Five Conclusions From Matchday 17

By: Jan | December 20th, 2011

Na tactics can compensate for individual mistakes. Bayern’s 3-0 win over Cologne was rich in absurdity. Ribery blew a fuse. The match ball blew out. Cologne blew a one man advantage. You could add Solbakken’s one-off idea to bring back the five man backline to this list. Except, that it actually worked out pretty well to frustrate Bayern most of the time. It didn’t stop Geromel from playing the bad pass, that resulted in the first goal though. It didn’t help defending the corner better, that resulted in the second goal either. And, admittedly, it also didn’t help at all with the football.

Truth is the first casualty of war. An odd private war, fought out over the past week and weekend, between the architects of Hertha’s revival: Markus Babbel and Michael Preetz. It started with Markus Babbel’s unwillingness to extend his contract as Hertha coach. It ended with his premature sacking. In between, bizarre scenes of finger pointing took place. Lie stood against lie, or truth against truth or some variant of the two. And we still don’t know, why Babbel no longer wanted to work as Hertha coach in the first place. It’s one of the most bizarre sackings in recent Bundesliga history.

Now it’s legitimate to compare this Gladbach side to the club’s glory days. Pointswise. The same team, that had just 10 points after 17 games last year, has now racked up 33 points. This makes it the best Hinrunde for Gladbach in 35 years. And 35 years ago they won the title. Not that it’s a realistic prospect. But even the possibility, of it being an unrealistic prospect, is a great credit to Favre, Reus et al.

Nuremberg got a much needed lift. For the past couple of weeks, Nuremberg played pretty well for a club in crisis and close to the drop zone. They just never managed to reap the rewards. Saturday’s game against Leverkusen was a timely reminder, that they haven’t done that much wrong. In fact they did enough things right, for their highest away win against Leverkusen. One that has lifted them above the relegation places in time for slightly more relaxed winter break.

Age is just a number. Particularly when that number belongs to Raul. Raul scored his third Bundesliga hattrick on Saturday. It was his second against Bremen, whose defending is particularly conducive to this kind of feat. That makes it ten goals and five assists in 17 matches for the 34 year old striker. Enough for Schalke to think a bit harder about ways to keep him. In January we’ll know, wether it’ll be enough to make Raul resist rumored lucrative offers from Qatar or MLS.