Bundesliga

By: Jan | 1 Comment

The big freeze produced one big winner. Germany’s winter so far: a mild December was followed by a warm January was followed by a frigging cold February. It’s probably some strange global warming phenomenon again, or 2012, or… It meant that matchday 20 took place under arctic circumstances. The low temperatures successfully lowered the level of play, while increasing the amount of draws – of particular interest in the case of Bayern, Schalke and Gladbach. So while it was an overall forgettable weekend football wise, it could be remembered as a pivotal moment by Dortmund supporters. For the time being it is only a two-point gap. Since Bayern and Gladbach played their away-bogey-teams and still managed to get a point, you could even argue that those were two respectable results after all. Schalke on the other hand, could have really used all three points against Mainz, with away matches against Gladbach and Bayern looming large.

The Bundesliga is a four-class society. You could apply some statistical number crunching to the current Bundesliga table and end up with the conclusion, that the stereotypically competitive Bundesliga is particularly competitive this season. You could also just look at the fact, that we have a four-horse title race to arrive at the same result. But for all this numerical competitiveness, fairly little is actually going on in the table. The top four compete for the title, but Champions League qualification already seems to be a given. Then there are three teams competing for two Europa League spots. Depending on how the DFB-Pokal plays out, there actually might be three spots for three teams and no competing left to do. Then there are eight teams in the glass half-full or half-empty category. Either they are trailing the Europa League by six points, or there are only six points between them and relegation. They haven’t yet made their mind up about second half of the season goals. And finally, there are the bottom three, who have yet to determine, who is going to play in the relegation play-off. So, except for the great title race, there is not that much going on at the moment. Hopefully this is only a temporary glitch, and the league still has some twists and turns and “social movability” up its’ sleeve over the next three months.
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By: Jan | 5 Comments

Marco Reus finds all the right answers to Bayern’s trash talk. Reus’ announcement to move to Dortmund in the summer, triggered a series of trademark taunts from down south during the winter break. Reus supposedly demanded a guaranteed starting spot at Bayern. He chickened from trying to fight for his place in the team. These kind of things. Marco Reus was reasonably annoyed by the taunts and promised to give his answer on the pitch. And so he did, scoring an opportunistic goal and providing a lovely assist in Friday’s Rückrunde curtain raiser. He had some helping hands and feet of course. He benefitted from Manuel Neuer’s black out, Lucien Favre’s overall football genius and a team mate like Patrick Hermann, who is quietly having his break out season in Reus’ shadow. But still, what a player.

Bayern are hard to beat, but easy to outcoach. Bayern still have the highest quantity of top quality players in the league. That fact alone makes sure they remain top favorites for the title. Yet, looking at their five defeats in the league so far, you realize that they’ve all come against coaches with a reputation for their tactical nouse. Lucien Favre (2x), Jürgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Mirko Slomka all devised match plans, with various degrees of clever forechecking, defending and counter attacks, that undid Bayern’s surplus in quality. And you could argue that some other coaches had the same ideas and just not the right mix of players and quality to achieve similar results. This fact is encouraging for those hoping for a close title race. At least for as long, as Jupp Heynckes doesn’t care to adapt to the other teams’ tactics for a change.

Maybe Dortmund are back in title winning form. Just maybe. We thought the same thing, when Dortmund soundly beat Michael Oenning’s Hamburg on matchday one. Then we realized, that this was no particularly impressive feat. Of course, Thorsten Fink’s Hamburg is generally believed to be of a different calibre nowadays, and in this case, beating Hamburg 5:1 in their own stadium is a clear message of intent to the other title hopefuls. Especially because they didn’t even need the help of Mario Götze yet. If anything, it was an excellent opportunity for Dortmund to close in on Bayern’s impressive +31 goal differential.
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By: Jan | Add Comments

Gladbach coach Lucien Favre is visibly delighted with his team’s performance against Bayern Munich.

(Photo by Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images)

By: Jan | 5 Comments

Draxler cuts the pass → Marica → Raul → Draxler → Raul → Huntelaar → Draxler → Goal!

This is one of the better team goals you’ll see this season. And what makes it even more remarkable, is the small fact, that it was scored by a team coached by all things defense expert Huub Stevens.

By: Jan | 2 Comments

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.
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By: Jan | 3 Comments

Bayern Munich are Autumn Champions. Barring a highly unlikely flurry of goals for and against the right teams. More than the virtual trophy, Bayern will cherish the three-point gap, they opened up at the top of the table, taking maximum advantage of the slip ups of both Borussias. Neither of the three teams played up to their level, but in these cases Bayern’s extra bit of individual class secures the win. While the Borussia’s class was only sufficient for a draw and a loss respectively.

Playing in the Europa League pays off. The unloved, often ignored step child of the Champions League can have its’ upsides. Like accidentally stumbling upon a great and cheap player. If Schalke hadn’t been drawn against Helsinki in the Europa League play-offs, they wouldn’t have signed Teemu Pukki. They would have an extra €1.5m in the bank. But they would be under bigger pressure to think about possible replacements for Raul and Huntelaar. They probably wouldn’t have won against Hertha either. Pukki might even help Schalke get back into the Champions League. All thanks to the Europa League. Who would have thought?
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By: Jan | 4 Comments

The Bundesliga doesn’t get the concept of extra time. On paper the Bundesliga referees get it. It’s up to them to decide, how much time was wasted through substitutions, injury delays, time wasting or excessive goal celebrations. It’s OK for them to routinely add only one or two minutes or call it quits after exactly 90 minutes. But extra time is not just about adding time. It is about adding suspense and drama. At least for me as a fan. In that respect other leagues and international competitions get it right. Saturday’s top of the table clash between the two Borussias had reached a perfect state of back and forth flowing football towards the end. Three to four minutes of extra time would have been a fitting desert. And five substitutions and one goal would have warranted exactly that in any other league. Instead we got one minute. Only in the Bundesliga.

Werder Bremen need to take some anger management classes. Hannover are still leading the league in fouls, but they foul with a clear tactical plan. Werder Bremen come second, but seemingly not for a particular strategic reason. On Saturday in the Allianz Arena it looked like they welcomed Bayern Munich not as an opponent, but as a punching bag for their frustrations. It’s not completely unwaranted. After being beaten by a 10 man Dortmund side at home, and brushed aside by full strength Bayern and Gladbach sides away, they may have realised that their chances in the title and Champions League race are rather slim.
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By: Jan | 6 Comments

Bayern are catching up with Barcelona. Philipp Lahm may speak the truth but his sense of timing is really a bit off this season. Whether it is publishing memoirs in the middle of his career, or making bold claims a day ahead of embarrassing defeats for both Barcelona and Bayern. He just can’t get it right. And following Bayern’s recent performances in the Bundesliga, you need to wonder whether Bayern are really catching up with anyone, or whether they are actually slowly loosing their rhythm and dominance. Or maybe they really just lost Bastian Schweinsteiger and realize that it is him and not Robben, who is Bayern’s undisputed and irreplaceable key player.

Gladbach are catching up on goal differential. Lucien Favre quoted Gladbach’s ability to create three to four times more chances per match, compared to last season, as the key behind their current success. Early in the season they had the tendency to only put one, or at most two, of those into the back of the net, making them one of the most wasteful and inefficient teams in the league. That has changed, and while Gladbach games in general where quite entertaining to watch, I might go as far and say, that at this moment they are even better to watch than Dortmund and Bayern. I may, of course, be proven completely wrong next weekend, when they take on Dortmund – possibly without Marco Reus, who broke his toe.
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By: Jan | 1 Comment

There are ways to make life easier for referees. This weekend was dominated by a lot of talk about the difficult and ungrateful job a referee has to make. There has been a lot of talk about pressure. None of that talk might actually help Babak Rafati, as it’s mere speculation, why he attempted suicide. And it’s all talk that won’t change the rage and anger of fans, players and coaches over a bad call by a referee in a couple of weeks time. That isn’t to say, there aren’t ways to make life easier for the referee. There are technical tools, that can take a referee out of the line of fire. Tools that the Blatter bunch despises, because they would make the game “less human”.

We have a title race, at least until next week. At which point we might again conclude, that it’s actually all about Bayern pulling away from the league and never coming back. But this week we do have a title race, thanks to Dortmund’s slim 1-0 victory in Munich. Dortmund needed to run a lot and they needed the ball to get lost and then show up on Mario Götze’s feet. But they’ve also put their early season wobble and the loss of Nuri Sahin behind them for good. That gives us a bit of hope, that they are now ready to challenge Bayern to the title long into 2012.
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By: Jan | 1 Comment

• Kyle Barber wrote a review of Ronald Reng’s recently translated book about Robert Enke. (Bundesliga Lounge)
• Nick Amies examined the reasons behind Mario Gomez’ Super Mario form… (Deutsche Welle)
• Ryan Bailey wrote about how Union Berlin is planning to sell shares of its’ soul. (Dirty Tackle)
• Chris Wright cursed the day he saw the Wang Dance – twice. (Who Ate All The Pies)
• Christian Nyari paid tribute to Uwe Seeler, who turned 75 on Saturday. (Bundesliga Fanatic)
• Raphael Honigstein paid tribute to Bremen’s Claudio Pizarro. (Guardian)