10 Things we learned from Matchday 33
By: Jan | May 14th, 20081. Rostock and Duisburg return to the second division.
They went from newly-promoted to newly-relegated over the course of one season. Duisburg lost against Bayern at home (2-3), despite staging a semi-remarkable comeback after Lukas Podolski had made it 3-0 after just 20 minutes. Rostock lost against Leverkusen (1-2) in a game which kept Leverkusen’s UEFA Cup hopes alive, and which once again demonstrated Rostock’s lack of at least one prolific striker.
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.
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Comments
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To be fair, I think I’m going to miss Rostock a little. Somehow they became my favourite of the three promoted clubs and it’s sad to see them go again.
“…to bring his Bundesliga career total up to six.”
I’m not quite sure, but I thought it’s five red and one yellow-red card. Or did you mean sending-offs in general?“(as in a movie adaption of the ballet dance The Dying Swan I suppose)”
…which is what happens when you let stylistic devices get the best of you. Sadly when I wrote that I just couldn’t remember any movie role that’s as famous for dying.
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I like Rostock’s chubby coach Pagelsdorf, so I will miss them as well.
Yup, I meant all types of sending-off’s. Though with five straight red cards he has already equalled Nowotny’s straight red card count.
And while thinking about it a bit more, I also wonder whether a “dying swan” makes any sense to native English speakers.
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Native English speakers do use the term “dying swan”, mostly in relation to situations above. So don’t worry, we get the reference.
I liked Rostock. I liked their ship logo (I am a fan of interesting badges) and there was always quite a lot of merchandise for sale in Berlin, so they stand out to me.
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1. I always root a bit for the ex-GDR sides to stay up. Well, not really Cottbus, actually. But I think justice is served by these clubs going down, whereas last year Gladbach felt terribly unlucky, and Mainz had plenty of fighting spirit and made progress, simply not enough. I’ll miss Pagelsdorf too, you can imagine him driving the bus to and from the matches, can’t you?
3. Where did the Swedish league come in those rankings? Just curious based on the two *clear* hand balls missed by the officials in the UEFA Cup final.
7. Letting Kompany go would be the big mistake. Any striker or attacking midfielder they add couldn’t do any worse than they did this year. And what happened to Zidan? Scoring bunches of goals for low-table clubs doesn’t necessarily translate into the same success at a big club (See: Podolski, and to some degree, Gekas) but the guy seemed poised for stardom.
8. Grafite topped Luca Toni’s performance at Cottbus I would say..but how about Marcelinho’s goal?
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Of all the teams in the bottom 5-6 of the table, Rostock was the one I wanted to see stay up. They have so many young talents and got some amazing goals. Fin Bartels will transfer to a first division club next season. Hope this prediction is correct…
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I had heard of the ‘dying swan’ reference before and so, no problems for me. And Jan, though I didn’t watch Heroes (but I know the media here kind of make a big fuss when some of the cast members came here last year on a promotional tour), I know about the references in No.9.
The original line was once being used in a magazine article I read about the series.Abby, I also like Rostock’s logo too.
That will be something I will miss, other than coach Pagelsdorf.‘So much for what could have been the positive surprise team of the season. This award will probably go to Energie Cottbus again.’
Yeah. Karlsruhe really surprised me in the first half of the season. But after the winter break, a different story altogether. -
Oh, now I remember why I liked Rostock quite a bit: Last season on the 33rd matchday, when Dortmund had just knocked Schalke off the top of the table and Stuttgart were on number one, and when Rostock had played against 1860 München, I was walking through Munich central station in a VfB jersey and a few Rostock fans yelled over to me “hey, you’ve got that coach from us.”
Ah, the memories… -
Luke:
“I’ll miss Pagelsdorf too, you can imagine him driving the bus to and from the matches, can’t you?”Absolutely.
“And what happened to Zidan? Scoring bunches of goals for low-table clubs doesn’t necessarily translate into the same success at a big club (See: Podolski, and to some degree, Gekas) but the guy seemed poised for stardom.”
I could see Zidan being sold for just about what Hamburg paid for him, then rising to stardom and quadrupling his price. Or maybe he’ll get a second chance with Martin Jol. Gekas is still Leverkusen’s leading goalscorer which isn’t that bad.
What was wrong with Marcelinho’s goal?
Eric:
“They have so many young talents and got some amazing goals.”
Maybe it’s better for those young talents to play in the second division without the pressure of relegation battles? But Rostock really is doing something right there. Felix Kroos (Toni Kroos’ brother) will probably already play for Rostock next season. A highly rated striker. So it’ll be interesting to see how Rostock develops in the coming years.Anna:
” “hey, you’ve got that coach from us.””
I guess when Rostock fans travel to Munich to play 1860 again next season, this guy will shout “hey, you’ve got that kid from us.”, when someone walks by with a Toni Kroos jersey.
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