vs Bundesliga Report 2007/2008: The above numbers add up to a combined revenue of €1527,6m, while the official revenue reported by the Bundesliga is €1566,931m. This might have to do with Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich were co-owners of the Allianz Arena but recently bought the shares held by 1860 Munich. In turn Bayern released two revenue figures: the one quoted above and one + Allianz Arena which is roundabout €40m higher. In that case the revenues of the 17 other clubs are more or less correct. The Bundesliga also reported that 15 of 18 clubs turned a profit as compared to 18 of 18 in the previous season. So three clubs from the above list must have had a negative result.

vs Deloitte Football Money League Deloitte further “correct” their numbers by excluding none football related income as well as one offs like transfer fees.

Warning: Revenue figures of football clubs are like possession stats after a football match. A team dominating possession doesn’t necessarily win the game and isn’t necessarily the better team. After all, Manchester City were ranked 20th in Deloitte’s money league but are the richest club in the world…

The 2. Bundesliga revenues of the three clubs promoted to the Bundesliga: Borussia Mönchengladbach (Turnover €68,7m, Profit €6,8m), FC Cologne (€42,6m, Loss €2,27m), TSG Hoffenheim (Turnover €24m, Loss €5,2m)

Bonus
Turnover 1. Bundesliga 2007/2008: €1566,931m (€1456,783m in 2006/2007, +7,3%)
Turnover 2. Bundesliga 2007/2008: €367,508m (€291,032m in 2006/2007, +23,3%)
Turnover Bundesliga 2007/2008: €1934,439m (€1747,815m in 2006/2007, +10,7%)

Combined debt: €469,453m (€510,323m in 2006/2007)
Wages to Turnover Ratio: 40%

DFB-Pokal Round of 16

SC Freiburg – FSV Mainz 05
VfB Stuttgart – Bayern Munich
Bayer Leverkusen – Energie Cottbus
Hamburger SV – 1860 Munich
Karlsruher SC – SV Wehen Wiesbaden
VfL Wolfsburg – Hansa Rostock
Carl Zeiss Jena - FC Schalke 04
Borussia Dortmund – Werder Bremen

Matches will be played on January 27th/28th 2009. We can look forward to a promising looking rematch of last year’s round of 16 clash between Dortmund and Bremen, while Stuttgart vs Bayern is obviously the one to watch in this round. Carl Zeiss Jena are the lone remaining third division (and lower) side and will take on Schalke.

UEFA Cup Group Stage

Group A: Schalke 04 (GER), Paris Saint Germain (FRA), Mancherster City (ABU DHABI), Racing Santander (ESP), FC Twente (NED)

23.10.08 Schalke – Paris Saint Germain
06.11.08 Racing Santander – Schalke
27.11.08 Schalke 04 – Manchester City
03.12.08 FC Twente – Schalke
17.12.08 -

An attractive and tough group for Schalke. Fred Rutten gets to play his former club FC Twente featuring Steve van Klaren. The home game against Man City looks promising.

Group B: SL Benfica (POR), Olympiacos (GRE), Galatasaray (TUR), Hertha Berlin (GER), Metalist Kharkiv (UKR)

23.10.08 Hertha – Benfica
06.11.08 Metalist – Hertha
27.11.08 -
03.12.08 Hertha – Galatasaray
17.12.08 Olympiacos – Hertha

Hertha’s manager Dieter Hoeness will probably have some € signs in his eyes at the moment. Hertha got an attractive group with home games against Benfica and Galatasaray. Lucien Favre might be worried that the game against Galatasaray could turn into a hostile away match, with a large Turkish community living in Berlin probably ready to send a delegation over to the Olympiastadion. The away matches look tricky as well.

Group C: Sevilla FC (ESP), VfB Stuttgart (GER), UC Sampdoria (ITA), FK Partizan (SRB), Standard de Liège (BEL)

23.10.08 Sevilla – Stuttgart
06.11.08 Stuttgart – Partizan
27.11.08 Sampdoria – Stuttgart
03.12.08 -
17.12.08 Stuttgart – Standard de Liege

A though group for Stuttgart and to make matters worse, they aren’t even getting any of the revenue guaranteeing home games against Sevilla and/or Sampdoria. Stuttgart will probably just hope to get out of the group.

Group E: AC Milan (ITA), SC Heerenveen (NED), SC Braga (POR), Portsmouth FC (ENG), VfL Wolfsburg (GER)

23.10.08 -
06.11.08 Wolfsburg – Heerenveen
27.11.08 Braga – Wolfsburg
03.12.08 Wolfsburg – Portsmouth
17.12.08 AC Milan – Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg play against AC Milan – just not at home, which is probably a bit of a disappointment for Wolfsburg’s fans.

Group F: Hamburg (GER), Ajax Amsterdam (NED), Slavia Praha (CZE), Aston Villa (ENG), MŠK Žilina (SVK)

23.10.08: MŠK Žilina – Hamburg
06.11.08: -
27.11.08: Hamburg – Ajax Amsterdam
04.12.08: Slavia Praha – HSV
17.12.08: Hamburg – Aston Villa

Hamburg fans can look forward to attractive home games against Ajax and Aston Villa, while planning a short holiday in the beautiful city of Prague. David Jarolim can look forward to a small family reunion, as Slavia is managed by his father and a cousin of him is in the squad.

Nuremberg are now in sole possession of two less than flattering relegation records. They won the relegation double, by being relegated as both champions (1969) and cup winners (2008), and they were relegated a record seventh time from the Bundesliga.

Given the quality of their squad, what will follow is a silly season where Nuremberg’s dead body is served as main course. Robert Vittek has already been linked with promoted billionarios SAP Hoffenheim. Hamburg’s preference for defenders sees them linked with Javier Pinola. Zvjezdan Misimovic could seek the grey environments of Wolfsburg to play in the UEFA Cup. Just to name three.

2. Stuttgart should just give up buying players.
Stuttgart did what Hamburg did last season and clinched a last minute Intertoto Cup spot, to savour an otherwise disappointing season. Responsible for this result were Mario Gomez senior (22 years old) and Mario Gomez junior (18 years old and also known as Manuel Fischer). Mario Gomez senior converted a penalty, after a foul on Mario Gomez junior. Then Mario Gomez junior scored a goal of his own to make it 2-1 for Stuttgart. The match ended 2-2 thanks to Stuttgart’s shaky defence.

Gomez senior and junior are both home grown players. Both didn’t cost Stuttgart millions in transfer fees. And if amateur scouts (i.e. Stuttgart fans hanging around the training ground) are to be believed, Manuel Fischer will be the next Mario Gomez. Armin Veh has asked the press not to hype the young boy too much, but since I’m not part of the press I would have done so, if it wasn’t for the lack of YouTube highlight videos, which makes blogging about him impossible of course.

3. Huub Stevens receives the perfect parting gift.
Huub Stevens has a fetish for clean sheets and his team gifted him one final clean sheet when they played Karlsruhe at home. With a total of just 26 conceded goals, Hamburg’s defence became the best ever in Hamburg’s Bundesliga history, despite the teams downward spiral in the second half of the season.

HSV fans got something for their money as well: seven goals. Hamburg’s second highest ever Bundesliga win. They managed an 8-0 win over forty years ago, and incidentally they achieved that result against Karlsruhe as well.

4. Generals cry. Titans don’t.
Much to Ray Hudson’s delight, there were lots of “meaningful wonderful heartfelt emotions” on display in the Allianz Arena, when Ottmar Hitzfeld said good-bye to the day-to-day business of league football in exchange for the cosier life as Swiss national team coach. The bar was set and Oliver Kahn was expected to follow suit, when he got substituted in the 87th minute. But Oliver Kahn doesn’t cry. There were rumours that he cried after the Getafe match, but I think they were just that – rumours.
 

 
5. Something about Swiss penalty psychology.
As a reference point, German penalty psychology is straight forward: pick your spot, don’t change your mind, score. Alexander Frei revealed that more intricate mechanisms are at work between Swiss players. Frei was awarded a penalty in Dortmund’s match against Wolfsburg and saw his spot kick saved by fellow Swiss #1 goalkeeper Diego Benaglio. Frei had picked his preferred corner, because he knew that Benaglio knew his preferred corner and thus expected that Benaglio would go the other way, because he assumed Benaglio would assume that Frei would choose the other corner, because Benaglio knows Frei’s preferred corner.

6. Luca Toni is a gunner.
Not the Arsenal type of gunner, but the type of gunner who scores 24 goals in his debut Bundesliga season, to clinch the mini-canon-turned-trophy as the league’s best goalscorer. Stuttgart fans will console themselves with the fact that Mario Gomez scores a goal every 104 minutes, while Luca Toni needs a whopping 110 minutes.

7. Leverkusen miss out on Europe.
Leverkusen were Champions League regulars, then UEFA Cup regulars and now dropped out of Europe all together thanks to a collapse in the final stretch of the season – not that this surprises people who followed Neverkusen’s failed title runs. They were still sitting pretty in fourth place ahead of matchday 34, but a 0-1 defeat to Werder Bremen saw them dropping down to seventh place.

8. Wolfsburg are in Europe.
So, one corporate toy crashed out of Europe and another corporate toy made it to Europe – and well ahead of Felix Magath’s schedule. Wolfsburg played a great second half of the season and a 4-2 victory over Dortmund sealed only their second UEFA Cup qualification and their best ever Bundesliga finish. And the Wolves have every intention to stay in the upper reaches of the table in the future. Magath’s shopping list is filled with prominent names and current World Cup winners, so they could be a team to worry about next season.

9. Martin Fenin starts his season with a hat trick and ends it with a brace.
And there was a lot of nothing in between. Too bad about all the early hype. Frankfurt consider him an investment into the future anyway. Though, the young Czech striker has now been called up to the Czech national team for the Euros. When he starts his tournament with a hat trick and ends it with a brace, a lot of Czech fans will probably be very happy.

10. Fin Bartels scores a finomenal goal.
In fact he at least scored two and I just didn’t pay enough attention to newly relegated Hansa Rostock. So, when I wrote last week, that I would miss Duisburg for the great goals they scored, I actually meant to say Rostock and Duisburg.
 

Duisburg will be missed for the great goals they scored. Rostock will be missed by somebody somewhere as well – to be fair Rostock has a big fan base in eastern Germany. And the two deserve credit for sticking to their coaches for a change and admitting that the squads simply lacked the individual quality needed to stay in the Bundesliga.

2. A comedy own-goal keeps Nuremberg alive.
This one has already been covered on our main page.

3. The Bundesliga is the league with the fewest penalties.
Your average Bundesliga referee is giving 0,19 penalties per game according to bundesliga.de. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially when you are a Nuremberg supporter. On the other hand, Babak Rafati, who refereed Nuremberg’s match against Hertha, didn’t even manage 0,19 penalties. Out of three clear penalties – two for Nuremberg and one for Hertha – he gave exactly zero.

4. Schalke play like Mirko Slomka’s Schalke minus Mirko Slomka.
Once Kevin Kuranyi’s euphoria of no longer having to keep up with Mirko Slomka was gone, Schalke returned to their old ways, which are admittedly quite successful but lacking in the Joga Bonito department. A 1-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt was enough to keep Werder Bremen within reach, who themselves demolished Hanover 6-1.

5. More records tumble.
When Aaron Hunt made it 6-0 for Bremen in the 87th minute of the aforementioned match, he became Bremen’s 20th goalscorer of the season, breaking the previous Bundesliga record set by Bremen two weeks ago. Stuttgart’s Fernando Meira meanwhile saw his third red card of the season to bring his Bundesliga career total up to six. A new VfB Stuttgart record. He’ll need three more red cards to break the Bundesliga record, currently held by Jens Nowotny with 5 straight and 3 yellow-red cards. Next week Bayern could break an age old defensive record held by Werder Bremen (no kidding!), who only conceded 22 goals in one season sometime back in the eighties. Bayern currently conceded only 20 goals, and Hertha will probably be too busy with their Fair Play to score any goals.

6. Tim Wiese doesn’t take penalties, he saves them.
Tim Wiese could have made it 21 different goalscorers for Werder Bremen. Bremen were awarded a penalty in the 80th minute and the fans in the Weserstadion started to chant Tim Wiese’s name. He got on his way but was ordered back by an angry Thomas Schaaf. Instead he once again saved one, when Huszti failed to convert a last minute spot kick awarded to Hanover. Huszti headed home the rebound so Hanover at least got their consolation goal.

7. Proof that Hamburg don’t play up to their potential.
And for that we only have to take a quick look at some of the silly season rumours floating around. Barcelona are now supposedly interested in Rafael van der Vaart, an assortment of Premier League clubs are offering between €8m to €10m for Ivica Olic and Paolo Guerrero respectively and The Voyeur could put close to €20m on the table, to make Vincent Kompany trade his Emirates sponsored jersey for an Emirates sponsored stadium. One Vincent Kompany could buy you a complete Energie Cottbus squad, who beat Hamburg 2-0 and secured another season of top flight football. Congratulations.

8. Wolfsburg’s striker Grafite has completed the unholy trinity of bad sportsmanship.
This guy is truly one to keep an eye on for future “Most Hated Player in the Bundesliga” polls. He blatantly dived and won Wolfsburg a penalty when they kicked Hamburg out of the DFB-Pokal. Then he angrily stamped on Joris Mathijsen’s hand and got himself a red card, when the two sides met again in the Bundesliga. On Saturday he “showed an oscar-worthy performance of the dying swan” (as in a movie adaption of the ballet dance The Dying Swan I suppose), when he faked an injury after Meira had hit his arm.

9. Keep your goalkeeper, save the world.
Once I’m done writing the pilot for my Heroes rip-off series, that’ll be the line to sell it to TV stations. And here are some key plot points: Timo Hildebrand left Stuttgart to realise his childhood dream and win the Copa del Rey with Valencia. Raphael Schäfer, who won the DFB-Pokal with Nuremberg, came in as his replacement. Valencia crash-landed in La Liga switching back and forth between Hildebrand and Canizares in the process. Nuremberg switch back and forth between their keepers and crash-land in the relegation zone. Stuttgart nervously switch back and forth between Schäfer and some 19 year old talent, and could lose out on Europe next season in the process.

10. Karlsruhe stroll down the table.
Karlsruhe’s coach Ede Becker didn’t announce that he’ll move to Eindhoven nor does the team suffer from a nasty injury crisis. But a 1-3 home defeat against Bochum sees Karlsruhe slowly trotting down into the relegation zone. Probably so that their fans can get used to it for next season. So much for what could have been the positive surprise team of the season. This award will probably go to Energie Cottbus again.

1. Bremen and Schalke win Champions League race.
Both Hamburg and Stuttgart bagged impressive victories during the weekend, keeping the slim hope that they could still beat either Bremen or Schalke to their Champions League spot alive. Hamburg were hosting Bremen on Wednesday, and a derby victory would have reduced Bremen’s lead to just three points with two matches to go. Something which would have been to Stuttgart’s liking as well, who could have closed in on Bremen with a victory over Dortmund. Schalke had to visit Bochum to play out a small Revierderby. Bochum had only lost one game at home this season, so there was hope Schalke could drop points here as well.

That’s the theory. The reality produced a rare Borussia Dortmund victory (3-2). Alexander Frei bagged a brace, which should come as good news to all the Switzerland fans ahead of the Euros. Mario Gomez bagged a brace as well, which would come as good news to Germany fans, if we weren’t spoiled and used to his heroics by now. Hamburg then lost 1-0 against Bremen in a dirty epic (minus the epic), which produced eight yellow and two red cards. With five of the yellow and all red cards going to Bremen. Meanwhile Schalke confidently beat Bochum 3-0 effectively ending both Hamburg’s and Stuttgart’s Champions League hopes.

That means Bayern were the only team who could break into the Champions League places; at the expense of Stuttgart. Kudos to the Bavarians for keeping the league open and unpredictable.

2. Mario Gomez sneaks up on Luca Toni.
Gomez scored three goals in the last two matches to take his goal tally to 18. That’s still three goals short of Luca Toni. Though, when we can spend a whole season pretending there’s a title race going on, we can also pretend Mario Gomez has a chance for the golden boot also known as Torjägerkanone in Germany.

3. Tim Wiese sneaks up on Ivica Olic.
Just when Tim Wiese decides to sneak up on somebody it looks like this.

4. Werder Bremen are on the verge of becoming a big club.
A truly big club should be loved and loathed in equal proportions. Werder Bremen have so far received way too much love for their clever scouting and attractive attacking football to be considered a big club. But this season has seen some baby-steps in the right direction. There have been some campaigns to denounce Diego as a diver – even though they came from a club whose Italian hitman goes down suspiciously easy as well – and the team gets away with some atrocious fouls, followed by atrocious comments. That’s a start.

5. Schalke win the Ruhr Valley Championship.
Or Grand Slam. Schalke haven’t been German champions for 50 years, and Dortmund are already planing festivities to commemorate the event. But at least they are the undisputed kings of the Ruhr Valley this season, by beating Dortmund, Duisburg and Bochum away and at home.

6. Wolfsburg would play Champions League and Hertha would compete in the Intertoto Cup.
In a virtual second half of the season table Wolfsburg sit in third position and Hertha in sixth. Maybe this foreshadows some of the things to come next season or it’s just a statistical gimmick. But both are the in-form teams of the moment. Hertha’s two victories against Karlsruhe and Leverkusen won’t get them anywhere though. Yet, Wolfsburg’s draw with Bayern and win over Frankfurt sees them level on points with Leverkusen. Wolfsburg will host Stuttgart tomorrow in a UEFA Cup six-pointer. Hertha could end Nuremberg’s Bundesliga days with a victory at home.

7. Some new developments in the relegation snail race.
No club has officially been relegated yet, but Hansa Rostock and Duisburg have emerged as the hot favourites. Rostock have lost their games against Hamburg and Hanover and now need to overcome a five point deficit in two games. Duisburg bagged a dramatic last minute victory over Leverkusen on Sunday, but then lost a relegation six-pointer against Nuremberg on Wednesday. They are only three points away from safety, but will face Bayern Munich tomorrow. Nuremberg sits on the heels of Bielefeld (1 point) and Cottbus (2 points) but will have to face in-form Hertha away and Schalke at home. With a bit of luck the whole relegation race will go down the wire, to ensure lots of drama for the final matchday.

8. Leverkusen have their predictable annual Michael Skibbe crisis.
I don’t follow Leverkusen very closely, but at least once every year their fans turn against Michael Skibbe after a run of bad results. It hasn’t cost him his job in the past and I hope it won’t this time around either. His Leverkusen side played some attractive attacking football this season under Skibbe.

9. The Bundesliga has a goalkeeper problem.
And it’s not a luxury problem. Whether it’s Rapahel Schäfer at Stuttgart, Tim Wiese at Bremen, Marc Ziegler/Roman Weidenfeller at Dortmund, Manuel Neuer at Schalke or Michael Rensing at Bayern. They all played erratic, insecure and made some blunders, which cost or could have cost their teams a match. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. But since other people sometimes exaggerate the quality of German keepers, it’s worth grounding them for once.

10. Karlsruhe are relegation material.
Again referring to the second half of the season table, where Karlsruhe sit in 16th position. If you add to the small exodus of players at the end of the season, you could predict a very rough second season for the Bundesliga newbies.

2. Werder Bremen break a record.
And it comes with a complete lack of surprise, that it’s a goal scoring related record. Former Schalke youngster Mesut Özil scored his first (flukey) Bundesliga goal against Karlsruhe on Saturday. He was Bremen’s 19th player to score a goal this season. No other team in the history of the Bundesliga had 19 different goal scorers in one season. Yet, all this attacking versatility was once again coupled with defensive clumsiness and the match ended 3-3.

3. Kevin Kuranyi could break a record.
It’s his own Bundesliga goal scoring record. He never scored more than 15 goals a season. His early and winning goal against Hamburg, in the otherwise anti-climactic/anti-quality Champions League showdown, was his 15th of the season and now he has four more games to break his record. Or maybe it just means that Kuranyi won’t score any more goals this season.

4. Bremen and Schalke closed in on the Champions League.
Bremen’s draw with Karlsruhe and Schalke’s 1-0 victory over Hamburg were enough to open a six point lead over their three Champions League competitors. Bremen still have to travel to Hamburg and Leverkusen though.

5. Hamburg have collapsed.
Hamburg’s assessment center is still busy trying to find the perfect coach. Meanwhile, all the good coaches join other clubs or renew their contracts. Huub Stevens has the health of his wife to worry about. Rafael van der Vaart needs to decide where in Spain he wants to earn his money in the future: Valencia, London or maybe Milan? Little details, which might or might not have a negative impact on the team. Maybe Hamburg were playing beyond their means and are now back on planet Earth. Hamburg died a slow death during the second half of the season and more in depth forensic analysis is needed.

6. Leverkusen have semi-collapsed.
Wolfsburg were very lucky to draw the corporate derby against Leverkusen (2-2). But Leverkusen were again anything but convincing. Except for Rene Adler who is in excellent form (for the Euros?). Leverkusen, Hamburg and Stuttgart now form an UEFA Cup/Intertoto Cup trio with 48 points each.

7. Cottbus will probably stay in touch with the outside world for one more season.
Cottbus comes from the Sorbian Chóśebuz which means “pretty houses”. And maybe they have pretty houses in Cottbus. Few really dare to find out. The city lies in the far east of Germany close to the Polish border, and isn’t the first choice destination of the travelling support of other Bundesliga clubs. Energie Cottbus isn’t the first choice destination of many people in Cottbus either. Maybe because they are enjoying their pretty houses so much. Fact is, Energie Cottbus’ Stadium of Friendship only rarely enjoys a sell out crowd. There were only three sell out crowds since returning to the Bundesliga. Two of them were against Bayern, the third now came courtesy of an extra 3000 Hansa Rostock fans, who came to Cottbus for a crucial relegation six-pointer. And Cottbus won the game 2-1, after being one nil and one man down, handing the team a five point lifeline at the bottom of the table.

8. Duisburg keep scoring wonder goals – keep getting closer to relegation.
Duisburg’s players have a knack for scoring high quality goals. Those goals just aren’t enough to move Duisburg out of the relegation zone. This week Claudiu Niculescu scored a great goal from a free kick to make it 1-0 against Bochum. Sestak later equalised for Bochum to keep Duisburg at the wrong end of the table. The smaller clubs don’t receive a lot of love from this blog, and to change this a little bit, here’s a highlight reel of some of the goals Duisburg scored in the second half of the season – right up to Blagoy Georgiev’s beauty against Schalke.
 

9. Nuremberg are too dumb to stay up.
Nuremberg played host to relegation rival Bielefeld and stormed to a 2-0 lead at half time, just to give up the lead in the second half again. A demoralising draw sees them two points away from safety – coincidentally now enjoyed by Bielefeld. At least they will visit another demoralised team next week: Borussia Dortmund.

10. There could be a back door to Europe for Hertha.
Hertha drew their third match in a row and videos of those matches are now being used by teachers to explain the term mid-table. The complete meaninglessness of those matches also had a positive impact on Hertha’s yellow and red card statistics. Joe Simunic now rather blunders embarrassingly than getting send off embarrassingly. There is a chance that Hertha are topping the DFL’s internal Fair Play Ranking – which also takes other things into account, like the behaviour of the fans, so it’s hard to tell exactly. The Bundesliga is among the eight leagues with the highest UEFA Fair Play score. The highest ranked Bundesliga team will take part in a lottery with teams from the other leagues. With a bit of luck all teams from the Bundesliga Offside could play in Europe next season.

Abby doesn’t like the thought of it. She doesn’t feel the squad has the depth to compete in Europe and in the Bundesliga at once. Dieter Hoeneß likes the thought of it. Where it = money.

2. Werder Bremen announced their comeback.
And 18 minutes of highlights per 90 minutes ain’t bad.
 

3. Schalke is Schalke.
Schalke played some attractive football for a change. The defence was reminiscent of Werder circa two weeks ago and the offence was as un-clinical as Schalke can get. And that made the difference. Mirko Slomka also did as the fans and management demanded and played the winter signings Sanchez and Streit. Both added even more un-clinical finishing to Schalke’s game.

Either the attractive football and the bad result this weekend or the good results and unattractive football before must have had things turn against Mirko Slomka. He finally got fired. And since Schalke’s president once publicly undermined Slomka’s authority by stating, that Schalke might need a coach with international standing, it doesn’t surprise me at all, that the relatively unknown Dutch newcomer Fred Rutten is now the favourite to get the job.

4. Bayern Munich needed a rest after those epic 120 minutes against Getafe.
So why play the full 90 minutes, when you can put four goals past Dortmund in a fraction of the time; 22 minutes to be precise. Hitzfeld then allowed his players to do as they please for the remaining 68 minutes. Some went home early for dinner, some read a book and Andreas Ottl couldn’t resist adding a fifth goal in the second half.

5. Thomas Doll plays mind games with Bayern Munich.
He has now successfully tricked Bayern Munich into believing, that his Dortmund side is a mess. That his defence is too old and that his goalkeeper makes one crucial mistake per game. This is going to be one hell of a rude awakening for Bayern, when they meet a completely different Dortmund side for the cup final in Berlin. Yes, that must be it.

6. Hertha played away at Bochum and the match ended 1-1.
This one is for Abby, so she won’t have to write a match recap.

7. The newest club in crisis: Hamburg.
They were in a bit of a crisis before, but at least they were sitting pretty in the table. The worst performance of the season, and subsequently their first defeat at home at the hands of bottom side Duisburg, has changed all that. Hamburg have been dumped to fifth place and need to be careful not to throw it all away in the final stretch of the season. Josip Simunic should also teach Huub’s boys a thing or two about anger management.

8. 10 versus 11 is becoming fashionable.
Bayern came from behind to beat Bochum 3-1 with ten men. Just a few days later Getafe almost managed the same against Bayern. Now Hanover beat Frankfurt 2-1 being one man down. I’m starting to understand Mark van Bommel and his constant sending offs. He is a true leader and does everything for Bayern.

9. Yes, Karlsruhe still exist.
They were the positive surprise of the first half of the season and looked like UEFA Cup contenders. Then one player after the other jumped ship for more lucrative contracts with other Bundesliga clubs. And just like next season’s Karlsruhe squad fell apart, this season’s campaign did the same. Karlsruhe lost against Rostock and are five points behind the Intertoto Cup spot.

10. Bayer Leverkusen may be back or VfB Stuttgart may have a goalkeeper problem.
Bayer Leverkusen beat Stuttgart 3-0 and there is a good chance, that Leverkusen is back in the running for the Champions League. Though, we’ll only know for sure, once Leverkusen play against a team, whose goalkeeper isn’t responsible for two (and a half) of those three goals.

2. There are average 2-2 draws.
You could call them hard fought draws as well, which probably works better to sell the positive aspects of such a match. The midtable fixture between Hanover and Karlsruhe at least made sure, that the whole midtable section remains pretty close together. A less nitpicky referee would have overlooked a little scuffle in the box and awarded Hanover a winning third goal. This would have ruined my clever little listing of draws counting from one to three though. Lucky me.

3. There are rubbish 3-3 draws.
Shinji Ono’s impressive debut for Bochum against Bremen attracted a host of Japanese reporters, to see him play his first home match against Cottbus. They had to wait until the second half, but were at least rewarded with Ono setting up a goal from a set piece. Probably the only goal that can be attributed more to skill and less to defensive or goalkeeping blunders. The latter making up the five other goals. Fill the rest of the match with bad football and you successfully dampened thoughts of Bochum already being more than a bottom dweller.

4. A lesson about quantity and quality.
See 1 to 3.

5. Thomas Doll tries hard to pass as a modern/good coach.
I still remember when Jürgen Klinsmann resigned his post as national team coach and Michael Ballack suggested appointing someone like Thomas Doll as his successor. That was a time when Thomas Doll was considered to be among a young breed of progressive coaches. Someone who embraces modern training methods and specialised coaching staff. That was before he shipwrecked Hamburg, before his mental coach went mental and before you questioned yourself, whether the expensive video match surveillance system Dortmund bought for him, actually has any benefit, if the coach has no clue what to make with all the data. It was also before you realised that Thomas Doll is operating within a space of five catch phrases („I’ll continue to go my way.“), which he then willingly explains in more detail if someone dares asking („It’s… that I will follow my path and not someone else’s.“).

6. Only one of last years’s top three coaches still has his job.
Petrik Sander was the first to go. He had kept Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga against all odds, and was voted third best coach of the year in return. Hans Meyer guided Nuremberg to their biggest success in several decades by winning the DFB-Pokal. This earned him the second place in the vote. He just got fired, after an unconvincing draw with relegation rival Rostock established Nuremberg at the wrong end of the table. Which also means, there’s little reason for me to care too much about Nuremberg anymore. This leaves Armin Veh, coach of the year 2007, as the lone survivor of season 2006/2007. There’s an extra lesson about the eternal laws of the game in there.

7. It’s Groundhog Day for Hertha.
Last minute dealings on the transfer market, a shambolic performance away at Frankfurt, perceived relegation strugglers and an unlikely 3-1 victory at home against Stuttgart. Last minute dealings on the transfer market, a shambolic performance at home against Frankfurt, perceived relegation strugglers and an unlikely 3-1 victory away at Stuttgart. For less predictable content check out Abby’s Hertha Offside.

8. Fenin Fever remains well intact.
Martin Fenin was supposedly to blame that Frankfurt sold an extra 5000 tickets for their first home game of the year. He didn’t emulate his hat trick, but was instrumental setting up Frankfurt’s first goal against Bielefeld and scored the second one himself. That should be enough to keep ticket sales rising.

9. Schalke win the double.
As Dave informed us, neither Dortmund nor Schalke managed to win the Revierderby double since 1997. Schalke’s 3-2 victory over Dortmund changed that and a Champions League spot was the just reward. If Schalke are ready for more heartbreak, they should start hoping to catch Bayern again, who are only five points away.

10. It was a smart marketing move to buy Japanese.
Bochum wasn’t the only club swamped with Japanese media representation. It was the same in Wolfsburg, where Makoto Hasebe gave his starting XI debut. Bochum, Wolfsburg and Frankfurt aren’t the most flashy Bundesliga clubs yet, but judging by the current interest, they might steal a few Japanese fans away from Manchester United or Oliver Kahn.

2. Werder Bremen
A blatant offside for the first goal. A harsh red on Naldo. Did they lose the title on two terrible calls in their 2-1 defeat at home to Bochum?

3. Bayer Leverkusen
This team is going to need to hang onto this position for dear life if they hope to keep hold of Rene Adler, Tranquillo Barnetta and Gonzalo Castro this summer.

4. Hamburg SV
Am I the only neutral hoping that this is Hamburg’s final position? Considering manager Huup Stevens will be leaving, as well as talisman Rafael van der Vaart, and possibly budding star Vincent Kompany, I can’t help but imagine that they will have a tough time in Champions League next year. And we desperately need to boost the UEFA coefficient.

5. Schalke 04
Their ability to score, as in the 4-1 victory over Stuttgart, seems poised on the ability of a team without natural wide players to stretch the field. Westermann did a good job of overlapping on the left, the forwards played from the center out and Rakitic and Kobiashvili did a good job of playing wide on the weekend. Their dearth of draws have come from playing exclusively through the middle.

6. Karlsruhe
It is time that we all start to recognize that Edmund Becker’s left back Christian Eichner is one of the best in the Bundesliga. He scored a sublime goal in Karlsruhe’s 2-0 win against Nurnberg.

7. Hannover 96
It was another gritty performance for the Reds, drawing away to HSV, as they continue to impress this campaign. On a lighter note, next year they will be the first major professional team to be outfitted by America’s newest sporting line Under Armor. It’s tight fitting, so work on you pecs and abs.

8. Eintracht Frankfurt
Well somebody made the best move in the January window and I can tell you 17 teams that aren’t that someone. Martin Fenin, who snubbed a move to Juventus, joined and immediately scored a hat-trick for his new club. If the Czech starlet continues to shine, Frankfurt could be chasing Europe by year’s end.

9. Stuttgart
Slotting in at left-back, youth team call-up Christian Träsch performed admirably in his first game for Armin Veh at a position crippled by the ANC and injuries. He was the only positive for the Swabians in their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Schalke.

10. Wolfsburg
This has become the hardest team to judge on a weekly basis. While that epitomizes a mid-table team, their upset of Schalke in the DFB Cup makes me suspect this team could be making another 1995 run.

11. Bochum
You know that somebody somewhere threw a €10 spot on Bochum in the 70th minute, even though they were trailing in Bremen, which is a place they have never won since joining the Bundesliga in 1971. In their 31st attempt and trailing the mighty Green and Whites, they did the unthinkable and some drunk won a lot of money somewhere. I imagine he lost the slip.

12. Borussia Dortmund
Having lambasted Roman Weidenfelder mercilessly, it now seems that I have to admit to being wrong. His injury and Jens Lehmenn’s snub might leave the giants struggling for the remainder of this season as Marc Ziegler looked inept in goal during the 3-3 draw with bottom-dwelling Duisburg.

13. Hertha Berlin
The goals have dried up, and while they added new forwards in the January window, they did little to find link play, which is what they are lacking right now. The home loss to Wolfsburg has them teetering on the edge of relegation after a promising start.

14. Arminia Bielefeld
At this point, I am starting to believe they only fired Ernst Middendorp so that they could rehire him for the umpteenth time to save them.

15. Hansa Rostock
They may have well deserved a point against the Bavarian giants for their tenacious second half performance, especially Stein and Kern. But as well we all know you can’t miss your chances against Bayern.

16. Nurnberg
You know how some teams just play better when reduced to 10 men? When Andreas Wolf was sent off in the 57th for a string of cynical fouls during their 2-0 loss to KSC, Nurnberg was definitely not one of those teams.

17. Energie Cottbus
I never think firing a manager early in the season is intelligent; however, the move from Petrik Sander to Bojan Prašnikar has seen their offense start to perform in spades. If the timing of two late runs had been a fraction better, they could have well upset Leverkusen.

18. Duisburg
Dropping a two-goal lead twice against a mid-table club at home is a pretty good indication that they should be preparing for life in Zwei next year.

2. There is one thing in this world you can rely on.
And that’s controversial refereeing decisions or straight out bad calls. This weekend has seen plenty, with close penalty calls and debatable offside decisions coupled with a bad day at the office. Bottom dwellers Energie Cottbus will be especially cursing their luck, as two goals were denied for offside, while Bayer Leverkusen on the other side was given a late penalty to clinch all three points (3-2). TV replays would back either the referee or Energie Cottbus, depending on which TV station you tuned in, thus: in dubio pro referee. That Bochum’s equaliser against Bremen came from a blatantly obvious offside position, was so blatantly obvious, that the referee didn’t even try to talk his way out of the situation, and instead apologised to Bremen for his temporary blackout.

3. Onos can be blamed for many things.
The Yoko type for the Beatles breaking up. The Shinji type for Bremen losing three important points in the title race, as he assisted both goals, which eventually downed Bremen 2-1. Shinji Ono has been plagued with injuries in the past, but if he stays fit, Bochum will have made quite a bargain (€500000) of a winter transfer.

4. A new Word: Feninism.*
Frankfurt can boast Germany’s most successful women’s football team with FFC Frankfurt; serial women’s Bundesliga champions and cup winners and home to serial women’s World Footballer of the Year and World Cup winner Birgit Prinz. Things aren’t looking as rosy on the men’s side though. Eintracht Frankfurt had slid down in the Bundesliga pecking order, came close to bankruptcy and jojo’ed between the first and second Bundesliga in the past. Solid management by Heribert Bruchhagen and solid coaching by Friedhelm Funkel have turned things around though. The club is debt free and surprised everyone in the winter, when they revealed they had €10m lying around on their bank account. Money they didn’t even had to touch to buy Juventus target Martin Fenin, as he was basically refinanced with the sales of Albert Streit and Naohiro Takahara. And Fenin had quite the debut, to put it mildly, scoring a hatrick against Berlin. Even more impressive was the way he linked up with Frankfurts’s captain Amanatidis, who set up all of his goals. Something to look forward to: Frankfurt also invested around €4m to buy a Brazilian playmaker called Caio, who has yet to make his debut…
* invented by Holz over at the Guardian sportblog.

5. Sebastian Kehl don’t need no feet.
I’ll copy this one straight from chris over at our main page.
I don’t know which impresses me more: that Kehl scored with his back or that after he scored he ran away nonchalantly as if to say, “yeah, that was totally planned”. I’ll go with the latter. Dortmund needed the whole of Kehl’s anatomy too, as they picked up a draw in a 6 goal thriller with Duisburg.
To add a personal note, here is a new video of his goal with a behind goal camera perspective and a cheerful Sebastian Kehl afterwards.

6. Kevin Kuranyi uses his head.
Kevin Kuranyi came back from his pneumonia and headed home the first goal for Schalke against Stuttgart, from a perfectly timed trademark precision Ivan Rakitic free kick. Not necessarily something we would need to learn by now. There aren’t many, if any, strikers in Germany, who can match Kuranyi’s aerial effectiveness. But I need to tell you this to set up a proper context for the 7th thing we learned.

7. Kevin Kuranyi doesn’t use his head.
He didn’t need to for Schalke’s second goal, which he poached over the goal line, following a blunder by Raphael Schäfer. Though, he should have used his head afterwards, as he, overwhelmed with bliss, pulled of his shirt and got his fifth yellow card, which means he won’t feature in next week’s all important Revierderby against Borussia Dortmund. The game against Stuttgart ended 4-1 BTW.

8. Only 1% of Berlin cares about Hertha
That’s discounting the metropolitan area and the fact that there probably were a few Eintracht Frankfurt fans in the Olympiastadion. But 35000 for a Bundesliga match in a 74000 seater stadium is, well, quite embarrassing considering Frankfurt average almost 50000, which would be 10% of Frankfurt. Not to speak of 1899 Hoffenheim in the second Bundesliga. A village with 3272 inhabitants and their team averages over 6000 per game.

9. Joshua Kennedy takes pride in the words „Ich bin ein Karlsruher.“
No longer wanted, or deemed not good enough, at Nuremburg, Kennedy moved to Karlsruhe during the winter break. Incidentally the two clubs played each other this weekend and incidentally Kennedy assisted the first goal and scored the second one himself in KSC’s 2-0 victory. Karlsruhe lie in sixth position, two points short of a Champions League spot, and are close to achieve their goal of staying in the Bundesliga.

10. The DFB-Pokal Quarter Final Fixtures.
VfL Wolfsburg – Hamburg
Borussia Dortmund – 1899 Hoffenheim
VfB Stuttgart – Carl Zeiss Jena
Bayern Munich – 1860 Munich