The View From the Top

"It is like an eternal bruise over my heart," Ingo Meier said, his heavy-lidded eyes fixed on the remnants of his third beer of the day. "It is a blue reminder of the pain of that day, a Schalke blue spot that never stops aching."

Ingo was one of the many thousands of Schalke 04 fans who celebrated wildly on May 19, 2001 as the whistle blew on their final game of that Bundesliga season; believing amid the chaos that the 5-3 victory over Unterhaching had been enough to secure the Royal Blues their first title since 1958 in the very last game at the club's Parkstadion home.

However, after four minutes of delirium, news broke from Hamburg that Bayern Munich's Patrik Andersson had equalized in the last minute of added time to give the Bavarians the one point they needed to snatch the championship from Schalke's grasp.

In the Auf Schalke bar on Gelsenkirchen's Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse, the walls are adorned with ageing photos of triumph. Fading black and white images of cup wins from a bygone age give the local a faintly melancholic atmosphere while the few colour photos of recent players celebrating attempt to inject some optimism into the surroundings.

There's Olaf Thon holding the 1997 UEFA Cup aloft and the back-to-back DFB Cup wins of 2001 and 2002 but there is one very obvious omission from the contemporary snapshots of success: there is no Bundesliga championship win being celebrated.

The pain of 2001 endures

The 2001 Bundesliga finale is still the closest the club has come to ending its 49-year title drought even though Schalke again finished runners-up to Bayern in 2005, albeit by a more significant margin of 14 points. The fact that a single point kept the team from glory six years ago still smarts with the fans and gives the 2006/2007 title run-in an ominous sense of impending symmetry.

Schalke lead the Bundesliga by two points with five games to go while the three clubs behind them continue to keep pace in positions from which any could capitalize should the leaders get a case of the wobbles again. While the die-hard fans have only one choice but to believe in the imminent end of the championship curse, realists among the Royal Blue army are having increasingly sleepless nights.

"It's like Formula One," said Ulli Nöther, a supporter buying a Schalke overall for babies in the club's fan shop. "The teams beneath us have all had their pit stops, their dips in form. We may have lost some games which we should have won but we haven't really faltered yet. My fear is that it may come soon. My hope is that Schalke can finish the race without the wheels coming off."

"Even if our rivals win, we won't lose"

Wolf Ströhmann, a proud North Stand "Ultra," saw things differently.

"Since we have been in either first or second place, we have only really had a consecutive run of two bad games," he said, sipping a frothy glass of the locally produced Gruben Gold beer in Der Schalker, the bar that overlooks the club's training ground.

"We lost to Leverkusen and then Hamburg at the end of February. Since then, except when we lost to Bayern and drew at Hanover, the rest have been victories. We're strong this year and know we can win. It is bad for our rivals to rely on us losing. Even if they continue to win, they will not be champions because we will not lose."

While the failure of 2001 continues to stalk Schalke 04, many fans believe that the 2007 team is better equipped to see the championship challenge through to a successful end.

Since hitting the top spot in Week 13 of the season, Schalke have only been out of the driving seat for a total of five weeks when they slipped to second at the beginning of December.

Mental strength and staying power

It took them two weeks after the winter break to find their feet again and have now led the Bundesliga for a further ten weeks. This record suggests that the current team has the mental strength to fight back and deal with the pressure at the top.

"The lead over Werder is still only two points," said Ingo Meier, "but it's their job to chase us. In the past we would be looking over our shoulder but this season, Smolka has the team looking ahead to a possible Bundesliga title. He has them fearing no-one and we have shown that we can beat anyone. Why should we be worried about what happens behind us?"

Mirko Slomka was appointed as coach in January 2006 and with barely half a season to impose himself on the team he hauled Schalke to a fourth place finish and narrowly missed out on a UEFA Cup final place. This season Schalke are his team, playing to his game plan and the fruits of this period of continuity can be seen in the way the players have reacted.

Slomka keeps Schalke out of mind games

Wolf Ströhmann believes that Slomka has made the difference this season, getting the best out of players who had suffered motivational problems and extended dips in form.

"Coach Slomka is not the kind of guy to shout around and get into squabbles with people like (Bayern's) Hoeness and Rummenigge," he said.

"He concentrates on the team, the players and the results. In the past, our coaches have been distracted by the mind games. In 2001, Schalke lost games they should have won because everyone was affected by Bayern people talking about pressure.

"Where's the pressure now? The pressure to win? There's always that pressure if you are first or last. The pressure is on those who are chasing Schalke. They have to catch us."