International Break Wrap-Up: Confidence Boosts for Valdez, Podolski and Simunic

By: Jan | November 19th, 2007

International breaks are one of those unnecessary evils our poor club officials have to cope with these days. In the worst case players pick up an injury or at least come back exhausted and jet-legged. The former happened to Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger and Marcell Jansen and the impact of the latter will be seen this weekend. But an international break can have its positive side-effects as well. Clubs that have to deal with a long injury list can use the time to nurse their players. Players who are under-performing on club level can regain lost self-confidence with their national teams. For example:

Nelson Valdez (Borussia Dortmund)
Valdez has done little for Dortmund so far but was man of the match in Paraguay’s World Cup qualifier against Ecuador (5-1).
Lukas Podolski (Bayern Munich)
Podolski can’t get past Klose and Toni at Bayern Munich, but was man of the match in Germany’s Euro qualifier against Cyprus, where he was involved in all four goals and scored one himself playing as attacking midfielder on the left side.

Category: 1. Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund, FC Bayern Munich, Hertha BSC Berlin, National Team

Tags: 1. Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund, Croatia, FC Bayern Munich, Germany, Hertha BSC Berlin, International, Josip Simunic, Lukas Podolski, National Team, Nelson Valdez

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• Angharad |  November 19th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

  
  
  

  Podolski proved that he is at least capable of playing as an attacking midfielder (to my great surprise, since I’ve been muttering “not another goddamn penalty box striker” under my breath every time he’s started next to Klose for the past two years), so maybe Hitzfeld will consider playing him to replace the injured Schweinsteiger this weekend. Or maybe not, because it’s not like Bayern has a lack of depth in the midfield. (A lack of _coherent_ depth, maybe, but not a lack of people to place on the pitch.)

  Posted from United States

  

• Abby |  November 19th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

  
  
  

  Joe does not like you making fun of his anger management. And I’m still scared of him, so I’m only making fun of it a little.

  Posted from United States

  

• Arian |  November 19th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

  
  
  

  Thaaaaaank you..

  I was at the stadium and the atmosphere was great. The only negative stuff were the fights. Croatian fans started a fight between themselves because of different politic opinions. A part of them started chanting “Ivo Sanader” and “HDZ” (a politician and politic party), then fighting started. That didn’t last long and the crowd settled down. However… once again there were fightings and the special police had to intervene this time. After that, there were no major incidents.

  Posted from United States

  

• Inara |  November 19th, 2007 at 5:56 pm

  
  
  

  Can someone explain to me why Podolski is still at Bayern?

  Posted from United States

  

• Inara |  November 19th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

  
  
  

  Also, Jan, I thought you would find this article interesting. Apparently the Bundesliga rakes in the most money from shirt sponsorships after the EPL.

  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aDFUZHNXZC14

  Posted from United States

  

• Jan |  November 19th, 2007 at 9:23 pm

  
  
  

  Arian: Seems the Croatian fans need anger-management classes as well.:-)

  Inara: I think Podolski is still at Bayern because a) his ego will probably tell him that he is a failure if he can’t make it at Bayern b) Bayern simply won’t let him go as long as they don’t have more depth up front.

  And thanks for the link! The Bundesliga has the highest average sponsorship deals. The EPL’s total amount is only higher, because there are 20 teams in the league vs 18 in the Bundesliga. Also the numbers for Schalke assume the lowest guaranteed income. Their deal is currently worth as much as Bayern Munich’s because they play in the Champions League, which would elevate the Bundesliga total above the EPLs as well.

  I actually knew/assumed this already, as it has been this way for years. The pay-tv market is under-developed in Germany (=puny TV deal), but the TV market itself is the second largest worldwide (with the US having the largest obviously). The high free-tv presence of the Bundesliga ensures high sponsorship deals. But the EPL has been catching up rapidly, probably also due to its higher worldwide presence.

  Posted from Germany

  

• Arian |  November 20th, 2007 at 3:09 am

  
  
  

  Well I’d like to see how would you behave after 4 hours on a freezing cold weather with rain pouring too

  Well you can’t blame them.. they’re not the only hooligans in the world.

  Posted from United States

  

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