Loris Karius and Schalke's goalkeeper question: On the way back to summit happiness

The Dutchman Mulder has thus created a typically German monster of a word. Simply stringing together all the components of meaning is indeed a popular practice in local linguistics (see: respiratory protective equipment user fitness certificate) – and the accomplished rhetorician Jürgen Klopp is surely grateful for the concise addition, which could serve him well in his new job as national team manager. Where he stands regarding Loris Karius is not yet known – except for the fact that their paths parted back then under less-than-ideal circumstances after Karius made two serious errors in the 2018 Champions League final with Klopp's Liverpool FC against Real Madrid. It was a bad day for Klopp and Liverpool, a dark day for Karius.

After the match, Karius sounded as exhausted as if he had run 13 kilometers like an outfield player.

That match was both the high point and the crash site of Karius’s career; on Saturday evening, he moved another step back toward the summit. The 33-year-old goalkeeper can submit two applications for the save of the month: with lightning-fast reflexes, he denied Nathaniel Brown’s shot in the 15th minute, and with technique and timing, he turned away Harry Kane’s precise effort shortly before the final whistle. Above all, however, he was a reliable presence and an anchor in the fray for his team at all times and during each of Munich's numerous corner kicks. Maintaining absolute concentration constantly against an relentlessly attacking opponent is "really very exhausting," Karius said in a raspy, drained voice, and it showed: he hadn't run 13 kilometers like his teammates Tanaka and El-Faouzi, but he was at least as exhausted.

For years, Schalke was burdened with a severe goalkeeping problem. The candidates for the number one jersey in Gelsenkirchen sometimes changed on a weekly or monthly basis: Frederik Rönnow, Alexander Schwolow, Ralf Fährmann, Alexander Nübel, Marius Müller, Ron-Thorben Hoffmann, Justin Heekeren – so many contenders tried their luck and, for various, sometimes inexplicable reasons, failed to find it. For the club, this resulted in a constant source of athletic conflict. Only Karius put an end to the goalkeeping ordeal when he arrived in Gelsenkirchen in January of last year. Before that, he had been without a club for six months. But it didn't take him long to render himself indispensable – at least at Schalke.

The fact that he is now being linked with the national team, including by eyewitness Lothar Matthäus, reportedly barely occupies his mind. "I'm not even thinking about that," Loris Karius stated, adding that for the time being he is "happy to play in the Bundesliga with Schalke. I am fully focused on Schalke. Whatever comes or doesn't come – I have no idea." Soon he will know more. On September 17, Jürgen Klopp will announce whom he considers suitable for the national team.