Five Conclusions From Matchday 13

By: Jan | November 22nd, 2011

There are ways to make life easier for referees. This weekend was dominated by a lot of talk about the difficult and ungrateful job a referee has to make. There has been a lot of talk about pressure. None of that talk might actually help Babak Rafati, as it’s mere speculation, why he attempted suicide. And it’s all talk that won’t change the rage and anger of fans, players and coaches over a bad call by a referee in a couple of weeks time. That isn’t to say, there aren’t ways to make life easier for the referee. There are technical tools, that can take a referee out of the line of fire. Tools that the Blatter bunch despises, because they would make the game “less human”.

We have a title race, at least until next week. At which point we might again conclude, that it’s actually all about Bayern pulling away from the league and never coming back. But this week we do have a title race, thanks to Dortmund’s slim 1-0 victory in Munich. Dortmund needed to run a lot and they needed the ball to get lost and then show up on Mario Götze’s feet. But they’ve also put their early season wobble and the loss of Nuri Sahin behind them for good. That gives us a bit of hope, that they are now ready to challenge Bayern to the title long into 2012.

Marco Reus isn’t getting any cheaper. He won’t get any more expensive either. The fee for his buyout clause is somewhere around €18m. A concession Gladbach had to make to talk Reus into signing a contract extension in the first place. For the richer clubs in Europe, it’ll be one of the biggest bargains of the summer. If BILD are to be believed, it’ll be one of the biggest bargains Bayern Munich will make next summer. Until then though, Gladbach fans can enjoy the closest their team has gotten to the golden seventies, since, well, the golden seventies. Gladbach topped their 4-1 gala display against Wolfsburg with an even more comprehensive 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen. Wherever Marco Reus will play next summer, it looks increasingly likely his club will play in European competitions.

Wolfsburg witnessed a rare string of events. Hasan Salihamidžić scored his first Bundesliga brace in roughly ten years and Wolfsburg pulled off a convincing performance, in what felt like ten years as well. The team slowly starts to gel, which is a little too late though. The winter transfer window isn’t far away, and Felix Magath can’t wait too reshuffle his team with a fresh round of signings.

Jaroslav Drobny finally got his first clean sheet of the season. The last goalkeeper in the Bundesliga to do so. And his team mates made him work hard for it towards the end of Hamburg’s match against Hoffenheim. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fully deserved result for Hamburg. It also happened to be Hamburg’s first home win and Fink’s first win as a Hamburg coach. Thorsten Fink has injected new life into the team. More importantly, he is also giving the players a clear idea of how he wants them to play football. It’s finally fun to watch Hamburg matches again. Well, it was fun to watch Hamburg play under Oenning as well, in a comedic sort of way.