Borussia Dortmund Vs. Schalke 04, 2011 DFL Supercup: Schalke Win After Penalties

A penalty is always a tense affair. A penalty shootout in a cup final is ratcheted up about thousand notches. Add on to that fact that it is against your arch-rivals in their stadium. The 2010-2011 German Bundesliga champions probably didn't love their chances going into the penalty shootout.

Schalke 04 would make all four of their penalty attempts, while Borussia Dortmund would see two of their four saved by Ralf Fährmann. Schalke's penalties were converted by Lewis Holtby, Edu, Benedikt Höwedes and José Jurado. Kevin Großkreutz and Ivan Perišić were the two Dortmund shooters to see their penalties saved, while Mats Hummels and Moritz Leitner scored their attempts. 

Fährmann's two penalty saves were reminiscent of his final match with Eintracht Frankfurt last year when he saved two penalties against Dortmund in the season finale. He made several excellent saves throughout the match, specifically the kick save on Robert Lewandowski in the first half. Fährmann's performance will give great hope to Schalke supporters for the upcoming season with the summer transfer of Manuel Neuer.

Dortmund were faced with a problem that they faced a lot of last season. They created a large number of scoring chances but weren't able to put any away. Midfielder Götze, Großkreutz and Kagawa had a rather good game, but the team was unable capitalize on their creativity. Götze in particular had some absolute moments of brilliance but to no avail. 

The biggest negative from Schalke's perspective has to be the performance of Klaas Jan-Huntelaar. He didn't get a lot of service, but he never involved himself with the action. They'll be expecting a better performance from the Dutch forward for the upcoming season.

Schalke's win gives them their second title in two months after winning the DFB Pokal Final in May. The club will be looking to parlay this success into this season's Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and Europa League campaigns.

Both sides were very active in attack throughout the entirety of the second half. Lewandowski started the half with a shot with the outside of his foot going just wide of Schalke's left post. For the longest time throughout the half it seemed that Dortmund was definitely going to grab the goal. All they had to do was figure out how to connect that last pass to unlock the Schalke defense.

The best chance for either side of the half belonged to Schalke. Alexander Baumjohann played a hard low cross into the box for Raul. The goalscorer turned provider and laid the ball to the feet of a sprinting Jan Moravek he ripped a low shot to the far post. Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller was up for the challenge however and made a brilliant kick save with his right foot.

Both clubs would continue to attack throughout the second half with the best opportunities belonging to Borussia Dortmund, but they were never able to fully challenge the goalkeeper.

We have reached the end of the 90 minuets of regulation and, as per DFL Supercup rules, we head directly to penalty kicks.

It's halftime at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, and the DFL Supercup is level at 0-0.

The star of the first half has to be Schalke's new goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann. He was brought back to the club as the replacement for Manuel Neuer and was forced to make three saves (one "easy", one "good", one "great") in the first half. None more important that his stop in the 43rd minute on Dortmund forward Robert Lewandowski. Shinji Kagawa played a brilliant ball through to split the centerbacks, and Lewandoski tried to poke it past an on-coming Fährmann. The goalkeeper was able to drop to his left and get his hand on the ball to just deflect it wide of the goal.

İlkay Gündoğan had a very good first half as the replacement for Nuri Şahin who left the club for Real Madrid this summer. Gündoğan forced a very good save out of Fährmann midway through the first half. His shot from outside of the penalty area weaved it's way through traffic in the box forcing Fährmann to deflect it instead of catch.

Roman Weidenfeller was never really tested in the goal for Dortmund. The lack of service for Raul and Klaas Jan-Huntelaar has been apparent. Julian Draxler and Lewis Holtby were very energetic in the first half, but they were unable to turn that energy into scoring chances.

The match started brilliantly with Gündoğan's cross being banged off of the right upright by Sebastian Kehl. 

Halftime substitutions:

Schalke: Jose Jurado (on), Julian Draxler (off)

Dortmund: None

The lineups are officially out and kick off for the 2011 DFL Supercup is about to begin. Jürgen Klopp has decided to go with his conventional 4-2-3-1 formation while Schalke manager Ralf Rangnick is going with a 4-4-1-1 formation.

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller; Piszczek, Felipe Santana, Hummels, Löwe; Kehl, Gündogan; Götze, Kagawa, Großkreutz; Lewandowski

Schalke 04: Fährmann; Höger, Höwedes, Papadopoulos, Fuchs; Matip, Holtby, Baumjohann, Draxler; Raul, Huntelaar

The match is going to be very interesting with so many being out for Dortmund. It will be interesting to see how Mats Hummels partners with Neven Subotic's replacement Felipe Santana. Subotic is out with a concussion he suffered in the pre-season.

There are so many young, exciting, attacking players on the pitch today from Götze, Kagawa and Großkreutz on the Dortmund to Holtby and Draxler for Schalke.

The supporters for both sides in the stands will be very active today as discussed in the preview this is the biggest derby in Germany. 

There was a moment of silence before the match for the victims in Norway from yesterday's act of nationalistic terrorism.