Matchday Twelve: Tearful Reunion

The last time we saw Michael Skibbe at BayArena, he was there to clean out his desk- the 07/08 season razed on its final matchday, two-and-half years of service to the Werkself scrubbed away. His final memories were of angry supporters building pitchside bonfires of Leverkusen jerseys and a stolen mobile phone packed with pics of the fallen coach finding the back of his then-girlfriend’s net. Skibbe went to a lot of trouble to keep those pictures from being made public, and I can’t help but wonder if they contained any sort of spanking more graphic than the one we gave Eintracht Frankfurt earlier this evening.

Match preview: Borussia Monchengladbach v. VfB Stuttgart

Lots to talk about after a frenzied CL midweek and now back to domestic action. The biggest squad news going into the weekend is the injury blow to Serdar Tasci. He picked up the same foot injury that Khedira has and is expected to be out the rest ...

We Won

We won.

We won.

The first time since August- against Brøndby, way back when. All those weeks of things getting worse and worse, of less and less confidence, of more and more crap. And while this result only matters a little (we're still rock bottom in the league), it's such a nice ...

Europa League: Werder Bremen 2 - 0 Austria Wien

I was prepared to sit and enjoy the match - really, I was. I'm sure it's frustrating to come here and see me continually saying "I wasn't able to watch the match," but it happened once again. I could not find a stream to watch Werder, so for the second ...

FC Bayern vs Schalke 04: The Search For a Non-Stereotypical Storyline

This is a terrific match for a lazy writer. So many storylines fall right into your lap. For this occasion, I could: a) Talk about how how Felix Magath's dismissal from Bayern looks like a terrible mistake in retrospect and b) make a very negative indictment of Louis van Gaal by some statistical comparison. Or c) How and why (or why not) Neuer and Rafinha will be taking up residence in Munich sooner rather than later and lead into a broader critique of transfer policy or d) how last year's match at home against Schalke ended the Klinsmann era, and how a loss Saturday could signal the end of the Van Gaal era. I could even just take path e) continuing to complain about Tuesday's match without really elaborating much about this match. But in the end, we're going to try to touch on a few different points than all those.

Still alive

Phew. CL Match day 4 came and went and Stuttgart have lived to talk about it. We saw a bit of everything in this game, much to discuss. I'm gonna take this one in bullet form as I wrote things down during the game.

-I've never seen a ...

Going Dutch

Oh, I wish it was last season. For many reasons, of course, but also because we'd have a reasonable chance of actually getting out of the group stages if we were anywhere near decent. Sporting may be the favorites, but they're only seventh in the Portuguese league, twelve points behind ...

CL preview: FC Sevilla v VfB Stuttgart

Sevilla has an opportunity to officially wrap up 1st place in the group with a win home against Stuttgart, and they have to feel mighty good about their prospects having never lost a CL match at home. Die Schwaben will be looking to at least steal a point here ...

Hunt, Frings, and Hoffenheim

Aaron Hunt has been garnering international attention lately amidst rumors that England U21 coach Stuart Pearce has been keeping an eye on him and reporting his progress to Fabio Capello. Raf Honigstein at the Guardian even devoted his weekly Bundesliga write-up to the debate. There is of course mention of ...

Tuesday: Abomination

I don't think the match requires a whole lot of analysis. Those of you who'd like to engage in that sort of thing are welcome to do some in the comments, but I'm going to refrain from it here. I've been more hesitant than most to indict this ...