Stickied German Football

[Dirk]

Paco Alcacer already matched Nils Petersen's Bundesliga record of 9 Goals from a substitute from the 2016/17 season.

Frankfurt lost today 1-2 at home against ****ing Wolfsburg. Unbelievable!. And Gladbach lost 0-2 at Leipzig. So Dortmund actually 7 points clear at the top (still 9 points clear to Bayern).

2nd Buli: All 3 top teams won. Hamburg still #1, 1 point ahead of Köln. St.Pauli (#4) only 1-1 against Dresden, good!.

 

[Gassy]

So whats going on with Bayern this season?

Is it a case of Kovac taking on a bit more than he could handle? Or a case of the old generation of players are off the pace/past it? (aligning with Germany's world cup?)

 

[mistermagic]

Answer number two. Bayern is an old squad but not sold on Kovac's ability either. Buying no one but Goretzka this summer was a bit shit.
In other news, Lothar Mattheus said that Timo Werner has all the qualities to be Bayern's CF. No pressure.

 

[Dirk]

HSV and Köln won yesterday.
HSV now unbeaten for 11 matches. Longest run since 2008 (we played in Europe back then )
Shit rainy weather in Hamburg, early kick-off but still 50.000 and a 1-0 win, I'll take that. Could've been a higher win but also could've been a draw in the last seconds. That's the crux, with Lasogga out atm we have no clinical striker. Fiete Arp came again only as a sub in the 84th minute but had immediately a big chance, alone against Paderborn's Goalie, but failed.

We scored only 22 Goals in 16 matches but get 34 points for it.
And we conceded only 15 Goals, so under 1 per game. The 2 home losses against Kiel and Regensburg alone were 8 goals. So in the remaining 14 matches we conceded only 7 goals


*******************

Top match in the 1.Buli is, of course, the duel between bitter rivals Schalke and Dortmund, the "Revier-Derby". Last season it was a spectacular 4-4 match. I don't think it will be another one of this kind but who knows.
Schalke had a very rough start in the season with 5 consecutive losses and are actually at #12 with 4W-2D-7L .

In 92 Bundesliga matches between both it's actually 32W-29D-31L, 143:132 Goals in Dortmund's favour

Bayern today at home against #15 Nürnberg. Should be another win for them.

 

[mistermagic]

If Union and St Pauli fail to win Sunday and Monday, we may have a rather dull rest of the season with Hamburg and Köln already 6 points clear at the top which is high at this stage of the season. Not your problem D, I know but thinks of us neutrals.

 

[LeylandWhite]

Anybody know of any lower league clubs near Hamburg that would be good to go and watch?

A group of us are going out next year and were going to watch Hamburg but they've now shifted the game to the monday night.

 

[mistermagic]

When's the date mate? In the area you have St Pauli (Hamburg), Bremen (short trek on the bus) but if you have time and you really want your lower league fix (I dig that: off to Düsseldorf in 2 months to attend 2 3rd tier games and Fortuna vs Stuttgart, a Buli game but between the two worst sides in the league!) take the train up to Kiel or Rostock. The former are doing very well in the second division while the latter are stuck in 3rd but have awesome fans (up there with the best in the country!).

 

[LeylandWhite]

When's the date mate? In the area you have St Pauli (Hamburg), Bremen (short trek on the bus) but if you have time and you really want your lower league fix (I dig that: off to Düsseldorf in 2 months to attend 2 3rd tier games and Fortuna vs Stuttgart, a Buli game but between the two worst sides in the league!) take the train up to Kiel or Rostock. The former are doing very well in the second division while the latter are stuck in 3rd but have awesome fans (up there with the best in the country!).

We're only going for 2 days between 9th-11th february. We cocked up on the dates really, we should have gone when St Pauli play at home but then we thought we'd just go and watch Hamburg instead, now that's a no goer.

I reckon Bremen will be the fall back game, would just rather watch a smaller team if possible, although can't find anything.

 

[mistermagic]

Reckon you're stuck with Bremen mate. It's alright. St Pauli would have been better though.

 

[LeylandWhite]

Cheers anyway mate.

 

[Dirk]

Another Friday match for HSV and another early 6:30pm kickoff. This time at Duisburg. The Zebras are now coached by former Eintracht Braunschweig coach Torsten Lieberknecht. I like him and with him they could climb out of the relegation places but still looming at #15.

With a win we could extend our excellent away record to 5 wins in a row and our 11 matches unbeaten run. Hope both will be reached

Friday evening match in the Bundesliga is Nürnberg vs Wolfsburg.
The Lower Saxons actually in good form. The other club from Lower Saxony, Hannover 96 (#17), will need a small miracle to get a decent result at home against Bayern.
Dortmund (#1) vs Werder Bremen (#8) and Hoffenheim (#7) vs Gladbach (#2) will be the most interesting matches.
I hope that Dortmund extend their unbeaten run and destroy the green plague.

 

[mistermagic]

Green plague.

HSV won at Duisburg 2-1 just like Bielefeld at Kiel. What I was dreading is becoming a reality; the top two will keep on winning while the chasing pack will struggle to put a run of form together. Oh well...

 

[Aberstone]

We're only going for 2 days between 9th-11th february. We cocked up on the dates really, we should have gone when St Pauli play at home but then we thought we'd just go and watch Hamburg instead, now that's a no goer.

I reckon Bremen will be the fall back game, would just rather watch a smaller team if possible, although can't find anything.

Altona 93 who are essentially a smaller version of St. Pauli are away at Dassendorf (just outside of Hamburg) on the Saturday. Maybe that's an alternative?

 

[Dirk]

Dortmund just lost the first match of the season @ Fortuna Düsseldorf. Brave effort of Fortuna, they deserved this win. Zimmer's 2-0 was a beauty.

Gladbach won 2-0 against Nürnberg and could shorten the gap now to 6 points. Both Borussia's are playing against each other on Friday in the last match of the year.

Bayern, tomorrow against Leipzig, can also shorten the gap to Dortmund to 6 points if they win. Leipzig away isn't as good as at home.

 

[mistermagic]

Watched the game last night and Dortmund were rubbish. Not sure why though. Just never got going although Götze was particularly bland. Great result for Düsseldorf who look to have the resources to stay up after all.
Schalke currently 1-2 down to Leverkusen with a half hour to play. I do hope Leipzig treat tonight's game with the necessary ambition of getting something out of the game and not roll over as they usually do. It should be a good match. Of course if Orban gets sent off after 2 minutes it probably won't. Here's hoping.

 

[Dirk]

Dortmund back on the winning track. 2-1 against the other Borussia. Fingers crossed for Eintracht Frankfurt to get a good result today against Bayern.

BuLi 2: Köln lost again at home (3rd loss now, even worse than HSV at home). Means that HSV will stay on top no matter the outcome of tomorrow's Northern Derby against Holstein Kiel (remember: We lost our 1st ever match in the 2nd Bundesliga with 0-3 against the Storks. )


*****************************************************
edit: And another defeat against Holstein. This time they allowed us to score a goal, so only 1-3 this time. Kudos! Deserved win, no question about that.

In 18 matches we conceded only 19 Goals, 6 against Holstein and 5 against Jahn Regensburg.

Union Berlin got its first defeat of the season, 3-0 against Aue. Only bloody St.Pauli won from the top4

 

[Vanni]

It's really our* year this season ain't it? You just know there's great things in store for any side that easily brushes off another fellow strong side like Magdeburg. And by a 4-1 scoreline too!

*'our' = 'St Pauli'.

Now all we have to do is to catch up with the two heavily bankrolled club ($$$Hamburg and $$$Koln) and the title's pretty much sewn up

Merry Christmas!

 

[Dirk]

Merry Christmas!

the same to you, Vanni. Frohe Weihnachten!


btw: Heavily bankrolled club? Would be nice but no, we aren't.

And please, not $, it's €

 

[mistermagic]

Just when I thought HSV and Köln were going to steamroll this league they go on to both lose on the same weekend! The table still seems much tighter than it actually is imo as Holstein Kiel (who did the double over their northern neighbours) and Heidenheim stand just 7 points from Hamburg. I still expect the current top two to run away with the automatic promotion spots in May leaving the remaining four (the aforementioned Hs, Union and St Pauli) to battle it out as to who will lose the play-off vs whoever finishes 16th in the Buli.
Not much else to add in the Zwei except holy smokes, Ingolstadt are bottom and have won just once in the Hinrunde! How the ficketty fuck did that happen? Are they going down? There is a 5-pt gap between the bottom four and midtable so it's possible the ones going down will be among Ingolstadt, Magdeburg, Duisburg and Sandhausen. The midtable does stretch 10 points between Paderborn (7th with 28 pts) and Bielefeld (14th with 18 pts). It's very non-tight league is the Zwei halfway through (well it isn't halfway as we've played 18 games out of 34! very ungerman that but hey ho).

So. Dortmund are top, Bayern are the chasing pack eh? Don't say it too loud but we have a title race on our hands I think. Thought that when that would happen it would mean that Bayern had become shit (they just got older but they're still very good (except Müller)) and the rest were plain and not that good but that's isn't the case; Favre and Hecking are making both Borussias playing some fine stuff which makes them win most weekends (Dortmund suffered their one and only defeat of the Hinrunde last Tuesday at Düsseldorf while Gladbach are the only side with a 100% win record at home). Hell, even Leipzig are looking good. Add to that Eintracht who are playing some great stuff with all the slavs up front (they even beat Marseille! that was a joke of course they did) and Wolfsburg waking up and we have a very competitive top 6 in Germany!
The big disappointment remains as ever Schalke who finished 2nd last season but again only because the rest of the pack was so shit. Honestly I don't see that big a difference in quality between 2017/18 and 2018/19 in terms of play at the Veltins Arena. It's just that the others have just waken the fuck up and that turning up on the day isn't good enough anymore (endlich!). So they are 13th 4 points from the bottom 3 and are worth much better. Don't count them out for a late european surge though.
The bottom should be contested of the current bottom 3 who really aren't good enough for this league especially Stuttgart. Their only attacking threat is 50-year old Gomez and volley-ball Pavard is just not doing it right now at CB. Not much complaint for Hannover and Nürnberg, their squads aren't supposed to be good so it's no wonder to see them down there losing most weekends (4 wins between them after 17 games). Augsburg are down there too but I just can't see them staying there. The big surprise for me is Düsseldorf: 2 wins in 14 games before the last 3 games of the Hinrunde which they won! They are level on points with Schalke and starting to enjoy themselves! Really wish they stay up now. Since I got into football, they've never survived promotion.

Have a great holiday, whoever's reading this and see you end of January for great Buli weekends!

 

[Dirk]

Have a great holiday, whoever's reading this

I've read it. Thanks for taking the time to post this summary of BuLi Eins and Zwei (and what about 3.Liga (Liga Drei) ? ).

50 year old Gomez


edit:

btw, Rudi Völler's Interview with a Sky field reporter about Heiko Herrlich's future last weekend was really bizzarre.

And then he sacked Herrlich just before christmas eve and replaced him with ......Peter Bosz (who was sacked at Dortmund last season after only a few months in December 2017.

Clueless, Rudi. I've been always a fan of yours as a striker for Germany (although you once played for Werder) but as Director of Bayer you've lost my respect now.

Of course you can argue that Herrlich's team should have played better but actually they are 9th still in reach of the european places and advanced in the Europa League. And they've won their last 2 matches.

 

[mistermagic]

The Buli Drei ist sehr interessant! As you know I'm attending 2 games early February and I hope they'll be great! Osnäbruck are in great form and hope they'll do something against Sonnenhof and then the big one at Uerdigen who host Zechzig which is in Duisburg's ground! Hopefully another cracker!

 

[mistermagic]

Regarding Peter Bosz I too have qualms about the appointment. He still looks to me like a teacher more than a manager. Just not cut out for high-level management. Reckon what he had at Ajax suited him. Maybe it was the size of Dortmund that was too big for his shoes. We'll see how he does at Leverkusen but I don't think it'll be a success.

 

[Dirk]

Regarding Peter Bosz I too have qualms about the appointment. He still looks to me like a teacher more than a manager. Just not cut out for high-level management. Reckon what he had at Ajax suited him. Maybe it was the size of Dortmund that was too big for his shoes. We'll see how he does at Leverkusen but I don't think it'll be a success.

It's not so much the appointment of Peter Bosz that I am angry about. I can't be arsed of any Bayer Leverkusen coach. It's more Rudi Völler and his pure arrogance in interviews (like the mentioned one with the Sky reporter).
More and more he acts like he's the living version of Rumpelstilzchen (Rumpelstiltskin).

 

[Super_horns]

Bit of a trip down memory lane for Dirk maybe..

Bundesliga grounds from the 90/91 season.

How many can you remember - and how many are still around!?

 

[Dirk]

Thank you very much for this yt video. Great for a stadium geek like me!

Bit of a trip down memory lane for Dirk maybe..

ah, those memories

Bundesliga grounds from the 90/91 season.

Damn it. Wattenscheid, Uerdingen, St.Pauli in the Bundesliga in 90/91? Unbelievable

How many can you remember - and how many are still around!?

I remembered most of them (except Wattenscheid's Lorheidestadion) Most are still around, some demolished ( just in 2018 they played the last match at Karlsruhe's Wildparkstadion.)

Funny how many of them were bowl-like stadiums back then (even my Volksparkstadion. I remember the windy/rainy days back then standing without any protection. Most of them were modernised for the World Cup 2006 and became beautiful football stadiums (our one, too)


edit:
Interesting is also this yt video (found it in the linklist of this video) of the Bundesliga stadiums back then and now

Although not all are at the same place anymore (like Bayern's Olympiastadion and now the Allianz Arena)

 

[Dirk]

Bundesliga starts again this Friday, only 3 1/2 weeks winter break, thank god (2nd Bundesliga starts on January 29th, though).

Bayern away at Hoffenheim will mark the start of the 2nd half of the campaign. It's shown on German Free TV ZDF (only the 1st match and the start of then 2nd half are nowadays shown on Free TV, all others on Sky Germany or this DAZN streaming channel ).

Hopefully Bayern have lost a bit of their recent good form at the end of the 1st half with 5 wins in a row. They can win every match in the Championsleague if they like but not in the Bundesliga.....please

 

[mistermagic]

Didn't really watch any German football last weekend, just took notice of the results. Seems to be some kind of a gap between 3rd-placed Gladbach and 4th RBL. Really wish Frankfurt can get that 4th spot. Would be great to see them in the CL next season. Maybe Wolfsburg or Hertha BSC can get involved but I doubt it. Don't think they'd fly the German flag proudly in the CL next season either. Very much ups and downs clubs (then again so is Frankfurt but they have quality players).
The bottom 4 lost and Düsseldorf (off to the game in 2 weeks!) are now 6 points clear of Augsburg and 7 of the relegation play-off spot! What a great season this is turning out to be for them!

 

[Dirk]

hey, mm, nice to read from you here again. Bit silent without you here and (especially for you, i am writing this in German)
"deshalb hatte ich keinen Bock darauf hier zu schreiben, wenn es keinen interessiert (und habe momentan auch keinen Bock darauf, dass hier in Englisch zu übersetzen, weil ich garnicht weiß, was "keinen Bock haben" auf Englisch heißt . Aber nun ist ja wieder "was los hier" und deshalb schreibe ich auch wieder)"

back to English:

Dortmund without problems today against last place Hannover. Their coach was already under heavy pressure and now I think it was his last match for the Lower Saxons. No Hope for the "little HSV" anymore.

Bayern will surely follow with a win against another low placed team, Stuttgart

 

[mistermagic]

You could translate keinen Bock with "can't be arsed/fucked/bothered".

Watched from afar Gladbach/Augsburg (I still refuse to believe FCA are that bad a side but do need to watch them properly at some point) and then the late kick-off Bremen vs Frankfurt. Eintracht didn't play well and deserved nothing from this game. They only scored thanks to defensive errors by Werder. Don't think either side are good enough for CL football. Just not enough graft done over 90 minutes. Werder really should have won that 3-0.

Bayern/Stuttgart sounds like a snoozefest tomorrow (9-0 or summat) but Düsseldorf/Leipzig looks exciting what with F95 having already beaten a big side (Dortmund).

 

[Dirk]

You could translate keinen Bock with "can't be arsed/fucked/bothered".

Of course Totally slipped my mind yesterday. Yeah I am getting old

Bayern/Stuttgart sounds like a snoozefest tomorrow (9-0 or summat) but Düsseldorf/Leipzig looks exciting what with F95 having already beaten a big side (Dortmund).

"only" 4-1 for Bayern. And Fortuna today with no chance against Leipzig 0-4 actually (15 min left to play).

Andre Breitenreiter now sacked at Hannover and replaced by former HSV player and coach, Thomas Doll. So now he's again at (the little) HSV
Would surprise me if he can save them but his contract is also valid for Bundesliga 2.