week 4 - match report

Wayward passing costs Schalke dearly

Felix Magath's analysis after the 1-0 home defeat against SC Freiburg, for whom Du-Ri-Cha was on target, was unequivocal: "The way in which we lost today was a throwback to last season", an angry Schalke boss said.

Magath made one change to the side that secured a goalless draw at 1899 Hoffenheim last week, recalling Ivan Rakitic in place of Greece under-21 international Vasileios Pliatsikas and thus fielding the same eleven players who beat VfL Bochum 3-0 with some thrilling football in the opening home game.

But there was to be no repeat of that performance this time. Though the Royal Blues looked slightly the better of the two sides, their passing let them down when it really mattered. "We simply didn't work hard enough", fumed Magath. In contrast, his Freiburg counterpart Robin Dutt was very pleased with his team's performance, especially before the interval. "The first half went just as a coach of SC Freiburg would want away to Schalke. We were able to make some targeted raids and stifle their build-up play", he said.

Yet that was not all. Because the Black Forest outfit were to score the first and only goal of the game through South Korean Du-Ri Cha with 40 minutes gone. "Going in front when you're away to Schalke is worth a lot", said Dutt, aware of the significance of the goal, "because as was to be expected they attacked us more after the break." Magath reacted to his team's first-half showing by making three half-time substitutions. Initially, the introduction of Halil Altintop, Levan Kobiashvili and Levan Kenia had a noticeable effect. The Royal Blues came out firing and carved out a chance for Kevin Kuranyi almost immediately.

"We put them under more pressure", admitted Magath. "But we still didn't do enough in attack. We showed very little going forward." This was also because the visitors withdrew ever deeper into their own half. "We had our hands full trying to keep Schalke away from our goal", explained Dutt after the final whistle. As the game wore on Schalke found it tougher and tougher against Freiburg's defensive bulwark. The only decent chances they created fell to Westermann on 68 and Kenia, who fired against the post six minutes from time. "It simply wasn't our day today", said Magath in summary. Dutt, in contrast, hailed his players, who "after three good performances this season finally got their reward with their first win."

Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Zambrano, Bordon, Höwedes (Kobiashvili 46') - Mineiro - Moritz (Kenia 46'), Westermann - Rakitic (Altintop 46'), Farfan – Kuranyi
Freiburg: Pouplin - Cha, Krmas, Bastians, Butscher - Flum, Banovic (Barth 74') - Abdessadki, Makiadi (Bechmann 33') - Jäger (Schuster 66'), Idrissou
Goal: 0-1 Cha (40')
Referee: Dr Fleischer (Sigmertshausen)
Yellow cards: -
Attendance: 60,198