Matchday 15: Tristesse as Usual

By: Jan | December 7th, 2009

Markus Babbel The official match ball of the 2010 World Cup made its’ Bundesliga debut this weekend. It’s the “roundest ball ever” and its’ name translates to “celebrate”. There were three 0-0 draws to celebrate on its’ inaugural matchday coupled with widespread criticism of its overly wobbly nature by goalkeepers and players alike. A 1-1 draw coupled with fans getting out of control meanwhile put last season’s rookie coach of the year out of his job.

Stuttgart. The stage was set for Stuttgart to rescue what little was left of their season. Victories at home against Bochum in the Bundesliga and against Unirea Urziceni in the Champions League presented a golden opportunity to ease the pressure on Markus Babbel and escape to the winter break to regroup. A group of hardcore fans still felt it necessary to give the team a reminder of what their job was by blocking the team bus ahead of the Bochum game, with some going completely over the top and threatening the players with chants of the sort “We’ll beat you to death if you go down.” Just the type of confidence booster a team in crisis needs. Things looked good by Stuttgart’s current standards nonetheless. The team was in control of the match, rolled out attacks and eventually Serdar Tasci put his team 1-0 up. Referee Lutz Wagner then sent Bochum’s Diego Klimowicz to the showers, following a tackle worthy of a yellow and not necessarily a red card. With Bochum reduced to ten men and victory within grasp, the type of thing happened that only happens to teams in trouble. Stuttgart got overly nervous and suddenly 10-man Bochum started to attack. A fine free-kick by Fuchs eventually made it 1-1, triggering another mob revolt and sealing Markus Babbel’s fate. While the Stuttgart management were caught by surprise by the reaction of parts of the fans, they were at least prepared for Markus Babbel’s departure. Only 30 minutes after Horst Heldt and Markus Babbel held a press conference to announce Babbel’s dismissal and criticize the fan’s behavior, the club presented Christian Gross as the new coach. Gross spent the last ten years coaching FC Basel with quite some success. Meanwhile VfB Stuttgart spent the last 47 years of their Bundesliga existance trying out over 30 coaches.

Hertha. The best bet to see an attractive football match involving Schalke is to hope the other team brings all the joga bonito to the table, while Schalke add a few rapid counter attacks. Beautiful football is the last thing you could currently expect from Hertha and thus you were perfectly fine to only tune in every 30 minutes to check the score. After 30 minutes Hertha held on to a 0-0 draw, in the 60th minute Kevin Kuranyi put Schalke 1-0 up and in the 90th minute Rafinha converted a penalty to make it 2-0. Hertha now need to win their last two matches against Leverkusen and Bayern to finish the Hinrunde dead last, but at least with some hope. It’s more likely of course that Hertha finish the Hinrunde dead last and without a glimmer of hope left.

Hamburg. Hamburg can’t wait for the winter break to fix and rejuvenate their injury ravaged squad. The pitch in Hamburg can’t wait for the winter break and some extensive green keeping either. It is showing it’s age. It’s bumpy and littered with black muddy spots. Not the type of green deserving of two of the most technical teams of the league – in theory. In reality Hamburg’s usually polished midfield is currently reduced to players who can only carry the ball around without any creativity earning them the majority of possession but little else. In reality Hoffenheim is no longer the swashbuckling newcomer either. They were happy to sit back and counter attack – with little success. The result was a 0-0 draw of the tactical sort with hardly any big plays. Hamburg still tried to squeeze some positives out of the match by pointing out that the club has come a long way, given that all the top teams of the league nowadays travel to Hamburg to park the bus in front of goal.

Cologne. Cologne had to defend the title of the most negative team of the league – both offensively and defensively. And they did it with determination. Offensively their expensively upgraded front line keeps sitting on a total of just seven goals. Defensively the team hacked to pieces the league’s most productive front line. Werder Bremen scored 31 goals so far, but couldn’t find the decisive goal against Cologne, that would have moved them closer to league leaders Leverkusen. Bremen can take the fact that Marko Marin has survived the onslaught of tackles unharmed as a positive though.

Wolfsburg. While Wolfsburg were on their impressive title winning winning streak, the Wolves didn’t just get all three points, they usually also got all the right calls from the referees. Karma seems to bite back massively this season though. Despite an encouraging performance, Freiburg still grabbed a point, helped by a penalty following a Caligiuri dive, that would make Edin Dzeko proud.

Dortmund. To end the post on a positive note it’s worth to mention Borussia Dortmund’s impressive revival. The club stumbled and tumbled into the season, but is now on a roll with a young and promising squad. Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic are again forming a formidable back line. One half of the Bender twins performs as a promising Sebastian Kehl stand-in. Nuri Sahin, the talent that has been hyped for many years, seems to have his breakthrough season, pulling strings in midfield and Lucas Barrios threatens to become a serial goalscorer in the Bundesliga as well. Dortmund brushed aside Nuremberg 4-0 on Saturday and have closed in on the top of the table. A promising prelude to their visit to Wolfsburg next weekend.

Results: Bayern 2-1 Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg 2-2 Freiburg, Stuttgart 1-1 Bochum, Hamburg 0-0 Hoffenheim, Dortmund 4-0 Nuremberg, Hannover 0-0 Leverkusen, Frankfurt 2-0 Mainz, Cologne 0-0 Bremen, Schalke 2-0 Hertha