FRANKFURT, Germany -- Schalke has gone from a historically cold start to one of the hottest teams in the Bundesliga in a matter of a few weeks.The season could not have gotten off worse for Schalke, which lost its first five league games -- a club record nobody wanted.Since then, however, Schalke has won five straight in all competitions as it heads into one of the biggest matches of the season in Germany against Borussia Dortmund.The Revier Derby, named after the coalmining Ruhr region, is the most anticipated match in the area no matter which positions in the standings the two teams happen to be sitting on.The coal mines are all but gone, but the passion of the derby lives on unabated.For many fans, victory in the derby is the only thing that matters in a season.Not so for Schalke coach Markus Weinzierl, who will be making his derby debut.I think more of long-term development. Its about improvement and the trend is positive, Weinzierl said ahead of Saturdays match in Dortmund. We are still trying to rebound from the bad start. We havent achieved anything.Schalke has a large, committed following, but the team is one of the notorious underachievers in the Bundesliga.It has not won a championship since 1958 -- five years before the Bundesliga was established.It went into this season with high hopes, which still might materialize. Borussia Moenchengladbach lost its first five games last season and still managed to qualify for the Champions League, which is Schalkes goal.The club lured Weinzierl, one of Germanys most sought-after young coaches, and revamped the team in a major spending spree.It takes time to get the team to understand what we want as coaches and to use its strength, Weinzierl said. New players came into the squad relatively late. I had to get to know the players.Of the new arrivals, defender Coke, still has not played after injuring his knee before the season. Forward Breel Embolo had his ankle broken in a tackle just as he was beginning to show his potential.While new players largely sat out the first few games, they are now beginning to make their mark. Naldo, Abdul Rahman Baba and Nabil Bentaleb are usually in the starting 11. Yevhen Konoplyanka scored two goals in Schalkes 3-2 German Cup win over Nuremberg and one in the Europa League at Krasnodar.Bentaleb, on loan from Tottenham, also scored three goals in his last two matches.While Schalke seems to be reviving its season, Dortmund is going through a mini slum, winless in its last three Bundesliga matches. Coach Thomas Tuchel has been forced to use several untested young players because of a slew of injuries hitting his team.The match will raise a lot of emotion and it will be decided by details. Experience could play a role, Weinzierl said. Denver Nuggets Jerseys . 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Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. Lakshaya Chopra, Kismat Chopra and Manavaditya Singh Rathore bagged the team bronze in the Mens Trap event as India ended their campaign at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup with a total of 24 medals to grab the second place in the overall standings.India finished with a total of nine gold, five silver and 10 bronze medals as the years second and final Junior World Cup concluded on Thursday.Manavaditya, who had qualified for the individual bronze medal match in the event, was part of two shoot-offs in the lead-up, but only managed to finish fourth, coming second-best to Italys Matteo Marongiu.Lakshaya, Kismat and Manavaditya bagged bronze in the Mens Trap team event, shooting a total of 347 out of the possible 375 hits. Italy shot 360 to win Gold while Australia finished a point ahead of India to claim Silver.Earlier, both Manavaditya and Lakshaya were tied in fifth place, with two other shooters on a score of 118 at the end of the qualifying round of 125 shots each. Only six sshooters qualify for the final rounds.ddddddddddddIn the ensuing shoot-off Manavaditya and Chinas Chengjiang Liu were on target with their first two shots and qualified.Lakshaya missed his second and the other Kazakh shooter, Nikolay Belskiy, missed his first, to be placed seventh and eighth respectively.In the Semi-finals, Manavaditya was again tied with four others, including eventual Gold medalist, Australias Jack Wallace, to even have a shot at the Gold medal match.Russia topped the medal standings with 12 Golds for a total of 25 medals. A total of 18 countries won medals at the competition.The ISSF bandwagon now moves to Italy, where the Senior World Cup Finals, the seasons final competition of the years best shooters in every discipline, is scheduled for early next month.India will have three shooters, Jitu Rai, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Sanjeev Rajput participating in the event. ' ' '
