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BERLIN: Schalke 04 are now winless in their last 30 league games, one game less than the Bundesliga record for the longest winless streak that the almost-forgotten minnows Tasmania Berlin are desperate to maintain.
Posters that say “That’s our record! Ra-Ra-Ra Tasmania (The Original)” and “Save the record for Tas!” they were positioned in front of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin before Schalke’s 3-0 loss to Hertha Berlin on Saturday.
Christian Gross, Schalke’s fourth manager this season, got off to a losing start when Arsenal loan officer Matteo Guendouzi, Colombian forward Jhon Córdoba and his replacement, Polish striker Krzysztof Piatek, all scored for Hertha.
“I hope we can still sign one or two players, who could bring a bit of personality,” Gross said after watching his new team’s latest loss.
Schalke, who are last in the league, reinforced their squad last Thursday by re-signing defender Sead Kolasinac, who did not face Hertha, on loan from Arsenal.
They host Hoffenheim next Saturday and are now one game away from equaling the league record held by Tasmania Berlin, which went 31 games without a win in the 1965/66 Bundesliga season.
Tasmania Berlin, based in the central Neukoelln district of the capital, now languishes in the fifth tier of German football.
Its president Almir Numic, a fan of Schalke’s archrival Borussia Dortmund, has mixed feelings about losing the record.
“As a Dortmund fan, I would not mind if Schalke continue without winning and even be relegated,” he told the Fussball.de website.
“On the other hand, this story is simply part of the identity of ‘Tas’.
“Our only season in the Bundesliga was five and a half decades ago, but we are still an issue, on a national level. We don’t really have to advertise.”
