Bundesliga review

[Ruhr]

He likes Dortmund. Coach Klopp stays there until 2016. They will play CL next season. So Kagawa already said, that he is ready to sign a new contract at BVB. And i think, he will do

 

[Bembeltown]

Since Ruhr is already nicely covering the top tier I will try to keep the second division covered as well. Mainly because my own team (Eintracht Frankfurt) is playing there at the moment and simply because its an interesting league with lots of tradition and "old" clubs.

We got the likes of Eintracht Frankfurt, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Dynamo Dresden, Karlsruher SC, St.Pauli, Hansa Rostock, Eintracht Braunschweig, VFL Bochum, Union Berlin etc.

Thats all clubs with some history and most of them have been playing in the top tier for quite a while before. Those "big" clubs got a pretty huge following, so the attendance numbers in the second tier are quite high as well.

So when you get the chance to visit Germany and the usual suspects of the first division are not playing it might be worth to check out the second division as well. :)

So at the moment the fight for relegation to tier 1 is in full process and its basically 5 clubs fighting for 2 spots.

The 3rd one will have to play some sort of playoff versus the 3rd last of the 1st tier.

At the moment its basically Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Fürth, Paderborn and St. Pauli fighting for those 3 slots. All but Paderborn were more or less expected up there. Frankfurt and Pauli only relegated to the second divison last season and Fürth and Düsseldorf are established clubs that will sooner or later play in the first division.

Fürth got a reputation of never getting up...they usually finish 3rd or 4th year in and year out, so its going to be interesting to see if they manage to get up this time.

All the top clubs are pretty close together as well:
1 Eintracht Frankfurt (A)
22 13 7 2 50:22 28 46
2 FC St. Pauli (A)
22 14 3 5 42:24 18 45
3 Fortuna Düsseldorf
21 12 8 1 45:22 23 44
4SpVgg Greuther Fürth
21 13 4 4 47:18 29 43
5 SC Paderborn 07
22 12 7 3 35:24 11 43

Düsseldorf and Fürth still have to play today...

Last Monday Düsseldorf played Frankfurt in the TV covered top match. It was a pretty intense match with a lot of trash talking between both clubs before the actual game. Frankfurt´s coach basically called one of Düsseldorf´s strikers a diver and guess what...Düsseldorf equalizes in the last minute of the game due to a penalty. The player accused to be diver felt like he had to celebrate a bit intense before Frankfurt´s coach, so even after the match was over and in the post game interview there was a lot of emotion involved.

Anyway it was an interesting match and just showed that the second tier can be equally interesting both in quality of the games as well as in terms of support and atmosphere to the top leagues.

"Us" Frankfurt Fans left a lasting impression as well before the game, but well...its our reputation and I guess we have to live up to it?! :)

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqB3rF-zh_w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqB3rF-zh_w</a>

Sorry for any typos, bad grammar and bad english...I am a bit rusty when it comes to written english. ;)

 

[Blue>Red]

brilliant coverage here guys, wouldnt mind a la liga and serie a similar thread

 

[Ruhr]

Matchday 22

Bayern stumbles at the Dreisam in Freiburg with a goalless draw.

BVB without Götze and Kagawa goes again for the dirty 1-0 win

M´gladbach saves 3 points at the Red Devils in Lautern, but will miss their young star Patrick Hermann for six weeks with a shoulder injury

Raul scores his 400th career goal

No joke. Otto Rehhagel signed a contract with Hertha BSC for the rest of the season to save them from relegation. Rehhagel is 73. He won as coach three Bundesliga titles, three cups, the european cup winner´s cup and the european championship with greece. Next week it is the 1001st Bundesliga match for Hertha and Rehhagel was there for their first match in 1963 as a player.

Results

1899 Hoffenheim 1-1 Mainz 05 att. 24,300
Noveski – Zidan

1.FC Nürnberg 2-1 1.FC Köln att. 38,101
Esswein, Pekhart - Novakovic

Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 FC Augsburg att. 23,368
Kießling (2) Castro, Schürrle – Koo

Hamburger SV 1–3 Werder Bremen att. 56,553
Petric – Marin. Trybull, Arnautovic

Hertha BSC 0-1 Borussia Dormund att. 74,244 (sold out)
Großkreutz

1.FC Kaiserslautern 1-2 Borussia M´gladbach att. 45,661
Jessen – Herrmann, Arango

SC Freiburg 0-0 Bayern München att 24,000 (sold out)

Schalke 04 4-0 VfL Wolfsburg att.60,511
Huntelaar (2), Raul, Matip

Hannover 96 4-2 VfB Stuttgart att. 40,000
Haggui. Diouf, Pander, Stindl – Harnik, Okazaki


table

1. Borussia Dortmund 49
3. Bor M´gladbach 46
2. Bayern München 45
4. Schalke 04 44
5. Werder Bremen 36
6. Bayer Leverkusen 34
7. Hannover 96 34
8. VfL Wolfsburg 27
9. VfB Stuttgart 26
10. 1899 Hoffenheim 26
11. Hamburger SV 26
12. 1.FC Nürnberg 25
13. Mainz 05 24
14. 1.FC Köln 24
15. Hertha BSC 20
16. FC Kaiserslautern 18
17. FC Augsburg 18
18. SC Freiburg 18

Nice video to show why Borussia M´gladbach is still in the title race. A team, that was in the relegation play-offs last season



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAx9kYx8qo4[/youtube]

 

[LoveCity]

Since Ruhr is already nicely covering the top tier I will try to keep the second division covered as well. Mainly because my own team (Eintracht Frankfurt) is playing there at the moment and simply because its an interesting league with lots of tradition and "old" clubs.

When is Mohammed Abu debuting for Frankfurt? AFCON is over so surely he'll start soon there?

 

[davymcfc]

Cheers Ruhr. Get in Schalke! City and Schalke to win the league?

 

[Ruhr]

Schalke won the last title in 1958. (apart from that 4 minutes in may 2001).
i think we both waited long enough

 

[Bembeltown]

Since Ruhr is already nicely covering the top tier I will try to keep the second division covered as well. Mainly because my own team (Eintracht Frankfurt) is playing there at the moment and simply because its an interesting league with lots of tradition and "old" clubs.

When is Mohammed Abu debuting for Frankfurt? AFCON is over so surely he'll start soon there?

Pretty sure he will soon get a bit of playtime. However I don´t think that he was bought for the starting 11, Veh (coach of the team) bought a couple of people in the Jan transfer period to increase the depth of the roster. So I don´t expect him to be a regular starter anytime soon.

 

[Rascal]

Thanks Ruhr and Bembletown.

This thread is a must read for me

 

[Maldeika]

Schalke won the last title in 1958. (apart from that 4 minutes in may 2001).
i think we both waited long enough

Schalke has it's 4 minutes in May 2001 - Bayern it's 2 minutes in May 1999...

But that 4 minutes in 2001 were something that were very important for the mentality as Bayern a week later won that CL final in 2001. I am not sure if they would have won it without.

Without Andersson's goal the would have lost again a title in the final minutes...

---------------------

Just for the others as explanation. Bundesliga Championship in 2001 was very tight. I cannot think of any Championship that could have been that tight.

Part One:
End of the 32nd (of 34) Bundesliga match day:

1 FC Schalke 04 +29 goals 59 points
2 Bayern München (M, P) +24 goals 59 points

If Bayern would have lost their game on the 33rd match day Schalke would have been nearly through - if Schalke would have won.

Bayern - Kaiserslautern....
0:1 Lokvenc 5th minute
1:1 Jancker 56th minute
2:1 Zickler 90th minute

Stuttgart - Schalke
1:0 Balakov 90th minute

Would the games have stopped one minute earlier Schalke would have gone in with same points but an advantage of 5 goals. The goals fell just seconds from each other. Like this it was

Bayern München (M, P) +25 goals, 62 points
FC Schalke 04 +28 goals, 59 points

Schalke had to win against Unterhaching whereas Bayern had to loose in Hamburg to win the Bundesliga Championship... (Unterhaching is a little town only 2-3 miles away from the Bayern training ground... One year before it was a last match day thing, too, when Unterhaching won against Ballack's Vizekusen and Bayern won at home against Bremen - at the end both had 73 points with Bayern the better goal difference)

Matchday 34...

Schalke - Unterhaching
0:1 Breitenreiter
0:2 Spizak
1:2 van Kerckhoven
2:2 Asamoah
2:3 Seifert 69th
3:3 Böhme 73rd
4:3 Böhme 74th
5:3 Sand 89th

It took 74 minutes until Schalke got the lead. Unterhaching was still fighting not to get relegated but gave up as the other team they were fighting with was clearly leading.

Until the 89th minute everything was o.k. Bayern would have been Champion. But....
1:0 Barbarez 90th shot in for Hamburg - now Schalke was in the lead

In Gelsenkirchen Schalke team and fans were celebrating. They thought the match in Hamburg was over. The fans were storming the pitch. But Hamburg-Bayern started a little later and still were in overtime. The last action was a free kick as a player was kicking to the goalkeeper and he was taking it up. The penalty area was full with players from both teams. Andersson just shot the ball somehow through the legs and it made it into the goal somehow.
1:1 P. Andersson 90th

Bayern was Champion.

I still look for a tv story about this in English.

Bayern won the Champions League 4 days later, Schalke the German Cup the next weekend.