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 4th 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
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
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