It as another week of unspectacular picks for me in the Bundesliga, where a number of ties make it hard for me to get any traction. The highlight, for me, was hitting the Dortmund-Munich game on the nose, though that’s a bit of a disingenuous boast, as I didn’t anticipate Mark van Bommel getting red carded. I probably should have seen that coming, though. It was the easiest prediction of the week.

Continue Reading »

Bayer Leverkusen, in getting their first win of the season, was one step ahead of Stuttgart all match.

Bundesliga Standings Rank Club GP PTS DIFF 1 Hoffenheim 2 6 4 2 Schalke 04 2 4 3 3 Hertha Berlin 2 4 2 4 Borussia Dortmund 2 4 1 5 Hamburger SV 2 4 1 6 VfL Wolfsburg 2 4 1 7 Bayer Leverkusen 2 3 1 8 VfB Stuttgart 2 3 0 9 Karlsruhe 2 3 0 10 Bayern Munich 2 2 0 11 Werder Bremen 2 2 0 12 Arminia Bielefeld 2 2 0 13 VfL Bochum 2 1 -1 14 1. FC Koln 2 1 -1 15 Frankfurt 2 1 -2 16 Energie Cottbus 2 1 -3 17 Hannover 96 2 1 -3 18 Borussia M’gladbach 2 0 -3 Results August 22, 2008 Hannover 96 0 0 Energie Cottbus August 23, 2008 Hoffenheim 1 0 Borussia M’gladbach VfB Stuttgart 0 2 Bayer Leverkusen Hamburg SV 2 1 Karlsruhe Borussia Dortmund 1 1 Bayern Munich Werder Bremen 1 1 Schalke 04 Hertha Berlin 1 1 Arminia Bielefeld August 24, 2008 1. FC Koln 1 1 Frankfurt VfL Bochum 2 2 VfL Wolfsburg Next Week Home Away August 29, 2008 Karlsruhe 1. FC Koln August 30, 2008 VfL Wolfsburg Frankfurt Borussia M’gladbach Werder Bremen Energie Cottbus Borussia Dortmund Bayer Leverkusen Hoffenheim Arminia Bielefeld Hamburg SV Schalke 04 VfL Bochum August 31, 2008 Bayern Munich Hertha Berlin VfB Stuttgart Hannover 96

The schedule gave us a special weekend in the Bundesliga, but those of us who follow the league will need to savor it. The great match-ups of this weekend are absent in the upcoming, third round schedule, after which the league will be off until September 12.

Horrible.

To bide the time, we will have to sit on what we learned from the Werder-Schalke, Stuttgart-Bayer, and Dortmund-Bayern matches.  Let’s start with the last one.

What we learned from the Borussia Dortmund-Bayern Munich match on Saturday is Mark Van Bommel is an idiot.  Bayern played almost the whole match with ten men because of van Bommel’s thuggery, and although I have read some comments in the days that followed his red card saying he is being singled out, that view is hard to justify.  Van Bommel clubbed a guy in the head.  If he is being singled out, it’s justly so.

Word that Bayern has warned the Dutchman he could lose the captaincy if he doesn’t stay on the field is good news.  It’s about time somebody starts taking his dirty play seriously, particularly the injury-riddled club that needs him.  Bayern got an unfit Luca Toni back, forming a surprisingly ineffective pair with Miroslav Klöse, but they need van Bommel to hold down thei defense.

Van Bommel got kicked out of the match with his team already down 1-0 and staring a five point deficit in the table straight in the face.  Thankfully, some suspect Dortmund defending gave Tim Borowski an easy equalizer in the second half.  Given the circumstances, it was a good point won for Bayern, though Dortmund should regret the lost opportunity to get to six points.

From the Stuttgart-Bayer Leverkusen match we learned that there is still a gap between Stuttgart and the top six clubs in the league, of which Bayer is apart.  Leverkusen came back after a disappointing loss in Round 1 to Dortmund to get a relatively easy win on the road, building on some of the momentum they had at match’s end the week before.

Leverkusen will be fine.  Stuttgart, although they are getting strong play in goal from Jens Lehmann, we can’t be so sure about.

From the Werder Bremen-Schalke 04 match, we learned that Schalke has lost too many players in midfield.  Playing without Jermaine Jones, Jefferson Farfan and Orlando Engelaar was too much to overcome.  The momentum of their wins over Hannover and Atletico Madrid could not overcome losing more than half of their five man middle.  Ivan Rakitic never got going, and Fabian Ernst had too much to manage in his holding position.

If Schalke can not get healthy for Wednesday’s match in Madrid, they will not make the group phase of Champions League, a somewhat unjust result considering how they played the preceding week.

From Werder Bremen, we learned they can get a result without Diego, something I doubted last week.  They did not get the win over Schalke, but without their best player - a player on whom they depend deeply - it was a point worth taking.  Diego will be back as Werder goes on the road to M’gladbach this week, a match which should be a nice re-introduction to domestic play for the Olympian.

Bremen also debuted Claudio Pizarro, who returned to the club on loan from Cheslea.  The team had a noticeable boost in energy, even if Pizarro was not particularly effective.  Still, he and Markus Rosenburg fronted an attack that continuously threatened Schalke.  Were it not for a player of the week-worthy performance from Schalke keeper Mathias Schober, Bremen would have gotten three points.

These three matches overshadowed the rest of the fixture list, but of note are the still undefeated Hoffenheim and Hertha Berlin.  Hoffenheim got a result at home against the still pointless M’gladbach while Berlin could only get one at home against Bielefeld.  Neither result is that impressive, and these two clubs have been beneficiaries of easy early schedules.  This weekend that starts to change when Hoffenheim goes to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday and Berlin goes to Munich on Sunday.  My picks column isn’t until later in the week, but here’s a preview:  Berlin and Hoffenheim combine for no points this weekend.

With none of the league’s top clubs facing off against each other, expect this to be the week where the table starts to take shape.  We could see all of Bremen, Dortmund, Bayern, Schalke, Hamburg, and Bayer get three points.  If you’re put out by me not putting Stuttgart in the group, don’t worry.  They’re likely to win, too.

WFP Bundesliga Rankings

	Rank	Last Week	Club
	1	1	Schalke 04 You hate to see either Schalke or Atletico Madrid go out before the group stage, but the Champions League would be better for having Schalke. As is, I expect Schalke to be early favorites to win the UEFA Cup.
	2	2	Bayern Munich They get a little credit for clawing back against Dortmund with only ten men and with two key players still injured. Franck Ribery’s absence has been well reported, but the player they are really missing is Martin Demichelis.
	3	3	Hamburger SV A business-like win over Karlsruhe, who the book is still out on. Although teams below them played better, their resume is solid: a home win and a point at Munich.
	4	4	Borussia Dortmund Ultimately, they should have gotten more from their match with Bayern, being gifted the advantage by van Bommel. Their win over Leverkusen looks better, though, after Bayer showed so well at Stuttgart.
	5	5	Werder Bremen Even with Schalke’s injuries, it was an impressive result, and they showed a confidence without Diego that was absent the week before. They played much better at the back, limiting Schalke’s opportunities and controlling Kevin Kuranyi.
	6	6	Bayer Leverkusen Their ranking is unchanged, but there is a chasm between this spot an Stuttgart at seven how they controlled. They played this weekend as they did in the second half against Dortmund and got the corresponding result.
	7	7	Stuttgart Have the horses to beat up on the weaker clubs of the league, but against Leverkusen were frustrated and overmatched. It will be interesting to see if the return of Khalid Boulahrouz helps them compete for a European spot. They’re close.
	8	10	Hoffenheim The only perfect them in the league, but they have yet to produce a convincing result. They’ll have their chance this week against Leverkusen. They could lose that match and not fall in these rankings.
	9	8	Hertha Berlin Like Hoffenheim, good early results are built on schedule, not performance. Like Hoffenheim, will have a chance to prove otherwise this week. They face Munch.
	10	9	Arminia Bielefeld With Berlin without a loss and Bremen bouncing back, Bielefeld’s first two results look pretty good. It’s only two points out of six, but for a team that looked to battle relegation, points against good clubs are nothing to scoff at.
	11	12	Karlsruhe Lost to Hamburg but played decent enough to move up a little in these rankings. Unlike some of the clubs around them on the list, they have at least been tested, and although they came up short, they produced a decent result.
	12	13	Wolfsburg Were unimpressive against Bochum but still got a point. With their other result a win over Koln, it’s unclear what we have with this Wolfsburg team.
	13	15	VfL Bochum Showed signs of life against Wolfsburg, enough to were I almost dropped Wolfsburg behind them. Ultimately, they weren’t able to get three points despite playing on their home pitch. Looking decent can only count for so much.
	14	11	Hannover 96 Played in the most boring match of the weekend in a goalless drawn at home against Cottbus. I’m sure that’s what the Bundesliga wants from their Friday night matches.
	15	18	Energie Cottbus The other part of that Friday night disappointment. At least they were the road team. They have that excuse.
	16	14	Borussia M’gladbach Their 3-1 opening weekend loss to Stuttgart at home looks a lot worse now, and with their result this week, M’gladbach has little to recommend them thus far.
	17	17	Frankfurt Their only point has come from Koln. Ouch.
	18	16	1. FC Koln Their only point has come from Frankfurt. Ouch!

With the prerequisite Round 1 surprises, the Bundesliga started last weekend. Those few surprises help keep my pick results modest. Still a decent start (not as bad as Ligue 1), with most of the losses coming in matches that featured two teams I did not get to see in the preseason. Continue Reading »

Schalke 04 exhibited a new, powerful approach during their 3-0 victory over Hannover on Saturday.

Bundesliga Standings Rank Club GP PTS DIFF 1 Hoffenheim 1 3 3 2 Schalke 1 3 3 3 Stuttgart 1 3 2 4 Hertha Berlin 1 3 2 5 Borussia Dortmund 1 3 1 6 Wolfsburg 1 3 1 7 Karlsruhe 1 3 1 8 Arminia Bielefeld 1 1 0 9 Bayern Munich 1 1 0 10 Hamburger SV 1 1 0 11 Werder Bremen 1 1 0 12 Bayer Leverkusen 1 0 -1 13 1. FC Koln 1 0 -1 14 VfL Bochum 1 0 -1 15 Borussia M’gladbach 1 0 -2 16 Frankfurt 1 0 -2 17 Energie Cottbus 1 0 -3 18 Hannover 1 0 -3 Results August 15, 2008 Bayern Munich 2 2 Hamburg SV August 16, 2008 Bayer Leverkusen 2 3 Borussia Dortmund Arminia Bielefeld 2 2 Werder Bremen Karlsruhe 1 0 VfL Bochum Schalke 3 0 Hannover Energie Cottbus 0 3 Hoffenheim Wolfsburg 2 1 Koln August 17, 2008 Borussia M’gladbach 1 3 Stuttgart Frankfurt 0 2 Hertha Berlin Next Week Home Away August 22, 2008 Hannover Energie Cottbus August 23, 2008 Hoffenheim Borussia M’gladbach Stuttgart Bayer Leverkusen Hamburger SV Karlsruhe Borussia Dortmund Bayern Munich Werder Bremen Schalke 04 Hertha Berlin Arminia Bielefeld August 24, 2008 1. FC Koln Frankfurt VfL Bochum Wolfsburg

When you stack their lineups against each other, Bayern Munich’s seems better, but it is surprising how much talent Schalke has. Announcing it to Europe in their Champions League challenge to Barcelona last season, Schalke is on the verge of transcending the perception of plucky, over-achieving club to league title contender. In round one of the Bundesliga campaign, they were the league’s best team.

Their 3-0 victory over Hannover did not do them justice.  Playing without high-profile summer acquisitions Jefferson Farfán (winger/forward from PSV Eindhoven) and Orlando Engelaar (holding midfielder from FC Twente) - both of whom were hurt in the middle of the week during the club’s impressive Champions League victory over Atlético Madrid - Schalke still exhibited the firepower that should make Bayern, who could have trouble with Farfán and Kevin Kurayni working together, scared.

Bayern limped to a tie against visiting Hamburg without Luca Toni, Franck Ribery and Martin Demichelis.  In round two, they play at a Borussia Dortmund team that confidently put three goals on Bayer Leverkusen in opening their season with a win.  If Bayern does not get healthy for their second match, they could find themselves four or five points behind a rolling Schalke 04 team that plays at a Diego-less Werder Bremen.

Four or five points may not sound like much, but in a Bundesliga that looks a little top heavy, the elite teams may face fewer teams capable of stealing points.  With four fewer matches in the Bundesliga season (compared to the big three leagues), a four or five point gifted Schalke now could be the type of thing Jurgen Klinsmann rues at season’s send.  And if there’s any club that knows about elite teams piling up points in the Bundesliga, it’s Bayern.

Werder Bremen was a near-elite last season (there was only one true elite last season), but without Diego they are a completely different team.  There may be no single player more important to his club than Diego, who is in Beijing for the Olympics.  Seeing them struggle to tie Arminia Beilefeld this weekend, Bremen’s desire to keep the Brazilian playmaker out of the Olympics suddenly made sense.  They weren’t involved in Champions League qualifying like Schalke or Barcelona, but even one match without Diego is a huge loss for this club, whose whole style of play is predicated on the young star’s ability to distribute.

Markus Rosenburg’s two surgical strikes helped Bremen get a point from a Bielefeld side that used the visitor’s wide-open style of play to their advantage.  Bremen is unlikely to alter their style for their match against Schalke, so expect Ivan Ratikic and company to have a big day.

In addition to Round 2’s Dortmund-Bayern, Bremen-Schalke headliners, Stuttgart hosts Leverkusen in another potentially defining match.  Stuttgart efficiently dealt with a Moenchengladbach team that, while having chances, lacked the firepower to play with Thomas Hitzlsperger and Mario Gomez.  Now Stuttgart hosts Bayer with a chance for a six point start.  If they get their win, Bayer will have gone without a point in their first two matches, an early hole for a team that has European aspirations.

There was bad news on the injury front from Round 1’s action.  Dortmund’s Dede, who gave Leverkusen so much trouble on Saturday, suffered a major knee injury and should be lost until spring.  And although Schalke has looked the league’s best team, their depth will take a major hit of midfielder Jermaine Jones, who missed almost all of last season with injuries, is out for more than just Wednesday’s Germany friendly.  Jones is doubtful for Joachim Low’s team.   The German-American midfielder is proving to be a vital cog in Schalke’s attack, running off of Kurayni and onto Farfán’s crosses, but any injury scare is twice as frightening for Jones, given his recent injury history.

World Football Postulant Bundesliga Rankings

As their result was injury related, there’s only so much I’m willing to drop Bayern, though they have looked poor all preseason. Likewise, I can only drop Werder so far, seeing as Diego is in Beijing.

With so many clubs who should finish in the top half of the table playing each other this weekend, a lot of teams have three points without being very high in my first rankings set. Those clubs have thirty-three more rounds to show me their value.

And just as was the case with the Ligue 1 rankings, this early in the season, the whole endeavor becomes worthless pretty quickly. We just need to have fun with it.

1. Schalke 04
2. Bayern Munich
3. Hamburger SV
4. Borussia Dortmund
5. Werder Bremen
6. Bayer Leverkusen
7. Stuttgart
8. Hertha Berlin
9. Arminia Bielefeld
10. Hoffenheim
11. Hannover
12. Karlsruhe
13. VfL Wolfsburg
14. Borussia M’gladbach
15. VfL Bochum
16. Koln
17. Frankfurt
18. Energie Cottbus

attacking midfielder Franck Ribery has won Germany’s Footballer of the Year award, becoming only the second foreign player to win the honor.

In his first season after moving from Marseille to the Bundesliga, Ribery was instrumental in Bayern’s resurgence to the top of the table, scoring 11 goals in 28 league games.  Ribery also led Bayern to the German Cup title.

Ribery decisively outpointed second-place Michael Ballack (three time winner) in the award’s voting, completing a meteoric rise to international football stardom for the Frenchman.  The 25-year-old did not receive his first international cap until two years ago.  Shortly after, he proved a key player in France’s 2006 World Cup run, where they would end the tournaments as runners-up to Italy.  One year later, Ribery jumped from Marseille, to whom he had just move a year earlier after contentiously leaving Galatasaray in a salary dispute, for a €25 million fee, identified by Bayern as a key player in their rebounding from a disappointing 2006-07 that saw the German powers finish fourth in their league.

Along with Luca Toni, brought in from Serie A’s Fiorentina, Ribery revitalized the Munich club and now has them ready to be a force in Champions League.

Ribery has now, in successive years, won French Footballer of the Year and German Footballer of the Year.  He inherits this award from Stuttgart’s Mario Gómez.

Ribery is currently recovering from an ankle injury suffered during Euro 2008 and is likely to miss München’s season opener against Hamburg SV next week.

German Footballer of the Year, 2004-2008

Quotes
“It’s good for a sportsman to be recognized for his performances. But I have to say that the titles won last year by the team are far more important.” -  Ribery

Links
Ribery voted German footballer of the year
France’s Ribery voted German footballer of the year

Mario Gómez looks like he has regained the form he temporarily lost at Euro 2008. What could have been the coming-out party for the young striker turned into a nightmare as he lost his starting spot in Joachim Löw’s Germany team after two tournament matches. He’s returned to his club and regained his form, but the opportunity to move to a big club will have to be rebuilt after the Stuttgart striker lost a lot of his value between Austria and Switzerland.

At was the thought on Gómez have the recently-turned 23-year-old showed so poorly at the European Championships, yet today VfB Stuttgart revealed Bayern Munich registered a bid for the striker which would have set a Bundesliga record, had it been accepted.   Stuttgart elected to hold their leading scorer in spite of a €25 million bid from the league’s champions.  That sounds like an incredible amount of money - a rate that only the top names in the market are getting - but when you consider Gómez’s value is unlikely to get any lower after what happened this summer, Stuttgart may be wise to hold.

Bayern plans to make another bid next year for the striker, at which time his value is likely to be higher.  I suppose it’s possible Gómez’s value could continue to drop as he experiences a carry-over from Euro, but that seems incredibly unlikely given his body of work.  Gómez was Germany’s best forward during the winter international friendlies that led up to Euro 2008, leading Joachim Löw to choose that now famous formation with Lukas Podolski on left wing.  He scored 28 goals in 32 games for a Stuttgart team which played Champions League football after their league title in 2007.  And lest anybody forget, he was chosen German Footballer of the Year after leading Stuttgart to that title, the club’s first in fifteen seasons.

In preseason action for Stuttgart, it’s clear Gómez has regained the burst in his step, a relief for any football fan who likes to see the elite of the world performing at their best.  Gómez is not the best striker in the world, but amongst traditional, center strikers, he is at least part of a preliminary discussion.  Once you start putting age-limits on the conversation, you remember how young Gómez is and how well he’s produced.  He’s a bit older than Karim Benzema, a bit younger than Klass-Jan Huntelaar, creating a compelling spectrum on continental strikers.  Extend the spectrum down to include Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero and you have a pretty interesting essay (if also an opportunity to miss some names)

While Gómez’s resume is impressive, it is baffling that Bayern continue to pursue him and makes you wonder what their long term plans are for Luca Toni.  Lukas Podolski is still one step short of wantaway status, but with his potential conversion to left-wing, is seems strange for Bayern to give up on him.  Miroslav Klöse is giong nowhere as no team outside Germany will meet Bayern’s evaluation of him.  Toni, however, seems destined to eventually return to Italy, and with AC Milan and AS Roma have potential needs for lead strikers into the immediate future, a sale of Toni to the Serie A after Bayern confirms Gómez next season is not a difficult scenario to imagine.

At that point, Bayern would have the German national team attack:  Klöse and Gómez up top; Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger on the wings.   While it would be the wet dream of München fans, I don’t see Michael Ballack completing the reunion that soon.  Ballack aside, if Jürgen Klinsmann can make the talent work, it could be a Champions League-challenging side.  Whether he can make  it work while Joachim Löw could not is the question.  I am not sure I would swap Gómez in for Toni to try.

Quotes

“We didn’t want any team’s money.  We wanted to keep Germany’s player of the year.” - Horst Heldt, manager, Stuttgart

Links

Stuttgart spurns Bayern’s record offer for Gomez

Khalid Boulahrouz was one of the surprise players for the Netherlands in Euro 2008.  His performances in Holland’s first two wins over Italy and France had many asking who he played for, embarrassed to find that he was under contract for Chelsea and on loan to Sevilla, where he rarely played.  A player like this could surely help Chelsea, couldn’t he?

Apparently not, which is no shame considering the talent and depth Chelsea has on their back line.  As a consequence of that depth, Boulahrouz has been sold to Stuttgart of the Bundesliga for a reported £4 million.  Boulahrouz should be able to step right in for a club that disappointed last year, falling to sixth in the table and will try to qualify for European football through the Intertoto Cup.

Boulahrouz returns to the Bundesliga, from which he left for Chelsea in 2006 after two seasons at Hamburg.  He played only 13 matches over two seasons with Chelsea after being acquired for £8.5 million.

Chelsea fans may have wanted to see Boulahrouz have a chance to claim a reserve role on the first team, but with last week’s extension of Wayne Bridge it was clear Boulahrouz was going to be sold.  Luiz Felipe Scolari has made it clear he will not be carrying as big a squad as Chelsea has over the last two seasons, and keeping Boulahrouz would be superfluous.  He probably had more value than any of the other sell-able defenders on the club’s roster and wanted to cash in on his good Euro performance to reclaim regular football.

Quotes

“We would like to thank Khalid for his contribution while he was with Chelsea FC and would like to wish him luck at his new club.” - Chelsea FC
“He is just the man we were lacking. He is one who is not scared of getting involved when needed.” - Armin Veh, Stuttgart

Links

Boulahrouz heads for Stuttgart
Boulahrouz completes moves from Chelsea to Stuttgart
Blues confirm Boulahrouz exit
Chelsea agree to sell Boulahrouz
Chelsea seals defender exit
Boulahrouz set for Stuttgart
Boulahrouz set to complete Stuttgart move

German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is using his team’s advancing to the finals of Euro 2008 as reason to lash out at Arsene Wenger.  Wenger benched Lehmann half-way through last year’s Premiership campaign, a slight Lehmann has never gotten over.  Lehmann has since moved on from Arsenal to Stuttgart, where he’ll play his club football next season.

Far be it for me to tell a player to take a benching lightly, but the timing of Lehmann’s crack at Wenger is curious.  Yes, his team is in the final, but it is not on Lehmann’s shoulders.  Lehmann is riding on the tailgate for this one, lucky to jump on the truck as it drives by.  His performance against Turkey was shaky, looking lost on many occasions.  If anything, Euro 2008 has affirmed Lehmann is no longer to the level of starting goaltender for an elite club.

Links

Lehmann:  Wenger Made It “Difficult”

Lehmann Takes Aim at Arsene

German No. 1 Slams Wenger for “Difficult Season”