BUNDESLIGA IS BACK! Enough of this worthless drivel of EPL, La Liga and Serie A teams travelling the world for crappy tournaments that are just excuses to sell more jersies to prop up their overbloated salaries! Real football starts now! (Hehehehe)
The Bundesliga started off it’s 51st season as expected: defending champion Bayern won easily, despite a decent effort by vistors Gladbach. Bayern started quickly and could have finished off Gladbach in the 1st half, but when dante turned the ball in his own net, the visitors were able to get some decent play. However eventually the champions just overpowered their opponents, and things could have been worse, except Thomas Müller missed a penalty. Overall, it was a rather ho-hum win with Bayern in cruise control. Pep Guardiola certainly didn’t have anything to worry about, as it will obviously be a stunner if Bayern doesn’t defend their title.
Dortmund showed their good form is no fluke, as they mercilessly ripped Augsburg. The Neons attacked quickly and purposely, creating lots of chances. Augsburg had their moments, but in general Dortmund had a firm grip on the match. This might be a match to remember, as new signing Aubemeyang scored a hat-trick and looked outstanding. His performances need to be watched, as this could be an indication that the Neons can replace Lewandowski if he really wants to go. The Pole should thing of his own recent past, when he got into the starting lineup, and Lucas Barrios next stop was China. It’s too early to tell, but the ex-St Etienne man looks like he could be a Volltreffer for the Neons. Dortmund could mount a serious challenge to Bayern, so this could be an interesting season. Augsburg can’t really complain, because there wasn’t much doubt which was the superior side. Matches like these however aren’t what have kept the Fuggers up the past couple of years, so lets see how they do against their “peers”.
No real surprises in Leverkusen, where a solid Aspirin squad ran rings around Freiburg. It looked pretty clear that Bayer was eventually going to win the match, and the Aspirins wrapped things up early in the 2nd half to coast for the rest of the match.
Leverkusen looks solid, Freiburg we’ll have to see. They had several matches last year where they looked hapless, but they were very tough at home and often equally active on the road.
A weird match in Hannover. In general the 96ers looked better than their neighbors from Kraftdurchfreudestadt (Wolfsburg for those historically challenged). Not only that, the VWs were short *two* players, as youngster Max Arnold then Timm Klose got early matching papers. And yet since Hannover was dicking around, Wolfsburg almost snatched an equalizer until Huszti finished them off late. Hardly a shining performance, but they get the “W”. We’ll have to see more from both sides before drawing any conclusions, with the emphasis on Wolfsburg finishing their matches with the same number of players they started with…
For the Hoffenheim-Nürnberg match, all the headlines are about the ref missing the ball crossing the goal, and Hoffenheim getting robbed. But in reality, the Hoppers went up 2-0 and should have been cruising. Instead they let Nürnberg determine the rest of the match and were somewhat lucky they didn’t even lose. In that light the draw is perhaps the fairest result, and obviously the away point is valuable to Nürnberg. For Hoffenheim, despite not getting a win, a mildly optimistic showing of their new direction. Neither side figures to have an easy time this year.
BIATCH-SLAP! Hertha laid one down on Frankfurt. The Berliners return to the top-flight could not have run any better, as they played in top form. In fact I believe that this is the worst opening day Bundesliga loss since 1974, when Offenbach beat Bayern 6-0 (!!), Frankfurt will have to go to video to disect who didn’t suck, but judging from I’ve already scene, it’s seems the main problem was that Frankfurt’s defense was constantly getting beaten and looked slow and cumbersome. Berlin merely exploited the disaster. Obviously Hertha will come back to earth soon, probably their next match, although it’s at Nürnberg. Frankfurt is already in crisis mode – they face Bayern next week. If they don’t at least put up a good showing, the psychological damage from this disgraceful pummeling could have dire consequences on their season.
Braunschweig learned that things are harder at the top. However, a 28 year absence means that they are still needing to adjust. The Lions played to Bremen’s level, but Werder was patient while handling any pressure from the home side. Then while there was a lapse in the hosts side, Werder swung by and casually kicked Bremen in the balls. Bremen hadn’t won a serious match in ages, and were hardly impressive. The “clean house” project is still on going and they don’t look ready for prime time yet. Braunschweig obviously showed great fight and spirit, but they are bereft of talent. It will be a miracle if they stay up, and frankly I don’t see that happening. More likely, they’ll be this season’s Greuther Fürth, playing hard but getting nothing to show for it.
A pair of wild shootouts in Sunday. Mainz beat down Stuttgart, but VfB will be kicking themselves, as they left a lot of good chances on the table. Mainz will be encouraged in that even with losing a lot of their key players, their system still seems to have it rolling. They’re in a similar situation to Freiburg, and we’ll see if both sides can keep things on track over the season. Mainz was beginning out run out of gas down the stretch last year, so it will be important for both sides to get off to a good start. I think it’s expected that Stuttgart will suck out of the gate, so it depends at what time they start getting their act together.
The Schalke – Hamburg match was entertaining, and indicated very clearly that both sides seem to have their key offensive players in gear (Huntelaar and Draxler, van der Vaart), but the defenses looked terrible. Lots of goal scoring opportunities as both sides looked chaotic at times. In general Schalke had more possesion and pressure, but HSV caused the Schalke defense all sorts of problems on the counters. Both sides will need to work on the back lines before the next match.
Total attendance was 368,954 (avg 40,995), with sellouts in München, Augsburg, Braunschweig and Schalke
Bayern München - Borussia M'gladbach 3:1 (2:1) 71,000 *
1:0 Robben (12., Ribery)
2:0 Mandzukic (16., Ribery)
2:1 Dante (41., own goal, Arango)
3:1 Alaba (69., Handball penalty)
1899 Hoffenheim - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:2 (1:0) 25,730
1:0 Abraham (34., Rudy)
2:0 Modeste (51., Polanski)
2:1 Frantz (54., Feulner)
2:2 Ginczek (57., Drmic)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen - SC Freiburg 3:1 (1:1) 27,136
1:0 Kießling (22., Reinartz)
1:1 Hanke (40., Schmid)
2:1 Son (47., Sam)
3:1 Sam (52., Kießling)
Hannover 96 - VfL Wolfsburg 2:0 (1:0) 44,800
1:0 Andreasen (17., M. Diouf)
2:0 Huszti (84., Hoffmann)
FC Augsburg - Borussia Dortmund 0:4 (0:1) 30,660 *
0:1 Aubameyang (24., Schmelzer)
0:2 Aubameyang (66., Reus)
0:3 Aubameyang (79., Lewandowski)
0:4 Lewandowski (86., penalty, Hofmann)
Hertha BSC - Eintracht Frankfurt 6:1 (2:1) 54,376
1:0 Ramos (18., Ben-Hatira)
2:0 Brooks (32., Allagui)
2:1 Meier (37., penalty, Rosenthal)
3:1 Allagui (58., Baumjohann)
4:1 Allagui (60., Hosogai)
5:1 Ramos (71., Baumjohann)
6:1 Ronny (89., Kluge)
Eintracht Braunschweig - Werder Bremen 0:1 (0:0) 23,000 *
0:1 Junuzovic (82., Prödl)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - VfB Stuttgart 3:2 (1:1) 30,279
1:0 N. Müller (14.)
1:1 Ibisevic (16., Traoré)
2:1 Okazaki (65., Pospech)
3:1 N. Müller (78., Choupo-Moting)
3:2 Harnik (82., Cacau)
FC Schalke 04 - Hamburger SV 3:3 (2:2) 61,973 *
1:0 Huntelaar (2., Draxler)
1:1 van der Vaart (12., Handball penalty)
1:2 Beister (24., Diekmeier)
2:2 Huntelaar (45. + 2, Fuchs)
2:3 Sobiech (49., van der Vaart)
3:3 Szalai (72., Clemens)
1 Hertha BSC Berlin (N) 1 1 0 0 6:1 +5 3
2 Borussia Dortmund 1 1 0 0 4:0 +4 3
3 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1 1 0 0 3:1 +2 3
4 Bayern München (M, P) 1 1 0 0 3:1 +2 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Hannover 96 1 1 0 0 2:0 +2 3
6 1. FSV Mainz 05 1 1 0 0 3:2 +1 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------
7 Werder Bremen 1 1 0 0 1:0 +1 3
8 Hamburger SV 1 0 1 0 3:3 0 1
9 FC Schalke 04 1 0 1 0 3:3 0 1
10 1899 Hoffenheim 1 0 1 0 2:2 0 1
11 1. FC Nürnberg 1 0 1 0 2:2 0 1
12 VfB Stuttgart 1 0 0 1 2:3 -1 0
13 Eintracht Braunschweig (N) 1 0 0 1 0:1 -1 0
14 SC Freiburg 1 0 0 1 1:3 -2 0
15 Bor. Mönchengladbach 1 0 0 1 1:3 -2 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------
16 VfL Wolfsburg 1 0 0 1 0:2 -2 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------
17 FC Augsburg 1 0 0 1 0:4 -4 0
18 Eintracht Frankfurt 1 0 0 1 1:6 -5 0
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: Relegation to 2.Liga