Schalke rising
March 11, 2010
"They are putting in good performances every week," Bayern coach Louis van Gaal said this weekend after the latest round of Bundesliga games. Was he talking about his players, the Munich team which has turned round a season which looked to be heading for ignominy? No. The gruff Dutchman was talking about Schalke 04, the team which now lurk ominously just over van Gaal's shoulder.
Schalke moved up to second in the league, just two points behind Bayern, with Saturday's 4-1 mauling of Eintracht Frankfurt. With Bayer Leverkusen losing for the first time this season at Nuremberg and Bayern being held to a 1-1 draw with Cologne, the weekend's win for Felix Magath's side has not only maintained their interest in the title race but has helped to make them realistic contenders.
Of course, one win and a set of kind results elsewhere does not suddenly crown a team champions. But the victory helped Schalke maintain their upward momentum, one fired by a run which has seen them defeated just four times this season and beaten in only one game in the last ten.
Schalke were well positioned to take advantage of any slip last weekend and did so due to the new determination, consistency and ruthlessness the Gelsenkirchen side have been showing throughout this campaign; attributes hammered into a previously under-performing team by that notorious taskmaster Magath.
No-nonsense Magath gets Schalke moving
Coming to Schalke directly after leading Wolfsburg to one of the most unlikely championship successes in living memory, Magath took no time to shake up his new club, introducing a new level of discipline and fitness into his team.
A coach installed to win matches and trophies if not friends, Magath may have rubbed some of Schalke's more pampered stars the wrong way with his intensive training methods and dislike of ego but the results are now speaking for themselves.
Those stars who complained about having to run up Magath's artificially constructed hill time and time again are now the players who are completing 90 minutes of soccer with much of the same energy as they started with.
These fitter players are now scoring late goals with regularity, either sealing comfortable wins or stealing points at the death. Schalke no longer fade in games as they regularly did in previous seasons and show a spirit and belief to get back into matches when they go behind.
Problem child Kuranyi adds maturity to goalscoring
One of the most obviously improved players this season is Kevin Kuranyi. The mercurial forward was everyone's number one candidate to fall out of favour with Magath due to his sometimes diva-esque behaviour and problems with authority figures.
Kuranyi, despite regularly ending seasons as Schalke's top goal scorer, often went missing in the big games, sometimes cutting a dejected and disinterested figure on the pitch and an aloof, self-absorbed one off it.
Through some unknown magic, however, Magath has somehow got Kuranyi not only firing on all goal-scoring cylinders this season but has added team awareness and spirit to his game. The lanky striker's positioning, passing and approach play has hugely improved, combining with a new physicality and focus to once again make him a transfer target for some of Europe's top clubs.
Youngsters reinvigorate creaking squad
Magath can also take credit for injecting new life into a jaded squad by introducing a number of hungry youngsters to the first team set-up. The blooding of young stars such as Christoph Moritz, Lukas Schmitz, and Joel Matip has added vigour and excitement to what was an aging team.
Moritz has already played 23 games and has one goal to his name in this the 20-year-old's debut season while 22-year-old Schmitz has clocked up 20 games, scored two goals, and has become a deadly crosser of the ball, serving up three assists in the last two matches alone.
The 19-year-old Matip, meanwhile, has featured in 13 games and scored three goals - and until last week, he wasn't even on a proper professional contract. His new deal binds him to Schalke until 2013, and now that he's a pro, he may even be headed straight to the top - this summer's World Cup. After deflecting the attentions of his father's native Cameroon for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in January, Matip reconsidered and turned out for the Indomitable Lions in a friendly against Italy earlier this month.
The contributions of energetic young players like Matip, Schmitz and Moritz - along with the improved form of third-year Schalke man Ivan Rakitic, who is still just 22 - has brought new purpose and fire to the team. They've also expanded Magath's options - all can play multiple positions.
Cagey Magath not counting any chickens
Despite arriving so close to the summit in the slipstream of their more fancied rivals, Magath and his players know that no trophies are handed out in March and Schalke still have some hard work ahead of them. Schalke take on a resurgent VfB Stuttgart on Friday at the start of what Magath has described as "the weeks of truth," with games against Hamburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich to follow.
"Of course the table doesn't lie, but it only says how good we are after 25 matches," the 56-year-old coach told reporters this week. "Only after this run of big games we have coming up can we really see if we're heading towards a Champions League place."
"At the moment, I'm just happy that we've reinforced our position in the standings."
Of course, seasons punctuated by disappointment have been a staple of Schalke fans' diet for many of the last 50-odd years and no-one will be counting any Royal Blue chickens before they're hatched. But with nine games to go, even the most hardened Schalke supporters might dare to wonder if this season may finally be the one in which their club ends its Bundesliga title drought.
Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Matt Hermann