Matchday 14: Bayern Bounce Back

By: Jan | November 30th, 2009

Bayern Fan Bayern Munich couldn’t ask for much more. Bordeaux saved their Champions League campaign. The AGM turned out to be a peaceful teary eyed farewell party for Uli Hoeness (swaps general manager for president) and Franz Beckenbauer (swaps president for honorary president). The Bundesliga sent flowers in the form of dropped points. The football could be better yet.

Return to Normalcy. Hannover’s home match against Bayern, the first following Robert Enke’s suicide, was characterized by small and big gestures of remembrance. A larger than life Robert Enke jersey was hung up in the stadium. A flower was put on his place on the bench. Fans rolled out banners in his honor. The team will wear special jerseys with Enke’s #1 printed on the front until the end of the season. Once the game started, Hannover were ready to play some football again. A spirited performance was greeted by a Bayern backline in the mood to give their goalkeeper Butt a little workout. The good news for Bayern fans is, that Butt put in a flawless performance to keep a clean sheet despite constant threats by Hannover’s Djakpa. Bayern’s striker did better and Olic, Müller and Gomez made sure of an overall assured 3-0 victory. Goalkeepers saving goals. Strikers scoring goals. Slowly but surely things return to normal at Bayern as well. The midfield might still need some polish to seriously threaten Leverkusen – and more importantly in the short term: Juventus.

The Team to Beat. Stuttgart travelled to Leverkusen on the back of a morale boosting win in the Champions League. They started with ambitions, created the first chance and then Leverkusen decided to take part in the match. Step by step and with confident ease Jupp Heynckes’ team took over proceedings and relegated Stuttgart to spectators of their own dismantling that ended in a 4-0 drubbing. Player for player the two teams are not that far apart, but the performances on Sunday easily confirmed that the table never lies and Leverkusen are first and Stuttgart second from bottom.

The Unluckiest Team. I’ve criticized Hamburg’s defensive lapses enough in the past weeks, so I won’t say much more about it this time except that David Rozehnal is the new Michael Gravgaard. Apart from that though, you also have to feel for the would be uber-team of the league. Hamburg now have a complete starting eleven of star players out with long term injuries. The news that the injury of their wunderkind Elia, picked up following a horror tackle by Mainz’s Noveski, isn’t as bad as feared is celebrated euphorically, despite the fact that he’ll probably still be out for the game against Hoffenheim. It’s not just the injuries but the referees too. The corner kick given that lead to Mainz’s equalizer shouldn’t have been given. Last week a valid goal by Mathijsen against Bochum wasn’t given. Then there was the dodgy penalty for Hannover and the uncalled penalty for Hamburg against Gladbach. With a bit of better fortune in the last four games, Hamburg would comfortably lead the table by a four point margin instead of trailing Leverkusen by six points. Maybe the news that Real Madrid look to offload Rafael van der Vaart will cheer Hamburg fans up a little bit.

Hope Where There is None. Hertha were comprehensively outplayed by Frankfurt in Berlin’s Olympiastadion. One of the worst teams in the league judging by their form curve. One of the teams on eye level when comparing the squads player for player. Schalke, Leverkusen and Bayern are up next. Hertha’s coach Funkel said he still had hope and wouldn’t give up. Team manager Michael Preetz said the same. The financial bosses promised €3m for reinforcements in the winter. Three games till Christmas for a miracle or for valid concerns over the sanity of the club’s management.

Sack Race. A 0-0 against Bochum was enough to save Zvonimir Soldo’s job as Cologne coach for the moment. A 0-0 against Bochum next weekend will certainly cost Markus Babbel his job as Stuttgart coach.

Results: Bochum 0-0 Cologne, Hertha 1-3 Frankfurt, Hoffendem 1-2 Dortmund, Bremen 2-2 Wolfsburg, Mainz 1-1 Hamburg, Nuremberg 0-1 Freiburg, Mönchengladbach 1-0 Schalke, Leverkusen 4-0, Hannover 0-3 Bayern