Foals before Zebras: Bayern Munich vs Borussia Mönchengladbach

The Bundesliga is fond of doing scheduling favors for the top teams where it can. Therefore, FC Bayern will be at home to 'Gladbach in a rare Friday match that will give the team a little bit more time to rest up for the all-important Juventus match on Tuesday. ...

European Vacations

FK Ventspils has a unique opportunity. Already the first team from Latvia to make the group stages of any UEFA competition, the way things are going in Group D of the Europa League, they could become the first Latvian team to get out of the group stages. They're only a ...

Mertesacker Got Air

I hate it when people say "oh, we deserved to win this". The better team - the team that holds possession, has the better chances, plays the better football, etc. - does not always win the football match. If that always happened, why bother playing at all? The team that ...

New Maps

My mental map of Germany is based entirely around the past 3-4 seasons in the Bundesliga. Cities that have had representation in the league in that time have a place, which gives me a somewhat-interesting concept of where things actually are in the country.

The only positive I can take out ...

St Pauli 3 - 0 Union Berlin

FC St Pauli put a bigger buffer between itself and 4th place with a win against the strong newcomers Union Berlin. Berlin is newly promoted from the 3 liga for this year, and started out very strong, sitting in 5th at the start of the week, making this game ...

A small step forward on the pitch, a giant leap in the table

It will be easy for observers to take a look at today's scoreline and conclude that Bayern Munich has shaken off the cobwebs and reestablished itself as the team to beat in the Bundesliga. While today's result is certainly a step in that direction, there are many improvements and ...

Matchday 14: 1001 reasons to love a three-legged dog

Prowl fanshops on this side of the ocean, and Bundesliga kits are not so widely offered. When they are, anyone not a supporter of Bayern Munchen or Werder Bremen is pretty much out of luck. A Bayer 04 shirt is unheard of on the shelves, the club name unheard of by the clerks. Back in Europe, Bayer Leverkusen are the club people are likely to point at while giggling, calling us Vizekusen or Neverkusen. Within our own league, the wait for a piece of silverware has gone on for 105 years. But we have not curled into a ball and waited for time to turn us to dust. Instead we’ve held our breath and continued struggling along, waiting for all the parts to come together in the same place and at the same time- just like they did today at BayArena, much to VfB Stuttgart's misfortune.

Ob La Di, Ob La Da: Bayern visits Hannover

It's not too early to surmise that the tragic death of Robert Enke will have a long lasting effect on the way German society considers depression and other forms of mental illness. In its own way, it may parallel the drug overdose death of Len Bias or the HIV diagnosis ...

Playing Leapfrog Atop the Table

I just wanted to write briefly and thank Gladbach for beating Schalke and thus relieving me of my fears that they would top the table this evening. Instead, it is our Green-Whites that leapfrog Leverkusen once again to sit atop the mountain that is the Bundesliga standings after a 2-2 ...

News from the FC Bayern Munich Annual Meeting

*With 99% of the vote, Uli Hoeness was elected President of the club, succeeding Franz Beckenbauer, who has the held the title for the last 15 years. Both men received rousing ovations from the crowd. A farewell match in Beckenbauer's honor will be played this coming August at the ...