10 Things we learned from Matchday 31 and 32

By: Jan | May 9th, 2008

Rafael van der Vaart It was a busy week of Bundesliga football. And it was a busy week for me as well, so I focused my attention on the inevitable and the ugly. But there was more happening in the league, and it’s time to catch up with it in this double header edition.

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.