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Bundesliga: An equivalent member of the Bundesliga (nd-aktuell.de)

Marius Bülter (centre) and his team-mates cheer euphorically about the late equalizer to make it 2-2 against Mönchengladbach.

Photo: IMAGO / Moritz Müller

At first glance, the obsessive party that Marius Bülter and the other Schalke players celebrated in the added time of the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach may seem a bit strange. It was only a meager point that the Gelsenkirchen attacker gave his club the 2-2 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and that too with a penalty shot staidly into the corner of the goal. And yet Bülter cheered as if he had just shot his club into the Champions League. The people on the Schalke substitution bench came sprinting over, the loud beats of “Blue and White for a Lifetime” thundered out of the loudspeakers. Even Mönchengladbach coach Daniel Farke had a smile on his face at that glorious football moment, because that unleashed celebration so early in the season seemed a bit bizarre.

But for the Schalke 04 team, that goal was worth much, much more than the table shows. “Today it was important to arrive, that also means to score, to show that we are competitive,” said sporting director Rouven Schröder after the final whistle. Schalke’s self-confidence had been shaken to its foundations over the past two and a half years. Most recently, this team made their audience cheer in a sold-out Bundesliga home game in January 2020. The whole world has changed since then, and by Saturday night, at least the more pessimistic part of the royal blue appendix feared an unappealing struggle for survival. In addition to such fears, this 2-2 win against Mönchengladbach provided many impressions that caress the royal blue soul.

Schalke, who transformed their squad into a strong second division team in the summer of 2021 through a radical conversion characterized by massive austerity measures and who now had to create a Bundesliga team again with similarly far-reaching renovation measures, had played football really well. “We were aggressive, we had a good grip,” said trainer Frank Kramer and praised the audience: “Such a great atmosphere, unbelievable.” It was to be expected that the energy level would be high after the hardships of the past few years. The fact that the team was so well structured and planned is a small sensation.

Schalke was successful last season, but more because special players like the flank specialist Thomas Ouwejan, the instinctive striker Simon Terodde or the risk-taking Rodrigo Zalazar with their special qualities provided many goals. In just such a moment of individual strength, Zalazar shot the 1-0 (29th) from almost 30 meters. But there were also indications that the squad planner Schröder and the new coach Kramer could actually succeed in developing this team decisively again. Beyond the result, it was important “to simply be there now, to show that we can keep up,” said Schröder. Also playful.

In midfield, Tom Krauss (arrived from Nuremberg), Tobias Mohr (Heidenheim) and Alex Kral (Spartak Moscow) didn’t do their job flawlessly, but these guys seem to have the potential to play a good role in the Bundesliga. Kral was particularly conspicuous because he cleverly steered the game in the center, but at the same time played a somewhat unfortunate role in both goals: he was tunnelled before the 1-1 by Gladbach’s Jonas Hofmann (72nd) and before the 1-2 by Marcus Thuram (78th), he stood in the way of goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow, whose unsuccessful action then became an assist. “He did well, did his job, traveled a lot. When he has the ball, he’s very secure on the ball, very clean,” Kramer said of Kral. »But there is always room for improvement.«

Even more than the point won, Schalke celebrate the feeling of being a normal Bundesliga club again, and the penalty in injury time, which was imposed after a tip from the Cologne basement, also contributed to this. The three unfortunate VAR decisions in the previous week in the defeat in Cologne had strengthened the impression of still being this Gelsenkirchen sleazeball who is somehow disadvantaged. Sports director Schröder said: “It should be the case today that we still make it 2-2.” This feeling of being an equal member of the first division again is of great importance to Schalke.

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