Rutten criticises slack defending against 1860
26.01.2009
Schalke's final mid-winter warm-up game against TSV 1860 Munich at the VELTINS Arena on Friday ended in a 2-2 draw. Fred Rutten was less than impressed with his side's performance.
Four days ahead of the DFB Cup third-round tie in Jena the Schalke boss was able to field "90 percent" of the team likely to play on Tuesday. But they did little to convince the Dutchman: "I'm not happy with the way we performed. We shouldn't be giving teams so many chances. We conceded two goals, they were like Christmas presents. That's not the Schalke we know", an angry Rutten said. 
Both teams squandered chances early on when Benjamin Lauth for the visitors and Gerald Asamoah were denied by the keeper. But Lauth was happy to accept the first "present" of the day after 27 minutes, pouncing on a misplaced pass by Mladen Krstajic to break clear and slot the ball past Manuel Neuer with the outside of his foot.
With the exception of Heiko Westermann's header over the bar from a Rakitic corner on 33, neither side was able to fashion a clear-cut chance for the rest of the half. Rutten's half-time team talk seemed to have an effect, however. Two minutes after the restart it looked as if Fabian Ernst had fluffed an attempt at a back-heel pass, but the ball rebounded back to him off an opposition defender, and the Schalke midfielder showed no hesitation in unleashing a rocket into the top right-hand corner from 25 metres to make it 1-1. 
Buoyed by the equaliser Schalke stepped up the pace and created a number of chances. But Asamoah was unable to capitalise from five metres when under pressure, and Halil Altintop's low drive was fisted wide by 1860 keeper Philipp Tschauner. Despite these opportunities Rutten's overall impression remained the same. "The players thought they could manage without having to run as much", he criticised. Accordingly it was the Lions who struck again four minutes from time through Marvin Pourie, of all people. Pourie, who only recently joined 1860 on loan from the Royal Blues, collected a through ball down the right channel from Manuel Schäffler and fired past Neuer to restore his side's lead.
Schalke threw everyone forward and their final chance to equalise came with just seconds to go. Jefferson Farfan lined up a free-kick some from 22 metres out before curling an unstoppable shot past Michael Hofmann, who had since come on as a substitute, into the top left-hand corner. 
Rutten would have preferred to see his side win, of course. "Obviously there's always a difference between a friendly and a competitive game. There's something at stake in Jena and we'll need to show a different Schalke there. I can't see us giving only 60 or 70 percent like we did today", he said. Room for improvement, then, and Tuesday may also see the return of several players from injury. Marcelo Bordon and Benedikt Höwedes both played for 45 minutes against 1860, while Orlando Engelaar, Levan Kobiashvili and Christian Pander are all set to resume training on Sunday.
Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Bordon (Höwedes 46'), Krstajic, Westermann - Jones, Ernst - Rakitic - Asamoah (Sanchez 77'), Altintop (Kuranyi 66'), Farfan
1860 Munich: Tschauner (Hofmann 77') - Berhalter (Hoffmann 46'), Beda, Schwarz, Holebas - Thorandt (Jungwirth 78'), Bender (Baumgartlinger 66'), Johnson - Aigner (Burkhard 62'), Rösler (Pourie 66') - Lauth (Schäffler 58')
Goals: 0-1 Lauth (27'), 1-1 Ernst (47'), 1-2 Pourie (86'), 2-2 Farfan (90')
Referee: Margenberg (Wermelskirchen)
Attendance: 3,233
Yellow cards: Krstajic - Beda
