Et has somehow become fashionable to celebrate spectacular goal prevention actions in one’s own penalty area almost as much as one’s own goals. The appreciation of such rescue actions is then taken as a strong indication of the good character of a team in which everyone works for each other – especially at a club like FC Schalke 04 with its mate and labor tradition. And so Dominick Drexler was enthusiastically celebrated on Saturday evening when he resolutely blocked a shot from Marvin Ducksch in the first minute of added time, preventing Werder Bremen from making it 2-1 and creating the basis for an incredible punch line in the relegation battle.
Less than two minutes later, Drexler scored Schalke’s winning goal and sent the stadium into a thundering ecstasy of happiness. Without these two actions, the club would only have a mathematical chance of remaining in the Bundesliga against the background of the difficult remainder of the programme, now everything is still possible.
Drexler only came on in the 75th minute, now he was the protagonist of two scenes that could change the history of the Schalke club. “The team never gives up, can never be killed,” he said afterwards very matter-of-factly. The work is not yet finished, Schalke, who were bottom of the table by a wide margin after the first half of the season, probably still need two wins to stay in the league.
If that succeeds, this unbelievable overtime with the two Drexler moments will definitely have a place of honor in the royal blue memories. “We don’t fall over, even if it doesn’t look good,” said the attacker after sharing interesting backstory on his exploits.
Intuition, experience and memories
The 32-year-old Rhinelander once played with Marvin Ducksch at Holstein Kiel, the two know and like each other, so he knew that Bremen’s top scorer “wanted to go into the corner there,” reported Drexler. So he blocked the way and got shot. And his winning goal, which Rodrigo Zalazar had prepared with a chipball from the half field into the penalty area, was the double of a second division goal from the previous season. “That’s why I knew how Rodri would play the ball,” said Drexler. So Schalke celebrated a victory that somehow came about in Drexler’s head, composed of the intuition, experience and memories of a professional who arrived late in the Bundesliga.
He was born and socialized as a footballer in Bonn before he experienced professional years between the second and third leagues with Greuther Fürth, Rot-Weiss Erfurt, VfR Aalen and Holstein Kiel through the U19s of Bayer Leverkusen. He only played his first Bundesliga game at 1. FC Köln at the age of 29, having contributed nine goals and 18 assists to their promotion the year before. But he is now experiencing the high point of his career, in the adventure club FC Schalke 04. Last year’s promotion was already a series of different extreme experiences, with Drexler in a leading role.
The power of extreme emotions
The club fired coach Dimitrios Grammozis on Matchday 25 and the return to the Bundesliga was almost wasted before the team under Mike Büskens won seven of the following eight games. In this phase, Drexler contributed five scorer points to the success. Now Schalke are in the process of getting out of an almost hopeless situation again, and Drexler appears again at particularly important moments, even if he is often only used as a substitute. However, he is one of the defining figures of this team in the dressing room.
“We have a very, very good core of older players who speak up at the right time,” Drexler once said, referring to himself, among other things. That’s why the TV reporters had to wait a long time for the hero of the day after the final whistle and the orgy of jubilation in front of the north stand, he wanted to be with his team and recite the energy of the group. “Those are moments that you have to experience in the dressing room,” said this man whose maturity makes him such an important factor.
It is not the pure footballing quality with which Schalke 04 wins games this spring, Schalke feeds on the power of extreme emotions, and Dominick Drexler plays with them just as artfully as with the ball.
