Losing to a side in the colours of black and yellow. But this wasn't biggest rivals Borussia Dortmund. This was Dynamo Dresden. A team who had won just 5 games in their doomed 2.Bundesliga campaign in 2013/14. Schalke's best and most likely opportunity to capture silverware has already gone, before the season has even begun. Horst Heldt believed Schalke "made elementary errors in key situations" during the 1st round Pokal surprise departure by Dresden. Jens Keller dubbed "six or seven players didn't perform." After all, it was the first time in a quarter of a century the Gelsenkirchen outfit had made their exit from the German Cup at its first stage. With a first Bundesliga triumph highly unlikely, and with a Champions League campaign being dubbed successful only by getting out of the group stages, is Schalke's season already over before it has even started?
With Bayern and Dortmund seemingly in a two-way battle for the Bundesliga title, completing the final step on the Bundesliga podium will be again the realistic aim for the club; even the most optimistic of Schalke supporters will admit to that. They are expected to be battling Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Gladbach for Champions League positions, and with those rivals all adding strongly amongst their ranks, Schalke know that they are in for a fight for 3rd. It doesn't help that Schalke face a tough beginning to their new league campaign away at Hannover this weekend, before hosting champions Bayern and then a trip to Gladbach. In those three respective matches last season, Schalke didn't take a single point. If that were to beat repeated, it could well be game over for Jens Keller.
The club will also again be expected to get out of the group stages of the Champions League. They did that successfully last season, yet their campaign was ultimately a huge failure after they were destroyed by eventual winners Real Madrid in the last-16 (although Dortmund and Bayern themselves suffered a similar fate by Carlo Ancelotti's men.) The aim is to get the club competing against these European giants, but it is clear that the likes of Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern are streets ahead, and it will need a long-term strategy just to get anywhere near these teams. Luck and togetherness will only take Schalke further in European football's top club competition this time around.
Schalke are a club who are in the spotlight most of the time, with the pressure placed on their shoulders. That cup defeat to Dresden has only increased that pressure, in particular on Keller, who has always divided opinion at the Veltins-Arena. There is no time to dwell on that 1st round exit now. Players will come and go by the transfer window comes to its conclusion, but it's Keller's job to bring the players together; to play as a team rather than as a group of individuals. World Cup winners Julian Draxler and Benedikt Howedes will soon return to the fray, which will only be of benefit to Schalke. All eyes are now on Lower Saxony on Saturday and Hannover. It's time to bounceback, to come together as a collective and most importantly, to deliver a performance AND result.