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Schalke fall to in form van de Vaart

Schalke's Marcelo Bordon, right, vies for the ball against Hamburg's Rafael van der Vaart during their Bundesliga match in Gelsenkirchen on Friday. PHOTO: AFP

League leaders Schalke 04 stumbled again in the Bundesliga on Friday, losing 2-0 at home to Hamburg SV for their second consecutive defeat and third straight match without a win.

Schalke remain first, however, with 49 points but VfB Stuttgart in second place could have trimmed Schalke's lead to just a point if they had won at Bayer Leverkusen yesterday.

Hamburg captain Rafael van der Vaart broke the deadlock in the 71st minute, taking advantage of a Fabian Ernst blunder in midfield to beat two Schalke defenders for his sixth goal of the season.

Croatia's Ivica Olic doubled the lead in the 81st minute, set up by a fine pass from David Jarolim in front of the goal.

One point

Schalke, looking for their first Bundesliga championship since 1958, have just one point from their last three matches and watched their six point lead melt away.

They had jumped to the top of the table with a six-match winning streak before that.

"We were not dangerous enough up front," Schalke coach Mirko Slomka said. "We are in a little slump and we had better get out of it fast."

Schalke were beaten 1-0 by Leverkusen last week after a 2-2 draw at VfL Wolfsburg.

Behind Schalke and Stuttgart are Werder Bremen, who host VfL Bochum, in third with 43 points and Bayern Munich, who play at Hertha Berlin, are fourth with 40.

Schalke were sorely missing their Brazilian playmaker Lincoln, handed a five-match ban for a red card received for punching Leverkusen's Germany midfielder Bernd Schneider.

But they still controlled the match, especially in the first half.

"We were dominant but weren't precise enough with our passes and didn't get the goal," Slomka said. "We had a great chance off a set piece right before their first goal. But there's no point fretting over that now."

Hamburg have four successive victories under new coach Huub Stevens, including a 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt a week ago, and have climbed out of the relegation zone.

It was a special homecoming match for Stevens, who won the 1997 UEFA Cup at Schalke and led the Gelsenkirchen club to second place in 2001 during his record-breaking 195-match career coaching Schalke.

`Fortunate'

"We were fortunate to get the goal but at the end of the day we deserved to win," Stevens said.

Van der Vaart, who has now scored the first goal in four straight Hamburg victories, said it has been a strange season for the club that had only one victory before Stevens took over.

"It's so weird," he said. "Schalke were much better and we had only a few chances but used them. We have the feeling that no matter what happens now we're going to win. That's the opposite of before. To win in Schalke is a very good feeling."
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