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(c) Abseits Guide to Germany - www.abseits-soccer.com
Bundesliga, Round 21
It's a two way race for the title, which really shouldn't surprise anybody. Bayern München is red hot, and they returned to last season's Waterloo, Kraftdurchfreudestadt. The unheralded Wolfsburgers displayed brilliant attacking skill in dismantling Bayern in a historic match, and cemented their sensational championship. However, this season was different. The VWs did play with an attacking style, but this is a disciplined Bayern squad now, and they ruthlessly exploited their hosts defensive lapses and ripped them up and down.
Meanwhile, leaders Leverkusen have seen their lead disappear from Bayern's pressure. Despite dominating against hosts Bochum, the Alka-Seltzers were unable to serve up the beaqtdown. The Bochumers fought like rabid chihuahuas, and their yipping and yapping was rewarded by a surprise goal and an even more surprising point. The Bochumers are veterans of many a relegation battle, and by picking up points here and there, they seem a good bet to survive this season. Leverkusen boss Jupp Heynckes has to be furious, as they really should have won this. Now they're equal with Bayern except for a tiny goal difference, so they are probably are headed to yet another Luserkusen scenario.
Werder struggled to break down the defensively oriented Berliners. Especially Hertha GK Jaroslav Drobny was up to the task, holding off the Bremen assault. In the end, Claudio Pizarro managed to get the winner and break their own crap run of something like seven matches without a win. Werder might be on the upswing again, so teams might be nervous about playing them now. A decent effort by Hertha, but they really didn't deserve a point in this one.
Hamburg has been holding on, and is hoping for some firepower reinforcements with the signing of Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Oddly enough, they were involved in a shootout with stunning Köln, whose late goal prevented HSV stealing all the points. As you know, in the 1st half of the season, Köln was catenaccio-central. Now they seem to have decided to go to all out attack. They've already scored as many times as they did in those first 17 matches of the pre-winter break! Certainly the fans seem to be enjoying it. Their effort was rewarded with this late draw against HSV, and solidifies their midtable standing.
Last week we mentioned that Frankfurt was on their "suck" track, and sure enough, this week they totally turn things around by travelling to fotress Dortmund and stunning the Neons. Dortmund had been flying high, but have gotten slapped in their last two. The hosts seemed to have a slight edge, but Frankfurt was quick on the counter, and usually had the Neons defense in chaotic state. Good win for Eintracht, although I guess it's time to suck next week. Jürgen Klopp needs to figure out something quick so Dortmund doesn't start to drift aimlessly. They've got 5 points on clubs chasing them, so he has some leeway, but indifferent performances have been the bane of the Neons over the last few seasons, so perhaps something like electrical shocks applied to the players' testicles might be a clever management move.
Stuttgart is the latest red hot team, although they really didn't deserve this one. Nürnberg was their equal except that they suck when it really counts, namely putting the ball in the net. VfB managed to play down to der Club's level, but made their chances count.
Hoffenheim had been sliding down the table, so having Hannover show up was a nice change. The Hoppers dominated the game, which is no real news, since the 96ers have been so crap. But the hosts basically phoned it in during the 2nd half, and allowed Hannover some dignity.
Mainz was somewhat fortunate to get the win against Gladbach, as the match was basically even and nobody deserved all the points.
SV Werder Bremen - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:1 (0:0) 35,600 (Marin, Pizarro - Gekas) VfL Wolfsburg - FC Bayern München 1:3 (0:2) 30,000 (Grafite - Robben, Van Buyten, Barzagli o.g.) 1. FC Köln - Hamburger SV 3:3 (1:2) 50,000 (Mohamad, Novakovic, Chihi - Jansen, Petric 2) SC Freiburg - FC Schalke 04 0:0 (0:0) 24,000 VfL Bochum - Bayer Leverkusen 1:1 (0:1) 22,176 (Dedic - Derdiyok) 1899 Hoffenheim - Hannover 96 2:1 (2:0) 28,100 (Carlos Eduardo, Salihovic - Kone) 1. FC Nürnberg - VfB Stuttgart 1:2 (0:1) 40,384 (Bunjaku - Gebhardt, Hilbert) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Borussia M'gladbach 1:0 (1:0) 20,300 (Svensson) Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:3 (1:1) 70,400 (Hummels, Barrios - Köhler, Jung, Meier) Attendance: 320,960 (avg 35,662) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 21 12 9 0 46:17 +29 45 2. (2.) FC Bayern München 21 13 6 2 45:18 +27 45 3. (3.) FC Schalke 04 21 12 6 3 31:15 +16 42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (5.) Hamburger SV 21 9 9 3 40:24 +16 36 5. (4.) Borussia Dortmund 21 10 6 5 30:26 +4 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (6.) SV Werder Bremen 21 8 7 6 39:25 +14 31 7. (7.) Eintracht Frankfurt 21 8 7 6 28:29 -1 31 8. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 21 8 6 7 25:29 -4 30 9. (9.) 1899 Hoffenheim 21 8 4 9 29:25 +4 28 10. (10.) VfB Stuttgart 21 7 7 7 26:26 0 28 11. (13.) 1. FC Köln 21 6 7 8 20:24 -4 25 12. (11.) VfL Wolfsburg 21 6 7 8 37:42 -5 25 13. (12.) Borussia M'gladbach 21 7 4 10 29:35 -6 25 14. (14.) VfL Bochum 21 5 7 9 23:37 -14 22 15. (15.) SC Freiburg 21 5 4 12 20:39 -19 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) Hannover 96 21 4 5 12 23:36 -13 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 21 4 4 13 17:37 -20 16 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 21 2 5 14 17:41 -24 11
2.Liga - 21st round
The leaders took advantage to build out their advantage. Kaiserslautern woke up in the second half and blasted Paderborn, and despite the final scoreline, St.Pauli dominated Karlsruhe. Since the chasing teams had indifferent resuolts, the top two are sitting pretty and looking at Bundesliga city train schedules. Augsburg holds on to the coveted 3rd spot, but they were challenged in Berlin. Union is having a fine season and look to finish somewhere in the middle. Bielefeld struggled against Fürth, but managed to get through and gain a crucial win. Promotion is required for Arminia, as reports of financial insolvency have been leaking out. Failure to regain Bundesliga status could mean financial collapse and forcible relegation! This is a story to keep our eyes on. Meanwhile, there was "Bundesligastimmung" in Düsseldorf, something not seen often in the last several tears. Fortuna faced off against Duisburg in a Rheinderby, and a packed house was the reward. To top things off, a strong Düsseldorf performance keeps them in the hunt. Duisbrug is by no means out, but the Zebras have some work to do.
At the bottom, all 3 relegees did well, grabbing points. The most stunning was Ahlen's win at 1860. (They should fire their coach like Oberhausen did.) Two in a row for Ahlen! Firing their coach last week did Oberhausen some good, as their win over Rostock probably gives them enough cushion to be sure of not going down.
FC St. Pauli - Karlsruher SC 2:1 (2:1) 19,793 (Hennings 2 - Chrisantus) Arminia Bielefeld - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2:1 (0:1) 11,100 (Allagui, Guela - Fort) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - Hansa Rostock 2:1 (0:1) 4,546 (Schmidtgal, Terranova - Bartels) 1. FC Union Berlin - FC Augsburg 0:0 (0:0) 12,168 FC Energie Cottbus - TuS Koblenz 1:1 (0:1) 8,210 (Petersen - Kapllani) FSV Frankfurt - Alemannia Aachen 1:1 (0:0) 3,168 (Voigt - Auer) Fortuna Düsseldorf - MSV Duisburg 2:0 (2:0) 48,250 (Lambertz, Harnik) 1. FC K'lautern - SC Paderborn 07 3:0 (0:0) 25,880 (Jendrisek 2, Hornig) TSV 1860 München - Rot Weiss Ahlen 0:1 (0:1) 14,800 (Kern) Attendance: 147,915 (avg 16,435) 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 21 14 4 3 33:16 +17 46 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 21 14 3 4 48:21 +27 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) FC Augsburg 21 10 8 3 44:28 +16 38 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) Arminia Bielefeld 21 11 4 6 33:21 +12 37 5. (5.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 21 11 4 6 32:20 +12 37 6. (6.) MSV Duisburg 21 10 4 7 35:29 +6 34 7. (7.) 1. FC Union Berlin 20 8 6 6 27:25 +2 30 8. (8.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 21 9 1 11 38:35 +3 28 9. (9.) SC Paderborn 07 21 7 7 7 27:30 -3 28 10. (11.) Alemannia Aachen 21 7 6 8 20:24 -4 27 11. (10.) TSV 1860 München 20 7 5 8 24:23 +1 26 12. (13.) FC Energie Cottbus 21 6 6 9 29:30 -1 24 13. (12.) Karlsruher SC 20 7 3 10 28:31 -3 24 14. (15.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 21 7 3 11 18:33 -15 24 15. (14.) Hansa Rostock 20 7 2 11 22:30 -8 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 21 4 5 12 19:37 -18 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 21 4 5 12 15:40 -25 17 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 21 3 6 12 12:31 -19 15
3.Liga - 23rd round
Snow continues to wreak havoc, although the next couple of weeks do have some scheduling of postponed matches. Freezing weather meant that the top clash between Ingolstadt and Osnabrück was played like one of those Serie A matches where the audience gets banned. Significant was Heidenheim continuing their good run, and Kickers Offenbach laying an egg at home against mini-Dortmund.
FC Ingolstadt 04 - VfL Osnabrück 0:0 (0:0) 2,852 FC Carl Zeiss Jena - FC Erzgebirge Aue 1:0 (0:0) 7,206 (Hähnge) Dynamo Dresden - FC Bayern München II 2:0 (1:0) 10,757 (G. Müller, Gundersen) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - SV 1916 Sandhausen 1:0 (1:0) 4,125 (Mayer) Kickers Offenbach - Borussia Dortmund II 1:2 (0:2) 6,820 (Mesic - Hünemeier, Piossek) SpVgg Unterhaching - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 1:1 (0:1) 2,000 (Konrad - Kammlott) postponed matches: Wuppertaler SV - SV Wehen Wiesbaden Jahn Regensburg - VfB Stuttgart II Eintracht Braunschweig - Wacker Burghausen SV Werder Bremen II - Holstein Kiel 1. (1.) VfL Osnabrück 22 12 4 6 32:21 +11 40 2. (2.) FC Ingolstadt 04 21 11 4 6 44:23 +21 37 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 23 11 4 8 41:34 +7 37 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) Kickers Offenbach 23 9 7 7 36:26 +10 34 5. (5.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 22 10 4 8 31:31 0 34 6. (6.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 22 9 6 7 38:36 +2 33 7. (7.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 22 8 8 6 26:24 +2 32 8. (8.) Eintracht Braunschweig 21 8 6 7 29:23 +6 30 9. (11.) SpVgg Unterhaching 22 8 6 8 31:31 0 30 10. (12.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 22 8 6 8 25:30 -5 30 11. (9.) Wacker Burghausen 20 9 3 8 23:33 -10 30 12. (10.) Jahn Regensburg 20 8 5 7 27:21 +6 29 13. (16.) Borussia Dortmund II 22 8 4 10 26:29 -3 28 14. (18.) Dynamo Dresden 22 7 5 10 26:29 -3 26 15. (14.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 22 7 5 10 27:37 -10 26 16. (13.) FC Bayern München II 21 7 5 9 27:38 -11 26 17. (15.) SV Werder Bremen II 20 7 4 9 26:29 -3 25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (17.) VfB Stuttgart II 21 7 2 12 28:32 -4 23 19. (19.) Holstein Kiel 20 6 4 10 23:28 -5 22 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 20 6 4 10 21:32 -11 22
Bundesliga, Round 20
This week was good for the very top, and decent for the bottom. If you had ambitions of moving in (or out) of one of those zones, it wasn't particularily good though.
Leaders Bayer Leverkusen had a workman-like win over Freiburg. The Aspirins basically put everything together before half, and then took their foot off the gas pedal. SCF showed up with an open mentality, but really were no match, so the outcome was never really in doubt. They did improve their game as Bayer let up, but clearly their expectations weren't very much. However, the Breisgauer have been relatively unsuccessful recently, and have dropped back into the danger zone. They need some positive results soon or things could get pretty hot. For Bayer, they remain under pressure as the leaders, but so far have been equal to the task.
In reality, Bayern München's win over Mainz was similar to Leverkusen's triumph, except it took Bayern longer to break down their opponents. The main reason was that Mainz, unlike Freiburg, came in with defense from the start, but I would venture nobody expected them to hold out. Basically, after the half, they got rolled. Bayern keeps up the pressure on the Alka-Seltzers, and Arjen Robben has become the dominant player in the Bundesliga. (Franck Ribery is still slowed by his injury). Much ado about nothing for Mainz, who weren't expecting anything here anyway.
Somewhat of a surprise team is Schalke. Despite all their well publicized financial difficulties, the Blues are hanging tough, a tribute to coach Felix Magath's ability to get the most out of his squads. In form Kevin Kuranyi once again opened the door with another goal, and the Hoffenheimers really had nothing left to put against their hosts. A deserved win for Schalke, who remain in the race. Hoffenheim seems to have fallen off and basically aspire for midtable.
Dortmund has been one of the hottest teams in the Bundesliga, but they ran into a buzzsaw in the form of a recovered VfB Stuttgart. Contrary to expectations, Swiss journeyman coach Christian Gross seems to have found the formula to motivate the Swabians, and they kicked Dortmund's ass. Stuttgart is once again a team to be feared. Dortmund should regroup, but still look a decent squad.
HSV had a rough time in the northern derby against Wolfsburg. The Hamburgers controlled the match against the VWs, whose interim coach Lorenz-Günther Köstner decided on a very defensive game plan. The defending champions have been leaking goals, so perhaps it wasn't a bad strategy to try and hold down the opponents. As the game progressed, it looked like the defending champions might pull it off. Only a last minute injury time goal by Piotr Trochowski saved a point for HSV.
Another team struggling defensively recently is Werder Bremen. Werder obviously needs to go back to "Defending for Dummies". Well, OK, they got the "dummies" part down cold. In fact, Gladbach overran them with 3 goals in before 20 minutes were passed. The outstanding player was the Argentine Raul Bobadilla, who scored twice and assisted on Gladbach's other two goals. Huge win for "die Fohlen", who now float comfortably above relegation.
Frankfurt was the next mid-level club to suffer. Eintracht fully expected a win against Köln, but frankly did little to earn the points. They were somewhat in control (what the Germans like to call "optisch überlegen", i.e. "optically superior"), but in reality in was all a sham. No surprise that a more determined Köln side walks away with a win, gaining crucial points in the relegation battle. Not only that, when you consider that Köln had only managed 10 goals in the first half of the season, their 7 strikes in 3 matches is almost like a tsunami into the desert. Frankfurt continues to be one of the most frustrating teams for their fans, as they are now back on their "suck" track. But rest assured, they will probably put in a couple of good efforts soon, just enough to raise expectations before shattering those illusions with more turds...
Hannover continues to suck, something like 8 crap results in a row. Nürnberg has been struggling, and all of a sudden they were tossed a lifeline by their generous hosts. This rare road win (or rare any win) all of a sudden lifts der Club into a decent jumping point, where they can wrestle at least the playoff spot from the 96ers. And even struggling Freiburg and safety is only a spot away. Of course, this is Nürnberg we're talking about, so at least have some doubt about their ability to put together anything decent. On the other hand, I'm not sure what Hannover can do at this point. They really look like a team that has forgotten how to play decent football.
Last place Hertha BSC continues a decent restart, but they were unable to turn their domination into a full 3 points against a desperately defending Bochum. A lost opportunity to almost gain some ground to where they could at least see the rear ends of the teams above them. Hopefully it's too late, because I really want a Berlin derby next season. Plus they deserve to be relegated to put their idiotic management in it's proper place. Bochum is of course a veteran of many a relegation battle, and as has been their mantra all season, when they fight hard, they usually get something out of the match.
Hamburger SV - VfL Wolfsburg 1:1 (0:1) 51,584 (Trochowski - Dzeko) Borussia M'gladbach - SV Werder Bremen 4:3 (4:2) 47,458 (Bobadilla 2, Reus, Collautti - Özil, Pizarro, Frings) Eintracht Frankfurt - 1. FC Köln 1:2 (0:0) 45,100 (Chris - Maniche, Russ o.g.) Hertha BSC Berlin - VfL Bochum 0:0 (0:0) 38,127 FC Bayern München - 1. FSV Mainz 05 3:0 (0:0) 69,000 (van Buyten, Gomez, Robben) Hannover 96 - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:3 (0:1) 26,722 (Stajner - Bunjaku 3) FC Schalke 04 - 1899 Hoffenheim 2:0 (1:0) 60,402 (Kuranyi, Schmitz) VfB Stuttgart - Borussia Dortmund 4:1 (1:0) 42,000 (Felipe Santana, Kuzmanovic, Marica, Träsch - Barrios) Bayer Leverkusen - SC Freiburg 3:1 (3:0) 26,000 (Kiessling, Derdiyok, Hyypiä - Bastians) Attendance: 406,393 (avg 45,155) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 20 12 8 0 45:16 +29 44 2. (2.) FC Bayern München 20 12 6 2 42:17 +25 42 3. (3.) FC Schalke 04 20 12 5 3 31:15 +16 41 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) Borussia Dortmund 20 10 6 4 28:23 +5 36 5. (5.) Hamburger SV 20 9 8 3 37:21 +16 35 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (6.) SV Werder Bremen 20 7 7 6 37:24 +13 28 7. (7.) Eintracht Frankfurt 20 7 7 6 25:27 -2 28 8. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 20 7 6 7 24:29 -5 27 9. (9.) 1899 Hoffenheim 20 7 4 9 27:24 +3 25 10. (11.) VfB Stuttgart 20 6 7 7 24:25 -1 25 11. (10.) VfL Wolfsburg 20 6 7 7 36:39 -3 25 12. (12.) Borussia M'gladbach 20 7 4 9 29:34 -5 25 13. (13.) 1. FC Köln 20 6 6 8 17:21 -4 24 14. (14.) VfL Bochum 20 5 6 9 22:36 -14 21 15. (15.) SC Freiburg 20 5 3 12 20:39 -19 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) Hannover 96 20 4 5 11 22:34 -12 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 20 4 4 12 16:35 -19 16 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 20 2 5 13 16:39 -23 11
2.Liga - 20th round
Weather took it's course on a couple of games, but this was like the Bundesliga: good for the top, good for the bottom, and bad for all pretenders.
Kaiserslautern impressed by breaking out of their funk and Sidney Sam's hattrick allowed them a big win in Aachen. FCK had been struggling a bit, so this win comes at a good time. The reason is that chasing St.Pauli is playing with supreme confidence. The Paulistas dominated against host Duisburg, and if it wasn't for some nifty goalkeeping, might have scored a half-dozen. As it was, the Hamburgers overran the Zebras, and the result was never in doubt.
There was a huge match in Augsburg, where the Fuggers took on Bielefeld. The result was that Arminia got all fugged up. FCA has been a silent pretender for a while, but they have now firmly staked their claim. Bielefeld put up a decent fight, but they were no match for the 2.Liga top scorer Michael Thurk. Augsburg now seizes sole possesion of 3rd place. Düsseldorf was the other contender to go down in flames. Fortuna was without meaning (hehehe) as they struggled in the mud of Koblenz, and end up taking a dump. Nice result for struggling Koblenz, who are at least trying to hold on the the relegation-playoff spot. Perhaps even closer than Düsseldorf's near prostate exam was Paderborn getting ambushed at home by hapless FSV Frankfurt. FSV keeps the pressure on Koblenz, and SCP must now surely give up any hope of contending for anything. Finally, Ahlen managed their first home win of the season (!) as they upended Oberhausen. RWO reacted the only way acceptable: they fired their coach right after...
SpVgg Greuther Fürth - FC Energie Cottbus 1:0 (0:0) 5,150 (Nöthe) MSV Duisburg - FC St. Pauli 0:2 (0:2) 16,446 (Ebbers, Naki) TuS Koblenz - Fortuna Düsseldorf 1:0 (0:0) 8,309 (Mavric) FC Augsburg - Arminia Bielefeld 3:1 (1:0) 15,477 (Thurk 2, Torghelle - Federico) Rot Weiss Ahlen - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 1:0 (1:0) 4,127 (N'Diaye) SC Paderborn 07 - FSV Frankfurt 0:2 (0:1) 5,321 (Cidimar 2) Alemannia Aachen - 1. FC K'lautern 0:3 (0:1) 21,152 (Sam 3) Postponed: Karlsruher SC - TSV 1860 München Hansa Rostock - 1. FC Union Berlin 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 20 13 4 3 30:16 +14 43 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 20 13 3 4 46:20 +26 42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) FC Augsburg 20 10 7 3 44:28 +16 37 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) Arminia Bielefeld 20 10 4 6 31:20 +11 34 5. (5.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 20 10 4 6 30:20 +10 34 6. (6.) MSV Duisburg 20 10 4 6 35:27 +8 34 7. (7.) 1. FC Union Berlin 19 8 5 6 27:25 +2 29 8. (11.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 20 9 1 10 37:33 +4 28 9. (8.) SC Paderborn 07 20 7 7 6 27:27 0 28 10. (9.) TSV 1860 München 19 7 5 7 24:22 +2 26 11. (10.) Alemannia Aachen 20 7 5 8 19:23 -4 26 12. (12.) Karlsruher SC 19 7 3 9 27:29 -2 24 13. (13.) FC Energie Cottbus 20 6 5 9 28:29 -1 23 14. (14.) Hansa Rostock 19 7 2 10 21:28 -7 23 15. (15.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 20 6 3 11 16:32 -16 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 20 4 4 12 18:36 -18 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 20 4 4 12 14:39 -25 16 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 20 2 6 12 11:31 -20 12
3.Liga - 22nd round
Everybody pretty much got snowed in, but Osnabrück goes to the top by defeating Offenbach. Also worth mentioning is that newcomer Heidenheim has become a legit contender for the playoff. With all the postponements the table looks like the goofy EPL wankers are in charge of the schedule, since the games played are all over the place.
SV Wehen Wiesbaden - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 1:2 (1:0) 2,395 (Ziegenbein - Göhlert, Mayer) VfL Osnabrück - Kickers Offenbach 1:0 (0:0) 11,300 (Stang) All other matches cancelled due to weather: Wacker Burghausen - Jahn Regensburg SV 1916 Sandhausen - Dynamo Dresden FC Bayern München II - FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Erzgebirge Aue - SpVgg Unterhaching FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - FC Ingolstadt 04 Borussia Dortmund II - SV Werder Bremen II Holstein Kiel - Eintracht Braunschweig VfB Stuttgart II - Wuppertaler SV 1. (2.) VfL Osnabrück 21 12 3 6 32:21 +11 39 2. (1.) FC Ingolstadt 04 20 11 3 6 44:23 +21 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) Kickers Offenbach 22 9 7 6 35:24 +11 34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (6.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 22 10 4 8 40:34 +6 34 5. (4.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 21 10 4 7 31:30 +1 34 6. (5.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 21 9 6 6 38:35 +3 33 7. (7.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 21 8 7 6 25:23 +2 31 8. (8.) Eintracht Braunschweig 21 8 6 7 29:23 +6 30 9. (9.) Wacker Burghausen 20 9 3 8 23:33 -10 30 10. (10.) Jahn Regensburg 20 8 5 7 27:21 +6 29 11. (11.) SpVgg Unterhaching 21 8 5 8 30:30 0 29 12. (12.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 21 7 6 8 24:30 -6 27 13. (13.) FC Bayern München II 20 7 5 8 27:36 -9 26 14. (14.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 22 7 5 10 27:37 -10 26 15. (15.) SV Werder Bremen II 20 7 4 9 26:29 -3 25 16. (16.) Borussia Dortmund II 21 7 4 10 24:28 -4 25 17. (17.) VfB Stuttgart II 21 7 2 12 28:32 -4 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (18.) Dynamo Dresden 21 6 5 10 24:29 -5 23 19. (19.) Holstein Kiel 20 6 4 10 23:28 -5 22 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV 20 6 4 10 21:32 -11 22
Bundesliga, Round 19
An exciting weekend sees the Bundesliga move closer to a two horse race...with a pretender joining the fray for the Champions League.
The match of the weekend saw an exciting, wild shootout in Bremen with incredible goals. Bayern München prevailed, but only by the skin of their teeth against a highly motivated Werder squad. Bremen played well, and perhaps are a bit hard done by, but they're too inconsistent these days. Bayern got a strong performance from their squad, and they seem to have finally got in line with Van Gaal's decisions. I still think they are the team to beat, but they still have some work to do.
Leaders Leverkusen answered Bayern's challenge with an emphatic road thumping of Hoffenheim. The Aspirins seem hot to show that they're not the Luserkusen of old. Coach Jupp Heynckes has his squad performing at a very high level, and they can beat anybody, including Bayern. Leading the charge of Bayer is one of Germany's top midfield talents, Toni Kroos. Ironically, Kroos is on loan from Bayern München, but he almost never got to play there. He has blossomed at Leverkusen, and has formed a potent midifield duo with Swiss international Tranquilo Barnetta.
Schalke will likely point to the last 10 minutes at Bochum for the start of their slow burn. The Blues seemingly had the game wrapped up, but the fighting Bochumers roared back with two late goals to salvage a point. I'm sure Schalke coach Felix Magath couldn't have been too happy about the lost points.
Dortmund is the new pretender, at least in the race for Europe spots. The Neons clearly outplayed Hamburg for most of the match, but were unable to finish off HSV. As a result, there was plenty of nervous defending towards the end of the game, as the visitors threw caution into the wind. HSV deserved to lose, as they let the hosts control the proceedings for too long, and even towards the end when they were pushing forward, they had trouble with Dortmund's counterattack. Actually, the big news for Hamburg this weekend is that they have signed Real Madrid's Ruud Van Nistelrooy on a free. Given the fact that HSV has had trouble keeping forwards healthy, if RVN can recover some of his old form, this could be a great boon to HSV.
Mainz continues their great season, and defeated Hannover, who hoped that new coach Miro Slomka would light a fire. Mainz hardly was overly impressive, but easily brought the win to the final whistle, as the 96ers were unable to show much enthusiasm for a true fightback. Slomka certainly has his work cut out for him. The only positive is that things are packed at the bottom. Meanheil Mainz has a nice 10 point cushion, and should be pretty safe, even this early in the season.
Hertha remains stuck at the bottom, but their performances have improved. They dominated against Gladbach, but were unable to score. In fact, in the end they were lucky as well, as GK Drobny stopped a penalty by Arango, preventing what would have been a terrible loss for Berlin. Gladbach didn't show much, but have to be happy with a nice away point.
Bookies seem to watching Wolfsburg's Armin Veh going down in flames. The odds are certainly not in his favor - if some results don't do VW's way in the next coupkle of matches, he get canned. Then he can look back on being fired by two clubs (Stuttgart and Wolfsburg) following their championship years. (BLITZ NEWS: He got his ass fired on Monday!) The defending champs have been leaking goals at the back, and the attack, while still potent, is not in full stride. And given the fact they gave up 3 to Köln, the worst attack, hardly bodes well. A huge win for the Kölners, keeping their heads above water.
Stuttgart has almost steadied the ship. They won a tough regional southwest derby in Freiburg, a very tough match. This is something they would have tanked earlier, but they look back in the saddle. A tough loss for Freiburg, who are in danger of falling into a relegation spot.
Nürnberg was salivating at the prospect of a win, but instead gave up a late goal to Frankfurt. This is probably a fair reflection of the match, but for der Club, this was critical loss of points. They need to be making up ground with Hannover's freefall and Freiburg's inability to get back into rhythym. Lame home draws isn't going to impress anybody.
SC Freiburg - VfB Stuttgart 0:1 (0:1) 23,900 (Marica) SV Werder Bremen - FC Bayern München 2:3 (1:2) 39,100 (Hunt, Hugo Almeida - T. Müller, Olic, Robben) VfL Bochum - FC Schalke 04 2:2 (0:2) 29,008 (Hashemian, Sestak - Sanchez, Kuranyi) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Hannover 96 1:0 (1:0) 19,300 (Schürrle) 1. FC Nürnberg - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:1 (1:1) 37,464 (Eigler - Köhler) Hertha BSC Berlin - Borussia M'gladbach 0:0 (0:0) 46,090 Borussia Dortmund - Hamburger SV 1:0 (1:0) 80,552 (Valdez) VfL Wolfsburg - 1. FC Köln 2:3 (1:1) 27,471 (Gentner, Ricardo Costa - Pezzoni, Freis, Chihi) 1899 Hoffenheim - Bayer Leverkusen 0:3 (0:1) 29,500 (Hyypiä, Kroos, Barnetta) Attendance: 332,385 (avg 36,932) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 19 11 8 0 42:15 +27 41 2. (3.) FC Bayern München 19 11 6 2 39:17 +22 39 3. (2.) FC Schalke 04 19 11 5 3 29:15 +14 38 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (5.) Borussia Dortmund 19 10 6 3 27:19 +8 36 5. (4.) Hamburger SV 19 9 7 3 36:20 +16 34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (6.) SV Werder Bremen 19 7 7 5 34:20 +14 28 7. (7.) Eintracht Frankfurt 19 7 7 5 24:25 -1 28 8. (10.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 19 7 6 6 24:26 -2 27 9. (8.) 1899 Hoffenheim 19 7 4 8 27:22 +5 25 10. (9.) VfL Wolfsburg 19 6 6 7 35:38 -3 24 11. (12.) VfB Stuttgart 19 5 7 7 20:24 -4 22 12. (11.) Borussia M'gladbach 19 6 4 9 25:31 -6 22 13. (14.) 1. FC Köln 19 5 6 8 15:20 -5 21 14. (13.) VfL Bochum 19 5 5 9 22:36 -14 20 15. (15.) SC Freiburg 19 5 3 11 19:36 -17 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) Hannover 96 19 4 5 10 21:31 -10 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 19 3 4 12 13:34 -21 13 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 19 2 4 13 16:39 -23 10 Top goalscorers: 1 Kießling, Stefan (Leverkusen) 12 2 Kuranyi, Kevin (Schalke) 10 3 Barrios, Lucas (Dortmund) 9 4 Dzeko, Edin (Wolfsburg) 8 5 Gomez, Mario (Bayern) 8 6 Kroos, Toni (Leverkusen) 8 7 Derdiyok, Eren (Leverkusen) 7 7 Olic, Ivica (Bayern) 7
2.Liga - 19th round
St.Pauli is the story of this round, as the Hamburgers creep closer to the top and a shocking Bundesliga return. The Paulistas pressed Alemannia Aachen, finally breaking through an important victory. Meanwhile, leaders Kaiserslautern struggled at home to last place Ahlen. FCK dominated, but was unable to score. Perhaps the Red Devils feels St.Pauli breathing down their neck. However, they still have a comfortable lead over 3rd place, so it's too early foe their fans to get nervous.
Bielefeld finally got back into the win column, although beating somebody like Koblenz is hardly headline news. Still, Arminia is happy to get full points and stop the bleeding. However, the Westfalen are faced with a strong challenge from an unlikely source, Augsburg. The Bavarians made short work of a hapless Oberhausen, and continue to hold down the playoff spot. But 3rd place is has lots of pretenders. Düsseldorf is one of those pretenders, and their win against Union Berlin probably finally ended the Berliners hopes of somehow sneaking into the top. Duisburg got a last second win in Cottbus and have also joined the battle for promotion.
A couple of disappointing squads seem to have straightened things out and established themselves in solid midfield. 1860 slapped Rostock, and Greuther Fürth blasted a crap FSV Frankfurt. The Frankfurters are done, you can stick a fork in them. I suppose they could still survive by nipping 16th and surviving the playoff, but in truth FSV hasn't shown much of a life line.
FSV Frankfurt - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:5 (0:2) 3,045 (Nehrig, Allagui, Schröck, N. Müller, Nöthe) TSV 1860 München - Hansa Rostock 3:0 (1:0) 16,800 (Lauth, Schöneberg o.g., Aigner) Fortuna Düsseldorf - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:0 (0:0) 25,300 (Anderson) FC St. Pauli - Alemannia Aachen 1:0 (1:0) 19,630 (Kruse) 1. FC K'lautern - Rot Weiss Ahlen 0:0 (0:0) 24,272 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - FC Augsburg 0:3 (0:3) 3,896 (Thurk 2, Torghelle) Arminia Bielefeld - TuS Koblenz 4:2 (2:0) 10,600 (Fort 2, Kirch, Delura - Lense, Hartmann) Karlsruher SC - SC Paderborn 07 1:2 (0:2) 14,571 (Schäfer - Saglik 2) FC Energie Cottbus - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:0) 6,188 (Baljak) Attendance: 124,302 (avg 13,811) 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 19 12 4 3 27:16 +11 40 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 19 12 3 4 44:20 +24 39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) FC Augsburg 19 9 7 3 41:27 +14 34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) Arminia Bielefeld 19 10 4 5 30:17 +13 34 5. (5.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 19 10 4 5 30:19 +11 34 6. (6.) MSV Duisburg 19 10 4 5 35:25 +10 34 7. (7.) 1. FC Union Berlin 19 8 5 6 27:25 +2 29 8. (9.) SC Paderborn 07 19 7 7 5 27:25 +2 28 9. (12.) TSV 1860 München 19 7 5 7 24:22 +2 26 10. (8.) Alemannia Aachen 19 7 5 7 19:20 -1 26 11. (14.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 19 8 1 10 36:33 +3 25 12. (10.) Karlsruher SC 19 7 3 9 27:29 -2 24 13. (11.) FC Energie Cottbus 19 6 6 7 28:28 0 23 14. (13.) Hansa Rostock 19 7 2 10 21:28 -7 23 15. (15.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 19 6 3 10 16:31 -15 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 19 3 4 12 17:36 -19 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 19 3 4 12 12:39 -27 13 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 19 1 6 12 10:31 -21 9
3.Liga
The 3rd division is still in winterbreak, although there are a few makeup games that are taking place from earlier weather postponements. That assumes that the snow gets cleared off, since most 3.Liga clubs don't have undersoil heating. Can't remember who's playing. I think Jena lost at home against Sandhausen, but I can't remember, which is probably the same for Jena and Sandhausen fans.
Misc News
Torsten Frings is finished, at least with the national squad. DFB-coach Joachim Löw announced that he will no longer be picking the 33-yr old defensive midfielder, whose thuggish play has been a fixture with Germany since 2001. Although still in decent club form with Bremen, Frings is being dropped to allow younger players their chance, at least according to Löw. Fact is however that the Bundestrainer was never really sold on Frings, maybe he wasn't metrosexual enough, hehehe. Anyway, Frings ends up representing Germany 79 times, scoring 10 goals.
Mirko Slomka new boss of Hannover. Is this guy is like foot fungus, he never goes away, or what? Anyway, 3rd time lucky perhaps for Hannover, as they fired Dieter Hecking and Andreas Bergmann already. If Slomka can stop Hannover's freefall, he'll do a lot to refurbish his tainted image.
Haiti efforts. German soccer has also got into the international rescue efforts for victims of the horrible earthquake in Haiti. The national squad announced a donation of 150,000 euros. Miroslav Klose has been key in organizing a friendly between Bayern München and VfL Wolfsburg, all proceeds going to the effort. This could turn out to be a nice sum. Borussia M'gladbach announced a weird promotion. They will donate one day of remaining ticket sales from one of their matches that isn't yet sold out, I forget which one. There were about 10,000 unsold seats, so all told, this could add up to another 200,000 euros, we'll have to see. Meanwhile, financially troubled Schalke still reached into the kitty, giving 100,000 euros from their community fund. I'm sure other clubs have gotten into the act as well, but I haven't seen any details.
Bundesliga, Round 18
Despite the ominous bad weather in Germany during the winterbreak, the top leagues have started up again. Better facilities combined with a break in the snow allowed all matches to take off. The winterbreak had none of the blockbuster player moves that filled up the gossip columns. There are still some moves that will undoubtedly be made, but most clubs started back with similar squads that they had finished off with.
Bayern München started off the round on Friday night, and proceeded to easily handle an injury riddled Hoffenheim squad. The win put München in 1st, at least until the Saturday games. Seems like an indication that Bayern is on target to win another title. Getting rid of Luca Toni seems to have have had a positive effect, since Van Gaal obviously feels his position is strengthened, and he wasn't going to use the Italian anyway. (Although, I believe he notched two goals this weekend with Roma).
Leaders Leverkusen continued where they had left off, beating down a competitive Mainz squad to hold onto 1st. When will they choke and hand the title to Bayern? So far, no indication that they want to do that just yet. Mainz put up a good fight, an indication that they still intend to play over their head the rest of the season.
Schalke struggled against a well-organized Nürnberg team. There were few chances for the dominant home side, but they finally got the win on a Kevin Kuranyi strike. This keeps Schalke in 2nd place, as they continue to collect points. A lot of players are rumoured to be sold, especially Höwedes and Rafinha. Often mentioned in Wolfsburg, which is struggling defensively and can afford to plunk down considerable cash. Obviously this would be a blow to Schalke's squad - the best defense - but much needed cash for the accountants. Actually, Rafinha they might as well dump, since he has become a malcontent and wants to leave. Too bad for Nürnberg, as they desperately could have used a point. But we'll have to see in the next few matches, especially their home ties, as to whether they have a chance for survival.
Hamburg dominated against Freiburg and keep all the points. HSV, like Schalke, is hoping to hold on. However, unlike the Schalkers, HSV isn't under any financial pressure, so if they consolidate their position, they can expect reinforcements, if not immediately, at least for next season. Freiburg will have to concentrate on grabbing points against fellow strugglers.
Dortmund has continued their good form, but it wasn't easy. They were sailing along, holding off a furious Köln attack, when at the very end they gave up two goals to seemingly settle for a draw. But perhaps Köln was too busy celebrating, as in injury time the Neons struck for the winner to keep up their climb up the table. Dortmund seems to be doing everything right. Too bad for Köln, but
Bremen is floundering. Werder was dominating the match against Frankfurt, but was unable to put the ball into the net. Instead, the hosts managed to launch a counterattack and grab the only goal, giving Eintracht a huge victory.
Stuttgart had a solid performance, but weak finishing made sure that there were plenty of nervous moments against Wolfsburg. However, the bottom line is they've started on the right foot, and with that form, they should move into midtable safety relatively soon. The VWs are still floundering, and Armin Veh better do something otherwise he'll end up getting his ass fired. Not that he's a bad coach or even doing a bad job, but as defending champ, Wolfsburg in 9th place is pretty disgraceful.
Bochum had a huge fighting victory at Gladbach, lifting them above Hannover. A loss would have been deadly, but the Blues rose to the occasion. This loss hurts Gladbach, who are not yet that far removed from danger, and this is a match where they expected points.
At very the bottom, one has to wonder whether the Hertha fightback has begun. Clearly the Berliners cannot stink as badly as they did in the first half. They couldn't have planned a better start, as they travelled to Hannover, who have basically totally collapsed. Hertha kicked their ass and at least start off the 2nd half with a bang. No matter what they do, it seems inevitable that they're going down, but they could certainly salvage some respect. I suppose if Hannover continues their freefall, they could maybe catch them and enter the relegation playoff.
Objectively, if you look at the bottom, Hertha is going down no matter what. I think they can be a tough opponent in the return rounds, but they dug themselves too deep a hole. At this point they're merely playing for pride, so we'll see if they are gutless or not. Nürnberg is just about dead as well. It's been a combo of lame ass performances and bad luck, and they're in deep Scheisse. As much as I have sympathy for "der Club", I think 2.Liga looms once again. Now there are several contenders for the relegation playoff spot, but Hannover is the joker in the deck. On paper, the 96ers are string enough to climb out, and they're only a point behind. But they seemingly have comepletly fallen apart, and unless they get a new team psychiatrist, things look grim. But what do you expect from a club that has official colors of green and black, and yet for most of their history shows up in red and black?
FC Bayern München - 1899 Hoffenheim 2:0 (1:0) 69,000 (Demichelis, Klose) Hannover 96 - Hertha BSC Berlin 0:3 (0:2) 28,712 (Piszczek, Raffael, Gekas) Eintracht Frankfurt - SV Werder Bremen 1:0 (0:0) 45,600 (Russ) Borussia M'gladbach - VfL Bochum 1:2 (0:2) 36,245 (Bäcker - Sestak, Dedic) Hamburger SV - SC Freiburg 2:0 (1:0) 51,448 (Jansen, Petric) Bayer Leverkusen - 1. FSV Mainz 05 4:2 (3:1) 28,000 (Kadlec, Barnetta, Kroos, Derdiyok - Hoogland, Bungert) VfB Stuttgart - VfL Wolfsburg 3:1 (1:0) 37,000 (Hilbert, Pogrebnyak, Gebhardt - Dzeko) FC Schalke 04 - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0 (0:0) 61,515 (Kuranyi) 1. FC Köln - Borussia Dortmund 2:3 (0:2) 50,000 (McKenna, Mohamad - Hummels 2, Grosskreutz) Attendance: 407,520 (avg 45,280) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 18 10 8 0 39:15 +24 38 2. (2.) FC Schalke 04 18 11 4 3 27:13 +14 37 3. (3.) FC Bayern München 18 10 6 2 36:15 +21 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) Hamburger SV 18 9 7 2 36:19 +17 34 5. (5.) Borussia Dortmund 18 9 6 3 26:19 +7 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (6.) SV Werder Bremen 18 7 7 4 32:17 +15 28 7. (10.) Eintracht Frankfurt 18 7 6 5 23:24 -1 27 8. (7.) 1899 Hoffenheim 18 7 4 7 27:19 +8 25 9. (8.) VfL Wolfsburg 18 6 6 6 33:35 -2 24 10. (9.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 18 6 6 6 23:26 -3 24 11. (11.) Borussia M'gladbach 18 6 3 9 25:31 -6 21 12. (15.) VfB Stuttgart 18 4 7 7 19:24 -5 19 13. (16.) VfL Bochum 18 5 4 9 20:34 -14 19 14. (12.) 1. FC Köln 18 4 6 8 12:18 -6 18 15. (13.) SC Freiburg 18 5 3 10 19:35 -16 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (14.) Hannover 96 18 4 5 9 21:30 -9 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 18 3 3 12 12:33 -21 12 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 18 2 3 13 16:39 -23 9
2.Liga - 18th round
Some good re-starts for some clubs in the 2.Liga. Greuther Fürth was one of the disappointments of the first half, but they botchslapped leaders Kaiserslautern. St.Pauli dominated in Ahlen and could have had a few more, and strengthen their hold on 2nd. Actually, the almost already relegated Ahleners played pretty well, but they were simply outclassed. Aachen is another team that sucked in the 1st half, so win over Karlsruhe is a statement of sorts. Also flashing their teeth was Duisburg, making mincemeat of another soon-to-be-3.Liga squad, FSV Frankfurt. Other than that, Augsburg has quietly become a contender for promotion, an impressive win over Cottbus. Bielefeld missed a chance to pass them when they gave up an injury time goal in Rostock.
Alemannia Aachen - Karlsruher SC 3:1 (1:0) 19,225 (Adlung, Auer, Drpic o.g. - Tarvajärvi) 1. FC Union Berlin - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 1:0 (0:0) 9,118 (Mosquera) SC Paderborn 07 - Fortuna Düsseldorf 1:1 (1:0) 8,980 (Brückner - Harnik) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - 1. FC K'lautern 3:0 (2:0) 7,350 (N. Müller, Nehrig 2) Rot Weiss Ahlen - FC St. Pauli 0:2 (0:0) 6,322 (Ebbers, Sukuta-Pasa) FC Augsburg - FC Energie Cottbus 3:1 (2:0) 12,228 (Torghelle 2, Ndjeng - Shao) TuS Koblenz - TSV 1860 München 2:2 (1:1) 6,128 (Hartmann, Glockner - Aigner, Ludwig) MSV Duisburg - FSV Frankfurt 5:0 (2:0) 10,107 (Baljak, Grlic, Sahan, Adler, Tiffert) Hansa Rostock - Arminia Bielefeld 1:1 (0:0) 7,000 (Schroeder - Kirch) Attendance: 86,458 (avg 9,606) 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 18 12 3 3 27:16 +11 39 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 18 11 3 4 43:20 +23 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (5.) FC Augsburg 18 8 7 3 38:27 +11 31 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) Arminia Bielefeld 18 9 4 5 26:15 +11 31 5. (4.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 18 9 4 5 29:19 +10 31 6. (6.) MSV Duisburg 18 9 4 5 34:25 +9 31 7. (7.) 1. FC Union Berlin 18 8 5 5 27:24 +3 29 8. (11.) Alemannia Aachen 18 7 5 6 19:19 0 26 9. (9.) SC Paderborn 07 18 6 7 5 25:24 +1 25 10. (8.) Karlsruher SC 18 7 3 8 26:27 -1 24 11. (10.) FC Energie Cottbus 18 6 5 7 28:27 +1 23 12. (12.) TSV 1860 München 18 6 5 7 21:22 -1 23 13. (13.) Hansa Rostock 18 7 2 9 21:25 -4 23 14. (15.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 18 7 1 10 31:33 -2 22 15. (14.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 18 6 3 9 16:28 -12 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (17.) TuS Koblenz 18 3 4 11 15:32 -17 13 17. (16.) FSV Frankfurt 18 3 4 11 12:34 -22 13 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 18 1 5 12 10:31 -21 8 Top scorers: 1 Michael Thurk (Augsburg) 15 2 Marius Ebbers (St. Pauli) 11 3 Giovanni Federico (Bielefeld) 9 4 Martin Harnik (Düsseldorf) 9
Mid season report cards
Here are the midway reportcards for the Bundesliga (using American grade system A-F. Hey, what happened to the "E"?)
BUNDESLIGA 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 17 9 8 0 35:13 +22 35 Grade: A It's hard to argue that the Aspirins deserve anything less than a top grade. They're the only unbeaten squad in the German professional ranks, and they've been deadly finishing off opponents. The one negative is that Leverkusen hasn't been able to shake off their rivals, and so the likely end result is that they'll choke again and not win the title. On the other hand, coach Jupp Heynckes is a notorious hardass, so he is certainly not to take it lightly when the Aspirins start to falter. 2. (2.) FC Schalke 04 17 10 4 3 26:13 +13 34 Grade: A- Considering that Schalke is teetering on the verge of financial meltdown, their performance has been pretty solid. New coach Felix Magath has gotten maximum gain out of a traditionally underachieving squad. However, they've really played pretty crap. Unfortunately for Schalke, a likely fire-sale is looming for the transfer window. Magath is almost certain to dump a lot of high priced talent, and despite some solid youth coming in, S04 is likely to start slipping down the table. 3. (3.) FC Bayern München 17 9 6 2 34:15 +19 33 Grade: B What a difference a couple of weeks makes. New coach Louis Van Gaal was on the verge of getting his ass tossed, as Bayern was really stinking, despite all the cash. The club was reverting to FC Hollywood, but the last few matches have seen a disciplined aggressive Bayern come full circle. They look hungry and ruthless, and are only a couple of points off the pace. A likely outcome is another title. 4. (5.) Hamburger SV 17 8 7 2 34:19 +15 31 Grade: A- Most fans felt that incoming coach Bruno Labbadia would be a disaster. That and the fact that the squad hasn't really strengthened itself in a couple of seasons. Then add on that they've suffered a lot of injuries. You'd expect HSV to be struggling mightily. And yet, they have held on and gotten maximum results. Given the fact that they've hung on, HSV can probably expect more of the same in the 2nd half. Not sure whether they can hang on to Europe, but they should be in the hunt. 5. (6.) Borussia Dortmund 17 8 6 3 23:17 +6 30 Grade: A- Dortmund really started out lame, and coach Jürgen Klopp might have been losing some of the support from the huge fan base. But he's managed to turn things around and maximize the Neons potential. They're playing well, and have a decent chance of qualifying for Europe, which would be a tremendous plus. The club management has weathered the financial meltdown, and although money is still tight, they seem solid enough now. 6. (4.) SV Werder Bremen 17 7 7 3 32:16 +16 28 Grade: B Bremen is going in the wrong direction, almost a flip of Bayern. Werder was flying high, looking as a contender, and then the wheels fell off. Obviously they've got some talent, and they seem likely to put together another streak, but that seems to be their MO, streak in either direction. They'll undoubtedly kick some ass along the way, but I'm not certain they can get back into contention. 7. (7.) 1899 Hoffenheim 17 7 4 6 27:17 +10 25 Grade: B As many predicted, Hoffenheim is catching nobody with their pants down this year. But as many fail to give them credit, Dietmar Hopp's money has assembled some decent young talent, and they've become a pretty decent squad. Coach Ralf Rangnick has done a decent job in building something that was just a pile of money. They're unlikely to move up the table much, but are too good to drop much lower either. 8. (9.) VfL Wolfsburg 17 6 6 5 32:32 0 24 Grade: C The defending champs in 8th place, that's crap. But I wouldn't rate it that bad. First, Magath recognized that VW had reached it's potential with their sensational title, so he bolted and left the scraps for Armin Veh. Wolfsburg catches no one off guard anymore. They're still a good team, but it seems that Veh hasn't done a good job in containing egos, and that disharmony is hurting the squad. The defense is leaking goals. I can't see the VWs making Europe. 9. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 17 6 6 5 21:22 -1 24 Grade: B+ Mainz has almost no talent. Plus they fired their coach (BEFORE the season!!) and replaced him with their youth coach, who is young enough to be in the squad. They just got promoted and everybody predicted them to drop immediately. But they've been a surprise and have held it together. They grab points here and there and barring an unbelievable calamity, should only be relegated in the 2010-11 season. 10. (10.) Eintracht Frankfurt 17 6 6 5 22:24 -2 24 Grade: C Frankfurt is one of those teams where you just give them a C and move on. Seems the same every year. They should do better, but I think the only way that happens is if they bring back Heynckes. Some talented players like Alex Meier should move elsewhere, that might give them a chance to move to the next level. 11. (11.) Borussia M'gladbach 17 6 3 8 24:29 -5 21 Grade: B- Gladbach has raised their game and grade a full notch in the last few weeks. They looked crap, but have started grabbing points and building themselves some dstance. Solid base of youth players bodes well, assuming they can hold on the talent (unlikely). They look a good bet to stay up though. 12. (14.) 1. FC Köln 17 4 6 7 10:15 -5 18 Grade: C They're on track to be the worst offense ever, but their defense has been outstanding. Catenaccio 1-2-3 I guess. Not a very good squad. Other teams look worse, so they have a good chance to survive. 13. (12.) SC Freiburg 17 5 3 9 19:33 -14 18 Grade: C+ Very inconsistent, when they suck, they get their ass pounded. But that's what one would expect. No talent, but good heart. My guess is they survive, but a lot depends on other squads. 14. (13.) Hannover 96 17 4 5 8 21:27 -6 17 Grade: D The 96ers were doing their usual ho-hum season and then Robert Enke committed suicide. This tragic event seems to destroyed the morale of the 96ers, and now they're in free-fall. The winterbreak comes at a good time, because they need to regroup. If they can re-focus, they are strong enough to stop the rot and float above the drop. 15. (15.) VfB Stuttgart 17 3 7 7 16:23 -7 16 Grade: F VfB certainly expected to challenge for Europe, if not even the title. Instead they have their fans rioting and threatening players and club officials. How can you not give them an F? On the plus side, they've got the talent and a new coach, Christian Gross. His track record is crap for any club larger than FC Podunk, but even he should be able to straighten things out by kicking a few asses. So I expect Stuttgart to recover and move up in the 2nd half. Although it would be amusing to see them relegated. 16. (16.) VfL Bochum 17 4 4 9 18:33 -15 16 Grade: C- Going in, we knew Bochum had no talent. We knew they would run around like chickens, sometimes with their heads cut off. It's been pretty acurrate. But they've been here before and that's worth something. Not sure if it's enough to keep them up, but they're only a couple of points behind Freiburg, who have less talent. Plus Hannover needs therapy, so that's a possibility. 17. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 17 3 3 11 12:32 -20 12 Grade: F They stink. It's clear they have no clue on how to play in the Bundesliga. The fans should enjoy it and hope that they're not playing teams like Sandhausen next year and they can reorganize in the 2.Liga 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 17 1 3 13 13:39 -26 6 Grade: F- OK, there is no "F-", but I had to invent one just for Hertha. They are a disgrace! The club management should be executed. The players should be sent to the Russian front! They need a Hitler "Downfall" parody on Youtube like yesterday!! It's beyond amazing what the idiotic club management has been thinking. At least when that dolt Dieter Hoeness was in charge, you could at least say he had some type of "Grossenwahnsinn" (Delusion of grandeur), if that is even a word. (One of the few positives about German is that you can invent vocabulary left and right just by combining things). Basically Hoeness hoped to emulate his smarter brother Uli from Bayern and build a great powerful club. Of course, he had no clue how to do it and eventually got his ass fired. But their current clowns make fans clamor for the good old days under Hoeness. Meanwhile, Dieter has moved on to Wolfsburg, so sell your Jetta and buy a Toyota. VW would have been better off with the Dieter from "Sprockets". Obviously, Hertha is going down, hard. A total regrouping in the 2.Liga is needed. Meanwhile, maybe they can use the 2nd half to find out which players they can start to rebuild with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.LIGA 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 17 12 3 2 27:13 +14 39 Grade: A FCK is making the right moves to get back to the Bundesliga. They've dicked around in the 2.Liga for a bit, and they appear ready to return to the big time. The squad doesn't seem that strong though, so although they seem destined for promotion, they'll need to start thinking about moves for the future. 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 17 10 3 4 41:20 +21 33 Grade: A I don't think anyone expected St.Pauli to be this strong. Their offense is the best in the league, and they obviously are one of the more popular clubs. The idea of St.Pauli bouncing back to the Bundesliga is pretty amazing, as this club jumps up and down the league elevator like hotel room service. 3. (4.) Arminia Bielefeld 17 9 3 5 25:14 +11 30 Grade: B Bielefeld started off and looked like they were a lock for an automatic promotion spot, but then they ran out of gas and have looked winded. The winterbreak comes at a good time. I expect them to be in the promotion hunt, and strictly speaking they should be one of the favorites. But they seem a bit shaky, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out. 4. (3.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 17 9 3 5 28:18 +10 30 Grade: A- Fortuna has been a pleasant surprise. Not too much was expected from this promoted squad, despite a favorable Bundesliga pedigree. It would take a lot of luck to make the jump into the top this season, but if they can continue to play well, this could be a tremendous block upon which to build. 5. (6.) FC Augsburg 17 7 7 3 35:26 +9 28 Grade: B Augsburg doesn't get much respect, but they are a decent squad with decent home support. Considering that acceptable football has by-passed this town for about 50 years, they're doing quite well. I don't think they're strong enough for a Bundesliga push, but they're a solid 2.Liga club, capable to beating top teams. 6. (5.) MSV Duisburg 17 8 4 5 29:25 +4 28 Grade: B- Duisburg has been very streaky. They sucked at the start, then got their act together. They can certainly make a push for promotion - anything else would have to be considered borderline failure. 6. (7.) 1. FC Union Berlin 17 7 5 5 26:24 +2 26 Grade: B+ I didn't expect much from the promoted East Berliners, but they came out of the blocks fast and have grabbed critical points. No relegation worries, and the prospect of Hertha joining them next season for some great Berlin derbies is the likely reward for this campaign. 8. (10.) Karlsruher SC 17 7 3 7 25:24 +1 24 Grade: C+ KSC has underachieved, although recently perhaps started showing some life. You'd expect them to be floating nearer the top, so thus far it's a poor season. 9. (8.) SC Paderborn 07 17 6 6 5 24:23 +1 24 Grade: B Paderborn is another team that gets little respect, and one expects that they are punching above their weight. But they appear to be quite solid, and should be happy with their performance so far. 10. (11.) FC Energie Cottbus 17 6 5 6 27:24 +3 23 Grade: C Cottbus is a bit hard to figure out. I wouldn't be surprised to see them challenge for promotion, but not this season. Given their minimal resources, their bargain basement foreigner strategy has worked well. They have been too inconsistent this season to go anywhere. 11. (12.) Alemannia Aachen 17 6 5 6 16:18 -2 23 Grade: C I expected more from Aachen, and they've struggled. They have good fan support, but their Bundesliga sojurn a couple of seasons ago seems to have sapped their strength. They are bumbling along, but you don't want to play them when they have their act together. 12. (9.) TSV 1860 München 17 6 4 7 19:20 -1 22 Grade: C 1860 is one ofthe great disappointments of the 2.Liga. München can not only support, but needs two Bundesliga clubs. But 1860 has sucked pretty much since they got relegated a few years ago, and has totally disappointed their considerable fanbase - to the point that their attendance has dropped off. Recently they have shown some signs of life, but obviously this season is already over for them. Some needs to be executed. 13. (15.) Hansa Rostock 17 7 1 9 20:24 -4 22 Grade: C Rostock has had many problems, especially with the cash register. It keeps on ringing up "empty". As a result, you'd expect them to struggle a bit. They seem to have straightened things out, so perhaps things will start looking up - for next season. 14. (13.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 17 6 3 8 16:27 -11 21 Grade: C- RWO has been falling fast. They were off to a good start, but their lack of talent is showing. Nobody really cares though. 15. (14.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 17 6 1 10 28:33 -5 19 Grade: D- Greuther Fürth expected to at least challenge for a promotion spot once again. Instead, they have bled points and this first half is pretty much a dsaster. From the attendance standpoint, they are a discredit to the 2.Liga, but from a field perspective, it's a decent squad. I would expect them to do better and certainly not have any relegation worries. 16. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 17 3 4 10 12:29 -17 13 Grade: D OK, last season took a superhuman second half for FSV to survive, and they were unable to strengthen the squad. The fact is, Frankfurt seemingly only supports one team, and it ain't FSV. Despite a weak squad, their goal should be to hold onto 16th, and perhaps win out the playoff with the 3.Liga pretender. Their battle seems to be with Koblenz, anything else is A Bridge Too Far. 17. (16.) TuS Koblenz 17 3 3 11 13:30 -17 12 Grade: F Koblenz survived a point deduction last season, but that seems to have sapped their strength. They've been weak and it's over, unless they manage to win out the playoff. They need to focus on beating out FSV for 16th. 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 17 1 5 11 10:29 -19 8 Grade: F They suck. And they have no fans, so everybody will be happy to see them go. However, they probably have the meddle to be a decent 3.Liga club, if they straighten themselves out. That's where they'll be next year, unless they collapse financially. I'd rather see them than those crap "II" squads from the Bundesliga. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.LIGA I was toying wityh the idea of giving the whole league a "C" and be done with it, since it's so tightly packed... 1. (3.) FC Ingolstadt 04 20 11 3 6 44:23 +21 36 Grade: A I didn't expect Ingolstadt to be the leaders, or even a contender. But they've been solid and have really only played one poor match (losing at home to last place Wuppertal!). Who knows where they'll end up, but you can basically say that for every 3.Liga squad. 2. (1.) VfL Osnabrück 20 11 3 6 31:21 +10 36 Grade: B Osnabrück was clearly on everybody's favorite list for promotion, and after a shaky start, they are in the hunt. 3. (4.) Kickers Offenbach 21 9 7 5 35:23 +12 34 Grade: B- Offenbach was in a good position, but they really tanked in the last few matches and have hurt themselves. Obviously they will remain a promotion contender 4. (2.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 21 10 4 7 31:30 +1 34 Grade: B+ Eastern teams have fans, but lots of problems, both at the register and...with their fans. Aue seems to have resolved these issues satisfactorily, and seem likely to continue to challenge. 5. (11.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 21 9 4 8 38:33 +5 31 Grade: B+ As a promoted small club, not much has been expected from Heidenheim, but they've been a solid squad, punching above their weight. 6. (7.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 21 8 7 6 25:23 +2 31 Grade: B Pretty much the same comments as Aue. 7. (5.) Eintracht Braunschweig 21 8 6 7 29:23 +6 30 Grade: B- Eintracht have the largest fan base in the league, except perhaps Dresden or Osnabrück. The team however is very inconsistent, and I just don't think they will be there at the end. 8. (6.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 20 8 6 6 37:35 +2 30 Grade: B Nobody even knows where this village is, but they've played some decent football. Being midpack is a good result. 9. (8.) Wacker Burghausen 20 9 3 8 23:33 -10 30 Grade: B- Similar to Sandhausen, except crappier. They actually suck, but have been focused on grabbing points in winnable matches. 10. (9.) Jahn Regensburg 20 8 5 7 27:21 +6 29 Grade: C+ Seem solid, but they could be better. 11. (10.) SpVgg Unterhaching 20 8 5 7 30:29 +1 29 Grade: C- Because of their pedigree, you expect more from Unterhaching, but they just aren't that good. 12. (12.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 20 7 6 7 24:29 -5 27 Grade: C- Disappointing 13. (13.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 21 7 5 9 26:35 -9 26 Grade: C I think many expected Wehen to collapse into a pile of steaming you-know-what. Well, at least they're not steaming. They were clearly out of their league in the 2.Liga, and seem just about right as a struggling 3.Liga squad. 14. (14.) SV Werder Bremen II 20 7 4 9 26:29 -3 25 Grade: C They're OK, but they need to be relegated. 15. (18.) Borussia Dortmund II 21 7 4 10 24:28 -4 25 Grade: C They're OK, but they need to be relegated. 16. (15.) VfB Stuttgart II 21 7 2 12 28:32 -4 23 Grade: C They're OK, but they need to be relegated. 17. (20.) Dynamo Dresden 21 6 5 10 24:29 -5 23 Grade: D Dresden needs to get their act together. They need to be at least a 2.Liga team, and instead they dick around and insult their large fanbase. 18. (16.) FC Bayern München II 19 6 5 8 26:36 -10 23 Grade: C They're OK, but they need to be relegated. 19. (17.) Holstein Kiel 20 6 4 10 23:28 -5 22 Grade: C- Kiel was going to struggle, but there still is all to play for. 20. (19.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 20 6 4 10 21:32 -11 22 Grade: F Disgrace! The table should be upside down!! WSV needs to be returning to their rightful place in the Bundesliga! Unfortunately with the clowns that have run the show for years, I fear that a drop back to the 4th division is the most likely result of this season. The squad sucked early, but then started playing well. However, points are so hard to come by in the balanced 3.Liga, it will take some hard work not to drop. And I fear that is not forthcoming. I must admit that the only reason this website even exists is because of WSV, so if they drop, the raison d'etre gets relegated as well. Unless of course I decide to inflict Regionalliga updates upon you, the suffering readers. A much better solution would be for all clubs that have Roman numerals in their name get automatic relegation.
Bundesliga - 17th round
The Bundesliga now goes into winterbreak, and despite heavy snow and freezing cold throughout Germany, the Bundesliga at least had packed stadiums.
Leverkusen had a rough time with Gladbach, but in the end they were able to beat them down and seize the "Herbstmeisterschaft". Of course, it's a worthless honor, but nice to have. Gladbach hasn't been able to beat the Aspirins in 25 tries, but they put up a decent fight this time.
Schalke is playing minimalist football, but they've gotten a lot out of it. They really didn't play that well against Mainz, but they did enough to get the win. The most interesting aspect is whether there is an exodus of players when the transfer window opens. Schalke is in dire economic straits, and boss Felix Magath has stated that he will shake up the club.
Bayern is back in form, and had little problem with Hertha, basically taking the Berliners out to the woodshed and serving up a beating.
Hamburg is doing it with mirrors, and they scraped out a win in the Nordderby against Bremen. A few weeks ago Werder looked unbeatable, and now they're struggling again. Excellent win for injury riddled HSV.
Dortmund has been red hot since a ho-hum start, and their 100th birthday saw anothyer packed house in "Europe's greatest stadium". Freiburg are hot and cold, and obviously cold this week. Dortmund failed to bring a good performance, but did enough to merit the win.
Frankfurt and Wolfsburg fought to an entertaining draw, capping off a disappointing half for the defending champs. The first casualty is already set, as none other than Dieter Hoeness will be taking over as sporting director in January. Considering what a great job he did with Hertha Berlin, the wish of many fans to see FC Volkswagen may now be realized, hehehe. Frankfurt has been all over the place this season, so no surprise that they can still bring it on occasion. a just result.
Stuttgart was literally falling apart at the seems, but firing your coach often has a mini-benefit. VfB played some solid football (their first in ages) and came up winners against a disappointing Hoffenheim, who continue to show that they're not ready to break into the top echelons.
A huge match in Hannover, and if there is any more evidence that the 96ers are in permanent shock from the Enke suicide, his should be it. A critical match saw them coasting along on a couple of Jens Schlaudraff strikes, but they not only could not hold the lead, they ended up losing. A great result for Bochum, who fought their way out of the hole and come up with a stunning success. They still suck, but with Hannover basically falling apart, they certainly have some chances of staying up now.
Another huge relegation battle saw Köln win decisively. Opponents Nürnberg were crap from the start, and basically got their ass kicked. It must be embarassing, as Köln increased their season scoring output by 43% in just one game. In fact, 30% of all their goals this year come against Nürnberg. I think that's a fair indication of how crap der Club was.
FC Schalke 04 - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:0 (1:0) 60,852 (Farfan) FC Bayern München - Hertha BSC Berlin 5:2 (3:0) 69,000 (Van Buyten, Gomez, Robben, T. Müller, Olic - Ramos, Raffael) Borussia Dortmund - SC Freiburg 1:0 (1:0) 80,100 (Barrios) Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia M'gladbach 3:2 (1:1) 30,210 (Kroos 2, Derdiyok - Brouwers, Dante) Hannover 96 - VfL Bochum 2:3 (2:0) 33,875 (Schlaudraff 2 - Freier, Epallé, Fuchs) Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Wolfsburg 2:2 (1:1) 41,700 (Franz, Meier - Dzeko, Josué) VfB Stuttgart - 1899 Hoffenheim 3:1 (1:1) 41,000 (Marica, Cacau, Khedira - Maicosuel) Hamburger SV - SV Werder Bremen 2:1 (2:0) 57,000 (Mathijsen, Jansen - Naldo) 1. FC Köln - 1. FC Nürnberg 3:0 (1:0) 44,500 (Geromel, Novakovic 2) Attendance: 458,237 (avg 50,915) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 17 9 8 0 35:13 +22 35 2. (2.) FC Schalke 04 17 10 4 3 26:13 +13 34 3. (3.) FC Bayern München 17 9 6 2 34:15 +19 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (5.) Hamburger SV 17 8 7 2 34:19 +15 31 5. (6.) Borussia Dortmund 17 8 6 3 23:17 +6 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (4.) SV Werder Bremen 17 7 7 3 32:16 +16 28 7. (7.) 1899 Hoffenheim 17 7 4 6 27:17 +10 25 8. (9.) VfL Wolfsburg 17 6 6 5 32:32 0 24 9. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 17 6 6 5 21:22 -1 24 10. (10.) Eintracht Frankfurt 17 6 6 5 22:24 -2 24 11. (11.) Borussia M'gladbach 17 6 3 8 24:29 -5 21 12. (14.) 1. FC Köln 17 4 6 7 10:15 -5 18 13. (12.) SC Freiburg 17 5 3 9 19:33 -14 18 14. (13.) Hannover 96 17 4 5 8 21:27 -6 17 15. (15.) VfB Stuttgart 17 3 7 7 16:23 -7 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) VfL Bochum 17 4 4 9 18:33 -15 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 17 3 3 11 12:32 -20 12 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 17 1 3 13 13:39 -26 6
2.Liga - 17th round
There were a few pre-Xmas surprises under the tree. Leaders Kaiserslautern were thoroughly bitch-slapped in Augsburg, but had already clinched the half-way title. Duisburg had been flying high, but Aachen showed up and took a dump in their punch bowl. A win could have seen MSV move into a promotion spot. Good win for struggling Alemannia though.
Paderborn put in a solid performance and even had a few fans show up. The result was a win over redhot St.Pauli.
Düsseldorf were beginning to entertain thoughts of moving up as well, but a defeat in Rostock brings them back to earth.
On the bottom, FSV Frankfurt gets the win in Koblenz. Too little, too late, but they move into the relegation playoff spot, so that's better than where they used to be. Koblenz really looks out of gas.
The collapse of Greuther Fürth has been another surprise this season. They were savaged at home by Karlsruhe. As usual, nobody was watching, but news must have gotten back to the directorate, as they then fired coach Benno Möhlmann, who has largely been responsible for putting these clowns on the map.
MSV Duisburg - Alemannia Aachen 0:2 (0:1) 16,288 (Gueye 2) Rot Weiss Ahlen - FC Energie Cottbus 0:4 (0:2) 2,912 (Shao, Kruska, Kweuke, Petersen) TuS Koblenz - FSV Frankfurt 0:1 (0:1) 5,833 (Gjasula) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Karlsruher SC 1:4 (0:2) 4,650 (N. Müller - Stindl, Iashvili, Tarvajärvi) Hansa Rostock - Fortuna Düsseldorf 2:1 (1:0) 13,000 (Bülow, Schlitte - Harnik) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - Arminia Bielefeld 0:0 (0:0) 4,629 1. FC Union Berlin - TSV 1860 München 1:1 (1:1) 15,467 (Brunnemann - Pappas) SC Paderborn 07 - FC St. Pauli 2:1 (0:0) 13,041 (Saglik, Brandy - Sako) FC Augsburg - 1. FC K'lautern 4:1 (2:0) 23,134 (Hain, Ndjeng, Thurk, Torghelle - Jendrisek) Attendance: 98,954 (avg 10,995) 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 17 12 3 2 27:13 +14 39 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 17 10 3 4 41:20 +21 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) Arminia Bielefeld 17 9 3 5 25:14 +11 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 17 9 3 5 28:18 +10 30 5. (6.) FC Augsburg 17 7 7 3 35:26 +9 28 6. (5.) MSV Duisburg 17 8 4 5 29:25 +4 28 6. (7.) 1. FC Union Berlin 17 7 5 5 26:24 +2 26 8. (10.) Karlsruher SC 17 7 3 7 25:24 +1 24 9. (8.) SC Paderborn 07 17 6 6 5 24:23 +1 24 10. (11.) FC Energie Cottbus 17 6 5 6 27:24 +3 23 11. (12.) Alemannia Aachen 17 6 5 6 16:18 -2 23 12. (9.) TSV 1860 München 17 6 4 7 19:20 -1 22 13. (15.) Hansa Rostock 17 7 1 9 20:24 -4 22 14. (13.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 17 6 3 8 16:27 -11 21 15. (14.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 17 6 1 10 28:33 -5 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 17 3 4 10 12:29 -17 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (16.) TuS Koblenz 17 3 3 11 13:30 -17 12 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 17 1 5 11 10:29 -19 8
3.Liga - Round 21
Weather conditions forced cancelation of half the matches, as most 3.Liga clubs don't have resources to keep their fields clear. The most impressive result was Ingolstadt ripping Aue, thereby seizing the table. Offenbach is still constipated, and was unable to defeat Erfurt, whereas Braunschweig completely laid an egg, losing at home to Dortmund's B squad. A huge win in Dresden though for Dynamo.
The 3.Liga is the tightest league. Consider that there are only 14 points separating 1st from last. (29 in the Bundesliga, 31 in the 2.Liga). So basically, if Wuppertal could put up 4 wins, they could get promoted instead of relegated. Expect a fierce dogfight after the winter hibernation.
Kickers Offenbach - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 0:0 (0:0) 6,743 Eintracht Braunschweig - Borussia Dortmund II 1:2 (0:1) 10,925 (Kruppke - Tyrala, Koch) FC Ingolstadt 04 - FC Erzgebirge Aue 5:1 (1:0) 3,502 (Buchner, Hartmann 2, Leitl 2 - Agyemang) Dynamo Dresden - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 3:1 (2:0) 11,502 (Kegel, Röttger 2 - Reinert) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - VfB Stuttgart II 2:1 (0:1) 4,060 (Schnatterer, Spann - Schipplock) SV Werder Bremen II - VfL Osnabrück postponed SpVgg Unterhaching - FC Bayern München II postponed FC Carl Zeiss Jena - SV 1916 Sandhausen postponed Jahn Regensburg - Wuppertaler SV postponed Wacker Burghausen - Holstein Kiel postponed Attendance: 36,732 (avg 7,346) 1. (3.) FC Ingolstadt 04 20 11 3 6 44:23 +21 36 2. (1.) VfL Osnabrück 20 11 3 6 31:21 +10 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) Kickers Offenbach 21 9 7 5 35:23 +12 34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (2.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 21 10 4 7 31:30 +1 34 5. (11.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 21 9 4 8 38:33 +5 31 6. (7.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 21 8 7 6 25:23 +2 31 7. (5.) Eintracht Braunschweig 21 8 6 7 29:23 +6 30 8. (6.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 20 8 6 6 37:35 +2 30 9. (8.) Wacker Burghausen 20 9 3 8 23:33 -10 30 10. (9.) Jahn Regensburg 20 8 5 7 27:21 +6 29 11. (10.) SpVgg Unterhaching 20 8 5 7 30:29 +1 29 12. (12.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 20 7 6 7 24:29 -5 27 13. (13.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 21 7 5 9 26:35 -9 26 14. (14.) SV Werder Bremen II 20 7 4 9 26:29 -3 25 15. (18.) Borussia Dortmund II 21 7 4 10 24:28 -4 25 16. (15.) VfB Stuttgart II 21 7 2 12 28:32 -4 23 17. (20.) Dynamo Dresden 21 6 5 10 24:29 -5 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (16.) FC Bayern München II 19 6 5 8 26:36 -10 23 19. (17.) Holstein Kiel 20 6 4 10 23:28 -5 22 20. (19.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 20 6 4 10 21:32 -11 22
Bundesliga - 16th round
With one week left in the fall season, all bets are off for the leader of the winterbreak.
Bayer Leverkusen remains unbeaten, but were in for a shock in Berlin. Hertha has been the creme de la crap, but they put up a good fight against the Aspirins. After an early deficit, Leverkusen began to strangle Hertha with their superior skills and finally looked to have the fighting Berliners down for the count. But a last desperate effort gave Hertha an injury time goal and a deserved point. Of course they still look helpless, although at least now they look less hapless. For Leverkusen, they must already be feeling Bayern's bad breath on their back, and I would expect them to do their usual choke.
Schalke has been unimpressive most of the season - except in the result department. Coach Felix Magath seems to be getting a lot out of this basically worthless bunch of overpaid malcontents. In Bremen, they showed a very discplined defensive oraganization, with blitz counterattacks. Werder has been the high-flyer recently, but were befuddled by Schalke's strength, and basically the Muhamad Ali type 'rope-a-dope' strategy of Schalke paid off comepletely. A deserved win for the Blues, perhaps their best effort of the season. Werder had been unbeaten in ages, I forget which, 20 something games in all cometitions.
Bayern München had been really sucking under coach Van Gaal, and just when rumours were beginning to fly that his ass was on the line, the last 2-3 weeks have been very impressive. This time Bayern savaged host Bochum, who should be happy they were only thumped this bad. After a really poor fall season, it's not impossible that Bayern actually end up leading at winterbreak. Bochum, whose fans traditionally were one of the few non-anti Bayern contingents (indeed in the past they had trumpeted "Fanfreundschaft" with Bayern, what an unusual concept), was thoroughly thrashed and embarrassed. They might want to re-think that philosphy, hehehe. Of course, they could have hardly expected a point, so I guess it doesn't really matter.
Hamburg has been struggling to get full points, not to mention get out of the hospital. But a weekend vacation in Nürnberg was apparently just what the doctor ordered. Rest and rehabilitation and kicking some Nürnberg ass. Yes, the world is good again. While HSV ran rampant, der Club merely ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. Obviously, a totally crap performance, and they need to get their act together unless they want a return to the Frankenderby with Greuther Fürth next season. I think HSV isn't going anywhere, but the socialized medicine system does seem to be working, all things considered.
Dortmund has quietly become red-hot. The Neons showed up in Volkswagenstadt and stunned the defending Champions. VfL Kraftdurchfreudestadt has been struggling most of the season, perhaps under the weight of expectations. I think Felix Magath knew what to expect when he jumped ship. Armin Veh took over because he didn't want to become Hartz IV. (Bad joke, German unemployment insurance politics). Veh has tried to impose a combination short passing style, but it doesn't seem to be working. Last year's dream attack duo of Dzeko/Grafite has rarely clicked. Wolfsburg is still a good squad, capable of beating anybody, but they can look very ordinary at times as well. Dortmund has really raised their game. Short on talent, but quite efficient.
The regional derby between Hoffenheim and Frankfurt piddled out to a draw. Frankfurt actually had somewhat of an edge early, and then had to raise their game in order to get a point. You'd have to say that this is a better result for Frankfurt, since they're so bloody inconsistent. We've come to expect more from the Hopp-truppe, even though money obviously can't buy everything.
God, is there a greater wanker than Jens Lehmann? The guy was crap at Arsenal, and wouldn't even have been a starter if it wasn't for Manuel Almunia, the worst goalkeeper in history. Wenger is just a stubborn Frenchie who refuses to beleive that. Arse is going nowhere until they get a real GK. Oops, wrong league commentary. Anyway, back to the wanker. He managed to kick a Mainz player, get red carded, give up the penalty and cost Stuttgart a needed win. (Admittedly, the Mainz player, Aristide Bance, is also a wanker, rolling on the ground clutching his head after Lehmann stomped his foot. That asshole should have been redcarded as well.) You already know about his exploits against the Romanians earlier in the week. Plus he has a big mouth. Anyway, Stuttgart had to withstand Mainz desperate attempts to salvage a point, but Lehmann came through, so they still remain unbeaten at home. Seems like Stuttgart is getting their act together somewhat, and in any case, it's hard to believe they're crappier than Nürnberg, Bochum and Hertha, so as long as their wanker fans don't riot anymore and get the team penalized points, they'll probably be able to survive and write off this season as "I don't remember or I refuse to incriminate myself."
Köln is really a crap team, but you have to admire their defensive discipline. They set some Bundesliga record for most shutouts, I forget what exactly, most away consecutive or something only Bill von James could love. Obviously they must be setting an offensive record for most shutouts too. But they held off Freiburg away, so that's not a bad point for them. SCF meanwhile continues a decent season, looking to have a slight cushion into winter.
Hannover is going overboard over Robert Enke's death. They can't even figure out which goal to kick in. So they banged 3 (yes, three) into their own net. Gladbach said thanks and added a couple of their own. An excellent win for the hosts, who seem strong enough to stay up without too much difficulty. Things looked a little bleaker about a month ago, but the youngsters seem to have responded. Hannover looks like in free fall and need to catch themselves.
Hertha BSC Berlin - Bayer Leverkusen 2:2 (1:0) 40,474 (Ramos 2 - Kroos, Kaplan) 1899 Hoffenheim - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:1 (1:0) 30,165 (Salihovic - Schwegler) VfL Bochum - FC Bayern München 1:5 (0:3) 30,748 (Fuchs - Gomez, Mavraj o.g., Olic 2, Pranjic) Borussia M'gladbach - Hannover 96 5:3 (2:1) 43,528 (Haggui 2 o.g., Djakpa o.g., Bradley, Friend - Ya Konan 2, Schultz) SC Freiburg - 1. FC Köln 0:0 (0:0) 24,000 1. FC Nürnberg - Hamburger SV 0:4 (0:0) 44,865 (Elia 2, Jansen, Torun) SV Werder Bremen - FC Schalke 04 0:2 (0:0) 37,000 (Kuranyi, Moravek) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - VfB Stuttgart 1:1 (0:1) 20,300 (Polanski - Pogrebnyak) VfL Wolfsburg - Borussia Dortmund 1:3 (0:3) 30,000 (Grafite - Barrios 2, Owomoyela) Attendance: 301,080 (avg 33,453) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 16 8 8 0 32:11 +21 32 2. (3.) FC Schalke 04 16 9 4 3 25:13 +12 31 3. (4.) FC Bayern München 16 8 6 2 29:13 +16 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (2.) SV Werder Bremen 16 7 7 2 31:14 +17 28 5. (5.) Hamburger SV 16 7 7 2 32:18 +14 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (7.) Borussia Dortmund 16 7 6 3 22:17 +5 27 7. (6.) 1899 Hoffenheim 16 7 4 5 26:14 +12 25 8. (9.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 16 6 6 4 21:21 0 24 9. (8.) VfL Wolfsburg 16 6 5 5 30:30 0 23 10. (10.) Eintracht Frankfurt 16 6 5 5 20:22 -2 23 11. (11.) Borussia M'gladbach 16 6 3 7 22:26 -4 21 12. (13.) SC Freiburg 16 5 3 8 19:32 -13 18 13. (12.) Hannover 96 16 4 5 7 19:24 -5 17 14. (14.) 1. FC Köln 16 3 6 7 7:15 -8 15 15. (16.) VfB Stuttgart 16 2 7 7 13:22 -9 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (15.) VfL Bochum 16 3 4 9 15:31 -16 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 16 3 3 10 12:29 -17 12 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 16 1 3 12 11:34 -23 6
2.Liga - 16th round
Kaiserslautern has already clinched the 2.Liga "Herbstmeisterschaft", the fall season title. Of course, that gets you nothing, this ain't Argentina or Mexico. Nevertheless, an important milestone for FCK, as it would likely take a choke of monumental proportions (like signing Jens Lehmann, hehehe) to not gain promotion. And in all fairness, even though I can't stand them, the Reds belong in the top. They had no problem in a regional matchup with Koblenz, easily kicking their ass.
St.Pauli was held at home by Fürth, and they have to be kicking themselves, as they were up 2-0 with only about 5 minutes left. The big winner this week is Düsseldorf, who have now climbed over Bielefeld, who were unable to win once again. Normally I would say that Arminia should get their act together and bounce up, but things have gotten complicated. Lurking in the wings is MSV Duisburg, who have moved into contention. They have just as much elevator repair experience as Arminia, so they need to be considered a serious contender as well.
One club that has moved from "complete suckitude" to "marginal incompetance" is 1860. A win in a Bayernderby and some respectable performances of late have moved the Müncheners in semi-respectability. I can't really see them making a serious move into contention, but considering what their fans have had to put up with since relegation, I guess it counts as an improvement.
Meanwhile, the relegation battle might already be decided. Koblenz looks crap, and FSV Frankfurt and Ahlen are almost already gone. There is no way any of these clowns can catch up to Fürth or Rostock, although I suppose Oberhausen is crappy enough to give them a lifeline.
Karlsruher SC - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:1) 16,904 (Grlic) Alemannia Aachen - SC Paderborn 07 1:1 (1:0) 21,128 (Casper - Manno) 1. FC K'lautern - TuS Koblenz 3:0 (1:0) 35,789 (Nemec, Jendrisek, Lakic) TSV 1860 München - FC Augsburg 1:0 (1:0) 37,100 (Ludwig) FSV Frankfurt - Rot Weiss Ahlen 0:0 (0:0) 4,134 Arminia Bielefeld - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:1 (0:0) 16,900 (Kucera - Peitz) FC St. Pauli - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2:2 (1:0) 19,417 (Takyi, Hennings - Allagui, Ghasemi-Nobakht) Fortuna Düsseldorf - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 2:0 (2:0) 32,495 (Heidinger, Harnik) FC Energie Cottbus - Hansa Rostock 0:0 (0:0) 13,311 Attendance: 196,368 (avg 21,819) 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 16 12 3 1 26:9 +17 39 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 16 10 3 3 40:18 +22 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 16 9 3 4 27:16 +11 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) Arminia Bielefeld 16 9 2 5 25:14 +11 29 5. (6.) MSV Duisburg 16 8 4 4 29:23 +6 28 6. (5.) FC Augsburg 16 6 7 3 31:25 +6 25 7. (7.) 1. FC Union Berlin 16 7 4 5 25:23 +2 25 8. (9.) SC Paderborn 07 16 5 6 5 22:22 0 21 9. (14.) TSV 1860 München 16 6 3 7 18:19 -1 21 10. (8.) Karlsruher SC 16 6 3 7 21:23 -2 21 11. (12.) Alemannia Aachen 16 5 5 6 14:18 -4 20 12. (11.) FC Energie Cottbus 16 5 5 6 23:24 -1 20 13. (10.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 16 6 2 8 16:27 -11 20 14. (13.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 16 6 1 9 27:29 -2 19 15. (15.) Hansa Rostock 16 6 1 9 18:23 -5 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 16 3 3 10 13:29 -16 12 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 16 2 4 10 11:29 -18 10 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 16 1 5 10 10:25 -15 8
3.Liga - Round 20
The big winner this week was Osnabrück, who won the Nordderby against Braunschweig. Honorable mention goes to Aue, who overran Offenbach with a great second half. The race at the top is wide open, and the only certainty is that teams will move around.
Wuppertal suffered a stab in the heart from Heidenheim. WSV seemed to have the edge, taking the game to their opponents, but were caught with sucker punches. This means they're back in the relegation zone in this vicious survival battle.
SV Wehen Wiesbaden - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1:1 (0:0) 3,386 (Schönheim - Hähnge) Holstein Kiel - Jahn Regensburg 1:0 (0:0) 3,189 (Schnyder o.g.) VfB Stuttgart II - Dynamo Dresden 2:2 (1:1) 1,800 (Schipplock, Fischer - Savran 2) SV 1916 Sandhausen - SpVgg Unterhaching 3:1 (1:1) 1,300 (Pinto, Dorn, Öztürk - Zillner) FC Erzgebirge Aue - Kickers Offenbach 4:2 (0:2) 7,700 (Klotz, Braham 2, Glasner - Glasner o.g., Zinnow) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - SV Werder Bremen II 1:1 (0:1) 4,883 (Smisek - Ayik) VfL Osnabrück - Eintracht Braunschweig 1:0 (1:0) 11,000 (Siegert) Borussia Dortmund II - Wacker Burghausen 3:0 (2:0) 1,016 (Ginczek 3) Wuppertaler SV - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 1:2 (0:1) 2,671 (Formento - Mayer, Gül) FC Bayern München II - FC Ingolstadt 04 postponed Attendance: 36,945 (avg 4,105) 1. (3.) VfL Osnabrück 20 11 3 6 31:21 +10 36 2. (4.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 20 10 4 6 30:25 +5 34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (1.) FC Ingolstadt 04 19 10 3 6 39:22 +17 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (2.) Kickers Offenbach 20 9 6 5 35:23 +12 33 5. (5.) Eintracht Braunschweig 20 8 6 6 28:21 +7 30 6. (10.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 20 8 6 6 37:35 +2 30 7. (9.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 20 8 6 6 25:23 +2 30 8. (6.) Wacker Burghausen 20 9 3 8 23:33 -10 30 9. (7.) Jahn Regensburg 20 8 5 7 27:21 +6 29 10. (8.) SpVgg Unterhaching 20 8 5 7 30:29 +1 29 11. (12.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 20 8 4 8 36:32 +4 28 12. (11.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 20 7 6 7 24:29 -5 27 13. (13.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 20 7 5 8 25:32 -7 26 14. (14.) SV Werder Bremen II 20 7 4 9 26:29 -3 25 15. (16.) VfB Stuttgart II 20 7 2 11 27:30 -3 23 16. (15.) FC Bayern München II 19 6 5 8 26:36 -10 23 17. (18.) Holstein Kiel 20 6 4 10 23:28 -5 22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (20.) Borussia Dortmund II 20 6 4 10 22:27 -5 22 19. (17.) Wuppertaler SV 20 6 4 10 21:32 -11 22 20. (19.) Dynamo Dresden 20 5 5 10 21:28 -7 20
Euro competition
A mixed bag for the German clubs. Bayern München showed further evidence that they may be on the upswing, as they bitch-slapped Juventus Turin 4-1 down in Italy. Impressive win for the Müncheners, who thereby qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. Meanwhile, VfL Wolfsburg took it up the rear against Manchester United, losing 1-3 against what was essentially a B squad. I vaguely remember hearing something about Wolfsburg protesting, but I'm not sure what that's about. Their own fans should protest them sucking, and perhaps the club should protest having to play on in the Eurocrap-liga. On the other hand, VfB Stuttgart has something to cheer about. They got off to a blitzstart 3-0 lead after 10 minutes, and waltzed home 3-1 over Romania's Unirea Urziceni. This means that VfB can still win the Champions League and get relegated in the same year (that would be way cool!!), as they advance to the knockout stage. Of course, leave it to that moron Jens Lehmann to put a damper on things. The most overrated German GK decided he needed to relieve himself on the field behind the goal. What a class act.
Bribery scandal
As you've probably heard, the recent betting scandal involving some 200 matches in europe, including many 2.Liga and lower, is being investigated by Bochum police. Among games being investigated is one where Oberhausen lost on an own goal from a defender, but I believe that one has been cleared. Nevertheless, some of the sordid details are now beginning to come out. It's quite amazing on how this comes to pass. Marcel Schuon, a 24 year old once promising player, is the first to speak out. Schuon came out of the VfB Stuttgart academy and was on the verge of a jump into the pro team. Couldn't quite make it, but transferred to VfL Osnabrück in the 2.Liga. He was making about 12,000 euros a month. It's pretty common (so he says) that players bet on sports, the only limitation is they can't bet on their own games. (A bit harder in the US, as players caught betting often get banned for life or go to jail, etc.) So Schuon was soon betting 1,500 euros a day, and was falling into heavy debt with the local bookie. He was then told to throw a game against Augsburg and his debts would be cleared. (Now some 40,000 euros). He was told "You guys are going to lose 0-3 anyway". Schoun eventually agreed to do it, but as it turns out, before the game, he was switched from defender to midfielder and really didn't have any impact on the game. (His coach at the time, Claus-Dieter Wollitz has since stated that he was suspicious because "Schuon once kicked the ball towards his own net." OK, that's what I call overwhelming evidence. Book 'em, Dano. True, Osnabrück DID lose 0-3, but I wonder if it wasn't because Wollitz is a crap coach. But in any case, the bookies were happy and Schuon's debts were cleared. But the wanker wasn't satisfied and kept on betting, getting himself in debt again. This time he got lucky though, and in the last weekend, he won 30,000 euros and had a clean slate. He then left Osnabrück and signed with Sandhausen. The relegation was of course a disaster for Osnabrück, as they lost about 7.5 million euros just in TV revenue, several employees had to be laid off, and are battling in the fiercely comeptitive 3.Liga for redemption. Again, it's not clear whether the team and coaching just sucked, or whether there were others in on the action. Schuon obviously is guilty, but based on performance, you can't really say that it made any difference. He has since been fired by Sandhausen and will have hard time signing on anywhere until all the details are out.
Bundesliga - 15th round
This week saw some interesting results, but nothing earth shattering. Bayern seems to be back from the brink. Attendance was pretty good, over 50,000 average.
Actually, the biggest event was down in Stuttgart. VfB was struggling against Bochum, but looked all set to win, when the visitors equalized in the dying minutes. Great point for Bochum, but it set off some mentally challenged Stuttgart fans. Estimates of up to 1,000 fans rioted, attacked the team bus and occupied the team offices, demanding everybody and their cousin get the sack. The board reacted by firing coach Markus Babbel. No surprise, but of course just last season Babbel was toast of the town as he led a stirring second half season for VfB. But now he's just toast. However, in a move sure to incite non-retarded VfB fans, the board appaointed Swiss retread Christian Gross as the new head coach. Gross is perhaps best known outside German speaking areas for being the twat that almost sunk Tottenham. His reputation is somewhat better in Germany, so we'll have to see. Babbel's dismissal was inevitable, because the team had basically stopped playing for him. He doesn't appear to have been unpopular among the players, so who knows. As for the match itself, Stuttgart dominated, but looked nervous and unsure, despite the lead. Bochum didn't have much a clue, but kept on running around and were rewarded with a point. Good for them.
Leaders Leverkusen had a surprsingly lame outing at Hannover. The Aspirins were hardly bothered to even play the game, so a struggling Hannover possibly could have taken all the points if they had been bolder.
Bremen keeps their unbeaten run, but they hardly could have been happy in Köln. Despite a huge disparity in talent, they were outplayed by their hosts, in probably should have lost. Of course, we know that Köln has Ladehemmung, of which I think in this case a fair translation would be "constipation", hehehe. So Köln wasn't up to the task to grab a nice victory, but all things considered, a point is not bad for them, since gthey've been playing crap recently.
Schalke really struggled against Hertha, not because of the opponent, but mainly due to their own incompetance. The Blues dominated the whole match, but perhaps take shooting lessons from Köln. Kevin Kuranyi finally broke through, and they got a meaningless penalty near the end. All-in-all, an unnecessary struggle, but Schalke gets the points that actually allow them to move closer, since Bayer and Werder only drew. Hertha is of course pathetic, so there isn't much to say there.
Bayern München seemed on the verge of canning coach Van Gaal, but since then, they've limped through a couple of wins, and certainly things are looking up. Winterbreak is coming, and they should be getting "Robbery" (Ribery and Robben) back from injury, and then start making a serious run. Gladbach showed Bayern too much respect in the first half, and perhaps should have held a lead with more ambitious play. However, like a boa constrictor, Bayern applied the squeeze in the 2nd period, and eventually the pressure was too much. A deserved victory for Bayern, but Gladbach can't be too unhappy with their effort.
Hamburg and Hoffenheim delivered a snoozer even put folks in neighboring countries asleep.
Dortmund has quietly got their act together. After a ho-hum start, the Neons have been playing well, and they kicked a hapless Nürnberg in the ass. Jürgen Klopp seems to have his troops playing at their potential, so European competition seems a realistic goal. However, frankly, they don't have the talent yet to do anything else except perhaps sneak into that worthless Eurocrap cup. But given the fact that they're coming out of financial crisis, I'm sure they would be more than satisfied. Nürnberg was surprisingly lame, looking like they miss the derby with Fürth and doing everything possible to make that a reality next season.
Wolfsburg looks like they're going nowhere. Lots of talent and firepower, but unlike last season, they seem to lack harmony, and it seems that players are itching to cash in on last season. Striker Obafemi Martins is basically out until after winterbreak, and the old Dzeko/Grafite combo hasn't gotten off track. The Brazilian doesn't seem to like the new coach Armin Veh, and Dzeko looks to want out to a big time club and contract in the EPL or Italy. Meanwhile, Freiburg is a Dr.Jeckyl and Mr.Hyde, and they popped up with a good performance, forcing a draw.
The regional derby in Frankfurt saw Eintracht handle Mainz comfortably. Both clubs look like they'll finish somewhere midtable, probably on the lower end, but no relegation worries.
FC Bayern München - Borussia M'gladbach 2:1 (1:1) 69,000 (Gomez, Badstuber - Brouwers) VfL Wolfsburg - SC Freiburg 2:2 (1:1) 27,822 (Bastians, Johnson - Idrissou, Banovic) VfB Stuttgart - VfL Bochum 1:1 (0:0) 40,000 (Tasci - Fuchs) Hamburger SV - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:0 (0:0) 52,725 Borussia Dortmund - 1. FC Nürnberg 4:0 (3:0) 72,100 (Grosskreutz, Barrios, Zidan, Hummels) Hannover 96 - Bayer Leverkusen 0:0 (0:0) 34,341 Eintracht Frankfurt - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:0 (1:0) 51,500 (Franz, Meier) 1. FC Köln - SV Werder Bremen 0:0 (0:0) 50,000 FC Schalke 04 - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:0 (0:0) 60,801 (Kuranyi, Rafinha) Attendance: 458,289 (avg 50,921) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 15 8 7 0 30:9 +21 31 2. (2.) SV Werder Bremen 15 7 7 1 31:12 +19 28 3. (3.) FC Schalke 04 15 8 4 3 23:13 +10 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) FC Bayern München 15 7 6 2 24:12 +12 27 5. (5.) Hamburger SV 15 6 7 2 28:18 +10 25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (6.) 1899 Hoffenheim 15 7 3 5 25:13 +12 24 7. (9.) Borussia Dortmund 15 6 6 3 19:16 +3 24 8. (8.) VfL Wolfsburg 15 6 5 4 29:27 +2 23 9. (7.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 15 6 5 4 20:20 0 23 10. (10.) Eintracht Frankfurt 15 6 4 5 19:21 -2 22 11. (11.) Borussia M'gladbach 15 5 3 7 17:23 -6 18 12. (12.) Hannover 96 15 4 5 6 16:19 -3 17 13. (13.) SC Freiburg 15 5 2 8 19:32 -13 17 14. (14.) 1. FC Köln 15 3 5 7 7:15 -8 14 15. (16.) VfL Bochum 15 3 4 8 14:26 -12 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (17.) VfB Stuttgart 15 2 6 7 12:21 -9 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (15.) 1. FC Nürnberg 15 3 3 9 12:25 -13 12 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 15 1 2 12 9:32 -23 5
2.Liga - 15th round
Kaiserslautern looks serious about returning to the Bundesliga. An important tough win in Rostock keeps them on top. St.Pauli meanwhile ran rampant in Koblenz, totally destroying their hapless hosts. A Bundesliga return for the Paulistas would be sensational, and they are certainly playing the most attractive attacking football in the 2.Liga. Meanwhile, the wheels have fallen off Bielefeld, which only a few weeks ago seemed to be strolling nicely towards promotion. This week they were beaten down by a fighting Düsseldorf, who have been in the wilderness for ages. But now Fortuna is looking like they've awakened from their slumber, and if they continue, we could see some impressive crowds. (Although I must say, that Düsseldorf fans are basically pansies that only show up for a winner, hehehe).
Augsburg is a quiet team that nobody notices. I don't think they're good enough to challenge, but they will certainly trip some folks up. Also, almost via stealth tactics, ex-Bundesligists Duisburg and Karlsruhe have recovered from crap starts and at least warrant some attention. They have lots of experience in elevator repair, and with a good run, I could still see them pushing the "up" button.
Don't know that I can say much about the race to the bottom. It appears to me that the bottom 3 are definitely the "crap of league". Teams like Rostock, 1860 and Aachen are really struggling again, but I can't see them being worse then the trifecta of Koblenz, FSV Frankfurt and Ahlen, who all lost again this week.
FC Augsburg - FSV Frankfurt 2:0 (2:0) 10,097 (Thurk, de Roeck) 1. FC Union Berlin - FC Energie Cottbus 1:1 (1:0) 18,212 (Mattuschka - Kweuke) Fortuna Düsseldorf - Arminia Bielefeld 3:2 (2:0) 30,300 (Harnik, Jovanovic, Langeneke - Fort, Risgard) Hansa Rostock - 1. FC K'lautern 0:1 (0:0) 13,000 (Nemec) TuS Koblenz - FC St. Pauli 1:5 (0:2) 8,555 (N.Kuqi - Ebbers, Kruse 2, Bruns, Hennings) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - TSV 1860 München 0:1 (0:0) 4,368 (Miletic o.g.) Rot Weiss Ahlen - Karlsruher SC 1:3 (0:2) 5,126 (Bröker - Stindl 2, Iashvili) SC Paderborn 07 - MSV Duisburg 1:3 (1:1) 10,048 (Saglik - Grlic 3) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Alemannia Aachen 0:2 (0:1) 4,750 (Milchraum, Auer) Attendance: 104,456 (avg 11,606) 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 15 11 3 1 23:9 +14 36 2. (2.) FC St. Pauli 15 10 2 3 38:16 +22 32 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) Arminia Bielefeld 15 9 1 5 24:13 +11 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 15 8 3 4 25:16 +9 27 5. (6.) FC Augsburg 15 6 7 2 31:24 +7 25 6. (7.) MSV Duisburg 15 7 4 4 28:23 +5 25 7. (5.) 1. FC Union Berlin 15 7 3 5 24:22 +2 24 8. (12.) Karlsruher SC 15 6 3 6 21:22 -1 21 9. (8.) SC Paderborn 07 15 5 5 5 21:21 0 20 10. (9.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 15 6 2 7 16:25 -9 20 11. (11.) FC Energie Cottbus 15 5 4 6 23:24 -1 19 12. (14.) Alemannia Aachen 15 5 4 6 13:17 -4 19 13. (10.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 15 6 0 9 25:27 -2 18 14. (15.) TSV 1860 München 15 5 3 7 17:19 -2 18 15. (13.) Hansa Rostock 15 6 0 9 18:23 -5 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 15 3 3 9 13:26 -13 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 15 2 3 10 11:29 -18 9 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 15 1 4 10 10:25 -15 7
3.Liga - Round 19
The 3.Liga has reached the halfway point, and it's a dogfight. Ingolstadt has moved into the apparently uneviable 1st spot, but notice they've been beaten 6 times already (Compare with upper leagues, Leverkusen 0 losses, and Kaiserslautern only 1). I'm sure the last word hasn't been said here. My hunch is that one of the "big" clubs, such as Offenbach, Osnabrück or Braunschweig will manage to grab a promotion spot, but there are a whole slew of contenders. As long as someone crappy like Burghausen doesn't make it, I guess it's OK.
The bottom continues to be a fierce struggle. In a huge match, Wuppertal defeated Dresden on a late goal from a sub who had just come on. (Germans like to call this the "joker". And you thought that was the nickname for Sascha Burchardt, Hertha's goalkeeper!)
VfB Stuttgart II - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 0:1 (0:0) 680 (Smeekes) VfL Osnabrück - Wacker Burghausen 2:1 (2:1) 10,300 (Bencik, Kotuljac - Gorka) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - Eintracht Braunschweig 2:1 (0:0) 5,423 (Kammlot, Bölstler - Calamita) FC Erzgebirge Aue - SV Werder Bremen II 2:1 (2:0) 6,300 (Glasner, Hochscheidt - Oehrl) FC Bayern München II - Kickers Offenbach 2:1 (0:1) 1,400 (Sene, Yilmaz - Huber) SV 1916 Sandhausen - FC Ingolstadt 04 1:2 (1:1) 1,600 (Pinto - Pisot, Demir) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - SpVgg Unterhaching 2:1 (2:0) 2,693 (Ziegenbein, Boskovic - Rathgeber) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - Jahn Regensburg 3:2 (1:0) 4,820 (Weil 2, Heidenfelder - Zellner, Berger) Borussia Dortmund II - Holstein Kiel 1:0 (0:0) 903 (Hünemeier) Wuppertaler SV - Dynamo Dresden 1:0 (0:0) 4,260 (Dressler) Attendance: 38,379 (3,838) 1. (2.) FC Ingolstadt 04 19 10 3 6 39:22 +17 33 2. (1.) Kickers Offenbach 19 9 6 4 33:19 +14 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) VfL Osnabrück 19 10 3 6 30:21 +9 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (8.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 19 9 4 6 26:23 +3 31 5. (3.) Eintracht Braunschweig 19 8 6 5 28:20 +8 30 6. (5.) Wacker Burghausen 19 9 3 7 23:30 -7 30 7. (6.) Jahn Regensburg 19 8 5 6 27:20 +7 29 8. (7.) SpVgg Unterhaching 19 8 5 6 29:26 +3 29 9. (10.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 19 8 5 6 24:22 +2 29 10. (9.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 19 7 6 6 34:34 0 27 11. (12.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 19 7 5 7 23:28 -5 26 12. (13.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 19 7 4 8 34:31 +3 25 13. (15.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 19 7 4 8 24:31 -7 25 14. (11.) SV Werder Bremen II 19 7 3 9 25:28 -3 24 15. (16.) FC Bayern München II 19 6 5 8 26:36 -10 23 16. (14.) VfB Stuttgart II 19 7 1 11 25:28 -3 22 17. (19.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 19 6 4 9 20:30 -10 22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (17.) Holstein Kiel 19 5 4 10 22:28 -6 19 19. (18.) Dynamo Dresden 19 5 4 10 19:26 -7 19 20. (20.) Borussia Dortmund II 19 5 4 10 19:27 -8 19
Return of Fat Boy!!
Back by popular demand! The great Ronaldo is perhaps less known now as Ronaldo Fenomeno than as Ronaldo Gordinho but is still kicking away and scoring goals with Corinthians in Brazil. (BTW, that guy that now plays for Real Madrid is just a wanker. And he's not "Ronaldo" anyway.) But what of the orginal Fat-Boy, Ailton? He's back!! Yes!! The 36 year old has just signed on with 6th Division Niederrhein-Liga KFC Uerdingen! Yeah!
Hard to believe that in 2004 Ailton was on top of the World, 28 goals topping the Bundesliga, Player-of-the-Year etc. Then he got too fat and the problems started. He pissed off to Turkey when Werder canceled his free-pass at Der Hometown Buffet. He traveled the globe in search of the perfect meal. His last club was China's Chongqing. Overall, he's played over 200 games in the Bundesliga, scoring 106 times for clubs like Bremen, HSV, Schalke and lastly MSV Duisburg. Unfortunately, Abseits doesn't beleive that he will be staying in Krefeld too long. This whole new contract is due to a misunderstanding. Ailton apparently believed that he was signing on with the local franchise of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Won't he be in for a shock when he finds out it's Krefelder Fussball Club! They'll actually want him to run around and score goals. Perhaps another Untergang episode "Hitler finds out Ailton signs for Uerdingen" is in order...
Bundesliga - 14th round
There are a couple of significant events this week, mainly Leverkusen's continued strong form, and perhaps Bayern München is back on track.
Leaders Leverkusen had an impressive performance as they annihilated a hapless Stuttgart squad which is sinking fast. The Aspirins demonstrating aggressive attacking football along with deadly finishing. Stefan Kiessling bagged 3, and is establishing himself as Germany's in-form striker. It is going to be hard to ignore him for the World Cup squad, given that the favorites are all dicking around with lame performances.
Werder Bremen may have been riding high, but champions Wolfsburg showed that they're not a spent force yet. The VWs took the game to Werder, and Bremen was not able to dominate with their usual offensive pressure. Instead, they found themselves chansing their tails and the lead for most of the match.
Schalke has a way to go before they are taken seriously. You can't lose against teams like Gladbach and not expect to be mentioned in the same sentence with Rodney Dangerfield or some chump from American Idol. Obviously a great win for Gladbach, which has been showing signs of life and are fighting their way up. Magath's Schalke is obviously still a work in progress, as he needs to remove the loser attitude from the squad, while at the same time figure out how to save a ton of money. If he pulls that off, maybe he can become California's next governor; we're already used to the accent.
It was a changing of the guard at Bayern. Franz Beckenbauer has achieved just about everything possible in football, both from the field, as a coach and from the boardroom. So this week he stepped down as President of Bayern München and handed over to his former teammate and right-hand man, Uli Hoeness. Of course, Hoeness has probably been most responsible for Bayern's impressive financial rise, matching Beckenbauer's field achievements. It was also significant is that Hoeness so far as been a big backer of coach Van Gaal, to the point of fining anyone that criticizes him. (Of course, Hoeness will not hestitate to stab Van Gaal in the back if things don't go well.) In any case, Van gaal's Bayern looked sharp and completely dominated hosts Hannover. The 96ers may be riding a wave of goodwill following Robert Enke's demise, but they still appear shell-shocked, and teams may show empathy, but they'll still kick your ass. Bayern was ruthless slapped Hannover around. For Van Gaal, the return of Ivica Olic was a blessing, as the Croat striker fits nicely in the Dutchman's scheme. Van Gaal faced down disgruntled striker Luca Toni, who is now firmly in the dog house. My bet is that Toni is out, probably to somebody like Napoli, in the winterbreak. I'd be pretty surprised if he ever plays for Bayern again. He was very effective his first couple of seasons, but once he got competition for his spot, he basically tanked. Seems like one of these guys that needs to be starter and feel secure. Anyway, his time at Bayern is bascially over.
Hoffenheim had been showing signs of moving in the top spots, but they were derailed at home by Dortmund, who blunted the Hopp-ers usual passing game and fought their way to a nice away win.
Mainz continued their nice Bundesliga return, remaining unbeaten at home. Hamburg can't buy a win anymore, so they might as well be happy they didn't lose.
A crucial battle between promoted teams saw Freiburg steal the points in Nürnberg. Freiburg has showed an ability to bounce back from getting their asses royally kicked (0-6 at home last week), and that should stand them well in the relegation battle. Live to fight another day. Nürnberg was objectively speaking the better team in the match, but they were hapless in front of Freiburg's goal, so they take a bitter loss.
Bochum and Köln squared off in another relegation battle, and neither team did much except run around and kick each other and the ball occasionally as well. Köln probably could have stolen a win, as they had a few decent chances, so Bochum is probably happier about splitting the points. But then again, an away point was probably all Köln had planned for, so they're not going to be too upset.
Hertha Berlin remains a disaster. Friedhlem Funkel certainly figured they could beat his old club, but instead they sucked again and...Well, there really isn't much to say. Obviously it's time for one of a "Hitler finds out Hertha sucks" aka Der Untergang/Downfall parodies on Youtube: "Well, just put Pantelic back in the lineup, he'll score us some goals."..."Mein Führer, err...", "We dumped Pantelic and he now plays for Ajax, and he just scored a hattrick this weekend". (Hitler takes off glasses and mumbles "Everyone that already doesn't have a Union Berlin seasonpass leave the room...") Etc., etc, you get the idea... (If you don't, try Youtube and "Hitler finds out Avatar trailer sucks" for a good example) For Frankfurt, obviously a dose of Hertha was just what the doctor ordered. Full points, and Alles in Ordnung.
VfL Bochum - 1. FC Köln 0:0 (0:0) 29,012 Hertha BSC Berlin - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:3 (0:1) 48,253 (Ramos - Ochs, Franz, Meier) 1899 Hoffenheim - Borussia Dortmund 1:2 (0:1) 30,150 (Ba - Blaszczykowski, Sahin) SV Werder Bremen - VfL Wolfsburg 2:2 (0:1) 34,523 (Hugo Almeida, Mertesacker - Dzeko 2) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Hamburger SV 1:1 (0:1) 20,300 (Hoogland - Torun) 1. FC Nürnberg - SC Freiburg 0:1 (0:1) 40,824 (Reisinger) Borussia M'gladbach - FC Schalke 04 1:0 (1:0) 54,057 (Reus) Bayer Leverkusen - VfB Stuttgart 4:0 (2:0) 30,210 (Kiesling 3, Derdiyok) Hannover 96 - FC Bayern München 0:3 (0:1) 49,000 (T. Müller, Olic, Gomez) Attendance: 336,329 (avg 37,370) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 14 8 6 0 30:9 +21 30 2. (2.) SV Werder Bremen 14 7 6 1 31:12 +19 27 3. (3.) FC Schalke 04 14 7 4 3 21:13 +8 25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (7.) FC Bayern München 14 6 6 2 22:11 +11 24 5. (5.) Hamburger SV 14 6 6 2 28:18 +10 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (4.) 1899 Hoffenheim 14 7 2 5 25:13 +12 23 7. (6.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 14 6 5 3 20:18 +2 23 8. (8.) VfL Wolfsburg 14 6 4 4 27:25 +2 22 9. (9.) Borussia Dortmund 14 5 6 3 15:16 -1 21 10. (11.) Eintracht Frankfurt 14 5 4 5 17:21 -4 19 11. (12.) Borussia M'gladbach 14 5 3 6 16:21 -5 18 12. (10.) Hannover 96 14 4 4 6 16:19 -3 16 13. (13.) SC Freiburg 14 5 1 8 17:30 -13 16 14. (15.) 1. FC Köln 14 3 4 7 7:15 -8 13 15. (14.) 1. FC Nürnberg 14 3 3 8 12:21 -9 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (17.) VfL Bochum 14 3 3 8 13:25 -12 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (16.) VfB Stuttgart 14 2 5 7 11:20 -9 11 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 14 1 2 11 9:30 -21 5
2.Liga - 14th round
The top clash thos week decided the leader, and Kaiserslautern is currently ruling the roost. FCK hosted Bielefeld in front of a sold-out house, and managed to squeeze out a win. The hosts were the dominant squad, but oddly enough, it was Bielefeld that had the better chances, especially in the first half. However, FCK kept up the pressure, and a too defensively oriented Arminia gave up a goal. With the win, FCK now stands alone at the top, whereas Bielefeld must regroup. They haven't scored in 3 outings, and whereas a month ago they seemed in control of the league, now they've fallen back into the pack. They're still in good shape, but need to wake up before they get into a dogfight.
St.Pauli is quickly becoming a 2.Liga subplot. The Paulistas blasted Union and are seriously challenging for promotion. Considering how they were on the verge of collapse only a few seasons ago, this is an impressive turnaround. A return to the Bundesliga would be quite sensational. Union Berlin has done quite well floating near the top, but their limits have been clearly demonstrated.
Aachen is in total disarray, and became the first team to lose to crap Ahlen, at home no less. Their season is basically over, and now they really need to make sure they don't get drawn into the relegation quagmire. Meanwhile, Frankfyrt lost at home to Rostock, cementing their position in the dregs. Rostock needed those points, and have now acquired a light cushion from the drop zone.
Karlsruher SC - TuS Koblenz 2:1 (0:0) 15,318 (Stindl, Fink - N.Kuqi) Alemannia Aachen - Rot Weiss Ahlen 0:2 (0:2) 21,010 (Wiemann, Gorschlüter) FSV Frankfurt - Hansa Rostock 0:1 (0:1) 4,086 (Fillinger) MSV Duisburg - FC Augsburg 2:2 (0:1) 10,160 (Tiffert 2 - Brinkmann, Traore) SC Paderborn 07 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:0 (1:0) 6,054 (Saglik) FC Energie Cottbus - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 3:0 (1:0) 9,160 (Straith, Jula, Bittroff) FC St. Pauli - 1. FC Union Berlin 3:0 (3:0) 19,901 (Ebbers, Kalla, Kruse) TSV 1860 München - Fortuna Düsseldorf 2:2 (1:0) 22,400 (Ludwig, Hoffmann - Jovanovic, Zoundi) 1. FC K'lautern - Arminia Bielefeld 1:0 (0:0) 35,042 (Sam) Attendance: 143,131 (avg 15,903) 1. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 14 10 3 1 22:9 +13 33 2. (3.) FC St. Pauli 14 9 2 3 33:15 +18 29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (2.) Arminia Bielefeld 14 9 1 4 22:10 +12 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 14 7 3 4 22:14 +8 24 5. (5.) 1. FC Union Berlin 14 7 2 5 23:21 +2 23 6. (6.) FC Augsburg 14 5 7 2 29:24 +5 22 7. (7.) MSV Duisburg 14 6 4 4 25:22 +3 22 8. (10.) SC Paderborn 07 14 5 5 4 20:18 +2 20 9. (8.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 14 6 2 6 16:24 -8 20 10. (9.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 14 6 0 8 25:25 0 18 11. (12.) FC Energie Cottbus 14 5 3 6 22:23 -1 18 12. (13.) Karlsruher SC 14 5 3 6 18:21 -3 18 13. (14.) Hansa Rostock 14 6 0 8 18:22 -4 18 14. (11.) Alemannia Aachen 14 4 4 6 11:17 -6 16 15. (15.) TSV 1860 München 14 4 3 7 16:19 -3 15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 14 3 3 8 12:21 -9 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 14 2 3 9 11:27 -16 9 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 14 1 4 9 9:22 -13 7
3.Liga - Round 18
The 3.Liga continues to be a wild shootout. Even 9th place Sandhausen is basically one win away from promotion, and everybody is jockeying for promotion. Ingolstadt had the most impressive performance this week, and they have seized spot, although Braunschweig's thumping of Aue deserves honorable mention. Leaders Offenbach were unable to hold off Sandhausen, and had to settle for a draw in their wild shootout.
Wuppertal tasted defeat as they lost at Jena. The ref tossed WSV GK Christian Maly after only 6 minutes for an alleged handball. WSV battled bravely, but in the end, Jena managed to score and hold of the Wuppertalers. So they slip back into relegation. Dynamo Dresden climbed off the bottom with a hardfought win over Heidenheim.
Jahn Regensburg - Borussia Dortmund II 2:0 (0:0) 3,820 (Haller, Jarosch) Dynamo Dresden - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 4:3 (3:2) 11,437 (Savran 3, Oppitz - Mayer 2, Spann) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Wuppertaler SV 1:0 (1:0) 5,076 (Hähnge) SpVgg Unterhaching - VfB Stuttgart II 1:0 (0:0) 2,000 (Schweinsteiger) FC Ingolstadt 04 - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 5:1 (3:1) 4,400 (Karl, Fink, Hartmann, Keidel, Buchner - Ziemer) Kickers Offenbach - SV 1916 Sandhausen 3:3 (2:1) 7,252 (Huber, Ulm, Zinnow - Dorn 2, Eberlein) Eintracht Braunschweig - FC Erzgebirge Aue 3:0 (3:0) 13,500 (Boland, Onuegbu 2) Wacker Burghausen - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 1:3 (0:1) 4,050 (Kokocinski - Rockenback da Silva 2, Möcke) Holstein Kiel - VfL Osnabrück 1:1 (0:0) 5,038 (Wulff - Barletta) SV Werder Bremen II - FC Bayern München II 0:3 (0:2) 1,100 (Ekici 2, Sene) Attendance: 57,673 (avg 5,767) 1. (1.) Kickers Offenbach 18 9 6 3 32:17 +15 33 2. (5.) FC Ingolstadt 04 18 9 3 6 37:21 +16 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (6.) Eintracht Braunschweig 18 8 6 4 27:18 +9 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) VfL Osnabrück 18 9 3 6 28:20 +8 30 5. (2.) Wacker Burghausen 18 9 3 6 22:28 -6 30 6. (7.) Jahn Regensburg 18 8 5 5 25:17 +8 29 7. (8.) SpVgg Unterhaching 18 8 5 5 28:24 +4 29 8. (4.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 18 8 4 6 24:22 +2 28 9. (9.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 18 7 6 5 33:32 +1 27 10. (11.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 18 7 5 6 22:21 +1 26 11. (10.) SV Werder Bremen II 18 7 3 8 24:26 -2 24 12. (15.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 18 6 5 7 22:28 -6 23 13. (12.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 18 6 4 8 31:29 +2 22 14. (13.) VfB Stuttgart II 18 7 1 10 25:27 -2 22 15. (14.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 18 6 4 8 22:30 -8 22 16. (18.) FC Bayern München II 18 5 5 8 24:35 -11 20 17. (17.) Holstein Kiel 18 5 4 9 22:27 -5 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (20.) Dynamo Dresden 18 5 4 9 19:25 -6 19 19. (16.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 18 5 4 9 19:30 -11 19 20. (19.) Borussia Dortmund II 18 4 4 10 18:27 -9 16
Bundesliga - 13th round
Leverkusen reamins on top, the only unbeaten team, as they drew FC Hollywood 1-1. Bayern is still struggling to impose their will on the Bundesliga this season, and it doesn't appear they'll be getting much cooperation from the other clubs. They weren't worth more than the draw in this match, and if they start dropping points at home, they'll have a rough time climbing over everybody. For Leverkusen, they usually only choke at the end of the season, so at this juncture they really don't have to worry about that :)
Werder Bremen has shown they mean business. They absolutely demolished their hosts Freiburg, with a merciless display of attacking football, and more decisively, deadly finishing. Freiburg has shown some bright performances this season, but they basically ran around helplessly while getting their ass kicked by rampant Bremers running amok. After a tentative start, Werder is firing on all cylinders and a team to be feared. For Freiburg, they should just lick their wounds and sweep this one under the rug.
Hannover 96 is riding a wave a good-will in visiting stadiums in the aftermath of Robert Enke's death. And aside from a warm greeting from teh Gelsenkirchen fans, the Schalke squad also tried to demonstrate solidarity by giving the 96ers lots of first half opportunities to score. However, like a lover spurned, the Schalkers apparently felt insulted their offers weren't taken up, or perhaps coach Felix Magath is just a mean, unsentimental SOB. Anyway, Schalke came out in the 2nd half with Magath's boot firmly implanted on their collective asses. The Blues then dominated the match, but Enke's heir, Florian Fromlowitz, showed some sharp skills. It finally took an unstoppable rocket header by Peruvian Jefferson Farfan to give Schalke the lead and set them on the path of a deserved win.
Hoffenheim completely dominated Köln and romped home to an easy away win. The "Hopp-ers" had their young offensive talent run wild, as they all scored (Ibisevic, Ba, Obasi and Eduardo). Köln was completely lame, and their fans must de disappointed after some decent results.
Hamburg has announced that they will no longer play any more matches at the stadium, but will instead defer to the halls of the local hospital. HSV is decimated with injuries, and their promising start is in danger of petering out as their squad is never at full strength. They dominated the match against Bochum, but unlike their recent efforts, the Bochumers held firm. Then they struck a demoralized HSV with a sneak attack goal and came away with a massive result.
A surprise defeat for champions Wolfsburg, as were constantly running behind a determined Nürnberg squad. The VWs pressure seemed to indicate that Nürnberg would soon collapse under the strain, but instead on counterattacks der Club was able to hold off their hosts. And in the end, a stunning breakaway with tired Wolfsburgers lazily tracking back led to basically a 4-1 Nürnberg advantage, and they put away the final goal for a heroic win.
Mostly, we like reading about "in-form" teams. The match between Stuttgart and Hertha was essentially one between "in-crap" squads, both have stunk up the league with some pathetic efforts recently. Stuttgart dominated the match, but their finishing incompetance allowed Hertha to stay around, and then sneak an inprobable counter goal. VfB furiously threw everything forward, and eventually were rewarded with a draw, but they certainly could have easily grabbed 3 points if they had taken earlier chances. Obviously, not losing is a huge improvement for Hertha, so they are undoubtably happy with the point.
Dortmund was hosting coach Jürgen Klopp's old team, and perhaps Jürgen is sentimental for the place were he made his name. In any case, although the match was hard fought, Dortmund never really got it in grip, and Mainz gets a nice point away.
Gladbach gets a nice away win at Frankfurt, who apparently can't make up their mind if they want to just be mediocre or suck completely.
VfL Wolfsburg - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:3 (0:0) 28,736 (Dejagah, Grafite - Bunjaku 2, Kluge) VfB Stuttgart - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:1 (0:0) 39,000 (Kuzmanovic - Ramos) FC Schalke 04 - Hannover 96 2:0 (0:0) 61,505 (Farfan, Moravek) 1. FC Köln - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:4 (0:2) 45,000 (Carlos Eduardo, Obasi, Ba, Ibisevic) Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia M'gladbach 1:2 (0:0) 50,000 (Schwegler - Nikolov o.g., Brouwers) SC Freiburg - Werder Bremen 0:6 (0:1) 24,000 (Hugo Almeida 2, Marin, Özil, Naldo, Rosenberg) Borussia Dortmund - 1. FSV Mainz 05 0:0 (0:0) 74,600 Bayern München - Bayer Leverkusen 1:1 (1:1) 69,000 (Gomez - Kiessling) Hamburger SV - VfL Bochum 0:1 (0:0) 53,838 (Grote) Attendance: 445,679 (avg 49,520) 1 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 13 7 6 0 26:9 17 27 2 Werder Bremen 13 7 5 1 29:10 19 26 3 FC Schalke 04 13 7 4 2 21:12 9 25 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 13 7 2 4 24:11 13 23 5 Hamburger SV 13 6 5 2 27:17 10 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 1.FSV Mainz 05 13 6 4 3 19:17 2 22 7 FC Bayern München 13 5 6 2 19:11 8 21 8 VfL Wolfsburg 13 6 3 4 25:23 2 21 9 Borussia Dortmund 13 4 6 3 13:15 -2 18 10 Hannover 96 13 4 4 5 16:16 0 16 11 Eintracht Frankfurt 13 4 4 5 14:20 -6 16 12 Borussia M'gladbach 13 4 3 6 15:21 -6 15 13 SC Freiburg 13 4 1 8 16:30 -14 13 14 1.FC Nürnberg 13 3 3 7 12:20 -8 12 15 1.FC Köln 13 3 3 7 7:15 -8 12 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 VfB Stuttgart 13 2 5 6 11:16 -5 11 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 VfL Bochum 13 3 2 8 13:25 -12 11 18 Hertha BSC 13 1 2 10 8:27 -19 5
2.Liga - 13th round
Bielefeld was having an easy life, but 2.Liga reality has slapped them in the face. Certainly they expected a feast as struggling 1860 came to town, and instead they are left with gruel. Huge win for 1860, as a loss would actually have dumped them into relegation. I'm not sure why the Müncheners are so crap, but it would be a tragedy for the club, their fans and the 2.Liga treasurers if they were relegated an instead replaced by some lame club like Burghausen. Kaiserslautern took advantage, leaping into 1st place with a nice win at Union Berlin. The small Alte Försterei stadium was completely sold-out, but the energetic crowd was unable to spur Union onto victory. Instead, FCK overcame some recent ho-hum performances and exhibited excellent form.
Bottom clubs showed some signs of life. Ahlen managed not to lose in a local derby, so that's a plus. FSV Frankfurt may have decided they need to wake up before winterbreak. Last season it took a super post-winter break effort to save their ass. They have given some indication that they might want to start earlier this year. The result was a nice win at Oberhausen. And Koblenz crept closer to the pack with an important win over Aachen. Actually, the most interesting thing about Koblenz is that this week they unveiled their "Coochie-Coochie" attack, as the Kosovan-Finnish brothers Shefki and Njazi Kuqi paired up as strikers. Rostock seems like they're always in crisis, so a win over Karlsruhe comes at a good time.
Rot Weiss Ahlen - SC Paderborn 07 0:0 (0:0) 5,245 Fortuna Düsseldorf - Energie Cottbus 2:1 (0:0) 20,100 (Harnik 2 - Jula) Arminia Bielefeld - 1860 München 0:1 (0:0) 18,100 (Pappas) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - FSV Frankfurt 1:3 (0:2) 7,183 (Gordon - Cidimar 2, Kujabi) Hansa Rostock - Karlsruher SC 2:1 (1:0) 12,000 (Fillinger, Kern - Blum) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:0) 5,650 (Adler) FC Augsburg - FC St. Pauli 3:2 (0:1) 22,272 (Thurk, Morena o.g., Sinkala - Ebbers 2) TuS Koblenz - Alemannia Aachen 1:0 (0:0) 7,599 (Mavric) 1. FC Union Berlin - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:2 (0:1) 18,955 (Amedick, Jendrisek) Attendance: 117,104 (avg 13,012) 1 1.FC Kaiserslautern 13 9 3 1 21:9 12 30 2 Arminia Bielefeld 13 9 1 3 22:9 13 28 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 FC St. Pauli 13 8 2 3 30:15 15 26 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Fortuna Düsseldorf 13 7 2 4 20:12 8 23 5 1.FC Union Berlin 13 7 2 4 23:18 5 23 6 FC Augsburg 13 5 6 2 27:22 5 21 7 MSV Duisburg 13 6 3 4 23:20 3 21 8 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 13 6 2 5 16:21 -5 20 9 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 13 6 0 7 25:24 1 18 10 SC Paderborn 07 13 4 5 4 19:18 1 17 11 Alemannia Aachen 13 4 4 5 11:15 -4 16 12 FC Energie Cottbus 13 4 3 6 19:23 -4 15 13 Karlsruher SC 13 4 3 6 16:20 -4 15 14 FC Hansa Rostock 13 5 0 8 17:22 -5 15 15 TSV 1860 München 13 4 2 7 14:17 -3 14 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 TuS Koblenz 13 3 3 7 11:19 -8 12 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 FSV Frankfurt 13 2 3 8 11:26 -15 9 18 Rot Weiss Ahlen 13 0 4 9 7:22 -15 4
3.Liga - Round 17
Things continue to remain tight in the 3.Liga. Leaders Offenbach barely hung on in a Hessen-derby against Wehen, and Burghausen got spanked in Aue. The latter along with Osnabrück looked poised to pounce on a promotion spot. Ingolstadt also had a good win in Stuttgart, and should be considered a contender as well.
Wuppertal continues their recovery from the dead. WSV dominated at home against favored Unterhaching, and were not only rewarded with a deserved win, but their first venture out of a relegation spot. While WSV has at least recovered some of their pride, Dynamo Dresden is in crisis mode. Dynamo has sunk to the bottom, their loss in Regensburg the heavy blow. Of course, the bottom of the table is tightly packed, so a few wins will see them out of the deadzone.
VfB Stuttgart II - FC Ingolstadt 04 2:4 (1:2) 450 (Didavi, Schipplock - Leitl 2, Hartmann, Neuendorf) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - Kickers Offenbach 3:3 (2:1) 8,596 (Ziemer, Gehring, A. Öztürk - Mesic, Ulm 2) Jahn Regensburg - Dynamo Dresden 2:0 (1:0) 3,500 (Haller, Beigang) VfL Osnabrück - Borussia Dortmund II 4:1 (1:1) 9,700 (Lindemann, Heidrich, Kotuljac 2 - Sobiech) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - Holstein Kiel 0:0 (0:0) 4,757 FC Erzgebirge Aue - Wacker Burghausen 3:0 (2:0) 7,500 (Braham, Glasner, Ramaj) FC Bayern München II - Eintracht Braunschweig 1:1 (0:0) 1,500 (Hajdarovic - Onuegbu) SV 1916 Sandhausen - SV Werder Bremen II 2:2 (0:0) 1,400 (Hosiner, Dorn - Menga 2) Wuppertaler SV - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:0 (0:0) 3,000 (Damm) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 3:1 (0:1) 5,000 (Lukimya, Mayer, Weil - Truckenbrod) Attendance: 45,403 (avg 4,540) 1. (1.) Kickers Offenbach 17 9 5 3 29:14 +15 32 2. (2.) Wacker Burghausen 17 9 3 5 21:25 -4 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) VfL Osnabrück 17 9 2 6 27:19 +8 29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (6.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 17 8 4 5 24:19 +5 28 5. (8.) FC Ingolstadt 04 17 8 3 6 32:20 +12 27 6. (3.) Eintracht Braunschweig 17 7 6 4 24:18 +6 27 7. (9.) Jahn Regensburg 17 7 5 5 23:17 +6 26 8. (5.) SpVgg Unterhaching 17 7 5 5 27:24 +3 26 9. (7.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 17 7 5 5 30:29 +1 26 10. (10.) SV Werder Bremen II 17 7 3 7 24:23 +1 24 11. (12.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 17 6 5 6 19:20 -1 23 12. (15.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 17 6 4 7 28:25 +3 22 13. (11.) VfB Stuttgart II 17 7 1 9 25:26 -1 22 14. (13.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 17 6 4 7 21:25 -4 22 15. (14.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 17 5 5 7 21:28 -7 20 16. (19.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 17 5 4 8 19:29 -10 19 17. (16.) Holstein Kiel 17 5 3 9 21:26 -5 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (20.) FC Bayern München II 17 4 5 8 21:35 -14 17 19. (17.) Borussia Dortmund II 17 4 4 9 18:25 -7 16 20. (18.) Dynamo Dresden 17 4 4 9 15:22 -7 16
Tough struggle for national team
The DFB squad is still somewhat stunned by the suicide of Roert Enke, but took to the field against the talented Ivory Coast squad. This proved to be a very challenging match. After a strong first half, the Germans were overrun by the Africans in the second half, and looked to be heading for a historic defeat. But in the end, Lukas Podolski netted the equalizer at the end for a deserved draw. This was probably what Prinz Poldi needed, as he scored the opening goal as well, which means he's probably already scored more for the national squad this season than for his club.
Most pundits rate the Ivory Coast as the strongest African challenger in the World Cup, so it's not necessarily a bad result for the national team, but obviously coach Löw has a lot of work to if Germany is not to struggle in South Africa next year.
World Cup qualifiers
Normally, I stick to strictly German football commentary, but given all the news of World Cup qualifiers, I'd like to make a couple of observations. By and large, there weren't a ton of surprises, and the teams that deserve to be there made the cut. Certainly a squad like New Zealand has no business there, since they wouldn't even finish in the running if they played in CONCACAF, but they followed the rules and hats off to them. Actually, I would love FIFA to keep one spot in hand and have a random draw, a "World Cup lottery", where they just pull a random country out of the hat and let them in. Now that would be exciting, you'd get to see nations that normally will never qualify, perhaps American Samoa, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Bhutan or Scotland. And they could have Diego Maradona pull the winner, sort of a "Hand of God II - The Sequel".
Certainly the Irish were hard done by a blatant handball, although suggesting that robbed them of qualification is a bit much, since the game wasn't over, and still needed to be decided. Still, rotten call. But on the other hand, I'd rather see France in the World Cup, since the Irish always play negative boring football, and France is pretty entertaining, even when they suck. (Seems the latter is a good possibility as long as that clown Domenech is in charge. He must have pictures of French football officials with underage Thai boys, seems a pretty common occurence there.) I'm also somewhat surprised that Russia choked on Slovenia, but Russian fans are used to disappointment. Ukraine had a golden opportunity, but if you lose at home to Greece, you don't deserve to go. In the Americas playoff, good for Costa Rica that they made a game of it in Uruguay, coming close. But the Ticos and their fans must be kicking themselves, since they should have long been qualified through the CONCACAF rounds. Also, too bad for Egypt, but they were obviously evenly matched with Algeria.
Enke funeral
Football in Germany was pretty much at a standstill this weekend, with very little on tap. Obviously, this was partially due to the fact it was a "FIFA day", with several World Cup qualifying playoffs and friendlies. But of course, in Germany, the main reason was the stunning suicide of national GK Robert Enke. Memorial services were held in his Hannover 96 club stadium, attended by some 45,000. His casket was carried by members of the German national team. They had been scheduled to face Chile in a friendly, but the match was canceled.
Stefan Beinlich retirement
Sunday saw a less traumatic going-away ceremony. Veteran midfielder Stefan Beinlich, who played about 5 times for the national team with Bayer Leverkusen, officially hung up his boots. He was given a testamonial at Hansa Rostock, his current club, and almost 19,000 showed up. Beinlich was injured last season, and his recovery was just not going the way he hoped, so he decided to throw in the towel. Born in East Berlin, Beinlich was a catalyst in the rise of Hansa Rostock, as he helped get them promoted to the Bundesliga. He then transferred to Bayer Leverkusen, and continued a successful Bundesliga career with Hertha BSC and Hamburg. He returned to Rostock in 2006 to finish out a fine career, finally giving up at 37.
Stunning late breaking news!!
Stunning news out of Hannover: GK Robert Enke is dead. The reports are not clear, but he was run over by a train. Apparently this was a suicide, as witnesses said he threw himself under the 100-mph train. Enke has battled some health problems this season, with some mysterious stomach ailment. He certainly has had his share of bad luck, as his young daughter, who was born with a heart defect, died in 2006/07.
Enke was one of the top goalies in the Bundesliga, and had half-a-dozen caps with the national team. He was originally viewed as the likely German keeper for 2010, although recently Leverkusen's Rene Adler seems to have moved into no.1. Nevertheless, he was certain to be part of Germany's South Africa squad. Not only was he Hannover 96's highest paid player, but with his contract expiring, the 32 year old was certain to receive a salary increase from the club, or a lucrative transfer.
50+1 intact
The 36 clubs of the DFL (who officially run the Bundesliga and 2.Liga) have sided with their fans and overwhelmingly voted to keep the current financial control rules in place. Basically, this prevents anyone from having more than 50% of the ownership of a club. This prevents robber barons from buying up clubs like in England. Originally, all German clubs were just extensions of a general sports club, so the membership was the only method of controlling the club. This is still generally the case, although many of the bigger clubs have spun off their professional squad into a seperate entity, and in some cases (like Dortmund) floated shares on the stockmarket. However, the members still basically call the shots due to this "50+1" rule.
Some clubs, most notably Hannover 96 and it's president Martin Kind, wanted to abolish this rule so German soccer fans could be raped like their counterparts in England. The argument was that more money would mean that the German clubs would be able to compete better in Europe, presumably because they too could find sugardaddies or get swallowed up by corporations. Hundreds of thousands of fans signed petitions opposing this sellout, and the clubs overwhelmingly agreed, defeating the proposal and even some compromises.
So while one could hardly argue that the soul of German football is pure, at least in it's essence, the game still belongs to the fans in Germany. That's certainly more than you can say of the other major countries.
Bundesliga - 12th round
Nothing really shocking, mostly a continuation of what we've been seeing all season. Leaders Leverkusen blitzed hapless Frankfurt with a 3-0 lead after 11 minutes, so the match was over. Can they actually win the title? That would certainly be against all that is holy in German soccer (namely that Luserkusen will choke at the defining moment), but right now the Alka-Seltzers are looking very solid.
Bremen had a rough time with Dortmund, unable to get the expected win. Instead, the Neons fought the whole way and held on to a valuable point. Good for them, but Werder was obviously expecting more so they could stay close to the Aspirins.
Hamburg seemed to have 3 points within their grasp, but Hannover came back to spoil the party. The surprising thing is that HSV is constantly complaining about lack of offensive firepower, exacerbated by injury, but they actually lead the Bundesliga in scoring.
Bayern München remains in crisis. They failed to impress, and indeed were largely outplayed by Schalke, who might have taken all the points with more luck. Bayern took the lead against the run of play, but was lethargic and unorganized. Schalke continued to apply pressure and were eventually rewarded by an equalizer from Josep Matip, who not that long ago was playing in the youth squad. Bayern management is rumored to have given van Gaal until Xmas (i.e. the winterbreak) to get things sorted out. On the one hand, they look listless and uninterested, but on the other hand...well, on the other hand they're also listless and uninterested. Star defender Philip Lahm criticized the club for just buying folks with no plan, but he will be disciplined, and the club retorted that they actually did have a plan, just that nobody could find it. Lahm himself has only been above average since moving from the left side, where he used to be world class. So one plan might be to move him back to the left side and take their chances on the right. Nevertheless, the problems seem to be more in midfield and attack. Obviously, for Bayern things could get a lot better quickly if Franck Ribery comes back. Meanwhile, on the Schalke side, Felix Magath seems to be getting the most out of his squad, but he too has until winterbreak. Not that he'll be fired, but half his squad could disappear in fire sales as Schalke tries to cut costs dramatically. Expect more youth players like Matip to start making their debuts...
Champions Wolfsburg seem to be back on track. They won a tough match at Hoffenheim. The hosts had the lead and the control of the match in the first half, but the VWs came out strong after the break and seized control. In the end, a game winner by returning Grafite, who obviously enjoyed his Brazilian vacation.
Gladbach and Stuttgart delivered a ho-hum match that probably statisfies nobody. But you could argue that since both teams have been struggling, perhaps not losing is a step in the right direction.
Mainz is staying up this season, unless they totally collapse. That will be a major achievement, since most pundits had written them off even before the season started. They were somewhat lucky against Nürnberg, but they made the single goal standup for the win. Der Club should have forced a draw, but were too incompetant in attack to bring home the bacon.
Bochum actually showed signs of life, back to their fighting ways. However, they were not blessed by luck, and visiting Freiburg continued their surprising season and stole all the points. Obviously a great result for SCF, and another disaster for Bochum, one where they truly expected at least a point.
Hertha looks finished. They were a toothless lion at home against Köln, who once again exhibited a tight catenaccio defense. Obviously Berlin had no clue on how to break it down, so it comes as no surprise that eventually one of the Köln counterattacks was successful, and they pull off a huge away win. Hertha needs to do something, like fire their GM or coach. Wait, they've already done that. Maybe they should get rid of some players. Wait, they've done that too. I suppose they could get rid of their fans; they're obviously working on that too! It's sad, since Berlin has massive potential, and Hertha's management has driven this club into the ground.
Bayer Leverkusen - Eintracht Frankfurt 4:0 (3:0) 30,000 (Kiessling, Reinartz, Kroos, Bender) FC Bayern München - FC Schalke 04 1:1 (1:1) 69,000 (Van Buyten - Matip) 1899 Hoffenheim - VfL Wolfsburg 1:2 (1:0) 29,400 (Ibisevic - Misimovic, Grafite) VfL Bochum - SC Freiburg 1:2 (0:1) 20,403 (Klimowicz - Butscher, Reisinger) Borussia M'gladbach - VfB Stuttgart 0:0 (0:0) 47,053 1. FSV Mainz 05 - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0 (1:0) 20,000 (Soto) Hannover 96 - Hamburger SV 2:2 (1:2) 49,000 (Ya Konan, Stajner - Jansen, Elia) Hertha BSC Berlin - 1. FC Köln 0:1 (0:0) 48,623 (Novakovic) SV Werder Bremen - Borussia Dortmund 1:1 (1:0) 34,000 (Özil - Barrios) Attendance: 347,479 (avg 38,609) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 12 7 5 0 25:8 +17 26 2. (2.) SV Werder Bremen 12 6 5 1 23:10 +13 23 3. (3.) Hamburger SV 12 6 5 1 27:16 +11 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) FC Schalke 04 12 6 4 2 19:12 +7 22 5. (7.) VfL Wolfsburg 12 6 3 3 23:20 +3 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 12 6 3 3 19:17 +2 21 7. (5.) 1899 Hoffenheim 12 6 2 4 20:11 +9 20 8. (6.) FC Bayern München 12 5 5 2 18:10 +8 20 9. (10.) Borussia Dortmund 12 4 5 3 13:15 -2 17 10. (11.) Hannover 96 12 4 4 4 16:14 +2 16 11. (9.) Eintracht Frankfurt 12 4 4 4 13:18 -5 16 12. (13.) SC Freiburg 12 4 1 7 16:24 -8 13 13. (15.) 1. FC Köln 12 3 3 6 7:11 -4 12 14. (12.) Borussia M'gladbach 12 3 3 6 13:20 -7 12 15. (14.) VfB Stuttgart 12 2 4 6 10:15 -5 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) 1. FC Nürnberg 12 2 3 7 9:18 -9 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) VfL Bochum 12 2 2 8 12:25 -13 8 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 12 1 1 10 7:26 -19 4
2.Liga - 12th round
Bielefeld saw their 8 game win streak stopped by...FSV Frankfurt! The leaders had a rough time with a determined FSV squad, which recently has shown some signs of life. (Previously, they had been exhibiting an ineffectual "rope-a-dope" tactic. They missed some of Muhammad Ali subtleties, namely that you're not supposed to let the opponent bludgeon you senseless, you're supposed to lull them into a false sense of security and...never mind. They sucked.) I doubt that FSV will survive this season, and certainly Arminia won't be put out too much.
Kaiserslautern is back on track with a nice win over a tough Oberhausen squad. St.Pauli had a huge win against a surprising Düsseldorf, so they remain in a playoff spot. Union Berlin was dumped in Karlsruhe, so we'll see of they begin a slow descent in the table. Another loss by 1860, things must really suck in München these days. Perhaps they're all in hangovers from OKtoberfest. Aachen, on the other hand, ended their crisis with a deserved win over another struggler, Hansa Rostock. And nobody can figure out Duisburg, who blew a lead against hapless Ahlen.
1. FC K'lautern - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 3:1 (2:0) 26,546 (Nemec, Amedick, Rodnei - König) FC St. Pauli - Fortuna Düsseldorf 2:1 (1:1) 23,254 (Kruse, Hennings - Langeneke) SC Paderborn 07 - TuS Koblenz 2:1 (2:1) 6,176 (Alushi, Brückner - Hartmann) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - FC Augsburg 4:5 (1:2) 6,350 (N. Müller, Nöthe, Biliskov, Allagui - Thurk 2, Ndjeng 2, Torghelle ) FSV Frankfurt - Arminia Bielefeld 0:0 (0:0) 4,134 FC Energie Cottbus - TSV 1860 München 1:0 (0:0) 10,900 (Radu) Karlsruher SC - 1. FC Union Berlin 3:2 (3:0) 17,235 (Blum, Fink 2 - Mattuschka, Sahin) MSV Duisburg - Rot Weiss Ahlen 2:2 (2:0) 11,288 (Caiuby, Fahrenhorst - Busch, Döring) Alemannia Aachen - Hansa Rostock 1:0 (1:0) 21,274 (Demai) Attendance: 127,247 (avg 14,139) 1. (1.) Arminia Bielefeld 12 9 1 2 22:8 +14 28 2. (2.) 1. FC K'lautern 12 8 3 1 19:9 +10 27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) FC St. Pauli 12 8 2 2 28:12 +16 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) 1. FC Union Berlin 12 7 2 3 23:16 +7 23 5. (5.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 12 6 2 4 18:11 +7 20 6. (6.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 12 6 2 4 15:18 -3 20 7. (9.) FC Augsburg 12 4 6 2 24:20 +4 18 8. (7.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 12 6 0 6 25:23 +2 18 9. (8.) MSV Duisburg 12 5 3 4 22:20 +2 18 10. (10.) SC Paderborn 07 12 4 4 4 19:18 +1 16 11. (11.) Alemannia Aachen 12 4 4 4 11:14 -3 16 12. (12.) FC Energie Cottbus 12 4 3 5 18:21 -3 15 13. (13.) Karlsruher SC 12 4 3 5 15:18 -3 15 14. (14.) Hansa Rostock 12 4 0 8 15:21 -6 12 15. (15.) TSV 1860 München 12 3 2 7 13:17 -4 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 12 2 3 7 10:19 -9 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 12 1 3 8 8:25 -17 6 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 12 0 3 9 7:22 -15 3
3.Liga - 16th round
The 3.Liga remains tightly packed. Offenbach remain in control with a solid win, and Burghausen continues to do it with mirrors, how do they grind out the wins? However, Braunschweig came out roaring and destroyed Sandhausen, probably the Lions best display in a couple of years. The leapt 6 spots into the playoff spot, and if they manage to continue, should see some large 3.Liga crowds. Unterhaching was stunned at home by Heidenheim, completing the miserable München weekend.
The bottom teams are revolting against their fate. Wuppertal travelled to Ingolstadt and stunned their hosts, and actually controlled the match. WSV has shown signs of revival in their fight against relegation, and look to be a fairly tough opponent now. On the other hand, the management remains chaotic, as some supposed investors never materialized. But other bottom clubs also had nice results. Dresden destroyed rivals Jena away, Dortmund got a victory, as did Kiel.
Borussia Dortmund II - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 1:0 (1:0) 2,233 (Hille) VfL Osnabrück - Jahn Regensburg 1:0 (0:0) 10,700 (Lindemann) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Dynamo Dresden 0:4 (0:3) 9,846 (Röttger 2, Kühne o.g., G. Müller) SpVgg Unterhaching - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 0:2 (0:1) 2,600 (Spann, Mayer) Kickers Offenbach - VfB Stuttgart II 2:0 (1:0) 6,637 (Laux, Mesic) SV Werder Bremen II - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 5:0 (4:0) 370 (Testroet, Ronneburg, Ayik, Menga 2) Eintracht Braunschweig - SV 1916 Sandhausen 6:0 (2:0) 11,490 (Kruppke, Onuegbu 3, Pfitzner, Eberlein o.g.) Wacker Burghausen - FC Bayern München II 2:1 (2:1) 3,700 (Grübl, Kresin - Yilmaz) Holstein Kiel - FC Erzgebirge Aue 2:1 (1:0) 4,011 (Holt, Wulff - Glasner) FC Ingolstadt 04 - Wuppertaler SV 0:2 (0:1) 2,306 (Celikovic, Vata) Attendance: 53,893 (avg 5,390) 1. (1.) Kickers Offenbach 16 9 4 3 26:11 +15 31 2. (2.) Wacker Burghausen 16 9 3 4 21:22 -1 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (9.) Eintracht Braunschweig 16 7 5 4 23:17 +6 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (8.) VfL Osnabrück 16 8 2 6 23:18 +5 26 5. (3.) SpVgg Unterhaching 16 7 5 4 27:23 +4 26 6. (5.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 16 7 4 5 21:19 +2 25 7. (4.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 16 7 4 5 28:27 +1 25 8. (6.) FC Ingolstadt 04 16 7 3 6 28:18 +10 24 9. (7.) Jahn Regensburg 16 6 5 5 21:17 +4 23 10. (14.) SV Werder Bremen II 16 7 2 7 22:21 +1 23 11. (10.) VfB Stuttgart II 16 7 1 8 23:22 +1 22 12. (11.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 16 6 4 6 19:20 -1 22 13. (12.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 16 6 3 7 18:22 -4 21 14. (13.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 16 5 5 6 20:25 -5 20 15. (15.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 16 5 4 7 25:24 +1 19 16. (17.) Holstein Kiel 16 5 2 9 21:26 -5 17 17. (18.) Borussia Dortmund II 16 4 4 8 17:21 -4 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (19.) Dynamo Dresden 16 4 4 8 15:20 -5 16 19. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 16 4 4 8 18:29 -11 16 20. (16.) FC Bayern München II 16 4 4 8 20:34 -14 16
Euro competition
Mixed bag for the Bundesliga clubs. In the Champions League, Bayern München disgraced themselves, losing 0-2 at home to Girondins Bordeaux. The Frenchies ran rings around them. They've been pretty lame all season under Van Gaal, and an early exit from Europe will certainly turn up the heat. At least Jürgen Klinsmann had Bayern doing well in Europe until they ran into the Barcelona juggernaut. Bayern is now probably eliminated. They will at least need a win at Juventus to advance. So look for Bayern to finish 3rd and "advance" to the worthless Europa-Liga, what a joke. Meanwhile, champion VfL Wolfsburg dominated Besiktas, winning handily 3-0 in Istanbul. The VWs attacked from the outset, and only a sharp Turkish GK kept the home side in the match. They still face a tough match against CSKA in Moscow, but at least they have prospects to advance to the knockout stage: a draw in Moscow is almost enough. VfB Stuttgart drew 1-1 at Sevilla. This is actually a pretty decent result for the Stuttgarters, since they have been sucking in most competition. They're probably eliminated, although if they win their remaining games that would advance. However, their strategy should be to finish last, so they don't have to move on into the Crapropa-Liga as 3rd place finisher. That way they could cut down the competitions where they have sucked.
Speaking of said Crapropa-Liga, the German clubs were passable in a worthless sort of way. Werder Bremen advances to next round, as they defeated Austria Wien 2-0. Ho-hum. Hamburger SV stumbles along, as they could only draw 0-0 hosting Celtic Glasgow. I would expect HSV to find a way to keep on going as well. Hertha BSC had a rare moment of lucidity. The Bundesliga table-prop actually managed a win, 3-2 away to Dutch club SC Heerenveen. It's probably not the game to turn their dismal season around, but of all clubs in the Crapropa-Liga, Hertha perhaps has now gained the largest benefit...if they can carry it over into the Bundesliga.
Bundesliga - 11th round
This turned out to be a tough week for the favorites. Most expected to bring home the bacon, but instead they ended up with vegetarian breakfasts...
Leaders Leverkusen seemed to have a hard fought victory in hand in Gelsenkirchen, but the new attitude of Schalke under Felix Magath seems to be making it's appearance. The Blues never gave up and continued to fight, and were rewarded with two late goals that saved a deserved point.
Hamburg has been off to a brilliant start, and seemed poised to continue their run. Afterall, they were at home to an essentially worthless-on-the-road Gladbach squad, so what could go wrong? As it turned out, Gladbach came out fighting, so HSV had to work. In fairness, HSV did control the match and hold the lead, but they seemed to lose their way after having the lead. Gladbach meanwhile realized they weren't going to get overrun, and stunned their hosts with a couple of strikes. HSV and their fans couldn't believe it, but they ended up with their first loss of the season. Obviously a huge win for Gladbach, and one that they certainly never expected.
Bremen has been red hot and is one of the title favorites, and Nürnberg has sucked. Seems pretty straight-forward: ass-kicking to come. No dice. Hosts Nürnberg pressed the whole match, fighting furiously for every ball, and beating down Werder. Only an injury time strike by Aaron Hunt saved Bremen's ass. Too bad for der Club, as it would have been a nice victory.
Stuttgart is in crisis, but at least early they looked like they wanted to change that. They came out furiously against Bayern München, but they were unable to convert their chances. Perhaps the realizationn that they've been crap recently then set in, and Bayern basically took over the match. However, Bayern has also showed high levels of suckitude, so despite continued pressure, were unable to get a goal. As a result, probably a just result, and both clubs should be satisfied with the point.
Champions Wolfsburg certainly expected some delicious treats against promoted Mainz. Indeed, Obafemi Martins continues to make his statement for a starting roll, with a double-strike. But I guess everybody forgot to explain to Mainz that they were supposed to roll over and die. The guests stormed back and before long, the VWs were in a struggle. Despite several attempts to finsh off the pesky visitors, Wolfsburg was unable to beat them down. So in the end, they had to give in and surrender a point to Mainz.
Hoffenheim had a tough match in Freiburg, so perhaps you might have figured they would be the one favorite to get dropped. Freiburg did fight hard, but the Hopp-ers were generally the better squad.
One match that pretty much did go to expectations was Borussia Dortmund's ho-hum win against Hertha. Based on last week's effort, one might have hoped the Berliners would be showing signs of life, but no dice. Once again they were crap, and Dortmund had a relatively easy time. The Neon fans probably will rue this lost opportunity to fatten up their goal difference, but apparently the players were just satisfied with a leisurely day at the office. Hertha? Try again next week, I guess.
I'm not sure if anyone really cared about Frankfurt and Bochum. I sure didn't. Not surprisingly, Frankfurt managed to eek out a victory, as Bochum continues to give lame performances, having to rely on their hosts graciousness to get on the scoreboard. Not really much to say, except that Frankfurt gets the points and look secure in their usual midtable mediocrity. Oh yeah, and new Bochum coach Heiko Herrlich is probably thinking "being on the dole actually wasn't that bad."
Borussia Dortmund - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:0 (0:0) 77,000 (Sahin, Barrios) VfL Wolfsburg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 3:3 (2:2) 28,309 (Martins 2, Misimovic - Amri, Ivanschitz, Hoogland) VfB Stuttgart - FC Bayern München 0:0 (0:0) 42,000 Hamburger SV - Borussia M'gladbach 2:3 (1:1) 57,000 (Trochowski, Ze Roberto - Reus, Dante, Friend) 1. FC Köln - Hannover 96 0:1 (0:1) 45,000 (Rosenthal) 1. FC Nürnberg - SV Werder Bremen 2:2 (2:0) 42,258 (Eigler, Bunjaku - Hunt 2) FC Schalke 04 - Bayer Leverkusen 2:2 (0:2) 61,673 (Kuranyi, Sanchez - Kroos, Kiessling) SC Freiburg - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:1 (0:1) 24,000 (Maicosuel) Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Bochum 2:1 (1:1) 37,500 (Caio, Frank - Frank o.g.) Attendance: 414,700 (avg 46,082) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 11 6 5 0 21:8 +13 23 2. (3.) SV Werder Bremen 11 6 4 1 22:9 +13 22 3. (2.) Hamburger SV 11 6 4 1 25:14 +11 22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) FC Schalke 04 11 6 3 2 18:11 +7 21 5. (6.) 1899 Hoffenheim 11 6 2 3 19:9 +10 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (5.) FC Bayern München 11 5 4 2 17:9 +8 19 7. (7.) VfL Wolfsburg 11 5 3 3 21:19 +2 18 8. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 11 5 3 3 18:17 +1 18 9. (9.) Eintracht Frankfurt 11 4 4 3 13:14 -1 16 10. (10.) Borussia Dortmund 11 4 4 3 12:14 -2 16 11. (11.) Hannover 96 11 4 3 4 14:12 +2 15 12. (15.) Borussia M'gladbach 11 3 2 6 13:20 -7 11 13. (12.) SC Freiburg 11 3 1 7 14:23 -9 10 14. (14.) VfB Stuttgart 11 2 3 6 10:15 -5 9 15. (13.) 1. FC Köln 11 2 3 6 6:11 -5 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) 1. FC Nürnberg 11 2 3 6 9:17 -8 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) VfL Bochum 11 2 2 7 11:23 -12 8 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 11 1 1 9 7:25 -18 4
2.Liga - 11th round
Bielefeld keeps their gap at the top. Arminia seems to be solidly in control, and it would not be outrageous to say that a quick return to the Bundesliga is in the cards (followed by a quick return to the 2.Liga, hehehe). Kaiserslautern got a huge win in München to remain in control of 2nd. Union Berlin managed to squeeze by FSV Frankfurt. Despite their excellent start, I still question Union's ability to keep it up all season. And besides, they get to look forward to a huge Berlin derby next season. St.Pauli had an impressive away win in Rostock, and maintain their dream of returning to the Bundesliga for the umpteenth time.
Two clubs that have had decent campaigns for far are Düsseldorf and Oberhausen. Düsseldorf especially can expect some decent crowds if they keep up the pace. They were somewhat blessed by "Fortuna" as they had their backs against the wall against Karlsruhe, but the visitors were too disorganized in the finish to get a point. Meanwhile, not that anyone really cares, Oberhausen squeaked by Paderborn in a shootout.
Intriguing is the inconsistency of Duisburg, coming off an embarrassing DFB-Cup shellacking in midweek. They were all over hosts Koblenz, easily bringing home the bacon. The Zebras don't look a contender this season, which will undoubtedly anger their fans, but they are certainly capable of kicking anyone's ass in the 2.Liga. Aachen has been struggling even worse, and they had a rough time against hopeless Ahlen. Neverthless, a very welcome 3 points for Alemannia, who have been a disaster so far.
Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - SC Paderborn 07 3:2 (1:2) 5,412 (Gordon, Stoppelkamp, Petersch - Gonther, Mohr) 1. FC Union Berlin - FSV Frankfurt 1:0 (1:0) 13,519 (Dogan) Fortuna Düsseldorf - Karlsruher SC 1:0 (1:0) 23,950 (Harnik) Arminia Bielefeld - FC Energie Cottbus 2:0 (1:0) 14,100 (Federico, Katongo) Rot Weiss Ahlen - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:1 (0:0) 2,920 (Nöthe) FC Augsburg - Alemannia Aachen 0:1 (0:0) 11,879 (Burkhardt) TSV 1860 München - 1. FC K'lautern 0:1 (0:1) 24,000 (Jendrisek) TuS Koblenz - MSV Duisburg 0:3 (0:3) 8,149 (Larsen, Bruno Soares, Caiuby) Hansa Rostock - FC St. Pauli 0:2 (0:0) 21,500 (Lehmann, Naki) Attendance: 125,429 (avg 13,937) 1. (1.) Arminia Bielefeld 11 9 0 2 22:8 +14 27 2. (2.) 1. FC K'lautern 11 7 3 1 16:8 +8 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) FC St. Pauli 11 7 2 2 26:11 +15 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) 1. FC Union Berlin 11 7 2 2 21:13 +8 23 5. (5.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 11 6 2 3 17:9 +8 20 6. (6.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 11 6 2 3 14:15 -1 20 7. (8.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 11 6 0 5 21:18 +3 18 8. (9.) MSV Duisburg 11 5 2 4 20:18 +2 17 9. (7.) FC Augsburg 11 3 6 2 19:16 +3 15 10. (10.) SC Paderborn 07 11 3 4 4 17:17 0 13 11. (15.) Alemannia Aachen 11 3 4 4 10:14 -4 13 12. (11.) FC Energie Cottbus 11 3 3 5 17:21 -4 12 13. (13.) Karlsruher SC 11 3 3 5 12:16 -4 12 14. (12.) Hansa Rostock 11 4 0 7 15:20 -5 12 15. (14.) TSV 1860 München 11 3 2 6 13:16 -3 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 11 2 3 6 9:17 -8 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 11 1 2 8 8:25 -17 5 18. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 11 0 2 9 5:20 -15 2
3.Liga - 15th round
The lower divisions can get pretty competitive. Last place Wuppertal hosted leaders Offenbach, but you would have been hard pressed to tell who was who. It was WSV that attacked the Kickers furiously, but an counterattack against the run of play gave Offenbach a lucky halftime edge. However rather than fold up, WSV came out attacking in the 2nd half as well, and eventually were rewarded with the tying goal. They'll need more performances like this if they are to crawl out from the bottom.
Burghausen remained in 2nd with a good draw in Sandhausen, not that anybody really noticed as the two villages squared off. Unterhaching had a huge win away in Dresden, moving into 3rd place. Aue also learned that the league is tough, as they were unable to win against Dortmund's II squad.
VfB Stuttgart II - SV Werder Bremen II 0:1 (0:0) 400 (Ayik) Jahn Regensburg - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1:1 (0:1) 4,108 (Mayombo og. - Mayombo) Dynamo Dresden - SpVgg Unterhaching 0:2 (0:1) 16,015 (Steegmann, Zillner) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - VfL Osnabrück 2:0 (0:0) 5,521 (Kammlott, Semmer) FC Erzgebirge Aue - Borussia Dortmund II 2:2 (2:1) 9,000 (Curri, Braham - Vrzogic, Piossek) FC Bayern München II - Holstein Kiel 2:1 (2:1) 700 (Ekici 2 - R. Müller) SV 1916 Sandhausen - Wacker Burghausen 0:0 (0:0) 3,900 SV Wehen Wiesbaden - Eintracht Braunschweig 0:0 (0:0) 4,011 Wuppertaler SV - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (0:1) 4,270 (Lorenz - Mesic) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - FC Ingolstadt 04 0:1 (0:0) 4,840 (Hartmann) Attendance: 52,765 (avg 5,277) 1. (1.) Kickers Offenbach 15 8 4 3 24:11 +13 28 2. (2.) Wacker Burghausen 15 8 3 4 19:21 -2 27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (6.) SpVgg Unterhaching 15 7 5 3 27:21 +6 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 15 7 4 4 28:21 +7 25 5. (4.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 15 7 4 4 20:17 +3 25 6. (10.) FC Ingolstadt 04 15 7 3 5 28:16 +12 24 7. (7.) Jahn Regensburg 15 6 5 4 21:16 +5 23 8. (5.) VfL Osnabrück 15 7 2 6 22:18 +4 23 9. (9.) Eintracht Braunschweig 15 6 5 4 17:17 0 23 10. (8.) VfB Stuttgart II 15 7 1 7 23:20 +3 22 11. (13.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 15 6 4 5 19:19 0 22 12. (11.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 15 6 3 6 18:17 +1 21 13. (12.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 15 5 5 5 20:21 -1 20 14. (14.) SV Werder Bremen II 15 6 2 7 17:21 -4 20 15. (15.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 15 4 4 7 23:24 -1 16 16. (18.) FC Bayern München II 15 4 4 7 19:32 -13 16 17. (16.) Holstein Kiel 15 4 2 9 19:25 -6 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (19.) Borussia Dortmund II 15 3 4 8 16:21 -5 13 19. (17.) Dynamo Dresden 15 3 4 8 11:20 -9 13 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 15 3 4 8 16:29 -13 13
DFB Pokal - Achtelfinale
Only one major upset, as 3rd division VfL Osnabrück deservedly beat down Borussia Dortmund in a hard fought match. 4th division sensation Eintracht Trier was clearly shown it's limits by Köln, who essentially strolled to an easy victory. VfB Stuttgart further disgraced themselves by a loss in Fürth, but despite rumors, the board has stated that they love coach Markus Babbel and he's their coach, at least until they decide to fire him later. All other Bundesligists had easy times with their opponents. Eintracht Frankfurt was coming off a close league away loss to Bayern, and a sold out home gave promise for some revenge. And revenge it was, as the Frankfurt players took revenge on their own fans for something or another. Eintracht gave a disugusting performance, basically bending over and holding their ankles. So even an unimpressive Bayern had an easy time. Somewhat raising eyebrows was Duisburg getting reemed in a 2.Liga duel in Augsburg; the Zebras had shown signs of life in the 2.Liga recently.
SpVgg Greuther Fürth - VfB Stuttgart 1:0 (1:0) 11,800 (Nehrig) Eintracht Trier - 1. FC Köln 0:3 (0:2) 10,800 (Novakovic, Mohamad, Maniche) VfL Osnabrück - Borussia Dortmund 3:2 (2:0) 16,130 (Barletta 2, Siegert - Sahin, Barrios) FC Augsburg - MSV Duisburg 5:0 (1:0) 12,203 (Torghelle 2, Thurk, Möhrle, Ndjeng) TSV 1860 München - FC Schalke 04 0:3 (0:1) 28,500 (Rafinha, Höwedes 2) SV Werder Bremen - 1. FC K'lautern 3:0 (2:0) 26,094 (Pasanen, Borowski, Oehrl) 1899 Hoffenheim - TuS Koblenz 4:0 (0:0) 18,050 (Salihovic, Ibisevic, Maicosuel, Compper) Eintracht Frankfurt - FC Bayern München 0:4 (0:3) 51,500 (Klose 2, T.Müller, Toni)
Bundesliga - 10th round
Things tighten up as the leaders struggled to draws; it doesn't seem like anybody is willing to seize the day and table. Also significant is that Hertha actually didn't suck.
Leverkusen tops the table, but they had a hard time with Dortmund. Largely in control early, the Aspirins found themselves behind and had to scramble back into the match against a determined Neon visitor. Certainly one of the better defensive displays by Dortmund, and Leverkusen has to be happy with a point, since they easily could have blown it.
The match of the round turned out to be in Gelsenkirchen. Hamburg was playing like a champion, and assuredly was slapping hosts Schalke around 2-0 at half. The Schalkers looked like they'd be going down in flames. However at halftime, coach Felix Magath (who made his fine playing career at HSV) rallied his troops, perhaps by placing his boot up their collective butts. In any case, the Blues came storming out and the match turned into a wild shootout. Just when it looked like the Schalke assault would perhaps yield them a famous win, HSV struck ice-cold, once again the young Swede Markus Berg finished. Berg was highly touted, and seems to be hitting his stride now. But Kevin Kuranyi also hit back with his second, so the match ended in a thrilling 3-3. Both teams could argue that they could have won, so in the end, a draw is a fair result. So HSV continues to impress in the league, but I'm not sure that Schalke should be taken seriously yet. In addition, rumours continue to abound regarding their financial meltdown.
Bremen continues to give signs that they're back as a contender. Despite falling behind with a blitz Bochum first minute goal, Werder calmly proceeded to whip their host's ass. The youngsters Marin and Özil made their mark, and VfL had nothing to resist. This crappy performance indicates that Bochum looks like a solid relegation candidate. Meanwhile, Bremen are looking sharp, with a surprisingly solid defense matched with an effective attack. Champion material? On basis of Bayern struggling and the race being wide open, you'd have to say they're actually the inside favorite!
Bayern München had a crappy performance, and even managed to fall behind against Frankfurt. However, it was pretty clear that Bayern was really just playing against themselves, as the visitors really showed nothing. In the end, Bayern eventually willed themselves to a win; it could have been easier, but given their recent lackadaisical performances, I'm sure van Gaal will take it.
Hoffenheim thumped Nürnberg, but score is somewhat misleading. For most of the match, der Club was an equal opponent to Hoffenheim, but the difference was the hosts had lethal finishing. Obviously, a nice result for the Hoppers, but not a total disaster for Nürnberg, since it wasn't a lame outing.
Stuttgart is in full blown disaster mode. Once again VfB stunk up the joint, this time another loss, in Hannover. The 96ers hardly covered themselves with glory, but they'll take the points. With Stuttgart floundering, press speculation is that coach Markus Babbel might get canned soon. He was largely responsible for Stuttgart's revival last season, so he hardly seems to be the problem, but like they say, you can't fire all the players. Hannover grinds out critical home points that will see them survive another season.
Mainz and Freiburg, two promoted clubs, delivered an entertaining and even match. But Mainz had deadly finishing, and the run out with an impressive scoreline, although undoubtedly Freiburg deserved better. Mainz continues to impress, since I think most pundits figured they would be cannon fodder. Freiburg continues to play decently as well, but their finishing obviously needs some work.
Hertha BSC had their first "non-suck" performance in a while. The Berliners came out strong against defending champion Wolfsburg, actually had the VWs back on their heals. However, their pressure and effort were not sustainable, and depite their first half edge, Hertha had nothing to show for it. (Although I suppose you could argue that not losing by half-time was positive.) In the 2nd period, Wolfsburg gradually began to exert control over the match, but despite their superiority, it wasn't enough to get the goal. So all things considered, a nice point for Hertha, a lost opportunity for Wolfsburg.
Gladbach and Köln delivered a grim Rhein derby. The visitors were content to catenaccio their way to a point, and perhaps try to steal a victory with a rare counterattack. Gladbach on the other hand was rather clueless on how to break down Köln's defense, so a scoreless final is the not surprising result. I would say this is a much better result for Köln, as the point comes away to a relegation rival.
Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia Dortmund 1:1 (0:1) 30,210 (Friedrich - Barrios) FC Bayern München - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:1 (0:0) 69,000 (Robben, van Buyten - Meier) 1899 Hoffenheim - 1. FC Nürnberg 3:0 (2:0) 30,150 (Eichner, Ibisevic, Zuculini) Hannover 96 - VfB Stuttgart 1:0 (1:0) 34,423 (Ya Konan) Borussia M'gladbach - 1. FC Köln 0:0 (0:0) 54,067 1. FSV Mainz 05 - SC Freiburg 3:0 (1:0) 20,150 (Ivanschitz, Hoogland 2) Hertha BSC Berlin - VfL Wolfsburg 0:0 (0:0) 36,799 FC Schalke 04 - Hamburger SV 3:3 (0:2) 61,673 (Kuranyi 2, Schmitz - Berg 2, Trochowski) VfL Bochum - SV Werder Bremen 1:4 (1:2) 25,703 (Sestak - Hunt, Marin, Borowski, Özil) Attendance: 362,175 (avg 40,242) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 10 6 4 0 19:6 +13 22 2. (2.) Hamburger SV 10 6 4 0 23:11 +12 22 3. (4.) SV Werder Bremen 10 6 3 1 20:7 +13 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) FC Schalke 04 10 6 2 2 16:9 +7 20 5. (6.) FC Bayern München 10 5 3 2 17:9 +8 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (7.) 1899 Hoffenheim 10 5 2 3 18:9 +9 17 7. (5.) VfL Wolfsburg 10 5 2 3 18:16 +2 17 8. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 10 5 2 3 15:14 +1 17 9. (9.) Eintracht Frankfurt 10 3 4 3 11:13 -2 13 10. (10.) Borussia Dortmund 10 3 4 3 10:14 -4 13 11. (12.) Hannover 96 10 3 3 4 13:12 +1 12 12. (11.) SC Freiburg 10 3 1 6 14:22 -8 10 13. (14.) 1. FC Köln 10 2 3 5 6:10 -4 9 14. (13.) VfB Stuttgart 10 2 2 6 10:15 -5 8 15. (17.) Borussia M'gladbach 10 2 2 6 10:18 -8 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (15.) 1. FC Nürnberg 10 2 2 6 7:15 -8 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (16.) VfL Bochum 10 2 2 6 10:21 -11 8 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 10 1 1 8 7:23 -16 4
2.Liga - 10th round
Bielefeld has seized control of the 2.Liga. Well, at least they've opened a little breathing room for themselves. Arminia dominated the Westfalen derby with Paderborn, easily winning that struggle. (Paderborn can't be too unhappy, since they experienced a rare sold-out stadium). Kaiserslautern suffers their first defeat, as a large crowd witnessed a clever Düsseldorf team grab all the points. Despite the loss, it seems pretty clear that FCK is a serious contender for a return to the Bundesliga, and after many years in the wilderness, perhaps Fortuna needs to be considered as an eventual prospect as well. FCK maintained their 2nd place, as St.Pauli could not win at home to Cottbus. Union Berlin stopped their slide with an impressive away win in Aachen, who are now in total crisis. AA has a respectable (if failed) Bundesliga campaign a couple of seasons back, and certainly expected to be a promotion contender. Instead they find themselves nervously assuring themselves that there are at least 3 crappier squads.
At the bottom, two of crap squads showed signs of life. FSV Frankfurt got their first win, against 1860, another famed club that is dicking around aimlessly. And Koblenz got an impressive away win at Greuther Fürth. The hero was oldtimer Shefki Kuqi, the Kosovan-Albanian Finnish international, whom English fans would probably recognize from his long term and popular stay with various Championship and crappy EPL clubs. (BTW, his younger brother has played in Germany for a while, but I forget his name. Probably something like Coochie Kuqi...). Anyway, the point is that Koblenz has served notice that they're not dead yet, despite my Monty-Pythonesque "Holy Grail" attempts to declare them deceased...
SpVgg Greuther Fürth - TuS Koblenz 1:2 (1:2) 5,600 (Allagui - S.Kuqi 2) 1. FC K'lautern - Fortuna Düsseldorf 0:2 (0:2) 41,491 (Jovanovic 2) Rot Weiss Ahlen - FC Augsburg 1:3 (0:1) 3,458 (Reichwein - Ndjeng, Thurk, Torghelle) MSV Duisburg - Hansa Rostock 3:1 (3:0) 11,134 (Fahrenhorst, Ben Hatira, Yankov - Retov) FSV Frankfurt - TSV 1860 München 3:2 (1:0) 5,027 (Gjasula, Cenci, Cidimar - Mlapa, Aigner) Karlsruher SC - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 1:1 (0:0) 17,000 (Fink - Kaya) Alemannia Aachen - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:4 (0:2) 26,050 (Demai - Mattuschka, Mosquera 2, Stuff) FC St. Pauli - FC Energie Cottbus 1:1 (0:0) 23,254 (Kruse - Kweuke) SC Paderborn 07 - Arminia Bielefeld 0:2 (0:1) 15,000 (Mijatovic, Federico) Attendance: 148,014 (avg 16,446) 1. (1.) Arminia Bielefeld 10 8 0 2 20:8 +12 24 2. (2.) 1. FC K'lautern 10 6 3 1 15:8 +7 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) FC St. Pauli 10 6 2 2 24:11 +13 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) 1. FC Union Berlin 10 6 2 2 20:13 +7 20 5. (7.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 10 5 2 3 16:9 +7 17 6. (5.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 10 5 2 3 11:13 -2 17 7. (9.) FC Augsburg 10 3 6 1 19:15 +4 15 8. (6.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 10 5 0 5 20:18 +2 15 9. (13.) MSV Duisburg 10 4 2 4 17:18 -1 14 10. (8.) SC Paderborn 07 10 3 4 3 15:14 +1 13 11. (12.) FC Energie Cottbus 10 3 3 4 17:19 -2 12 12. (10.) Hansa Rostock 10 4 0 6 15:18 -3 12 13. (14.) Karlsruher SC 10 3 3 4 12:15 -3 12 14. (11.) TSV 1860 München 10 3 2 5 13:15 -2 11 15. (15.) Alemannia Aachen 10 2 4 4 9:14 -5 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 10 2 3 5 9:14 -5 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (18.) FSV Frankfurt 10 1 2 7 8:24 -16 5 18. (17.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 10 0 2 8 5:19 -14 2
3.Liga - 14th round
More of the same. Lots of clubs tightly packed together, so if you can go on a win streak, you could really make some moves.
Offenbach continues to top the table, a win over a tough newcomer, Heidenheim. So far, the Kickers look like the best team, but they haven't been able to establish any distance between them and the pack of rabid dogs chasing promotion. Burghausen certainly is crap, but they eek out wins and hold 2nd. Erstwhile runner-up Aue crashed and burned in Osnabrück, who look to be back in the race.
An important road win for Wuppertaler SV, who get the winner from new signing, Argie forward Sergio Formento. He was probably working at a Gaucho style BBQ restaurant chopping steaks when he was discovered by WSV's brilliant scouts. He and another new signing, Stefan Lorenz (who had a beer in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg and about 27 2.Liga matches with Essen) went straight into the starting lineup before the ink on their contract was dry. Meanwhile, the press still confuses him with WSV's other Argie, midfielder Lorenzon. The victory however was largely due to the sharp saves of veteran GK Christian Maly... Well, at least Wuppertal is now within striking distance of a non-relegation spot.
FC Ingolstadt 04 - Dynamo Dresden 0:0 (0:0) 4,600 Borussia Dortmund II - FC Bayern München II 0:2 (0:1) 2,077 (Sikorski, Yilmaz) VfL Osnabrück - FC Erzgebirge Aue 3:1 (0:0) 10,400 (Heidrich, Schmidt, Lindemann - Glasner) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - Jahn Regensburg 0:0 (0:0) 4,632 Kickers Offenbach - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 2:1 (1:0) 8,016 (Pospischil, St.Haas - Schnatterer) SV Werder Bremen II - Wuppertaler SV 0:1 (0:1) 750 (Formento) Eintracht Braunschweig - VfB Stuttgart II 4:3 (1:3) 10,150 (Onuegbu, Calamita, Kruppke 2 - Vier, Schwarz, Schipplock) Wacker Burghausen - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2:0 (0:0) 2,650 (Kurz, El Haj Ali) Holstein Kiel - SV 1916 Sandhausen 0:0 (0:0) 3,915 SpVgg Unterhaching - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 3:1 (1:0) 3,300 (Steegmann 2, Kanca - Benyamina) Attendance: 50,490 (avg 5,049) 1. (1.) Kickers Offenbach 14 8 3 3 23:10 +13 27 2. (4.) Wacker Burghausen 14 8 2 4 19:21 -2 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 14 7 3 4 28:21 +7 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (2.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 14 7 3 4 18:15 +3 24 5. (8.) VfL Osnabrück 14 7 2 5 22:16 +6 23 6. (10.) SpVgg Unterhaching 14 6 5 3 25:21 +4 23 7. (6.) Jahn Regensburg 14 6 4 4 20:15 +5 22 8. (5.) VfB Stuttgart II 14 7 1 6 23:19 +4 22 9. (12.) Eintracht Braunschweig 14 6 4 4 17:17 0 22 10. (7.) FC Ingolstadt 04 14 6 3 5 27:16 +11 21 11. (9.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 14 6 2 6 18:17 +1 20 12. (11.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 14 5 4 5 19:20 -1 19 13. (13.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 14 5 4 5 17:19 -2 19 14. (14.) SV Werder Bremen II 14 5 2 7 16:21 -5 17 15. (15.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 14 4 4 6 23:23 0 16 16. (16.) Holstein Kiel 14 4 2 8 18:23 -5 14 17. (18.) Dynamo Dresden 14 3 4 7 11:18 -7 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (19.) FC Bayern München II 14 3 4 7 17:31 -14 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19. (17.) Borussia Dortmund II 14 3 3 8 14:19 -5 12 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 14 3 3 8 15:28 -13 12
Euro results
Basically Germany's results in Euro competition sucked. The Champions League produced embarassment. Champs VfL Wolfsburg were held 0-0 at home by Besiktas. VfB Stuttgart crashed 1-3 at home to Sevilla, although they perhaps deserved better. And Bayern München lost 1-2 at Bordeaux. Bayern's loss was actually the most disgraceful, as they took the early lead and then essentially phoned it in. Youngster Thomas Müller responded to Uli Hoeness call to concentrate more on his club by getting red-carded, but Bayern was playing a cynical game of doing nothing anyway.
The Worthless Europa League also hardly did the Bundesliga proud. At least HSV managed a result, 1-0 away win at Celtic Glasgow. Werder Bremen had the lead, but could only draw 2-2 at Austria Wien (Vienna). And of course, Hertha BSC lost 0-1 at home to Dutch club Heerenveen. Quel surprise.
Useless info department
OK, this is pretty much summed up in the title, but it's a nice tidbit. I've argued before that "Der Bomber der Nation", Gerd Müller, is probably the greatest goal scorer in the history of the game. It's hard to envision anybody ever surpassing his Bundesliga career scoring record (I think it's around 365), although I suppose his single season record (40) might conceivably be reached, once steroids becomes popular in like that other sport that had all sorts of records broken. However, to really see where Müller shined, take a look at his international record.
The info below was taken off an internet news-group, and shows the top scorers for various national teams, based on a minimum of 40 caps. Illustrious company no doubt, and it's pretty hard to argue that Müller doesn't look pretty good. One point needing to be made is that countries play a lot more internationals these days, so players from the 50's and earlier have no chance of making the list. And even from players on the list, it's biased towards recent players. (I saw a stat that indicated that Brazil played some 150 matches from the mid-60s through 80s, and then about 230 over the next 20 years)
All players are basically forwards, although I've included a couple of midfielders in Germany's numbers...and I'll probably add some others as well once I remember some names.
Player Career Caps Goals GPC GERMANY: Müller 66-74 62 68 1.10 <--------- Der Bomber rules!! Fischer 77-82 45 32 0.71 Seeler 54-70 72 43 0.60 Walter 40-58 61 33 0.54 Bierhoff 96-02 70 37 0.53 Völler 82-94 90 47 0.52 Klose 01- 93 48 0.52 Rahn 51-60 40 21 0.52 Podolski 04- 68 35 0.51 Rummenigge 76-86 95 45 0.47 Ballack 99- 94 43 0.46 Lehner 33-42 65 30 0.46 Kirsten 92-00 51 21 0.41 Kuranyi 03-08 48 19 0.40 Möller 88-99 85 33 0.39 Riedle 88-94 42 16 0.38 Allofs 78-88 56 17 0.30 Littbarski 81-90 73 18 0.25 ARGENTINA: Batistuta 91-02 78 56 0.72 Crespo 95-07 64 36 0.56 Luque 75-81 45 22 0.49 Kempes 73-82 43 20 0.47 Maradona 77-94 91 34 0.37 Messi 04- 42 12 0.29 Tévez 04- 49 8 0.16 BRAZIL: Pelé 57-71 92 77 0.84 Romário 87-05 70 55 0.79 Zico 76-88 72 52 0.72 Ronaldo 94-06 97 62 0.64 Tostao 66-72 54 32 0.59 Adriano 05- 47 27 0.57 Bebeto 85-98 75 39 0.52 Careca 82-93 60 29 0.48 Rivaldo 93-03 74 34 0.46 Robinho 98-07 72 19 0.26 ITALY: Riva 65-74 42 35 0.83 Meazza 30-39 53 33 0.62 Baggio 88-04 56 27 0.48 Vieri 97-05 49 23 0.47 Bettega 75-83 42 19 0.45 Inzaghi 97-07 57 25 0.44 Rossi 77-86 48 20 0.42 SPAIN: Villa 05- 52 33 0.63 Morientes 98-07 47 27 0.57 Raúl 96- 102 44 0.43 Salinas 86-96 56 23 0.41 Butragueño 84-92 69 26 0.38 Torres 03- 71 23 0.32 HOLLAND: Cruijff 66-77 48 33 0.69 van Nistelrooy 98-08 64 33 0.52 Kluivert 94-04 79 40 0.51 Bergkamp 90-00 79 37 0.47 van Basten 83-92 58 24 0.41 van Hooijdonk 94-04 46 14 0.30 Rensenbrink 68-79 46 14 0.30 Rep 73-81 42 12 0.29 Makaay 96-05 43 6 0.14 ENGLAND: Greaves 59-67 57 44 0.77 Lineker 84-92 80 48 0.60 Shearer 92-00 63 30 0.48 Owen 98- 89 40 0.45 Charlton 58-70 106 49 0.46 Finney 46-58 76 30 0.39 Keegan 74-81 63 21 0.33 FRANCE: Platini 76-87 72 41 0.57 Papin 86-95 54 30 0.55 Trezeguet 98- 71 34 0.48 Henry 99- 113 51 0.45 Cantona 87-95 45 20 0.44 Zidane 94-06 108 31 0.29
Bundesliga - 9th round
No real significant moves this week. I actually feel the top story is the continued drop of Hertha BSC, who seem incapable of playing football, forget about attaching the term "decent".
The top clash in Hamburg between HSV and Leverkusen proved to be a snoozer, as neither club seemed interested in doing anything. Rather than their usual offensive orientation, Bayer was bent on shutting down their hosts, and HSV was unable to force anything. Goose eggs for everybody.
Schalke may be struggling in multiple departments, but they're not off to a bad start. They've actually been grinding out points to go with their unimpressive performances, so coach Felix Magath seems to be having a positive effect. Stuttgart on the other hand can be considered to be in crisis mode now. VfB has been sucking, falling totally out of contention for anything. But for goal difference, they would be in a relegation spot. Isn't about time they they fired their coach? VfB seems to do that on a regular basis. But if they hold tight, they'll probably be able to pull a Podolski and buy back Mario Gomez from Bayern soon enough.
Bayern München hardly looked impressive against promoted Freiburg, and it was only thanks to youngster Thomas Müller that they come out on top. Interesting that Business Manager Uli Hoeness has come out and stated that all talk about Müller being ready for the national squad is hogwash, and that Müller needs to concentrate on his club. Undoubtedly, Hoeness is correct, and although sometimes it's hard to take this blowhard seriously, he's been generally on the money. On the other hand, Van Gaal's charges look pretty clumsy, as once again the highly priced talent fails to impress. They seem unmotivated. Time to bring back Jupp Heynckes, hehehe. Freiburg was clearly overmatched, but wasn't expecting points in this one anyway. So far, they've actually managed to play some decent football, a nice accomplishment given their usual mini-budget.
Werder Bremen looks like they're truly back. They faced a tough Hoffenheim squad, but looked the better side, coming out with a deserved victory. So after a weak start, the Bremers are a team to contend with. The loss is no disaster for Hoffenheim, who show that they are a solid team, but they have to realize that contention for the title is beyond their reach.
Defending champs Wolfsburg struggled against Gladbach, but in the end, did just enough to win. Especially late in the game, the VWs seemed to have run out of gas, and were forced onto their back-heels by the visitors. But the champs defended their 1-0 lead, until scoring the decider in injury time. Gladbach came back immediately, but just for the final whistle. While Wolfsburg can only be happy about the result, for Gladbach, a somewhat ecouraging encounter, considering it was on the road against a tough opponent.
Köln comes up with a huge win, which is really somewhat embarassing. How can you consider a match against Mainz huge?! But there you have it, and the Kölners went about their business grimly, with a catenaccio tight defense meant on destroying all play. You might have wondered who was the home team. But Mainz is simply not good enough to really take it to their opponents away, so Köln's cynical play was rewarded, much to the relief of the fans, who probably would have rioted if they hadn't kept the points. Novakovic, who scored many an important goal in last year's successful campaign, got the winner. You have to wonder though when Podolski wonders if he'll ever make the right choice. I think if he had stuck at Bayern, he'd be a starter under van Gaal...
Another huge relegation battle, this time in Nürnberg. And the outcome was the same as others, as der Club totally bitch-slapped the completely demoralized Hertha BSC. The Berliners must surely face the realization that unless something drastic happens, they are doomed. Their collapse is quite swift, but not all that shocking, when you look at the terrible club management. Coach Friedhelm Funkel is probably wondering what a mess he's gotten himself into. Meanwhile, for Nürnberg, obviously a good result. If they could play Hertha 3-4 more times, salvation would be a snap.
The mini-Ruhr derby was in fact pretty lame. Dortmund wins by default, as basically Bochum was totally crap. For Borussia, welcome points, as they seem to be recovering from their early aimless drift. Most observors rate Bochum's performance as "desolate", so obviously they have some work to do. You're not expecting Brazil 1970 when you're a Bochum fan, but you do expect fight, and they clearly showed none of that.
Frankfurt got their act together and downed Hannover. Neither team was overly impressive, but Eintracht controlled the match and come out with a deserved win. This also means they're floating safely above relegation, but despite the illusion of being only 3 points away from Europe, they might as well be on Mars.
VfB Stuttgart - FC Schalke 04 1:2 (0:1) 42,000 (Cacau - Rakitic, Kuranyi) SV Werder Bremen - 1899 Hoffenheim 2:0 (2:0) 33,916 (Pizarro, Mertesacker) 1. FC Köln - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:0 (1:0) 49,000 (Novakovic) Eintracht Frankfurt - Hannover 96 2:1 (1:0) 40,700 (Liberopoulos, Meier - Stajner) SC Freiburg - FC Bayern München 1:2 (0:1) 24,000 (Reisinger - Müller, Cha o.g.) 1. FC Nürnberg - Hertha BSC Berlin 3:0 (2:0) 38,094 (Gygax, Bunjaku 2) Hamburger SV - Bayer Leverkusen 0:0 (0:0) 57,000 VfL Wolfsburg - Borussia M'gladbach 2:1 (1:0) 30,000 (Madlung, Gentner - Bradley) Borussia Dortmund - VfL Bochum 2:0 (1:0) 72,500 (Barrios, Subotic) Attendance: 387,210 (avg 43,023) 1. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 9 6 3 0 18:5 +13 21 2. (2.) Hamburger SV 9 6 3 0 20:8 +12 21 3. (3.) FC Schalke 04 9 6 1 2 13:6 +7 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) SV Werder Bremen 9 5 3 1 16:6 +10 18 5. (7.) VfL Wolfsburg 9 5 1 3 18:16 +2 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (8.) FC Bayern München 9 4 3 2 15:8 +7 15 7. (5.) 1899 Hoffenheim 9 4 2 3 15:9 +6 14 8. (6.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 9 4 2 3 12:14 -2 14 9. (9.) Eintracht Frankfurt 9 3 4 2 10:11 -1 13 10. (12.) Borussia Dortmund 9 3 3 3 9:13 -4 12 11. (10.) SC Freiburg 9 3 1 5 14:19 -5 10 12. (11.) Hannover 96 9 2 3 4 12:12 0 9 13. (13.) VfB Stuttgart 9 2 2 5 10:14 -4 8 14. (16.) 1. FC Köln 9 2 2 5 6:10 -4 8 15. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 9 2 2 5 7:12 -5 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (14.) VfL Bochum 9 2 2 5 9:17 -8 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (15.) Borussia M'gladbach 9 2 1 6 10:18 -8 7 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 9 1 0 8 7:23 -16 3
2.Liga - 9th round
Good results for the top teams. While Bielefeld squeaked by a tough Aachen club (who have not been getting points due to their anemic "offense"), Kaiserslautern won an important away match in Cottbus, which is always a difficult fixture, even when Energie was in the Bundesliga. St.Pauli meanwhile grabbed points in Oberhausen. It's hard to determine whether the greater surprise is that RWO is off to a good start or rather that a couple of fans showed up to watch them, but any way you slice it, a good win for the visitors. Early surprise Union Berlin suffered their first home loss, and are in danger of falling behind in the promotion race. Perhaps Union is more interested in the upcoming Berlin derby with Hertha next season...
It's beginning to look like the auto-relegation spots are determined. Ahlen did manage to gain an away point against Koblenz, which undoubtedly irks the home team no end. FSV Frankfurt was happily sailing along in Düsseldorf until the hosts woke up and bitch-slapped them. Both Ahlen and FSV seem to have indicated that they're too crap, and it's beginning to look like Koblenz is too weak as well. In that case, the relegation story is all wrapped up - it's hard to imagine a scenario where any of the next 6 squads (all ex-Bundesliga clubs) would be worse than Koblenz. It's been a nice little run for Koblenz, but they're too small. As for FSV, they're too much in the shadow of Eintracht. And Ahlen? Well, their own fans are already missing in action, so why would anybody care?
Arminia Bielefeld - Alemannia Aachen 1:0 (1:0) 15,200 (Janjic) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - FC St. Pauli 1:3 (1:0) 10,124 (Stoppelkamp - Ebbers, Brune, Kruse) FC Energie Cottbus - 1. FC K'lautern 1:2 (1:1) 12,670 (Kweuke - Ilicevic, Paljic) TSV 1860 München - MSV Duisburg 3:1 (1:0) 19,200 (Holebas, Mlapa, Lauth - Larsen) Hansa Rostock - SC Paderborn 07 1:2 (0:1) 14,000 (Sebastian - Alushi, Manno) FC Augsburg - Karlsruher SC 1:1 (1:1) 17,228 (Thurk - Stindl) TuS Koblenz - Rot Weiss Ahlen 1:1 (1:0) 7,031 (Lense - Toborg) Fortuna Düsseldorf - FSV Frankfurt 4:1 (0:1) 19,100 (Harnik, Langenecke, Jovanovic, Christ - Cenci) 1. FC Union Berlin - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:2 (0:2) 14,150 (Sahin - Mauersberger, Nehrig) Attendance: 128,703 (avg 14,300) 1. (1.) Arminia Bielefeld 9 7 0 2 18:8 +10 21 2. (2.) 1. FC K'lautern 9 6 3 0 15:6 +9 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) FC St. Pauli 9 6 1 2 23:10 +13 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) 1. FC Union Berlin 9 5 2 2 16:12 +4 17 5. (5.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 9 5 1 3 10:12 -2 16 6. (6.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 9 5 0 4 19:16 +3 15 7. (9.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 9 4 2 3 14:9 +5 14 8. (12.) SC Paderborn 07 9 3 4 2 15:12 +3 13 9. (8.) FC Augsburg 9 2 6 1 16:14 +2 12 10. (7.) Hansa Rostock 9 4 0 5 14:15 -1 12 11. (15.) TSV 1860 München 9 3 2 4 11:12 -1 11 12. (10.) FC Energie Cottbus 9 3 2 4 16:18 -2 11 13. (11.) MSV Duisburg 9 3 2 4 14:17 -3 11 14. (14.) Karlsruher SC 9 3 2 4 11:14 -3 11 15. (13.) Alemannia Aachen 9 2 4 3 8:10 -2 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 9 1 3 5 7:13 -6 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 9 0 2 7 4:16 -12 2 18. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 9 0 2 7 5:22 -17 2
3.Liga - 13th round
Leaders Offenbach get a big win in Dresden, and Aue has really come from nowhere to grab 2nd. The 3.Liga looks wide open, although Offenbach seems like they have somewhat of an advantage, given the fact that they're a relatively "big" club here.
Wuppertal and Braunschweig battled to a draw in the Zoo-Stadion. At least it wasn't a loss, although WSV can't be overly happy with their performance, as they turned the game over to the vistors after taking the lead. But since all the other relegation battling teams lost, WSV sneaks ever closer to the pack. The next thing they should do is drop the ridiculous "Borussia" from their name, erasing all traces of that worthless merger.
Dynamo Dresden - Kickers Offenbach 2:4 (2:2) 21,182 (Savran, Dobry - St.Haas, Mesic 2, Zinnow) Jahn Regensburg - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:3 (0:3) 3,000 (Steegmann o.g. - T.Schweinsteiger 2, Mitterhuber) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - FC Ingolstadt 04 2:0 (0:0) 5,099 (Lukimya, Holwijn) FC Bayern München II - VfL Osnabrück 1:1 (0:1) 700 (Haas - Hansen) SV 1916 Sandhausen - Borussia Dortmund II 3:2 (3:0) 2,100 (Dorn 2, Ristic - Hille, Boztepe) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - Holstein Kiel 2:1 (0:0) 3,148 (Ziegenbein, A. Öztürk - Holt) Wuppertaler SV Bor. - Eintracht Braunschweig 1:1 (1:0) 3,350 (Celikovic - Onuegbu) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - SV Werder Bremen II 1:2 (0:1) 4,220 (Jarosch - Testroet 2) FC Erzgebirge Aue - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 2:0 (1:0) 10,150 (Ramaj, Hochscheidt) VfB Stuttgart II - Wacker Burghausen 1:0 (1:0) 500 (Funk) Attendance: 53,449 (avg 5,345) 1. (2.) Kickers Offenbach 13 7 3 3 21:9 +12 24 2. (4.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 13 7 3 3 17:12 +5 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (6.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 13 7 2 4 28:21 +7 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (1.) Wacker Burghausen 13 7 2 4 17:21 -4 23 5. (7.) VfB Stuttgart II 13 7 1 5 20:15 +5 22 6. (3.) Jahn Regensburg 13 6 3 4 20:15 +5 21 7. (5.) FC Ingolstadt 04 13 6 2 5 27:16 +11 20 8. (8.) VfL Osnabrück 13 6 2 5 19:15 +4 20 9. (11.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 13 6 2 5 18:15 +3 20 10. (12.) SpVgg Unterhaching 13 5 5 3 22:20 +2 20 11. (14.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 13 5 4 4 18:17 +1 19 12. (10.) Eintracht Braunschweig 13 5 4 4 13:14 -1 19 13. (9.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 13 5 3 5 17:19 -2 18 14. (15.) SV Werder Bremen II 13 5 2 6 16:20 -4 17 15. (13.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 13 4 4 5 22:21 +1 16 16. (16.) Holstein Kiel 13 4 1 8 18:23 -5 13 17. (17.) Borussia Dortmund II 13 3 3 7 14:17 -3 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (18.) Dynamo Dresden 13 3 3 7 11:18 -7 12 19. (19.) FC Bayern München II 13 2 4 7 15:31 -16 10 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor 13 2 3 8 14:28 -14 9
Germany in
In the decisive World Cup qualifier, Germany defeated Russia 1-0, in front of 85,000 in Moscow's Luzhinki stadium. The Russians actually looked the better team, but Miro Klose snuck in to fire an open goal after 35 minutes, and GK Rene Adler was in top form. In fact, based on his performance, he is probably the new no.1. No more Jens Lehmann. HSV defender Jerome Boateng celebrated his debut for the DFB by getting his ass red-carded (double yellow). So Germany wins the group, even if they lay an egg against Finland in their final match. To bad for the Russkis, but they get another chance in the playoffs.
Who pays out the money?
This is an interesting list, the top earners by club. Obviously, some clubs such as Bayern München will have players that undoubtedly earn more than the top earners on other clubs, but this list is just showing who makes the most on each club.
Most of the clubs have the top earner also being a top contributor. The exceptions are obviously Bayern (although Toni was pretty good in the last couple of seasons) and Eintracht Frankfurt - Mahdavikia doesn't even play because he sucks. Also interesting are some factoids: Arne Friedrich took a 500,000 euro paycut because Hertha said they couldn't afford it anymore. In return, he gets out of his contract early. Paul Freier took a 50% paycut to move from Bayer Leverkusen to his old hometown club Bochum. I believe that Lukas Podolski also took a big paycut to leave bayern and go back to Köln. Hoffenheim's Brazilian midfielder Carlos Eduardo was the 2.Liga's highest ever transfer, costing some 8 million euros. Alex Hleb is on a free loan from Barcelona, but Stuttgart pays 100% of his salary. Kevin Kuranyi looks to be the big name looking for a new club, as indications are Schalke can't afford to sign him again. Robert Enke's contract runs out, but Hannover will likely offer him more.
009-10 Bundesliga: Top earners by Club (millions of Euros) Bayern München - Luca Toni (32) F 10.0 VfB Stuttgart - Aliaksandr Hleb (28) M 6.5 VfL Wolfsburg - Grafite (30) F 5.0 Werder Bremen - Claudio Pizarro (30) F 4.2 Schalke 04 - Kevin Kuranyi (27) F 3.8 Bor. Dortmund - Sebastian Kehl (29) M 3.5 Hamburger SV - Zé Roberto (35) M 3.5 TSG Hoffenheim - Carlos Eduardo (22) M 3.2 Bayer Leverkusen - Patrick Helmes (25) F 3.0 Hertha BSC - Arne Friedrich (30) D 3.0 1. FC Köln - Lukas Podolski (24) F 2.5 Hannover 96 - Robert Enke (32) GK 2.3 Ein. Frankfurt - Mehdi Mahdavikia (32) M 2.0 1. FC Nürnberg - Angelos Charisteas (29) F 1.8 Mönchengladbach - Juan Arango (29) M 1.8 VfL Bochum - Paul Freier (30) M 0.8 FSV Mainz - Nikolce Noveski (30) D 0.7 SC Freiburg - Heiko Buscher (29) D 0.6
Horst Szymaniak dies
Former Wuppertaler SV great Horst Szymaniak died on Friday at the age of 75. A very gifted midfielder, he was capped 43 times for Germany. He started his career with worthless SpVgg Erkenschwick, and then saw the light and transferred to Wuppertaler SV, where he was one of the squad's star players in the 1950s. Importantly, he became the first German "legionaire" to leave for Italy's Serie A when he transferred to Catania in 1962, to gain the benefits of full professiionalism. He also eventually played for Inter Milan and AS Varese, before returning to Bundesliga for a brief spell with the legendary Tasmania 1900 Berlin. He wound up playing a bit in the NASL as well. Aside from being a skilled midfielder, he was also known for his goofy quotes. He would probably be ranked 2nd among all-time favorite WSV heroes, behind Günter Pröpper, although objectively speaking, he was a better player.
Misc news
A surprise for Kickers Offenbach: the successful 3.Liga club, currently in 2nd place, has to look for a new coach. Hans-Jürgen Boysen stunned the club by resigning. To make matters worse, the rumour is that Boysen is going to take over for hopeless 2.Liga club FSV Frankfurt. Seems a bit strange, since if he waited a year, Kickers will probably be in the 2.Liga, and FSV back in the 3rd, and it would seem that Kickers has more financial resources. Bad news for Hamburg: Goal scoring forward Mladen Petric is out for the rest of first half campaign. Apparently he had to undergo surgery on some joint, I think it was an ankle. In any case, he'll be out until after winterbreak. Of course, HSV was already suffering up front, since Pablo Guerrero went down early in the season. Just the other day, there was some news that Guerrero may be back faster than expected, but for the next few weeks, HSV is definitely going to have to come up with some new ideas to score goals. Favre comes clean....sort of. Swiss coach Lucien Favre, just fired by hapless Hertha BSC, gave his side of the story at a press conference. He admitted to some mistakes, and was generally supportive of ex-general manager Dieter Hoeness. (What a lap-dog, Hoeness sucked). But he also criticized the cheapskate Hertha management. No real surprise here. Hertha's transfer policy over the last few years seems to be "get rid of good players". In fairness to Hoeness, he's obviously less talented than his borther Uli, but he did try to raise Hertha's profile. It's just that he failed across the board. Favre actually managed to get quite a bit out of the declining talent pool: last season Hertha was even a pace setter. But that's the rub with crap, boring play: once you stop grinding out the points, expect a swift ass-kick out the door once you start losing. There's nothing worse than a boring loser. Coach opening in Dresden 3.Liga strugglers Dynamo Dresden fired their coach Ruud Kaiser as they slipped into relegation. Crap preparation for national squad. The DFB team has the critical World Cup Qualifier in Moscow against Russia. A draw is all that's really needed, but a loss likely forces them into the playoffs. However coach Löw's troops aren't exactly bearing down in practice: the national team played against FSV Mainz U23 selection and lost 0-1! OK, it was only practice, but WTF?!
Bundesliga - 8th round
Leverkusen stormed to the top as they easily routed a hapless Nürnberg squad. It's hard to tell how good Bayer is, as der Club was pitiful and made it easy.
Hamburg was hardly convincing, but had no trouble with crap Hertha. The Berliners fired coach Lucien Favre and have replaced him with ex-Frankfurt boss Friedhelm Funkel. However, it was soon more of the same crap. The best part came from the teenage reserve GK, Sascha Burchert. He came in the 1st half when Berlin's starter got injured, and then proceeded to deliver a couple of howlers. Basically he ran out of his goal and headed the ball to a HSV player, who then knocked the ball into the empty net. But this may have actually been Funkel's fault, because he evidently failed to explain to the youngster that he was going in as a goalkeeper and not a fullback. But it wasn't only his gifts. Brazilian defender Kaka (not the good one, hehe) headed the ball into his own net as well. Anyway, another lame outing for last place Hertha, and HSV continue to get things done in the Bundesliga. Both Leverkusen and Hamburg have to be happy that they've opened a nice little gap at the top. Can they continue? Nope. Leverkusen is pronounced "Luserkusen" in German, and HSV will probably get run out of town once they're revealed to be emperors without clothes. (Rapid Wien, hello?!)
Perennial champ Bayern München laid an egg as they failed to score against a lame Köln. After the initial euphoria of the Arjen Robben signing, things are back to mediocre at Bayern, and fans, management and players will start grumbling unless coach Louis Van Gaal comes up with a plan. If you can't beat Köln, you have a serious problem. Maybe he should try putting Luca Toni in? So far, Olic, Gomez and Klose have been crap, so how could Toni be even worse by scoring zero goals?
Schalke continues to scrape along with their anemic offense, but overall had a solid match strangling Frankfurt. Of course, the financial clouds hanging over Schalke are of continuing concern, but if coach Felix Magath can eek out results, perhaps things will start looking up. Once again, solid defense and anemic offense seems to be the Blues problem. Frankfurt had already been exposed in their ass-whupping at the hands of Stuttgart last week, so this crap effort comes as no surprise. Lower midtable, that's all Eintracht can aspire to.
Things are not all rosy with defending champion Wolfsburg. The VWs struggled in a 1-1 draw at Bochum, and new coach Armin Veh is facing his first mutiny. Star forward Grafite was angry over being subbed out early in the 2nd half, stating that he deserves more respect for all he's done for the club, plus he's "a family man". Veh's response was simply "Hmm, he shouldn't have said those things." Grafite has also criticized his team-mates, and has generally been acting as a wanker recently. Part of the frustration appears to be that Veh has put more emphasis on short passing rather than the blitz long passing speed game from Magath, and Grafite has problems with that. Well, I guess "graphite" will be meeting "wood" in the furture, since Veh will probably bench his ass. (All the more likely, since his replacement Obafemi Martins seems to score every time he's in the game.) From Bochum's standpoint, a pretty decent result, since the VWs are obviously one of the better clubs.
Werder Bremen might be back. The Bremen squad travelled to Stuttgart and came away with a solid road victory. After a rough past season, Werder getting on track should be scary for the rest of the league. A couple more decent outings, and Werder could be serious title contenders. This should scare the top 3, since unlike them, Werder at least wins the trophy once in a while.
Mainz pulled off an upset in a southwestern derby as they outfought Hoffenheim, who had given signs that they wanted to be a contender again. Instead, Mainz beat them down, continuing their bright start. So far, they're probably team of the year, given the fact they have almost zero talent. Hoffenheim's coach Rangnick should be upset, since he seemingly had recovered last year's form recently, but they were simply outhustled in this one.
Hannover has had a few poor results, but came out firing on all cylinders against Freiburg. They let the visitors back into the game for a while, but unlike other matches, the 96ers turned up the heat again and won impressively. This comes at a good time, as they had begun to drift. Back to reality for Freiburg after a couple of good outings.
The Borussias delivered a rather drab derby, but Dortmund got a game-winner to relieve some of the pressure on coach Jürgen Klopp and his squad's poor start. The Neons have been playing poorly, or even incompetantly. No change in this match, but at least they bring home the bacon. This home defeat definitely hurts the Gladbachers. Even though Köln, Nürnberg and Hertha look crappier and have the inside track on relegation, they can't afford to get smug.
FC Schalke 04 - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:0 (0:0) 61,673 (Asamoah, Farfan) FC Bayern München - 1. FC Köln 0:0 (0:0) 69,000 Bayer Leverkusen - 1. FC Nürnberg 4:0 (3:0) 26,785 (Kroos, Rolfes, Derdiyok, Kiessling) Hannover 96 - SC Freiburg 5:2 (3:1) 28,412 (Chahed, Bruggink, Haggui, Konan, Pinto - Banovic, Schuster) VfL Bochum - VfL Wolfsburg 1:1 (0:0) 21,710 (Hashemian - Martins) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - 1899 Hoffenheim 2:1 (2:0) 20,300 (Ivanschitz, Bancé - Ibertsberger) Borussia M'gladbach - Borussia Dortmund 0:1 (0:1) 53,253 (Barrios) VfB Stuttgart - SV Werder Bremen 0:2 (0:1) 42,000 (Pizarro, Hunt) Hertha BSC Berlin - Hamburger SV 1:3 (1:3) 49,208 (Friedrich - Kaka o.g., Jarolim, Ze Roberto) Attendance: 372,341 (avg 41,371) 1. (2.) Bayer Leverkusen 8 6 2 0 18:5 +13 20 2. (1.) Hamburger SV 8 6 2 0 20:8 +12 20 3. (4.) FC Schalke 04 8 5 1 2 11:5 +6 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (5.) SV Werder Bremen 8 4 3 1 14:6 +8 15 5. (3.) 1899 Hoffenheim 8 4 2 2 15:7 +8 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 8 4 2 2 12:13 -1 14 7. (6.) VfL Wolfsburg 8 4 1 3 16:15 +1 13 8. (7.) FC Bayern München 8 3 3 2 13:7 +6 12 9. (9.) Eintracht Frankfurt 8 2 4 2 8:10 -2 10 10. (10.) SC Freiburg 8 3 1 4 13:17 -4 10 11. (14.) Hannover 96 8 2 3 3 11:10 +1 9 12. (15.) Borussia Dortmund 8 2 3 3 7:13 -6 9 13. (11.) VfB Stuttgart 8 2 2 4 9:12 -3 8 14. (13.) VfL Bochum 8 2 2 4 9:15 -6 8 15. (12.) Borussia M'gladbach 8 2 1 5 9:16 -7 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (17.) 1. FC Köln 8 1 2 5 5:10 -5 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (16.) 1. FC Nürnberg 8 1 2 5 4:12 -8 5 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 8 1 0 7 7:20 -13 3
2.Liga - 8th round
Relegated Bielefeld has completely recovered from their initial slow start, and their away win over fellow-relegee Karlsruhe allowed them to vault into 1st place. Arminia is probably good money for a quick return to the Bundesliga, so they can continue their battle with Nürnberg as the "mostest elevator" club. Last week's leader Kaiserslautern discovered that it ain't going to be easy, as they were held to a draw by last place FSV Frankfurt. Despite the good result, FSV's coach Timo Oral resigned after the match. FCK may have struggled, but since Union was beaten up in Duisburg, they remain in direct promotion. The Zebras are schizoid this season, so who knows what MSV club will turn up. Union has been a pleasant surprise, but promotion seems a far stretch. I don't think they have the talent. Besides, wouldn't it be nice to have a Berlin derby next season? Certainly Hertha is doing her part to make this dream a reality. St.Pauli got things rolling again, as they ran over 1860. St.Pauli is playing entertaining football, and of course their crazy fans are always a hoot. No one can figure out what the hell is wrong with 1860, who have stunk ever since they dropped from top flight a few years ago.
The other early season suprise (aside from Union) seems to be Oberhausen. Minimalist football, but bringing home the bacon, as RWO squeezed out another win, this time in Koblenz. Is this a good thing? Probably not. Last time Oberhausen was in the Bundesliga, the Skandal almost killed German football. Well, OK, this edition of RWO is undoubtedly clean as a whistle, but the only thing more minimlaist than their football is their fanbase. Koblenz has been struggling for a while, and although this season at least they don't start with points deduction, it looks to be a hard battle to stay up. Rostock seems to recovered from their recent poor form, as they notched up an away win at Ahlen, who drop to the bottom. Nobody would mind if Ahlen stayed there either. (Obviously their non-existant fans can be counted in that group as well.) It's good for German football if Cottbus and Rostock stay at least in the 2.Liga, since the ex-GDR needs representation.
Alemannia Aachen - FC Energie Cottbus 1:1 (1:0) 22,090 (Auer - Fandrich) MSV Duisburg - 1. FC Union Berlin 3:1 (1:0) 12,017 (Larsen 3 - Biran) TuS Koblenz - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 0:1 (0:0) 6,726 (König) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Fortuna Düsseldorf 2:1 (0:1) 7,850 (Allagui, N. Müller - Harnik) SC Paderborn 07 - FC Augsburg 2:2 (2:1) 8,173 (Saglik, Brückner - Thurk 2) FC St. Pauli - TSV 1860 München 3:1 (1:0) 23,188 (Rothenbach, Ebbers, Naki - Mlapa) Rot Weiss Ahlen - Hansa Rostock 0:2 (0:0) 4,550 (Sebastian 2) FSV Frankfurt - 1. FC K'lautern 1:1 (1:1) 9,664 (Kujabi - Jendrisek) Karlsruher SC - Arminia Bielefeld 0:1 (0:1) 15,673 (Fort) Attendance: 109,931 (avg 12,215) 1. (3.) Arminia Bielefeld 8 6 0 2 17:8 +9 18 2. (1.) 1. FC K'lautern 8 5 3 0 13:5 +8 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (2.) 1. FC Union Berlin 8 5 2 1 15:10 +5 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) FC St. Pauli 8 5 1 2 20:9 +11 16 5. (5.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 8 5 1 2 9:9 0 16 6. (11.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 8 4 0 4 17:15 +2 12 7. (13.) Hansa Rostock 8 4 0 4 13:13 0 12 8. (7.) FC Augsburg 8 2 5 1 15:13 +2 11 9. (6.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 8 3 2 3 10:8 +2 11 10. (8.) FC Energie Cottbus 8 3 2 3 15:16 -1 11 11. (15.) MSV Duisburg 8 3 2 3 13:14 -1 11 12. (10.) SC Paderborn 07 8 2 4 2 13:11 +2 10 13. (12.) Alemannia Aachen 8 2 4 2 8:9 -1 10 14. (9.) Karlsruher SC 8 3 1 4 10:13 -3 10 15. (14.) TSV 1860 München 8 2 2 4 8:11 -3 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 8 1 2 5 6:12 -6 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (18.) FSV Frankfurt 8 0 2 6 4:18 -14 2 18. (17.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 8 0 1 7 3:15 -12 1
3.Liga - 12th round
Burghausen struggled at home to Wuppertal, but managed to sneak a goal in an even match. This actually vaulted Burghausen into 1st, (with a disgraceful goal difference), but more importantly, leaves WSV mired at the bottom. Wuppertal could have easily won this match, but their forwards missed a couple of sitters. Well, I guess that's why you're last...
Erstwhile leaders Regensburg went down in flames in Aue, and Kickers Offenbach took advantage to vault into 2nd as they thrashed Jena. Early pacesetters Sandhausen got thumped in Osnabrück and drop down the table. However, the 3.Liga is packed at the top, as half the table is within 5 points. The hottest team now seems to be Ingolstadt, which overpowered Unterhaching, who appear to be going nowhere.
Holstein Kiel - VfB Stuttgart II 2:0 (0:0) 4,853 (Holt 2) Borussia Dortmund II - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 1:1 (0:0) 1,065 (Le Tallec - Reinert) VfL Osnabrück - SV 1916 Sandhausen 3:1 (1:0) 8,600 (Siegert, Hansen, Bencik - Mintzel) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - FC Bayern München II 2:0 (1:0) 6,478 (Semmer, Rockenbach) FC Erzgebirge Aue - Jahn Regensburg 3:1 (1:0) 8,400 (Agyemang, Glasner, Paulus - Beigang) FC Ingolstadt 04 - SpVgg Unterhaching 2:2 (1:2) 4,047 (Buchner, Hartmann - T.Schweinsteiger 2) Kickers Offenbach - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 4:0 (2:0) 8,563 (Pospischil, Ulm, Mesic, Pfingsten) SV Werder Bremen II - Dynamo Dresden 2:0 (1:0) 1,750 (Oehrl 2) Eintracht Braunschweig - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 1:1 (0:1) 12,280 (Onuegbu - Heidenfelder) Wacker Burghausen - Wuppertaler SV 1:0 (0:0) 3,600 (Wolf) Attendance: 59,636 (avg 5,964) 1. (3.) Wacker Burghausen 12 7 2 3 17:20 -3 23 2. (6.) Kickers Offenbach 12 6 3 3 17:7 +10 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (1.) Jahn Regensburg 12 6 3 3 19:12 +7 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (7.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 12 6 3 3 15:12 +3 21 5. (4.) FC Ingolstadt 04 12 6 2 4 27:14 +13 20 6. (2.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 12 6 2 4 25:19 +6 20 7. (5.) VfB Stuttgart II 12 6 1 5 19:15 +4 19 8. (10.) VfL Osnabrück 12 6 1 5 18:14 +4 19 9. (14.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 12 5 3 4 17:17 0 18 10. (8.) Eintracht Braunschweig 12 5 3 4 12:13 -1 18 11. (10.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 12 5 2 5 16:14 +2 17 12. (12.) SpVgg Unterhaching 12 4 5 3 19:19 0 17 13. (13.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 12 4 4 4 21:19 +2 16 14. (9.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 12 4 4 4 16:17 -1 16 15. (17.) SV Werder Bremen II 12 4 2 6 14:19 -5 14 16. (18.) Holstein Kiel 12 4 1 7 17:21 -4 13 17. (16.) Borussia Dortmund II 12 3 3 6 12:14 -2 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (15.) Dynamo Dresden 12 3 3 6 9:14 -5 12 19. (19.) FC Bayern München II 12 2 3 7 14:30 -16 9 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 12 2 2 8 13:27 -14 8
Euro results
Things didn't go that well for the Bundesliga. In the Champions League, VfL Wolfsburg suffered a hard-fought 1-2 defeat at Manchester United, despite taking the lead on an Edin Dzeko header. Not all that unexpected, since the VWs have little experience in top level Euro competition. Meanwhile, Bayern München drew 0-0 with Juventus, clearly a crap result. This is most interesting from the fact that Luca Toni desperately wanted to play, perhaps with the idea of showcasing and getting a transfer back to Italy. Instead, he was completely snubbed by Bayern coach Louis Van Gaal, and didn't even make the subs-bench. Perhaps Van Gaal wanted to ensure the Italian's fitness for the crucial 3.Liga clash between Bayern München II and Erzgebirge Aue, clearly a formidable opponent. Toni is surprisingly quiet. I would hope he's not taking advice from Albert Streit...Other than that, Bayern had additional bad news. Not surprising, Arjen Robben twisted his knee and will apparently be out for 4 weeks. Franck Ribery will probably miss Bayern's next match as well. VfB Stuttgart was crap against Romanian side Unirea Urziceni. The match ended 1-1, I believe it was played somewhere in Transylvania, probably in the hayfields of some peasant.
In Europa League play, HSV somewhat redeemed itself, with a 4-2 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv. Some 25,000 showed up in Hamburg, which about half the size of a typical Bundesliga crowd, or equivalent to the line to the men's room at halftime. Best news for HSV is that Sweden U21 newcomer Markus Berg finally scored (twice in fact). But obviously you're stretching belief when you have to celebrate a win against an Israeli squad. Hertha BSC of course continues to lay eggs, as they lost 0-1 at Sporting Lisbon. Werder Bremen probably did the best, as they defeated Athletic Bilbao 3-1.
Streit about Streit
"Streit" can be translated as "conflict", and that certainly is an apt term to describe the situation between Schalke midifielder Albert Streit and the club. The 29 year old, who seemed to be a pretty decent player during his days at Eintracht Frankfurt, signed a nice contract through 2012 with Schalke in the offseason. From that point on however, things went in the toilet. First, new coach Felix Magath basically kicked Streit off the team due to "poor attitude". Streit then started playing for Schalke II in the 4th division Regionalliga, and ran into angry Schalke fans, who spent most of the game yelling obscenities at him. (You have to be pretty hardcore to show up at a "II" squad match anyway, so that gives an indication of Streit's "popularity".) Then the player gave a interview with Westdeutsche-Zeitung that was critical of the club, which management used to demonstrate their lack of humour. They slapped him with a fine and started proceedings to void the contract. Streit isn't taking this lightly though, as he retained a lawyer and is now suing the club. You might think he would rather be playing, but apparently his contract is pretty cozy financially, and he doesn't want to give that up.
Trouble for Goslar
4th division Regionalliga Nord club Goslarer SC currently props up the table, having a rough time as a newly promoted club. However, the DFB isn't making things any easier for them. Apparently the Goslar home stadium is not up to snuff for Regionalliga, so Goslar was ordered to make improvements as a condition of promotion. Unfortunately, sponsors crapped out, and the club had no money to spruce things up. So they've been living on borrowed time, and even attempted playing some home games in Braunschweig, some 50 miles away. (Which hardly has helped their box office). The DFB is now pondering whether to pull the rug, and basically kick Goslar out of the league. No decision has been made yet, and the DFB has sent observors to make recommendations on whether to give Goslar an extension or exception. Hmm, perhaps the club should look at bribing the officials, although I guess they have no money for that either.
Bundesliga - 7th round
The Bundesliga is once again looking like a free-for-all, at both ends of the table.
Hamburg stunned everybody by knocking off Bayern München in the top clash. HSV was off to a bright start in the Bundesliga, but the last week or so has clearly shown that they might be an emperor without clothes, laying stinkers in both the DFB Cup and Europe. But they were ready for Bayern, and despite being pressed back in the 1st half, HSV came out strong in the 2nd and put Bayern on the defensive. The Hamburg effort was eventually rewarded with Mladen Petric's gamewinner. Bayern has to be upset, since they usually do well in Hamburg, and it doesn't look like the rest of the league is willing to bend over and drop their trousers. Can HSV go the distance? No, but they seem focused in the league enough to make it tough for the other pretenders.
Leverkusen remains second, but the Aspirins really put on a minimalist show against a lame Köln in a Rhein derby. Köln has put in a lot of lame performances, but this one probably takes the cake, as they were totally ineffective against their neighbors. It's hard to judge Leverkusen, since they did nothing but show up, score a goal, and take home the points. After last week's excellent result, Köln coach Zvonimir Soldo is back to mass purchases of Bayer products, like Alka-Seltzer, as his Köln squad lays another egg.
Germany's biggest rivalry is probably the famed Revier-derby between Dortmund and Schalke. No matter what the standings, expect a packed house and a hard fought match. This one had another angle as well, as both the Neons and the Blues have been drifting aimlessly in the league, so a win was absolutely needed by both squads. The Blues showed more determination and discipline, whereas Dortmund mostly ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off. This allows Schalke to get back on track and into contention, although they need to do something about their pathetic offense. Meanwhile, Dortmund should be ringing the alarm bells. OK, maybe not like an air-raid siren a la 1944, but at least like a "Check Engine" light. Perhaps coach Jürgen Klopp should kick some asses instead of his usual rah-rah method.
The Hopp is back! Hoffenheim was the early sensation last year, and Vedad Ibisevic was the top revelation. Well, the Bosnian striker (via St.Louis) is back, with a hat-trick. And Hoffenheim is rolling, kicking ass against a pathetic Hertha BSC squad. SAP United looks to be a formidable opponent, so the rest of the Bundesliga is on notice. Meanwhile, things are going sour in Berlin. Coach Lucien Favre, whose minimalist football has played well with minimalist talent seems to have run out of magic. This Hertha squad has shown nothing but laughable performances this season. One has to assume that Favre will be joining Germany's unemployment lines - unless he gets deported to Switzerland. (Note: He was fired later in the day.) Furthermore, Hertha obviously needs to prepare some moves in the winter transfer/loan market. However, it would be kinda cool if Union got promoted and Hertha relegated, hehehe.
Champions Wolfsburg really wasn't overly impressive against Hannover, in what should have been a hotly contested regional derby. But despite the goals, it was a rather lame affair. That's because the VWs don't get any love from other northern fans, who view Wolfsburg has upstarts unworthy of their attention. Of course, at least Wolfsburg has a title, and the main tradition of "Traditionsverein" Hannover appears to be losing. So in that context, it was rather a ho-hum affair. Hannover is usually crap on the road, and they didn't do anything to challenge their hosts, so easy points for VW.
Werder Bremen might be on the way back. It's hard to tell, since Mainz was completely lame. They apparently managed to kick the ball in the general direction of the Werder penalty box, but that was the extent of their attacks. So Bremen basically toyed with Mainz as a cat toys with it's wounded prey. Then like a cat, they got bored with the whole affair and viciously ripped out their victim's throat.
Achtung! Achtung! Nürnberg ist krapp! I know, how unoriginal, you've already used this faux German previously to describe Nürnberg's efforts. But really, FCN has exhausted my thesaurus entries for "crap", so what is a poor blogger to do? Once again, der Club put in a pathetic performance, and this one hurts. Visitor was fellow relegation candidate VfL Bochum. The guests managed to steal a goal, and then showed disciplined defending. Or perhaps Nürnberg was confused and thought they actually had the lead, since der Club's attack looked more like "discplined defending" too. This is obviously a bad result for Nürnberg, but a great triumph for Bochum.
Freiburg has apparently realized that you only have to be less crap than maximum 3 teams to save your ass. With that in mind, the Breisgauers went out and kicked visiting Gladbach's butt. Gladbach obviously is depending on home form, but at least you would have expected more effort than just showing up. Good win for Freiburg.
If you are a Frankfurt fan, you might have been thinking that this could be a good year. After all, undefeated and off to a bright start. But perhaps it's yet another case of the emperor having no clothes. Stuttgart, who have been dicking around aimlessly, showed up and ripped Eintracht's ass. What this leads me to believe is that once again Frankfurt will be mediocre, but perhaps like in the past, whenever they look to completely soil themselves, they'll probably come up with a couple of nice wins to raise the hopes of their long suffering fans, only to viciously bash the heads of their children against some rock, or as in this case, Stuttgart. Meanwhile, it's hard to get a handle on Stuttgart. I imagine they're better than their start, but who knows?
1. FC Nürnberg - VfL Bochum 0:1 (0:1) 35,376 (Klimowicz) VfL Wolfsburg - Hannover 96 4:2 (2:1) 30,000 (Misimovic, Hasebe, Gentner, Dzeko - Balitsch, Madlung o.g.) Borussia Dortmund - FC Schalke 04 0:1 (0:1) 80,552 (Farfan) SV Werder Bremen - 1. FSV Mainz 05 3:0 (1:0) 32,875 (Hunt, Pizarro 2) 1. FC Köln - Bayer Leverkusen 0:1 (0:0) 49,300 (Rolfes) Eintracht Frankfurt - VfB Stuttgart 0:3 (0:2) 49,750 (Schieber 2, Hitzlsperger) Hamburger SV - FC Bayern München 1:0 (0:0) 57,000 (Petric) SC Freiburg - Borussia M'gladbach 3:0 (0:0) 24,000 (Idrissou, Abdessadki, Schuster) 1899 Hoffenheim - Hertha BSC Berlin 5:1 (3:1) 29,600 (Ibisevic 3, Obasi, Carlos Eduardo - Raffael) Attendance: 388,453 (avg 43,161) 1. (1.) Hamburger SV 7 5 2 0 17:7 +10 17 2. (2.) Bayer Leverkusen 7 5 2 0 14:5 +9 17 3. (4.) 1899 Hoffenheim 7 4 2 1 14:5 +9 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (6.) FC Schalke 04 7 4 1 2 9:5 +4 13 5. (8.) SV Werder Bremen 7 3 3 1 12:6 +6 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (9.) VfL Wolfsburg 7 4 0 3 15:14 +1 12 7. (3.) FC Bayern München 7 3 2 2 13:7 +6 11 8. (5.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 7 3 2 2 10:12 -2 11 9. (6.) Eintracht Frankfurt 7 2 4 1 8:8 0 10 10. (11.) SC Freiburg 7 3 1 3 11:12 -1 10 11. (15.) VfB Stuttgart 7 2 2 3 9:10 -1 8 12. (10.) Borussia M'gladbach 7 2 1 4 9:15 -6 7 13. (17.) VfL Bochum 7 2 1 4 8:14 -6 7 14. (12.) Hannover 96 7 1 3 3 6:8 -2 6 15. (13.) Borussia Dortmund 7 1 3 3 6:13 -7 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (14.) 1. FC Nürnberg 7 1 2 4 4:8 -4 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (16.) 1. FC Köln 7 1 1 5 5:10 -5 4 18. (18.) Hertha BSC Berlin 7 1 0 6 6:17 -11 3
2.Liga - 7th round
The 2.Liga once again promises to be tight at the top. Could this be the year for Kaiserslautern's revival? The Devils now top the table after a good win against Karlsruhe, and their fans seem to think so, as they packed the stadium. Bielefeld also seems to be taking the prospect of immediate re-promotion seriously, as they eeked out a hard fought win against high-flying St.Pauli. Meanwhile, newly promoted Union Berlin continues their dream start, although they had to struggle for a win against crap Ahlen, one of the teams that is going down.
Another club going down is FSV Frankfurt. They got their ass kicked in Cottbus and continue to prop up the table. Of course, it was a similar story last year, as they looked hopelessly relegated by winter-break. But in the 2nd half, FSV mounted an incredible comeback and managed to stay up. The reward was opening this season in a refurbished stadium complete with night lighting. Unfortunately, the club may want to turn off those lights, thereby sparing the fans the view of the crap play of FSV. It really seems unlikely that they can repeat last season's miracle.
Last season Duisburg got off to a poor start and by the time they cuaght themselves, they couldn;t push for promotion. Same this season, from the looks of it. Their loss in the derby to Oberhausen (which hasn't been around in decades it seems) was yet another pathetic outing. RWO is pretty weak, and has no fans. So losing to them, well, you do the math...
Hansa Rostock has struggled once again, so their ass kicking against Greuther Fürth was a welcome respite. The visitors are usually high flyers until late in the season when they run out of gas. However this season they seem more inconsistent, so look to be going nowhere. 1860 continues to disappoint. They needed full points against Paderborn, but instead play crap and continue to waffle.
FC Energie Cottbus - FSV Frankfurt 3:0 (2:0) 8,790 (Sokolenko, Jula, Radu) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - MSV Duisburg 1:0 (1:0) 12,615 (Schmidtgal) 1. FC Union Berlin - Rot Weiss Ahlen 2:1 (2:1) 12,212 (Mattuschka, Benyamina - Reichwein) Arminia Bielefeld - FC St. Pauli 1:0 (1:0) 23,800 (Federico) 1. FC K'lautern - Karlsruher SC 2:0 (1:0) 39,774 (Rodnei, Schultz) FC Augsburg - TuS Koblenz 1:1 (0:1) 12,078 (Kuqi - Thurk) TSV 1860 München - SC Paderborn 07 0:0 (0:0) 21,500 Hansa Rostock - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 4:0 (1:0) 10,700 (Jänicke, Langen, Bartels, Schröck o.g.) Fortuna Düsseldorf - Alemannia Aachen 0:0 (0:0) 29,385 Attendance: 170,854 (avg 18,984) 1. (2.) 1. FC K'lautern 7 5 2 0 12:4 +8 17 2. (1.) 1. FC Union Berlin 7 5 2 0 14:7 +7 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) Arminia Bielefeld 7 5 0 2 16:8 +8 15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) FC St. Pauli 7 4 1 2 17:8 +9 13 5. (7.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 7 4 1 2 8:9 -1 13 6. (5.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 7 3 2 2 9:6 +3 11 7. (9.) FC Augsburg 7 2 4 1 13:11 +2 10 8. (14.) FC Energie Cottbus 7 3 1 3 14:15 -1 10 9. (6.) Karlsruher SC 7 3 1 3 10:12 -2 10 10. (10.) SC Paderborn 07 7 2 3 2 11:9 +2 9 11. (8.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 7 3 0 4 15:14 +1 9 12. (11.) Alemannia Aachen 7 2 3 2 7:8 -1 9 13. (15.) Hansa Rostock 7 3 0 4 11:13 -2 9 14. (13.) TSV 1860 München 7 2 2 3 7:8 -1 8 15. (12.) MSV Duisburg 7 2 2 3 10:13 -3 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 7 1 2 4 6:11 -5 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 7 0 1 6 3:13 -10 1 18. (18.) FSV Frankfurt 7 0 1 6 3:17 -14 1
3.Liga - 11th round
This was an interesting round. The leaders all got dumped, and Burghausen suffered a veritable rear-end violation at newcomer Heidenheim. However the most important result was that Wuppertal mananged to shoot down Kiel in a desperate relegation battle. A massive crowd showed up, mainly because the Zoo next door was overflowing and people got confused on where to buy the tickets and entered the stadium by mistake, or perhaps the lion feeding was postponed. With this heroic victory WSV is now poised to race up the charts in a sort of Drang nach Oben.
Regensburg remains on top, but they could have cemented their position as a favorite with a win. Instead, they flamed out against Ingolstadt, who have proven themselves to be a serious contender. Once again, a nice crowd indicates that Dresden has the first class stadium and 3rd class team, much like their visitors Braunschweig, who also have a large fan base. Neither team seems to be doing much though, which is a shame.
After a disastrous start, Wehen is definitely back on track, and they ripped Osnabrück. Given the overall weakness of the league, I wouldn't be surprised if they ease into contention.
Jahn Regensburg - FC Ingolstadt 04 0:2 (0:1) 7,528 (Hartmann 2) Dynamo Dresden - Eintracht Braunschweig 1:1 (0:1) 18,031 (Dobry - Banser) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - SV Werder Bremen II 2:2 (0:1) 6,062 (Smeekes, Amirante - Testroet 2) SpVgg Unterhaching - Kickers Offenbach 1:2 (1:0) 2,500 (Schweinsteiger - Pospischil, Ulm) SV 1916 Sandhausen - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 1:2 (0:1) 2,500 (Schauerle - Semmer, Cinaz) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - VfL Osnabrück 4:0 (2:0) 4,322 (Öztürk 2, Ziemer, Reinert) VfB Stuttgart II - Borussia Dortmund II 2:1 (0:1) 1,635 (Rudy, Didavi - Le Tallec) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - Wacker Burghausen 6:1 (2:1) 4,880 (Spann, Klarer, Schmidt o.g., Bagceci, Heidenfelder, Jarosch - El Haj Ali) FC Bayern München II - FC Erzgebirge Aue 2:3 (1:2) 1,135 (Ekici, Yilmaz - Braham, Klotz 2) Wuppertaler SV Bor - Holstein Kiel 5:3 (1:0) 2,519 (Lorenzon 2, Damm, Dressler, Celikovic - Wulff, Holt 2) Attedance: 51,112 (agv 5,111) 1. (1.) Jahn Regensburg 11 6 3 2 18:9 +9 21 2. (2.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 11 6 2 3 24:16 +8 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) Wacker Burghausen 11 6 2 3 16:20 -4 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (4.) FC Ingolstadt 04 11 6 1 4 25:12 +13 19 5. (6.) VfB Stuttgart II 11 6 1 4 19:13 +6 19 6. (9.) Kickers Offenbach 11 5 3 3 13:7 +6 18 7. (11.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 11 5 3 3 12:11 +1 18 8. (8.) Eintracht Braunschweig 11 5 2 4 11:12 -1 17 9. (10.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 11 4 4 3 16:13 +3 16 10. (12.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 11 5 1 5 15:13 +2 16 11. (5.) VfL Osnabrück 11 5 1 5 15:13 +2 16 12. (7.) SpVgg Unterhaching 11 4 4 3 17:17 0 16 13. (13.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 11 4 3 4 20:18 +2 15 14. (14.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 11 4 3 4 15:17 -2 15 15. (16.) Dynamo Dresden 11 3 3 5 9:12 -3 12 16. (15.) Borussia Dortmund II 11 3 2 6 11:13 -2 11 17. (18.) SV Werder Bremen II 11 3 2 6 12:19 -7 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (17.) Holstein Kiel 11 3 1 7 15:21 -6 10 19. (19.) FC Bayern München II 11 2 3 6 14:28 -14 9 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 11 2 2 7 13:26 -13 8
DFB Pokal, 2nd main round
Upsets were definitely in the Zweite Hauptrunde of the DFB-Pokal, one of Europe's best competitions, as it's pure knockout. In addition, clubs from the 3rd division or below are automatically granted home field advantage in front of their pumped up fans. (Hell, last year, Wuppertal eliminated Hertha and had Bayern on the ropes).
The greatest accomplishment was 4th division Trier throwing out Bielefeld in overtime. Of course, Trier is no stranger to cup upsets. About 10 years ago they had a legendary run when they defeated Borussia Dortmund - the Bundesliga champion and Champions League winner AND knocked off Schalke, who won the UEFA Cup.
Another huge upset was 3rd division Osnabrück dumping Bundesliga leader Hamburg out on penalties. HSV actually scored in injury time to send it into overtime, and then took the lead. But VfL came back (it's not sudden death), and eventually won 4-1 on penalties. 4th division Lübeck had Stuttgart on the ropes before finally running out of gas.
In general, the Bundesliga did poorly, as only 8 of 16 advanced. (Mainz got scalped by Lübeck in the 1st round, and Hannover got dumped on by Trier). Of course some were Bundesliga rivals facing off, but in general, the lower ranked teams did pretty well. Only Bayern München made mincemeat of a crappy Oberhausen squad, and Dortmund slapped KSC around. Bielefeld, Gladbach, Hertha, Freiburg, Leverkusen, HSV all got bitch-slapped by lower ranked opponents. And Wolfsburg can't be too happy losing in Köln, having won their Bundesliga match there a couple of weeks ago.
Eintracht Trier - Arminia Bielefeld 4:2 (2:2)ot 6,630 (Senesie 3, Risser - Janjic 2) 1. FC Nürnberg - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:1 (0:1) 26,041 (Nilsson) FC Bayern München - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 5:0 (2:0) 40,000 (Embers o.g., Gomez, Van Buyten, T.Müller) Borussia M'gladbach - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:0) 45,000 (Andersen) Rot Weiss Ahlen - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2:3 (2:2)ot 1,896 (Tankulic 2 - Nöthe, Mokhtari, N.Müller) Karlsruher SC - Borussia Dortmund 0:3 (0:2) 24,864 (Zidan, Barrios 2) VfL Bochum - FC Schalke 04 0:3 (0:1) 29,592 (Westermann, Altintop, Fuchs) TuS Koblenz - FC Energie Cottbus 4:2 (2:2)ot 5,046 (Stieber, Everson 2, Geissler - Sörensen, Jula) TSV 1860 München - Hertha BSC Berlin 4-1 (2:2)p 17,000 (Bengtsson, Cooper - FC Augsburg - SC Freiburg 1:0 (0:0) 12,024 (Brinckmann) SV Werder Bremen - FC St. Pauli 2:1 (1:0) 31,824 (Hunt, Naldo - Takyi) Eintracht Frankfurt - Alemannia Aachen 6:4 (3:1) 25,450 (Liberopoulos 2, Meyer, Szukula, Teber - Gueye 2, Auer 2) VfL Osnabrück - Hamburger SV 4-2 (3:3)p 16,120 (Hansen, Siegert, Grieneisen - Petric, Trochowski, Demel) VfB Lübeck - VfB Stuttgart 1:3 (1:1)ot 16,500 (Henning - Schieber, Khedira, Cacau) 1. FC K'lautern - Bayer Leverkusen 2:1 (1:0) 33,712 (Sam, Jendrisek - Gekas) 1. FC Köln - VfL Wolfsburg 3:2 (2:0) 31,500 (Ishiaku 2, Freis - Dzeko, Riether)
More Schalke trouble
The news out of Gelsenkirchen is increasingly bleak. Things started off brightly enough under new coach Felix Magath, but now we wonder if old Felix wishes he hadn't stayed in Wolfsburg. The Blues have seemingly fallen into their usual pattern of clumsy play, and don't seem to have a clue on the field. However, it is the financial situation that is causing most concern. Schalke looks likely the next large club (after Dortmund) to suffer a meltdown. Dortmund was near total collapse a few years ago, after years of ambitious spending. Now they did experience some success, winning the title, along with the Champions League. But eventually (largely through poor management), they frittered away the income and were left with a pile of debt. When overpaid players stopped producing, they were dumped, and the cupboard was bare. The Neons are just beginning to come out from the cold, but are a long way from challenging, despite massive crowd support.
Schalke is Dortmund's biggest rival, and also enjoys huge crowds. The club invested in the beautiful "Arena Auf Schalke" stadium, at a cost of some 195 million euros. Lavish spending on players also increased the debt, but unlike Dortmund, this has never really been matched by success on the field. They've come close a couple of times, but choked or got ripped off by a ref who allowed Bayern extra time to score a goal and steal a title. But in general, they have matched Dortmund in mismanagement. Now the club faces some 135 million in debt, of which over 20 million is annual interest alone. (Note due to strict financial rules, many German clubs, such as Bayern, have zero debt.) The sponsorship deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom was hailed as salvation, but that money is already spent. Indeed, Schalke got 45 million up front from an English bank in return for the proceeds, so no more money is forthcoming. High player salaries have further pushed the club into trouble. Kevin Kuranyi and Halil Altintop are top wage earners, but their contract expire after the season, so they'll probably be dumped. But there are several players, such as Uruguayan Carlos Grossmüller or Ze Roberto (not the oldtimer with HSV) that have big contracts, have sucked, and are on loan, Schalke footing the bill. Players with re-sell value, such as Brazilian defender Rafinha were almost gone before the trade dealine, but should be expected to be sold in the winter transfer window. The club managed to sign up some of their young talent, such as GK Manuel Neuer and defender Benedikt Höwedes, but they will also have high transfer value. Felix Magath undoubtedly will be forced to gut the current squad (not necessarily a bad thing) and replace them with cheaper players and young talent. So the question seems to be not "Will Schalke fall?", but rather "How far?"
Bundesliga - 6th round
Hamburg continues to top the table, but they hardly were impressive in Frankfurt. One might have thought that their disgraceful showing in the Europa-Liga indicated that this emperor has no clothes, but to HSV credit, they did put together a decent outing, and probably had the edge. Frankfurt has been crap for about a decade, so they don't know how to play against good teams, basically being satisfied with a draw.
Bayern had a rough time with Nürnberg in a Bavarian derby. The guests fought hard and made things difficult for their hosts. In the end, Bayern's improvement in the 2nd half led to a deserved win, but it certainly wasn't the cakewalk they expected. Realistically, Nürnberg shouldn't have expected a point in this match, but they have to be encouraged by their disciplined display.
Wolfsburg is back on track after an important road win at Schalke, which basically only woke up in the last quarter of the match. The VWs thereby get one hand up on former coach Felix Magath. Schalke seems on the verge of floundering.
The highlight of the Leverkusen-Bremen match was that it was the first match in the spanking newly renovated Bayer-Arena, expaned to 30,210 and sold-out. Other than that, it there was lots of beer and bratwurst. And probably main sponsor had their Alka-Seltzer and Pepto-Bismol products on display, and lots of aspirin was available. All of which would have helped to alieviate the pain of a torturous, boring match.
Stuttgart was stunned at home by Köln. The visitors had been the crap of the league, but surprised their hosts with a well-discplined and organized defense. At the same time, it was clear that Köln coach Zvonimir Soldo had prepared his charges well for counterattack, as the ex-Stuttgart player obviously knew the defensive frailties. Indeed, it was two defensive howlers that led to Köln's goals. First defender Träsch lost the ball leading to aa quick cross and header by Freis. So VfB spent the next 65 minutes trying to equalize, and at the end, GK Jens Lehmann revealed why he is actually just crap, not the legend in his own mind. He ran and dallied, lost the ball, and gave up an empty net goal. What a wanker. Great win for Köln, who might have just indicated that they could stay up.
Achtung! Achtung! Berlin ist krap! No news actually, since Hertha has been comlpetely lame, but against Freiburg, the wheels really fell off. Unless Hertha fires all their management and most of their players, they could easily be relegated and replaced by wimpy Union as the top club in the east. Freiburg has to be thrilled, although they can't be overly impressed with anything but their finishing, as it was more "Hertha crap" rather than "Freiburg good".
Hannover was able to hold a draw at home to Dortmund, who seemed to have more of the play. Neither club can be truly happy with the result, although it was probably an accurate reflection of the match. Looks like neither team is going anywhere.
Mainz continues their great start, and it's looking less likely that they'll be in the relegation battle this season. Their win in Bochum had dire consequences, as Bochum coach Marcel Koller was fired afetrwards. Mainz had taken the precaution of firing their coach a week before the season started, thereby gaining valuable time :)
Hoffenheim put on a furious end-sprint to rip the Gladbach match out of the fire. Gladbach held a somewhat lucky lead, but in the end the Hoffenheim attack won out with 3 late goals, and and impressive win for TSG. Once again, good young talent has paid dividends for Hoffenheim, which looks to be a solid contender for a Euro spot.
FC Schalke 04 - VfL Wolfsburg 1:2 (0:0) 60,395 (Höwedes - Dzeko 2) FC Bayern München - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:1 (0:0) 69,000 (Olic, van Buyten - Choupo-Moting) VfB Stuttgart - 1. FC Köln 0:2 (0:1) 41,000 (Freis, Sanou) Hannover 96 - Borussia Dortmund 1:1 (0:1) 43,754 (Konan - Sahin) VfL Bochum - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:3 (2:1) 16,225 (Azaouagh, Klimowicz - Ivanschitz, Schürrle 2) Borussia M'gladbach - 1899 Hoffenheim 2:4 (2:1) 46,511 (Arango, Colautti - Salihovic, Maicosuel, Obasi, Ba) Eintracht Frankfurt - Hamburger SV 1:1 (1:1) 51,500 (Russ - Ze Roberto) Hertha BSC Berlin - SC Freiburg 0:4 (0:3) 38,176 (Banovic 2, Makiadi, Idrissou) Bayer Leverkusen - SV Werder Bremen 0:0 (0:0) 30,210 Attendance: 396,771 (avg 44,086) 1. (1.) Hamburger SV 6 4 2 0 16:7 +9 14 2. (2.) Bayer Leverkusen 6 4 2 0 13:5 +8 14 3. (5.) FC Bayern München 6 3 2 1 13:6 +7 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (7.) 1899 Hoffenheim 6 3 2 1 9:4 +5 11 5. (8.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 6 3 2 1 10:9 +1 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (3.) FC Schalke 04 6 3 1 2 8:5 +3 10 7. (4.) Eintracht Frankfurt 6 2 4 0 8:5 +3 10 8. (6.) SV Werder Bremen 6 2 3 1 9:6 +3 9 9. (10.) VfL Wolfsburg 6 3 0 3 11:12 -1 9 10. (9.) Borussia M'gladbach 6 2 1 3 9:12 -3 7 11. (16.) SC Freiburg 6 2 1 3 8:12 -4 7 12. (11.) Hannover 96 6 1 3 2 4:4 0 6 13. (14.) Borussia Dortmund 6 1 3 2 6:12 -6 6 14. (13.) 1. FC Nürnberg 6 1 2 3 4:7 -3 5 15. (12.) VfB Stuttgart 6 1 2 3 6:10 -4 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (18.) 1. FC Köln 6 1 1 4 5:9 -4 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (15.) VfL Bochum 6 1 1 4 7:14 -7 4 18. (17.) Hertha BSC Berlin 6 1 0 5 5:12 -7 3
2.Liga - 6th round
The match of the round was Kaiserslautern's win at St.Pauli. FCK was pressured the whole match, but was able to steal a win. This is an indication that the Devils are for real, and their suffering fans can start dreaming of a return to the Bundesliga after the recent chaos. St.Pauli remains one of the 2.Liga most entertaining squads, and should remain in contention through the season. With St.Pauli losing, upstart Union's draw in Kolenz was enough for them to take the lead. They probably won't end up there end-of-season, but their bright start at least gives Berliners some cheer, given Hertha's crap performances.
Bielefeld thumped Duisburg as visitor, indicating that Arminia is likely to be the top Bundesliga-relegated contender. KSC remains in the race as well, although they can hardly be impressed with their win over lowly FSV. Cottbus is already out of the running, as they got thumped thoroughly, and also suffered a loss of their top player, Chinese international Shao Ji-yi. (Cottbus seems to have a longstanding "no Germans" policy, hehehe.) Fellow easterners Rostock look like an early season basketcase as well, getting thrashed in Augsburg. A nice win for Düsseldorf, away at hapless Ahlen.
Karlsruher SC - FSV Frankfurt 2:0 (0:0) 16,977 (Langkamp, Iashvili) MSV Duisburg - Arminia Bielefeld 0:3 (0:1) 14,057 (Kirch, Federico 2) TuS Koblenz - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:1 (1:0) 7,041 (Kuqi - Mattuschka) SC Paderborn 07 - FC Energie Cottbus 5:1 (3:1) 6,997 (Saglik, Manno, Brückner, Brandy, Löning - Angelov) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 4:0 (1:0) 6,250 (Prib, Nöthe 2, Mauersberger) Rot Weiss Ahlen - Fortuna Düsseldorf 1:4 (1:2) 6,612 (Bröker = Lambertz, Jovanovic, Bulykin, Gaus) Alemannia Aachen - TSV 1860 München 2:0 (1:0) 24,830 (Auer 2) FC St. Pauli - 1. FC K'lautern 1:2 (0:1) 23,161 (Bruns - Amedick, Nemec) FC Augsburg - Hansa Rostock 5:2 (2:1) 15,241 (Traore, Thurk 2, Buck, Brinkmann - Schied, Jänicke) Attendance: 100,321 (avg 11,147) 1. (2.) 1. FC Union Berlin 6 4 2 0 12:6 +6 14 2. (3.) 1. FC K'lautern 6 4 2 0 10:4 +6 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (1.) FC St. Pauli 6 4 1 1 17:7 +10 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (5.) Arminia Bielefeld 6 4 0 2 15:8 +7 12 5. (9.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 6 3 1 2 9:6 +3 10 6. (10.) Karlsruher SC 6 3 1 2 10:10 0 10 7. (4.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 6 3 1 2 7:9 -2 10 8. (11.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 6 3 0 3 15:10 +5 9 9. (12.) FC Augsburg 6 2 3 1 12:10 +2 9 10. (14.) SC Paderborn 07 6 2 2 2 11:9 +2 8 11. (15.) Alemannia Aachen 6 2 2 2 7:8 -1 8 12. (6.) MSV Duisburg 6 2 2 2 10:12 -2 8 13. (7.) TSV 1860 München 6 2 1 3 7:8 -1 7 14. (8.) FC Energie Cottbus 6 2 1 3 11:15 -4 7 15. (13.) Hansa Rostock 6 2 0 4 7:13 -6 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (16.) TuS Koblenz 6 1 1 4 5:10 -5 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 6 0 1 5 2:11 -9 1 18. (18.) FSV Frankfurt 6 0 1 5 3:14 -11 1
3.Liga - 10th round
Another miserable defeat for Wuppertal, this time in Dortmund. WSV is so low that they need to look up to see the bottom of their shoes.
Regensburg seized the lead with an impressive 5-0 away thrashing of Bayern II. However, the most interesting aspect of this game wasn't the result, but rather that none other than Luca Toni started the match for Bayern II, playing the first half. To his credit, the Italian international actually enthusiastically joined the II squad to get some playing time and get back into shape. Obviously it didn't help the team, but it shows a professional attitude.
Wehen continues their revival, as they win in Erfurt. The villagers were scraping the bottom not long ago, but seem to have stabilized the ship. Unterhaching laid an egg as they got dumped by a weak Bremen II squad. Osnabrück hurt their chances with a crap home performance.
Jena remains in trouble. The ex-GDR great had an audit which apparently shows that they're 530,000 euros short. They need to get this gap covered, otherwide the DFB could levy penalties from fines, point deductions up to "Lizensentzug", which means withdrawal of license to operate in th league, which would mean forfit of all matches and forced relegation.
FC Bayern München II - Jahn Regensburg 0:5 (0:2) 2,900 (Binder, Schlauderer, Zellner, Stoilov, Berger) Borussia Dortmund II - Wuppertaler SV 2:0 (0:0) 1,331 (Piossek, Kandziora) VfL Osnabrück - VfB Stuttgart II 0:1 (0:0) 8,100 (Schwarz) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 1:2 (1:0) 4,401 (Bölstler - Reinert, Ziegenbein) FC Erzgebirge Aue - SV 1916 Sandhausen 3:1 (2:1) 6,500 (Ramaj 2, Klingbeil - Ristic) Kickers Offenbach - FC Ingolstadt 04 0:1 (0:1) 6,871 (Neuendorf) SV Werder Bremen II - SpVgg Unterhaching 3:1 (1:0) 450 (Feldhahn, Ayik 2 - Kanca) Wacker Burghausen - Dynamo Dresden 2:0 (1:0) 3,900 (Gorka, El Haj Ali) Holstein Kiel - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 1:0 (1:0) 3,874 (Beisel o.g.) Eintracht Braunschweig - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 2:1 (0:0) 12,200 (Kruppke, Kragl - Smeekes) (make up game 15.09) SV Werder Bremen II - Kickers Offenbach 0:1 (0:1) 400 (Ulm) Attendance: 50,527 (avg 5,053) 1. (2.) Jahn Regensburg 10 6 3 1 18:7 +11 21 2. (1.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 10 6 2 2 23:14 +9 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) Wacker Burghausen 10 6 2 2 15:14 +1 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (8.) FC Ingolstadt 04 10 5 1 4 23:12 +11 16 5. (4.) VfL Osnabrück 10 5 1 4 15:9 +6 16 6. (9.) VfB Stuttgart II 10 5 1 4 17:12 +5 16 7. (5.) SpVgg Unterhaching 10 4 4 2 16:15 +1 16 8. (10.) Eintracht Braunschweig 10 5 1 4 10:11 -1 16 9. (6.) Kickers Offenbach 10 4 3 3 11:6 +5 15 10. (7.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 10 4 3 3 14:11 +3 15 11. (13.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 10 4 3 3 9:9 0 15 12. (15.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 10 4 1 5 11:13 -2 13 13. (11.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 10 3 3 4 14:17 -3 12 14. (12.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 10 3 3 4 13:16 -3 12 15. (17.) Borussia Dortmund II 10 3 2 5 10:11 -1 11 16. (14.) Dynamo Dresden 10 3 2 5 8:11 -3 11 17. (18.) Holstein Kiel 10 3 1 6 12:16 -4 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (19.) SV Werder Bremen II 10 3 1 6 10:17 -7 10 19. (16.) FC Bayern München II 10 2 3 5 12:25 -13 9 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 10 1 2 7 8:23 -15 5
Euro competition
The Bundesliga started brightly in the Champions League competiton. VfL Wolfsburg defeated CSKA Moscow 3-1 in their inaugural match. The hero was Brazilian striker Grafite, who bagged a hat-trick. The VWs dominated the match and were coasting, but the Russkis conjured up a late goal that made things interesting. Grafite however delivered the knockout with his 3rd strike near time. Bayern München dropped Maccabi Haifa 3-0 in an away game, despite stiff resistance from the Israeli side. Bayern wasn't exactly impressive and left it late for a double strike by wunderkind Thomas Müller to finish off their hosts. Müller is the revelation of the Bayern squad so far. The just-turned 20 year old was already making a name for himself in the Bayern II 3.Liga squad last year, where he put in an outstanding season. Despite Bayern's star studded lineup, it looks like he will see significant playing time. Also worth remembering is that Bayern also has Toni Kroos, considered by many to be one of Germany's top midfield talents. He is currently on loan to Bayer Leverkusen, so the Müncheners are probably in good shape for the future. Meanwhile, VfB Stuttgart drew 1-1 with Glasgow Rangers. Obviously this is a horrible result for VfB, since Rangers are both "Scottish AND CRAP!" (apologies to Mike Meyers). The only positive was that Pogrebnyak scored for Stuttgart.
The new fangled Europa-Liga (formerly UEFA Cup) proved to be less of a success for the German clubs. Hamburger SV totally disgraced themselves, losing 0-3 at Rapid Wien. Almost 50,000 in a sold out Vienna Ernst-Happel-Stadion watched HSV get their ass kicked. Hertha BSC was also laughable, a 1-1 against FK Ventspils. Luckily for the Berliners, under 14,000 showed up in the Olympiastadion, so not too many saw their crapness. Finally, Werder Bremen squeaked by Nacional Funchal 3-2. For the Bremers, they obviously imbibed too heavily on local Madeira on their trip to the Portuguese island. Werder was cruising at 2-0 and then let it get away. Lucky for them, Claudio Pizarro's second strike 5 minutes from time saved the day.
This whole "Europa-Liga" is a recipe for crapful, boring, meaningless football. More worthless group stage games whose sole purpose is to generate more revenue with games that nobody cares about against teams nobody has heard of. At least in the old UEFA Cup, you'd get rid of half the boring teams each round. Oh well, maybe the winner (or even better, several qualifiers) and go into group league playoffs against the CONCACAF "Champignons Leek" clubs for even more worthless matches...
New stadium for Dresden
Dynamo Dresden has a new stadium to play in. Well, not quite. The famed Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion has undergone a complete rebuilding, and was unvealed today in a friendly against Schalke. (1-2 loss for Dynamo). The new stadium cost some 43 million euros and has an all-seater capacity of 32,400. Previous incarnations of the stadium (which was originally built in 1923 for the cost of only 500,000 Reichsmarks) had seen the park expanded up to 38,500 in the 1980s, but the facility was falling apart. An initial refurbishment had reduced the capacity to some 24,000, and for the last two years, space was limited to 10,000 as the city and club struggled to come up with funds. So now the city has a first class stadium, and a 3rd class team... Rudolf Harbig was a Dresden born middle distance runner, Olympic medalist and European champion who held 800m world record from 1938-1955. During WWII, he was drafted and killed on the Eastern Front in 1944...
Bundesliga - 5th round
Hamburg continues to impress and top the table, getting a nice home win against Stuttgart. HSV was ridiculed for hiring on coach Bruno Labbadia, but so far he has done quite well, fooling the opposition with mirrors. HSV doesn't seem to have the talent to maintain their position, but they are getting results, much like Hertha last season. They are unlikely to maintain it, but their bright start means that some form of Euro competition is likely. Stuttgart has already been shown their limits, and without Mario Gomez, they don't have the firepower to repeat last season's charge. Mid-table seems likely, although with luck, they could still sneak into Europe.
Leverkusen had a huge win at Wolfsburg, although a somewhat lame call by the ref decided the game. VW's Swiss GK Benaglio rushed out and made a ham of things, and his lunging attempted tackle outside the box caused the ref to red card his ass, apparently for "last man", even though there were probably half a dozen players in the penalty area. The Alka-Seltzers took full advantage and ran up a 3-0 lead, before holding on grimly as 10 man Wolfsburg fought back. Bayer is a sold squad, as is usually the case. Expect them to challenge and then suck enough to fall out of contention. Wolfsburg will not be retaining their title. Their offense remains potent, but their defense looks like it was slapped together in a whorehouse. They'll leak enough goals at the back to prevent them from consistently kicking ass.
Bayern had a tremendous result in Dortmund, thrashing the Neons mercilessly. Ironically, Borussia started off brightly, and controlled the early going. Bayern looked sluggish, except Schweinsteiger, who looked thuggish. But the Neons failed to make more of their edge after taking the lead, and Bayern squared things with a garbage goal by Gomez. Then in half, coach van Gaal made his move, replacing a worthless Altintop with Ribery and Gomez with youngster Thomas Müller. Ribery immediately started dominating the game, and Müller showed that he might be the next great talent of German football. Bayern were rampant and Dortmund was merely "be-Kloppt". (Sorry, couldn't resist). Bayern looks to have found their stride, so they should be kicking asses on a regular basis from now on. So despite a 5 point gap, I would say they're back to being the title favorites.
Schalke struggled, but managed to come away with a win at Köln. The Blues didn't really look good, but the hosts were without a clue for most of the match. They pressed towards the end, creating a couple of chances, but overall Schalke were good for the win. Köln looks like they're too crap to stay up. They're good enough to make it a game, but in the end will lose, so points will be hard to come by. Schalke still looks unimpressive, and continued financial problems make it likely they will be selling rather than buying. (Note that German financial rules are much stricter than other leagues, so Schalke has to be concerned they can keep a solid balance sheet.)
Frankfurt has quietly maintained their excellent start. The match in Freiburg seemed like it would be a draw, but Eintracht struck and held on, getting valuable points. They're clearly not a very good team, but this bright start should give them a serious boost so they don't have to struggle with relegation. Freiburg obviously was going to be a relegation candidate anyway, and haven't shown much to change that view.
Bremen looked listless against Hannover, who usually get slaughtered at the Weser. This time the 96ers packed the defense, and Werder couldn't figure out how to break them down. Hence, an excellent point for Hannover. They're traditionally crap on the road, and given their history in Bremen, they must be lovin' life. Bremen continues their Jeckyl and Hyde existence. They're going nowhere.
Hoffenheim are back on track as they easily bitchslapped a harmless Bochum squad. VfL usually shows some fight (which is good, since they have zero skill), but this time they were flat, so Hoffenheim had their way. SAP United (he-he) obviously is not catching anybody by surprise this season, but the "Hoppers" are aa solid team with lots of young talent. They will probably compete for a Europa-Liga (UEFA) spot throughout the season. Bochum faces a grim struggle against relegation.
Mainz is a relegation candidate, but obviously the squad hasn't been paying attention. They kept on fighting and Hertha kept on sucking, and lo and behold, Mainz pull out a win. Hertha is a disaster and needs to get their act together. Their season is already basically ruined, so they need to see they don't become a "Titanic" sequel. For Mainz, every point counts, and firing their coach just before the season started has already paid dividends.
Nürnberg is another club that will struggle, but they managed to hold on for the important inaugural win against a clueless Gladbach. Both clubs look lame, but there are plenty of weak clubs. Gladbach I think is better than FCN in the long run, but home form will be crucial for both.
VfL Wolfsburg - Bayer Leverkusen 2:3 (0:1) 30,000 (Misimovic, Grafite - Rolfes 2, Kiessling) Borussia Dortmund - FC Bayern München 1:5 (1:1) 80,552 (Hummels - Gomez, Schweinsteiger, Ribery, T. Müller 2) 1899 Hoffenheim - VfL Bochum 3:0 (1:0) 29,500 (Ba, Obasi, Compper) SC Freiburg - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:2 (0:0) 23,600 (Franz, Meier) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:1 (0:0) 20,300 (Ivanschitz, Bancé - Nicu) 1. FC Nürnberg - Borussia M'gladbach 1:0 (1:0) 46,780 (Kluge) Hamburger SV - VfB Stuttgart 3:1 (1:0) 57,000 (Petric, Elia, Ze Roberto - Pogrebnyak) SV Werder Bremen - Hannover 96 0:0 (0:0) 34,000 1. FC Köln - FC Schalke 04 1:2 (1:1) 50,000 (Podolski - Farfan, Kobiashvili) Attendance: 371,732 (avg 41,304) 1. (1.) Hamburger SV 5 4 1 0 15:6 +9 13 2. (2.) Bayer Leverkusen 5 4 1 0 13:5 +8 13 3. (4.) FC Schalke 04 5 3 1 1 7:3 +4 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (6.) Eintracht Frankfurt 5 2 3 0 7:4 +3 9 5. (8.) FC Bayern München 5 2 2 1 11:5 +6 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (3.) SV Werder Bremen 5 2 2 1 9:6 +3 8 7. (10.) 1899 Hoffenheim 5 2 2 1 5:2 +3 8 8. (11.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 5 2 2 1 7:7 0 8 9. (5.) Borussia M'gladbach 5 2 1 2 7:8 -1 7 10. (7.) VfL Wolfsburg 5 2 0 3 9:11 -2 6 11. (13.) Hannover 96 5 1 2 2 3:3 0 5 12. (9.) VfB Stuttgart 5 1 2 2 6:8 -2 5 13. (17.) 1. FC Nürnberg 5 1 2 2 3:5 -2 5 14. (12.) Borussia Dortmund 5 1 2 2 5:11 -6 5 15. (14.) VfL Bochum 5 1 1 3 5:11 -6 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (15.) SC Freiburg 5 1 1 3 4:12 -8 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (16.) Hertha BSC Berlin 5 1 0 4 5:8 -3 3 18. (18.) 1. FC Köln 5 0 1 4 3:9 -6 1
2.Liga - 5th round
Some wild shootouts with the leaders, with the top teams prevailing against determined opposition. St.Pauli was in a dogfight at tailender FSV Frankfurt, who put in an inspiring performance. The winless relegation candidate gave St.Pauli all they could handle, but in the end the Paulista firepower proved to be unstoppable. Even wilder was the shootout in Berlin, as promoted Union battled Paderborn. The Berliners jumped out to a 3-0 lead, only to see the guests storming back. Union remains unbeaten in their return to the 2.Liga, one of the early season surprises. Decidely more one-sided, Kaiserslautern battled old Bundesliga foe Duisburg. This was one of FCK's better 2.Liga peformances in recent years, as they thoroughly thrashed the visiting Zebras. In this form, FCK and their rabid fans are a good bet to return to the Bundesliga, their first bright spot after a few seasons of financial, management and athletic chaos. The Zebras suffered their first away defeat since Peter Neururer took over last season, but can have no complaints over their sore asses from the kicking they received.
In other important matches, 1860 won the derby against Fürth, and maybe have righted a ship that has been taking on water for a few seasons now. Rostock won an important match in their effort to stabilize and avoid slipping into relegation battles again. Bielefeld dominated the match in a derby against their smaller Westfalen neighbor Ahlen, but was almost desperate due to the great goalkeeping of the visitor's Sascha Kirschstein. But in the end Arminia finally broke through, and move up the table. Aachen are off to a crap start, as they were dumped by surprising Oberhausen. Karlsruhe got back on track with an important away win at Cottbus, always a tough place to play.
Arminia Bielefeld - Rot Weiss Ahlen 2:0 (0:0) 14,800 (Federico, Katongo) Fortuna Düsseldorf - FC Augsburg 1:1 (0:1) 20,235 (Weber - Thurk) 1. FC K'lautern - MSV Duisburg 4:1 (1:0) 31,033 (Amedick, Sam, Jendrisek, Nemec - Rodnei o.g.) TSV 1860 München - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 3:1 (0:0) 26,000 (Holebas, Lauth, Ludwig - Haas) Hansa Rostock - TuS Koblenz 2:1 (2:1) 11,500 (Retov, Schied - Kuqi) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - Alemannia Aachen 1:0 (0:0) 7,143 (Terranova) FSV Frankfurt - FC St. Pauli 2:3 (2:1) 8,577 (Cenci, Gunesch - Ebbers, Takyi, Lehmann) 1. FC Union Berlin - SC Paderborn 07 5:4 (3:2) 13,162 (Mosquera 2, Benyamina 2, Sahin - Manno, Saglik 2) FC Energie Cottbus - Karlsruher SC 2:4 (2:1) 11,000 (Shao 2 - Langkamp, Timm, Stindl, Iashvili) Attendance: 143,450 (avg 15,939) 1. (1.) FC St. Pauli 5 4 1 0 16:5 +11 13 2. (2.) 1. FC Union Berlin 5 4 1 0 11:5 +6 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) 1. FC K'lautern 5 3 2 0 8:3 +5 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (6.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 5 3 1 1 7:5 +2 10 5. (8.) Arminia Bielefeld 5 3 0 2 12:8 +4 9 6. (3.) MSV Duisburg 5 2 2 1 10:9 +1 8 7. (13.) TSV 1860 München 5 2 1 2 7:6 +1 7 8. (5.) FC Energie Cottbus 5 2 1 2 10:10 0 7 9. (9.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 5 2 1 2 5:5 0 7 10. (14.) Karlsruher SC 5 2 1 2 8:10 -2 7 11. (7.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 5 2 0 3 11:10 +1 6 12. (10.) FC Augsburg 5 1 3 1 7:8 -1 6 13. (15.) Hansa Rostock 5 2 0 3 5:8 -3 6 14. (11.) SC Paderborn 07 5 1 2 2 6:8 -2 5 15. (12.) Alemannia Aachen 5 1 2 2 5:8 -3 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (15.) TuS Koblenz 5 1 0 4 4:9 -5 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (17.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 5 0 1 4 1:7 -6 1 18. (18.) FSV Frankfurt 5 0 1 4 3:12 -9 1
3.Liga - 9th round
Sandhausen maintains their lead, as Regensburg had to struggle to hold a draw with Offenbach, as Burghausen did at Jena. Unterhaching remains a contender with a solid victory over Braunschweig.
Relegated Wehen continues their recovery after their poor start, and Dresden stopped the rot with a thumping win over Kiel.
Yet another disastrous outing for Wuppertal, as they get pounded at home by a superior Osnabrück side. Things started off brightly enough, and with some luck WSV might have taken the lead. But once VfL scored, WSV were basically beaten, and the visitors toyed around, delivering a solid ass-kicking. With WSV clearly lodged at the bottom, the 3.Liga season gets grimmer by the day.
Jahn Regensburg - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (1:1) 5,020 (Stoilov - Rode) Dynamo Dresden - Holstein Kiel 3:0 (2:0) 10,424 (Wagefeld, Dobry, Hübener) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Wacker Burghausen 0:0 (0:0) 6,948 FC Ingolstadt 04 - SV Werder Bremen II 4:1 (1:1) 2,886 (Leitl 2, Hartmann, Braber - Oehrl) SV 1916 Sandhausen - FC Bayern München II 4:2 (2:1) 3,500 (Dorn, Fischer, Pinto, Lüttmann - Ekici, Hajdarovic) VfB Stuttgart II - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 3:1 (0:1) 650 (Didavi, Riedle, Walch - Semmer) Wuppertaler SV - VfL Osnabrück 0:4 (0:2) 3,718 (Siegert, Lejan 2, Heidrich) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - Borussia Dortmund II 2:1 (0:0) 4,360 (Meier, Heidenfelder - Kandziora) SpVgg Unterhaching - Eintracht Braunschweig 2:0 (0:0) 4,800 (Konrad, Steegmann) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - FC Erzgebirge Aue 2:0 (2:0) 3,765 (Ziegenbain, B. Hübner) Attendance: 46,071 (avg 4,607) 1. (1.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 9 6 2 1 22:11 +11 20 2. (2.) Jahn Regensburg 9 5 3 1 13:7 +6 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) Wacker Burghausen 9 5 2 2 13:14 -1 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (5.) VfL Osnabrück 9 5 1 3 15:8 +7 16 5. (6.) SpVgg Unterhaching 9 4 4 1 15:12 +3 16 6. (4.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 9 4 3 2 13:9 +4 15 7. (11.) FC Ingolstadt 04 9 4 1 4 22:12 +10 13 8. (12.) VfB Stuttgart II 9 4 1 4 16:12 +4 13 9. (7.) Eintracht Braunschweig 9 4 1 4 8:10 -2 13 10. (10.) Kickers Offenbach 8 3 3 2 10:5 +5 12 11. (13.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 9 3 3 3 14:16 -2 12 12. (8.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 9 3 3 3 12:14 -2 12 13. (9.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 9 3 3 3 6:8 -2 12 14. (16.) Dynamo Dresden 9 3 2 4 8:9 -1 11 15. (18.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 9 3 1 5 9:12 -3 10 16. (14.) FC Bayern München II 9 2 3 4 12:20 -8 9 17. (15.) Borussia Dortmund II 9 2 2 5 8:11 -3 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (17.) Holstein Kiel 9 2 1 6 11:16 -5 7 19. (19.) SV Werder Bremen II 8 2 1 5 7:15 -8 7 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 9 1 2 6 8:21 -13 5
Germany ho-hum again
This is what the Germans call a Pflichtsieg, basically a routine but mandatory win. In yet another World Cup qualifier, Germany defeated Azerbaijan 4-0. Once again, the DFB-squad was hardly impressive, playing listlessly against an inferior opponent, missing chances, but basically just doing enough to get the points. Things got a bit easier when the Azeri captain got his ass tossed for double yellows. Ballack (via penalty), Klose (twice) and Podolski got the goals.
This game really doesn't matter that much: If Germany can avoid defeat against Russia in Moscow on October 10, they will win the group. (Germany hosts Finland in the final game, Russia at Azerbaijan, so those hardly matter except for stats.) A loss means that they'll go into the playoffs.
Horrible news for HSV
Hamburg may have suffered a huge loss. Peruvian forward Paolo Guerrero appears to have suffered a tear in his cruciate ligament ("Kreuzbandriss"). This happened in the worthless World Cup qualifier against Venezuela yesterday. Guerrero was in good form with HSV's excellent start, and now it looks like he'll be out 6 months.
Germany ho-hum
A break week for the top two divisions, as FIFA had all the international squads going in either Wuorld Cup qualifiers or friendlies. Germany opened with a friendly match against South Africa, winning 2-0. It was hardly a gala peformance, as South Africa generally was able to frustrate the German game with well organized defense. For Germany, the most significant aspect was the debut of young Werder Bremen playmaker, Mesut Özil, who had an excellent debut. The young Turkish-German was probably the best player on the pitch, along with a sharp German GK, Rene Adler. Özil was invloved in both goals, and in general looked like he belonged out there. For a while, it looked as though Germany was just getting old, but recently there has been a lot of excellent young talent breaking through in the Bundesliga and national squad, which bodes well for the future of the squad. The main question seems to be whether coach Joachim Löw is up to the task. (I doubt it)
Mario Gomez scored on a tap-in, which was probably offsides. Özil finished off the guests with a nice shot after a clever combination. The South Africans created a few decent chances themselves, but young GK Rene Adler, playing in front of his home Leverksuen crowd, gave an impressive performance.
One thing that was kind of lame is that Germany played in their red uniforms, which looks completely crap. Maybe they're trying to fool the opponent that they're Spain, or perhaps lull them into a false sense of security by pretending they're ultra-crap, like Belgium (who were happily getting pounded 5-0 by Spain). C'mon, Deutschland is white jersey, black shorts, verdammt noch mal. It's bad enough that the clubs prostitute themselves with changing jersies all the time to extract yet another euro from the fans.
3.Liga - 8th round
Sandhausen got a goal 5 minutes into injury time to knock off Regensburg from the top perch. However, you can see why it's often not a good thing for village clubs to be in the pro leagues - even for such a top game, attendance is too small. Osnabrück was shocked by two early goals from promoted Heidenheim, but fought back and eventually got the winner on a late own goal. Burghausen immpressed with a solid win in a southern regional derby (although again, nobody watched it), and Jena had a huge away win in Kiel.
Another miserable defeat for Wuppertaler SV. They outplayed their hosts Erfurt the whole match, only to to give up a stupid goal in injury time and lose.
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - Wuppertaler SV 1:0 (0:0) 5,548 (Cannizzaro) VfL Osnabrück - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 3:2 (0:2) 9,400 (Bencik, Schmidt, Krebs o.g - Spann, Essig) FC Erzgebirge Aue - VfB Stuttgart II 1:0 (0:0) 6,200 (Braham) SV 1916 Sandhausen - Jahn Regensburg 2:1 (0:1) 3,240 (Fischer 2 - Schmidt) Eintracht Braunschweig - FC Ingolstadt 04 2:1 (1:1) 10,340 (Kragl, Kruppke - Hartmann) Wacker Burghausen - SpVgg Unterhaching 3:0 (2:0) 3,550 (El Haj Ali 2, Grübl) Holstein Kiel - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 0:1 (0:0) 4,511 (Kolb) Borussia Dortmund II - Dynamo Dresden 1:0 (0:0) 3,322 (Piossek) FC Bayern München II - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 0:0 (0:0) 1,000 SV Werder Bremen II - Kickers Offenbach postponed Attendance: 47,111 (avg 5,234) 1. (2.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 8 5 2 1 18:9 +9 17 2. (1.) Jahn Regensburg 8 5 2 1 12:6 +6 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (4.) Wacker Burghausen 8 5 1 2 13:14 -1 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (6.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 8 4 2 2 13:9 +4 14 5. (9.) VfL Osnabrück 8 4 1 3 11:8 +3 13 6. (3.) SpVgg Unterhaching 8 3 4 1 13:12 +1 13 7. (10.) Eintracht Braunschweig 8 4 1 3 8:8 0 13 8. (11.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 8 3 3 2 11:11 0 12 9. (12.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 8 3 3 2 6:6 0 12 10. (5.) Kickers Offenbach 7 3 2 2 9:4 +5 11 11. (7.) FC Ingolstadt 04 8 3 1 4 18:11 +7 10 12. (8.) VfB Stuttgart II 8 3 1 4 13:11 +2 10 13. (13.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 8 2 3 3 12:15 -3 9 14. (15.) FC Bayern München II 8 2 3 3 10:16 -6 9 15. (19.) Borussia Dortmund II 8 2 2 4 7:9 -2 8 16. (14.) Dynamo Dresden 8 2 2 4 5:9 -4 8 17. (16.) Holstein Kiel 8 2 1 5 11:13 -2 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (18.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 8 2 1 5 7:12 -5 7 19. (17.) SV Werder Bremen II 7 2 1 4 6:11 -5 7 20. (20.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 8 1 2 5 8:17 -9 5
3.Liga - 7th round
No wussies in the lower divisions, instead midweek action in the 3.Liga. Regensburg becomes the new leader as erstwhile tailenders Wehen (who are a 2.Liga Absteiger) dump former top dog Sandhausen. Ex-Bundesligist Unterhaching wins an important game against Kiel, and Ingolstadt was seemingly on performance enhancing drugs as they "wacked" Wacker Burghausen. The battle of two former Bundesliga clubs ended with a resounding victory for the hosts in Offenbach, who climb up the table. Bitter defeat for Braunschweig, who seem to be waffling already.
Unfortunately, Wuppertaler SV has shrunk to last place, with a miserable home defeat to Aue in a rainstorm. Not that it really mattered, since the fans have long abandoned this historic club. And when you considered that every year is a new (or often many) coach, and that usually just about all the players are swapped also, the only conclusion one can draw is that WSV management's incompetance has reached epic proportions. Unfortunately, no Arab sheik or Russian robber baron is available to pump funds into the club. Instead, the same clowns that have run the ship into the ground for years. Well, they did manage to sign a 37 year old Albanian striker. Perhaps he has some contacts among Kosovan gangsters that could donate a few suitcases of cash. A sad state of affairs for Germany's greatest club. (Well, second greatest, as local rival ASV is in fact greater, albeit obscure). Unfortunately, WSV looks doomed to relegation already, which really would suck, since I would then have to report on the Regionalliga next season.
1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 2:2 (2:1) 5,280 (Spann, Meyer - Semmer, Cinaz) Wuppertaler SV - FC Erzgebirge Aue 0:2 (0:0) 2,496 (Braham 2) SpVgg Unterhaching - Holstein Kiel 3:1 (1:1) 3,200 (Schweinsteiger, Leandro, Steegmann - Holt) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - SV 1916 Sandhausen 2:1 (2:0) 2,567 (Ziegenbein, A. Öztürk - Pinto) VfB Stuttgart II - FC Bayern München II 2:4 (1:1) 1,150 (Vier, Broghammer - Sikorski 3, Riess) Dynamo Dresden - VfL Osnabrück 0:0 (0:0) 12,665 FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Borussia Dortmund II 2:1 (1:1) 6,983 (Lukimya, Riemer - Neumeister) Jahn Regensburg - SV Werder Bremen II 1:0 (0:0) 5,036 (Shynder) FC Ingolstadt 04 - Wacker Burghausen 6:0 (3:0) 3,625 (Metzelder, Hartmann, Leitl, Wenczel, Karl, Gerber) Kickers Offenbach - Eintracht Braunschweig 3:0 (2:0) 7,000 (St.Haas, Pospischil, Laux) Attendance: 50,002 (avg 5,000) 1. (2.) Jahn Regensburg 7 5 2 0 11:4 +7 17 2. (1.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 7 4 2 1 16:8 +8 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (5.) SpVgg Unterhaching 7 3 4 0 13:9 +4 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) Wacker Burghausen 7 4 1 2 10:14 -4 13 5. (9.) Kickers Offenbach 7 3 2 2 9:4 +5 11 6. (8.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 7 3 2 2 12:9 +3 11 7. (12.) FC Ingolstadt 04 7 3 1 3 17:9 +8 10 8. (4.) VfB Stuttgart II 7 3 1 3 13:10 +3 10 9. (7.) VfL Osnabrück 7 3 1 3 8:6 +2 10 10. (6.) Eintracht Braunschweig 7 3 1 3 6:7 -1 10 11. (10.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 7 2 3 2 10:11 -1 9 12. (16.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 7 2 3 2 5:6 -1 9 13. (11.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 7 2 3 2 10:12 -2 9 14. (14.) Dynamo Dresden 7 2 2 3 5:8 -3 8 15. (19.) FC Bayern München II 7 2 2 3 10:16 -6 8 16. (13.) Holstein Kiel 7 2 1 4 11:12 -1 7 17. (15.) SV Werder Bremen II 7 2 1 4 6:11 -5 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (20.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 7 2 0 5 7:12 -5 6 19. (17.) Borussia Dortmund II 7 1 2 4 6:9 -3 5 20. (18.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 7 1 2 4 8:16 -8 5
Bundesliga - 4th round
Obviously, the biggest news this week is Bayern's recovery and domination of Wolfsburg. After their horrible start, Bayern made a move that only they can make - they plunked down 24 million euros and signed Real Madrid's surplus Arjen Robben. And indications are that they're not done with plinking down cash. After a strong first half, Bayern then unleashed Robben and recovered Franck Ribery. Perhaps they should name the duo "Robbery", as Ribery assisted on two goals - both to Robben. With Bayern also set to get Rafinha to fix their right back problem (Lahm has been playing out of position until they found someone), all of a sudden Bayern looks re-invigorated. Wolfsburg probably shouldn't be too worried, although their defense looks somewhat suspect. (NEWSFLASH: At the last minute, Bayern decided not to buy Rafinha.) The VWs didn't really hit stride until midseason last year, so perhaps they're still a way from top form. They did create a few chances, especially in the 2nd half, and with some luck might have scored and got back in the match. Still, Bayern's performance indicates that they are back and want to dominate the league.
Hamburg is the surprise leader, and they've been playing decent football, much to the amazement of their own fans, who were only mildly expectant for this season. Of course, they shouldn't start wetting their pants, after all, they only beat a crap Köln squad, who look like relegation material. Still, you have to grind out results and get the points, and so far HSV is doing just that. They looked vulnerable after Köln got back at 1-2, until a Trochowski penalty ended the match. HSV was heavily criticized for bringing in Bruno Labbadia as coach, but so far things are looking rosy. The addition of Bayern castoff, Ze Roberto ("too old"), has been brilliant so far. As for Köln, they look crap. Their poor start could be just enough to doom them.
Schalke looks to be falling apart already. The Blues were completely lame against tailend Freiburg, and ended up losing 0-1 at home. The guests played decently in the 1st half and stole a goal, then packed the back and let an incompetant Schalke press for the remainder of the game. Schalke dominated, created a few chances, but in general looked uninterested. This team clearly lacks a playmaker and is going nowhere fast. And the chance of getting someone like Rafael van der Vaart is nil, as financial problems have led to yet another crisis. As a result, Schalke is set to sell Brazilian defender Rafinha to Bayern. This led to an interesting aspect of the match. Instead of urging the team forward, some idiot Schalke fans spent all their time booing Rafinha; I'm sure that really inspired the players. (What will make matters worse, 5 minutes before the transfer deadline, Bayern told Schalke that they wouldn't buy Rafinha afterall. I'm sure all the Schalke fan support will encourage the Brazilian to give 100+% effort.) A nice victory for Freiburg though. Their goal was scored by Doo-Ri Cha, son of Korean legend Bum-Kun Cha, who had a fine career with Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt. Doo-Ri has bounced around with several German clubs, perhaps he's found his home.
Leverkusen should have scored a half dozen against Bochum, who offered little except fighting spirit. But Bayer continued to miss chances, undoubtedly causing coach Jupp Heynckes to gulp gallons of pepto-bismol. In the end, they managed to sneak a goal and continue their fine season start. Obviously given their history ("Luserkusen" or "Vizekusen") indicates they can't win the title, but they look like a tough team once again.
Stuttgart looked crap at home against Nürnberg, and were perhaps even lucky to get a point. FCN played defensively, but had a few counterattack chances, especially in the 1st half. Still, "der Club" looks weak, and will be lucky to avoid the drop. VfB on the other hand, failed across the board, hardly looking like a contender. Obviously they're capable of a lot more, but the loss of Mario Gomez' goals looks like they may have a harder time.
Hoffenheim got their first win, thanks to some sharp goalkeeping by Timo Hildebrand. Equally important however was the fact that Hannover apparently couldn't have hit the side of a barn, let alone the back of the net. The "Hopp- enheimers are certainly not setting the league on fire as they did last season, but they look to be a solid squad, and have signed many young players that could pay dividends down the road. Hannover was strong at home, weak on the road last season. I wouldn't expect them to be too worried about relegation, but they don't look like they can be anything but mediocre midtable.
Gladbach put in a solid home performance against Mainz, fully deserving their victory. Obviously home form is key if they are to stay up again. They've also got to be happy that their Argie forward, Raul Bobadilla, finally scored. Mainz was off to a bright season start and look to be a decent team, but will likely struggle against relegation. The worst result for them was that GK Heinz Müller, one of the heroes against Bayern, was injured, along with his backup. The upcoming pause for internationals comes at a good time for them.
Bremen got a nice win in Berlin, playing well and taking their chances. Hertha was lame for most of the match, and although they woke up in the last 20 minutes, their efforts were too late. They look like a team that may seriously have to think about fighting relegation, as their minimalist football is not scratching out results this season. Werder is still inconsistent, but grabbing points in matches they would have lost last year is certainly encouraging for them.
Frankfurt and Dortmund squared off in a hard fought draw, which is probably a fair result. As the home team, Eintracht was perhaps more active, but Dortmund looked solid and determined.
Borussia M'gladbach - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:0 (1:0) 42,217 (Bobadilla, Reus) VfB Stuttgart - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:0 (0:0) 42,000 FC Schalke 04 - SC Freiburg 0:1 (0:1) 60,198 (Cha) Bayer Leverkusen - VfL Bochum 2:1 (1:1) 27,122 (Friedrich, Kiessling - Friedrich o.g.) Hannover 96 - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:1 (0:1) 34,257 (Carlos Eduardo) Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia Dortmund 1:1 (0:0) 51,050 (Amanatidis - Zidan) FC Bayern München - VfL Wolfsburg 3:0 (1:0) 69,000 (Gomez, Robben 2) Hertha BSC Berlin - SV Werder Bremen 2:3 (0:0) 49,176 (Piszczek, Ebert - Özil, Borowski, Naldo) Hamburger SV - 1. FC Köln 3:1 (1:0) 54,112 (Guerrero 2, Trochowski - Chihi) Attendance: 429,132 (avg 47,681) 1. (2.) Hamburger SV 4 3 1 0 12:5 +7 10 2. (1.) Bayer Leverkusen 4 3 1 0 10:3 +7 10 3. (7.) SV Werder Bremen 4 2 1 1 9:6 +3 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) FC Schalke 04 4 2 1 1 5:2 +3 7 5. (10.) Borussia M'gladbach 4 2 1 1 7:7 0 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (6.) Eintracht Frankfurt 4 1 3 0 5:4 +1 6 7. (4.) VfL Wolfsburg 4 2 0 2 7:8 -1 6 8. (14.) FC Bayern München 4 1 2 1 6:4 +2 5 9. (9.) VfB Stuttgart 4 1 2 1 5:5 0 5 10. (15.) 1899 Hoffenheim 4 1 2 1 2:2 0 5 11. (5.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 4 1 2 1 5:6 -1 5 12. (12.) Borussia Dortmund 4 1 2 1 4:6 -2 5 13. (8.) Hannover 96 4 1 1 2 3:3 0 4 14. (11.) VfL Bochum 4 1 1 2 5:8 -3 4 15. (18.) SC Freiburg 4 1 1 2 4:10 -6 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (13.) Hertha BSC Berlin 4 1 0 3 4:6 -2 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (16.) 1. FC Nürnberg 4 0 2 2 2:5 -3 2 18. (17.) 1. FC Köln 4 0 1 3 2:7 -5 1
2.Liga - 4th round
St.Pauli has become the sensation of the 2.Liga in the early running. The Hamburgers launched a devastating assault in Karlsruhe, coming away with yet another impressive away result. Erstwhile surprise leaders Union Berlin remained unbeaten as well, with a good result in Augsburg. Relegated Bielefeld got back on course with a solid 2nd half at Fürth, a good result, since Greuther is usually a contender. Aachen righted their ship by easily shutting out FSV Frankfurt, who are off to another horrible start. Also off to a crap start is Hansa Rostock, who were stunned at home by Oberhausen. Duisburg drew a nice crowd for the revival of the regional rivalry with Düsseldorf. Fortuna had been dumping around in lower divisions for quite a while, so certainly the Zebras were happy to have the Düsseldorfers back: both financially (large crowd) and athletically (they kicked their ass).
So what is the prognosis? The usual, a desperate struggle to gain promotion or relegation. Not too much in between. It's hard to guess this early, as the only real surprises so far have been Union and St.Pauli. Kaiserslautern is a "massive" club, but they've been stuck in the 2.Liga for a few seasons now and haven't looked very impressive. But they're certainly going to contend for promotion, and my guess is that they'll achieve it this season. Bielefeld, Cottbus and Duisburg, the 3 clubs that dropped last season, would have to be considered solid bets as well. I figure at least one of them should be bouncing back. On the bottom, I think Ahlen and Frankfurt look too weak, so that leaves only 1 relegation spot open and there are a few "lucky" contenders. Since both of them are hardly fan magnets, there probably won't be too many tears shed, but expect at that at least some of the promoted teams will be even worse nobodies. Zweite Liga attendance is clearly a case between have and have-nots, and the smaller clubs just don't draw, even if they're moderately successful (e.g. Greuther Fürth). On the other hand, clubs like 1860 would have massive attendance, better than most Bundesliga clubs, if they would only win a few games.
Karlsruher SC - FC St. Pauli 0:4 (0:1) 26,300 (Lehmann 2, Hennings, Ebbers) Rot Weiss Ahlen - TSV 1860 München 0:0 (0:0) 4,025 TuS Koblenz - FC Energie Cottbus 0:2 (0:1) 7,425 (Shao, Jula) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Arminia Bielefeld 2:4 (1:0) 7,330 (Mokhtari, Nöthe - Fort 2, Katongo, Federico) Hansa Rostock - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 0:2 (0:1) 14,000 (Terranova 2) Alemannia Aachen - FSV Frankfurt 3:0 (2:0) 23,078 (Auer 2, Junglas) FC Augsburg - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:1 (0:0) 19,037 (Werner - Sahin) SC Paderborn 07 - 1. FC K'lautern 0:0 (0:0) 10,345 MSV Duisburg - Fortuna Düsseldorf 3:0 (1:0) 27,371 (Tararache, Tiffert, Wagner) Attendance: 138,911 (avg 15,435) 1. (2.) FC St. Pauli 4 3 1 0 13:3 +10 10 2. (1.) 1. FC Union Berlin 4 3 1 0 6:1 +5 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (6.) MSV Duisburg 4 2 2 0 9:5 +4 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) 1. FC K'lautern 4 2 2 0 4:2 +2 8 5. (7.) FC Energie Cottbus 4 2 1 1 8:6 +2 7 6. (10.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 4 2 1 1 6:5 +1 7 7. (4.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 4 2 0 2 10:7 +3 6 8. (5.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 4 2 0 2 4:4 0 6 9. (12.) Arminia Bielefeld 4 2 0 2 10:8 +2 6 10. (9.) FC Augsburg 4 1 2 1 6:7 -1 5 11. (11.) SC Paderborn 07 4 1 2 1 2:3 -1 5 12. (16.) Alemannia Aachen 4 1 2 1 5:7 -2 5 13. (13.) TSV 1860 München 4 1 1 2 4:5 -1 4 14. (8.) Karlsruher SC 4 1 1 2 4:8 -4 4 15. (14.) Hansa Rostock 4 1 0 3 3:7 -4 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (14.) TuS Koblenz 4 1 0 3 3:7 -4 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (18.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 4 0 1 3 1:5 -4 1 18. (17.) FSV Frankfurt 4 0 1 3 1:9 -8 1
3.Liga - 6th round
The southern clubs are currently dominating the standings, holding down the top 5 spots. Surprising Sandhausen and Regensburg top the table, with Burghausen holding down the playoff spot. Certainly this prospect is not thrilling 2.Liga treasurers, as these teams have pitiful attendance. The one club that does draw, Braunschweig, was stunned at home by Werder's B squad to drop down. Relegated Osnabrück seems to righted the ship, so expect them to challenge. All the eastern clubs (Jena, Dresden, Aue, Erfurt) are mostly slumming around midtable. The big result here was Erfurt sending down Dresden in flames.
Borussia Dortmund II - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:2 (0:2) 1,524 (Hille - Mitterhuber, Zillner) FC Erzgebirge Aue - 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 0:1 (0:1) 6,800 (Spann) VfL Osnabrück - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 2:0 (1:0) 9,800 (Lindemann, Reichenberger) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt - Dynamo Dresden 4:1 (2:0) 9,451 (Semmer, Humbert, Rockenback, Kammlott - Wagefeld) FC Bayern München II - Wuppertaler SV 3:1 (1:0) 1,800 (Ekici, Alaba, Duhnke - Asaeda) SV 1916 Sandhausen - VfB Stuttgart II 2:1 (0:1) 2,440 (Eberlein, Fiesser - Funk) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - Jahn Regensburg 0:2 (0:0) 2,526 (Berger, Beigang) Holstein Kiel - FC Ingolstadt 04 2:2 (0:1) 4,597 (Meyer, Sykora - Hartmann 2) Eintracht Braunschweig - SV Werder Bremen II 1:2 (1:1) 14,000 (Kruppke - Testroet 2) Wacker Burghausen - Kickers Offenbach 1:0 (1:0) 3,150 (Cappek) Attendance: 56,088 (avg 5,089) 1. (1.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 6 4 2 0 15:6 +9 14 2. (2.) Jahn Regensburg 6 4 2 0 10:4 +6 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (5.) Wacker Burghausen 6 4 1 1 10:8 +2 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (3.) VfB Stuttgart II 6 3 1 2 11:6 +5 10 5. (8.) SpVgg Unterhaching 6 2 4 0 10:8 +2 10 6. (4.) Eintracht Braunschweig 6 3 1 2 6:4 +2 10 7. (12.) VfL Osnabrück 6 3 0 3 8:6 +2 9 8. (6.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 6 2 2 2 10:8 +2 8 9. (7.) Kickers Offenbach 6 2 2 2 6:4 +2 8 10. (17.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 6 2 2 2 8:9 -1 8 11. (15.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 6 2 2 2 8:10 -2 8 12. (10.) FC Ingolstadt 04 6 2 1 3 11:9 +2 7 13. (11.) Holstein Kiel 6 2 1 3 10:9 +1 7 14. (9.) Dynamo Dresden 6 2 1 3 5:8 -3 7 15. (18.) SV Werder Bremen II 6 2 1 3 6:10 -4 7 16. (13.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 6 1 3 2 3:6 -3 6 17. (14.) Borussia Dortmund II 6 1 2 3 5:7 -2 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18. (16.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 6 1 2 3 8:14 -6 5 19. (20.) FC Bayern München II 6 1 2 3 6:14 -8 5 20. (19.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 6 1 0 5 5:11 -6 3
Misc news
Healthy competition
Champion VfL Wolfsburg suffered their first home loss in something like 30 matches, and so things are getting a little feisty. In practice today, Edin Dzeko and Karim Ziani got into it. After a hard tackle, Dzeko apparently slapped Ziani, and the two went at it UFC style. Perhaps newcomer Ziani (from Olympique Marseille) was secretly goaded on by Obafemi Martins, who would love to crack the starting lineup, hehehe. The VWs also received some bad news though, as Brazilian captain Josue, who suffered a knee injury against HSV, will be out of action for at least 3 weeks.
Honor before profit
A surprising announcement in this day and age of money grubbing. 2.Liga newcomer Union Berlin has decided to tear up their sponsorship contract with "International Sport Promotion". The deal would have paid Union some 10 million euros through 2014. The reason is that an investigative report in "Der Spiegel" revealed that the chairman of the board of directors of ISP, Jürgen Czilinsky, was an ex-captain in the Stasi, the old GDR secret police. Czilinsky resigned his post, but Union voted to severe the relationship anyway. When the discovery was made, many Union fans protested vigorously, as Union had a reputation as an "alternative" club during the GDR years, and suffered greatly under the thumb of the Stasi and their sponsored club, BFC Dynamo Berlin. Ironically, the chairman of ISP, Dieter Fietz, is an ex-Union coach and strong supporter.
Wuppertal not crap enough
Reader Reiner Nickl pointed out that although WSV is indeed crap and likely headed back to the Regionalliga, there are in fact even crappier large cities struggling. With a population of 382,000, Wuppertal is certainly disgraceful, but there are others that deserve even more rebuke. I had forgotten about Essen (582,000), where Rot-Weiss, a long time rival of WSV, piddles around in the 4th division. And of course, in the 3.Liga, you can find Dresden (508,000). And even further down is Leipzig (511,00), where Sachsen and Lokomotiv struggle in the 5th division Oberliga. However, the 3rd Leipzig club in that division, brand-new RB Leipzig is likely to be moving up. RB stands for "Rasenballsport" ("grass ball sport"), but it really stands for "Red Bull". The theory is that the Austrian moneybags will lift them up, as they did with Austrian powerhouse RB Salzburg. Of course, they could do like RB New York in the USA MLS and make them the crappiest team...
Bundesliga - 3rd round
Early indications are that this year's Bundesliga race is once again wide open.
Champions Wolfsburg had looked good in the start, but they'll not sneak up on anyone, and their defensive achilles heel gives other clubs hope. Hamburg pounced with two quick goals in the first 7 minutes to stun their hosts, and Wolfsburg used all their energy to fight back into the match. They managed to square the game, but then were out of gas, and watched as HSV's clever counters stabbed them in the back. A great result for HSV, which is one of the "mystery" squads this season, as they could be very good or mediocre. Despite the loss, Wolfsburg probably doesn't have to worry, as they look pretty good and should challenge to defend their title. Newcomer Obafemi Martins came on as a sub and immediately scored, an indication that VW firepower is as strong as ever. Their defense looked pretty crap, as HSV created lots of decent chances.
Whenever Bayern loses, it's top news. The Louis Van Gaal era in München is off to a rough start, as the giants remain winless. Newcomers Mainz pulled off one of their best results in club history, as they dominated the first half, and then withstood sustained Bayern pressure after the restart. The outstanding play of GK Heinz Müller was key to Mainz holding on to the win, as Bayern peppered his goal with lots of shots. If Bayern don't at least win their next match, they'll have to fire van Gaal and rehire Klinsmann, hehehehe. For Mainz, it's a sensational start, and even more memorable considering that they actually fired their coach, Jorn Andersen, BEFORE the season started. And in his place, they promoted Thomas Tuchel, who was the youth team coach! But Tuchel evidentally has some talent (indeed his youth team won the German title) and Mainz defeated Bayern for the first time in 21 tries...
Schalke showed little of the decent form of their first couple of games. Instead, they showed up with a tight defensive shell and grimly held on to a draw at Hoffenheim. The hosts pressed, but were unable to break through. Don't expect Hoffenheim to surprise anyone this season. Obviously they are a solid squad, and the rest of the league is well prepared to meet them.
The new leader is Bayer Leverkusen, who thrashed newcomers Freiburg away. Despite the impressive scoreline, it wasn't as easy as one might think. Freiburg had several decent chances, but were unable to get past GK Rene Adler. Meanwhile, Leverkusen was deadly on the counterattack, and basically finished all their chances. With ass-kicker Jupp Heynckes as coach, it is likely that Bayer will likely be a tough opponent throughout the season.
Neither Dortmund nor Stuttgart was overly impressive in their match, which ended in a fair draw. Both clubs are hoping for an improvement on decent campaigns from last season, but obviously need to go back to the drawing board. For Dortmund, there are again rumours of financial problems, so there is the prospect of being forced to sell some of their better players, such as defender Subotic.
Köln was unable to gain the win against Frankfurt, despite playing the last 30+ minutes with a man advantage as Eintracht's Patrick Ochs got his ass tossed for a dirty foul. Despite the return of prodigal son Lukas Podolski, the Kölners look to be a long hard struggle to stay up this season. They've played tough in every match, but have only a single point to show for it, and their offense is, well, "offensive". Frankfurt is off to a bright start.
Nürnberg looked completely lame at home and deservedly lost. Andreas Bergmann got off to a great start as interim boss for Hannover, but in reality, FCN was harmless, so the 96ers really weren't tested. Still, they will be very happy, since their road record has traditionally been quite poor.
Hertha BSC was one of the early surprise teams last season, playing minimalist football and getting results. This season they just look minimalist. They looked totally crap away to Bochum, who got a deserved win as captain Antar Yahia blasted in a low driving freekick for the win. Hertha looked especially lame in attack, which makes you wonder why they dumped striker Marko Pantelic in the offseason, since this is just the type of game where he would have scored to save their ass. Perhaps Hertha will try and loan Andrei Voronin from Liverpool again. Bochum will have to rely on running around and booting the ball hard. They haven't been overly impressive, but it may be enough to stay up.
Werder Bremen made a decisive move during the week. They were unimpressed with their crap start, and perhaps that pushed management over the edge to pull the trigger - they signed striker Claudio Pizarro. The Peruvian had been quite decent on loan last season, but the club had waffled whether to sign him permanently. They did, and Claudio rewarded them with a double against Gladbach. The visitors were basically invisible, and if GK Heimeroth wasn't in decent form, it would have turned into a total embarassment. Still, MG probably isn't too upset, since they probably have to rely on decent home results to stay up. Bremen remains a schizoid squad, and you never know who is going to show up.
1899 Hoffenheim - FC Schalke 04 0:0 (0:0) 30,150 Borussia Dortmund - VfB Stuttgart 1:1 (1:0) 72,100 (Valdez - Niedermeyer) 1. FC Köln - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:0 (0:0) 49,200 SC Freiburg - Bayer Leverkusen 0:5 (0:1) 22,000 (Kiessling, Barnetta 2, Derdiyok 2) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - FC Bayern München 2:1 (2:0) 20,300 (Ivanschitz, Bancé - Noveski o.g.) 1. FC Nürnberg - Hannover 96 0:2 (0:1) 38,671 (Stajner 2) VfL Bochum - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:0 (0:0) 18,853 (Yahia) VfL Wolfsburg - Hamburger SV 2:4 (0:2) 30,000 (Misimovic, Martins - Guerrero, Elia, Petric, Castelen) SV Werder Bremen - Borussia M'gladbach 3:0 (2:0) 34,800 (Pizarro 2, Naldo) Attendance: 316,164 (avg 35,129) 1. (6.) Bayer Leverkusen 3 2 1 0 8:2 +6 7 2. (3.) Hamburger SV 3 2 1 0 9:4 +5 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (1.) FC Schalke 04 3 2 1 0 5:1 +4 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (1.) VfL Wolfsburg 3 2 0 1 7:5 +2 6 5. (10.) 1. FSV Mainz 05 3 1 2 0 5:4 +1 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. (5.) Eintracht Frankfurt 3 1 2 0 4:3 +1 5 7. (12.) SV Werder Bremen 3 1 1 1 6:4 +2 4 8. (14.) Hannover 96 3 1 1 1 3:2 +1 4 9. (7.) VfB Stuttgart 3 1 1 1 5:5 0 4 10. (4.) Borussia M'gladbach 3 1 1 1 5:7 -2 4 11. (17.) VfL Bochum 3 1 1 1 4:6 -2 4 12. (9.) Borussia Dortmund 3 1 1 1 3:5 -2 4 13. (8.) Hertha BSC Berlin 3 1 0 2 2:3 -1 3 14. (11.) FC Bayern München 3 0 2 1 3:4 -1 2 15. (14.) 1899 Hoffenheim 3 0 2 1 1:2 -1 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. (13.) 1. FC Nürnberg 3 0 1 2 2:5 -3 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17. (18.) 1. FC Köln 3 0 1 2 1:4 -3 1 18. (16.) SC Freiburg 3 0 1 2 3:10 -7 1
2.Liga - 3rd round
The 2.Liga is always lots of fun, and this year will probably be no exception. The early surprise is undoubtedly newly promoted Union Berlin, who top the table after a quick start. It would certainly be sensational to see Union in the Bundesliga, but most likely they'll come back to earth. Avoiding relegation would be a good season for them. St.Pauli has also created somewhat of a stir. The Paulistas are among Deutschland's premier elevator clubs, fluctuating wildly between the 1st and 3rd divisions. Their stunning 5-0 win at Aachen last week served notice that perhaps they might be looking to sneak back up to the top.
Thye relegated sides (Duisburg, Cottbus, Bielefeld) have all started modestly, but you figure at least a couple might e in the promotion race as the season wears on. Among newly promoted sides, we've already mentioned Union, but Düsseldorf is very intriguing as well, a big city club that was a long-time Bundesliga mainstay that had disappeared into obscurity.
FSV Frankfurt - SC Paderborn 07 0:0 (0:0) 3,874 1. FC Union Berlin - Hansa Rostock 1:0 (1:0) 17,500 (Mosquera) Fortuna Düsseldorf - TuS Koblenz 1:0 (1:0) 20,150 (Jovanovic) Arminia Bielefeld - FC Augsburg 1:2 (0:0) 13,500 (Katongo - Thurk, Traore) FC St. Pauli - MSV Duisburg 2:2 (2:1) 22,554 (Bruns, Takyi - Kouemaha, Wagner) FC Energie Cottbus - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:3 (1:2) 13,700 (Shao - Allagui 2, Gassem) 1. FC K'lautern - Alemannia Aachen 1:1 (0:1) 28,079 (Illicevic - Gueye) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - Rot Weiss Ahlen 2:0 (0:0) 5,045 (Stoppelkamp, Kaya) TSV 1860 München - Karlsruher SC 1:3 (1:1) 30,800 (Cooper - Timm, Krebs, Langkamp) Attendance: 155,202 (avg 17,245) 1. (2.) 1. FC Union Berlin 3 3 0 0 5:0 +5 9 2. (1.) FC St. Pauli 3 2 1 0 9:3 +6 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. (3.) 1. FC K'lautern 3 2 1 0 4:2 +2 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. (6.) SpVgg Greuther Fürth 3 2 0 1 8:3 +5 6 5. (7.) Fortuna Düsseldorf 3 2 0 1 4:1 +3 6 6. (5.) MSV Duisburg 3 1 2 0 6:5 +1 5 7. (4.) FC Energie Cottbus 3 1 1 1 6:6 0 4 8. (14.) Karlsruher SC 3 1 1 1 4:4 0 4 9. (13.) FC Augsburg 3 1 1 1 5:6 -1 4 10. (15.) Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 3 1 1 1 4:5 -1 4 11. (12.) SC Paderborn 07 3 1 1 1 2:3 -1 4 12. (8.) Arminia Bielefeld 3 1 0 2 6:6 0 3 13. (9.) TSV 1860 München 2 1 0 2 4:5 -1 3 14. (10.) Hansa Rostock 3 1 0 2 3:5 -2 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15. (10.) TuS Koblenz 3 1 0 2 3:5 -2 3 16. (16.) Alemannia Aachen 3 0 2 1 2:7 -5 2 17. (18.) FSV Frankfurt 3 0 1 2 1:6 -5 1 18. (17.) Rot Weiss Ahlen 3 0 0 3 1:5 -4 0
3.Liga - 5th round
The 3.Liga looks wide open, with several clubs showing decent form early on. Sandhausen is the surprise leader, with an away win in Wuppertal. One good sign is that Bayern's II club looks crap, so perhaps they'll disappear from the league.
The 2.Liga relegated clubs, Ingolstadt and Osnabrück are off to slow starts, but should get that bearings and challenge. On the other hand, Wehen looks quite poor and is an early candidate to continue the elevator ride down. For the newcomers, Heidenheim is a welcome addition. They may struggle on the field, but if 7,000+ show up to watch a "II" squad, that's worth something.
Dresden had their first sell-out in years, as they blasted Aue in an eastern match. None of the eastern clubs are doing
particularily well, but they will continue to be big box office draws.
FC Ingolstadt 04 - Borussia Dortmund II 0:1 (0:1) 2,660 (Öztekin)
Jahn Regensburg - Eintracht Braunschweig 1:0 (1:0) 6,108 (Zellner)
Dynamo Dresden - FC Erzgebirge Aue 3:0 (1:0) 14,650 (Savran 2, Kegel)
SpVgg Unterhaching - VfL Osnabrück 1:0 (1:0) 2,300 (Balkan)
Kickers Offenbach - Holstein Kiel 2:3 (1:0) 7,587 (Kopilas, Zinnow - Zykora, Holt, Jerat)
SV Werder Bremen II - Wacker Burghausen 3:4 (2:2) 580 (Ayik, Oehrl, Testroet - Capek 2, Hertl, Kresin)
Wuppertaler SV - SV 1916 Sandhausen 0:2 (0:1) 3,528 (Dorn, Ristic)
1. FC Heidenheim 1846 - FC Bayern München II 4:2 (3:0) 7,150 (Essig, Spann, Schnatterer, Meyer - Sikorski, Sene)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena - FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 0:3 (0:2) 11,200 (Kammlot 2, Semmer)
VfB Stuttgart II - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 3:0 (1:0) 500 (Funk 2, Schipplock)
Attendance: 56,263 (avg 5,623)
1. (3.) SV 1916 Sandhausen 5 3 2 0 13:5 +8 11
2. (5.) Jahn Regensburg 5 3 2 0 8:4 +4 11
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3. (6.) VfB Stuttgart II 5 3 1 1 10:4 +6 10
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4. (1.) Eintracht Braunschweig 5 3 1 1 5:2 +3 10
5. (7.) Wacker Burghausen 5 3 1 1 9:8 +1 10
6. (2.) FC Carl Zeiss Jena 5 2 2 1 10:6 +4 8
7. (4.) Kickers Offenbach 5 2 2 1 6:3 +3 8
8. (12.) SpVgg Unterhaching 5 1 4 0 8:7 +1 7
9. (13.) Dynamo Dresden 5 2 1 2 4:4 0 7
10. (8.) FC Ingolstadt 04 5 2 0 3 9:7 +2 6
11. (15.) Holstein Kiel 5 2 0 3 8:7 +1 6
12. (9.) VfL Osnabrück 5 2 0 3 6:6 0 6
13. (10.) FC Erzgebirge Aue 5 1 3 1 3:5 -2 6
14. (17.) Borussia Dortmund II 5 1 2 2 4:5 -1 5
15. (18.) 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 5 1 2 2 7:10 -3 5
16. (11.) Wuppertaler SV Bor. 5 1 2 2 7:11 -4 5
17. (19.) FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 5 1 2 2 4:8 -4 5
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18. (14.) SV Werder Bremen II 5 1 1 3 4:9 -5 4
19. (16.) SV Wehen Wiesbaden 5 1 0 4 5:9 -4 3
20. (20.) FC Bayern München II 5 0 2 3 3:13 -10 2
Due to (un)popular demand, I guess I will be inflicting more Bundesliga updates among the readers of this blog (all 3-4 of them). I need to get my bearings back after drinking lots of rum and Dourada Draft while climbing volcanos in Guate, so I'll have to skip some of the preseason rumours etc, and I'll skip the details of the first couple of rounds
The first coaches have gotten the boot! It's hilarious, but already you'e got coaching changes. Hannover 96 boss Dieter Hecking has decided to throw in the towel. Basically 96 has been crap in their opening matches, and I guess Hecking was too disgusted to continue, so he gave up. Hannover has been pretty inconsistent since their return to top flight a few seasons ago, although this has been consistent with the club history, so I'm not sure what they're all excited about. More disturbing is the 2.Liga Karlsruher SC fired Ede Becker. KSC started off disappointing, a draw and a loss. But the board fired Becker's ass, despite not long ago being hailed as a genius when KSC was sensational in the top flight. Hopefully, the next coach to be fired will be Bayern's Louis Van Gaal, who has yet to win. I don't think it will happen, but it would be funny. Bayern has largely sucked in their openers (1-1 draws with Hoffenheim and Werder). It's early still, but Bayern don't look to be striking fear in the rest of the league just yet...
As far as the leagues, obviously defending champ Wolfsburg intends to continue where they left off. I think the VWs pulled off somewhat of a coup by signing Newcastle's Obafemi Martins. He is a very talented striker, and gives VW extra depth so that they could probably survive even if Dzeko or Grafite went down. Schalke (under new management, i.e. ex-Wolfsburg boss Felix Magath) has also started brightly, and you can be sure that Magath will kick some asses once the Blues fall back in their usual pattern of dicking around aimlessly. Not sure it will make a difference, but it would be cool to see footprints on the traditional white Schalke shorts...(although they usually play blue shorts now).
Who knows what is going on in the 2.Liga. As usual, everybody is is a contender for promotion or relegation.
Finally, in the 3.Liga, as one reader already pointed out, this could be the year of Wuppertaler SV! And we could have universal health care in the US! Haha. Nope, I'm pretty sure that once again Wuppertal will continue in their role as the largest city (almost 400,000) without respectable football, although I suppose both Leipzig and Dresden contest them. If I recall, I did a survey last season and came up with a list, but heaven knows.
Just returned back from Guatemala, so I haven't been posting.
Haven't yet decided if I'll be doing any updates...
Season over
You can read the past season's news at the link below...
Don't know if I'll add any updates over the summer...possibly I'll just try and update some other areas
Last season archived news