Quick summary

Here are this weekends games:

Bremen - Dortmund
Schalke - Mainz
Wolfsburg - Cottbus
Hertha - Bochum
Frankfurt - Bielefeld
Leverkusen - Bayern
Hamburg - Gladbach
Hannover - Stuttgart
Aachen - Nürnberg

And here are how things stand at the moment

1 Werder Bremen 11 7 2 2 30:13 17 23
2 VfB Stuttgart 11 6 3 2 23:16 7 21
3 FC Schalke 04 11 6 2 3 15:13 2 20
4 Hertha BSC 11 4 5 2 18:14 4 17
5 Bayern München 11 5 2 4 16:13 3 17
6 Arminia Bielefeld 11 4 4 3 19:14 5 16
7 Eintracht Frankfurt 11 3 7 1 13:11 2 16
8 VfL Wolfsburg 11 4 4 3 9:10 -1 16
9 Bayer Leverkusen 11 4 3 4 17:15 2 15
10 Borussia Dortmund 11 3 6 2 13:12 1 15
11 Energie Cottbus 11 4 3 4 14:14 0 15
12 1. FC Nürnberg 11 2 7 2 13:11 2 13
13 Alemannia Aachen 11 4 1 6 17:21 -4 13
14 Borussia M'gladbach 11 4 0 7 10:16 -6 12
15 Hannover 96 11 2 4 5 10:20 -10 10
16 Hamburger SV 11 1 6 4 10:14 -4 9
17 VfL Bochum 11 2 2 7 10:20 -10 8
18. FSV Mainz 05 11 1 5 5 10:20 -10 8

That's all I've got time for at the moment!

Nine games and only one home victory

I’ve got absolutely no idea the last time this happened, but the midweek round of games saw six away victories, two draws, and only one home win. Most of these will probably show you why I hardly ever win when I bet.

Most surprising of all was Hannover’s 1-0 away win versus Bayern, courtesy of Huszti’s 43rd minute strike. All is not well in Munich – this was the first ever Bayern game in the Allianz Arena that wasn’t sold out, and the fans that did turn up treated the players to a ‘Pfeifkonzert’, or concert of whistles, at half time and throughout the second half. HSV lost again, this time to the only victorious home team, Vfb Stuttgart, where Gomez got another one to take sole possession of first spot in the race for the golden boot, Dortmund drew at home again this time versus Aachen in a dull dull dull game, Mainz went down 2-1 to Wolfsburg (and are now bottom), Hanke scoring again and has since been recalled to the German national squad. Flavour of the month Bremen beat Nürnberg 2-1 to go further clear at the top of the table - they have now scored 30 times in 11 games and have shared the goals amongst 13 different scorered, a feat unmatched in Bundesliga history at this stage of the season.

Borussia Mönchengladbach fell further into the mire, losing 2-0 to Schalke, Bielefeld drew 2-2 with Berlin, MOM Fiedler keeping Berlin in it, Leverkusen are still just about keeping Michael Skibbe in a job, beating Bochum 3-1, and Eintracht Frankfurt confounded my expectations by emerging victorious in Cottbus, courtesy of another Takarara goal. It could and should have been more, but I couldn’t give a toss, Eintracht are now 7th and could potentially move up to fourth with a victory at home to Bielefeld this weekend.

Can’t wait!

Club Profile – Bayern Munich

Like Marmite, or Jose Mourinho, you cannot be indifferent to Bayern Munich if you are a fan of German football. The only team that will guarantee to sell out a stadium whenever and wherever they play away, you can only love them or hate them. Love them, because they are endlessly successful domestically, have a seemingly non-stop conveyor belt of German talent, can buy the other Bundesliga teams best players at the end of the season to reinforce their hegemony and scare the wits out of many or Europe’s other top clubs. Hate them, for all of the same reasons. Oh, and Oliver Kahn.

Due to various historical infractions on the part of the German nation, the Bundesliga wasn’t actually grounded until 1963. Bayern were initially denied membership but gained promotion in 1965. At that point in time, however, they weren’t even the biggest club in Munich – that honour belonged to TSV 1860 Munich (who still claim more support from Munich itself than Bayern – this is probably true, as Bayern’s fans will travel from long distance to watch their team. This is also testament to their ability to fill out away stadiums that might otherwise only be half to two thirds full – Germany actually loves winners, and Bayern will get away support wherever they go as their fans live all over the place. 1860 on the other hand would struggle to fill a pedalo away). Even Franz Beckenbauer admits to being a fan of 1860 when he was young, as his entire family and circle of friends all pledged their allegiance to them.

Once in the top tier in Germany, their initial team was based around the talents of goalie Sepp Maier, ‘libero’ Beckenbauer and Gerd ‘der Bomber’ Müller. They were almost instantly successful, winning the DFB Pokal (German Cup) in 1966, 67, 69 and 71, the European Cup Winners Cup in 1967 and also their first title in 1969 and then in three successive years, from 1972-74, plus a consecutive hattrick of European Cups from 1974-76. This was the first golden age of Bayern, and the European hegemony enjoyed by Bayern at this point is something that their manager, Uli Höness, is still striving for today (he was also a player in the 1970’s team).
After this there followed a relative lull until the start of the 80’s when, with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge leading the line, they once again won the championship in consecutive years (1980 and 81) and then regularly throughout the 80’s which coincided with the return of Udo Lattek as coach, the man who lead them during the golden age. A fourth European Cup win remained elusive though, as they lost to Aston Villa in the 1982 final, and Porto in the 1987 final. They still boasted some fine players, most notably Andreas Brehme (he of the 1990 World Cup penalty fame), Stefan Reuter and Roland Wohlfarth.

The early 90’s were exceptionally lean years and lead to a high turnover in coaches and constant bitching and fighting, leading to the nickname that the bosses hate the most but still sticks, FC Hollywood. A lot of players viewed signing for Bayern as the pinnacle of their careers and that, from that point forth they needn’t try, hence the search for a coach who could install discipline. And this despite having Jürgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthäus and Steffan Effenberg on their books at various times. After 9 coaches in 7 years, including Giovanni Trapattoni and Beckenbauer twice each (!) they finally got their man in Otmmar Hitzfeld, previously of arch rivals Borussia Dortmund. In a six year span he became their most successful manager ever, winning four league titles, two cups and the elusive fourth Champions League / European Cup, having famously lost the 1999 final to Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the last two minutes. Harshly let go by Bayern in 2004 (they won nothing that year), they turned to Felix Magath, formerly of Eintracht Frankfurt, who has promptly delivered the league and cup double in successive seasons. Rather irritatingly, the beat Eintracht Frankfurt in last seasons final, but have yet to feature prominently in European competition, although this looks like changing this year. World Cup heroes Philip Lahm, Lukas Podolski (bought in the off season from 1FC Cologne) and Bastian Schweinsteiger all ply their trade with Bayern, and they conveyor belt of talent looks set to continue with Andreas Ottl, Andreas Görlitz and Michael Rensing comin through.

Basically, love them or loathe them, you have to respect Bayern Munich. They refuse to spend ridiculous amounts of money on new players unless they have to (and even then they look to the cheaper Bundesliga rather than elsewhere) and strive to develop their own players. They have a spanking new stadium in the Allianz Arena, which replaced the ageing Olympiastadion at the start of last season, a balanced budget, no debt and no shareholders. And they keep winning, blast them!

The English Week

Germans call playing three league games in a week 'die englische Woche' to reflect the amount of games that their English counterparts get through most weeks.

If I were a betting man (and I am) I would think that Stuttgart will pummel HSV, Mainz and Wolfsburg will draw, Bremen will beat Nürnberg, no idea Dortmund v Aachen, Gladbach and Schalke to draw, Bochum to lose to Leverkusen, Bielefeld to beat Hertha, Cottbus to beat Frankfurt (pessimists are never dissapointed) and Bayern to beat merry hell out of Hannover.

Stuttgart - HSV
Mainz - Wolfsburg
Nürnberg - Bremen
Dortmund - Aachen
M'gladbach - Schalke
Bochum - Leverkusen
Bielefeld - Hertha
Cottbus - Frankfurt
FC Bayern - Hannover

More soon I hope...

That was the weekend that was 05/11/06

So, in front of a half empty stadium, Hannover meekly succumbed 2-0 to Bochum on Friday night, moving Bochum up to sixteenth and Hannover plummeting to the foot of the table. Possibly not what the chairman envisaged at the start of the season, to state the bleeding obvious.

Saturdays outstanding game was Bremen vs Cottbus, where Bremen were initially denied by some poor finishing, Aaron Hunt being the main culprit, and some outstanding defending and goalkeeping. And then, confirming them as one of the Bundesligas form teams, Kioyo scored a magnificent goal to put them one up. Undeterred (and all credit to the Bremen fans for roaring their team on rather than turning against them), the largely forgotten Ivan Klasnic equalized for Werder as Bremen again laid siege to the Cottbus goal. However, a minute from time, Cottbus broke out and a glorious ball to Radu resulted in the Bremen keeper Wiese flattening him first and then taking the ball. Rather amazingly, no penalty was given, and both sides had to be content with the draw. Cottbus manager Sander was rather upset afterwards, stating he was unhappy that his team didn’t win – about a month ago I would have laughed myself stupid at his, but his team is better than most give them credit for, and it was hard not to sympathise with him.

Elsewhere, embattled Jürgen Klopp got a point with Mainz away at Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund needed a last minute Alex Frei penalty to scrape a point at home to Arminia Bielefeld (and made me wonder how Switzerland didn’t convert any of their penalties in the shoot out with Ukraine in the World Cup), Hamburg lost again, this time to Wolfsburg (yet another Krycnowek cross for a Hanke goal) and have also lost two of their defenders to injury (Sorin and Kompany). The players first and second in the race for the golden boot, Hertha Berlins Marko Pantelic and Stuttgarts Mario Gomez also scored (Pantelic twice) to lead their teams to victories against Nürnberg and Aachen respectively.

Sunday had one reasonable game and one poor one. The latter was Frankfurt scraping past Mönchengladbach 1-0 thanks to this Takahara goal, whereas the former was a 2-2 draw between Schalke and Bayern. Schalke’s fans were protesting at the inability of Schalke to play well and win consistently by turning their backs on the team for the first 19 minutes and four seconds (Schalke was founded in 1904). No sooner had they turned round than Kobiashvili scored to make it 2-0, this after Rangers reject Lovenkrands had made it 1-0 in the 13th minute. Undeterred, Bayern found their inspiration in Andreas Ottl, yet another young Bayern star in the making (and the reason Bayern may feel secure in selling Owen Hargreaves during the winter break), who scored just before half time and then set up Roy Makaay in the 52nd minute to earn a share of the points.

Eventually I’ll work out how to put a table in the sidebar – for the moment, here are how things stand in the Bundesliga:

1 Werder Bremen 10 6 2 2 28:12 16 20
2 VfB Stuttgart 10 5 3 2 21:16 5 18
3 Bayern München 10 5 2 3 16:12 4 17
4 FC Schalke 04 10 5 2 3 13:13 0 17
5 Hertha BSC 10 4 4 2 16:12 4 16
6 Arminia Bielefeld 10 4 3 3 17:12 5 15
7 Energie Cottbus 10 4 3 3 14:13 1 15
8 Borussia Dortmund 10 3 5 2 13:12 1 14
9 1. FC Nürnberg 10 2 7 1 12:09 3 13
10 Eintracht Frankfurt 10 2 7 1 12:11 1 13
11 VfL Wolfsburg 10 3 4 3 07:09 -2 13
12 Bayer Leverkusen 10 3 3 4 14:14 0 12
13 Alemannia Aachen 10 4 0 6 17:21 -4 12
14 Borussia M'gladbach 10 4 0 6 10:14 -4 12
15 Hamburger SV 10 1 6 3 10:12 -2 9
16 VfL Bochum 10 2 2 6 09:17 -8 8
17 1. FSV Mainz 05 10 1 5 4 09:18 -9 8
18 Hannover 96 10 1 4 5 09:20 -11 7

Round 10

After Europe, it’s back to the Bundesliga this weekend for the start of an ‘Englische Woche’, or English week as the Germans like to call a week where they play league games Saturday/midweek/Saturday.

As the Bundesliga signed a new television deal in the summer for this season (a topic for another post), each weekend consists of 1 Friday evening game, 6 Saturday 3.30pm kick offs and 2 Sunday 5pm kick offs.

Tonight Hannover and Bochum kick off the weekend, with both teams already struggling to get away from the bottom of the table. Hannover have drawn two (Frankfurt at home and Hamburg away) and lost one (Schalke away) of their last three games, and Bochum have drawn one (Dortmund away) and lost two (Bremen and Wolfsburg, both at home) in the same time span. Hannover has already changed its manager once (the much traveled Peter Neururer sacked with Dieter Hecking, formerly of promoted Aachen replacing him) and Marcel Koller of Bochum has suffered heavy criticism from his own fans after their faltering start to the season.

On Saturday league leaders and heavy title favourites Werder Bremen play host to surprisingly high flying and newly promoted Energie Cottbus, Bayer Leverkusen are at home to slumping FSV Mainz 05, top scoring Croatian Marco Pantelic and Hertha BSC Berlin will take on the league’s only remaining unbeaten team (2 wins and 7 draws) 1FC Nürnberg in the Olympiastadion, under pressure manager Bert van Marwijk and Borussia Dortmund are at home to surging Arminia Bielefeld, Vfl Wolfsburg play this seasons huge disappointment Hamburg SV (defeated at home again in the Champions League, 1-3 vs Porto) and mixed grill Alemannia Aachen (4 wins, 5 losses and no draws) will take on Vfb Stuttgart, initially poor but now fourth and looking strong.

Sunday sees the game of the weekend, second versus third as Schalke 04 play at home to Bayern Munich. Schalke, having already been knocked out of the UEFA Cup before the group stage, were soundly thumped by Stuttgart last weekend whilst Bayern were whistled off midweek after drawing 0-0 at home to Sporting Lisbon. Whilst they sit atop their Champions League group and have already qualified for the second phase, Bayerns form in the league can best be described as patchy. Schalke have an identical record in the league (P9 W5 D1 L3) but slightly inferior goal difference. It is also a universally recognized truth that squadrons of flying pigs will be sighted over Gelsenkirchen before Schalke ever win the league again.

In the other game, Eintracht Frankfurt play Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Waldstadion. Eintracht can take heart from the 1-1 away draw to Celta Vigo last night, which they could have won, but had to play the last half hour with 10 men after Meier stupidly got himself sent off, and from the fact that Borussia are universally regarded as the worst away team in the land – their fans have started printing T-shirts with ‘Auswärtsdepp’ on them, literally ‘away idiot’ to celebrate their uselessness away from home. My fingers will be crossed that Frankfurt gain the three points necessary to start moving them back up into the top half of the table.