DFB-Pokal, Round 2

No real shockers in the 2nd main round of the DFB Cup. 3.Liga and below sides automatically get home field advantage against Bnudesliga/2.Liga clubs. No such luck for 2.Liga clubs against their richer cousins. Attendance was ho-hum, mainly due to lack of attractive matchups.

From the amateur ranks, Berliner AK47 (hehe) gave a good fight, but they were without a chance against 2.Liga 1860. No Hoffenheim to role over and disgrace themselves. Worms gave a good account of themselves battling against 1. FC Köln before falling on penalties. Wormatia certainly had a memorable Cup run, having knocked out Hertha BSC earlier. TSV Havelse gave crap Bochum a decent match, but were also eliminated.

The stronger Bundesliga clubs really had no problems, Schalke, Dortmund and Bayern romping home easily against 2.Liga opponents. Bayer Leverkusen struggled against Bielefeld, but eventually prevailed in overtime.

The only 3.Liga clubs left are Offenbach, which controlled the match against disappointing Union, and Karlsruhe, who by beating Duisburg just showed that the Zebras maybe do belong in last place in the 2.Liga.

 	
Berliner AK 07	     -   1860 München	        0:3 (0:1)      2,403
Wormatia Worms	     -   1. FC Köln	        0:0 pen (K)    7,203 *
Preußen Münster	     -   FC Augsburg	        0:1 (0:0)     16,269 *
Eint, Braunschweig   -   SC Freiburg	        0:2 (0:1)     20,167
TSV Havelse	     -   VfL Bochum	        1:3 (1:1)      3,371
FC Schalke 04	     -   SV Sandhausen	        3:0 (1:0)     52,790
VfR Aalen	     -   Borussia Dortmund      1:4 (0:2)     13,251 *
1. FSV Mainz 05	     -   Erzgebirge Aue	        2:0 (1:0)     12,677
Karlsruher SC	     -   MSV Duisburg	        1:0 (0:0)     14,921
Arminia Bielefeld    -   Bayer Leverkusen       2:3 aet       24,771
Kickers Offenbach    -   1. FC Union Berlin     2:0 (0:0)     12,247
VfB Stuttgart	     -   FC St. Pauli	        3:0 (3:0)     26,100
Hannover 96	     -   Dynamo Dresden	        1:1 pen (H)   35,000
Bayern München	     -   1. FC Kaiserslautern   4:0 (1:0)     71,000 *
Fortuna Düsseldorf   -   Borussia M'gladbach    1:0 aet       54,000 *
VfL Wolfsburg	     -   FSV Frankfurt	        2:0 (0:0)      7,538

* - indicates sell-out

3.Liga news: We’re broke and you crazy!

Two stories I just have to get out, one I’ve already touched on, and another seems like a joke….

Things are really heating up for Alemannia Aachen. Local newspaper “Aachener Nachrichten” is reporting that the club must come up with 2 million euros by Wednesday, or they’ll have to declare bankruptcy. Supposedly there is a 3 million euro hole in the budget that needs to be covered. The fans are blaming current management, yelling “Vorstand raus!” (“Board out!”) during the Wehen match.

The president, Meino Heyen, says he can’t explain the situation, but essentially is blaming the business manager, Frithjof Kraemer. Heyen says he’s booting Kraemer out of the club, but it really seems like he should be booting himself as well. However he does claim that he has reached agreements with sponsors to raise the necessary funds. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough….

Now for the crazy… It’s actually a sad story, but it’s kind of funny. Savio Nsereko, once a promising youngster, has ended up in jail in Thailand….

OK, here’s the story. Nserenko immigrated with his parents from Uganda when he was a young boy. The started playing in the youth ranks of 1860 München, eventually becoming a German citizen and getting chosen for the U19 squad – who won the 2008 European U19 title in the Czech Republic. Nsereko was outstanding and was named player of the tournament. He was already playing in Italy with Brescia Calcio, and his performance earned him an 8.5 million euro transfer to West Ham United. So far so good. But then things started to go wrong. He couldn’t break into the lineup with the Hammers (not a good sign), and apparently got involved in various “escapades” that made the London side to want to dump his ass. So off he went, first to Fiorentina, then Bologna, 1860, Burgas, Juve Stabia, Vaslui and then finally SpVgg Unterhaching.

Haching offered him a chance to get his act together and reestablish himself as a pro.  This proved also to be too difficult. So on October 14 he left the club without notice and went on vacation to Thailand. The club then terminated his contract. Club manager Manfred Schwabl (an ex-1860 great) was saddened by the whole affair, because they felt that Nsereko seemed to be on the right track…not to mention a major talent.

In Thailand, he set up shop in the resort town of Pattaya, and apparently burned through 25,000 euros. Now being out of funds, he cooked up a scheme to get “kidnapped” and ransom himself to his family for 3,000 euros (WTF?! I’m not making this up). His family was obviously worried and contacted the German embassy, who contacted the Thai police, who promptly arrested him and tossed his ass in jail.

Hopefully this will get sorted out, but this guy either has mental problems or is dumb as a doornail. Maybe he could join Wuppertaler SV, since the 3.Liga was apparently too stressful for him…

 

BUNDESLIGA, Round 9 (Sunday)

A heroic performance by Leverkusen: their first win in München in 23 years! Actually Bayern München won’t be very happy, as they dominated the match and shouldn’t have lost. In the early going, the hosts completely controlled the field and pushed the Asiprins back. However a counterattack led to the only Bayer chance: and in-form Stefan Kiessling put it home for the surprising lead. In the 2nd half, Bayern attacked furiously, but the Leverkusen defense held until oldtimer Claudio Pizarro assisted on Mandzukic’s equalizer. It seemed to peter out to a draw, despite continued München pressure. Then again on a counter, Castro crossed into Sidney Sam, he headed the ball and it bounced off Boateng’s head into the net for the stunning victory.

A hard fought battle in Stuttgart, and VfB just edges ahead of surprising Frankfurt. Stuttgart has been inconsistent this season, but have recently shown some life and ability to grind out points. Overall VfB had the advantage, leading to their first home win, but Eintracht didn’t make things easy.

A stunning result in Hannover as well. The 96ers were unbeaten in 22 straight, and were waltzing along to a solid victory, controlling the match and up 2-0 against struggling Gladbach. Then the Gladbachers went psycho and turned things around. A furious comeback crowned by Juan Arango’s direct freekick (the Venezuelan is famous for these) give Gladbach a heroic win. Hannover is probably still scratching their head, and Gladbach can use this as a spring board to turn around their season.

Total attendance for the weekend was 381,880 (avg 42,431).

 	
VfB Stuttgart	 -  	Eintracht Frankfurt	2:1 (1:0)   54,480

                1:0  Gentner (6.)
                1:1  Meier (67., Aigner)
                2:1  Ibisevic (84., Harnik)

Bayern München	 -  	Bayer Leverkusen	1:2 (0:1)   71,000

                0:1  Kießling (42., Schürrle)
                1:1  Mandzukic (77., Pizarro)
                1:2  Sam (86., Castro)

Hannover 96	 -  	Borussia M'gladbach	2:3 (0:0)   49,000

                1:0  Schlaudraff (48., M. Diouf)
                2:0  M. Diouf (53., Rausch)
                2:1  Alvaro Dominguez (70.)
                2:2  Brouwers (77., Arango)
                2:3  Arango (79.)



 1  Bayern München	  	9     8   0   1    27:4   +23 	  24 
 2  FC Schalke 04	  	9     6   2   1    18:8   +10 	  20 
 3  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	9     6   1   2    20:13  +7 	  19
 4  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	9     4   3   2    20:11  +9 	  15
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  Bayer Leverkusen	  	9     4   3   2    15:12  +3 	  15 
 6  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	9     4   2   3    12:10  +2 	  14 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Hamburger SV	  	9     4   1   4    11:11   0 	  13
 8  VfB Stuttgart	  	9     3   3   3    10:15  -5 	  12 
 9  Borussia M'gladbach	  	9     3   3   3    12:18  -6 	  12
10  Hannover 96	  	        9     3   2   4    18:16  +2 	  11 
11  Werder Bremen	  	9     3   2   4    15:14  +1 	  11 
12  SC Freiburg	  	        9     3   2   4    13:12  +1 	  11 
13  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	9     2   4   3     7:12  -5 	  10 
14  1899 Hoffenheim	  	9     2   2   5    13:20  -7 	  8 
15  1. FC Nürnberg	  	9     2   2   5     7:15  -8 	  8
--------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Wolfsburg	  	9     2   2   5     6:16  -10 	  8
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  FC Augsburg	  	        9     1   3   5     5:13  -8 	  6 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)    9     1   3   5     6:15  -9 	  6

M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted
1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Releghation to 2.Liga

2.Liga, Round 11

A sold out Stadion an der Hamburger Straße witnessed the top clash between Braunschweig and Hertha. The leaders had a difficult time, as the Berliners largely outplayed them and controlled the match. Braunschwieg had almost zero chances, but grabbed one and took the lead. Berlin pressed, but for most of the match, the Lions defense held firm. In the 2nd period, Hertha became even more dominant, and eventually were rewarded with the deserved equalizer. Both clubs indicate that they’re serious about holding the two top promotion spots.

This is the Köln we’ve been expecting. The Kölners met fellow relegated side Kaiserslautern in wild match that was exciting for the whole 90 minutes. Whereas the guests have got their 2.Liga campaign rolling – remaining undefeated – the hosts have been struggling. This was a back and forth where both sides exhibited great spirit and fight, and in the end, it was a deserved draw. Since Köln has been sucking, this effort should serve as a boost to morale.

Big win for Cottbus. Energie has had trouble with 1860 – they haven’t even managed to score a goal in the last four outings (0:11 on goals). This time they started out furiously and grabbed an early lead. However this time it was clear that the Lions were toothless, so Cottbus was able to keep all the points without too much effort.

Ingolstadt has quietly snuck up the table, and Aalen has had a good start. In their match there was lots of fight, but mostly in midfield. Not much real offense going on. The Schanzer took the lead when Gross was left unmarked to head the ball home. This opened up the match, but Aalen was not capable of getting back.

Biatch-slap!! Aue laid down the hammer on hapless Bochum. It must be Bochum’s most disgraceful outing in 2.Liga history. I’m guessing they were preparing for the 3.Liga: The Sparkasse field was covered with snow, and this usually means the match is canceled in the 3.Liga. However Bundesliga/2.Liga clubs have heated fields, so the piles of snow were pushed aside, and the match went on. Bochum actually got an early penalty, which they wasted. Then Aue kicked them in the balls and the rout was on. Ronny König did most of the damage, with two goals and two assists. Bochum was so incompetant that the Auers felt sorry for them, so just before the whistle they kicked the ball into their own net so the visitors wouldn’t feel too bad on the train ride home.

St.Paul hasn’t given up, neither have their fans. The Millerntor was sold out as the Paulistas faced Dresden in a critical relegation battle. Dynamo was the better side early, with a strong, well organized concept that gave them a solid lead, but they dropped their concentration and gave up a goal just before half. New St.Pauli coach Michael Frontzeck had already improved things last week, and his home debut gave further indication of positive direction for the Paulistas. SP stormed out and grabbed the lead early after the restart, and a shocked Dresden never really recovered to get back in the match. Huge win that should steady the boot for St.Pauli, but Dynamo sinks into very dangerous waters.

Huge relegation win for Duisburg at Sandhausen. The Zebras would have lost contact with the other clubs with a loss. Instead they won the crappy match with a double by Sören Brandy. MSV remains at the bottom, but they’re only a point behind 4 clubs. Sandhausen showed nothing, so they really can’t complain.

Paderborn had a solid defensive performance against an improved Union Berlin. The hosts attacked, but SCP held together and grabbed the lead on a late counter.

Great win for FSV Frankfurt. The Bornheimer got a needed boost, despite captain Bjorn Schlicke getting his ass tossed for a nasty foul after 20 minutes. Although being a man down for 70 minutes, FSV outplayed a lame Regensburg, who never got off track. With their fine start, FSV looks in good shape to survive yet another 2.Liga campaign. Jahn looked crap, one of their worst performances.

Attendance this week was 130,602 (avg 14,511), but a clear differentiation between the have-have-nots. Snowy weather also might have had something to do with it.

1. FC Köln	      -    1. FC Kaiserslautern    3:3 (2:1)   44,601

                     0:1  Baumjohann (9., Idrissou)
                     1:1  Chihi (23., penalty, Ujah)
                     2:1  Clemens (43., Royer)
                     2:2  Idrissou (60., Jessen)
                     3:2  Royer (75., Bigalke)
                     3:3  Idrissou (88., Nsor)

FC Ingolstadt 04      -    VfR Aalen	           2:0 (0:0)    5,812

                     1:0  P. Groß (56., Schäfer)
                     2:0  Schäffler (90. + 2, Caiuby)

Energie Cottbus	      -    1860 München	           1:0 (1:0)    8,820

                     1:0  Banovic (12., Sanogo)

Eintr. Braunschweig   -    Hertha BSC	           1:1 (1:0)   21,645

                     1:0  Kruppke (25., Reichel)
                     1:1  Ramos (78., Ronny)

Erzgebirge Aue	      -    VfL Bochum	           6:1 (3:0)    6,500

                     1:0  Fa. Müller (7., Hochscheidt)
                     2:0  König (9., Hochscheidt)
                     3:0  Hochscheidt (10., König)
                     4:0  Hochscheidt (46., König)
                     5:0  König (49., Hochscheidt)
                     6:0  Paulus (59., penalty, Sylvestr)
                     6:1  Paulus (90., own goal, Tasaka)

SV Sandhausen	      -    MSV Duisburg	           0:2 (0:1)    3,500

                     0:1  Brandy (33., Berberovic)
                     0:2  Brandy (60., Sukalo)

FC St. Pauli	      -    Dynamo Dresden	   3:2 (1:2)   21,045

                     0:1  Ouali (18., Jungwirth)
                     0:2  Poté (28., Jänicke)
                     1:2  Boll (45., Gogia)
                     2:2  Avevor (49., Kringe)
                     3:2  Ginczek (55., Boll)

1. FC Union Berlin    -    SC Paderborn 07	   0:1 (0:0)   15,378

                     0:1  Naki (75., Vrancic)

FSV Frankfurt	      -    Jahn Regensburg	   3:1 (1:0)    3,301

                     1:0  Leckie (13., Y. Stark)
                     2:0  M. Görlitz (56., Teixeira)
                     2:1  Sembolo (84., Machado)
                     3:1  Bambara (90. + 1)


Attendance: 130,602 (avg 14,511)


 1  Eintracht Braunschweig	11    8   3   0    19:4   +15 	  27 
 2  Hertha BSC Berlin (A)	11    6   4   1    19:11  +8 	  22
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern (A)	11    5   6   0    21:14  +7 	  21
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Energie Cottbus	  	11    6   3   2    16:10  +6 	  21 
 5  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	11    5   4   2    15:11  +4 	  19 
 6  FSV Frankfurt	  	11    5   3   3    16:13  +3 	  18
 7  1860 München	  	11    4   5   2    14:8   +6 	  17 
 8  VfR Aalen (N)	  	11    5   1   5    13:12  +1 	  16 
 9  SC Paderborn 07	  	11    4   3   4    17:13  +4 	  15 
10  1. FC Köln (A)	  	11    3   4   4    13:15  -2 	  13 
11  Erzgebirge Aue	  	11    3   3   5    14:14   0 	  12 
12  1. FC Union Berlin	  	11    3   3   5    14:16  -2 	  12 
13  FC St. Pauli	  	11    2   5   4    10:15  -5 	  11 
14  Dynamo Dresden	  	11    2   3   6    14:18  -4 	  9 
15  Jahn Regensburg (N)	  	11    3   0   8    12:16  -4 	  9
--------------------------------------------------------------------
16  SV Sandhausen (N)	  	11    2   3   6     9:19  -10 	  9
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  VfL Bochum	  	        11    2   3   6     6:20  -14 	  9 
18  MSV Duisburg	  	11    2   2   7     8:21  -13 	  8



A = Absteiger just Relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

1st line: Promotion to Bundesliga
2nd line: Playoff with 16th Bundesliga
3rd line: Playoff with no.3 of 3.Liga
4th line: Relegation to 3.Liga 

3.Liga, Round 15

Winter conditions, and the first cancelations due to snow…

Osnabrück jumps to the top, as they beat down stubborn Halle. Erstwhile leaders Münster had a rough time in Karlsruhe, who showed signs of being what everyone expected. KSC played well, fending off the Preussen attacks (another goal for Matt Taylor, btw), and when they realized they could win, pressed on and were rewarded. Whether there’s still an opening in the promotion race, it’s hard to say, but KSC looks recovered. Bielefeld also leaped over with a tough win against Heidenheim.

Other chasing teams didn’t get the results they wanted. Rostock was crap against Dortmund Bubis. In fact, they only got a draw because a Dortmund forward missed a couple of open netters. Burghausen got biatch-slapped at home by Stuttgart-Bubis. Offenbach pressed hard, especially in the end, but Chemnitz defense held for a draw. Haching’s excuse is that they got snowed out.,,

Aachen remains in crisis, and was probably lucky against Wehen. However, it’s Wehen we’re talking about, so you know the result: draw! It’s almost like the weatherman “…and for Wehen, there’s a 73% for a draw…” In another relegation influencing match, Saarbrücken kicked Darmstadt in the balls. FCS pretty much dominated, although the 98ers got back in the match – theoretically – when they got a lucky bounce. However, they really had no clue and in the end were fortunate that FCS didn’t want to rub their noses in it.

Wacker Burghausen      -   VfB Stuttgart II	 1:3 (0:0)    2,200
VfL Osnabrück	       -   Hallescher FC	 2:0 (0:0)    9,000
Karlsruher SC	       -   Preußen Münster	 2:1 (1:0)    9,244
Kickers Offenbach      -   Chemnitzer FC	 0:0 (0:0)    5,895
1. FC Saarbrücken      -   SV Darmstadt 98	 3:1 (2:1)    3,450
Borussia Dortmund II   -   Hansa Rostock	 0:0 (0:0)    4,000
Alemannia Aachen       -   SV Wehen Wiesbaden	 1:1 (0:0)   12,000 
Arminia Bielefeld      -   1. FC Heidenheim	 1:0 (1:0)    6,828

Stuttgarter Kickers    -   SpVgg Unterhaching    canceled
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	       -   SV Babelsberg 03      canceled

Attendance: 52,617 (avg 6,577)



 1  VfL Osnabrück	  	15   10   2   3    23:10  +13 	32 
 2  Arminia Bielefeld	  	15    9   3   3    22:14  +8    30
------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Preußen Münster	  	15    8   5   2    26:12  +14   29
------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	14    8   3   3    26:20  +6    27 
 5  Wacker Burghausen	  	15    8   1   6    22:18  +4    25 
 6  Hansa Rostock (A)	  	15    7   4   4    18:18   0    25 
 7  1. FC Heidenheim	  	15    7   3   5    26:23  +3    24 
 8  Kickers Offenbach	  	15    6   5   4    26:18  +8    23 
 9  Karlsruher SC (A)	  	15    5   7   3    18:10  +8    22 
10  Chemnitzer FC	  	15    6   4   5    19:16  +3    22 
11  VfB Stuttgart II	  	15    6   3   6    20:18  +2    21 
12  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	15    6   2   7    20:24  -4    20 
13  Stuttgarter Kickers (N)	14    4   3   7    18:17  +1    15 
14  Alemannia Aachen (A)	15    3   6   6    16:22  -6    15 
15  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	15    1  11   3    16:18  -2    14 
16  Hallescher FC (N)	  	15    3   5   7    11:20  -9    14 
17  SV Babelsberg 03	  	14    3   3   8    11:21  -10   12
------------------------------------------------------------------
18  SV Darmstadt 98	  	15    2   5   8    14:24  -10   11 
19  Borussia Dortmund II (N)	15    2   5   8    12:27  -15   11 
20  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	14    2   4   8    13:27  -14   10


1st line: Promotion to 2.Liga
2nd line: Promotion Playoff with 2.Liga 16th place
3rd line: Relegation to Regionalliga

BUNDESLIGA, Round 9 (Saturday)

The biggest news: Wolfsburg is alive! After overthrowing tin-pot dictator Felix Magath a couple of days ago, the VWs looked reborn and get their first win since opening day. Interim coach Lorenz-Günther Köstner was apparently like a big dose of ex-lax to the constipated Wölfies. Düsseldorf’s plan seems to re-invent catenaccio, but perhaps the Bundesliga clubs have figured that out now. (BTW, how that plan work out against Bayern? not so good, eh?). Wolfsburg was understandably nervous, so Fortuna’s plan was working for the first half. But then the VWs realized that they were a superior squad (whereas under Magath they probably would have just shut down) and attacked Fortuna, and the result was inevitable. An important victory for Wolfsburg, who’ve shown they’ve got potential to climb out of the bottom. Very disappointing display by Düsseldorf, who could start sliding real fast.

Schalke is coming off some excellent performances (Dortmund, Arsenal), so you’d expect some sort of letdown. Struggling Nürnberg perhaps saw the opportunity for a point, especially since they expected a somewhat less-hostile crowd (Theoretically there is a Fan-freundschaft between the two). Der Club showed a disciplined defense to frustrate the Blues, but were too wimpy going forward. It took a while, but Schalke finally fingured it out and broke through for a deserved, routine, win.

Interesting match in Augsburg. FCA was actually the dominant squad against Hamburg, but was wantonly wasting opportunities. Not surprising, because they don’t really have the talent. HSV laid back and launched some counterattacks, but was ice-cold in grabbing their chances. It was a somewhat lucky win for the visitors, but Augsburg has nobody to blame but themselves. Last season, this is a mtach they would have saved, so that indicates they’re probably going down.

Freiburg has been quietly playing well recently, and they took advantage of the winter conditions to press champions Dortmund. However, the Neons showed midweek against Real Madrid that they’re still a top club, and today they showed what makes champions, as they raised their game in the 2nd half and ground out a workman-like win.

A somewhat balanced southwestern derby between Mainz and Hoffenheim, but Hungarian forward Adam Szalai single-handedly provided the biatch-slapping with a hat-trick. Mainz is quietly having a decent season, and Hoffenheim remains a disaster at back, worst defense in the league.

It took a while, but on loan striker Edu scored the first Bundesliga home goal for Greuther Fürth. Werder actually looked the better team, and had a clear plus in scoring chances, but they wasted them. The home side showed fight and deserved the point.

 	
FC Augsburg	         -   Hamburger SV	  0:2 (0:1)   30,660

                        0:1  Son (13., Rudnevs)
                        0:2  Rudnevs (63., van der Vaart)

FC Schalke 04	         -   1. FC Nürnberg	  1:0 (0:0)   61,000

                        1:0  Farfan (77., Fuchs)

SC Freiburg	         -   Borussia Dortmund	  0:2 (0:0)   24,000

                        0:1  Subotic (54., Reus)
                        0:2  M. Götze (83., Lewandowski)

1. FSV Mainz 05	         -   1899 Hoffenheim	  3:0 (1:0)   28,067

                        1:0  Szalai (21., Junior Diaz)
                        2:0  Szalai (46., Soto)
                        3:0  Szalai (64., N. Müller)

SpVgg Greuther Fürth	 -   Werder Bremen	  1:1 (1:1)   18,000

                        1:0  Edu (8., Stieber)
                        1:1  Petersen (44., Arnautovic)

Fortuna Düsseldorf	 -   VfL Wolfsburg	  1:4 (0:0)   45,673

                        0:1  Dost (50., Olic)
                        0:2  Olic (53., Diego)
                        0:3  Dost (64., Hasebe)
                        1:3  Langeneke (70., penalty, O. Fink)
                        1:4  Diego (78., penalty, Diego)

Sunday matches:
 	
VfB Stuttgart	 -  	Eintracht Frankfurt
Bayern München	 -  	Bayer Leverkusen
Hannover 96	 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 



 1  Bayern München	  	8     8   0   0    26:2   +24 	  24 
 2  FC Schalke 04	  	9     6   2   1    18:8   +10 	  20 
 3  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	8     6   1   1    19:11  +8 	  19
 4  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	9     4   3   2    20:11  +9 	  15
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	9     4   2   3    12:10  +2 	  14 
 6  Hamburger SV	  	9     4   1   4    11:11   0 	  13
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Bayer Leverkusen	  	8     3   3   2    13:11  +2 	  12 
 8  Hannover 96	  	        8     3   2   3    16:13  +3 	  11 
 9  Werder Bremen	  	9     3   2   4    15:14  +1 	  11 
10  SC Freiburg	  	        9     3   2   4    13:12  +1 	  11 
11  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	9     2   4   3     7:12  -5 	  10 
12  VfB Stuttgart	  	8     2   3   3     8:14  -6 	  9 
13  Borussia M'gladbach	  	8     2   3   3     9:16  -7 	  9 
14  1899 Hoffenheim	  	9     2   2   5    13:20  -7 	  8 
15  1. FC Nürnberg	  	9     2   2   5     7:15  -8 	  8
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16  VfL Wolfsburg	  	9     2   2   5     6:16  -10 	  8
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17  FC Augsburg	  	        9     1   3   5     5:13  -8 	  6 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)    9     1   3   5     6:15  -9 	  6

M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted
1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Releghation to 2.Liga

Europa-liga

OK, I really could care less about the Europa-liga, which has been so watered down to be basically useless. Basically it’s a bunch of glorified friendlies where you can pick up some extra cash.

But the Bundesliga clubs did decently this round. Gladbach (2-0 over Marseille), Leverkusen (4-0 at Rapid Wien), Hannover (2-1 at Helsingborg) got wins. Only Stuttgart (0-0 against Kopenhagen) sucked.

Magath raus!

Well, we were all waiting, and it happened: Felix Magath is out as boss of VfL Wolfsburg. Not too surprising, as the VWs are off to their worst start ever. A special board meeting was convened Thursday, and Magath’s position was basically untenable. Magath had led Wolfsburg to a historic title a couple of years ago, and then abandoned them for Schalke. His successors Armin Veh and Steve McClaren didn’t do too well, but at least it wasn’t as crap as Magath on his return. The tin-pot dictator apparently lost his marbles, as he spent zillions of euros on mostly wasted players. I believe he signed around 26 players in his short reign, 15 of which have either already been dumped or rot on the bench or reserves. Plus he’s managed to antagonize all the other players. Since it can’t possibly get any worse, dumping Magath is probably a good move.

The coach of the VW amateurs, Lorenz-Günther Köstner, will take over as interim coach. He’s done it before, in 2010 when Veh got fired, he stepped in and got a respectable 8 wins, 2 draws out of 15 matches.

Haven’t seen any speculation on who the permanent successor will be. I suspect other clubs in the relegation battle hope it’s someone like Michael Skibbe, so the Wolfies go down…

Tough times in Aachen

Looking at the table, you can tell that things certainly suck for Alemannia Aachen. 14th place in the 3.Liga, not what they were hoping for. They probably have enough to avoid dropping even further, but things could get worse quite soon.

The club is heavily indebted, (rumours of around 42 million euros) and only avoided a fiasco by getting a 19 million euro loan from the City of Aachen. This was partially to fund the stadium costs, and the agreement was that in the 2.Liga, Alemannia would pay back the city 2 million euros a year, and in the 3.Liga, it would be reduced to 1 million a year. However, apparently even this reasonable amount is causing major problems. One wonders were the money is going, as despite sucking, Alemannia is by far the attendance leader in the 3.Liga, averaging a quite respectable 14,500 a match. The main reason is apparently the Alemannia squad is the most expensive in the 3.Liga, and since they’re stinking up the league, they’re certainly not getting value for the money.

So what’s next? If Alemannia were to get relegated to the Regionalliga, it would be a total disaster and might sink the club. The city would be unlikely to hand over more funds, despite the club being the flagship of the region. (BTW, the city actually checked with the state government before extending the loan, to avoid any potential pitfalls).

Alemannia has been through the roller coaster, having been in the Bundesliga as late as 2007. Relegation would mean 4th division status for the first time, and it might not stop there due to finances. So let’s hope they get their act together and at least stay in the 3.Liga….

Champions League: Good results

The Bundesliga did itself some favors with solid wins in mid week Champions League play. Bayern started off with an easy win at Lille. The Müncheners were clearly the superior team, but didn’t seem too motivated, especially after taking lead. This allowed the French to at least get some decent play, although for the most part Bayern’s victory wasn’t in too much trouble.

Schalke gave a strong performance in England – where they had never won in European competition. They completely outplayed a lame Arsenal squad. The Blues created some good chances, but perhaps they didn’t realize that Arse was an emperor with no clothes. When they finally took notice, they banged in a couple of goals that gave them a nice victory.

Dortmund however gets the biggest scalp, as they defeated Real Madrid in an exciting match. The Signal-Iduna was sold out, but a lower capacity due to UEFA regulations. The Galacticos started brightly, but the Neons were up to the challenge and gradually began to assert control. In the 2nd half, they dominated and were eventually rewarded with a deserved winner.

FC Arsenal	     - 	   FC Schalke 04      0:2 (0:0)    60,049

                     0:1  Huntelaar (76., Afellay)
                     0:2  Afellay (86., Farfan)



Borussia Dortmund    -     Real Madrid        2:1 (1:1)    65,829

                    1:0  Lewandowski (36.,Kehl)
                    1:1  Cristiano Ronaldo (38., Özil)
                    2:1  Schmelzer (64.)



Lille OSC            -     Bayern München     0:1 (0:1)    45,259

                    0:1  T. Müller (20., penalty, Lahm)