The times when newspapers reported that Marvin Ducksch and Dominick Drexler were the dream couple in the league were a few days ago. At the time, neither of them wore curly beards, which would make at least one of the two – tip: it’s not Ducksch – look like Grigori Rasputin, the lover of the Russian czarina. Five years have passed since Torfabrik Ducksch & Drexler worked together for the second division club Holstein Kiel, they shone in a duet, as Ducksch & (Niclas) Füllkrug continue today in reverse roles at Werder Bremen: In Kiel, Drexler was the playmaker behind the Goalkeeper Ducksch, who now acts as a passer for Füllkrug in Bremen.
Because Füllkrug missed Saturday night’s league game in Gelsenkirchen due to injury, the trained front attacker Ducksch, 29, occupied the center of Bremen’s attack and this practical and tried-and-tested substitute solution was expected to be a constant threat for Schalke 04, but it was a blessing at the crucial moment.
The Dortmund-born and long-time BVB player celebrated the typical provocative jubilation with his tongue out and wiggling ears a little more than usual after his goal to make it 1-0, but as Ducksch in the advanced injury time when the score was 1-1 for the presumably final blow against the Schalke took off, the past got in his way – his old dream partner Drexler. He stopped the ball with his stomach instead of the already outmaneuvered goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow. “I know Duckschi very, very well – I knew that he would shoot into the corner there,” said the double rescuer later. The defensive act was part one of his mission, which brought Schalke 2-1 instead of 1-2 – and thus three points that allow them to hope for at least a few more weeks of staying in the class.
That tight minute, in which Drexler just averted the disaster on the one hand to score the winning goal on the other side in the next attack move, compressed the entire Gelsenkirchen drama in a felt moment. Schalke will tell their children and grandchildren about it. When Drexler, 32, came on as a substitute 15 minutes earlier, he entered the scene like the Marvel hero Spider-Man: Here he prevents catastrophic misfortune, there he immediately uses his spider sense to bring salvation.
The Schalke tasks in Mainz, Munich and Leipzig are tough
One day it may be said that Drexler saved the club a year-long second division odyssey with his unexpected double strike. But you’re not that far. “We’re happy that we were able to turn this game around and are still in the running,” said coach Thomas Reis gratefully. It is possible that Drexler only extended the nerve-wracking struggle for first-class status by a few days – the remaining program with tasks in Mainz, Munich and Leipzig is intense.
The superhero moment will definitely remain. He gave the people in the stadium and Schalke all over the world a football evening that is hard to beat in terms of ecstasy and wild feelings. The Sky Moderator Sebastian Hellmann was probably serious when he stood on the lawn of the roaring arena after the game and confessed alongside Lothar Matthäus: “We are not sure whether Schalke has just become German champion or scored three points against Bremen has.” Expert Matthäus admitted to dealing with goosebumps, which didn’t stop him from speaking the brutal truth: Without Drexler’s winning goal, he said, “I would have written off Schalke”. Probably rightly so: once again, power, will and emotion had to make up for what was lacking in skill.
Drexler does not consistently express his level
The latter falls within Dominick Drexler’s portfolio. In his second year he plays in Gelsenkirchen after he was no longer in demand at 1. FC Köln. The change meant a return to the second division, where he had spent large parts of his career. Like his old friend Ducksch, Drexler is a strong technician and a man with game intelligence, but unlike his neighbor from Kiel’s days, he only occasionally expresses his level properly. He can have a big impact on a game in a single scene, but he’s rarely a consistent influence on the game.
That’s why he only came on the field as a reservist. And it wasn’t just because of him that the substitute bench was Schalke’s most important part of the team this time, the scorer of the 1-1 also had a special story to show: defender Sepp van den Berg, 21, on loan from Liverpool FC, hadn’t played since suffering an ankle injury in October . Hardly substituted on, he scored with the second or third touch of the ball and thus prepared the grand finale, which enabled coach Reis to describe the 100-minute struggle with Werder in a single sentence: “Dome fends off the ball, we’ll do it then Goal.”
