November 10th, 2009

Matchday 12: Captain Future

By: Jan |

The clubs at the top of the table keep crawling along. The clubs at the bottom keep sinking. Referees had a forgettable weekend and in between a player and a coach dropped bombshells.
Philipp Lahm. Bayern’s disappointing draw at home against Schalke. Robben’s moment of madness for which he should have seen a red card. Luca [...]

Category: 1. FC Cologne, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Bayern Munich, FC Schalke 04, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, Matchdays, VfB Stuttgart

Tags: 1. FC Cologne, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Bayern Munich, FC Schalke 04, Felix Magath, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, Matchdays, Michael Skibbe, Philipp Lahm, VfB Stuttgart

November 2nd, 2009

The Numbers Game: Matchday 11

By: Jan |

1 Comment

We keep it strictly binary this week.
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 [...]

Category: 1. FC Cologne, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, FC Bayern Munich, Facts and Figures, Hertha BSC Berlin

Tags: 1. FC Cologne, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Facts and Figures, FC Bayern Munich, Hertha BSC Berlin, Luca Toni, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose

October 5th, 2009

The Story of Germany’s Reunification (as told by the Bundesliga)

By: Jan |

4 Comments

Saturday’s Bundesliga action coincided with the 19th anniversary of Germany’s reunification, which conveniently is also the country’s national holiday – albeit without lethal fireworks or military parades. To celebrate the event Berlin went all out artsy with some megalomaniac puppeteering, while the Bundesliga chose a more pragmatic approach, by retelling the the events through football [...]

Category: 1. FC Cologne, Backstory, FC Bayern Munich, History, Matchdays

Tags: 1. FC Cologne, Backstory, FC Bayern Munich, History, Matchdays

September 28th, 2009

Bundesliga Matchday 7: Ze Roberto to F4. Checkmate.

By: Jan |

2 Comments

Hamburg remain in control of the top, Hertha remain in control of the bottom and with his wins over Bochum, Dortmund and the Schalke fans Felix Magath is now in total control of the Ruhr Valley.
Battle Chess. When a commenter on one of Germany’s public broadcasters attempted to summarize and categorize the match between Hamburg [...]

Category: 1. FC Cologne, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Bayern Munich, FC Schalke 04, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, Matchdays

Tags: 1. FC Cologne, Arne Friedrich, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bruno Labbadia, FC Bayern Munich, FC Schalke 04, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, Louis van Gaal, Lucien Favre, Matchdays, Michael Frontzeck, Zé Roberto

September 2nd, 2009

Bundesliga 2009/2010: What is New? What is the Same?

By: Jan |

5 Comments

Sorry for letting this blog rot away in the late August sun for so many weeks. Other work took over and left some time but not much energy to spend on other things. But the team blogs have been bursting with energy all the more at the same time and a few more came back [...]

Category: 1. Bundesliga, 1. FC Cologne, 1. FC Nuremberg, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Bayern Munich, FC Schalke 04, FSV Mainz 05, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, Matchdays, VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen

August 6th, 2009

The Bundesliga Offside Bundesliga Season Preview

By: Jan |

10 Comments

It’s time to preview the eight most important teams of the upcoming Bundesliga season.
Bayern
Pre-Season: Bayern’s pre-season started like all pre-seasons during odd numbered years by putting between 50 to 100 million Euros into circulation, to make up for not signing anyone during the even numbered years. This time they also played a mean practical joke [...]

Category: 1. Bundesliga, 1. FC Cologne, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, FC Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, VfL Bochum, VfL Wolfsburg

Tags: 1. Bundesliga, 1. FC Cologne, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, FC Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, VfL Bochum, VfL Wolfsburg

July 15th, 2009

Transfer Talk: The Hunter and the Hunted

By: Jan |

9 Comments

The transfer period started with two early big money moves. In fact, very big money moves anywhere outside of Madrid. Diego sealed a transfer to Juventus for €24.5m, while Bayern were willing to spend €30m for Mario Gomez; further bonus payments not included. With the market awash with fresh money, the stage was set for [...]

Category: 1. FC Cologne, FC Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, Transfers, VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen

May 23rd, 2009

Bundesliga Season Finale Liveblog

By: Jan |

No Comments

What good is a liveblog in a tape-delayed world? I have no idea. I’ll leave this philosophical question unanswered and let our American readers deal with it.
For everyone else it’s season 46 episode 34 of the Bundesliga. We’ve already been served 2970 minutes high on excitement and low on answers – the latter will [...]

May 18th, 2009

Wolfsburg Close in on Title. Hamburg Close in on Supermassive Black Hole.

By: Jan |

6 Comments

Uli Hoeness predicted that this championship won’t be decided on goal difference, but rather that someone would slip up, and he was right albeit in the wrong places.
Hannover 0-5 Wolfsburg. Except for the sell out crowd there was nothing really derby-ish about this game (and then, the last match at home usually tends to be [...]

Category: 1. FC Cologne, 1899 Hoffenheim, Arminia Bielefeld, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Energie Cottbus, FC Bayern Munich, FC Schalke 04, Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, Hertha BSC Berlin, Matchdays, VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg

March 13th, 2009

The Bundesliga Money League

By: Jan |

4 Comments

I never heard of Goldman Morgenstern & Partners Financial Intelligence Service before, but they published a press release which lists the turnover of each Bundesliga club for the 2007/2008 season. The data seems to come from an article in the print edition of Kicker magazine. Said article supposedly dealt with the official Bundesliga report for [...]