who died of a heart attack last Wednesday at the age of 60, was remembered with a minute of silence and a mourning ribbon – or, as here in the empty stands of the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, even with jerseys and an Argentinian Flag.
