Revierderby between Schalke and Dortmund as a lesson in fickleness

So A single Bundesliga game is just a small moment within the ten months that a season is played over. Dortmund and Schalke will certainly be dealing with completely different topics in the coming weeks. BVB dreams of Bundesliga and DFB Cup titles, Schalke are fighting against the threat of relegation and for economic stability.

But after this district derby, the Dortmund coach Edin Terzic was the man who was worried, while his Gelsenkirchen colleague Thomas Reis spoke like the head coach of a permanent winner. “We have to make sure we keep our feet on the ground,” he said after the 2-2 win in the 100th Revierderby in Bundesliga history on Saturday evening, after a lavish celebration of football in royal blue.

Bengali fires kept burning in the fan blocks for a good 90 minutes, one of which injured a photographer. It was banging loud, intoxicating the passion of many supporters, and sometimes football was played at the highest intensity on the pitch. At the same time, however, there was a lot of love in the game, especially with the Schalke majority, who celebrated every tackle and every halfway clever pass like a medium-sized sensation.

“Very emotional”

Especially “in the last minutes of the game you noticed again what kind of atmosphere there is in the arena, you absorb it,” said Schalke professional Marius Bülter. The whole experience was “very emotional”. The great revival of FC Schalke 04 has not yet resulted in the club escaping the relegation zone. But the team now plays on an equal footing with the competition and is driven by an enthusiasm that rarely arises when such a well-known Bundesliga club is so poorly placed in the table.

Kenan Karaman, who had by far his best game for Schalke not only because of his equalizer to make it 2-2, reported on a “mega cohesion in the dressing room”. After FC Schalke started their upswing with four goalless draws in a row, the pros have scored two goals three times in a row. “We’re back, we’re up close,” says Reis, “it’s open again.”

self-confidence and cockiness

Edin Terzic could also claim that in an interim balance after nine games since Christmas about Dortmund’s ambitions in the championship fight. After all, after these first point losses in 2023, BVB was still able to catch up seven points on FC Bayern and climb from sixth to second place in the table.

But the coach of the black and yellow district club avoided the championship theme that day and collected good arguments for his defensive communication strategy in Gelsenkirchen. Terzic’s thesis: Only when his team is stable enough to survive this type of emotionally charged game against opponents who fight like gladiators will his BVB be a title aspirant. “We remain humble, working on our issues,” he said, “we will see the rest in May.”

Because this Revierderby was a lesson in Dortmund’s fickleness, which has a lot to do with the difficult balance between self-confidence and high spirits. “In the second half, due to the dominance and control of the game up to that point, we might have thought that it would work itself out today and that we no longer needed to concentrate so much at one point or another,” said BVB sporting director Sebastian Kehl . This was particularly evident in the performance of one player: Jude Bellingham.

wrong decisions

The 19-year-old Englishman, who could become the protagonist of many high-profile transfer market discussions in the coming weeks and one of the most expensive footballers in history, had some good moments in the game. But in those crucial moments, when the game tipped, he didn’t look good. Before FC Schalke made it 1-1, he lost the ball to Alex Kral near the halfway line, and the subsequent counterattack made Bülters 1-1 (50th minute).

And as Karaman made it 2-2, Bellingham made a fatal mistake and made Bülter’s pass into the penalty area possible (79′). “Today we as a team didn’t manage to defend the goal in such a way that the opponent couldn’t get back into the game,” said Terzic when asked about these two mistakes. It’s not this coach’s style to publicly pillory one of his stars.

If he had the impression that Bellingham was overplayed or tired, Terzic would not share this finding with journalists, “but with him,” said the coach. But Bellingham’s mistakes, by no means catastrophic but momentous, were unmistakable. Just like his – compared to his best time – not so brilliant performances during the past few weeks.

The weakness of this highly talented squad can be seen quite clearly in the figure of Bellingham: Dortmund have to move close to their performance limit if they want to keep up with FC Bayern at the top of the table. At the same time, nobody can expect a teenager to get through a whole season without a drop in performance.

It’s BVB’s old problem: training young talent is an important part of the club’s strategy, but in the “consistency” category, such players are often not as reliable as a 30-year-old professional. In the coming week against 1. FC Köln they now have the chance to repair the small setback before the big game at FC Bayern Munich is imminent after the international break.