When Fred Rutten took over die Königsblauen last summer, I firmly believed it was the perfect move to help Schalke achieve its title aspirations. And while I still believe in his tactical approach with Schalke at ninth in the Bundesliga table, losers of their previous three matches including the 2-1 loss to Twente, I am not positive he will be with the club for very much longer.Speaking directly of the match, Twente took the lead only two minutes in as Rob Wielaert, who was likely offside, drove a loose rebound off a free-kick in. Die Königsblauen looked numb dropping a goal down so quickly and looked empty of a fighting, if not professional spirit. After displaying a morbid pace for a while they slowly began to work into the attacking flow of the match. Oranje capped Orlando Engelaar came within a whisper of equalizing the match before the break as it shot rocketed off the post. However ageless striker Kenneth Perez, who joined Twente from Ajax last year, pounded a nail in Schalke's coffin ten minutes after the break as he exploded into a shot just outside the area and brought the match to a 2-0 margin. Call it the siege mentality or maybe just "a little too late" but Schalke woke up a bit more and started to prowl for goals. With thirteen minutes remaining Kevin Kurányi played a perfect ball to Gerald Asamoah who scored from close range and brought Schalke to within one but the could not find the tying goal.
The loss finishes die Königsblauen with a lowly four points after four matches and will require losses by both PSG and Racing Santander for them to advance in the next round of the UEFA Cup, rather undeservedly I add.
