Here are last weekend’s results including not just the goals but also the “mileage” of all players of a team combined and the percentage of possession.*

Three teams who dominated possession won their games. Six teams who ran the most won their games. Only Kaiserslautern ran considerably more than their opponent and lost. Hoffenheim ran just a little bit more than Hanover, in a game that could have also been a draw. Mainz and Leverkusen with almost identical numbers, in a game Mainz won because of more or less two own goals.

Would be interesting to see, whether this pattern could stand the test of a whole season.

* except for Augsburg vs Freiburg, where no tracking information was available.

#4 Bayern Munich
Current Value: $1,048 mil
1-yr Value Change (U.S.): 6%
Revenues: $396 mil
#12 Schalke 04
Current Value: $377 mil
1-yr Value Change (U.S.): -2%
Revenues: $171 mil
#14 Hamburger SV
Current Value: $340 mil
1-yr Value Change (U.S.): 3%
Revenues: $179 mil
#16 VfB Stuttgart
Current Value: $281 mil
1-yr Value Change (U.S.): 0%
Revenues: $141 mil
#17 Werder Bremen
Current Value: $279 mil
1-yr Value Change (U.S.): 2%
Revenues: $147 mil
#20 Borussia Dortmund
Current Value: $260 mil
1-yr Value Change (U.S.): -1%
Revenues: $124 mil

Bayern Munich broke the billion dollar barrier for the first time, thanks to reaching the Champions League final and winning the domestic double.

VfB Stuttgart meanwhile seems to have an oddly volatile value. I’ve taken a look at previous editions of this list and Stuttgart appears to be dropping in and out every other year. Stuttgart wasn’t in the Top 25 in the 2008 edition of the list, where the lowest ranked club was valued at $187m. Then Stuttgart dropped in with a value of $264m in 2009 and dropped out again in 2010, where the lowest valued team in the Top 20 was Newcastle at €198m. Now the club is back in with a value of $281m and with Forbes claiming a 1-yr value change of 0%.

So, in case you wondered whether you really should take this list seriously and whether Forbes is working thoroughly? I guess, no and no.

0. Bayern scored 0 goals in their past three Bundesliga games. The last time Bayern went without a goal for three Bundesliga matches was 12 years ago. The goal drought combined with just 5 points from four matches tops last season’s bad start, making this one the worst in 34 years.

0. Schalke never before lost their first 4 Bundesliga matches. A team that has lost its’ first 4 matches never finished the season better than 11th.

1. Mainz are top of the Bundesliga for the first time in the club’s history. It’s also, obviously, the club’s best ever start to a season. Mainz are the 31st different club to top the league.

8. Bayern couldn’t win a home game against Cologne for 8 years. Cologne cheated a bit by hiding in the second division a couple of years though making it only 5 consecutive undefeated games in Munich. This makes Cologne the only Bundesliga side yet undefeated in the Allianz Arena.

9. Walking in the shadow of Mainz, SC Freiburg collected an impressive 9 points, making it their best ever start to a Bundesliga season.

3000. Luiz Gustavo scored the first goal and his first ever Bundesliga goal in Hoffenheim’s 2-2 draw with Kaiserslautern. He became the 3000th different goalscorer in Bundesliga history.

460.000. The Bundesliga sold close to 460.000 season tickets this year, easily topping last year’s record of 435.000 season tickets. Borussia Dortmund contributed the most to this record with 51.000 season ticket holders.

197. Not just the local fans are eager to see their favorite clubs back in action. A record 197 countries tuned in live to see the Bundesliga’s curtain raiser between Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg – up from 179 last year.

3.11. For the first time, the Bundesliga has its’ own official matchball. It’s called Torfabrik (”goal factory”) and started producing a respectable 3.11 goals per match; well above last season’s average of 2.83. All the more respectable, given that it’s really just a Jabulani in disguise.

87. The new season started off with an all-time Bundesliga record. Cologne’s central defender Youssef Mohamad was sent off against Kaiserslautern after just 87 seconds. The fastest red card in Bundesliga history. Cologne managed to take the lead nonetheless and hold on to it for 70 minutes, before eventually conceding three late goals. The defeat means, that Cologne are now waiting for over 20 years or 23 games for a victory over Kaiserslautern. Makes the red devils a pretty impressive bogey team.

250. Leverkusen’s comfortable 2-0 win over Dortmund was Jupp Heynckes’ 250th victory as Bundesliga coach.

The World Cup is over. The majority of fans had their hopes dashed and their expectations disappointed. Time to shift our focus to a new season of Bundesliga football. One that will invariably dash the hopes and disappoint the expectations of a majority of fans come May 2011. But for now, everything – from trophies, relegation, promotion or the birth of a new superstar – is still a possibility for every fan of every club. One of the few good aspects of pre-season.

What else can we look forward to?

NEW BALL
For the first time in Bundesliga history the league will get its’ own official matchball. The DFL signed a deal with adidas worth €5m a season. A move welcomed by goalkeepers, who hate all those new unpredictable balls, but at least there’s only one ball to hate from now on.

The new ball is called Torfabrik which translates to “Goal Factory”. So you know what to expect from the ball, set to be unleashed on the highest scoring of the big European leagues. Well, countless complaints from goalkeepers, coaches and players of course, because it’s the very same technology/ball as the much celebrated Jabulani; just repackaged and rebranded. But since the Jabulani had already been used by adidas sponsored Bundesliga teams last season without all the tohubohu, we can probably look forward to high scoring low altitude fun times in Bundesliga stadiums.

NEW LOGO
Just in time everybody has an iPhone and is growing tired of the glossy aqua look, the DFL chose to refresh its’ logo. The DFL ordered a little cosmetic makeover for the Bundesliga brand, and the updated logo will be part of a complete relaunch of the Bundesliga website in August. We can probably also expect slightly changed TV overlay graphics, alpha transitions, stationeries and pens.

NEW SEASON
The new Bundesliga season is still about a month away, but we’ll only have to wait another week for a first glimpse of competitive football. VfB Stuttgart will be the first Bundesliga side involved in more than pre-season kickabouts, when they enter the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

Europa League Third Qualifying Round
29th July, Molde (Norway) / Jelgava (Latvia) vs Stuttgart
5th August, Stuttgart vs Molde/Jelgava

Norwegian side Molde take a slim 1-0 home victory to Latvia. If you like to do some scouting, you can try your luck to find a stream/broadcast for the second leg on Thursday (18.00 CET).

DFL Supercup
7th August, 17.45h CET, Bayern vs Schalke (in Augsburg)

International Friendly
11th August, 20.30h CET, Denmark vs Germany (in Copenhagen)

DFB-Pokal First Round
The Bundesliga (+ Hertha and Bochum) club’s first round opponents:

13th August, 19.00h CET, SV Wilhelmshaven vs Eintracht Frankfurt, VfL Osnabrück vs Kaiserslautern
14th August, 15.30h CET, FK Pirmasens vs Bayer Leverkusen, Wacker Burghausen vs Borussia Dortmund, SV Babelsberg 03 vs VfB Stuttgart, FC Oberneuland vs SC Freiburg, SC Pfullendorf vs Hertha Berlin, Rot Weiss Ahlen vs Werder Bremen, Hansa Rostock vs 1899 Hoffenheim, Chemnitzer FC vs FC St. Pauli
14th August, 19.30h CET, SV Elversberg vs Hannover 96, Erzgebirge Aue vs Mönchengladbach,
15th August, 14.30h CET, Meuselwitz vs Cologne
15th August, 16.00h CET, Eintracht Trie vs 1. FC Nuremberg, Berliner AK vs Mainz 05
15th August, 17.30h CET, Torgelower SV Greif vs Hamburger SV, Preußen Münster vs VfL Wolfsburg, Kickers Offenbach vs VfL Bochum
16th August, 18.00h CET, Germania Windeck vs Bayern Munich
16th August, 20.30h CET, VfR Aalen vs Schalke 04

Champions League/Europa League Group Stage Play-offs
17th/18th August and 24/25th August, Werder Bremen vs potentially: Sampdoria Genoa (ITA), Auxerre (FRA), Fenerbahce (TUR), Kiev (UKR), Braga (POR), Celtic (SCO), Urziceni (ROM), PAOK Saloniki (GRE), Bern (SUI), Gent (BEL)

19th/26th August, Leverkusen, Dortmund (and Stuttgart).

Bundesliga Matchday 1
20th August, 18.00h CET, Hertha vs Oberhausen
20th August, 20.30h CET, Bayern Munich vs VfL Wolfsburg
21st August, 15.30h CET, Hoffenheim vs Werder, Mönchengladbach vs Nuremberg, Cologne vs Kaiserslautern, Freiburg vs St. Pauli, Hannover vs Frankfurt
21st August, 18.30h CET, HSV vs Schalke 04
22nd August, 15.30h, Mainz 05 vs Stuttgart
22nd August, 17.30h, Dortmund vs Leverkusen

Bayern kick off the new season at home against Steve McClaren’s Wolfsburg. Hamburg and Schalke go head to head on Saturday night. Dortmund and Leverkusen conclude the first matchday on Sunday. Some good match-ups to get the season started.

Relegated but not forgotten: Hertha will serve season opener Hors d’œuvre on Friday, when they host Oberhausen. Their first real test will come the following week, when they travel to Düsseldorf, to take on Fortuna – unbeaten at home last season – for some Monday Night Football.

2.29. VfB Stuttgart’s new coach Christian Gross has turned his club’s fortunes around to the tune of an impressive 2.29 pts per game. That’s currently the highest ever points per game ratio of all VfB Stuttgart coaches, with Matthias Sammer coming a distant second (1.71 pts per game). During his time at Basel, Christian Gross always managed 2+ pts per game a season. Stuttgart’s form under Gross has elevated the team from 16th to 7th place, with an Europa League spot within reach. Markus Babbel is living proof how little such impressive points per game ratios mean. At the same point in his Stuttgart career Markus Babbel comfortably topped Gross with a record 2.43 pts per game. When he was sacked, his ratio had dropped to 1.66 pts per game.

188. Mainz midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz was red carded after just 188 seconds, in his club’s game against Nuremberg. He can now claim to have received the fastest red card in Bundesliga history. He beat the record, previously held by Markus Babbel, by 5 seconds.

70. Bayern Munich needed just 70 seconds to put two goals in the back of Schalke’s net, who still claim to have the Bundesliga’s best defense. They beat the season record of 104 seconds, held by Frankfurt, who recently needed 104 seconds to make Bayern’s weekend as miserable as Schalke’s. While Schalke eventually managed to pull one back, Munich held out for a 2-1 victory to move back to the top of the table. They did this despite being reduced to ten men late in the first half.

7. Seven players were sent off this weekend. A season record.

7. Stuttgart’s striker Ciprian Marica has scored seven goals this season. His seventh was a crucial equalizer against Mönchengladbach on Saturday. He scored one more goal than in his two previous seasons combined. All seven goals were scored after Gross took over as Stuttgart coach.

4. Hannover’s 2-1 win over Freiburg was their first win in the Bundesliga in 4 months. It was also their first victory since Robert Enke’s death.

17. Bayern’s midfield talent David Alaba was 17 years, 8 months and 10 days old when he debuted in the Bundesliga against Cologne, making him Bayern’s youngest ever Bundesliga player. David Alaba was 17 years, 3 months and 20 days old when he debuted for the Austrian senior national team, making him the youngest ever Austrian international. With 17 years, 8 months and 13 days he could also become Bayern’s youngest ever Champions League player tonight. Alaba is the son of a Nigerian father and a Filipino mother and was born in Vienna / Austria. He went through the Austria Vienna youth system, before joining Bayern the Arsenal way at the age of 16. Dortmund’s midfield strategist Nuri Sahin was 16 years, 11 months and 1 day old, when he debuted in the Bundesliga, claiming the title for youngest ever Bundesliga player. Compared to him Alaba is basically an old fart.

24. Leverkusen were finally beaten by Nuremberg on Sunday, but Jupp Heynckes still improved his previous start record of 23 unbeaten games, that dated back to 1988/1989 when he was the coach of Bayern Munich. The record for longest unbeaten run across seasons is still held by the legendary Ernst Happel, whose Hamburger SV side were unbeaten for 36 games (30.01.1982 – 22.01.1983).

280. Hertha’s midfielder Pal Dardai played his 280th Bundesliga match for Hertha against Hamburg. He equalled the record held by Michael Sziedat. There are still nine games left to become Hertha’s lone record player. Though, unless Hertha manage the greatest escape to date, Dardai may have to settle for a couple of 2. Bundesliga matches to add to his Hertha CV next season.

1425. Lukas Podolski was without a Bundesliga goal for 1425 minutes, when he accelerated a free kick to 108 km/h, sending it straight into the year 1955 and past Bayern’s goalkeeper Jört Butt. It was the longest ever goal drought for a German international in the Bundesliga.

The DFL released a detailed report on the economic state of professional football in Germany on Wednesday. The financial results had previously been part of the DFL’s Bundesliga Report, due in August, but have now been released separately, earlier and in more detail. There is less text, more numbers and the glossy photos have been replaced by grittier bleached counterparts. The Bundesliga means business. What else is new? Increased revenue, increased equity, increased debt and Borussia Mönchengladbach bears the brunt of the blame.

Revenue
Revenue rose by 9.5% to a record €1.715 billion. The combined revenue of the two Bundesligas (first + second division) broke the €2 billion barrier for the first time. Advertising has become the biggest contributor to the league’s revenue pie. The economic crisis could have a negative impact on this revenue stream this season, although a lot of major deals like kit sponsorships are long term and experts suggest that football’s popularity shields it from the problems other sports face in finding/retaining sponsors. Sponsorship still centers around typically male products like beer, cars and DiY stores, but the DFL expects that the advertising industry will eventually recognize the growing popularity of the league among women and families. The current TV deal runs until 2013 and will slightly increase by €50m over that timespan, while international TV deals will also contribute an extra €20m. Overall no massive improvements can be expected here. Matchday revenue has been maxed out and without any increase in ticket prices will remain at the current level as well.

One thing you can do is adjust the revenue by subtracting one-off fees from transfers. This is what Deloitte like to do for their Football Money League and Annual Review of Football Finance. In this case revenues would have risen by €58,7m to €1.438bn in 2008, and by €136,9m to €1.575bn in 2009. The market leaders Bayern Munich more or less repeated their financial results from the previous season, so they didn’t contribute much to this increase. The deep cup runs by Bremen and Hamburg have contributed to record revenues for both clubs. Apart from that, a lot of the growth is probably also down to the newly promoted clubs. Cologne and Mönchengladbach alone have probably generated around €50m more than the likes of Rostock and Duisburg, and the Hoffenheim “fairy tale” has also helped this team to quickly attract a healthy mix of sponsors, while their new stadium will have also helped to drive up revenues. The potential relegation of clubs like Hertha can thus also have a negative impact on the league’s total revenue next season.

Profitability
The league recorded a profit of €31m, or an average of €1.72m per club, 14.2% less than in the previous season. Though, the average EBITDA of the clubs rose by 15% to €14.6m. EBITDA as the report explains stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and is the performance indicator commonly used in financial analyses”. The number of clubs that broke even sank from 15 to 11. Hertha, Schalke and Hoffenheim have been three new entries to the clubs in the red. Not sure about the fourth one.

Equity and Debt
Equity capital increased by 21% to €521m resulting in an equity ratio of 35.5%. As the report explains: “This ratio, which describes the contribution of equity capital to total assets and enables an evaluation of financial stability, is high compared to many other sectors.” Cough banks cough. Debts rose by 30% to €610m. Both increases can mostly be blamed on the return of Borussia Mönchengladbach, who added their whole Borussia Park stadium, training and youth centre financing package to the books of the league. Three years ago equity was as low as €294m and debts as high as €569m, so the league has build some muscle during this time. It’s worth noting that debt obviously isn’t a good and/or sole indicator for the financial burden of clubs. E.g. part of Hamburg’s stadium financing deal is a rather unfortunate liaison with sports marketer Sportfive, who receive a percentage of Hamburg’s TV money. Such a deal doesn’t show up as debt, but can be a bigger burden for a club than an interest free loan by an “evil” club owner like Roman Abramovich.

If that wasn’t yet fun enough for you, then you can download the report as PDF here.

Friday, 20.30h CET
Bayern Munich – Hoffenheim

The last time the two teams met on a wintry Friday night, Bayern Munich were the title holding Goliath and Hoffenheim everybody’s favorite David, in what was the most ridiculously overhyped Bundesliga match in recent memory. None of the two eventually won anything that season and a little over a year later, this fixture has been shrunk back to the size of a rather normal Bundesliga match. One which still promises to be an entertaining opener for the second half of the Bundesliga season. Bayern will have momentum and an almost fully fit squad – except for the usual Ribery absence – on their side. Hoffenheim will be without Obasi and Vorsah (Africa Cup of Nations), Luiz Gustavo (red card) and possibly Carlos Eduardo, who may not be fully fit in time for the match. Hoffenheim stumbled into the winter break after being thoroughly outplayed and defeated by Stuttgart. Three points for Bayern will be the expected outcome, but maybe Hoffenheim can make a statement with a positive result, after all the club still has ambitions to crash into the European spots this season.

Saturday, 15.30h CET
Leverkusen – Mainz
Mönchengladbach – Bochum
Frankfurt – Bremen
Hamburg – Freiburg
Hannover – Berlin

Plenty of opportunities to stumble and drop points for Leverkusen, Bremen and Hamburg, while Hannover welcomes Berlin for the first of Berlin’s 17 relegation play-offs. Hannover themselves struggled to find their form in the league, following Robert Enke’s suicide, seeing them slide into the relegation zone as well.

Saturday, 18.30h CET
Stuttgart – Wolfsburg

Based on their squad and recent form, Stuttgart would make a formidable contender for the Europa League spots, but following their disastrous Hinrunde, Christian Gross’ side will have to settle for a midtable finish. The least they can do though, is rain on the parade of a quite a few Europa hopefuls starting with Wolfsburg on Saturday. Based on Wolfsburg’s displays in last weekend’s Wintercup, their defensive frailties are pretty much intact and there for all the other teams to exploit. It looks like Wolfsburg plans to bring in some expensive defensive reinforcements in the next days/weeks, but they won’t help Armin Veh’s team on Saturday.

I plan to liveblog this one, to celebrate the end of the Bundesliga’s winter break.

Sunday, 15.30 CET
Schalke – Nuremberg

Schalke welcome Nuremberg to their not-quite snow-proof Arena. Nuremberg brought in some Bayern benchwarmers to shore up the defense. Schalke brought in one Bayern benchwarmer to be able contribute a bit more than counter attacks to a game. Though, Alexander Baumjohann looks set to miss the match with a broken finger.

Sunday, 17.30 CET
Cologne – Dortmund

The masters of the 0-0 draw welcome Dortmund, to give them a serious test of their top of the table credentials – though they will have to do it without Pedro Geromel, who is out with a cold. Injured or otherwise unavailable Cologne defenders usually equal good news for the neutral fan, who just wants to watch some football.