Schalke Away match thread

As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
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highburyJD
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by highburyJD »

Read most of this thread but have given up,
my experience of the game live was very different from the descriptions here
I thought Feo had his best game in ages, great defensive work, constant movement
a vital goal and nearly a winner, Sagna and Mertesacker were immense
Verminator recovered from a dodgy start and held his game together (still looks out of form and position)
Mannone did well when he had to and Giroud worked like a Trojan
I think Schalke are underrated here, they're an excellent team,
spectacular energy, discipline and stamina.
I think maybe their tactical and athletic quality might be easier to appreciate live
but for whatever reason the quality of Schalke was ignored here

I moan about Wengers use of the bench as one of his most obvious failings
Thought he got it spot on at the Veltins, constant and original off the ball movement makes them a tough team to face
hard game to acclimatise to as a sub

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g88ner
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by g88ner »

highburyJD wrote:I think Schalke are underrated here, they're an excellent team,
spectacular energy, discipline and stamina.
I think maybe their tactical and athletic quality might be easier to appreciate live
but for whatever reason the quality of Schalke was ignored here
I don't know about that - I can't speak for everyone, but I think people have a tendency to focus on Arsenal and our performance rather than comment on the opposition. I'm fairly sure most people would concede that Schalke are a decent side.

Schalke were very good going forward - in fact, they ripped our defence to shreds! :shock: scored 2, had a 1-on-1 saved and had countless other chances that they messed up due to a poor final ball.

We had chances too, of course. On another night, it could have been like the Reading game and finished 7-5. It was a strange game where we had very little control on the game at all, so for Wenger to say we played very well was a bit odd, in my opinion. :shock: :?
highburyJD wrote: I moan about Wengers use of the bench as one of his most obvious failings
Thought he got it spot on at the Veltins, constant and original off the ball movement makes them a tough team to face
hard game to acclimatise to as a sub
I wouldn't give Wenger too much credit for that, mate.

Surely it just highlights that Wenger had no faith in the players he had on the bench to come on and have a positive impact? - we must have the smallest "big squad" imaginable. High on numbers, low on quality. So to talk of it being a hard game to acclimatise to is a bit of a strange way of looking at it... good players change games, and if we had any on the bench, it could have changed the game our way.

arseofacrow
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by arseofacrow »

:lol:

Should try using that excuse at work!

:wink:

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flash gunner
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by flash gunner »

Anyone know if JD went to Germany? :roll: :banghead:

:wink:

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northbank123
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by northbank123 »

Yes congratulations on his tactical mastermind that left us clinging on for a point after somehow finding ourselves 2-0 up. Or maybe he didn't make any subs because he's filled the squad up with shit like that fat wanker. Concede a sloppy goal right on the stroke of half-time and then sit really deep for the entire second half while we get hammered, inspired!

Schalke are a decent side, but nothing more. They won't be challenging for the CL, they'll do well to get QF even if they win the group. They were a bit of a shambles defensively at times and gifted Walcott's first goal and chance to win it, they played some dynamic attacking football but over 180 minutes created a fraction of what they should have given the positions they had the ball in. If we'd put in two performances like that against your Barcas or Madrids they would have pillaged twice as many goals as Schalke.

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Poldi
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by Poldi »

MK Gould wrote:...Have to say that we loved Germany. Friendly, noisy fans. Bit strange to share the concourse with the opposition and having Schalke fans walk through us to get to their seats. Very friendly lot though. Would love to get Dortmund in the knock outs (assuming we beat Montpellier and Schalke beat Olympiakos).

Pleased as well to meet Poldi (or at least it was one of our Cologne based fans) in the ground, have our flag share a spot next to the Russian speaking gooners and also meet the fledgling "Costa Del Sol Gooners" on the tram afterwards.
Hi MK Gould,

very pleased indeed to meet you and your sons, good to see you enjoyed your trip, thanks a lot for your voluntary willingness to help out with the photo :barscarf: :barscarf: :barscarf:

Nearly all of this thread is about Wenger's incompetence and a somewhat poor team performance (easily giving away a 2 goal lead) so I like to express how much I enjoyed to see and hear that all the gooners who put in some effort and turned up for a rather useless group stage match :roll: really sang their hearts out got behind the team throughout! So thumbs up and full credit to the fans! As you can easily imagine, matches against German teams do mean a lot to me and after we were slightly outplayed and totally outsung at Dortmund last season it was good to see Arsenal fans turned up in numbers at Schalke and were in full voice from start to finish. You made my day! Almost as good as those nights in Liege and Milan :barscarf:

P.S. Did anyone from the lower tier or the blocks next to us take some pics of the away end (including my Arsenal+Cologne flag 8) )?

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MK Gould
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by MK Gould »

Poldi wrote:
MK Gould wrote:...Have to say that we loved Germany. Friendly, noisy fans. Bit strange to share the concourse with the opposition and having Schalke fans walk through us to get to their seats. Very friendly lot though. Would love to get Dortmund in the knock outs (assuming we beat Montpellier and Schalke beat Olympiakos).

Pleased as well to meet Poldi (or at least it was one of our Cologne based fans) in the ground, have our flag share a spot next to the Russian speaking gooners and also meet the fledgling "Costa Del Sol Gooners" on the tram afterwards.
Hi MK Gould,

very pleased indeed to meet you and your sons, good to see you enjoyed your trip, thanks a lot for your voluntary willingness to help out with the photo :barscarf: :barscarf: :barscarf:

Nearly all of this thread is about Wenger's incompetence and a somewhat poor team performance (easily giving away a 2 goal lead) so I like to express how much I enjoyed to see and hear that all the gooners who put in some effort and turned up for a rather useless group stage match :roll: really sang their hearts out got behind the team throughout! So thumbs up and full credit to the fans! As you can easily imagine, matches against German teams do mean a lot to me and after we were slightly outplayed and totally outsung at Dortmund last season it was good to see Arsenal fans turned up in numbers at Schalke and were in full voice from start to finish. You made my day! Almost as good as those nights in Liege and Milan :barscarf:

P.S. Did anyone from the lower tier or the blocks next to us take some pics of the away end (including my Arsenal+Cologne flag 8) )?
Good to meet you too poldi. Think I saw batflyer as well, but didn't go over in case I looked like a stalker.....

I'm hoping we get dortmund in the knock out phase. Be great to go to Germany again, and with 4000 there we should be able to prove we cn make some noise!

arseofacrow
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by arseofacrow »

Good stuff MKG - how was Bochum (where you were staying??)?

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Dan_85
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by Dan_85 »

Poldi wrote:P.S. Did anyone from the lower tier or the blocks next to us take some pics of the away end (including my Arsenal+Cologne flag 8) )?
I got this, any use?

Image

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MK Gould
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by MK Gould »

Samsung Galaxy II related double post......
Last edited by MK Gould on Fri Nov 09, 2012 12:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MK Gould
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by MK Gould »

arseofacrow wrote:Good stuff MKG - how was Bochum (where you were staying??)?
It was fine. Very handy for the tram & plenty of places to eat & drink (albeit I was with 2 under 18's!).

Got horribly lost though after the game. Took tram in wrong direction & then missed our stop..... :) !

Given that it was a former mining & steel making area I thought it was actually a nice place. Not exactly Milan or Barcelona, but nicer than sheffield or barnsley......

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Herd
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by Herd »

Theres been a thing with us and Koln for many years stretching back to the euros in 88,the Poldi thing has just renewed it .
When we played at theirs against BM Gladbach (Wengers first appearance )they had over 500 supporting us in the ground !

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MK Gould
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by MK Gould »

Herd wrote:Theres been a thing with us and Koln for many years stretching back to the euros in 88,the Poldi thing has just renewed it .
When we played at theirs against BM Gladbach (Wengers first appearance )they had over 500 supporting us in the ground !
In truth, albeit obviously in the minority, there were a lot of foreign gooners in Schalke on Tuesday. Apart from the Germans, there were certainly Dutch and Russian speakers (which I guess probably includes Polish and other Eastern European). There was the normal Irish contingent.....although at least they are able to speak reasonable(ish) English :roll: :D !

But it actually got to the point where you certainly couldn't assume that someone was an English speaker, just because they were wearing an Arsenal shirt/scarf. I think it's great that Arsenal supporters come from far and wide, but hopefully it remains as a significant minority as I wouldn't want us to become another Man Utd! Schalke themselves are very proud of the fact that their support is drawn from the local area. And we got chatting to a Schalke fan in the restaurant who was very interested to know where we were from....almost testing. I was born & bred less than 20 miles from Arsenal. My parents, less than 8 miles, so I felt able to claim that Arsenal were my local team!

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Poldi
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by Poldi »

Dan_85 wrote:
Poldi wrote:P.S. Did anyone from the lower tier or the blocks next to us take some pics of the away end (including my Arsenal+Cologne flag 8) )?
I got this, any use?

Image
Hi Dan, thanks. My flag might have added to the Schalke fans' urge to greet Poldi with 'Cologne, Cologne, die :blah: :blah: ' after that incident... :barscarf: 8) :lol: :mrgreen:

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Batflyer
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Re: Schalke Away match thread

Post by Batflyer »

MK Gould wrote:Good to meet you too poldi. Think I saw batflyer as well, but didn't go over in case I looked like a stalker.....
Really? Are you sure it was me, because I was there with my twin brother (not jokin). :D

Did you see me at the ground or in the pub? We went to a pub in Buer, can't remember the name but it was next to a church. When we arrived, there was one stupid Schalke fan who was singing against lots of Gooners. :lol:

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