Germany's 'well of talent' helps rejuvenate game domestically and internationally - The Fundesliga - FourFourTwo

Germany's 'well of talent' helps rejuvenate game domestically and internationally - The Fundesliga - FourFourTwo

Matchday 12: Freiburg on top in basement battle

Hi everyone. It was another entertaining fix of Bundesliga action last weekend. Mainz and Stuttgart got us underway last weekend with a highly entertaining game, in which Mainz ran out 3-1 winners; Jürgen Klopp got one over on Felix Magath as Dortmund thrashed Wolfsburg 5-1; Bayern won another Bavarian derby away at Augsburg on Sunday evening; and Werder Bremen again stayed true to their gung-ho approach by beating Köln 3-2 at the Weserstadion.

But of all those dramatic, high-scoring matches, I’m going to focus this week’s post on SC Freiburg’s 2-1 win away to Nürnberg.

Considering their impressive perfomance last season, when they finished 9^th in the table, Freiburg have been poor in the current campaign. They do create chances in games, and in Papiss Demba Cissé they have one of the best strikers in Europe leading their attack. But they had lost eight of eleven league matches going into the weekend’s game and were on the back of three successive defeats, with a ‘goals against’ column of 27, the worst in the division. They had shipped seven at Bayern Munich, five at Bremen and four at Schalke. But Nürnberg away was a winnable game, with the home side on a six-match winless run themselves, and having taken three points at home just once in their nine previous matches.

The home side had the better of a rather turgid opening quarter to the game. Winger Alexander Esswien was denied from close range by Freiburg keeper Oliver Baumann after the erstwhile Celtic defender Andreas Hinkel’s error after eight minutes. Then, on 20 minutes, Czech striker Thomas Pekhart, formerly of Tottenham Hotspur, and once dubbed the next Pavel Nedved upon arriving at White Hart Lane,, contrived to shank his half-volley wide from four yards out. Judging from that miss, it’s not that hard to see why he didn’t make that much of an impact in England.

But ten minutes later Nürnberg opened the scoring. After an amazing piece of skill on the wing by Esswein, his cutback was scuffed towards the goal by Pekhart, whose shot was then nodded in by Mike Frantz. The lead lasted just two minutes, however, as Freiburg equalised with possibly the worst goal of the season so far. Julian Schuster’s hopeful punt into the box was miscontrolled by Jan Rosenthal, whereupon the ball wrong-footed keeper Raphael Schäfer and trickled over the line past Schäfer’s despairing dive. Cissé ran in to follow up and hammered the ball into the net when it was already over the line, making an ugly goal look even uglier.

The second half didn’t see much flowing football either, as neither side had many chances. Nürnberg did have the ball in the net again, but Esswein’s volley was ruled out for offside as two players were ahead of the last defender and deemed to be blocking the keeper’s view. At the other end, Freiburg went close in the 76^th minute, but Cissé missed the target with a wasteful header from seven yards. But the Senegalese international, last year’s second top scorer with 22 league goals, wasn’t to be denied, as Freiburg pinched the three points at the death. A weak back-header by home defender Timm Klose let in Rosenthal, and the forward was brought down by substitute goalkeeper Alexander Stephan. Referee Christian Dingert had no choice but to award a penalty, and Cissé, who’d had a quiet game, stepped up to win it for Freiburg with the last kick of the game.

Nürnberg, who are now yet to win in seven games and sit just two points above the relegation play-off place, looked visibly disconconsolate, especially defender Timm, whose error led to that last-minute penalty. Their main problem is scoring goals, having netted just 13 times in their twelve games this term. Freiburg, by contrast, betrayed all the emotions that just an away win at one of their rivals, and just their third victory of the season so far, would have produced: relief, ecstasy and gratitude to manager Marcus Sorg.

An interesting post-script to the win was the reaction of Papiss Cissé himself, however. His smile at winning three points was notably less zealous than those of his teammates, and he looked rather indifferent as managed Sorg embraced him after the game. It’s no secret that the Senegalese hitman wanted to leave Freiburg this summer, and was apparently the subject of interest from Premier League clubs Fulham and Sunderland. He already has eight goals this season in a struggling team, and I expect he’ll get his wish to move to a bigger club, perhaps Sunderland even, in January.

Matchday 12 – Results:

Mainz 3-1 Stuttgart

Dortmund 5-1 Wolfsburg

Bremen 3-2 Köln

Nürnberg 1-2 Freiburg

Hoffenheim 1-1 Kaiserslautern

Hertha 1-2 Gladbach

Leverkusen 2-2 Hamburg

Hannover 2-2  Schalke

Augsburg 1-2 Bayern

Next week it’s the international break. Germany play two friendly games in that period, away in the Ukraine on Friday and then at home to Holland next Wednesday, a game which I’m certainly looking forward to, as the favourites of many for the Euros next summer, barring Spain of course, go head-to-head. I’ll be back with a review of those two games, as well as a brief look ahead to matchday 13 of the Bundesliga on the weekend of the 18^th/19^th/20^th November. 

Hau rein.

Bernie

Bayern finally lose; Cologne fans are rubbish

Hi everybody. Now that we’ve all had a good laugh about Manchester United losing 6-1 at home to cross-city rivals Manchester City, I thought I’d bring you my weekly supplement of news and action from the Bundesliga. 

Borussia Dortmund bounced back from Tuesday’s defeat at Olympiakos in the Champions' League with a resounding 5-0 win over Cologne; Schalke’s recent good form under new coach Huub Stevens continued with an impressive 1-0 away win at Leverkusen; and new boys FC Augsburg are now two game unbeaten after a hard-fought 1-1 draw at home to Thomas Schaaf’s Werder Bremen.

But the most important match of the weekend was undoubtedly the late-kick off on Sunday evening, where Hannover 96 took on league leaders FC Bayern in the AWD-Arena. Much had been made of the superb run that the Bavarians were currently enjoying before this game. They had won seven of their last eight matches and hadn’t conceded a goal since the opening weekend defeat to Mönchengladbach. And Manuel Neuer had also broken Oliver Kahn’s clean sheet record of 1011 consecutive minutes in the recent game with Hoffenheim. But they faced in Hannover a team unbeaten at home this season, and with something of a psychological advantage. In this fixture last season, Mirko Slomka’s 96 team produced one of its best performances last season to win the game 3-1. And having already beaten Dortmund and Bremen at home this season, Slomka’s pre-match interviews exuded confidence in his team’s ability to derail Bayern’s winning run.

The game turned out to be a fantastic spectacle. The home side took the lead on 23 minutes when Bayern captain Philipp Lahm felled opposite full-back and captain Steven Cherundolo in the penalty area. The American international made a meal of the tackle, but it was a foul nonetheless, and Hannover’s man of the moment Mohammed Abdellaoue tucked away the spot-kick with aplomb. That’s the Norwegian’s 7^th league goal, and 11^th in all competitions this season – a fine way to celebrate his 26^th birthday.

Bayern soon went to being a goal and a man down just five minutes later. After a robust challenge on 6 midfielder Sergio Pinto from Bayern full-back Rafinha next to the dugouts, something of a melee ensued. While some pushing and shoving went on between both sets of players, Jerome Boateng was seen by the referee to have raised his hand towards Hannover defender Christian Schulz. Referee Manuel Gräfe then sent the ex-Manchester City defender off for violent conduct, whilst booking Schulz for his part in the fracas.

In the second half, Bayern’s task became even harder when they conceded to a very cruel deflection. Christian Pander, looking like the player he was at Schalke before his numerous injury problems, strode up the field and unleashed a shot at Neuer’s goal. The effort was heading well wide, until the ball hit the foot of Luis Gustavo and rolled agonisingly into the opposite corner, past the despairing dive of Neuer. At 2-0 down, Bayern looked out of the game, and Hannover, renowned for their quality on the counter-attack, sensed an even bigger margin of victory. That was, however, until Cherundolo, who had had a tough time up against Franck Ribéry, was sent off for a second bookable offence after tugging the Frenchman off the ball.

With ten against ten, it was now the home side’s turn to look nervous. Mario Gomez, looking for his eleventh goal in the league this season, was denied on a number of occasions by current German no.3 Ron Robert-Zieler. Jupp Heynckes threw on David Alaba with 20 minutes to go and the Austrian international made an immediate impact. After Lahm’s pass across the box evaded everybody, Alaba powered past substitute Sofian Chahed, surged into the box and arrowed a cool finish past Zieler at his near post.

 Bayern were now just one goal behind, and the teams were even. Ivica Olic and Nils Petersen were introduced as Heynckes played his final cards. With Didier Ya Konan constantly failing to hold up the ball and relieve the pressure on his defence, Bayern were edging closer to an equaliser. Schweinsteiger played a one-two with Thomas Müller and found himself one-on-one with Zieler. This time the keeper was beaten again, but his post came to the rescue, as Schweinsteiger’s shot struck the upright and rolled to safety. 

There was still time in the game for Manuel Neuer to be dispossessed thirty yards from goal. I feel a small anecdote might be useful here, and I’m going to set aside my impartiality here (it’s a blog, after all). Working in an office full of German football fans, I constantly get reminded of England’s apparent shortcomings in producing good goalkeepers, as well as how Neuer is the currently world No.1. So I was desperate for Konstantin Rausch to make Neuer pay for his blunder, but he somehow missed the target with the goal gaping. The final whistle sounded and Bayern’s run was at an end.

Before this game I’d posited this season that Hannover are currently punching above their weight. Last season they managed a fantastic fourth-place finish to qualify for Europe for the first time since 1992. They did so, however, by generally grinding out results. They scored 49 goals in their 34 games, and most of their 19 victories came by a single goal. Being in Europe this season, I wondered whether their squad would be able to cope with the added burden of matches; whether, with a couple of injuries to first team players, they’d be able to maintain the standards they set themselves domestically last season. But one look at the league table and you see that they’re more than maintaining them. Fourth place in the Bundesliga and just two league defeats is a great position to be in with the amount of games they’ve had to play this season. They’re also top of their Europa League group as well. 

Mirko Slomka is certainly doing a good job at Hannover. I reckon that with a little more quality to their squad, they could definitely maintain their current position and match last season’s finish, which, incidentally, would give them a Champions League qualification place. Their chairman Martin Kind has spoken of his desire to amend the 50+1 rule for club ownership, in order that his club might attract more overseas investment. I don’t see that happening due to the opposition that other clubs would have towards the idea, but it does make you wonder what a club like Hannover, with a large fan base, good infrastructure and regular crowds of over 40,000 might achieve with more investment.

Matchday 10 – Results

Augsburg 1-1 Bremen

Dortmund 5-0 Köln

Nürnberg 2-2 Stuttgart

Kaiserslautern 1-0 Freiburg

Hoffenheim 1-0 Gladbach

Hertha 0-0 Mainz

Hamburg 1-1 Wolfsburg

Leverkusen 0-1 Schalke

Hannover 2-1 Bayern

Before I end this piece, I’ll leave you with a word on some strange goings-on at Signal Iduna Park after Dortmund’s game with Köln. After the game, the Dortmund players did their customary celebration with joined hands for the home faithful . Then Kevin Groβkreutz proceeded to wave and celebrate with the opposing Köln fans, who promptly joined in the celebrations with him, despite that fact that their team had just lost 5-0. What are we to make of that? I was traditionally led to believe that German football fans were passionate about their teams, and yet Cologne’s fans seemed in a good mood that their team had just been hammered, even joining in the celebrations of a player on the opposing side. A German friend of mine saw the footage and told me that Cologne fans have a reputation for confusing their loyalties. In a game against Bayern a few seasons ago, Lukas Podolski returned to haunt his former club with two goals as the Bavarians won 3-0. But Cologne fans again decided to celebrate with him when he scored, not after the game, but during it. The same friend used the word erbärmlich to describe it, which translates to pathetic. I think that’s about right. Maybe it was a ironic cheering; German’s aren’t known for their humour.

Next week sees some more juicy games on the agenda, as Gladbach take on Hannover and Dortmund travel to Stuttgart, Bayern have an opportunity to return to winning ways with a home game against struggling Nürnberg.

Hau rein,

Bernie

Schürrle rescues point for Bayer

Hi there everybody. So, after some underwhelming games, poor refereeing decisions and some comedic own goals during the international break, the Bundesliga thankfully returned last weekend. Matchday 9’s football got off to a superb start on Friday night, as current champions Borussia Dortmund travelled to free-scoring Werder Bremen. In a dramatic game, Jurgen Klopp’s side managed a clinical 2-0 win, despite having striker Ivan Perisic sent off after just five minutes in the second half. At the Coface Arena on Saturday, Augsburg won their first Bundesliga match away at Mainz, and at the Veltins Arena, Schalke suffered a shock 2-1 home loss to Kaiserslautern. Uninterestingly enough, Bayern continued their dominant form with a 4-0 win over Hertha Berlin.

This week I’ve decided to feature two sides that both have ambitions of challenging Bayern at the top: Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen. 

This game instantly struck me as one to watch. Gladbach began their campaign with a superb 1-0 away win at Bayern. This wasn’t just a smash and grab job; they actually made Schweinsteiger, Ribery, Robben et al look decidedly pedestrian, and the win was comfortable. Since then, however, the word to describe their performances has been ‘reliable.’ There were good wins against Wolfsburg and Hamburg, coupled with two narrow losses against Freiburg and Schalke. They seem to have taken over Hannover’s role from last year, being miserly in defence but without scoring too many goals. Before Saturday’s game, they had scored nine goals in eight games, while conceding just four. Leverkusen’s last league game before the international break was a 3-1 home win over Wolfsburg, a game lit up by a quite superb overhead kick from Leverkusen’s Swiss striker Eren Derdiyok. Aside from a 6-3 home defeat against Gladbach this time last season, Robin Dutt’s team had the better record going into the game, and were unbeaten at Gladbach for 22 years. 

The game itself was a superb spectacle from start to finish, and it was interesting to note the amount of home-grown German talent on show.  After Bernd Leno dived at the feet of Marco Reus to deny the newly-crowned Germany international an opening goal, Leverkusen took the lead when Michael Ballack’s flick-on at a corner was turned in at the back post by defender Stefan Reinartz. The home side reacted to the setback in impressive style and took the game to their opponents, coming close to an equaliser on a number of occasions. First Mike Hanke slammed an angled shot against the bar after being played in by Juan Arango, and then Reus’ attempted curler whistled past the post. In the second half, Reus finally got his goal and a deserved equaliser for Gladbach when he rounded Leno to slot into an empty net. Leverkusen defender Gonzalo Castro (also German) was then given a straight red by referee Markus Merk (always a referee to apply the laws of the game as rigidly as possible) for showing dissent towards the linesman. 

Soon the Foals’ numerical advantage began to show. Leno stood up fantastically to keep Reus out when the forward went clean through, but could do nothing about substitute Robert Hermann’s delightful chip 20 minutes from time to make it 2-1. Leverkusen were playing poorly and their hosts should have been out of sight. Hanke, Reus and Hermann were all guilty of further misses. Then, three minutes before the end of normal time, another German international, Leverkusen’s André Schürrle, dribbled across the box to plant a sumptuous finish into the top corner. Dutt’s side were able to hold out for the final few minutes and seal a point that was barely deserved, but one achieved thanks to an outstanding last-minute save by Leno (with his face), and some terrible finishing from Gladbach.

Lucien Favre, the Gladbach manager, cut a frustrated figure in his post-match interview, repeating that the points should have been sealed long before Schürrle’s equalising goal. The game really seemed to typify Gladbach’s shortcomings this season, the most obvious of which is scoring goals. Hanke, signed from Hannover in January, was never the most prolific of strikers in the Bundesliga, and he had a day to forget. The home side were, incidentally, without current top scorer Igor de Camargo, who was injured while on international duty for Belgium against Germany, and his absence told. But even he has scored just three goals this season. Gladbach have a squad of modest size and quality, and they are, without doubt, over-achieving right now. One worries how they will replace players such as Reus Arango should they suffer injury, as well as Brazilian centre-half Dante, who has become a fixture since signing from Standard Liege two years ago and is turning the heads of a few Bundesliga clubs (Stuttgart and Hannover, for example) with his performances so far this season. 

There was also something to be learned about Leverkusen form this game, namely the calibre of players they have in their squad. In their starting eleven were established internationals Stefan Kießling and Ballack, as well as Castro and Sven Bender (who, together with his twin brother Lars, now playing at Dortmund, look set to challenge for a national team place for the next few seasons). They were also able to bring on Simon Rolfes, another established German international, and Switzerland forward Eren Derdiyok. And we should also mention the incredible season that goalkeeper Bernd Leno is having. He was brought in as an emergency loan signing from Stuttgart in the summer, when first choice keeper Rene Adler was injured. Since then he’s played every game in the league and has saved his team with some fantastic performances; last Saturday, and the 0-0 home draw against Dortmund, have been particular highlights for him. They have a squad with a lot of depth, and seem to be coping relatively well with the added burden of Champions League football. I would root for them to win the title, but only because of the reflexive ‘anyone-but-Bayern’ feeling that seems to come over me every weekend. In any case, they’re a little bit soulless, being backed by pharmaceutical giants Baer AG and not really having a proper fan base to speak of. 

A neat sub-plot to this match was the duel between Gladbach’s up-and-coming young German attacker Reus and Leverkusen’s Schürrle. Reus won his first senior cap for Germany in last Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Belgium, and he certainly didn’t look overawed by the occasion. Schürrle, meanwhile, has looked every inch a German international since winning the first of his ten caps. Remarkably, for a 19-year-old who is new to international football, he has five goals to his name, already a better ratio than FC Bayern’s Thomas Müller, who famously lit up last year’s World Cup in South Africa. I touched on this in a recent article, namely just how strong Germany’s squad seems to be looking, and the deep pool of talent that Joachim Löw can content himself with when picking his side. Things look good for the German team right now, and I’d bet that were their star player to get a three match ban for the Euros next year, they’d cope with it a damn sight better than most nations. 

Matchday 9 Results

Bremen 0-2 Dortmund

Bayern 4-0 Hertha

Mainz 0-1 Augsburg

Stuttgart 2-0 Hoffenheim

Wolfsburg 2-1 Nürnberg

Gladbach 2-2 Leverkusen

Schalke 1-2 Kaiserslautern

Freiburg 1-2 Hamburg

Köln 2-0 Hannover

Next week the pick of the fixtures look like Leverkusen at home to Schalke and Dortmund hosting Köln. In the meantime, let’s hope for some good results for Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen, who are all in Champions league action this week. 

Hau rein.

Bernie

Hattrick hero Abdellaoue sinks Bremen

Hi everyone. Today it’s the Tag der Deutsche Einheit, a public holiday, which the lovely Oktoberfest-organisers have used as an excuse to extend the Wiesn for one more day. But before I look forward to a last supper of beer, sunshine and dirndls (on the company of course), it’s time for my weekly review of the Bundesliga results.

Some might say it’s typical, but just as Bayern drop points in the league for the first time in a long while, their closest challengers can’t take advantage. After their impressive win over Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday, Jupp Heynckes’ side were held to a 0-0 draw by a spirited Hoffenheim side on Saturday afternoon; but they were let off the hook as Mönchengladbach surprisingly went down 1-0 at Freiburg and Werder Bremen lost the derby against Hannover 3-2 in the AWD-Arena. As someone who now takes a keener interest in Hannover 96 than I would normally, I’ve decided to focus on the Reds’ derby win yesterday afternoon.

Under manager Mirko Slomka, Hannover 96 are probably punching above their weight. They finished in 4^th place last season and qualified for the Europa Leugue this year, the first time they have appeared in a European competition for 19 seasons, since winning the German cup in 1992. They started this season off with two wins, and twice could have gone top of the league, but dropped point in home games against Hertha Berlin and Mainz 05.

As Bundesliga games tend to be, this was a frenetic affair, made all the more entertaining due to the huge significance placed on this fixture by both clubs and their fans. After two minutes, the home side were ahead thanks to a penalty from Norway striker Mohammed Abdellaoue. On 38 minutes Abdellaoue grabbed his second after a terrific cross from Jan Schlaudraff. Werder pulled one back on the stroke of half-time through the tattoo-clad Marko Arnautovic. But Abdelloue’s hat-trick gave the home side an unassailable 3-1 lead, which Claudio Pizarro’s late consolation wasn’t enough to cancel out. Thanks to a superb hat-trick from Abdellaoue, and a bit of luck, Hannover won the first of the season’s northern derbies.

In the build up to the game the German press had focused on a ‘reversal of roles’ between these two sides. Before last season, it was common to see Hannover struggling to force their way into the top half of the table, while Bremen, with players like Diego, Claudio Pizarro and Miroslav Klose, would challenge the top sides for silverware. This time around, however,  the two sides have traded places, with Hannover playing in the Europa League and Werder Bremen able to concentrate on just domestic football, courtesy of their 13^th-placed finish last season, just five points above the relegation zone. The fact that 96 were now had the type of fixture list that Werder have enjoyed in recent years begged another question: would the size, quality and experience of Hannover’s squad stand up to the burden of three competitions? As Borussia Dortmund have discovered this season, the physical and mental burden of playing in Europe in midweek can adversely affect league performances. After drawing Arsenal in the champions League, Dortmund then conceded two goals in the final five minutes to throw away three points against Hannover the following Saturday. They are currently in 6^th place, with 13 points from a possible 24, but already six points behind Bayern Munich and with three defeats to their name; last season they only lost five matches in the whole campaign.

It was feared that Hannover would suffer a similar fate. They made some small additions to their squad (such as ex-Schalke defender Christian Pander and Austrian international Daniel Royer, signed from SV Ried). But their squad is largely the same as last year, minus DaMarcus Beasley who is now, incidentally, at CF Puebla. But so far, 96 seem to be coping well with the extra burden of games. You could be forgiven for thinking Hannover might struggle against a talented Bremen side with players such as Marko Marin, Aaron Hunt, Arnautovic and Pizarro in their ranks. Additionally, Hannover had just travelled to the Ukraine on Thursday night to play FC Vorskla Poltava in the Europa League. They ran out 2-1 winners in that one, thanks to another superb goal from Abdellaoue, but eight of the side that started the game on Thursday also started yesterday’s game. Having far less time than their opponents to prepare for such an important game, yesterdays win was therefore an impressive won for 96, and fully justified Mirko Slomka’s exuberant celebrations at the final whistle. After having beaten Dortmund and Bremen in their last three games, the Reds are now in a respectable 5^th in the league, and just four points off the top.

There might be one possible area of concern for Hannover fans and that will be the ‘goals for’ column. Last season the club scored with 49 goals from their 34 games, with a goal difference of +4. This season it’s a similar story: they have 15 points, but have managed eleven goals from their first eight games, while conceding ten. The Reds’ aren’t setting the league alight, but they are going along nicely, much like last season.

Werder Bremen, for their part, played exactly like they always do: scoring freely but defending dangerously. In yesterday’s game they had plenty of chances to force an equaliser, and were on the end of some cruel decisions, but with the quality they have in attack they’re a sure bet to challenge for the European places this season. This season they have scored 16 and conceded ten, and are currently 2^nd in the table, three points behind Bayern. Werder only ever play one way – to score more goals than their opponent – and it’s refreshing to see a club which stays true to its principles. That’s probably due to the faith which the President Klaus-Dieter Fischer has shown to manager Thomas Schaaf. The ex-Bremen defender is now in his 13^th full season in the Bremen hot-seat. Apart from a vey select few, managers in England, Spain or Italy could only dream of owners with as much patience as that. 

Elsewhere, matchday 8 threw up some other interesting results. Dortmund bounced back from Tuesday’s defensive horror-show away at Marseilles in the Champions League to thump Augsburg 4-0, leaving Jos Luhukay’s side still without a win in the League this year; Bayer Leverkusen also managed a win after a European game, beating Wolfsburg 3-1 at home; and Schalke, with new manager Huub Stevens back at the club, ground out a 2-1 away win at Hamburg, thanks to two superb goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Hamburg’s troubles continue.

Results

Kaiserslauterm 0-2 Stuttgart

Dortmund 4-0 Augsburg

Leverkusen 3-1 Wolfsburg

Nürnberg 3-3 Mainz

Freiburg 1-0 Gladbach

Hoffenheim 0-0 Bayern

Hertha 3-0 Köln

Hannover 3-2 Bremen

Hamburg 1-2 Schalke

Next week it’s the international break. Germany have already qualified, but I’ll be in touch to bring you some news on how they get on – hopefully we’ll see a few untried players get a game or two for the national side. Here’s to also hoping/expecting that England put in a professional display against Montenegro on Friday and get the point we need to begin speculating about whether or not we can actually win a major tournament.

Servus!

Bernie

Schalke start life after Rangnick with a win

Good day everybody. I’m here as ever to assess the last round of Bundesliga matches. Please excuse the tardy entry; Oktoberfest, enough said…

The big story of the weekend was the way in which Bayern swept aside title rivals Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday evening. They won by three goals to nil, have won their last six league matches and haven’t conceded in their last nine – all rather depressingly familiar. Elsewhere, Hertha Berlin’s unbeaten away record in 2011 came to an end after a 2-1 defeat to Werder Bremen, Claudio Pizarro bagging another couple; Dortmund returned to winning ways by scraping a last-minute goal of their own away at Mainz; and Schalke got off to a winning start without Ralf Rangnick (who resigned last Thursday) by beating SC Freiburg 4-2 at the Veltins Arena. It’s these two teams I’ll be focusing on this entry.

Last week, football fans here were shocked and puzzled in equal measure when news first broke that Ralf Rangnick had resigned as manager of Schalke, citing burnout and mental exhaustion. He’d been in the job since the end of March this year, and managed to save the club from what would have been a very unexpected relegation on the final day of last season. He also led them to the semi-finals of the 2011 Champions League, where they were beaten by Manchester United. The aim for this season was to write off their disappointing finish in the league last year and challenge Dortmund, Bayern and Leverkusen for the title. So far this season the club has been rather inconsistent. From their first six games, they had taken 9 points; the games they had lost were away at Stuttgart and Wolfsburg, and at home to Bayern, who seem to be hammering everyone at this moment in time.

In retrospect it’s not surprising that Rangnick decided to step down. He did the very same thing at the start of 2011, leaving the manager’s post at Hoffenheim, again citing the pressures of top-level management. On taking the job at Schalke in March, he admitted to a sense of obligation for the team he had managed in 2005-06. Since last Thursday, however, he has admitted that succumbing to that feeling of nostalgia in wanting to help out old friends was a mistake and an opportunity which came too early for him. Despite leaving Schalke somewhat in the lurch, his decision has been positively received by his ex-colleagues. Joachim Löw praised him for taking the job in the first place, while for Horst Held, Schalke 04 General Manager, Rangnick’s health was undoubtedly the priority.

I thought the situation made an interesting parallel with that of Steve Coppell, former Manchester United winger and Premier League manager. He took over as manager of Manchester City in 1996, but resigned six games and 33 days later due to the pressures of the job. And in 2010 he was appointed manager of Bristol City manager, but resigned after three months, this time citing a lack of passion for football management altogether. The two men, Coppell and Rangnick, are similar ages (56 and 53), and, while Steve Coppell is no longer involved in management, I wonder what the future holds for Rangnick. He has retained the respect and sympathy of other Bundesliga managers, and, should a managerial vacancy in the Bundesliga arise in the next few months, I can imagine his name will be on column writers’ lips. It’s currently Bundesliga 2-0 Premiership if we’re counting managerial casualties.

On the pitch, at least, Schalke seem to have got over the shock of losing their manager. Despite conceding inside two minutes to Freiburg (Demba Cissé, a recent transfer target for Fulham and Sunderland, added to his transfer fee with a well-taken goal after an error from keeper Ralf Fährmann), Schalke came back to win 4-2. Freiburg actually created a host of chances and should have won the game themselves. Cisse has scored six goals already this campaign, but the club is struggling. They’re currently second from bottom, level on points and goals conceded with Hamburg. Encouragingly, however, the performance against Schalke on Saturday was far better than their recent displays, especially the 7-0 annihilation at the hands of Bayern two weeks ago. Manager Marcus Sorg should be encouraged by that.

What he might be more concerned is the fact that Hamburg’s season is underway, finally. After sacking Michael Oenning, who, in truth, looked like a dead man walking, HSV won their first game of the season away at Stuttgart of all places, under the stewardship of interim boss and assistant to Oenning, Rodolfo Cardoso. Buoyed by superb displays from Jeffrey Bruma and Gökhan Töre, both signed from Chelsea, Hamburg came from behind to win and can now start focusing on climbing the table, starting with their next game at home to Schalke.  Incidentally, Schalke today confirmed the appointment of veteran coach Huub Stevens, another one who has managed the club previously, as Rangnick’s successor.

Matchday 7 – Results:

Stuttgart 1-2 Hamburg

Schalke 4-2 Freiburg

Mainz 1-2 Dortmund

Wolfsburg 1-0 Kaiserslautern

Gladbach 1-0 Nürnberg

Augsburg 0-0 Hannover

Bayern 3-0 Leverkusen

Köln 2-0 Hoffenheim

Bremen 2-1 Hertha

Until the weekend then. Here’s to a heavy defeat for Man City tonight, and that Hannover actually entertain a few people in the Europa League this Thursday.

Bayern vs City - a preview piece

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http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/manchester-city-should-look-at-bayern-munich-for-how-to-run-a-football-club/

Hannover double shocks champions Dortmund.

Servus everyone. The Dirndls/Lederhosen  are out, the beer is flowing and the drunken tomfoolery of the masses of party-goers (who seem to be mostly Australian) is currently engulfing the city of Munich. The Wiesn, or Oktoberfest as it’s more commonly referred to, began last Saturday and so commenced three solid weeks of drinking. Brilliant! It was also a rather incident-filled weekend of Bundesliga action, which I’ll now try and makes sense of for you.

I haven’t mentioned much of Hannover 96 in my previous entries, and that’s possibly doing them an injustice. So this week I’ll be focusing on their shock 2-1 victory over champions Borussia Dortmund. Jürgen Klopp’s team threw away three points and the chance of a first win in four, as two goals in the last four minutes from Karim Haggui and Didier Ya Konan sealed an unlikely victory for 96.

What do people know of Hannover 96? Well, current Reds’ defender Emanuel Pogatetz spent a couple of seasons on Teeside in recent years; Fulham fans might remember Leon Andreasen, who had a brief stint at Craven Cottage a couple of seasons ago, before moving to the AWD-Arena; and there’s also Christian Pander, recently released by Schalke 04, who scored a screamer against England at Wembley four and a bit years ago during the McLaren era. On a sadder note, goalkeeper Robert Enke was Hannover’s captain and Germany’s no.1, before his tragic and untimely suicide in November 2009. Unless you’re a Football Manager fanatic, then, Hannover aren’t exactly a club which receive much mention in England. That has changed in the last few months, however. Last season, they were the Bundesliga’s surprise package, finishing in 4^th place and sealing their first European qualification for 19 years since winning the German Cup in 1992 (the first lower league team to do so, incidentally). Stoke, Birmingham, Tottenham and Fulham might just meet them in the Europa League as well this season.

In the current Bundesliga campaign Hannover started off well. They had two wins from their first two games, and could have gone top of the league on matchdays 3 and 4, but were held to home draws by Hertha Berlin and FSV Mainz 05 respectively. Last week they were swept aside 3-0 by a Martin Harnik-inspired Stuttgart (that’s right, Harnik is actually decent now, decent enough to look out of place in that dreadful Austria team at Euro 2008 anyway). Dortmund have also suffered from a lack of consistency this season. Since their opening day blitz of Hamburg, they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Hoffenheim, and produced their poorest performance of the season last weekend, losing 1-2 at home to newly-promoted Hertha (who are still unbeaten away in the league in 2011). Having said that, their record against Hannover going into Sunday’s game was excellent. Last season Kloppo’s men romped to 4-0 and 4-1 wins. This was a game which would tell us a lot about the strength of the respective squads, since both teams were in action in Europe earlier this week.

Hannover have a reputation for being rather workmanlike and a dull side to watch. Last season they scored just 49 goals in 34 matches, and had a goal difference of just +4, compared to Dortmund’s +45. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the game began with the champions on top in possession while Hannover were solid and organised, looking to hit their opponents on the counter-attack. Dortmund took the lead through Shinji Kagawa just after the hour mark. Leaving Pogatetz and Karim Haggui in his wake, the Japanese midfielder man lifted a classy finish over the head of 96 goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler. The game ebbed and flowed, but slowly Hannover worked up enough steam to force home an equaliser. Minutes after hitting the bar, defender Haggui converted from close range (87). Then, two minutes later, Neven Subotic’s error afforded Ivorian striker Didier Ya Konan half a yard of space in the penalty area, and he completed an unlikely turnaround with one minute remaining in normal time. Hannover held out to record a famous win and end their temporary blip, registering their first victory in five games. 

So what of this rather stuttering start to the season for Dortmund? I’ll qualify the next three paragraphs or so by saying that today’s defeat wasn’t a disaster for Klopp’s team. They played well and should have won the game from the position they were in, and it would be unwise to speculate too much on the significance of a result with such a freakish climax. Instead I’ll just speculate a little.

Jürgen Klopp has undoubtedly done a superb job at Dortmund. They play exciting football and have a solidity at the back to go with it: last season they scored an impressive 67 goals while conceding just 22 in the league. And the energy in their performance against Arsenal in the Champions League a few days ago, where they forced a deserved late equaliser, was also characteristic of how they have played since he has been in charge. But it seems that the burden of playing in Europe, which they didn’t have last year, might be taking its toll. After Sunday’s defeat, their form in the league is now played six, won two, drawn one and lost three, and they’re already eight points behind Bayern.

One possible lesson to draw from the defeats today and last weekend is the problem that Dortmund’s young squad seem to be having in adjusting to league mode after a Champions League game. Dortmund do have a strong squad, which is good enough to play in the Champions League. But many teams have the adjustment from European football to league football at the weekend tricky. Luckily for Klopp, he wasn’t forced to dismantle his squad after winning the title last season. Nuri Şahin , the club’s youngest ever debutant and last season’s player of the year, transferred to Real Madrid for €10m in the summer. But apart from him, and the exit of veteran Brazilian left-back Dedê, the squad remained largely intact.

Kagawa and Ilkay Gündoğan have both been excellent signings, purchased for very modest fees and representative of the sensible business plan that the owners have pursued since they avoided going into administration in 2006. And they have a wealth of promising young German talent in the form of Sven Bender, defender Mats Hummels and, lest we forget, Mario  Götze. 

Nevertheless, despite having great young players in every position, there are question marks surrounding the depth of their squad. Injury has kept the team’s main striker, Paraguayan Lucas Barrios, out of action this season, and the loss of of Şahin, who provided seven goals and eight assists in the league last year, seems to have corresponded to the lack of creativity in midfield, which Klopp alluded to after the defeat to Hertha. One might also point to the fact that Dortmund’s squad has such a young make-up. Seven of today’s starting eleven are aged 23 or under, while nine of yesterday’s team started the game in midweek. Certainly that lack of experience contributed to their throwing the points away today from a winning position, and could also make the effective transition from European to league football slightly more difficult.

A second small lesson to glean might also be the importance of star midfielder Mario Götze, if that waasn’t obvious enough. His importance has been clearly illustrated in the last three games and the lack of creativity which Klopp mentioned accentuated by his absence. After his red card and three-match ban against Leverkusen three weeks ago, he has missed the last two games in the league, both of which Dortmund have lost. Those defeats came either side of the Champions League game with Arsenal, in which Götze played and shone, and Dortmund were more like the team we saw sweep all before them last season. He is so direct that he immediately puts teams under pressure. As well as being a superb talent, he’s brimming with confidence right now after having scored again for Germany in the 6-2 thrashing of Austria ten or so days ago. It seems fairly certain that, if he isn’t soon lured away from Signal Iduna Park by a bigger club, the team will be built around him in the seasons to come. Now that Nuri Şahin  has left the club, Götze is the focal point of the Dortmund midfield, and they need a player of his quality back as quickly as possible. Next week the champions face a potentially tricky trip to Mainz, which he will also miss through suspension.

A word on Hannover briefly, since it seems I may have neglected them again. They seem to be having no such problems adjusting to league football again after their European exploits. I would worry about injuries with them though. Luckily, last season’s top scorer Ya Konan has opened his account for this season, and he timed it well, since current top scorer Mohammed Abdellaoue is out injured. Next week they face a trip to Augsburg. With no Europa League fixture on Thursday, I’d fancy them to beat the Bundesliga newcomers.

Just to finish, here’s a quick review of the rest of the weekends results. Manuel Neuer enjoyed a winning return to old club Schalke 04, with goals from Thomas Müller and Nils Petersen giving Bayern a 2-1 win; Hamburger SV’s woes continue after another defeat, again at home, this time to high-flying Mönchengladbach. Manager Michael Oenning looks a sure bet to be the first Bundesliga manager for the chop; far from being the Macht am Rhein, Leverkusen were embarrassed 1-4 at home to local rivals 1. FC Köln; and Hoffenheim continued their good start to the season with a 3-1 home victory against Felix Magath’s Wolfsburg.

Try and set aside some time to catch highlights of Nürnberg’s 1-1 draw with Werder Bremen on Saturday (link below). Tim Wiese was one of two goalkeepers sent off this weekend, after briefly morphing into Heurelho Gomes. He came charging out of goal to receive the ball, but lost the ball to Nürnberg striker Christian Eigler and hauled him down 25 yards from goal. Despite the fact that someone followed up and scored into an empty net, the referee curiously chose to bring play back and send Wiese off, giving a free-kick as the offence was outside the area. The match was also memorable for the incredible support of the Nürnberg fans, who belted out song after song with unerring passion, despite the golf-ball sized hailstones falling from the Nuremberg skies.

The pick of next week’s fixtures is Bayern’s clash with Leverkusen, although Werder Bremen against Hertha also looks one to watch out for. I’m predicting a lot of goals in that one. Anyway, here’s to a great weekend for Tottenham fans and a fun Oktoberfest!

Hau rein,

Bernie

http://www.footytube.com/video/1-nurnberg-v-werder-bremen-90781?ref=wv_relbox

Results

Freiburg 1-2 Stuttgart

Leverkusen 1-4 Köln

Hamburg 0-1 Gladbach

Nürnberg 1-1 Bremen

Hoffenheim 3-1 Wolfsburg

Hertha BSC 2-2 Augsburg

Kaiserslautern 3-1 Mainz

Hannover 2-1 Dortmund

Schalke 0-2 Bayern

What has gone wrong at Hamburger SV?

Hi there everybody. Now that we’ve had enough time to digest the weekend’s results in Germany (and England, where Tottenham Hotspur finally got their first points on the board this season), I’m going to discuss, analyse and inform you as to how the Bundesliga is shaping up.

This blog’s featured game is the north German derby which took place at the Weserstadion on Saturday evening. It finished Werder Bremen 2-0 Hamburg. I’ve decided to mention this game in detail as these are two teams which football fans in England will know a little about. Werder Bremen won’t be an unknown entity to fans of the aforementioned Tottenham Hotspur, since the teams met in the group stages of last season’s Champions League. Players such as Claudio Pizarro once tormented defences of the Premier League (well, Birmingham City at least), while Arsenal fans might be interested to know how the previous employers of Tony Adams-inspired Per Mertesacker might be getting on without their 6’7” defender. All you need to know about Hamburg right now is that they’re bang in trouble after a run of poor results, and Sporting Director Frank Arnesen (formerly of Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea) looks like his head might be the first to roll, just as soon as the sword has fallen on a defeated-looking manager Michael Oennig. Arnesen’s policy of putting the club’s faith in half of Chelsea’s academy, and Michael Mancienne, has gone rather awry.

As two of the nation’s best-supported clubs, and with only sixty-odd miles of autobahn between the cities, these two clubs share an impassioned rivalry. People may remember the conclusion of the 2008-09 season, when Hamburg, then managed by current Fulham boss Martin Jol, were twice beaten semi-finalists at the hands of their age-old rivals. They first lost to a Diego-inspired Bremen in the German Cup and then, two weeks later, in the UEFA Cup, the last season before it was rebranded as the Europa League. Last season this fixture was a close-run affair which saw Bremen come out 3-2 winners, while Hamburg won the return fixture 4-0.

The form table going into this game didn’t look good for Hamburg at all. The club had had the entire international break to reflect on its worst ever start to a Bundesliga season, and on an awful defeat at home to Köln. Leading 3-2 with ten minutes to go, an equaliser for Köln followed by a late blunder from HSV keeper Jaroslav Drobny gifted Stale Solbakken’s side, themselves struggling near the foot of the table, a 3-4 win in the Veltins Arena. Bremen, on the other hand, were one of the form teams in the league with three wins from four. The only points they had dropped were away at Leverkusen where they lost 1-0 to an injury-time winner from Michal Kadlec, and in their last fixture they had ground out a gritty 2-1 win away to Hoffenheim. Their confidence levels, by contrast, were high.

The match itself was a typical derby game, with chances a plenty for both sides and a total of eight yellow cards issued by referee Manuel Gräfe. After an even first half, that wily old fox in the box Claudio Pizarro produced the quality needed to break the deadlock. Doing what he evidently found he found so difficult in the Premier League, but does so well in the Bundesliga, Bremen’s Peruvian striker first netted after 52 minutes, and then made the game safe with his second goal 12 minutes from time. Last October, Pizarro overtook former Stuttgart and Bayern Munich striker Giovane Elber as the Bundesliga’s leading foreign goalscorer, and has now amassed a staggering 145 goals in 308 Bundesliga appearances for Bremen and Bayern Munich.

While the result was immensely pleasing to everyone connected to Werder Bremen, I want to bring to your attention the crisis that is now enveloping Hamburger SV. Frank Arnesen, ‘that guy who discovered Ronaldo’, was appointed at the beginning of July 2011 as the clubs new Sporting Director. As a talent scout of some repute, Arnesen was charged with improving the squad and turning the club into title challengers. It was reported that he would be promised, by the then President of HSV, Bernd Hoffmann, somewhere in the region of €20 million to turn the team into achievers once again. In actual fact, due to Hamburg’s financial predicament, Arnesen had to sell before he could buy. Money was raised through the sale of players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, Joris Mathijsen and Piotr Trochowski. Other experienced players such as Frank Rost and Ze Roberto also moved on to pastures new. 

Arnesen’s answer to losing such a wealth of experience from the dressing room was to invest in a long-term plan to restore Hamburg to its former glory. He did this by investing in youth. Jeffrey Bruma, Gökhan Töre, Jacopo Sala, Slobodan Rajkovic and Michael Mancienne were all signed from Chelsea, while Per Ciljan Skjelbred joined from Rosenborg. The new recruits from Chelsea have an average age of just over 21, and, apart from Michael Mancienne, who spent two seasons on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers, hadn’t played more than 5 games between them in the Chelsea first-team. Rather like the problem that ‘Arsenal London’ were suffering at the beginning of the season, Hamburg’s team was too young and inexperienced to deal with the pressure of maintaining the standards set by a well-supported and prestigious club.

They did indeed lose a lot of experienced players in the summer, and replacing them with promising youngster who, let’s face it, aren’t up to the job right now, was always going to be a risk. Is the fact that they lost those players enough to explain Hamburg’s terrible start to the season? After all, they still have experienced heads in the team: David Jarolim (300 appearances), Mladen Petric (106), Heiko Westermann (198), Dennis Aogo (94), Marcell Jansen (154) and Jose Paolo Guerrero (141) all have ample Bundesliga experience. But beyond the six names mentioned above there aren’t any that stand out in the squad as ‘experienced’ enough to handle playing for a top-six side in the Bundesliga. It is the fault of Frank Arnsesen for pursuing a strategy laden with such obvious risk, and ending up with a squad that blatantly lacks depth. Some blame should probably be laid at the feet of the club owners and ex-President Hoffmann for failing to deliver on his promise.

We shouldn’t also neglect to mention the man who has had to watch Hamburg’s defeats from the dugout this season – manager Michael Oennig. His managerial record is modest, only including a year-long stint at 1. FC Nürnberg and a spell in charge of the under 19s team at VfL Bochum. His career at the Veltins Arena also started off rather ignominiously, when it was revealed that the owners had earmarked Bernd Schuster as their preferred choice, but couldn’t afford his wages (doesn’t sound like Schuster does it?). Frank Arnesen’s problem now is that he has no choice but to publicly back a manager, who, with every passing game, looks even more resigned to the fact that he won’t be in a job very soon. Hamburg’s Sporting Director declared in a press conference this afternoon his ‘utter satisfaction with the current make-up of the squad’ and that he wasn’t panicking at all. But he also uttered those dreaded words after Saturday’s defeat, “if we play like that, we’ll pick up points.” I think I remember Sammy McIlroy saying something similar during Northern Ireland’s goalless/winless/joyless run that seemed to last for an entire qualifying campaign.

There is trouble brewing at Hamburg, and there’ll be casualties to boot. It seems clear that the manager will have to pull off a miracle to keep himself from the chop, and Frank Arnesen might also have cause for concern for his future. On the pitch, things certainly aren’t getting any easier for Hamburg. Their next three fixtures are Gladbach (home), Stuttgart (away) and Schalke (home). Now is definitely a good time to be playing the 'Redshorts.'

Results elsewhere on matchday 5 were also interesting. Now we’ll start to see what Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund squad is made of, after they succumbed to a 1-2 home loss to Markus Babbel’s Hertha Berlin (Hertha’s superb away run continues); Ryan Babel scored twice to help Hoffenheim to an impressive 0-4 away win at Mainz 05, their first ever Bundesliga win there; Leverkusen had too much quality for newly=promoted Augsburg, winning 4-1. Oh, and Bayern Munich beat a hapless SC Freiburg 7-0. Watching Mario Gomez score from three yards gets a bit dull after a while. Here’s to also hoping for two entertaining games when Dortmund meet Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen face Chelsea in the Champions League this week. I know who I’ll be supporting.

Results, Matchday 5

Augsburg 1-4 Leverkusen

Dortmund 1-2 Hertha BSC

Bayern Munich 7-0 Freiburg

Mainz 0-4 Hoffenheim

Stuttgart 3-0 Hannover

Gladbach 1-0 Kaiserslautern

Bremen 2-0 Hamburg

Köln 1-2 Nürnberg

Wolfsburg 2-1 Schalke

Next week sees another full schedule, but super Sunday looks the one to watch out for – Dortmund travel to Hannover, while Manuel Neuer and Bayern Munich face a testing trip to Schalke. I’ll leave you with something that we didn’t see enough of when he was in the Premier League: Ryan Babel tormenting the opposition defence:

http://www.footytube.com/video/1-fsv-mainz-05-hoffenheim-sep10-90133?ref=tchan_ov_vidgrid

Hau rein,

Bernie

What difference did Philipp Lahm's comments make to the Germany team?

Hi all. This is a quick mid-week review of the international games, since the last entry I posted seems like an age ago. I’ll make a brief mention of Germany’s progress in their last two matches. But I also want to focus on Germany and Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm.

Last Friday, Germany (surprise-surprise) became the first team to qualify for the European Championships next summer after an easy win against Austria in Gelsenkirchen. Goals from Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Özil among others, a couple of assists from Thomas Müller…. sound familiar? This time it was neighbours Austria on the wrong end of a thrashing. At least they didn’t get embarrassed in a World Cup, but that’s ancient history now.

A lot had been made of the match in the build-up to it, by the German and the Austrian press. The return fixture in Vienna had actually been a close-run affair, with Germany winning 2-1 in stoppage time thanks to a Mario Gomez goal. People hoping for an upset were emphatically disappointed, as this time there was no question of Anschluss, or indeed of a Spain-82 scenario, where both sides take it easy and let each other qualify. As ever, Jogi Löw’s team moved the ball around with such speed and fluency in the final two thirds of the pitch that they could have posted a cricket score with the number of chances they created. Klose and Podolski kept up their sensational scoring records for the national team by scoring their 62^nd and 43^rd international goals respectively, while talents like André Schürrle and Mario Götze added weight to their already blossoming reputations with a goal apiece towards the end. Having already qualified, therefore, Germany played out an entertaining 2-2 draw with Poland in Gdansk yesterday, with Wojciech Szczesny giving Arsenal fans at least some reason to feel optimistic by putting in a superb display.

Not only is Joachim Löw’s squad blessed with some fantastic players, but they all want to give their absolute best for their country. Lukas Podolski is one good example. His career-goals tally in the Bundesliga is only one better than his record for the national team. Another good example, which I’ve been meaning to cite for a couple of weeks, is that of German Captain Philipp Lahm. He released an autobiography recently, in which he criticised past German managers Jürgen Klinsmann and Rudi Völler, as well as Felix Magath and Louis van Gaal. He accused Völler of a lack of professionalism and too much focus on leisure. But it was his comments about Klinsmann which really caused a stir here. Of the former Germany captain and manager he said that, when Klinsmann was manager of Bayern Munich in 2008-09, the team had to develop and practise its own tactics for games, without receiving any help from the management. Lahm asserted that Klinsmann had lost the dressing room after six weeks, by which time the players expected, and probably hoped, that he would soon be fired. The book is called Der Feine Unterschied, which roughly translates to “The Minute Differences”, a reference to, among many things, Lahm’s rise to the top of international football, but also to how close Germany have come to winning a major tournament in the last decade or so, in 2002, 2006 and 2008. (There’s also, I would wager, a dig or two aimed at Michael Ballack, which we’ll get to later).

Lahm has played 83 times for his country and is still just 27 years old. He was appointed captain for the 2010 World Cup, and stated publicly that he wouldn’t be relinquishing the captaincy when Michael Ballack returned to fitness. It’s clear, then, that he doesn’t mince his words. Reactions to the revelations he made in his autobiography were animated to say the least. He was disciplined by Joachim Löw, and by Bayern’s big cheeses Uli Hoeness and Franz Beckenbauer, who no doubt had some egg on their faces due to their previous association with Klinsmann.

What riled people, aside from the lack of respect shown to popular figures in German football, was the fact that the culprit was the current captain of the national team and the nation’s most successful club. The popular feeling was that he should have waited until he had retired, or was no longer involved with the national team, to express his feelings, as was done by previous internationals like Stefan Effenberg and Oliver Kahn. He did show a lack of respect to fellow professionals, some of whom, such as ex-Bayern coach Felix Magath, now managing Wolfsburg, he’ll line up against this season. Lahm himself defended the book by saying that he was just writing what he saw, that he wouldn’t change any of it and that the hysteria surrounding its content was exaggerated.

Crucially, Joachim Löw retained his services as Germany captain, despite calls for him to be replaced. John Terry did something far worse when he had an affair with the girlfriend of a former team-mate last year, and deserved to have the captaincy taken from him. But there still seems to me a marked difference between the manager-player relationships in the German team and the England team. Fabio Capello publicly criticised Andy Carroll for his lifestyle recently, whereas Joachim Löw sat next to his captain and defended him against probing questions from masses of reporters. Löw would have been well within his rights to criticise his captain, since an attack on Klinsmann’s management techniques was an attack on Löw’s as well (they managed Germany together in the 2006 World Cup, Löw as assistant), but he stood by him. I can’t imagine Fabio Capello doing such a thing. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, he reprimanded John Terry for complaining that Joe Cole wasn’t being played last year in South Africa. Admittedly the situation isn’t really comparable to Lahm and Löw, but there’s an interesting contrast there nonetheless.

This story also made me reflect on what present England players, like Steven Gerrard, for example, or ex-England internationals have to say about the national team in their autobiographies. Gerrard revealed that he was thinking of moving to Chelsea during Euro 2004, but changed his mind after missing a penalty in the shoot-out against Portugal. That shows you what he was really focusing on then. Gary Neville recently recalled that he considered playing for England a waste of time, while Jamie Carragher expressed indifference when he lost a game for England as opposed to losing with Liverpool. It’s fairly clear that, for these players, playing for their country wasn’t the be-all-and-end-all, when it should be exactly that, as ex-England captain Paul Ince stated publicly today.

I read into the Philipp Lahm situation how seriously he takes playing for, and captaining, Germany. If you accept that, then you can forgive his disrespectful comments towards other professionals. But you can’t question his commitment. He saw problems in the Germany and Bayern set-ups and decided to make them public. Germany have always had big personalities in their team – Beckenbauer, Matthäus, Effenberg, Ballack and now Lahm – but it’s precisely because they can still play as a team, and want to give their absolute all for their country, that they, and Lahm, are more successful than England. There was some personal score-settling in Lahm’s book, and his timing was probably ill-judged (not to mention that he’s only 27 – he’ll probably need to write a new one in ten years’ time). But I’m sure many England fans would like to see John Terry take the same attitude of highlighting the England’s teams many problems so frankly that they might be addressed and resolved more quickly, as well as a favourable reaction from Fabio Capello.