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