They finished one place apart in last year’s standings, but for Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke, the beginning of the Bundesliga season saw two of Germany’s better teams on divergent paths. Bayer impressed out of the gate, an attack led by Stefan Kießling, Sidney Sam, and Son Heung-Min leading an offense that’d scored eight times in their perfect, three-game start. Schalke, on the other hand, had conceded nine times in three rounds and, combined with a home draw in the first leg for their Champions League play-in against Greece’s PAOK, hinted at a tailspin to start the campaign.
Yet mid-week, ahead of today’s visit from Bayer, Schalke got a huge result in Thessaloniki. Two Adám Szalai goals bookended a key, second road goal via Julian Draxler, giving the Miners a 3-2 win which secured their place in Champions League group stage. Add in the Friday acquisition of Kevin Prince Boateng, the attacking midfielder surprising with a move away from Milan, and the week’s been a boon for the Blues. Though Prince’s transfer has rekindled speculation about Draxler’s future (speculation immediately shot down by the club), Schalke looked to have moved beyond their troublesome Bundesliga start.
If, however, Bayer got a win today at the Veltins-Arena, those good vibes would be squelched, potentially by the realization that Bayer, while still decidedly south of Germany’s two current elites, may be pulling away. A Big Two Plus One scenario would leave a talented but enigmatic Schalke to position itself as the best of the rest, seeking a Wenger-inspired honor for merely finishing fourth in your league.
To the joy of 61,793 in Gelsenkirchen, that realization never happened on Saturday. Schalke proved the better, more energetic side throughout, holding the previously firing Bayer off the scoresheet. Marco Höger’s first half, set piece conversion combined with Jefferson Farfan’s second half penalty kick to have Schalke a convincing win, the 2-0 result ruining Bayer’s perfect start. With Boateng proving influential debuting as Jens Keller’s number ten (pushing Draxler left), Schalke limited Bayer to one shot on goal, overcoming the continued absence of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (knee) to record their first victory of the season.
Despite Boateng’s acquisition, the key to this team, will continue to be Farfan (pictured, above), his often dominant displays on the right giving Schalke a player that’s near-impossible to match up against. For Huntelaar and Szalai, life is easier being able to plan on that threat from the right, but whereas Schalke’s inability to come up with more tricks may have contributed to their erratic form last year, now they have Boateng in the middle. Now Draxler’s out left, balancing the team in a way that proved promising during Michel Bastos’s brief tenure last season. As much as Bayer may be improving, the acquisition of Boateng gives Schalke the potential to keep up.
But even after today’s win, Schalke’s potential still needs to be realized. We’ve seen these highs before, and within a couple of weeks, we may see another low. This is Schalke, after all. They had a good win today, one that could prove important come spring, but they’re still in Germany’s bottom half, four points through four games leaving them 13th after Saturday’s results.
More from Germany: Bayern Munich played on Tuesday, drawing at Freiburg, while Borussia Dortmund play tomorrow … Hamburg, who like Schalke were off to a terrible start, woke up against visiting Braunschweig, posting a 4-0 win. Rafael van der Vaart had the opener … Borussia Moenchengladbach routed visiting Werder Bremen, with Juan Arango and Max Kruse among those who got on the scoresheet in a 4-1 win … Wolfsburg got goals from Ivica Olic and Diego (pk) in the last three minutes of the first half to hand Hertha Berlin their first loss of the season, 2-0 … Kevin Vogt’s late goal, scoring three minutes after coming on, allowed visiting Augsburg to take advantage of 10-man Nurnberg, 1-0 … Hannover won their third in four games, overcoming an early goal by Nicolai Müller to blow past visiting Mainz, 4-1.
