Leverkusen 0-0 Dortmund. One of the better 0-0 matches

Hello again. Ok so similarly to last week's entry, I'll be focusing particularly on one game whilst also giving you a broad overview of how the league is looking at the end of Matchday 4. That's another good thing about having a league with only 18 teams - you don't have to wait until Monday night (only Monday afternoon!) to summarise the results, when the excitement of the weekend has already worn off.





At the weekend I was a very fortunate guest at the BayArena for Bayer Leverkusen's clash with champions Dortmund. Leverkusen is a strange club. They're bankrolled by pharmaceutical giants Bayer; they don't have that many fans (it seemd like the whole stadium was filled with Dortmund suporters); and the town of Leverkusen is a shell, except for having a stadium which hosts top-flight matches. Still, there was a great atmosphere in the stadium for a clash between these two big teams, and both sets of fans sung some pretty catchy songs, especially Leverkusen's. Mind you, for an Englishman, the cheese-on-toast factor is multiplied tenfold when you can understand the German lyrics (link attached below). I'm actually rather embarrassed to admit that it was my first live Bundesliga in a very long while, but as kick-off drew nearer, I knew this game had been a good choice (cheers to Damien Reeves!). Needless to say it was well worth the wait. I've watched a lot of Bundesliga action this season, but only on TV. Seeing Mario Götze's talent, and Stefan Kieβling's nose, in the flesh was an experience to savour.


It's been a rather up-and-down season for Bayer Leverkusen so far. Manager Robin Dutt is in his first season in charge of the Werkself and it's fair to say he got off to a rocky start. Before the first league game of the season, Bundesliga teams are in action in the first round of the German Cup. Bayer were one of four top-flight sides to be eliminated at the hands of lower-league opposition, and how. They were leading 0-3 at half-time away at Dynamo Dresden, recently promoted to the Bundesliga 2 after several seasons of regional league mediocrity and financial uncertainty. What followed was a giant-killing of epic proportions and a truly awful day for Bayer. After 63 minutes, Michael Ballack was introduced to the action in place of Simon Rolfes, taking over the captain's armband. Dynamo scored three unanswered goals to force the game into extra-time (no replays in this cup), and then sealed an incredible win on 117 minutes. The phrase 'the magic of the cup' springs to mind (Aufgeht's Dynamo! another team I quite like, seeing as I used to live there). Robin Dutt was under even more pressure after matchday 1 in the Bundesliga, losing 2-0 at Mainz. Since then, results, and performances have improved: an injury time winner saw them defeat Werder Bremen 1-0 and last week they ground out another 1-0 win away at Stuttgart. Dortmund at home was, however, their first big test of the season.


It was a top of the table clash and it finished 0-0. But this wasn't two good teams cancelling each other out; both sides had plenty of chances and played plenty of good football, and, without a referee who seemed to personify the phrase 'couldn't organise a p***up in a brewery', it could have been a classic. Chances came and went for both sides: André Schürrle, full of confidence after scoring for Germany against Brazil two weeks ago, missed a one-on-one on four minutes, while Sefan Reinartz was also denied by Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller. It was towards the end of the first half that the action came to be dominated by referee Wolfgang Stark. Two minutes of injury-time were due at the end of the first half; Stark blew up after one minute, quite needlessly, when Leverkusen were on the attack. Renato Augusto, hearing the half-time whistle, shot from the half-way line, which Stark took as a sign of petulance and booked him.


In the second half, Renato Augusto was running at pace at the Dortmund defence, and was brought down by Mats Hummels. Replays of the action are only shown at the end of the game, but it transpired that there was no contact was made by Hummels, despite Augusto writhing in agony on the floor. What would Stark do here, since both players were on a yellow card? To give a free-kick to Leverkusen would mean a second yellow for Hummels; had he known no contact had been made, Stark should have shown a second yellow to Augusto for simulation. In the end, Stark gave a free-kick to Leverkusen, but inexplicably didn't send Hummels off. Ten minutes later he showed a straight red to Michal Kadlec for a reckless challenge on Mario Götze, which much of the German press agreed with. I didn't however. He then showed a straight red to Götze for a mild offence which should have merited a second yellow, since Götze had already been booked. It was never a straight red card though, and now Dortmund are without their talisman for three games. Mats Hummels, who shouldn't have been on the pitch, later scored from a free-kick which the referee ordered to be taken again, despite him having blown his whistle to signal to Ilkay Güngogan that play had restarted. It was a chaotic second half from the referee in truth.


Leverkusen were kept in the game by a superb performance from 19-year-old keeper Bernd Leno, on loan from VfB Stuttgart. He made crucial late saves from Shinji Kagawa and Ivan Perisic, and Dortmund would have won but for the red card shown to Götze. With 10 against 10 the game fizzled out into a draw, but it had been an entertaining game nonetheless. Post-match reaction understandably centred on the referee's performance, as both sets of fans left the stadium feeling slightly frustrated. Ordinarily I would have approved of Wolfgang Stark's officiating a big game like this. He has international pedigree, has refereed Champions league finals and at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. German football website Kicker.de gave Stark a 4.5 rating (out of 6) for his performance, but I think that might be a bit generous.


After the international break, Dortmund return to Bundesliga action at home to Hertha BSC, while Leverkusen are up against another of the newly-promoted sides when they travel to FC Augsburg.


As per usual a brief look at the other results last weekend. Firstly, DIDN'T I SAY THAT KÖLN WOULD GET THEIR FIRST WIN UNDER STALE SOLBAKKEN AWAY TO HAMBURG?! I should have put some money on that really. Trailing 3-2 with six minutes of normal time to go, goals from Christian Clemens and Kevin McKenna gave Köln a dramatic win (much in the style of that brilliant West Ham 3-4 Tottenham Hotspur game in March 2007). So some of the pressure on Stale Solbakken is relieved, while it's mounting heavily on manager Michael Oennig and Sporting Director Frank Arnesen for his questionable transfer policy of signing half of Chelsea's youth team. Hannover 96 had another frustrating result at home to Mainz. The 1-1 draw means they are still the only team in the Bundesliga to remain unbeaten this season, but it was another missed opportunity to move top of the league. That position is currently filled by Bayern, who occupy top spot for the first time since May 2010 after a 3-0 away win at Kaiserslautern through a Mario Gomez hat-trick. Schalke move up to second with a 1-0 home win over Gladbach.


Results


Hertha BSC 1-0 Stuttgart


Hamburg 3-4 Köln


Nürnberg 1-0 Augsburg


Freiburg 3-0 Wolfsburg


Kaiserslautern 0-3 Bayern


Hoffenheim 1-2 Werder Bremen


Leverkusen 0-0 Dortmund


Hannover 1-1 Mainz


Schalke 1-0 M'Gladbach






Next week it's the international break as Germany host Austria in Gelsenkirchen on Friday September 2nd. Your next Bundesliga action is the weekend beginning the 9th September. The pick of that weekend's fixtures looks to me like Werder Bremen at home to Hamburg. I'm predicting a home win with a lot of goals. I haven't chosen a goal of the week, instead I chose a match of the week. Check out Hamburg against Köln, what a game!


http://www.footytube.com/video/hamburger-sv-1-koln-aug27-88755?ref=wv_next


Also check out this Leverkusen fansong - it made me chuckle!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-sRxJi5T4k






Hau rein,






Bernie

Weekend of goals sees Mönchengladbach go top

Matchday 3 saw a goalfest in the Bundesliga. Bayern Munich's season seems to be improving, and the pressure on manager Jupp Heynckes relenting, after a crushing 5-0 demolition of Hamburg; dark horses Borussia Mönchengladbach continue to set the pace with a 4-1 win over VfLWolfsburg;and SV Werder Bremen came out on top 5-3 over SC Freiburg at the Weser Stadion. Champions Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 win over 1. FC Nürnberg.

Living in Munich, and having shared a 'servus' with the masses of happy Bayern fans enjoying a Maß or two in the sunshine yesterday evening, this piece will focus on FC Hollywood's 5-0 crushing of Hamburg (I know there were lots of other great games this weekend, but in the interests of relative brevity I'm going to focus on this game. I do promise not to feature a Bayern game for at least six weeks though). The question to ask is whether or not that 5-0 result surprises people. 

Let's start with Bayern. They began their season two weeks ago today with a home fixture Mönchengladbach. Dortmund, led by the brilliant Mario Götze, had dispatched Hamburg (again) in the season's opening game the previous Friday, and so the expectation was on Bayern. They lost 0-1, losing to a goal which new signing and German no.1 Manuel Neuer won't want to look back on in a hurry. On matchday 2, this time away at Wolfsburg, Heyncke's team scored an injury-time winner through Luis Gustavo to get their first three points on the board. it was nearly 180 minutes of football without a goal. The press here in Munich have a reputation for circling like vultures around a new manager rather quickly. Despite the win, column inches were filled with lamentations about the workmanlike, uninventive and tiresome style which Germany's most successful team was employing. On the European front the ship seems to be steadier. Bayern should, despite the best efforts of Mario Gomez last Tuesday, advance to the group stage of the Champions League after beating FC Zurich 2-0 at home in the first leg of the qualifier. Their slow start, and the criticism levelled at them for their brand of football, did make this result a surprise.

But a brief evaluation of Hamburger SV might tell you that a drubbing was on the cards. What do English people, my loyal readers, really know of Hamburg and its football team? Not much I would wager, suffice it to day that David Haye fought Wladimir Klitschko there a while back and that Kevin Keegan's perm graced the Volksparkstadion thirty odd years ago. It's fair to say that Hamburg's preparation for this season hasn't been the best. In the close-season they lost numerous first team players (Ruud van Nistelrooy, Joris Mathijsen, Piotr Trochowski and Frank Rost among others) and only seemed to have replaced those with youngsters from Chelsea (Michael Mancienne, Jacopo Sala, Jeffrey Bruma and Gökhan Töre), evidencing the strong input from Sporting Director and ex-Bundesliga player Frank Arnesen. Results, and performances, were also poor before the game on Saturday. As aforementioned they were torn apart my Dortmund two weeks ago, and then conceded a last minute goal at home to Hertha Berlin to draw 2-2 last weekend, a point they were actually fortunate to get. While Bayern's form coming into this game wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination, Hamburg were, and now firmly are, in a downturn after only three games. Indeed the 5-0 defeat didn't actually come as a shock to most football fans here. Next week Hamburg face Köln at home, and were I a betting man, Köln getting a first win under new manager Stale Solbakken might be worth a flutter.

Away from this game for a moment, I shouldn't neglect to mention for the legions of Mönchengladbach fans in Germany and around the globe that your team is top of the league! That superb win away at Bayern on day 1 was followed by a decent 1-1 draw at home to VfB Stuttgart last week, and then Friday's 4-1 hammering of Felix Magath's Wolfsburg. You're the only team, apart from Hannover 96, which is still unbeaten. Although the season is still in its infancy and there are a further 31 matches to play, (that still sounds strange to me by the way, only 34 games in a season with one domestic cup - do they actually need a winter break?) things look promising for the Foals. Not many fans in Germany would begrudge Gladbach supporters hoping, rather than expecting, for some domestic success this year. Last season Hannover 96 were the surprise package, having finished in 4th place and continued that good form this season; perhaps this season it's Gladbach's turn to over-achieve. I'll end this piece by saying it's encouraging that two modestly-sized, family-friendly teams (although that goes for most clubs in Germany) currently lead the table, not like England for example where it seems money gets you points.

Results:

M'Gladbach  4-1 Wolfsburg

Ausgburg 0-2 1899 Hoffenheim

Stuttgart 0-1 Leverkusen

FC Bayern 5-0 Hamburg

Dortmund 2-0 Nürnberg

Werder Bremen 5-3 SC Freiburg

Köln 1-1 Kaiserslautern

Mainz 2-4 Schalke

Hannover 1-1 Hertha

Next week I'll be featuring another game (not one that involves Bayern), but for now you can enjoy my goal(s) of the week. In spite of the fact that they're sponsored by Deutsche Bahn, and in spite of Patrick Ebert's hair, I have a bit of a soft spot for Hertha, and this goal in the second half was a really good one. Unbeaten away in 2011 you know:

http://www.footytube.com/video/hannover-96-hertha-bsc-aug21-88231?ref=lchan_vidgrid

Bernie

Introduction to the Bundesliga, season 2011-12

This is the first entry of my, Bernie Reeves', blog. As the title 'Bernie's Bundesliga' suggests, this will be a weekly supplement of my coverage of the German Bundesliga from my new base in the supremely pretty but rather expensive Munich, Bavaria.

First of all, what do English people, and readers of this blog, really know of the Bundesliga? It's the German equivalent of the English Premier League. But strangely enough, football fans in England don't seem to take that much of an interest in German football. Perhaps its the style of football that German teams are believed to play, ie more emphasis on efficiency rather that flair and invention. Perhaps it's the fact that the world's best players tend to want a transfer to Spain, Italy or England, either for more money and less tax (in the case of the former two) or for the allure of playing in the world's most-watched domestic league, as is the case with the EPL. I myself would, if I didn't have this connection with Germany that I now have after learning the language and living there, admit that German football probably wouldn't interest me. I only chose a German team on Championship Manager 2001-02 (the only real manager game I've ever played earnestly and still the greatest one of its kind) very seldom, and I don't believe I'm the only one who can say that. (It was always Bayern Munich, needless to say. Scholl, Jancker, Zickler, Salihamidzic... it was easy game to play with those guys.) I reckon I'm not far off the mark either when I say that FIFA/Pro-Evo addicts would consider what other team they could be before deciding to be a German team (however I don't play those games so please feel free to challenge that generalisation).

Perhaps its because German football isn't broadcast that often, or to as wide an audience in England, as La Liga for example. Sky sports show hours of Spanish football, to thousands of homes. That's basically the Sunday ritual for all true football fans in England - you play a Sunday League game; then you head to the pub; you watch the first half of that 'super sunday' game (even if it's wigan versus somebody); after maybe eating/showering/tea-drinking during the second half, you watch the second premier league match at 4pm; then you watch either one or both of the La Liga games, timing it so you turn on just as the teams kick off, without working yourself into a strop thinking about how much Mark Bolton gets paid to 'present' and Gerry Armstrong to 'pundit.' As a former enjoyer of Sky, ESPN matches didn't really interest me. And I'm struggling to think when I took a game on ESPN seriously enough to go to pub to watch it. So that also probably has something to do with it, the fact that Bundesliga football, besides the five-minute fixes on footytube which, lets face it, are all you really need, can be slightly inacessible to British audiences. 

Maybe it's also to do with the fact that there aren't many English (or British) players or managers in the Bundesliga. Michael Mancienne recently joined Hamburg form Chelsea, which I for one was pleased to see. But how he performs for Hamburg doesn't exactly fill as many column inches as how David Beckham did at real Madrid (granted they're two entirely different situations, but the point still stands I think. There was also that 'wally with the brolly', accent-adopting Steve McLaren, who endured a difficult time at Wolfsburg last season, and ended up being sacked. Serious football fans probably still don't give him the time of day in England.

I've made a few comparisons with Spain in this piece, but the point I'm trying to get across is that the Bundesliga should be better followed in England. The clubs are all financially healthy; there'll be no nonsense regarding financial fairplay like we're seeing with Manchester City right now; club shares are structured that a minimum of 51% are owned by their supporters. This helps to keep the ticket prices affordable, meaning that dads can take their wives and children without burning a hole in their wallet; attendances are second to none in this country, with even Bundeliga II matches having an average attendance which is just under that of an average Serie A game. Indeed there are countless more stats which can show you how healthy German football is right now, even if it still has that reputation for being a dull league.

My final point pertains to whether you would rather see your club or your country succeed. After Germany's disastrous performance at EURO 2000, scoring one goal and exiting with one point after an embarrassing 3-0 efeat to Portugal's reserve team, the German Football Federation called things to a halt and decided changes needed to be made. It decided that, for every professional football club in Germany, a mandatory academy - Leistungszentrum - had to be built. These would feed the clubs with young players, schooled in football and pedagogy, at the same site. Rather like Barcelona's La Masia complex, these kids in Germany live in dorms and train to be footballers, but also take public exams like they would in a norma school, to give themselves a qualification if they do not make the leap into professional football. There is therefore a social advantage to the system in Germany. And as for the footballing benefits? Well, no England fan needs reminding of how Germany's youthful side humiliated England 4-1 in Bloemfontaine at the 2010 Fifa Wold Cup in South Africa. More recently, anyone who cast their eye over Germany's 3-2 friendly win over Brazil last week will have seen just how promising a talent Mario Götze is. German clubs are breeding more and more players like him, because they have to. I would like to see England do well at a major tournament, and players who share Jamie Carragher's attitude of not really caring when England lose are frankly a waste of time. Germany, for generations it seems, have that mentality of performing to their maximum even with an average squad. Now they combine that desire with a squad that boasts more and more quality with each generation. I complain about Germany's national team always performing better than England's, but really I know the reason why (one of many anyway). 

Now, that information was intended to make you take note of the Bundesliga. The next issues won't be so long, I promise. As a quick run-through of the Bundesliga season so far, seeing as I'm two weeks late:

Champions Dortmund blew Hamburg away in the opening game but then suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Hoffenheim; Bayern are under pressure to play some entertaining football having only scored once in two games (they lost at home to Mönchengladbach but then beat Wolfsburg away); the surprise teams so far are Hannover 96 and 1.FSV Mainz 05, both having secured maximum points from two games.

This weekend sees some juicy clashes, most notably Bayern vs Hamburg on Saturday.

Be ready for the next issue on Sunday evening. Please feel free to leave comments regarding anything I've said you want to take issue with. Also please feel free to give me any pointers on blog presentation, as I'm new to this game.

My goal of last weekend...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfsCGQYS-Ug

Hau rein,

Bernie