week 29 - match report
Royal Blues play their way to comfortable 5-0 win over Energie Cottbus
The biggest victory for almost 17 years, plus Kevin Kuranyi rekindling memories of Klaus Fischer - and all on their debut for coaching duo Mike Büskens and Youri Mulder: the gala performance given in the 5-0 win over Energie Cottbus is sure to live long in Schalke memories.
On their first outing in this role, the coaches made just one change to the team that lost 5-1 at Werder Bremen just three days earlier. Rafinha came into the starting line-up in place of Mladen Krstajic (stomach infection) and took up his usual position at right back, with Heiko Westermann moving into central defence.
The visitors from Cottbus relied on their familiar away tactics, creating a solid defensive wall with, wherever possible, ten men behind the ball. However, Schalke did not less this put them off their stride and probed patiently for openings, playing some good football with Albert Streit and Vicente Sanchez repeatedly winning the ball in midfield and getting it out wide. And even though Streit (on 9 minutes), Kuranyi (13) and Sanchez (20) failed to capitalise on the first few chances, the home side never became edgy.
The pressure on the Cottbus goal was incessant and in the quarter-hour before the break this ultimately paid off in quick-fire succession. First da Silva diverted Bordon's pass into his own net from close range (31), then Kuranyi forced an Ernst pass over the line from five metres out (37) before shortly afterwards (41) scoring the goal of the game with a full-blooded shot from the edge of the area to give Schalke a 3-0 half-time lead. Had Tremmel not reacted so superbly to a header from the German international a few moments later (44), Kuranyi would have notched up an 'uninterrupted' hat-trick inside just seven minutes.
"The key to our victory was undoubtedly winning so much second ball and then quickly playing it forward," said Youri Mulder. Cottbus head coach Bojan Prasnikar was also full of praise for Schalke: "They put our defence under a lot of pressure and were much stronger in the head-to-heads," he said. "We went into the game with too much respect and fear and gave all of the initiative to our opponents," he added, surprised at his own team's failings.
The pattern was the same in the second half. Schalke kept their shape and waited calmly for the chances to come, immediately snapping up the first of these with another goal from Kevin Kuranyi (59) after some great work from Ernst. When the centre-forward then also won an aerial battle with goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel to put Schalke 5-0 up, it was time to refer to the record books. The last time the club won a game in the Bundesliga by a five-goal margin was against Hansa Rostock on 12th October 1991, and the last player to score four goals for the club in the top flight was Klaus Fischer in the 7-0 away win at Bayern Munich on 9th October 1976.
Mike Büskens and Youri Mulder could not have wished for a better debut. However, acting very much as team players, they put the focus clearly on the side on the pitch: "The players wanted the victory today and they didn't just force it but played their way to it in a very presentable manner," said Mike Büskens. "They deserve great praise for that," he added. Bojan Prasnikar also acknowledged Schalke's class: "We'd been on a good run until today, but Schalke were simply too strong for us - they're undoubtedly a team of Champions League quality."
Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Bordon, Westermann, Pander - Ernst, Jones (Grossmüller, 88) - Streit (Asamoah, 76), Sanchez - Kuranyi (Larsen, 84), Altintop
Cottbus: Tremmel - da Silva, Mitreski (Radeljic, 46), Cvitanovic, Ziebig - Bassila (Vasiljevic, 70) - Angelow, Rost - Skela - Sörensen, Rivic (Jelic, 60)
Referee: Schmidt (Stuttgart)
Goals: 1:0 da Silva o.g. (31), 2:0 Kuranyi (37), 3:0 Kuranyi (41), 4:0 Kuranyi (59), 5:0 Kuranyi (80)
Attendance: 60,018
Yellow card: Bassila (5/4)
