2.Liga - Round 32
Huge win by Offenbach, and Saarbrücken immediately fired their coach Rudi Bommer. He had been complaining about lazy-ass players all season, so the board decided to take decisive action...
Erzgebirge Aue - VfL Bochum 0:1 (0:0) 12,150 (Czyszczon) Alemannia Aachen - Sportfr. Siegen 3:0 (2:0) 20,898 (Ebbers 2, Koen) Wacker Burghausen - SC Paderborn 07 5:1 (2:1) 3,600 (Burkhardt 2, Krejci, Wiesinger, Kneissel - R. Müller) SpVgg Unterhaching - TSV 1860 München 1:0 (0:0) 13,000 (Oswald) 1. FC Saarbrücken - Kickers Offenbach 0:4 (0:2) 17,500 (Türker 2, Mokhtari, Wörle) Hansa Rostock - SC Freiburg 1:2 (1:2) 8,500 (Kern - Matmour 2) Karlsruher SC - Eintr. Braunschweig 7:0 (3:0) 10,800 (Kapllani 2, Mutzel, Federico, Schwarz, Freis, Männer) LR Ahlen - Greuther Fürth 1:2 (1:1) 3,408 (Bamba - Fuchs 2) Energie Cottbus - Dynamo Dresden 0:0 (0:0) 17,000 1 VfL Bochum 32 19 8 5 53:23 30 65 2 Alemannia Aachen 32 20 4 8 60:34 26 64 3 Energie Cottbus 32 15 10 7 46:30 16 55 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Greuther Fürth 32 14 9 9 49:41 8 51 5 Karlsruher SC 32 14 8 10 50:40 10 50 6 SC Freiburg 32 14 8 10 39:33 6 50 7 Wacker Burghausen 32 12 10 10 43:46 -3 46 8 Erzgebirge Aue 32 12 9 11 36:34 2 45 9 SC Paderborn 07 32 12 7 13 43:36 7 43 10 Hansa Rostock 32 13 4 15 43:44 -1 43 11 SpVgg Unterhaching 32 12 5 15 42:45 -3 41 12 Kickers Offenbach 32 11 7 14 40:52 -12 40 13 Eintr. Braunschweig 32 12 4 16 34:46 -12 40 14 TSV 1860 München 32 10 9 13 39:41 -2 39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Dynamo Dresden 32 9 8 15 33:43 -10 35 16 1. FC Saarbrücken 32 10 5 17 35:62 -27 35 17 LR Ahlen 32 8 8 16 34:47 -13 32 18 Sportfr. Siegen 32 6 7 19 31:53 -22 25
May 1, 2006
DFB Pokal Final
The Cup was once again won by Bayern München, I believe for the 13th time. They played a ho-hum match, but still managed to win against Eintracht Frankfurt, despite minimal effort. The Frankfurters are just happy that they'll qualify for the UEFA Cup, as Bayern goes to Champions League. But their fighting spirit entertained the 75,000 in Berlin and forced Bayern to at least go out and win the match. The most interesting thing is that Bayern President Franz Beckenbauer pontificated afterwards, criticizing Michael Ballack as just going through the motions, "saving himself for Chelsea". Vice President Karl-Heinz Rummenigge launched his own salvo, demanding that a European wide salary was needed to stop Chelski from stealing everybody's players. What a bunch of wankers! How bout a German salary cap preventing Bayern from stealing everybody's players?
April 26, 2006
The Third Liga?
The much rumoured "Dritte Liga", or "3rd Bundesliga", is coming much closer to reality. The DFL (which runs the Bundesliga and 2.Liga) has proposed a fully professional 3rd level with a single division. The existing Regionalliga would then become the 4th level. The new league would have 18 clubs, and the contraversial "amateur" clubs of the Bundesliga teams would not be allowed to participate. 2 clubs from the 2.Liga would be relegated, and then the 16th place team would playoff against the 3rd placed 3.Liga squad. For relegation, 3 clubs would drop down into the Regionalliga. There does appear some illogic in the discussions, as the proposals claim that the Bundesliga and 2.Liga would still maintain all the TV money (that's why the DFL really exists anyway). The 3.Liga would get minimal euros, but "get additional funds from German international matches". Why the DFB would give up that lucrative source of revenue boggles the mind, but like most German meetings, it was probably in the backroom of the local pub, and after several liters of beer, well, it sounded like a good idea at the time. Besides, it's always a good idea to spend somebody else's money. If the soccer federation, the DFB, goes along with this idea, then it would start in the 2008/09 season.
Now, the idea of the 3.Liga is probably sound, although it's not clear to me that attendance in the lower leagues would really support this. While the Bundesliga has the best attendance in the world, and the 2.Liga in general is OK, the existing Regionalliga "crowds" are usually lame.
April 23, 2006
Bundesliga, round 31
Hamburg may have thrown away their last chance for the title, as they were beaten at home by Leverkusen. HSV was missing some key players (like van der Vaart, Van Buyten, Beinlich), but neverthless dominated the game, attacking furiously throughout. But poor finishing, especially from a worthless Benny Lauth (lout) and superb goal-keeping from the Aspirin's Hans-Jörg Butt, kept them from scoring. Meanwhile, Leverkusen launched a couple of counterattacks and scored. Bayern was however unable to take full advantage, as they were pressed to the limit by a desperate Mainz squad. In a wild first half, Mainz started out furiously, and jumped on Bayern for a two goal lead after only 15 minutes. However, from that point on, the champions dominated the match, and Mainz was desperately holding out. In the end, both sides were probably happy with a point, Mainz because it was unexpected, and Bayern because it's another plus over HSV. Bremen also gained a point, as their match with Schalke ended in a scoreless draw. Despite the lack of scoring, it was a hard fought, interesting game, with Bremen having a slight edge. However, Schalke might have stolen it at the end, but they were denied a penalty in the closing seconds.
The relegation battle gets hotter by the minute. Virtually all the bottom clubs were getting results this weekend. Kaiserslautern had a decent first half and got a critical goal, but were then dominated by hannover in the 2nd half, and were lucky to escape with the win. Wolfsburg had a huge away win at Bielefeld. Overall, they played better than Arminia, which has already secured their safety. It may be a high price for the VWs, as striker Mike Hanke was injured and will probably miss the last few matches. Frankfurt also gained a crucial awy win, with a solid performance against a harmless Stuttgart squad. Finally, Köln took their last chance and their win condemns Duisburg to relegation. Everyone knew it was coming for the Zebras,, as they were pretty much without hope all season.
In games without much to play for, Gladbach was unable to hold two leads against Hertha, but should be happy with a point. Berlin had more chances and generally controlled the match. Dortmund had a hard fought win over Nürnberg in front of another huge crowd.
Team of the Week: Frankfurt, critical win might mean salvation
Turd of the Weak: Duisburg - Good night!
Hamburger SV - Bayer Leverkusen 0:2 (0:1) 57,000 (Rolfes, Freier) 1. FC Köln - MSV Duisburg 3:1 (1:0) 47,000 (Streit, Feulner, Podolski - Ahanfouf) Borussia M'gladbach - Hertha BSC 2:2 (1:1) 50,216 (Chahed, Broich - Bastürk, Kovac) Arminia Bielefeld - VfL Wolfsburg 0:1 (0:1) 19,097 (Karhan) Borussia Dortmund - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:1 (1:1) 70,700 (Kringe 2 - Nikl) VfB Stuttgart - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:2 (0:0) 56,000 (Meier, Amanatidis) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Hannover 96 1:0 (1:0) 35,325 (Halfar) Werder Bremen - FC Schalke 04 0:0 (0:0) 42,100 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Bayern München 2:2 (2:2) 20,300 (Zidan, Freidrich - Makaay 2) 1 Bayern München 31 21 7 3 60:27 +33 70 2 Hamburger SV 31 20 5 6 49:24 +25 65 3 Werder Bremen 31 18 7 6 66:33 +33 61 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 31 14 13 4 41:27 +14 55 5 Bayer Leverkusen 31 13 8 10 55:44 +11 47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Hertha BSC Berlin 31 11 12 8 46:39 +7 45 7 Borussia Dortmund 31 10 11 10 39:37 +2 41 8 VfB Stuttgart 31 8 16 7 32:32 0 40 9 Borussia M'gladbach 31 9 11 11 36:43 -7 38 10 1. FC Nürnberg 31 10 7 14 40:46 -6 37 11 Arminia Bielefeld 31 10 7 14 29:38 -9 37 12 Hannover 96 31 7 15 9 38:41 -3 36 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 31 9 7 15 39:46 -7 34 14 VfL Wolfsburg 31 7 12 12 30:48 -18 33 15 1. FSV Mainz 05 31 7 10 14 42:47 -5 31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 31 8 6 17 42:66 -24 30 17 1. FC Köln 31 6 9 16 45:62 -17 27 18 MSV Duisburg 31 4 11 16 29:58 -29 23
2.Liga, round 31
Fürth proved they don't deserve to go up, as under 9,000 showed up for a critical match with Cottbus. The draw puts Energie in the driver's seat for the 3rd and final promotion spot. Already promoted Bochum and Aachen had hangovers from the promotion celebrations last week, and both lost disgracefully, but I'm sure they don't mind. Critical relegation battles saw a huge Offenbach win, and Dresden grabbed their last chance.
SC Paderborn 07 - Alemannia Aachen 3:1 (3:1) 8,836 (Bollmann, Ndjeng, Müller - Sukalo) VfL Bochum - Wacker Burghausen 1:2 (0:1) 21,921 (Edu - Krejci, Burkhardt) TSV 1860 München - Karlsruher SC 2:0 (2:0) 57,100 (Shao, Lehmann) SC Freiburg - Sportfr. Siegen 2:2 (0:1) 11,000 (Antar, Pitroipa - Nauroth, Cafu) Hansa Rostock - LR Ahlen 1:2 (0:0) 10,000 (Sebastian - Bamba, Book) Dynamo Dresden - 1. FC Saarbrücken 2:0 (1:0) 20,007 (Kennedy, Ludwig) Kickers Offenbach - SpVgg Unterhaching 4:1 (2:1) 10,075 (Türker, Dorn, Sieger - Omodiagbe) Eintr. Braunschweig - Erzgebirge Aue 0:1 (0:0) 18,700 (Curri) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Energie Cottbus 1:1 (1:0) 8,600 (Mijatovic - Berhalter) 1 VfL Bochum 31 18 8 5 52:23 +29 62 2 Alemannia Aachen 31 19 4 8 57:34 +23 61 3 Energie Cottbus 31 15 9 7 46:30 +16 54 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Greuther Fürth 31 13 9 9 47:40 +7 48 5 SC Freiburg 31 13 8 10 37:32 +5 47 6 Karlsruher SC 31 13 8 10 43:40 +3 47 7 Erzgebirge Aue 31 12 9 10 36:33 +3 45 8 SC Paderborn 07 31 12 7 12 42:31 +11 43 9 Hansa Rostock 31 13 4 14 42:42 0 43 10 Wacker Burghausen 31 11 10 10 38:45 -7 43 11 Eintr. Braunschweig 31 12 4 15 34:39 -5 40 12 TSV 1860 München 31 10 9 12 39:40 -1 39 13 SpVgg Unterhaching 31 11 5 15 41:45 -4 38 14 Kickers Offenbach 31 10 7 14 36:52 -16 37 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 1. FC Saarbrücken 31 10 5 16 35:58 -23 35 16 Dynamo Dresden 31 9 7 15 33:43 -10 34 17 LR Ahlen 31 8 8 15 33:45 -12 32 18 Sportfr. Siegen 31 6 7 18 31:50 -19 25
April 16, 2006
Bundesliga, round 30
No changes at the top, but things remain red hot at the bottom. The highlight of Bayern's win over Bielefeld was actually in the pre-game. GK Olli Kahn used his face to block a shot during warmups and got a black eye, which caused him to get pulled from the lineup. The rumour that Jürgen Klinsmann fired the shot can not be substantiated, since he claims he was on his way back to California. As for the game itself, Arminia defended well and was determined to get a point, so it took most of the game for Bayern to break them down. Hamburg remains 4 points back, as they generally had an easier time at Duisburg. They struck twice and then coasted, and although Duisburg controlled most of the game and pressured, HSV was never in any real danger. Bremen ended up with a lame result in the Nord derby at relegation threatened Wolfsburg. The VWs had Quiroga red carded early, but fought hard against a controlling but ineffective Werder side. In fact, they almost lost, with Wiese forced to make a nice save from a Mike Hanke free-kick in the dying seconds. But Schalke was unable to take advantage, so Bremen easily slides into Champions League qualifying for next season. Schalke actually sucked and was outplayed by Köln, and were lucky to get a draw at home, which undoubtedly thrilled the sold-out Veltins-Arena crowd. They've been total crap down the stretch, so they'll have to hope for UEFA Cup success to slavage something. Köln played strongly, but it's probably too late: the 6 point deficit with only 4 matches left might be too much.
Nürnberg is another team that has pretty much avoided relegation. And this is an amazing feat, as they were easily one of the worst teams early in the season. But their stretch run has been impressive, and their closing minutes win against Kaiserslautern (managed by ex-Club coach Wolfgang Wolf) may have condemned the Red devils to the drop. Once again, Robert Vittek was the hero, with his brace including the winner. This was a real relegation battle, with both teams fighting to the last breath. Also hard fought was the scoreless derby between Frankfurt and Mainz. Neither team moves out of relegation threat, but every point counts.
In form Leverkusen was generally weak, and had to struggle against a 10 man Gladbach to secure the win, Oude-Kamphuis getting his ass tossed in the 1st half. Nevertheless, the win allows them to move into the last UEFA spot. (I believe Frankfurt will get one spot, being DFB Cup finalist, since Bayern is going to the the CL). Hertha was unable to win against Dortmund, in a rather strange match. The visitors totally controlled the first half, but Hertha woke up and dominated the 2nd. Neverthless, no goals. Just the opposite in Hannover, in a wild draw. The 96ers were going gangbusters and up by 2, but then Altin Lala got his ass tossed, and Stuttgart came roaring back to tie. Both clubs seem to be going nowhere, so it's a fitting result that at least entertains the fans.
Team of the Week: Nürnberg - saving themselves
Turd of the Weak: Schalke - what a lame effort
FC Schalke 04 - 1. FC Köln 1:1 (0:1) 61,524 (Bajramovic - Podolski) Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia M'gladbach 2:1 (1:0) 22,500 (Rolfes 2 - Neuville) Hertha BSC Berlin - Borussia Dortmund 0:0 (0:0) 65,662 MSV Duisburg - Hamburger SV 0:2 (0:2) 28,164 (Möhrle o.g., Ailton) VfL Wolfsburg - Werder Bremen 1:1 (1:1) 27,996 (Hristov - Valdez) Eintracht Frankfurt - 1. FSV Mainz 05 0:0 (0:0) 49,962 Bayern München - Arminia Bielefeld 2:0 (0:0) 69,000 (Ballack, Scholl) 1. FC Nürnberg - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 3:2 (1:1) 47,250 (Vittek 2, Paulus - Altintop 2) Hannover 96 - VfB Stuttgart 3:3 (2:0) 35,000 (Stajner, Balitsch, Mertesacker - Ljuboja, Hitzlsberger, Tomasson) 1 Bayern München 30 21 6 3 58:25 +33 69 2 Hamburger SV 30 20 5 5 49:22 +27 65 3 Werder Bremen 30 18 6 6 66:33 +33 60 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 30 14 12 4 41:27 +14 54 5 Bayer Leverkusen 30 12 8 10 53:44 +9 44 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Hertha BSC Berlin 30 11 11 8 44:37 +7 44 7 VfB Stuttgart 30 8 16 6 32:30 +2 40 8 Borussia Dortmund 30 9 11 10 37:36 +1 38 9 1. FC Nürnberg 30 10 7 13 39:44 -5 37 10 Borussia M'gladbach 30 9 10 11 34:41 -7 37 11 Arminia Bielefeld 30 10 7 13 29:37 -8 37 12 Hannover 96 30 7 15 8 38:40 -2 36 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 30 8 7 15 37:46 -9 31 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 30 7 9 14 40:45 -5 30 15 VfL Wolfsburg 30 6 12 12 29:48 -19 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 30 7 6 17 41:66 -25 27 17 1. FC Köln 30 5 9 16 42:61 -19 24 18 MSV Duisburg 30 4 11 15 28:55 -27 23
2.Liga, round 30
Party time in Aachen! The Alemannia fans were celebrating before kickoff, as results had already ensured their return to the Bundesliga - after a 36 year absence since their relegation in 1970. And there were more celebrations afterwards, as by winning the match, Bochum fans can cheer their latest elevator ride. Meanwhile, Saarbrücken's huge win over Fürth not only is massive in their desperate relegation battle, but may have handed the 3rd promotion spot to Cottbus. The plucky Energie is bidding for a sensational return as the only ex-GDR representative in the top flight.
At the bottom, Siegen looks to be mathematically finished, and the alarm bells must be defeaning at 1860, after they got their ass kicked in Aue. Both Offenbach and Dresden got good away points and are crawling up 1860's rear...
Energie Cottbus - Hansa Rostock 2:0 (1:0) 15,000 (Radu 2) Sportfr. Siegen - SC Paderborn 07 0:2 (0:1) 6,374 (Ndjeng, Krösche) Karlsruher SC - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (0:1) 18,500 (Dundee - Diabang) LR Ahlen - SC Freiburg 0:0 (0:0) 3,841 Wacker Burghausen - Eintr. Braunschweig 1:2 (0:2) 4,500 (Krejci - Bick 2) 1. FC Saarbrücken - Greuther Fürth 1:0 (1:0) 10,000 (Jäger) Erzgebirge Aue - TSV 1860 München 3:0 (2:0) 15,000 (Klinka, Juskowiak 2) SpVgg Unterhaching - Dynamo Dresden 1:1 (0:1) 5,500 (Buck - Vorbeck) Alemannia Aachen - VfL Bochum 0:2 (0:1) 21,632 (Beckmann, Misimovic) 1 VfL Bochum 30 18 8 4 51:21 +30 62 2 Alemannia Aachen 30 19 4 7 56:31 +25 61 3 Energie Cottbus 30 15 8 7 45:29 +16 53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Greuther Fürth 30 13 8 9 46:39 +7 47 5 Karlsruher SC 30 13 8 9 43:38 +5 47 6 SC Freiburg 30 13 7 10 35:30 +5 46 7 Hansa Rostock 30 13 4 13 41:40 +1 43 8 Erzgebirge Aue 30 11 9 10 35:33 +2 42 9 SC Paderborn 07 30 11 7 12 39:30 +9 40 10 Eintr. Braunschweig 30 12 4 14 34:38 -4 40 11 Wacker Burghausen 30 10 10 10 36:44 -8 40 12 SpVgg Unterhaching 30 11 5 14 40:41 -1 38 13 TSV 1860 München 30 9 9 12 37:40 -3 36 14 1. FC Saarbrücken 30 10 5 15 35:56 -21 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Kickers Offenbach 30 9 7 14 32:51 -19 34 16 Dynamo Dresden 30 8 7 15 31:43 -12 31 17 LR Ahlen 30 7 8 15 31:44 -13 29 18 Sportfr. Siegen 30 6 6 18 29:48 -19 24
Desperate Housewives, Bundesliga style
Hamburg's star winger, Iranian Mehdi Mahdavikia, has been making headlines. Usually, his impressive runs down the right flank create chaos in the opponent ranks, and over the past few years, he's been one of the best HSV players. However, now he's making some headlines off the pitch as well, as he is embroiled in a scandal off the pitch. Apparently he has two wives. He's been married to Sepideh for several years, and has a 7 year old daughter. But Mehdi apparently has a wandering eye, and he met Samira and in December 2005 married her in a cermenony in Tehran. Now as a Muslim, Mahdavikia is theoretically allowed more than one wife, although in Iran at least this is apparently frowned upon. Mehdi set up Samira with a house in Hamburg, so he could visit both his wives. There was just one minor detail: the two women didn't know about each other. Samira is also apparently pregnant, and is suing Mehdi for support, since he's denying everything. Mehdi's response is that this is all a plot against him, even though there is apparently documented proof of his marriage to Samira. He's going to get taken to the cleaner's, as Samira is a German citizen, and is suing in German courts.
The truth is probably that Mehdi is correct, it IS a conspiracy against him, as Samira is undoubtedly a Bayern fan receiving direct instructions from GM Uli Hoeness to thwart HSV's title hopes :)
Below are photos of the two wives...in chronological order
April 13, 2006
DFB Cup
No shocking results, but certainly an interesting match-up that caught everyone's attention was the St.Pauli-Bayern clash at a sold out Millerntor in Hamburg. The 3rd division club fought for every ball and sold their hides expensively, as Bayern had to struggle, before two goals in the last 5 mniutes by Pizarro sealed the 3-0 win. The other semi-final was a boring Frankurt 1-0 win over Bielefeld, which means that Bayern and Frankfurt will meet in Berlin for the DFB-Pokalfinale.
April 9, 2006
Bundesliga, round 29
Whoa! Is there goig to be a race afterall? Bayern seemed to be sliding along to yet another title, but they just got bitch-slapped silly in Bremen, and their lead is now down to 4 points. And with Olli Kahn throwing fits with his attitude, perhaps there might be something left for Hamburg to sneak in. But before you get too excited, just remeber that bayern usually manages to come out on top. Although they went down in flames to Bremen, it's unlikely that they'll totally collapse. As General Manager Uli Hoeness once proclaimed "We'll win, because the others are too dumb." As for the match itself, it doesn't really reflect the game. Werder came out strong in a sold-out Weserstadion, pressing Bayern back, dominating the proceedings. However, after taking the lead, they let Bayern back into the match, and spent most of the 2nd period defending. Olli Kahn has been moping after national coach Jürgen Klinsmann announced that Jens Lehmann would be the opening starter at the World Cup. To be honest, Kahn has generally looked bad in several of his outings, although this time he was stabbed in the back by his teammate Bastian Schweini, who knocked in an own goal. This seemed to finally lift Magath's troops from their lethargic state, and Werder accomodated this by taking their foot off the gas pedal. Perhaps this was a Muhammad Ali-like "Rope-a-Dope" tactic, as two late clever counterattacks finished off München.
Hamburg was able to take advantage, as they dispatched Gladbach in front of a packed house. HSV controlled the game, but really failed to press home their advantage, and it wasn't until Takahara's injury time goal that they secured the points. They may regret this lack of effort, as they could have improved their goal-difference with a good whipping. Schalke meanwhile has decided that Champions League is not for them. A lame effort at Duisburg essentially puts them out of the race for the 3rd CL spot, so they'll be settling for another UEFA Cup run next year. The Zebras are going down, but this Ruhr derby still brought in the fans for another sell-out. This was MSV's first match after firing coach Jürgen Kohler (who was only in charge for some 10 matches). They fought hard, but frankly just don't have the talent to beat someone like Schalke.
Köln took their very last chance and blasted Wolfsburg. Altough salvation still seems unlikely, they at least have a slight hope. The VWs looked totally crap, and can thank Kaiserslautern's stinker against Berlin for keeping their head above water for another week. Things continue to heat up at the bottom, but Wolfsburg's been in free-fall, despite bringing coach Klaus Augenthaler after dumping Holger Fach a few weeks ago. In K-town, the Berliners only did what was necessary against a blunt Red Devil squad. Hertha jumped out to a lead and coasted comfortably home, hardly bothered. Nevertheless, these are important points for Hertha, as it keeps their lead over the charging Aspirins of Bayer, who won in the gigantic Westfalenstadion against Dortmund. To be honest, Bayer generally looked the better team, more concise in their counterattacks, and generally well organized, Nowotny like the Rock of Gibraltar anchoring the defense. (Interestingly enough, since Nowotny has been feuding with management - he was earlier "banned forever" - after the match sportsdirector Rudi Völler announced that they would dump his contract, even though they have to pay him some 4.7 million euros.) Dortmund was able to control most of the action in the 2nd half, but their attacks were generally incompetant, and half of their shots seemed like they were trying to kill somebody in the stands rather than put it in the net. They deservedly lose.
Mainz got another valuable point, although they were clearly outplayed by Hannover. It doesn't bring them closer to safety, but it's better than a loss. Another sell-out, one wonders what they would draw in a bigger stadium. Bielefeld's win over Frankfurt should finally put to rest any possibilities of relegation - which is always Arminia's main concern. The match was relatively even, but by losing, Frankfurt is still embroiled in the struggle. Meanwhile, Nürnberg was robbed by a cheating ref, as Kiessling scored a late goal, but the ref denied it for alleged offsides. On the counterattack, Jon-Dahl Tomasson was able to score on a rebound and give Stuttgart a lucky win.
Team of the Week: Köln, Bremen - great efforts
Turd of the Weak: Wolfsburg - officially crap
Borussia Dortmund - Bayer Leverkusen 1:2 (1:1) 73,800 (Brzenska - Berbatov, Freier) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Hertha BSC Berlin 0:2 (0:2) 35,255 (Pantelic, Gilberto) 1. FC Köln - VfL Wolfsburg 3:0 (0:0) 43,500 (Scherz, Helmes, Sarpei o.g.) VfB Stuttgart - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0 (0:0) 35,000 (Tomasson) Werder Bremen - Bayern München 3:0 (1:0) 42,500 (Schweinsteiger o.g., Jensen, Borowski) Arminia Bielefeld - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:0 (0:0) 22,998 (Westermann) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Hannover 96 0:0 (0:0) 20,300 Hamburger SV - Borussia M'gladbach 2:0 (1:0) 57,000 (van der Vaart, Takahara) MSV Duisburg - FC Schalke 04 1:1 (1:0) 31,500 (Poulsen o.g., Larsen) 1 Bayern München 29 20 6 3 56:25 +31 66 2 Hamburger SV 29 19 5 5 47:22 +25 62 3 Werder Bremen 29 18 5 6 65:32 +33 59 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 29 14 11 4 40:26 +14 53 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 29 11 10 8 44:37 +7 43 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Bayer Leverkusen 29 11 8 10 51:43 +8 41 7 VfB Stuttgart 29 8 15 6 29:27 +2 39 8 Borussia Dortmund 29 9 10 10 37:36 +1 37 9 Borussia M'gladbach 29 9 10 10 33:39 -6 37 10 Arminia Bielefeld 29 10 7 12 29:35 -6 37 11 Hannover 96 29 7 14 8 35:37 -2 35 12 1. FC Nürnberg 29 9 7 13 36:42 -6 34 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 29 8 6 15 37:46 -9 30 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 29 7 8 14 40:45 -5 29 15 VfL Wolfsburg 29 6 11 12 28:47 -19 29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 29 7 6 16 39:63 -24 27 17 1. FC Köln 29 5 8 16 41:60 -19 23 18 MSV Duisburg 29 4 11 14 28:53 -25 23
2.Liga, round 29
Yes, that's right, 56,000 in München, and 1860 once again fails to win, by giving up a goal in injury time. It would be absolutely amazing if 1860 were to go down.
VfL Bochum - Sportfr. Siegen 3:1 (2:0) 20,298 (Misimovic 2, Barletta - Akwuegbu) Eintr. Braunschweig - Alemannia Aachen 0:1 (0:1) 20,000 (Ebbers) Kickers Offenbach - Erzgebirge Aue 2:1 (0:0) 10,801 (Diabang, Türker - Kurth) SC Freiburg - SC Paderborn 07 1:0 (1:0) 12,700 (Coulibaly) LR Ahlen - Energie Cottbus 0:1 (0:0) 5,416 (Kioyo) Hansa Rostock - 1. FC Saarbrücken 3:0 (3:0) 12,000 (Stein, Bülow, Kern) TSV 1860 München - Wacker Burghausen 1:1 (0:0) 56,100 (Hoffmann - Krejci) Greuther Fürth - SpVgg Unterhaching 2:0 (2:0) 6,100 (Eigler, Hilbert) Dynamo Dresden - Karlsruher SC 3:2 (2:1) 12,811 (Vorbeck, Votava, Ulich - Kaufman, Federico) 1 Alemannia Aachen 29 19 4 6 56:29 +27 61 2 VfL Bochum 29 17 8 4 49:21 +28 59 3 Energie Cottbus 29 14 8 7 43:29 +14 50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Greuther Fürth 29 13 8 8 46:38 +8 47 5 Karlsruher SC 29 13 7 9 42:37 +5 46 6 SC Freiburg 29 13 6 10 35:30 +5 45 7 Hansa Rostock 29 13 4 12 41:38 +3 43 8 Wacker Burghausen 29 10 10 9 35:42 -7 40 9 Erzgebirge Aue 29 10 9 10 32:33 -1 39 10 SC Paderborn 07 29 10 7 12 37:30 +7 37 11 SpVgg Unterhaching 29 11 4 14 39:40 -1 37 12 Eintracht Braunschweig 29 11 4 14 32:37 -5 37 13 TSV 1860 München 29 9 9 11 37:37 0 36 14 Kickers Offenbach 29 9 6 14 31:50 -19 33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 1. FC Saarbrücken 29 9 5 15 34:56 -22 32 16 Dynamo Dresden 29 8 6 15 30:42 -12 30 17 LR Ahlen 29 7 7 15 31:44 -13 28 18 Sportfreunde Siegen 29 6 6 17 29:46 -17 24
April 2, 2006
Bundesliga, round 28
The top clash of the week was in Gelsenkirchen, were a packed house saw Schalke's first home defeat of the season to Hamburg. Schalke started out the better side, pressing HSV back, but then Rafinha had a brain-fart as he slapped some HSV player in the face, right in front of the ref. He got his ass tossed, and Schalke was no longer the superior side. Nevertheless, they kept on pressing. Unfortunately, a curling van der Vaart freekick was missed by everyone, although it might have glanced off Krstajic's head, and it was in the net. About 10 minutes from time, ex-Schalker Ailton gave the coup de grace with a nice through pass from Lauth, and the fat-boy showed he can still do it, with a nice finish past the outrushing Rost. This win almost puts Hamburg through to the Champions League.
Bremen took advantage of Schalke's slip with a close Klose finish. The Bundesliga's leading scorer got his 20th on a penalty that bounced off the post into the net. Nevertheless, it was a deserved 3 points, as Bremen controlled most of the match against their hosts Frankfurt, who are back in relegation worries.
Köln pulled off a mini-surprise and upset the sold-out AllianzArena crowd, who undoubtedly expected a Bayern rout. Instead, the tail-enders showed no respect to the leaders, and aggressively attacked and fought for every ball. They twice took the lead, and defended well in later stages as Bayern struggled to gain the upper hand. A fully deserved point, although it's too late to avoid the drop. For Bayern, the main concern is probably that keeper Olli Kahn had to be pulled at half-time with sore ribs.
In a key relegation battle, Wolfsburg could only draw against Duisburg, and in the end, should be happy they even got that. Despite controlling the game, the VWs were unable to make any headway against the determined Zebras. Then Argie forward Diego Klimowicz got his ass red-carded, and suddenly MSV realized that they had a chance. They took the lead, and seemed to be heading home with all the points. In fact, Ahanfouf and Lavric wasted chances to finish off the match. And of course, they were duly punished, as in injury time as late-sub Steve Marlet used his heel to salvage a point.
Nürnberg played well and blasted Mainz 3-0. This was the 4th home win in a row, the first time this has happened in 17 years. Der Club came out with furious attacks from the start, and quickly took the lead. Mainz made some defensive adjustments to slow things down, but FCN continued to control the match. The guests showed more initiative after the half, but der Club used the more open game to add to their lead, before Vittek notched another near the end to administer the coup de grace. This win almost ensures Bundesliga status for another season, as FCN is now essentially 8 points above the drop zone.
Also helping themselves out was Bielefeld, which won at Hannover. After getting slapped silly last week at Bremen, the 96ers gave a crap performance to their home fans, and Arminia jumped on an early lead and held the rest of the way for the valuable points.
Kaiserslautern a severe reverse to their campaign, as they were blasted 1-5 at Leverkusen. The tiny BayerArena was full, and the hosts jumped out quickly against the Red Devils. A solid defense easily blunted FCK's attempts to get back in the game, and when they opened up in the 2nd half, Leverkusen pounced and finished them off. Kaiserslautern limped out, obviously needing a generous dose of their host's products, especially aspirin and alka-seltzer. Although they're only a point behind Mainz and two behind equally crap Wolfsburg, their crap goal-difference essentially acts as another point deficit.
Gladbach put in a good effort in front of another sellout crowd, and Nando Rafael's first two goals helped sink Dortmund. Hertha also continued their minor improvement, as Marcelinho finally showed his skills. Stuttgart was totally lame and when they fell behind, they had nothing left in the tank. They should probably be familiarizing themselves with the ins and outs of the "Inter-Toto" Cup (also known as "UI"), because that's the only way they look to play in European competition next season.
Team of the Week: Hamburg, first team to win at the Veltins
Turd of the Weak: Stuttgart or Hannover
Bayern München - 1. FC Köln 2:2 (2:2) 69,000 (Sagnol, Makaay - Feulner, Streit) VfL Wolfsburg - MSV Duisburg 1:1 (0:0) 18,129 (Marlet - van Houdt) Borussia M'gladbach - Borussia Dortmund 2:1 (2:1) 54,019 (Rafael 2 - Rosicky) Bayer Leverkusen - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 5:1 (2:0) 22,500 (Berbatov 3, Barnetta, Fritz - Pletsch) Eintracht Frankfurt - Werder Bremen 0:1 (0:0) 48,600 (Klose) Hertha BSC Berlin - VfB Stuttgart 2:0 (0:0) 51,436 (Marcelinho) 1. FC Nürnberg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 3:0 (1:0) 44,691 (Saenko, Kiessling, Vittek) FC Schalke 04 - Hamburger SV 0:2 (0:0) 61,524 (van der Vaart, Ailton) Hannover 96 - Arminia Bielefeld 0:1 (0:1) 34,361 (Vata) 1 Bayern München 28 20 6 2 56:22 +34 66 2 Hamburger SV 28 18 5 5 45:22 +23 59 3 Werder Bremen 28 17 5 6 62:32 +30 56 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 28 14 10 4 39:25 +14 52 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 28 10 10 8 42:37 +5 40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Bayer Leverkusen 28 10 8 10 49:42 +7 38 7 Borussia Dortmund 28 9 10 9 36:34 +2 37 8 Borussia M'gladbach 28 9 10 9 33:37 -4 37 9 VfB Stuttgart 28 7 15 6 28:27 +1 36 10 Hannover 96 28 7 13 8 35:37 -2 34 11 1. FC Nürnberg 28 9 7 12 36:41 -5 34 12 Arminia Bielefeld 28 9 7 12 28:35 -7 34 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 28 8 6 14 37:45 -8 30 14 VfL Wolfsburg 28 6 11 11 28:44 -16 29 15 1. FSV Mainz 05 28 7 7 14 40:45 -5 28 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 28 7 6 15 39:61 -22 27 17 MSV Duisburg 28 4 10 14 27:52 -25 22 18 1. FC Köln 28 4 8 16 38:60 -22 20
2.Liga, round 28
Aachen was last in the Bundesliga in 1970, and the team that went down with them at the time was 1860. Whereas 1860 has tasted the top a several occasions since, Aachen has remained in obscurity. But their win now has pretty much assured a return to top flight, and they overtake Bochum as the leaders. Cottbus, Karlsruhe and perhaps Fürth look to fight it out till the bitter end for the coveted 3rd spot. However, Cottbus had a huge win over Freiburg, which just about eliminated the Breisgauer from contention. The other big loser this week was Dresden, which not only is half under water due to the river Elbe overflowing, but were beaten in an eastern derby by Aue and should be considered on life support.
SC Paderborn 07 - VfL Bochum 1:3 (1:0) 9,322 (Dragusa - Misimovic 2, Zdebel) Energie Cottbus - SC Freiburg 2:1 (2:0) 9,800 (Radu, Ziebig - Aogo) Karlsruher SC - Greuther Fürth 2:1 (1:1) 20,100 (Carnell, Kaufmann - Timm) SpVgg Unterhaching - Hansa Rostock 0:1 (0:1) 3,750 (Kern) 1. FC Saarbrücken - LR Ahlen 1:0 (0:0) 8,500 (Demai) Sportfr. Siegen - Eintr. Braunschweig 4:1 (3:0) 6,511 (Cafu 2, Memeth, Nauroth - Blick) Wacker Burghausen - Kickers Offenbach 0:2 (0:2) 4,150 (Türker, Diabang) Erzgebirge Aue - Dynamo Dresden 2:0 (2:0) 17,000 (Emmerich, Hampf) Alemannia Aachen - TSV 1860 München 1:0 (1:0) 20,000 (Ebbers) 1 Alemannia Aachen 28 18 4 6 55:29 +26 58 2 VfL Bochum 28 16 8 4 46:20 +26 56 3 Energie Cottbus 28 13 8 7 42:29 +13 47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Karlsruher SC 28 13 7 8 40:34 +6 46 5 Greuther Fürth 28 12 8 8 44:38 +6 44 6 SC Freiburg 28 12 6 10 34:30 +4 42 7 Hansa Rostock 28 12 4 12 38:38 0 40 8 Erzgebirge Aue 28 10 9 9 31:31 0 39 9 Wacker Burghausen 28 10 9 9 34:41 -7 39 10 SC Paderborn 07 28 10 7 11 37:29 +8 37 11 SpVgg Unterhaching 28 11 4 13 39:38 +1 37 12 Eintr. Braunschweig 28 11 4 13 32:36 -4 37 13 TSV 1860 München 28 9 8 11 36:36 0 35 14 1. FC Saarbrücken 28 9 5 14 34:53 -19 32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Kickers Offenbach 28 8 6 14 29:49 -20 30 16 LR Ahlen 28 7 7 14 31:43 -12 28 17 Dynamo Dresden 28 7 6 15 27:40 -13 27 18 Sportfr. Siegen 28 6 6 16 28:43 -15 24
March 26, 2006
Bundesliga, round 27
This weekend was pretty much a ho-hum set of matches, as the championship was basically decided last week. Nevertheless, Bayern needed a strong 2nd half to avoid an upset at Duisburg, where the Zebras had the lead at half-time. In fact, Oliver Kahn's backup, young Michael Rensing, had an outstanding game to keep Bayern from giving up more against a determined, if somewhat hapless, MSV squad. So the sellout crowd got one more entertaining match before going back to the 2.Liga hum-drum. Meanwhile, another sellout crowd in Hamburg watched in horror as HSV went down in flames against a surprising Dortmund, who came away with a deserved 3 points. The key of the match was probably when Ailton scored his first for HSV, as the stadium announcer was still yapping, Smolarek chested down to Rosicky, who blasted into the upper corner to level. From that point on Dortmund dominated the match and finished off the Hamburgers. In a rather lame performance, Schalke was unable to recover from last week's embarassing effort at Bayern. Although they managed to take the lead twice against relegation threatened Wolfsburg, the VWs came back and almost won the match at the end, gaining a point. Meanwhile, Bremen finally got back on track with a sensational thrashing of a solid Hannover squad. In reality, Bremen was a bit shaky, and the 96ers actually controlled the match for most of the first half. In fact, only some great saves by Tim Wiese and some sloppy finishing by the guests prevented Werder from falling behind. But once Bremen took the lead, Hannover fell apart like Birmingham City in the FA Cup against Liverpool...
At the bottom, Kaiserslautern was impressive as they thumped Gladbach to regain contact with a safe spot. Despite their crap season, forward Halil Altintop (whose twin plays for Schalke) has been a bright spot, with 16 league goals, second only to Bremen's Miroslav Klose (an ex-Lauter) with an excellent 19 strikes. (Note that in Germany they only really count league goals, no cup, European play etc.) Mainz dominated the match against Berlin in their tiny, but always packed stadium. However they wasted too many chances and had to settle for a point. The real winner is Hertha's Serbian striker Ante Pantelic, who has been the key figure in the last few weeks of Hertha's revival. Previously he couldn't hit the side of a barn, now head coach Falko Götz should kiss his ass for saving his job. Bielefeld and Nürnberg had a hard fought goal-less draw. Arminia had the best chance to win, as Wichniarek hit the inside of the post, but overall it was a fair result. Köln remains hopeless at the bottom. Despite an early goal, they could win against Frankfurt, who wasted so many chances they should probably complain about only getting a point. The ref certainly didn't help the "Goats", as he perhaps unfairly tossed Köln's forward Imre Szabic's ass out for a hard tackle just before half. Stuttgart ran aroud like a chicken with it's head cut off. Lack of purpose and offensive ideas certainly contributed to the defeat at home to Leverkusen.
Team of the Week: Hard to pick: Borussia Dortmund or Kaiserslautern
Turd of the Weak: Gladbach, what a lame performance
VfB Stuttgart - Bayer Leverkusen 0:2 (0:1) 32,000 (Freier, Berbatov) Hamburger SV - Borussia Dortmund 2:4 (1:1) 56,000 (Lauth, Ailton - Smolarek, Kringe, Rosicky 2) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Hertha BSC 2:2 (0:1) 20,300 (Thurk, Casey - Pantelic 2) FC Schalke 04 - VfL Wolfsburg 2:2 (1:1) 60,567 (Kuranyi, Lincoln - Hoogendorp, Lamprecht) MSV Duisburg - Bayern Muenchen 1:3 (1:0) 31,500 (Ahanfouf - Salihamidzic, Makaay, Pizarro) 1. FC Köln - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:1 (1:1) 48,000 (Springer - Rehmer) Werder Bremen - Hannover 96 5:0 (2:0) 41,646 (Valdez 3, Klose, Micoud) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Borussia M'gladbach 3:0 (2:0) 35,861 (Altintop 2, Skela) Arminia Bielefeld - 1. FC Nuernberg 0:0 (0:0) 19,717 1 Bayern München 27 20 5 2 54:20 +34 65 2 Hamburger SV 27 17 5 5 43:22 +21 56 3 Werder Bremen 27 16 5 6 61:32 +29 53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 27 14 10 3 39:23 +16 52 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 27 9 10 8 40:37 +3 37 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Borussia Dortmund 27 9 10 8 35:32 +3 37 7 VfB Stuttgart 27 7 15 5 28:25 +3 36 8 Bayer Leverkusen 27 9 8 10 44:41 +3 35 9 Hannover 96 27 7 13 7 35:36 -1 34 10 Borussia M'gladbach 27 8 10 9 31:36 -5 34 11 1. FC Nürnberg 27 8 7 12 33:41 -8 31 12 Arminia Bielefeld 27 8 7 12 27:35 -8 31 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 27 8 6 13 37:44 -7 30 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 27 7 7 13 40:42 -2 28 15 VfL Wolfsburg 27 6 10 11 27:43 -16 28 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 27 7 6 14 38:56 -18 27 17 MSV Duisburg 27 4 9 14 26:51 -25 21 18 1. FC Köln 27 4 7 16 36:58 -22 19
2.Liga, Round 27
Eintr. Braunschweig - SC Paderborn 07 2:0 (2:0) 15,000 (Bollmann, Kuru) Kickers Offenbach - Alemannia Aachen 2:4 (0:0) 9,273 (Diabang, Sieger - Ebbers 4) Dynamo Dresden - Wacker Burghausen 1:2 (1:2) 13,812 (Kennedy - Kneissel, Vukovic) TSV 1860 München - Sportfr. Siegen 3:0 (1:0) 25,000 (Agostino 2, Shao) Energie Cottbus - 1. FC Saarbrücken 0:1 (0:1) 8,550 (Jäger) LR Ahlen - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:0 (0:0) 3,000 (Book) Hansa Rostock - Karlsruher SC 2:0 (0:0) 7,000 (Kern 2) Greuther Fürth - Erzgebirge Aue 1:3 (0:3) 8,600 (Eigler - Lenze, Siradze 2) SC Freiburg - VfL Bochum 0:0 (0:0) 14,000 1 VfL Bochum 27 15 8 4 43:19 +24 53 2 Alemannia Aachen 26 16 4 6 49:27 +22 52 3 Energie Cottbus 27 12 8 7 40:28 +12 44 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Greuther Fürth 27 12 8 7 43:36 +7 44 5 Karlsruher SC 27 12 7 8 38:33 +5 43 6 SC Freiburg 27 12 6 9 33:28 +5 42 7 SC Paderborn 07 27 10 7 10 36:26 +10 37 8 SpVgg Unterhaching 27 11 4 12 39:37 +2 37 9 Hansa Rostock 26 11 4 11 36:34 +2 37 10 Erzgebirge Aue 27 9 9 9 29:31 -2 36 11 Wacker Burghausen 26 9 9 8 33:39 -6 36 12 TSV 1860 München 26 9 8 9 36:34 +2 35 13 Eintr. Braunschweig 26 10 4 12 27:31 -4 34 14 1. FC Saarbrücken 26 8 5 13 31:48 -17 29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Dynamo Dresden 26 7 5 14 27:38 -11 26 16 Kickers Offenbach 26 7 5 14 27:49 -22 26 17 LR Ahlen 26 6 7 13 28:42 -14 25 18 Sportfr. Siegen 26 5 6 15 24:39 -15 21
Another Loddar joke
OK, we admit. It's rather cheap thrills, but we would be journalistically irresponsible if we didn't at least follow up the Lothar Matthäus story, to give it some closure. So we give you the following joke, dug up by our friend Fabio Danilo Werlang, making the rounds of southern Brazil:
"Sexual tourism has risen in Brazil. The last case was a German trainer, who came to Brazil, f#*$ed Atlético Paranaense and left!".
March 19, 2006
Bundesliga, round 26
A semi-decisive weekend, as both Schalke and Bremen essentially fall out of the race. In a rather drab and disappointing match, Bayern slapped Schalke silly with a decent 2nd half effort. however, the visitors looked tired and listless, so Bayern, despite some flabby play themselves, pretty much knocks Schalke from any hopes of the title. Meanwhile, Robert Vittek Fußballgott scored another two goals in Nürnberg's critical win over falling Bremen. This certainly helps der Club in their relegation struggle. Hamburg remains the only club with a chance to catch Bayern. In a northern derby with Wolfsburg, the Hanseaten cleverly defended their early lead, and the VWs never really looked like coming back. Interesting battles in the relegation zone, where aside from Nürnberg's obvious win, the big gainer seems to have been Mainz. They managed to win at the Plop-Plop-Fizz-Fizz-Oh-what-a-Relief-it-is stadium against one of the more inconsistent clubs, Bayer Aspirin. In reality, the Alka-Seltzers looked crap, so Mainz' win was totally deserved. Köln continues to sink into the sunset, and Duisbrug was overrun in Frankfurt, although they managed to come back in wild first half. Also, Dortmund stopped their recent run of lame results and dumped Kaiserlslautern, leaving the Reds in grave condition. Borussia dominated the match, but their crap finishing almost allowed the guests to escape with a point. In the ho-hom, who cares? dept were Gladbach's draw with Stuttgart and Hertha's win over Bielefeld. Attendance in the Bundesliga continues to maintain it's high levels, as once again the average was over 40,000+.
Team of the Week: Frankfurt
Turd of the Weak: Schalke
Hannover 96 - 1. FC Köln 1:0 (1:0) 37,214 (Hashemian) Eintracht Frankfurt - MSV Duisburg 5:2 (3:2) 32,000 (Amanatidis 3, Köhler, Copado - Bodzek, Lavric) VfL Wolfsburg - Hamburger SV 0:1 (0:1) 28,095 (Lauth) Borussia Dortmund - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2:1 (1:1) 70,100 (Dede, Kringe - Skela) 1. FC Nürnberg - Werder Bremen 3:1 (2:0) 40,924 (Vittek 2, Schroth - Klose) Borussia M'gladbach - VfB Stuttgart 1:1 (0:0) 45,552 (Fukal - Cacau) Bayer Leverkusen - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:2 (0:1) 21,000 (Freier, Zidan 2) Bayern München - FC Schalke 04 3:0 (0:0) 69,000 (Salihamidzic, Pizarro, Makaay) Hertha BSC Berlin - Arminia Bielefeld 1:0 (0:0) 32,656 (Pantelic) 1 Bayern München 26 19 5 2 51:19 +32 62 2 Hamburger SV 26 17 5 4 41:18 +23 56 3 FC Schalke 04 26 14 9 3 37:21 +16 51 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Werder Bremen 26 15 5 6 56:32 +24 50 5 VfB Stuttgart 26 7 15 4 28:23 +5 36 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Hertha BSC Berlin 26 9 9 8 38:35 +3 36 7 Hannover 96 26 7 13 6 35:31 +4 34 8 Borussia Dortmund 26 8 10 8 31:30 +1 34 9 Borussia M'gladbach 26 8 10 8 31:33 -2 34 10 Bayer Leverkusen 26 8 8 10 42:41 +1 32 11 1. FC Nürnberg 26 8 6 12 33:41 -8 30 12 Arminia Bielefeld 26 8 6 12 27:35 -8 30 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 26 8 5 13 36:43 -7 29 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 26 7 6 13 38:40 -2 27 15 VfL Wolfsburg 26 6 9 11 25:41 -16 27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 26 6 6 14 35:56 -21 24 17 MSV Duisburg 26 4 9 13 25:48 -23 21 18 1. FC Köln 26 4 6 16 35:57 -22 18
2.Liga, round 26
Solid wins for Bochum and Aachen (in front of a sellout crowd move both clubs closer to the Bundesliga. For the latter, this would be a return after some 38 years. A fierce battle continues to rage for teh last promotion spot, and the relegation spaces are still up for grabs as well. New coach Walter Schachner finally got to celebrate his first victory with 1860.
Wacker Burghausen - Greuther Fürth 2:2 (1:1) 3,900 Sportfr. Siegen - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (1:0) 10,054 Alemannia Aachen - Dynamo Dresden 2:0 (0:0) 20,143 Karlsruher SC - LR Ahlen 3:1 (1:0) 13,000 SpVgg Unterhaching - Energie Cottbus 0:2 (0:1) 5,000 1. FC Saarbrücken - SC Freiburg 2:1 (1:0) 8,800 VfL Bochum - Eintr. Braunschweig 4:0 (2:0) 20,189 SC Paderborn 07 - 1860 München 0:1 (0:1) 8,147 Erzgebirge Aue - Hansa Rostock 2:1 (0:1) 11,200 makeup games from last week: SpVgg Unterhaching - SC Freiburg 1:0 (0:0) 3,000 Karlsruher SC - 1. FC Saarbrücken 2:1 (2:0) 13,300 1 VfL Bochum 26 15 7 4 43:19 24 52 2 Alemannia Aachen 25 15 4 6 45:25 20 49 3 Energie Cottbus 26 12 8 6 40:27 13 44 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Karlsruher SC 26 12 7 7 38:31 7 43 5 Greuther Fürth 25 11 8 6 39:32 7 41 6 SC Freiburg 26 12 5 9 33:28 5 41 7 SC Paderborn 07 26 10 7 9 36:24 12 37 8 SpVgg Unterhaching 26 11 4 11 39:36 3 37 9 Hansa Rostock 25 10 4 11 34:34 0 34 10 Erzgebirge Aue 26 8 9 9 26:30 -4 33 11 Wacker Burghausen 25 8 9 8 31:38 -7 33 12 TSV 1860 München 25 8 8 9 33:34 -1 32 13 Eintr. Braunschweig 25 9 4 12 25:31 -6 31 14 Dynamo Dresden 25 7 5 13 26:36 -10 26 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 1. FC Saarbrücken 25 7 5 13 30:48 -18 26 16 Kickers Offenbach 25 7 5 13 25:45 -20 26 17 LR Ahlen 25 5 7 13 27:42 -15 22 18 Sportfr. Siegen 24 5 6 13 23:33 -10 21
March 17, 2006
More Loddar news...
Well, Abseits can now reveal more details on the Lothar Matthäus saga. First, Loddar has returned from Brazil...permanently! He stated in an interview with Germany's top intellectual journal Bild-Zeitung that he had returned to Budapest "for love". He wanted to be together with his wife Marijanna.
Of course, everybody back in Curitiba has been wondering why he left the club for Europe in the first place.
He claimed that it had
nothing to do with his 30 day suspension for insulting a referee (apparently this ban had been lifted) and in any
case "I've left Atletico in great shape, we'd just won 6 in a row." Rival fans from Parana Clube are said to be
disappointed, as they were planning some special cheers for Loddar so he could feel right at home.
Meanwhile, here's another picture of his would be Brazilian "wife", Delisieé Teixeira
And of course our roving reporter in southern Brazil, Fabio Danilo Werlang (pronounced "Schuhmacher") was able to
dig up photographic evidence on why Loddar got suspended in the first place:
Lothar is merely saying that the ref is one of the best he's ever seen and that he wishes him and his mother good
fortune...
March 12, 2006
Bundesliga, round 25
Bayern still obviously had a hangover from their midweek 1-4 thumping at the hands of AC Milan in the Chanpions League. So they looked completely lame against a Wolfsburg club that was only interested in holding a point, so a rather boring 0-0 draw was the logical result. The VW-stadium was sold out, but the fans certainly weren't treated to much of a spectacle. In a shocking surprise, Bremen got taken to the cleaners at home to a crap Hertha squad, which likely saved embattled head coach Falko Götz' job for another week. Whether that pleases Berlin fans is unlikely, but they are sure to be happy over the win, their first in about 10 matches. Bremen on the other hand looked total crap and completely fell apart. Both Schalke and Hamburg took advantage of the Bremen slip to vault over and into a Champions League spot. Hamburg in fact has cut Bayern's lead to only 6 points. In yet another sell-out in the Gelsenkirchen Arena Auf Schalke, the Blues dominated their match against a defensively oriented Frankfurt, although it took a while to break through. HSV had a similar experience against Kaiserslautern, taking about an hour to finally break their guests down.
At the bottom of the table there were also some dramatic results. Nürnberg's Slovakian forward Robert Vittek is quickly advancing to the status of Fußballgott, as his second hattrick in a row in a key relegation battle deliver the points for der Klub. In a wild battle, Vittek struck quickly with two penalties and a nice strike to put FCN up 0-3 after only 20 minutes. With the vistors leading 4-1 under an hour, the points were all wrapped up. But Köln stormed back with two goals in a minute, and the fierce struggle continued. In the end, Nürnberg was somewhat fortunate to grab all the points, and Köln is left with nothing and little hope at the bottom. In their perenially packed tiny stadium, Mainz got a fine performance and thumped Gladbach, putting the hurt on the UEFA hopeful. The hosts had seen poor results dump them further into the relegation zone, so the points are a welcome addition. Bielefeld rode a quick goal to victory, which gives them some breathing room from the drop zone, and stopped Leverkusen's mini-revival. Radomir Dalovic got his first start of the season (he had sucked as a sub in some previous 10 appearances), but headed home the golden goal after only 5 minutes, head coach Thomas Van Heesen must have known something. An undermanned Duisburg squad fought hard for every ball, and earned a deserved point against Hannover. However neither team showed much offensive competance, so no surprise that goals were Fehlanzeige. With both Nürnberg and Mainz winning though, the Zebras can't be too happy. The remaining match was Stuttgart and Dortmund in yet another goalless affair. Both teams made lots of mistakes and therefore had several chances to score, but they couldn't hit the side of a barn today, and eventually both settle for a point.
Team of the Week: Nürnberg, Hertha
Turd of the Weak: Bremen
Arminia Bielefeld - Bayer Leverkusen 1:0 (1:0) 18,317 (Dalovic) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Borussia M'gladbach 3:0 (0:0) 20,300 (Thurk 2, Zidan) VfB Stuttgart - Borussia Dortmund 0:0 (0:0) 45,000 Werder Bremen - Hertha BSC Berlin 0:3 (0:0) 37,728 (Boateng, Marcelinho, Bastürk) 1. FC Köln - 1. FC Nürnberg 3:4 (1:3) 47,500 (Zivkovic, Matip, Podolski - Vittek 3, Saenko) VfL Wolfsburg - Bayern München 0:0 (0:0) 30,000 MSV Duisburg - Hannover 96 0:0 (0:0) 20,000 FC Schalke 04 - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:0 (0:0) 61,524 (Larsen, Sand) Hamburger SV - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 3:0 (0:0) 44,460 (Lauth, Schönheim o.g., van der Vaart) 1 Bayern München 25 18 5 2 48:19 29 59 2 Hamburger SV 25 16 5 4 40:18 22 53 3 FC Schalke 04 25 14 9 2 37:18 19 51 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Werder Bremen 25 15 5 5 55:29 26 50 5 VfB Stuttgart 25 7 14 4 27:22 5 35 6 Hertha BSC Berlin 25 8 9 8 37:35 2 33 7 Borussia M'gladbach 25 8 9 8 30:32 -2 33 8 Bayer Leverkusen 25 8 8 9 41:39 2 32 9 Hannover 96 25 6 13 6 34:31 3 31 10 Borussia Dortmund 25 7 10 8 29:29 0 31 11 Arminia Bielefeld 25 8 6 11 27:34 -7 30 12 1. FC Nürnberg 25 7 6 12 30:40 -10 27 13 VfL Wolfsburg 25 6 9 10 25:40 -15 27 14 Eintracht Frankfurt 25 7 5 13 31:41 -10 26 15 1. FSV Mainz 05 25 6 6 13 36:39 -3 24 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 25 6 6 13 34:54 -20 24 17 MSV Duisburg 25 4 9 12 23:43 -20 21 18 1. FC Köln 25 4 6 15 35:56 -21 18
2.Liga - round 25
Kickers Offenbach - SC Paderborn 07 1:1 (0:0) 7,531 1. FC Saarbrücken - SpVgg Unterhaching 5:3 (3:1) 4,700 LR Ahlen - Erzgebirge Aue 3:1 (1:1) 3,279 Dynamo Dresden - Sportfr. Siegen 1:0 (1:0) 10,711 SC Freiburg - Eintr. Braunschweig 1:0 (1:0) 12,000 Hansa Rostock - Wacker Burghausen 1:0 (1:0) 10,000 Energie Cottbus - Karlsruher SC 0:0 (0:0) 8,740 TSV 1860 München - VfL Bochum 0:1 (0:0) 27,600 Greuther Fürth - Alemannia Aachen -:- 1 VfL Bochum 25 14 7 4 39:19 +20 49 2 Alemannia Aachen 23 14 3 6 43:25 +18 45 3 Energie Cottbus 25 11 8 6 38:27 +11 41 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 SC Freiburg 24 12 5 7 32:25 +7 41 5 Greuther Fürth 23 11 6 6 37:30 +7 39 6 SC Paderborn 07 25 10 7 8 36:23 +13 37 7 Karlsruher SC 24 10 7 7 33:29 +4 37 8 SpVgg Unterhaching 24 10 4 10 38:34 +4 34 9 Hansa Rostock 24 10 4 10 33:32 +1 34 10 Wacker Burghausen 24 8 8 8 29:36 -7 32 11 Eintr. Braunschweig 24 9 4 11 25:27 -2 31 12 Erzgebirge Aue 25 7 9 9 24:29 -5 30 13 TSV 1860 München 24 7 8 9 32:34 -2 29 14 Dynamo Dresden 24 7 5 12 26:34 -8 26 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Kickers Offenbach 24 7 4 13 24:44 -20 25 16 1. FC Saarbrücken 23 6 5 12 27:45 -18 23 17 LR Ahlen 24 5 7 12 26:39 -13 22 18 Sportfr. Siegen 23 5 5 13 22:32 -10 20
Regionalliga Wrap
The main story this time in the 3rd division is that most of the matches seem to be canceled due to snow covered pitches. Whereas underground heating and more modern facilities and resources make a Bundesliga cancellation a rare occurence, at times the 3rd division clubs just have to grin and bear it. In the 19 team North division, it looks like Rot-Weiss Essen is sailing through, and should be back into the 2.Liga. Holstein Kiel holds the coveted 2nd spot, although everybody's favorite Kult club St.Pauli, are hot on their heals, with VfB Lübeck and Carl Zeiss Jena only a couple of points back. In the South, FC Augsburg looks solid as the leader, with a 6 point lead and fewer matches. TuS Koblenz has the 2nd spot, with Hoffenheim chasing them. Ex-Bundesligist Darmstadt could get within striking distance by winning their makeup match.
March 10, 2006
LO!!!!!!!!!!DAR!!!!!!!! LO!!!!!!!!!!!DAR!!!!!!!!
As Abseits continues in it's efforts to dominate the world with German soccer news, we bring some interesting info from our roving correspondent in southern Brazil, Fabio Danilo Werlang. He reports on the latest news of everybodies favorite Lothar "Loddar" Matthäus, who is currently the head coach for Atlético Paranaense of Curitiba. Fabio writes:
" Loddar has already gotten involved in a confusion here. As you might know, he is married. But he's living alone in Brazil.
A German photographer took a picture of Loddar along with a well-known female tv-reporter Delisieé Teixeira and then published the photo in a German newspaper saying that the tv-reporter was his wife. Loddar's real wife saw the picture and got mad. Then Loddar thought that the photografer was a Brazilian photographer named Jader da Rocha and started to insult him. Jader got pissed and punched Loddar in the nose and floored him! The funny thing is that Jader da Rocha is much smaller than Loddar. The press, which is mainly pro-Atlético (Loddar's team) almost said nothing about the episode, but everybody knows... Just yesterday Loddar was punished by the soccer court with a 30 day ban because he insulted the referees..."
Actually, it wasn't totally Loddar's fault, as da Rocha did publish a picture with the wrong caption in the Brazilian magazine Placar. Fabio was able to dig up the evidence:
The caption reads: "Marijianna and Matthäus, they'll only live together after the World Cup"
Apparently Delisieé was just showing Loddar around town. Well, I suppose it was worth getting punched in the nose for...
In somewhat related news, it is rumoured that for the upcoming Curitiba city derby between Atlético and Parana Clube, some of the latter fans might try and wind up Loddar to new heights, perhaps with a few well-placed "Klinsmann" chants...
Well, since we're on the subject, here's some Loddar jokes that have been making the rounds:
Neue Freundin für Loddar? Lothar Matthäus sucht verzweifelt eine neue Freundin, sogar über eine Partnervermittlung hat er es schon versucht. Ist ja auch schwierig: Es gibt nicht so viele junge Frauen, die gleichzeitig attraktiv UND taub sind.
(New Girlfriend for Loddar?
Lothar Matthäus is desperately looking for a new girlfriend, and has even tried a matchmaker agency. But it's
difficult: there just aren't that many young women that are both attractive and deaf...")
Sexuelle Erfahrungen
Eine schockierende Umfrage hat ergeben: In Deutschland hatten elf Prozent der vierzehnjährigen Mädchen schon ihre
ersten sexuellen Erfahrungen. Die anderen konnten einfach schneller laufen als Lothar Matthäus.
(Sexual Experience
A shocking survey has revealed: In Germany, 11% of 14 year old girls have already had their first sexual
experience. The others can simply run faster than Lothar Matthäus...)
OK, enough Loddar bashing for today...
March 5, 2006
Bundesliga, round 24
Many interesting results this round. The first surprise was Hamburg (Demel,deJong) stunning Bayern (Scholl), for Bayern's first home loss in the Allianz-Arena. HSV was a deserved winner in a game marked by heavy snowfall, although it took a last second goal by newcomer de Jong to get the victory after oldtimer Scholl almost saved a point a couple of minutes earlier. Bremen (Frings) was unable to take full advantage and could only draw at Leverkusen (Berbatov). The match was fairly even, so they really can't complain, and the Aspirins remain one of the more unpredicatble clubs. Schalke (Poulsen,Bajramovic) moved closer to Champions League contention with a somewhat fortunate win at Hannover (Christiansen). Die Kanppen were well up at halftime, but H96 attacked furiously in the 2nd half, and in the last minute, Stajner missed a huge chance to get a deserved point. At the bottom, things remain thrilling. Nürnberg (Vittek 3) had a massive win in a direct relegation battle with Duisburg, and if Robert Vittek isn't Player of the Week, I'll be amazed. Der Club was dominant in the 1st half, but through laziness tried to let teh Zebras back in. However, in general MSV was too crap today (e.g. Lavric managing to boot the ball over the open goal from about 5 feet), so the critical points fell easily to Nürnberg. Hertha BSC (Pantelic 2) must be the laughing stock of Germany after flopping at home against Köln (Podolski 2, Streller, Scherz). Berlin had their chances, and can't really complain. Coach Falko Götz surely will be fired soon?! Also possible, GM Dieter Hoeness' ass is hit by the door as he is booted out too, since his reign-of-error has been relatively crap at Berlin. For Köln, they keep their slim hope alive through the revival, and it looks like Lukas Podolski has woken up from his slumber. Dortmund (Woerns) and Mainz (Thurk) had a lame draw that helps neither, although obviously Mainz will be more satisfied with the point. Frankfurt (Amanatidis) and Wolfsburg (Hanke) played a match hardly anyone cared about, and the Eagles missed several opportunities to win outright. Of course, the Volkswagens have to be happy escaping with a point. Gladbach (Jansen, Sonck) handled Bielefeld and have stopped their mini-crisis. Both clubs had trouble with the crap conditions, but Gladbach raised it's game in the 2nd half to go out deserved winners. The 'Lautern-Stuttgart was buried under snow and was rescheduled for Tuesday the 7th.
Team of the Week: Hamburg and honorable mention to Robert Vittek :)
Turd of the Weak: Hertha
Hertha BSC Berlin - 1. FC Köln 2:4 (0:0) 38,880 1. FC Nürnberg - MSV Duisburg 3:0 (2:0) 43,954 Hannover 96 - FC Schalke 04 1:2 (0:2) 47,243 Bayern München - Hamburger SV 1:2 (0:1) 69,000 (sold out) Bayer Leverkusen - Werder Bremen 1:1 (1:1) 22,500 (sold out) Borussia Dortmund - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:1 (1:0) 66,200 Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Wolfsburg 1:1 (0:0) 26,000 Borussia M'gladbach - Arminia Bielefeld 2:0 (1:0) 39,372 1. FC Kaiserslautern - VfB Stuttgart postponed 1 Bayern München 24 18 4 2 48:19 +29 58 2 Werder Bremen 24 15 5 4 55:26 +29 50 3 Hamburger SV 24 15 5 4 37:18 +19 50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 24 13 9 2 35:18 +17 48 5 VfB Stuttgart 23 7 12 4 26:21 +5 33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Borussia M'gladbach 24 8 9 7 30:29 +1 33 7 Bayer Leverkusen 24 8 8 8 41:38 +3 32 8 Hannover 96 24 6 12 6 34:31 +3 30 9 Borussia Dortmund 24 7 9 8 29:29 0 30 10 Hertha BSC Berlin 24 7 9 8 34:35 -1 30 11 Arminia Bielefeld 24 7 6 11 26:34 -8 27 12 Eintracht Frankfurt 24 7 5 12 31:39 -8 26 13 VfL Wolfsburg 24 6 8 10 25:40 -15 26 14 1. FC Nürnberg 24 6 6 12 26:37 -11 24 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 23 6 5 12 33:50 -17 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FSV Mainz 05 24 5 6 13 33:39 -6 21 17 MSV Duisburg 24 4 8 12 23:43 -20 20 18 1. FC Köln 24 4 6 14 32:52 -20 18
2.Liga, round 24
Bochum missed a chance to solidify 1st as a few games were canceled due to snow covered pitches. Good win however for Offenbach in their relegation battle. A huge win for Aachen, which is on the verge of a sensational return to the Bundesliga after some 35 years. Paderborn's momentum was stopped cold by a desperate Dresden squad.
Wacker Burghausen - LR Ahlen 1:3 (1:1) 3,300 Erzgebirge Aue - Energie Cottbus 2:2 (2:0) 12,800 VfL Bochum - Kickers Offenbach 0:1 (0:0) 14,021 Eintr. Braunschweig - 1860 München 3:3 (2:2) 20,100 SC Paderborn 07 - Dynamo Dresden 0:2 (0:1) 6,930 SpVgg Unterhaching - SC Freiburg postponed Karlsruher SC - 1. FC Saarbrücken postponed Sportfr. Siegen - Greuther Fürth postponed Alemannia Aachen - Hansa Rostock 3:2 (3:1) 17,050 1 VfL Bochum 24 13 7 4 38:19 +19 46 2 Alemannia Aachen 23 14 3 6 43:25 +18 45 3 SC Freiburg 23 11 5 7 31:25 +6 38 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Energie Cottbus 23 10 7 6 37:27 +10 37 5 SC Paderborn 07 24 10 6 8 35:22 +13 36 6 Greuther Fürth 22 10 6 6 35:29 +6 36 7 Karlsruher SC 23 10 6 7 33:29 +4 36 8 SpVgg Unterhaching 23 10 4 9 35:29 +6 34 9 Wacker Burghausen 23 8 8 7 29:35 -6 32 10 Hansa Rostock 23 9 4 10 32:32 0 31 11 Eintr. Braunschweig 22 9 4 9 25:25 0 31 12 Erzgebirge Aue 24 7 9 8 23:26 -3 30 13 TSV 1860 München 23 7 8 8 32:33 -1 29 14 Kickers Offenbach 23 7 3 13 23:43 -20 24 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Dynamo Dresden 22 6 5 11 24:32 -8 23 16 Sportfreunde Siegen 22 5 5 12 22:31 -9 20 17 1. FC Saarbrücken 22 5 5 12 22:42 -20 20 18 LR Ahlen 23 4 7 12 23:38 -15 19
Politicians - Yeah, that ought to fix it!
In one of the dumbest results of the disastrous 1-4 Ohrfeige that Germany received recently at the hands of Italy, apparently some idiot politicians are demanding that head coach Jürgen Klinsmann appear before parliamentary commitees to "explain" his coaching methods and his planning for the World Cup. what a joke, the same idiots that are running Germany into the toilet now want to advise on soccer matters? Isn't it bad enough that apparently all these jokers get free tickets to all the matches? Well, at least you can't blame it on one party, as apparently some of the doofuses come from the CDU, SPD and FDP. Probably the Greens are exempt, because most of them wouldn't be caught dead in a soccer stadium because it's not enviromentally friendly. And the PDS? Who knows, perhaps their main sports interest is to continue to assure that east German female athletes get plenty of steroids.
February 26, 2006
Bundesliga, round 23
Some perhaps decisive results this weekend help define the remaining season. It becomes increasingly clear that nobody will stop Bayern from winning yet another title. The clubs chasing the München giants seem to be slipping up on a regular basis, so the title is almost in the bag. Bayern (Guerrero 2, Ballack 2, Pizarro) rested Roy Makaay, but still rolled past Frankfurt (Preuss, Meier). Especially impressive in the first half, Bayern keeps the home whitewash with their 11-0 record. Frankfurt has now lost 3 in a row and is being dragged back into the relegation mess. Hamburg laid an egg at home against Stuttgart (Meissner,Gomez). In general HSV had the upper hand, but Stuttgart played a discplined, well-organized match, and go home deserved winners. After a lapse by Boulahrez, Stuttgart grabbed a lead and held on doggedly. Van Buyten didn't help HSV's cause by getting his ass tossed either. With Hamburg throwing everything in a desperate gasp, Gomez had an easy empty net goal in injury time, when he stole the ball from Van der vaart. Bremen (Klose,Klasnic) celebrated the return of striker Miroslav Klose with an easy win over Gladbach. The relegation battle really heated up again. First, Köln played like a turd and was wiped out by Leverkusen (Berbatov, Voronin,Krzynowek) in a Rhein derby. Actually the match was pretty even for about an hour, but Köln totally collapsed when they fell behind. They are now pretty much the first club to be ensured of relegation. But everybody else is still fighting. Duisburg (Tararache,Lavric) got a critical win against Hertha (Bastürk), which continues to stink up the joint. Hertha's Alex Madlung got the Zebras started as he got red carded for the 3rd time in 5 matches! His foul on Lavric resulted in the opening goal, Tararache's penalty. Uncharacteristically, they started playing decent after being down 0-2, but that may have been because Duisburg was so shocked that they were actually winning, they were confused. Kaiserslautern (Sanogo 2) continued their miraculous revival in the derby at Mainz; once again Ivorian striker Boubacar Sanogo is the hero. K-town has won 3 in a row, and Sanogo has contributed 6 goals in that stretch. Nevertheless, Mainz was somewhat hard done by, since they looked the better team, and can legitimately complain about some dodgy calls. But they also wasted too many chances and are now back in relegation. Schalke (Kuryanyi, Lincoln) needed help from Banovic getting his ass tossed to upend Nürnberg. Up until that point der Club had been actually enjoyig a slight edge. However, from then on, Schalke piled on the pressure and were rewarded with the 3 points, condemning Nürnberg to a relegation spot. Bielefeld (Kauf) picked up a critical win against Dortmund, somewhat fortunate, but the Neons wasted too many opportunities. Volkswagen (Hanke, Menseguez) stopped the rot against Hannover (Brdaric), and also stopped the 96ers 11 match unbeaten run. They actually were the better team, and were shocked by Menseguez's long range bomb at the end of the match.
Team of the Week: Stuttgart
Turd of the Weak: Hertha
1. FC Köln - Bayer Leverkusen 0:3 (0:0) 50,000 (sold out) Werder Bremen - Borussia M'gladbach 2:0 (2:0) 39,900 Arminia Bielefeld - Borussia Dortmund 1:0 (1:0) 26,601 (sold out) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:2 (0:2) 20,300 (sold out) FC Schalke 04 - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:0 (0:0) 60,729 Bayern München - Eintracht Frankfurt 5:2 (3:1) 69,000 (sold out) VfL Wolfsburg - Hannover 96 2:1 (1:1) 21,436 MSV Duisburg - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:1 (1:0) 20,131 Hamburger SV - VfB Stuttgart 0:2 (0:1) 51,821 1 Bayern München 23 18 4 1 47:17 +30 58 2 Werder Bremen 23 15 4 4 54:25 +29 49 3 Hamburger SV 23 14 5 4 35:17 +18 47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 23 12 9 2 33:17 +16 45 5 VfB Stuttgart 23 7 12 4 26:21 +5 33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Bayer Leverkusen 23 8 7 8 40:37 +3 31 7 Hannover 96 23 6 12 5 33:29 +4 30 8 Hertha BSC Berlin 23 7 9 7 32:31 +1 30 9 Borussia M'gladbach 23 7 9 7 28:29 -1 30 10 Borussia Dortmund 23 7 8 8 28:28 0 29 11 Arminia Bielefeld 23 7 6 10 26:32 -6 27 12 Eintracht Frankfurt 23 7 4 12 30:38 -8 25 13 VfL Wolfsburg 23 6 7 10 24:39 -15 25 14 1. FC Kaiserslautern 23 6 5 12 33:50 -17 23 15 1. FC Nürnberg 23 5 6 12 23:37 -14 21 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FSV Mainz 05 23 5 5 13 32:38 -6 20 17 MSV Duisburg 23 4 8 11 23:40 -17 20 18 1. FC Köln 23 3 6 14 28:50 -22 15
2. Liga, round 23
Things remain tight, as always. A somewhat minor surprise as Unterhaching plastered one of the recently in form clubs, KSC. Other than that, wait till the last day of the season for the decisions...
Greuther Fürth - SC Paderborn 07 1:1 (0:0) 5,500 Energie Cottbus - Wacker Burghausen 4:1 (0:1) 7,450 1. FC Saarbrücken - Erzgebirge Aue 1:1 (1:1) 6,400 Hansa Rostock - Sportfr. Siegen 2:0 (0:0) 10,000 Dynamo Dresden - VfL Bochum 0:0 (0:0) 13,153 LR Ahlen - Alemannia Aachen 0:2 (0:1) 5,125 Kickers Offenbach - Eintr. Braunschweig 2:0 (1:0) 7,084 SpVgg Unterhaching - Karlsruher SC 4:1 (3:0) 3,800 SC Freiburg - TSV 1860 München -:- 1 VfL Bochum 23 13 7 3 38:18 +20 46 2 Alemannia Aachen 22 13 3 6 40:23 +17 42 3 SC Paderborn 07 23 10 6 7 35:20 +15 36 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Energie Cottbus 22 10 6 6 35:25 +10 36 5 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 22 10 6 6 35:29 +6 36 6 Karlsruher SC 23 10 6 7 33:29 +4 36 7 SC Freiburg 22 10 5 7 29:24 +5 35 8 SpVgg Unterhaching 23 10 4 9 35:29 +6 34 9 Wacker Burghausen 22 8 8 6 28:32 -4 32 10 Hansa Rostock 22 9 4 9 30:29 +1 31 11 Eintr. Braunschweig 21 9 3 9 22:22 0 30 12 Erzgebirge Aue 23 7 8 8 21:24 -3 29 13 TSV 1860 München 21 7 7 7 28:28 0 28 14 Kickers Offenbach 22 6 3 13 22:43 -21 21 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Sportfr. Siegen 22 5 5 12 22:31 -9 20 16 Dynamo Dresden 21 5 5 11 22:32 -10 20 17 1. FC Saarbrücken 22 5 5 12 22:42 -20 20 18 LR Ahlen 22 3 7 12 20:37 -17 16
February 19, 2006
Bundesliga, round 22
A good week for clubs fighting for 2nd place, as they all managed important wins on the road. Bremen (Klasnic) managed to eek out a win at Dortmund in an entertaining match. Werder dominated the match early, with some nice combinations, but Dortmund were on the verge of getting back in when Klasnic hit a hard drive past Weidenfeller after a nice layoff from Valdez. Dortmund was mostly dangerous when Odonkor was raiding down the right flank, as his pace caused problems for the Bremen defense. On the other hand, the Bremen offside trap was smooth as a baby's ass, and Dortmund was caught about 20 times. Smolarek missed a sitter that could have given Dortmund a deserved draw, has his point blank shot (after yet another feed from the tireless Odonkor) hit the post. Schalke (Asamoah, Bajramovic) managed a win at Berlin (Madlung). The Schalkers were simply better organized and were able to easily withstand Hertha's pressure in the 2nd half. After the midweek crapper against Bucharest in the UEFA Cup, Hertha general manager Dieter Hoeness went off the deep end, blaming Marcelinho and demanding that he get a haircut to his dumb-ass Mohawk. Head coach Falko Götz apparently agreed and was going to bench the Brazilian, but the players revolted. Not that it made any difference. A decent crowd saw Frankfurt (Meier) lose against Hamburg (Trochowski, van Buyten), which begins to undo some of the good work that Eintracht had done over the last several weeks. HSV took advantage of their chances to hold onto 2nd place. Gone are the days when they were fighting at the top, but Gladbach (Lell - own goal, Neuville) still packed them in for the derby against Köln. The match itself was crap, with the hosts playing lame, but Köln self-destructed, with an own goal and Benschneider getting his ass tossed in the first half-hour. Gladbach at least stops the rot somewhat, whereas the Goats are mired in last place. Bayer Aspirin (Freier,Barnetta,Berbatov) managed to sneak by Duisburg (Lavric 2), but needed a late goal and a stupid red card foul from Biliskov to defeat the Zebras. But the Petpto-Bismols should have won easily, as they wasted lots of chances, and they should have never been in the predicament against a crap 2nd division quality side. Nürnberg (Saenko) needed a ton of wasted opportunities in a nervous performance to beat Wolfsburg and barely keep their heads above water. Meanwhile, Kaiserslautern (Sanogo 2) was lucky to win against Bielefeld, who controlled the game. But after upsetting Bremen last week, perhaps the Red Devils have decided to follow the same plan: play crap, but hold on and sneak in goals on counterattack. This critical win gives them a battling chance to save themselves. Stuttgart (Ljuboja, Tiffert) finally got the first win under new coach Armin Veh. Mainz (da Silva) was somewhat unlucky, as they hit the woodwork twice, and battled fairly even. Hannover (Brdaric) gave a strong performance against leaders Bayern (Ballack), who needed a last minute goal by their captain to pull things out. The 96ers are now unbeaten in 11 matches, and are playing solid football. Bayern deserved the point, but were probably surprised that their hosts didn't roll over and indeed put them on the brink of defeat.
Team of the Week: Bremen
Turd of the Weak: Hertha
Borussia M'gladbach - 1. FC Köln 2:0 (0:0) 54,019 (sold out) Bayer Leverkusen - MSV Duisburg 3:2 (2:1) 22,500 (sold out) Hertha BSC Berlin - FC Schalke 04 1:2 (1:2) 50,948 1. FC Nürnberg - VfL Wolfsburg 1:0 (1:0) 16,954 Borussia Dortmund - Werder Bremen 0:1 (0:1) 75,200 Hannover 96 - Bayern München 1:1 (0:0) 49,000 (sold out) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Arminia Bielefeld 2:0 (1:0) 26,806 Eintracht Frankfurt - Hamburger SV 1:2 (1:1) 47,500 VfB Stuttgart - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:1 (1:1) 28,000 1 Bayern München 22 17 4 1 42:15 +27 55 2 Hamburger SV 22 14 5 3 35:15 +20 47 3 Werder Bremen 22 14 4 4 52:25 +27 46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 22 11 9 2 31:17 +14 42 5 Hannover 96 22 6 12 4 32:27 +5 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 VfB Stuttgart 22 6 12 4 24:21 +3 30 7 Hertha BSC Berlin 22 7 9 6 31:29 +2 30 8 Borussia M'gladbach 22 7 9 6 28:27 +1 30 9 Borussia Dortmund 22 7 8 7 28:27 +1 29 10 Bayer Leverkusen 22 7 7 8 37:37 0 28 11 Eintracht Frankfurt 22 7 4 11 28:33 -5 25 12 Arminia Bielefeld 22 6 6 10 25:32 -7 24 13 VfL Wolfsburg 22 5 7 10 22:38 -16 22 14 1. FC Nürnberg 22 5 6 11 23:35 -12 21 15 1. FSV Mainz 05 22 5 5 12 32:36 -4 20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 22 5 5 12 31:50 -19 20 17 MSV Duisburg 22 3 8 11 21:39 -18 17 18 1. FC Köln 22 3 6 13 28:47 -19 15
2. Liga, round 22
The top clash in Bochum ended in a 1-1 draw, as guests Fürth gave a good account of themselves against the leaders. One of the larger Karlsruhe crowds since Bundesliga days saw the regional derby between KSC and Freiburg end in the same score. And once again 1860 disappointed.
Karlsruher SC - SC Freiburg 1:1 (0:0) 27,900 TSV 1860 München - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (0:0) 27,800 Eintr. Braunschweig - Dynamo Dresden 1:0 (0:0) 17,100 SC Paderborn 07 - Hansa Rostock 3:0 (3:0) 6,850 Sportfr. Siegen - LR Ahlen -:- (canceled) Wacker Burghausen - 1. FC Saarbrücken 2:0 (2:0) 4,500 VfL Bochum - Greuther Fürth 1:1 (1:0) 17,157 Erzgebirge Aue - SpVgg Unterhaching 0:1 (0:1) 9,900 Alemannia Aachen - Energie Cottbus -:- 1 VfL Bochum 22 13 6 3 38:18 20 45 2 Alemannia Aachen 20 12 2 6 38:23 15 38 3 Karlsruher SC 22 10 6 6 32:25 7 36 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 SC Paderborn 07 22 10 5 7 34:19 15 35 5 Greuther Fürth 21 10 5 6 34:28 6 35 6 SC Freiburg 22 10 5 7 29:24 5 35 7 Energie Cottbus 20 9 5 6 31:24 7 32 8 Wacker Burghausen 21 8 8 5 27:28 -1 32 9 SpVgg Unterhaching 22 9 4 9 31:28 3 31 10 Eintr. Braunschweig 20 9 3 8 22:20 2 30 11 Hansa Rostock 20 8 4 8 28:28 0 28 12 TSV 1860 München 21 7 7 7 28:28 0 28 13 Erzgebirge Aue 22 7 7 8 20:23 -3 28 14 Sportfr. Siegen 21 5 5 11 22:29 -7 20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 1. FC Saarbrücken 21 5 4 12 21:41 -20 19 16 Kickers Offenbach 21 5 3 13 20:43 -23 18 17 Dynamo Dresden 19 4 4 11 21:32 -11 16 18 LR Ahlen 21 3 7 11 20:35 -15 16
February 16, 2006
UEFA Flop-Pokal
The Bundesliga squads pretty much disgraced themselves with crap performances in the UEFA Cup, which raises serious doubts about their ability to advance to the next round. Schalke at least managed to win, a 2-1 struggle against a lame Espanyol Barcelona. Despite dominating the match, they were losing and only pulled out a victory on a goal by Fabian Ernst in the last minute. While Schalke was lame, the rest were even crappier. HSV is almost the laughing stock of Germany, losing against Swiss dwarfs FC Thun 0-1. They don't even deserve a rematch in Hamburg, which they will hopefully win by enough to advance. VfB Stuttgart lost at home 1-2 to Middlesborough, one of the Premier League's crap squads. But at least VfB had an excuse, since by firing head coach Trappatoni a week ago, they're now led brilliantly by Armin Veh. We can see the results already! And finally, Hertha BSC managed to go one better on everyone, losing 0-1 at home to Rapid Bucharest. Only 13,500 Berliners bothered to show up, as they suspect that Hertha has long been showing Arbeitsverweigerung (refusal to work), and undoubtedly the fans don't like being pissed on.
February 12, 2006
Bundesliga results, round 21
Despite the cold weather, attendance was quite good, and the results as usual favor Bayern... In a wild match, Schalke (Larsen 2, Krstajic, Bajaramovic, Kuranyi, Lincoln, Asamoah) finally prevailed over Leverkusen (Voronin 2, Berbatov, Krzynowek) in a 7-4 shootout. Schalke looked to have overrun the Aspirins, only to see them come back like a gag-reflex. Considering how both had been playing like dead fish recently, the fighting effort is sure to please fans and coaches, although obviously the Blues are happiest, gaining important points in their attempt to grab a Champions League spot. Bayern (Makaay, Ballack) notched up the points in a Bavarian derby against Nürnberg (Vittek). Despite a decent effort by "der Club", the champions once again grind out a win, and with Bremen losing, now build their lead to 10 points. Werder dominated against Kaiserslautern (Sanogo, Skela), but suffered two late goals, gifting a precious win for the relegation battling visitors. Hamburg (Mahdavikia) was able to take advantage and seize 2nd, after upending Mainz in a crap performance by both sides. In a relegation Ruhr derby, Gladbach (Svensson) was somewhat lucky to get a point at Duisburg (Lavric). The Zebras pressed for the win, and Horst Köppel's visitors seemed content to just kick the ball about aimlessly and kill off the game for 70 minutes after they equalized early. Köln takes over the "red lantern" of last place, despite yet another draw. Their scoreless tussel with Dortmund was entertaining, and they controlled most of the match, although towards the end they were running on empty, and Dortmund was getting stronger. Stuttgart boss Giovanni Trappatoni was surprisingly fired by the club after their last dreary outing where they couldn't score. The club strategy worked brilliantly, as under new coach Armin Veh, they scored (Magnin), but in general looked harmless against the well organized hosts Bielefeld (Boakye 2). So I guess the loss just proves club management are just a bunch of wankers. Important points for Arminia, and Ghanaian Isaac Boakye is emerging as a star. Hannover (Yankov) had a somewhat lucky win at Frankfurt, and aside from the winner coming from the famed penis-injury Bulgarian, few have noticed that the 96ers had snuck up the table like a silent but deadly fart. They are unbeaten since famed motivator retread Peter Neururer took over, and have now climbed up to 6th place! And in a fixture that would almost make one want to watch a worthless Serie A match, the draw between Volkswagen (Hofland) and Hertha (Marcelinho) actually proved quite entertaining, as two Berliners got their asses tossed. I guess it just goes to show that even the worst of the Bundesliga is better than some tosser match like AC Milan-Inter or the latest Juventus fix...
Team of the Week: Schalke, honorable mention to Lautern
Turd of the Weak: Bremen
FC Schalke 04 - Bayer Leverkusen 7:4 (3:1) 61,524 (sold out) MSV Duisburg - Borussia M'gladbach 1:1 (1:1) 30,020 VfL Wolfsburg - Hertha BSC 1:1 (0:1) 16,121 Werder Bremen - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:2 (0:0) 36,218 Arminia Bielefeld - VfB Stuttgart 2:1 (1:1) 17,728 Hamburger SV - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:0 (1:0) 52,081 Eintracht Frankfurt - Hannover 96 0:1 (0:0) 26,000 1. FC Köln - Borussia Dortmund 0:0 (0:0) 50,000 (sold out) Bayern München - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:1 (1:1) 69,000 (sold out) 1 Bayern München 21 17 3 1 41:14 +27 54 2 Hamburger SV 21 13 5 3 33:14 +19 44 3 Werder Bremen 21 13 4 4 51:25 +26 43 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 21 10 9 2 29:16 +13 39 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 21 7 9 5 30:27 +3 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Hannover 96 21 6 11 4 31:26 +5 29 7 Borussia Dortmund 21 7 8 6 28:26 +2 29 8 VfB Stuttgart 21 5 12 4 22:20 +2 27 9 Borussia M'gladbach 21 6 9 6 26:27 -1 27 10 Bayer Leverkusen 21 6 7 8 34:35 -1 25 11 Eintracht Frankfurt 21 7 4 10 27:31 -4 25 12 Arminia Bielefeld 21 6 6 9 25:30 -5 24 13 VfL Wolfsburg 21 5 7 9 22:37 -15 22 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 21 5 5 11 31:34 -3 20 15 1. FC Nürnberg 21 4 6 11 22:35 -13 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 MSV Duisburg 21 3 8 10 19:36 -17 17 17 1. FC Kaiserslautern 21 4 5 12 29:50 -21 17 18 1. FC Köln 21 3 6 12 28:45 -17 15
2.Liga results
Most of the top squads were winning, with Karlsruhe getting the most impressive result. The ex-Bayern München Reserve squad is knocking on the door of the Bundesliga after a many year absence. The loser as usual was 1860, which despite dominating failed to bring home even a point from crap Dresden.
Dynamo Dresden - TSV 1860 München 2:0 (1:0) 9,709 Karlsruher SC - Erzgebirge Aue 5:2 (2:0) 11,500 Energie Cottbus - Sportfr. Siegen 1:0 (0:0) 7,150 LR Ahlen - SC Paderborn 07 0:2 (0:2) 5,045 Greuther Fürth - Eintr. Braunschweig 0:1 (0:0) 6,200 SpVgg Unterhaching - Wacker Burghausen 1:1 (1:1) 3,500 SC Freiburg - Kickers Offenbach 2:0 (0:0) 11,500 Hansa Rostock - VfL Bochum 0:2 (0:2) 14,000 1. FC Saarbrücken - Alemannia Aachen -:- 1 VfL Bochum 21 13 5 3 37:17 +20 44 2 Alemannia Aachen 20 12 2 6 38:23 +15 38 3 Karlsruher SC 21 10 5 6 31:24 +7 35 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 20 10 4 6 33:27 +6 34 5 SC Freiburg 21 10 4 7 28:23 +5 34 6 SC Paderborn 07 21 9 5 7 31:19 +12 32 7 Energie Cottbus 20 9 5 6 31:24 +7 32 8 TSV 1860 München 21 8 6 7 29:27 +2 30 9 Wacker Burghausen 21 7 8 6 25:30 -5 29 10 Hansa Rostock 19 8 4 7 28:25 +3 28 11 SpVgg Unterhaching 21 8 4 9 30:28 +2 28 12 Erzgebirge Aue 21 7 7 7 20:22 -2 28 13 Eintr. Braunschweig 19 8 3 8 21:20 +1 27 14 Sportfr. Siegen 21 5 5 11 22:29 -7 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 1. FC Saarbrücken 20 5 4 11 21:39 -18 19 16 Kickers Offenbach 20 5 2 13 19:42 -23 17 17 Dynamo Dresden 18 4 4 10 21:31 -10 16 18 LR Ahlen 21 3 7 11 20:35 -15 16
February 8, 2006
Bundesliga results, round 20
Midweek action in the Bundesliga brought forth some interesting results. Hertha BSC was close to winning against a crappily performing Bayern in front of large crowd. Olli Kahn had one of his best performances to salvage a point for the leaders. Hertha demonstrated that they are capable of playing some good football, but could use some tutoring in the "kick the ball in the net" department. Nobody was able to take advantage however. Stuttgart managed to hold a point against Bremen, despite giving up the whole field. Meanwhile Schalke was putting in another stinking effort in a drab draw at Gladbach. And Hamburg (Barbarez) managed to do even worse, losing at Hannover (Zuraw,Hashemian). And not only did they drop the points, but Ailton had to be stretchered off (no, not because he was too fat, but apparently Balitsch broke his jaw in a "Welcome back" tackle.) In a fierce relegation battle, Kaiserslautern (Sanogo, Schoenheim) split the points with Köln (Streller 2). An exciting match, but the Red Devils will be somewhat disappointed, as they had more chances to win. Also hard fought was the draw between Mainz (Zidan) and Bielefeld (Boakye). A drab first half was followed by an exciting 2nd, and a just partition of the points. Other relegation threatened teams didn't fair as well. Duisburg was too passive against Dortmund (Brzenska,Rosicky) and can't complain about the loss. Willi also got his ass red carded. Nürnberg laid an egg against Frankfurt (Amanatidis), who must be one of the most improved clubs from early season form. Finally, in a battle of consumer products, PeptoBismol Aspirins (Berbatov,Barnetta,Schneider,Madouni) bitch-slapped the Volkswagen Rabbits silly.
Team of the Week: Frankfurt
Turd of the Weak: Volkswagen
1. FC Kaiserslautern - 1. FC Köln 2:2 (1:1) 29,145 Borussia Dortmund - MSV Duisburg 2:0 (0:0) 62,200 Hertha BSC Berlin - Bayern München 0:0 (0:0) 72,940 FSV Mainz 05 - Arminia Bielefeld 1:1 (0:0) 19,500 Borussia M'gladbach - FC Schalke 04 0:0 (0:0) 51,026 Hannover 96 - Hamburger SV 2:1 (0:0) 40,053 Bayer Leverkusen - VfL Wolfsburg 4:0 (1:0) 20,000 VfB Stuttgart - Werder Bremen 0:0 (0:0) 30,000 1. FC Nürnberg - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:1 (0:1) 22,261 1 Bayern München 20 16 3 1 39:13 +26 51 2 Werder Bremen 20 13 4 3 51:23 +28 43 3 Hamburger SV 20 12 5 3 32:14 +18 41 ---------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 20 9 9 2 22:12 +10 36 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 20 7 8 5 29:26 +3 29 ---------------------------------------------------------- 6 Borussia Dortmund 20 7 7 6 28:26 +2 28 7 VfB Stuttgart 20 5 12 3 21:18 +3 27 8 Hannover 96 20 5 11 4 30:26 +4 26 9 Borussia M'gladbach 20 6 8 6 25:26 -1 26 10 Bayer Leverkusen 20 6 7 7 30:28 +2 25 11 Eintracht Frankfurt 20 7 4 9 27:30 -3 25 12 Arminia Bielefeld 20 5 6 9 23:29 -6 21 13 VfL Wolfsburg 20 5 6 9 21:36 -15 21 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 20 5 5 10 31:33 -2 20 15 1. FC Nürnberg 20 4 6 10 21:33 -12 18 ---------------------------------------------------------- 16 MSV Duisburg 20 3 7 10 18:35 -17 16 17 1. FC Köln 20 3 5 12 28:45 -17 14 18 1. FC Kaiserslautern 20 3 5 12 27:50 -23 14
February 6, 2006
Bundesliga results, round 19
Bayern continues to march on, as they controlled the game against Leverkusen, getting the game winner from MOTM Michael Ballack. The Aspirins actually gave a good account of themselves, almost committing highway robbery as Voronin missed a sitter at the end. The "Revierderby" between Schalke and Dortmund was a dreary affair that was a worthless kickabout. Most of the players, especially the attacking ones, disgraced themselves with crap performances. Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller was MOTM with a couple of nice saves off shots by Lincoln. Hertha got off to a quick start, with Boateng scoring after 20 minutes, but after that Frankfurt dominated, and Jermaine Jones (the brother of German national women's player Steffi Jones) equalized after an hour. They ran wild, outshooting Hertha 10-1, but reserve keeper Gerhard Tremmel had a brilliant match, salvaging a point for the visitors. A critical relegation battle ended in a draw between Duisburg (Kurth, Tararache) and Kaiserslautern (Halfar 2). The Zebras were on the verge of a crucial win, up 2-0, when Lautern coach Wolfgang Wolf came up with a desperation masterstroke: he threw on Daniel Halfar, a young striker who had only turned 18 last month. An interesting battle in Köln saw the Goats dominate early, but eventually Stuttgart took over, and the hosts were lucky to escape with a point. A wild match saw Bremen (Valdez 2, Micoud, Klasnic) knock off entertaining Mainz (Zidan, Weiland), despite the guests leading 0-2 early - their first goal coming after only 13 seconds!! Valdez, as a replacement for the injured klose, showed with his MOTM performance that he can also be effective as a starter. Hamburg (Trochowski, Barbarez) was lucky against Bielefeld (Boakye), who probably deserved a point. HSV's strategy must be to wait until Rafael van der Vaart comes back next month. Their forwards (Takahara and Ailton) were pretty pitiful. Volkswagen (Klimowicz, Hanke) easily got back on the winning squad against a crap Gladbach squad, for whom only keeper Kasey Keller didn't play like a turd. For the Wolfis, it was the second decent game in a row for Mike Hanke, which is pretty amazing. If his talent was as big as his ego, Jürgen Klinsmann would have the Cup in the bag. However, given the disgraceful way some players like Schalke's Kuranyi are (not) playing, perhaps Hanke will get a call back from Klinsi. In the game nobody cares about, Hannover (Stajner) and Nürnberg (Vittek) shared the points, in what has to be considered a good result for der Club in the relegation struggle.
Team of the Week: none, maybe Nürnberg
Turd of the Weak: none
Bayern München - Bayer Leverkusen 1:0 (1:0) 69,000 (sold out) FC Schalke 04 - Borussia Dortmund 0:0 (0:0) 61,524 (sold out) Eintracht Frankfurt - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:1 (0:1) 30,000 MSV Duisburg - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2:2 (1:0) 20,812 1. FC Köln - VfB Stuttgart 0:0 (0:0) 47,500 Werder Bremen - 1. FSV Mainz 05 4:2 (3:2) 37,717 Hamburger SV - Arminia Bielefeld 2:1 (0:1) 50,991 VfL Wolfsburg - Borussia M'gladbach 2:0 (1:0) 17,936 Hannover 96 - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:1 (0:0) 31,102 1 Bayern München 19 16 2 1 39:13 26 50 2 Werder Bremen 19 13 3 3 51:23 28 42 3 Hamburger SV 19 12 5 2 31:12 19 41 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 19 9 8 2 22:12 10 35 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 19 7 7 5 29:26 3 28 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 VfB Stuttgart 19 5 11 3 21:18 3 26 7 Borussia Dortmund 19 6 7 6 26:26 0 25 8 Borussia M'gladbach 19 6 7 6 25:26 -1 25 9 Hannover 96 19 4 11 4 28:25 3 23 10 Bayer Leverkusen 19 5 7 7 26:28 -2 22 11 Eintracht Frankfurt 19 6 4 9 26:30 -4 22 12 VfL Wolfsburg 19 5 6 8 21:32 -11 21 13 Arminia Bielefeld 19 5 5 9 22:28 -6 20 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 19 5 4 10 30:32 -2 19 15 1. FC Nürnberg 19 4 6 9 21:32 -11 18 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 MSV Duisburg 19 3 7 9 18:33 -15 16 17 1. FC Köln 19 3 4 12 26:43 -17 13 18 1. FC Kaiserslautern 19 3 4 12 25:48 -23 13
2.Liga - 20th round
An easy win for Bochum solidifies their top position, and Aachen stays up as well. Fürth got a nice point at 1860, who continue to suck at home. Crunching win for Saarbrücken, whjo continue their amazing comeback.
VfL Bochum - LR Ahlen 3:0 (1:0) 14,286 Sportfr. Siegen - 1. FC Saarbrücken 0:4 (0:1) 7,848 Wacker Burghausen - Karlsruher SC 1:1 (0:1) 3,500 SC Paderborn 07 - Energie Cottbus 0:0 (0:0) 4,386 Erzgebirge Aue - SC Freiburg 1:0 (1:0) 9,800 Alemannia Aachen - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:0 (0:0) 18,682 TSV 1860 München - Greuther Fürth 2:2 (2:1) 35,400 Kickers Offenbach - Dynamo Dresden -:- canceled Eintr. Braunschweig - Hansa Rostock -:- canceled 1 VfL Bochum 20 12 5 3 35:17 +18 41 2 Alemannia Aachen 20 12 2 6 38:23 +15 38 3 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 19 10 4 5 33:26 +7 34 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Karlsruher SC 20 9 5 6 26:22 +4 32 5 SC Freiburg 20 9 4 7 26:23 +3 31 6 TSV 1860 München 20 8 6 6 29:25 +4 30 7 SC Paderborn 07 20 8 5 7 29:19 +10 29 8 Energie Cottbus 19 8 5 6 30:24 +6 29 9 Hansa Rostock 18 8 4 6 28:23 +5 28 10 Erzgebirge Aue 20 7 7 6 18:17 +1 28 11 Wacker Burghausen 20 7 7 6 24:29 -5 28 12 SpVgg Unterhaching 20 8 3 9 29:27 +2 27 13 Eintr. Braunschweig 18 7 3 8 20:20 0 24 14 Sportfr. Siegen 20 5 5 10 22:28 -6 20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 1. FC Saarbrücken 20 5 4 11 21:39 -18 19 16 Kickers Offenbach 19 5 2 12 19:40 -21 17 17 LR Ahlen 20 3 7 10 20:33 -13 16 18 Dynamo Dresden 17 3 4 10 19:31 -12 13
January 28, 2006
Bundesliga results, round 18
The Bundesliga was back in full swing, but things immediately get more boring at the top as leaders Bayern München open up a comfortable 8 pt spread. Bayern was impressive, as they won 3-1 at Mönchengladbach, where they had not won in some four tries. Roy Makaay showed he is back in form, with two goals. Meanwhile, despite the presence of "FatBoy" Ailton, HSV stumbled 1-2 at Nürnberg. Bremen took advantage by winning 1-0 at Bielefeld, moving into 2nd place. There were some interesting matches at the bottom, as Jürgen Kohler's debut as Zebra coach was successful, MSV Duisburg stunned a crap VfB Stuttgart 1-0. Also important, Mainz came from behind to overrun 1.FC Köln 4-2. With Kaiserslautern losing 0-2 at home to Schalke, this drops the Goats and Red Devils clearly on the bottom, while Nürnberg and suprisingly, the Zebras, have reawakened hope. Wolfsburg continues in freefall, as they were beaten 3-2 at Dortmund. Actually, the result somewhat flatters the VWs, as Augenthaler's squad was crap and had about three chances in the whole game. Augie has also kicked Argie playmaker Andres D'Alessandro out of the squad, and Gladbach are said to be interested. Dortmund's young players seem to at least indicate that good things are in store - in a couple of years. Hertha put their fans asleep, as seems to be their pattern these days, drawing ho-hum with Hannover.
Team of the Week: Bayern, usally struggles at Gladbach
Turd of the Weak: Stuttgart
Borussia M'gladbach - Bayern Muenchen 1:3 (0:1) 54,019 (sold out) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - 1. FC Koeln 4:2 (1:1) 20,300 (sold out) VfB Stuttgart - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:1) 31,000 1. FC Nuernberg - Hamburger SV 2:1 (0:0) 23,928 Borussia Dortmund - VfL Wolfsburg 3:2 (2:1) 62,500 Bayer Leverkusen - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:1 (0:1) 22,500 (sold out) Hertha BSC Berlin - Hannover 96 1:1 (0:1) 33,740 1. FC Kaiserslautern - FC Schalke 04 0:2 (0:1) 35,549 Arminia Bielefeld - Werder Bremen 0:1 (0:0) 24,196 1 Bayern Muenchen 18 15 2 1 38:13 +25 47 2 Werder Bremen 18 12 3 3 47:21 +26 39 3 Hamburger SV 18 11 5 2 29:11 +18 38 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 FC Schalke 04 18 9 7 2 22:12 +10 34 5 Hertha BSC 18 7 6 5 28:25 +3 27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 VfB Stuttgart 18 5 10 3 21:18 +3 25 7 Borussia M'gladbach 18 6 7 5 25:24 +1 25 8 Borussia Dortmund 18 6 6 6 26:26 0 24 9 Hannover 96 18 4 10 4 27:24 +3 22 10 Bayer Leverkusen 18 5 7 6 26:27 -1 22 11 Eintracht Frankfurt 18 6 3 9 25:29 -4 21 12 Arminia Bielefeld 18 5 5 8 21:26 -5 20 13 1. FSV Mainz 05 18 5 4 9 28:28 0 19 14 VfL Wolfsburg 18 4 6 8 19:32 -13 18 15 1. FC Nuernberg 18 4 5 9 20:31 -11 17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 MSV Duisburg 18 3 6 9 16:31 -15 15 17 1. FC Koeln 18 3 3 12 26:43 -17 12 18 1. FC Kaiserslautern 18 3 3 12 23:46 -23 12
2.Liga results, Round 19
Cold weather continued at the restart, but at least no matches were snowed out this time. A huge win for Bochum, as their top clash with Cottbus results in them getting some air at the top. Cottbus actually outplayed the Blues, and even missed a penalty. A dissapointing crowd of only 7600 then witnessed Bochum steal the points with a late Fabio Junior goal. Aachen and Fürth have a game in hand, and could also grab some space in the promotion battle. Austrian legend Walter Schachner has taken over 1860, but their inconsistent results continue, as they got dumped 1-3 at Rostock. At the bottom, Ahlen made a good start with an emphatic win over Braunschweig, and Saarbrücken continued their revival with a point. Dynamo Dresden is dead last, and they will need some decent results from their makeup matches to get back in the hunt.
1. FC Saarbruecken - SC Paderborn 07 0:0 (0:0) 5,700 Erzgebirge Aue - Wacker Burghausen 1:1 (0:0) 9,300 SC Freiburg - Dynamo Dresden 1:0 (0:0) 12,000 SpVgg Unterhaching - Sportfr. Siegen 2:1 (1:1) 2,600 Energie Cottbus - VfL Bochum 0:1 (0:0) 7,600 LR Ahlen - Eintr. Braunschweig 3:0 (3:0) 4,600 Hansa Rostock - TSV 1860 Muenchen 3:1 (1:0) 14,000 Greuther Fuerth - Kickers Offenbach 2:0 (2:0) 6,100 Karlsruher SC - Alemannia Aachen (monday) 1 VfL Bochum 19 11 5 3 32:17 +15 38 2 Alemannia Aachen 18 11 2 5 36:21 +15 35 3 SpVgg Greuther Fuerth 18 10 3 5 31:24 +7 33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 SC Freiburg 19 9 4 6 26:22 +4 31 5 TSV 1860 Muenchen 19 8 5 6 27:23 +4 29 6 SC Paderborn 07 19 8 4 7 29:19 +10 28 7 Energie Cottbus 18 8 4 6 30:24 +6 28 8 Hansa Rostock 18 8 4 6 28:23 +5 28 9 Karlsruher SC 18 8 4 6 23:20 +3 28 10 SpVgg Unterhaching 19 8 3 8 29:26 +3 27 11 Wacker Burghausen 19 7 6 6 23:28 -5 27 12 Erzgebirge Aue 19 6 7 6 17:17 0 25 13 Eintr. Braunschweig 18 7 3 8 20:20 0 24 14 Sportfr. Siegen 19 5 5 9 22:24 -2 20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Kickers Offenbach 19 5 2 12 19:40 -21 17 16 LR Ahlen 19 3 7 9 20:30 -10 16 17 1. FC Saarbruecken 19 4 4 11 17:39 -22 16 18 Dynamo Dresden 17 3 4 10 19:31 -12 13
January 26, 2006
Na endlich!
At last, the Bundesliga starts up again this weekend!! No more watching Serie A lowlights because you forgot to refill your sleeping pill prescription! Lots of interesting developments. Fatboy is back (see below), MSV Duisburg has signed South Korean Jung-Hwan Ahn, who did all soccer fans a service when he eliminated Italy in the 2002 World Cup. Speaking of elimination, Rene Jäggi, who was supposed to have resigned a few months back, has decided he will stay on as President of 1.FC Kaiserlslautern until season end. Apparently he wants K-town to get the full benefit of his incompetance and set the club up for another brilliant rebirth from the 2.Liga. Wolfsburg brought in Dutchman Rick Hoogendorp in a desperate attempt to partner Diego Klimowicz up front and reverse the bitch-slapping they've been receiving.
DFB Cup Quarterfinals
The sensation of the round saw FC St.Pauli stun Werder Bremen 3-1 in front of a delirious crowd at the Millerntor. The field looked more appropriate for cross country skiing, but there was no doubting the Paulistas resolve and they outfought the lame Werder squad. This may be costly for Bremen in more ways than one, as delicate Miroslav Klose fell down and injured himself again. St.Pauli is in the running for promotion in the Regionalliga Nord, but this victory will certainly be long remembered. In other matches, Bayern München snuck past FSV Mainz 3-2, Eintracht Frankfurt continued their fine form, beating 3-1 at 1860 and Bielfeld struggled, but prevailed against Kickers Offenbach, 4-2 after overtime.
In the draw for the semi-finals, the Millerntor will be rockin again as St.Pauli will face off against Bayern München!
Fatboy back!
In a stunning move, Hamburger SV swooped in and picked up legendary fatboy Ailton from his exile in Turkey, from where he had been trying desperately to escape. Given that HSV's frontline has trouble hitting the side of a barn, this just might pay dividends as they try and reach for the sky, or at least a Champions League spot. Well, the Brazilian IS about the size of a barn, come to think of it. But seriously, Lauth, Takahara and Mpenza don;'t exactly scare anybody, and the only real threats are midfielders Van der vaart and Barbarez. So even if Ailton can latch on to his crap form from Schalke (where he managed 14 goals), this could be a clever move. Besides, there are now bound to more interesting stories in Bild-Zeitung.
Zweite Liga action
The 2.Liga actually has already started up, although a couple of matches were snowed out. 1860 continued their horrible home performance with another lame result. If they played all their matches on the road, they'd probably be sailing back to the Bundesliga. The big winners were Aachen and Bochum, which have at least assured that they will remain at the top through the weekend.
TSV 1860 München - LR Ahlen 0:0 (0:0) Alemannia Aachen - Erzgebirge Aue 3:1 (1:0) Wacker Burghausen - SC Freiburg 2:1 (1:0) Kickers Offenbach - Hansa Rostock 1:3 (1:1) VfL Bochum - 1. FC Saarbrücken 3:0 (1:0) SC Paderborn 07 - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:1 (0:0) 1 Alemannia Aachen 18 11 2 5 36:21 +15 35 2 VfL Bochum 18 10 5 3 31:17 +14 35 3 Greuther Fürth 17 9 3 5 29:24 +5 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1860 München 18 8 5 5 26:20 +6 29 5 Energie Cottbus 17 8 4 5 30:23 +7 28 6 SC Freiburg 18 8 4 6 25:22 +3 28 7 Karlsruher SC 18 8 4 6 23:20 +3 28 8 SC Paderborn 07 18 8 3 7 29:19 +10 27 9 Wacker Burghausen 18 7 5 6 22:27 -5 26 10 Hansa Rostock 17 7 4 6 25:22 +3 25 11 Eintr. Braunschweig 17 7 3 7 20:17 +3 24 12 SpVgg Unterhaching 18 7 3 8 27:25 +2 24 13 Erzgebirge Aue 18 6 6 6 16:16 0 24 14 Sportfr. Siegen 18 5 5 8 21:22 -1 20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Kickers Offenbach 18 5 2 11 19:38 -19 17 16 1. FC Saarbrücken 18 4 3 11 17:39 -22 15 17 Dynamo Dresden 16 3 4 9 19:30 -11 13 18 LR Ahlen 18 2 7 9 17:30 -13 13