Matchday 4: Things we always knew and Things we almost forgot

By: Jan | September 4th, 2007

Mohamed Zidan Bayern Munich isn’t invincible
Though it took 87 minutes on Sundays match against Hamburg to come to this conclusion. When I read that Rafael van der Vaart couldn’t play against Bayern, due to a minor injury he picked up during training, I was worried that this could turn out to be a gifted victory for the Bavarians. Hamburg’s two best players were missing after all (Vincent Kompany had to sit out a one match ban). At least defensively Hamburg has enough depth in its squad to compensate for prominent absentees and taught the rest of the Bundesliga a little lesson on how you can effectively take Ribery and Co. out of a match. But without their central playmaker there was little danger coming in Oliver Kahn’s direction and one proper cross by Lell was enough for Klose to make it 1-0 for Munich. Huub Stevens then replaced Olic with Zidan and Trochowski with Choupo-Moting to try and force his luck with three strikers on the pitch. Choupo-Moting almost made it 2-0 for Bayern, while Zidan eventually stumbled through Munich’s defence, and once the ball had bumped off every player within the box he finally put it past Kahn into the net.

Last seasons MVP is still around
He has never been away really, but overshadowed by the hype machine surrounding Franck Ribery and Bayern Munich. Anyway, thanks to Hamburg’s Nigel de Jong, who wouldn’t let Ribery do his usual tricks, the stage was clear for Diego to reclaim a bit of the available fame. He led Bremen to a midweek victory over Zagreb and a 2-1 victory over Frankfurt on Saturday. Once a couple more of the injured players return to the squad, we might have a chance to see the good old Werder Bremen of previous years again. And who knows, maybe Carlos Alberto proves to be worth €8 million as well at some point. Though, for the time being, it’s up to Diego to provide the showboating.

Schalke still has a problem scoring goals
It’s been this way with Lincoln last season, it’s the same without Lincoln but with Rakitic and Özil this season. Probably it has more to do with the absence of a striker that can match Kuranyi’s quality up front. Probably we have to give the likes of Rakitic more time to perfect their skills, or may be we should put more confidence in Asamoah, Altintop and Lövenkrands. Schalke’s match against Leverkusen (1-1) on Friday was entertaining nonetheless. Schalke is still undefeated and I hope this will still be the case in two weeks after the match against Munich.

René Adler is an excellent goalkeeper
And he won the little head-to-head on Friday against Manuel Neuer by saving 90% of all balls coming in his direction, while Neuer only managed to fend off 75%. Neuer nonetheless was the one invited by Jogi Löw to a little fitness test this Tuesday, which means he is in Löw’s extended squad for Euro 2008. But more importantly: we don’t really have anything to worry goalkeepingwise for the next decade, different to the English…

Stuttgart is the current Bundesliga champion
And after losing to Karlsruhe 1-0 they are sitting in the lower regions of the league table with just four points out of four matches and wonder what is going wrong. I’m confident Armin Veh knows the answer though.

A sponsor doesn’t just help a club financially
Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) is Berlin’s main sponsor, which gives the club additional transportation options for the team and the fans. And as Wolfsburg’s coach Felix Magath bemoaned, they might even do their part in the psychological foreplay to a match. Wolfsburg made the trip to Berlin by train and needed three hours instead of one, and to add insult to injury, Felix couldn’t even get a slice of cherry pie in the train’s cafeteria. Not surprisingly Wolfsburg lost the match 2-1.

Fortune favours fools. Fortune favours the bold. Fortune doesn’t favour the last placed team in the league.
Steven won’t mind as Dortmund beat last placed and relegation favourite Rostock 1-0. But you have to feel sorry for Rostock who played their best game of the season and one of their many efforts should have found the back of the net.