Which player is seen here reflecting large amounts of light straight back to the sun?

In 1974 Gerd Müller succeeded where Michael Ballack had failed in 2002 and won the Bundesliga, Champions Cup (Champions League) and the World Cup. On his way to the trophy hattrick Müller scored an amazing 30 goals in 34 Bundesliga matches, 8 goals in 10 Champions Cup matches and 5 goals in 4 DFB Pokal matches for his club Bayern Munich. The above YouTube playlist compiles 26 of his Bundesliga and 5 of his Champions Cup goals into one easy to watch package.

Playlist
Müller vs Hertha BSC (Goal #3, 25th August 1973)
Müller vs Schalke 04 (Goals #4 to 7, 8th September 1973)
Müller vs Bremen (Goal #8, 15th September 1973)
Müller vs Kaiserslautern (Goals #11 and 12, 20th October 1973)
Müller vs Dresden (Champions Cup, Goal #3, 24th October 1973)
Müller vs Dresden (Champions Cup, Goal #4, 7th November 1973)
Müller vs Hamburg (Goals #13 to 15, 10th November 1973)
Müller vs Mönchengladbach (Goal #16, 8th December 1973)
Müller vs Fortuna Cologne (Goals #17 to 19, 12th January 1974)
Müller vs Hertha BSC (Goal #20, 26th January 1974)
Müller vs Schalke 04 (Goal #21 to 23, 9th February 1974)
Müller vs Hannover (Goal #24, 9th March 1974)
Müller vs Frankfurt (Goal #25, 16th March 1974)
Müller vs FC Cologne (Goal #26, 23rd March 1974)
Müller vs Duisburg (Goal #27, 30th March 1974)
Müller vs Stuttgart (Goal #28, 20th April 1974)
Müller vs Ujpest Dozsa (Champions Cup, Goal #6, 24th April 1974)
Müller vs Bochum (Goal #29, 27th April 1974)
Müller vs Offenbach (Goal #30, 11th May 1974)
Müller vs Atletico Madrid (Champions Cup Final, Goal #7 and 8, 17th May 1974)

The two goals against Madrid certainly qualify as “saving the best for last”. Or as the video description puts it: “(…) both goals must count among the finest ever scored in a European Cup final. “

Bayern Munich fans are certainly not in a particularly good mood at the moment. The situation in the Bundesliga is far from hopeless but still disappointing, while Bayern will need a miracle of sorts to progress in the Champions League. Thus, some fans may be in disbelieve, some may question the coach or the players, others blame the transfer policy and a few probably just desperately hope for Ribery to return and make it all right again. But, they are not rioting – yet. That didn’t stop Bayern from taking some precautionary measures though. A warning, a message of intent, sort of. It’s also a predictably bad spot for Bayern fans to curiously watch, what looks like, a training session with three or four players running up and down the pitch at the Säbener Straße.

3 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat for Bundesliga clubs in Europe this week. The good news is that five out of six have it all in their own hands to progress to the next round. The odd club out is of course Hertha B… no wait.

Bayern Munich 0-2 Bordeaux. Bayern wanted a football teacher and got a textbook case of how little possession stats tell you about the outcome of a football match. The handball by Bordeaux’s Ciani was a textbook case of how you don’t get the right calls, when you are in a crisis either. Bayern now need Bordeaux, who are already qualified, to take some points from Juventus and then still need to beat the Italians in Turin to progress. I think a healthy dose of Bayern Dusel will be necessary to save this season’s Champions League campaign.

Hamburg 0-0 Celtic. It didn’t take a lot for Celtic to completely open up the Hamburg defense and take a shot at a one on one with Frank Rost. To be a bit more precise: one cross or one pass was enough. That should be worrying, because in combination with the Gladbach game, coaches should now have a nice set of tactical tools at their disposal to beat Hamburg. That being said, Hamburg otherwise were in control of the match and the draw keeps them in a good position to get to the next round – or even top the group.

Besiktas 0-3 Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg pulled off the overall most assured performance, even though it took 80 minutes to really make sure of the victory. A draw against Moscow will send them through, a defeat could set them up for quite a finale against Manchester United though.

Bremen 2-0 Austria Vienna. The Austrian Bundesliga had been the better Bundesliga this season – both head-to-head against German Bundesliga teams and in Europe overall coefficient wise. And in all fairness to the southern neighbors they should still be the better Bundesliga this season. Bremen played awful but got all the right calls in their favor to restore German Bundesliga bragging rights – although with the kind help of a Swedish referee. Bremen booked their ticket to the next round and can now afford to play even worse in their last two games.

Seville 1-1 Stuttgart. It was a game of two halves in Seville. One made of fear, the other made of courage. Stuttgart were lucky to escape the first 45 minutes only being one goal down. Stuttgart were unlucky not to take all three points in the second 45 minutes. The draw leaves Stuttgart in third place but with every chance to take second place and progress to the second round.

Heerenveen 2-3 Berlin. Three minutes into the match Hertha were one goal down. A familiar story with an unfamiliar twist and an unlikely hero this time around. Hertha equalized ending a goal drought lasting 461 minutes. They fell behind again. They equalized again. They snatched a winner in overtime. The player who set up the first two goals and scored the winner goes by the name Artur Wichniarek. Hertha are now second in their group, giving them a decent chance to combine their relegation battle with a few more fun trips around Europe.

One of these players just doesn’t belong. Can you tell which player is not like the others?

From left to right: former Dortmund striker Márcio Amoroso, Wolfsburg striker Grafite, Bayern striker Luca Toni and Nuremberg striker/midfielder Marek Mintal.

Rookie Coach of the Year. Also known as the Markus Babbel Trophy. Mainz 05’s coach Thomas Tuchel had been the only contender for this prestigious prize until Bochum appointed Heiko Herrlich. Herrlich didn’t have the best of starts, losing 2-1 to Frankfurt, but we’ll have to wait and see, whether he can turn it around at his club. Something that Tuchel already did in impressive fashion with Mainz. This weekend his Mainz side came back twice to draw with Wolfsburg (3-3) and grab their 18th point. 18 points don’t guarantee you a spot in next season’s Bundesliga, but it’s probably safe to say, that Mainz will be part of it nonetheless. That’s surely disappointing news for all the clubs at the bottom, who had hoped for Mainz to have a stranglehold on one of the two direct relegation spots. The Markus Babbel Trophy is not just an honor though, but also a warning, as Stuttgart are proving this season. Time will tell whether Thomas Tuchel is the next big thing in Bundesliga coaching, or just a one-hit wonder – even if it’s one claiming to have a clear vision, tactical concept, a large DVD collection and all that.

Blame Games. Hamburg decided to take things as they come and not complain too much about their ever more prominent injury list. They were playing well enough indeed and backup players stepped up to take responsibility. Hamburg drew with Leverkusen, but could argue that Leverkusen came to park the bus. Hamburg drew with Schalke, but could argue that they had to play with ten men in the second half. Hamburg lost against Mönchengladbach but are running out of arguments this time around. The blame for the defeat and for wasting the third consecutive chance to take over the top of the table is now handed back and forth between Jerome Boateng and Bruno Labbadia. Boateng had received a knock from Gladbach’s striker Raul Bobadilla and was in pain throughout the second half. He signaled that he would like to play on and stated later that he didn’t want to let his team down – there were no central defenders left on the bench. Yet, it was more than obvious for all to see that Boateng was no longer fit to play. All except Labbadia. Labbadia preferred to rely on Boateng’s error of judgement and kept him on the pitch until the 84th minute. Boateng is currently doubtful for Hamburg’s game against Celtic on Thursday by the way. Ideally, both Boateng and Labbadia will have learned a lesson from this match. One lesson Hamburg definitely haven’t learned yet though, is the one they have been taught all season long: they can’t defend their leads, independent from fit, unfit or red carded central defenders. This seems to be a general problem, similar to their tendency to completely underperform against smaller teams.

Depth. Both Leverkusen and Bremen received a lot of positive feedback for playing negative football this season. The consensus was, that both teams were less naive and more mature. In other words, both had to be considered as serious title candidates. Something which hasn’t yet been considered, when considering their title credentials, is the depth of their squads though. Leverkusen did well to compensate Patrick Helmes’ long term injury so far, thanks to Stefan Kiessling and Eren Derdiyok. They also dominated Schalke this weekend, despite missing Simon Rolfes and Renato Augusto in midfield. Yet, when Sami Hyypiä had to be substituted for Lukas Sinkiewicz, the drop in quality was immense. It probably can’t serve as the sole explanation as to why Leverkusen managed to give up a two goal lead and draw the match in the last ten minutes, but it’s still safe to say that Leverkusen have a very mediocre central defense without Hyypiä. Werder Bremen have been blessed with a mostly injury free starting eleven. The moment they lost Claudio Pizarro they also promptly struggled at Nuremberg on Saturday and needed Aaron Hunt’s last minute heroics to draw the match. But that could be a coincidence. Far more interesting will be to see, how the team reacts to the news that Torsten Frings will miss the next three weeks with a torn muscle. Werder Bremen did well to stabilize the defense this season, but they did nothing to add any depth.

Running. In the days before women cared – and were not supposed to care – about football, they denounced the sport as being a pointless game of men running after a ball for 90 minutes. Except for the pointless bit, they certainly grasped the very essence of a game, where only 1 player out of 22 is usually in control of the ball. The next best thing the other 21 players can do is to run and getting players to run remains one of the game’s biggest mysteries. This is where Lucien Favre failed and where Markus Babbel is still succeeding. Stuttgart’s players aren’t doing it in a particularly structured manner, but they are doing quite a lot of it. Enough to earn a 0-0 draw against Bayern, whose running is much more structured but still terribly uninspired.

Passing. OK, passing the ball shouldn’t be underestimated either, as Hertha proved to the world on Friday, when they failed to string together even two passes for the whole 90 minutes and subsequently failed to get anything from their game against Dortmund (2-0).

Results: Dortmund 2-0 Hertha, Wolfsburg 3-3 Mainz, Stuttgart 0-0 Bayern, Hamburg 2-3 Gladbach, Cologne 0-1 Hannover, Nuremberg 2-2 Bremen, Schalke 2-2 Leverkusen, Freiburg 0-1 Hoffenheim, Frankfurt 2-1 Bochum

Nuremberg’s goalkeeper Raphael Schäfer and Bremen’s creative midfielder Marko Marin exchange a few words during their sides’ 2-2 draw on Saturday.

(Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images)

A few years ago Toni Kroos was hailed as the next big thing in German football. He won the best player award at the 2007 U17 World Cup, joined Bayern Munich and was promised the #10 jersey. Far from claiming the shirt he instead commuted between Bayern’s bench and the reserves. Meanwhile other next big things popped up, won youth tournaments, first team starting spots and call ups to the German national team. Kroos’ young career came to halt and an Internet fake took his spot in the Times’ list of best young football talents. In January, he eventually joined Bayer Leverkusen on loan to gain some much needed match practice. He did OK so far. This season he is slowly establishing himself in Bayer’s starting eleven – scoring and assisting two goals. His second goal was this wonderful volley in this weekend’s 2-2 draw between Schalke and Leverkusen. A quick reminder of his undoubted potential.

0. The combined number of goals Bayern’s strike duo Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni scored so far this season.

1. The number of goals former Bayern striker Lukas Podolski scored so far this season. Lukas Podolski joined Cologne in the summer, after Klose and Toni were continuously given the nod ahead of him. That should show ‘em.

10. Hertha stopped their losing streak against Wolfsburg, but kept their run of games without a victory. In 1990/1991 Hertha managed 18 successive games without a victory and were duly relegated.

11. Leverkusen scored 11 of their 21 goals from set pieces.

101. Mario Gomez is the highest valued player in the Bundesliga’s official trading card game with 101 points.