The Veltins Arena will host a clash this Sunday with contrasting storylines in the Bundesliga table: Schalke 04, sitting in the lower half of the standings, welcome an SV Elversberg side that has surprisingly settled into the upper reaches of the table after an up-and-down start to the season, but with a guaranteed goal in every match. Both sides arrive with different needs, but with the same objective: to claim all three points, either to keep climbing or to stop the slide.
How Schalke 04 arrive
The home side sit in eleventh place with 4 points from 3 matches played, the product of a win, a draw and a loss. Their goal record stands at 3 scored and 4 conceded, giving them a negative goal difference (-1), the only side in the red among the teams in the upper and middle part of the table.
In their last three fixtures, Schalke showed inconsistent form: they won 3-1 away at 1. FC Union Berlin, then drew 0-0 at home against league leaders Bayern Munich, before falling 0-3 away to FC Augsburg. With barely a goal a game on average, offensive output looks like the pending issue for the Veltins Arena side.
How SV Elversberg arrive
Elversberg sit in sixth place with 6 points, the product of two wins and one loss in their opening three matches. Their attack has been notably effective, with 8 goals scored, though they have also shown defensive fragility, conceding 7, leaving a goal difference of just +1.
The visitors' recent run confirms that trend of high-scoring matches: they fell 1-2 at home to Bayern Munich, but before that had won 4-3 away against Borussia Mönchengladbach and 3-2 at home over Bayer Leverkusen. With an average of 2.67 goals scored per match, Elversberg arrive as one of the most attacking sides of this opening stretch of the competition.
The table and what's at stake
The Bundesliga is currently being dominated by Bayern Munich, who lead with 10 points and a goal difference of +12, closely followed by SC Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund, both with a perfect record from their first three matches. That trio has opened up a considerable gap over the rest of the pack.
For Schalke 04, the main motivation is to close the gap with the mid-to-upper part of the table. With 4 points, they sit just 2 points behind Elversberg themselves and 3 behind Bayer Leverkusen and Mainz, both on 4 points but with a better goal difference. A home win would allow them to climb the standings immediately.
For Elversberg, on the other hand, what's at stake is consolidating their place among that group of teams fighting to stay close to the top spots. Picking up points at the Veltins Arena would bring them closer to the top four, currently occupied by Bayern, Freiburg, Dortmund and Augsburg.
Our take
With the numbers on the table, we believe the match could tilt toward whichever team better solves its particular shortcomings: Schalke need to find their scoring touch, something that has not come easily in their recent matches, while Elversberg will need to shore up a defense that has conceded goals in every recent match.
Our take is that, if Elversberg maintain their attacking average of nearly three goals per game, the match could turn into an open affair, especially if Schalke fail to reverse their trend of just one goal scored per game in this opening stretch of the season.
Kick-off time and how to follow it
The match between Schalke 04 and SV Elversberg will be played on Sunday, September 20 at the Veltins Arena, with the following kick-off times by country: Spain, 17:30; Mexico City, 09:30; Bogotá and Lima, 10:30; Buenos Aires, 12:30; New York and Miami, 11:30; and Los Angeles, 08:30.
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