Simon Terodde's wife becomes Schalke's match winner

Eleven pre-Christmas gifts - Simon Terodde's wife becomes Schalke's match winner

A mishap by one of the Royal Blue's own talents paves the way for FC Schalke 04's highest win of the season in the relegation battle in the 2nd Bundesliga. The big story of the evening, however, was once again told by Simon Terrodde.

After ten, at the latest 15 minutes on this early Friday evening, it was clear that FC Schalke 04 would not lose this game, which they must never lose. Nothing had happened at this point, so no goal had been scored. But there were indications that nothing would change, at least for one team. That team was VfL Osnabrück that evening. And that was very good news for Schalke, who were under severe pressure. This evening might have ended badly against a more resilient team than the team bottom of the table. So the suspense stemmed from the question: would the Royal Blues be able to turn their own zero into something countable? Small spoiler: they did.

With a 4:0 (1:0) win, Schalke rid themselves of all the negative emotions that had been swirling around them over the past week. After two largely embarrassing performances against promoted SV Elversberg (1:2) and at Fortuna Düsseldorf (3:5), the situation had become so threatening that this clash against Osnabrück, a stumbling promoted team, had the character of an endgame. Not in the battle to avoid relegation, but in the battle to keep spirits high. The mood was threatening to turn sour once again. The club and the team had therefore taken preventive action and written a letter to the members, shaming themselves for the past few months and vowing to do better.

Virtue. Hard work. Just like Schalke.

The umpteenth mission to make amends was accompanied by plenty of folklore. Because Monday is St. Barbara's Day, when the patron saint of miners is commemorated, the people of Gelsenkirchen extended the celebrations to the whole weekend. Even mascot Erwin had swapped his jersey for a miner's shirt. The miners' choir of Ruhrkohle AG set the mood for the ice-cold and beautifully darkened arena with the "Steigerlied". An atmospheric tribute to the city's old heroes, who are sung about with pride. The current heroes (if they are or ever will be) still have to earn this status of cult worship. They have recently moved as far away from this as possible. Now once again: new beginnings, virtue, hard work. Just Schalke.

At least the royal blue footballers had understood one thing: You can't play well with sleeping sand in your eyes. They had tried it twice against Elversberg and Düsseldorf, both attempts ended in disgrace. This time, the focus was sharpened and coach Karel Geraerts was relieved that his players were on the ball from the start. Captain Simon Terodde, who had only been a sporadic training guest this week, put a ball just wide after five minutes. The arena was briefly frustrated, but eventually thanked the striker for his commitment. So it started well. That was the end of the scoring threat for a long time. The tightly packed Osnabrück team took away Schalke's depth and thus the big idea for this game, which was set up for quick runs on the flanks and crosses into the center.

Schalke got the ball but could hardly do anything with it. And the visitors tried to maintain defensive stability in their first game under the management of coach Uwe Koschinat. They had zero interest in possession. And when the ball did fall at their feet, nothing went right. True to the motto: "Just take the ball when it arrives". It came as a surprise that the coach later decided that his team was more interested in the footballing approach. Apart from the individual class of Michael Cuiscance, who once failed at FC Bayern, there was not much soccer to be seen. And so the hosts slowly but surely realized that a well-filled sack full of Christmas presents had already fallen into their laps through the open arena roof on 1 December. Among other things, it contained eleven Osnabrück players whose self-confidence was even lower than the club's position in the Bundesliga 2 table.

During the summer transfer phase, VfL had not succeeded in adequately replacing the lost quality of promotion heroes who had left the club. In an initial panic reaction, the popular coach Tobias Schweinsteiger was dismissed a few days ago. There has been no improvement so far.

"Scoring goals at the right moments"

Nevertheless, it took 20 minutes for the hosts to answer the exciting opening question in this text: they scored a goal! Sorry, they let a goal, well, beckon. After a corner and a scramble in the penalty area, it was ultimately Osnabrück's Niklas Wiemann, a former Schalke player, who steered the ball into the goal. Goalkeeper Lennart Grill did not make the most confident impression. 1:0 and all shackles released? Not really. It remained tough. At some point between the lead and the break, Ron Schallenberg, the clever six-man, passed the ball on with a heel. An action without any value. But a small feat of the kind that has become rare at Schalke. A brief sound of bewilderment echoed through the arena. That's how it is, the present at Schalke.

It still sounds rather strange that a clash against Osnabrück can become the final match for Schalke 04. For a club that is still shrouded in the glory of its great past and continues to dream aloud of writing new heroic stories in the not too distant future. At least a small one was written against VfL. That of captain Terodde. As an emotional driving force, he, who had lost his place in the first eleven in recent weeks, pushed his colleagues and the stands. And when Paul Seguin made it 2:0 with just a few minutes of the second half remaining (48'), the Bundesliga 2 record striker sank to the pitch. He cheered on his knees, then pounded the green like a dervish.

"The win was so important because you were able to pull away a little after the difficult weeks," said Terodde, praising his team's attitude in particular. "People want to see virtues, which I think we showed well on the pitch today and that's why we're taking the good feeling with us." His coach also evoked these good and therefore almost unknown feelings: "We scored the goals at the right moments. With the second goal, our self-confidence has grown even more," said a delighted Gerarts. "The most important thing is that we got the three points. It was very nice to see the team respond like that after a difficult week." What a relief. For the team, for the coach, for the striker.

"It was a very, very emotional game"

It was far from clear that the 35-year-old would once again be the big story of the evening. Terodde was waiting for the birth of his third child during the week, with daughter Tilda being born on Thursday. "I was still in the delivery room yesterday," he said later. "It was a race against time. A big compliment to my wife for the way she did it yesterday." The striker was able to embrace everything that is important to him. His family and his club, for whom he still considers it a privilege to play. Terodde converted a penalty after 63 minutes following VAR intervention. All of the visitors' previous attempts to somehow get some excitement back into the game were immediately called off. And Terodde was in tears afterwards. "It was a very, very emotional game. I think you could see that."

Terodde the hero. And his wife the match winner, so to speak. Schalke were redeemed, cult player and team manager Gerald Asamoh greeted them from the pit (players' tunnel) with an extremely cheerful "schön". Schalke scored a fourth goal through Kenan Karaman, created a few chances, including one through the good substitute Keke Topp, and showed a bit of security with the ball at their feet. Because that was far from the case, especially in the first half. That's the relegation battle. And it will continue seamlessly next week when they play Hansa Rostock. Hope is back. Unlike at Osnabrück. After the final whistle, the beaten-up players crept into the curve. There they were greeted angrily by the 6,000 fans, who had put on an impressive away choreography before kick-off, with shouts of "We've had it". The team is already nine points behind 16th place in the relegation places.