Matchday 8: Over- and Underachievements

By: Jan | October 2nd, 2007

Karim Haggui - Miroslav Klose I had already started covering a tiny bit (the Friday night match bit) of this matchday in a previous post, and some sad news came out of Berlin’s 1-0 defeat to Schalke. Lucio, one of Berlin’s most promising summer signings, twisted his knee so badly that his cruciate knee ligaments, patella tendon and meniscus were all badly damaged. A potentially career threatening injury, that will put him out of action for six to nine months. Schalke’s Christian Pander will miss the Champions League match against Trondheim due to a bruise in his thigh.

Leverkusen shows how it’s done
While both Hamburg and Schalke managed to hold Bayern Munich to a draw, Leverkusen might have been the team to show how Bayern can be beaten, despite loosing their match 1-0 , and benefiting from a regular Miroslav Klose goal that wasn’t given. Chris over at Bundesliga Talk has analysed the match, and thinks he has figured out what Leverkusen was doing right, and what other teams could learn from it. Oliver Kahn missed the match and will have to undergo an elbow surgery, that will sideline him for four to five weeks. This will give Michael Rensing the chance to prove whether he is up to the task of replacing Kahn next season. More bad news: Miroslav Klose will be out for about three weeks as well. At least this gives Lukas Podolski another chance to prove his worth.

Following their victory, Bayern’s players had to fulfil one of the duties, that come with signing a multi-million euros contract with a Bavarian side. They had to dress up, attend this years Oktoberfest and endure the inevitable ridicule coming from blogs like Who Ate All the Pies, who give you the rundown of players in Lederhosen and WAGs in Dirndls.

8-1 Bremen’s Failure
Werder Bremen’s highest Bundesliga victory had been an 8-1 thrashing of Kickers Offenbach in 1983. A record that Bremen had the golden opportunity to beat on Saturday, as they faced a desolate Arminia Bielefeld at home. In the end it was only enough for a repeat of the 1983 result. Though Boubacar Sanogo had a goal disallowed, which cameras and 3D simulations later revealed had crossed the line, so I don’t hold a grudge against them. This also makes it four regular goals in one week, which the referees hadn’t given as they failed to see that the ball had crossed the line. One more reason why it’s time that football catches up with the latest in goal-line technology. Meanwhile Bremen’s squad shuffle continues. Players out injured after this matchday: Peter Niemayer, Tim Wiese and Boubacar Sanogo. Players back in training: Torsten Frings and Ivan Klasnic.

Annoying Wolfsburg spoils the Birthday Party
I liked Wolfsburg better before they announced that their unexciting club and city plan to play in the Champions League, and before they invested roughly €30m in the summer to add substance to this claim. It hasn’t paid off much so far, but they once again stole points from a team that I need to do well, to have a more exciting title race this season (previous teams: Bremen and Schalke). Hamburg intended to celebrate the club’s 120th birthday with a victory, but a late equaliser by Wolfsburg made it 2-2. At least all those draws also mean that Wolfsburg hasn’t racked up a lot of points so far and is ranked 12th in the table at the moment.

Over- and Underachievers paired against each other
And the overachievers from Karlsruhe beat the underachievers from Dortmund 3-1. Raphael Honigstein takes a closer look at both teams in his article for the Guardian sportblog. Dortmund will get a rare chance to play some international football today, as they were picked by the DFL to play an exhibition match against Legia Warsaw, to promote the Bundesliga abroad. The DFL couldn’t have picked a better team to demonstrate the quality of the league.

Elsewhere on the pitches VfB Stuttgart continues to make their Bundesliga title win look like a fluke, as they lost their away game against Hansa Rostock 2-1. That sums up to four out of four away games lost this season and Stuttgart gets another chance to embarrass themselves against Barcelona tonight. At least they get to play at home.