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Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Monday, 19 September 2011
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 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
Monday, 12 September 2011
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:
Hau rein,
Bernie
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
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 62nd and 43rd 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.
Monday, 29 August 2011
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
Sunday, 21 August 2011
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:
Bernie
Thursday, 18 August 2011
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
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