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 7th league goal, and 11th in all competitions this season – a fine way to celebrate his 26th 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
No comments:
Post a Comment