Bundesliga 2016/17

[Bembeltown]

Awesome...you should have told me before I got you the tickets!!

@cptaidan88 has a horrible record as well when coming over to see us play. Its about time the curse gets lifted and I think the "derby" (its not really a derby even though the clowns think it is) against Mainz is the perfect point in time.

Talking about the knowledge of City´s history: I think the average German football fan´s knowledge comes from supporting their own team and from what they pick up from the media.

Unfortunately the media are the first ones to mention the financial windfall of City, Chelsea, PSG etc. whenever there is an opportunity. In order to find out more about the clubs and their history you would have to actively go an research it yourself. Stories like Bert Trautmann at City are very touching and interesting, however if you ask the average football fan in Germany they wouldnt even know Bert´s name.

The media shapes the general picture of a club and they take the easy way out so to speak when shaping this picture. The windfall is something to write about without a lot of effort involved, if you want to paint a proper picture of the club it would actually involve work and research.

But it goes both ways I would assume...For an English supporter the rise of Leipzig is awesome and just a normal thing. But for us it goes against the principles of what football should in theory be about.
But to fully understand it you would have to grow up in this kind of environment I think.

 

[cptaidan88]

Yeah, on the face of it Leipzig challenging the elite is a good thing, and for the people of Leipzig to have a good, family friendly side to watch is fantastic.

But their existence is purely to sell Red Bull. No other reason. Is that what football is about? You could argue it's the same with Wolfsburg and VW, Leverkusen with Bayer, Ingolstadt with Audi, and I suppose City with Abu Dhabi. In my opinion Red Bull is completely different and are a cancer to football, and the hatred towards them is nothing to do with them breaking the establishment. I've said before even if they were called FC Leipzig or something similar then I'd have less of a problem with it. That way they are representing the city rather than a business. We'll wait for Snickers Offenbach etc to come to prominence.

Its up to you to decide whether you can tolerate Red Bull in football but I'd suggest you read about the situation in Salzburg first. They've destroyed the same club twice there so we'll see what happens in Leipzig when, if rumours are to be believed Red Bull acquire an English side.

 

[cptaidan88]

Schübert sacked by Mönchengladbach. I can't say I'm surprised - never thought he was a particularly good manager, and thought he was lucky to benefit from Favre's hard work. Favre maybe worked the players too hard towards the end and the players seemed to down tools but Schübert didn't change too much when he took over, just gave them a little more freedom.

Players have left and other clubs have figured them out - Schübert isn't capable of coming up with a plan B.

Hope @Scaring Europe to Death and @Bembeltown enjoyed the Frankfurt game last night. I have been told by someone else who was there that it was very cold, but I suspect after a few Äppler's and 3 goals you wouldn't have noticed!

Ahead of Dortmund, and hopefully in the Champions League spots at Christmas! You must be happy with that pal?

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

Yeah, on the face of it Leipzig challenging the elite is a good thing, and for the people of Leipzig to have a good, family friendly side to watch is fantastic.

But their existence is purely to sell Red Bull. No other reason. Is that what football is about? You could argue it's the same with Wolfsburg and VW, Leverkusen with Bayer, Ingolstadt with Audi, and I suppose City with Abu Dhabi. In my opinion Red Bull is completely different and are a cancer to football, and the hatred towards them is nothing to do with them breaking the establishment. I've said before even if they were called FC Leipzig or something similar then I'd have less of a problem with it. That way they are representing the city rather than a business. We'll wait for Snickers Offenbach etc to come to prominence.

Its up to you to decide whether you can tolerate Red Bull in football but I'd suggest you read about the situation in Salzburg first. They've destroyed the same club twice there so we'll see what happens in Leipzig when, if rumours are to be believed Red Bull acquire an English side.

Snickers Offenbach would be nuts...

United only exist to sell merch and live Pay TV matches.

 

[zandvoort blue]

Bayern 3 - 0 Leipzig
The Established 3 - 0 The Upstarts

Leipzig have a player sent off and in a separate incident Bayern get a penalty.

 

[Pell]

Yeah, on the face of it Leipzig challenging the elite is a good thing, and for the people of Leipzig to have a good, family friendly side to watch is fantastic.

But their existence is purely to sell Red Bull. No other reason. Is that what football is about? You could argue it's the same with Wolfsburg and VW, Leverkusen with Bayer, Ingolstadt with Audi, and I suppose City with Abu Dhabi. In my opinion Red Bull is completely different and are a cancer to football, and the hatred towards them is nothing to do with them breaking the establishment. I've said before even if they were called FC Leipzig or something similar then I'd have less of a problem with it. That way they are representing the city rather than a business. We'll wait for Snickers Offenbach etc to come to prominence.

Its up to you to decide whether you can tolerate Red Bull in football but I'd suggest you read about the situation in Salzburg first. They've destroyed the same club twice there so we'll see what happens in Leipzig when, if rumours are to be believed Red Bull acquire an English side.

Soccer Club United Red Bull of Trafford? Why not.

 

[Bembeltown]

Hope @Scaring Europe to Death and @Bembeltown enjoyed the Frankfurt game last night. I have been told by someone else who was there that it was very cold, but I suspect after a few Äppler's and 3 goals you wouldn't have noticed!

Ahead of Dortmund, and hopefully in the Champions League spots at Christmas! You must be happy with that pal?

It was indeed very cold but appropriate counter measures were taken in the form of hot Äppler. Obviously I am happy that we scored 3 nice goals, but overall the performance was not the best and Mainz was actually better than you would think when just looking at the result.

Atmosphere was pretty bad as well, felt like everyone was frozen in place. ;)

Anyway, lets get those remaining 11 points which would save us from relegation and see how far we can get. Would be happy with the Euro League and CL would obviously be a dream coming true.

@Scaring Europe to Death: When you asked me about the name Bembeltown the word I was looking for was jar! I spent the whole drive back home thinking about the right word....

A Bembel is a jar for Äppler and as Frankfurt is famous (or should I say infamous) for it´s Äppler, Bembeltown is used as a name for Frankfurt. It was used on a shirt which we did a while back when Yeboah was still playing for us as well. Shirt was aimed against racism and had the slogan "United colours of Bembeltown".

Bembel in its full beauty for reference! ;)

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Landed in Manchester last night at 10pm. We had a brilliant time, and great to get familiar with the Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Koln culture.

A few observations:
The Frankfurt tickets seem to be more expensive,(by Bundesliga standards) but they also cover a circumference of almost 50 km in free rail travel. We stayed in Limburg, and will certainly do the same, via Cologne or Dusseldorf Airport, the next time we visit. Strangely, it worked out cheaper than if we'd flown to Frankfurt)

The age demographic appears about 20 years younger in Germany, and looking forward, this could be a huge problem for English clubs in the near future.

Frankfurt and Cologne are both improving. In fact Modeste seems to score every time I attend, (in contrast to the underused Blackburn sub in the Steve Kean days)

Unfortunately many German fans equate City with RB Leipzig. Mention that City have always been one of the better supported clubs, and they seem genuinely shocked.

At both stadiums, there was a touching post-match ceremony, where the home players came out to wish the fans a Merry Christmas. It’s the sort of thing that looks brilliant in Germany, but wouldn’t work in England, as they’d be doing it to an empty stadium.


In Germany the away fans like to walk to the stadium en masse, with a huge police escort. There’s a lot of noise and colour, but in my experience, there appears to be a line that nobody crosses. In contrast, the City supporters would silently drift into the Cologne pubs in small groups with nobody saying a word until everyone started recognising each other. Then the fun and games would start English style

Once you’ve been to the Cologne Christmas markets, it’s all downhill.

As per usual, thanks to Bembletown and Rhineland for organising the tickets, and Merry Christmas to everyone, including all the German fans on this forum.

 

[Vienna_70]

Flying to Dusseldorf on Tuesday morning for Eintracht Frankfurt v Mainz, and then Cologne v Leverkusen the following evening.
We also thought it quite original to actually enjoy the German Markets in Germany rather than Buxton Precinct.
However, It’s only fair to admit to Bembeltown that my Eintracht record reads P4 W0 D2 L2 GS3 GA8

Ironically the first Eintracht goal I ever saw was a mistake by Bravo’s replacement at Barcelona, Ter Stegen, when he played for Monchengladbach. (playing out from the back would you believe)

Hoping to see both Eintracht and Cologne in Europe next season.

If it's any consolation, SEtD, I saw Eintracht beat Union 4-0 at the Alte Försterei in 2001.

 

[bluethrunthru]

off on their winter break now - Bayern recharging their batteries for the CL campaign in the new year....