ReiseReise

Call me the worst DVDR-Footie-Pundit ever... the consistancy in calling shit 100 % wrong is astounding. Bayern - Porto 2:0 after 23 minutes and they are beating Porto like Don Frye beat Takayama´s face. Much like said face, this isn´t a pretty sight. EDIT: Make that 3-0 after 26. Steamroller against bobby car so far.

apparently Porto isn't gonna have a few guys for the return match in Munich. So... Bayern by 5. Don´t really know about that. Bayern has some major injury trouble, I guess it´s some type of karma for Sammer knocking Dortmund a short while ago for all their injuries. They had 4 players fit to play on the bench, no Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger, Alaba, Martinez etc. Lahm apparently got sick. Lots of quality missing. Of course, they still have a good team, but tommorow´s not going to be a walk in a park, Dante looked like he was finished in the last two games. In the Bundesliga, Bayern are now 13 points ahead of Wolfsburg. This means they will very likely win the championship next week. It´s a month later than the year before, still way too early to account for an exciting season, I´d say. Gladbach drew at Frankfurt, Leverkusen took the chance and gained third place with a 4-0 thrashing of Hannover who are now in deep trouble. Augsburg, Bremen and Dortmund all took three points. After that horrible season, Dortmund is still somehow in contention for a possible Euro-League finish. At the bottom, Freiburg, afromentioned Hannover (both on 29 pts) are followed by Paderborn (27), Stuttgart (26) and Hamburg (25). All of those teams lost last weekend. Hannover were the next club to release and replace their coach. Michael Frontzeck (trained Gladbach and St. Pauli in the past) takes over from Korkut.

Beat me to it. So far it just seems speculation and him asking for his release, but Dortmund has announced a press conference at 13.30 h Central European time. German sports tabloids speculate he might take a sabbatical and then go to BPL, and former Mainz coach Tuchel becoming his successor in Dortmund. Tuchel - it was rumoured - had been in negotiations with the staggering Hamburger SV for next season. Speak of the devil and he doth appear (I´m the fan of the local "rivals" as some of you know, so excuse that phrase please ): Meanwhile, the Hamburger SV burnt through his next coach, with Peter Knäbel stepping down after just two games to make room for Bruno Labbadia, who was already coaching the club´s team in 2009 / 2010. That adds up to a count of four for this season for the last remaining dinosaur of the Bundesliga. During his last stay in Hamburg there were allegations from the rumour mill surrounding Labbadia, claiming him having an affair with one of his player´s wives and the team inexplicably imploded after a good start to their campaign. So yeah, the guy to rescue you is the elder German John Terry...and it still might work, I think. Next week will tell, when Hamburg plays a crucial away game against Bremen. A match consindered a derby in northern Germany.

First half of the Manchester derby was great fun. Switched to Bundesliga later on, but looked like a fun game. Bundesliga: Top 2 are basically set, Bayern (70 pts) ten points ahead of Wolfsburg, who are in return 7 ahead of Gladbach. The improvement compared to last season is that the championship isn´t mathematically decided yet, I guess, although it is very likely Bayern will get the three wins they need in the remaining six games soon enough. Gladbach and Leverkusen battle it out for the direct qualification for Champions League with two points inbetween them. Then there is a huge gap to Schalke who sit on 41 points. Augsburg is having a bad spell, they are on 39 as of now and are in sixth, still on Euro-League course because neither Hoffenheim (37), Frankfurt (35) or Bremen (35) managed to win one on matchday 28. Dortmund, Cologne and Hertha (all tied on 33) all make up the midtable to an extent, although there still might be an outside chance for all of them to catch up with the EL spots. Mainz and Hertha are four points away from the danger zone. At the bottom of the table Freiburg managed to steal a point at Schalke and is now on 29, Hannover is the newest team getting sucked into the abyss, they are still winless in 2015 and are on 29 points aswell, needing a win asap. Paderborn managed to beat Augsburg at home and climb onto relegational play-off ranks. Stuttgart (winning against Bremen) and Hamburg (losing to Wolfsburg at home) make up the bottom two. Hamburg has been the only remaining founding member of the Bundesliga in quite some time now, but they looked finished on Saturday. I don´t really know if getting a coach who hasn´t done any full time job as a coach was the right idea, especially since they looked a mess tactically against Wolfsburg. The first two games were against really strong teams, however, so I should hold back on my judgement. The battle against relegation is the most interesting thing as of now, simply because one win can turn things around for you. Stuttgart looked the best over the last three games.

Board went offline, wanted to give a short heads up from the German cup. Bayern, Wolfsburg, Dortmund and third division Bielefeld went through. Semis will be Bayern vs Dortmund, Bielefeld vs Wolfsburg. Three out of the four quarterfinals went to extra time, two of those went to penalties. Oh, and want to share this goal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5XTZaY4V4c

Huge injury means Alaba will be out at Bayern for the upcoming weeks (read something about "7-week-break" for the Austrian). This might be a major factor regarding any CL-ambitions for the team from Munich.

I really think they looked as good as one could expect, to be honest. They dominated the game and never looked to be in any danger, could have been easily up by five goals after the first half. Then it was the usual shitty administrative possession footie after the break you get from our team in most qualifiers. Still could have gotten two or three more goals. The games against Scotland, Ireland and Poland will be those who will tell most about the German quality. Up until then we should really start making more out of our chances.

Netherlands salvaged one point in a match where they looked very uninspired. Turkey has to be heartbroken (and questioning a six minute Fergie-time at the end) while I can see a major discussion regarding Hiddink in the upcoming days. Some surprises like the Czechs drawing Latvia at home, much like the Dutch with a very very late goal to equalize and Italy drawing Bulgaria in Sofia after another late equalizer in today´s matches. Wales battering Israel in their away match was quite unexpected for me aswell, Israel seemed to be on form in those qualifiers so far. Meanwhile, Iceland continues their good campaign with an easy 3-0 win in Kazakhstan, Belgium thumps Cyprus 5-0 aswell as Croatia crushes Norway 5-1. Interested in tomorrow´s Germany match. After winning the World Cup, people speculated if this may lead to an area where our team dominates international football. I guess after the underwhelming games in the qualifiers, those speculations are out of the window. It will be interesting to see how the team fares with all the key players who were injured / rested in the first four games aboard. From the talk, everybody knows there´s not much room for any other slip ups now. Happy we get the early match (18 c,e.t.) tomorrow...for some odd reason I just don´t like late matches on Sundays.

Ibra has already scored the goal of the matchday, I reckon... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIvaZJdBzsA

Bundesliga dangerzone shaped up quite interestingly. Hannover, losing their home game to Dortmund after a second yellow for Bittencourt after a reckless challenge and two quick BVB goals from Kagawa and Aubameyang. Hannover looked alive, though and like they could be able to turn things around. Paderborn got a goalless draw against Hoffenheim at home, still managed to enter direct relegation zone for the first time this season because Freiburg managed a 2-0 win at home against Augsburg. Hamburg finds themselves at 16th place, one point ahead of Paderborn, two points ahead of Stuttgart who managed their first win in 2015, Augsburg and Schalke both losing means and interesting twist for the top 6 spots, since even Dortmund has a vague chance now to salvage a poor season with a Euro League spot now. Bayer winning against Schalke at home, aswell as Gladbach meeting Bayern in their away game means they pull ahead of other contenders, even if those might not be the final words in the quest for CL spots. Bayern´s loss still sees them 10 points ahead of Wolfsburg. On a positive note, they will take to at least mid-April to win the championship because of this loss. So, time to switch the attention to the EURO qualifiers, where Germany has to make up some ground ...

Really good performance by Juventus and a deserved win in Dortmund. BVB never seemed to recover from that very early Tevez goal. So, Barca, Real, Atletico, PSG, Monaco, Bayern, Juventus and Porto. There are some interesting possibilities in those matches. I don´t think there any limitations as too seeding or something like that in the quarters, so there is a distinct possibility of "national" match ups aswell. I´ll be honest, I wouldn´t have called two Ligue 1 teams among the top 8 this season, all investments aside. Also wouldn´t have thought there would be a total lack of BPL. No real clue as to who is making it.

Nice work from Bayer Leverkusen, sabotaging their CL-campaign due to total inactivity for the major part of 120 minutes, then having Calhanoglu who had an absolute abysmal game take the very first penalty. That was really pathetic. One sky high pen for Atletico, two for Bayer. Awful awful game. Yeah, well...it´s Leverkusen, though, so there isn´t too much pity / sympathy for me. I´m sure some people enjoy Simeone´s crazy antics on the sideline, but midway through the match I got really annoyed with the ref for ejecting him. Simply because every time he went crazy, ref gave one of those "I can´t stop you from doing that, but I´m mildly annoyed by it!" Arsenal could have done it, especially with the really good chance they had after they went up 2-0. Alexis Sanchez is one of the weirdest players. He is so energetic and works like crazy and does some crazy good and inspiring stuff, and the next minute he looses the ball after a horrific pass or dribbling which was by far the very worst of all the options he had.

Bundesliga Matchday 25 concluded yesterday. Bayern and Wolfsburg won their matches with ease. Bayern´s 4-0 at Bremen, who had a strong second half of the season, was quite remarkable for the fact that it had a lot of second stringers starting out. Neuer, Robben and Ribery were all benched. It says something about the roster depth of the club if those being benched doesn´t really face them in terms of performances. Werder on the other end had major problems dealing with the loss of this season´s top goal scorer. However weird it may sound, even if this was one of their worst performances under coach Skripnik, they still looked better than they did in the early parts of the season and showed some growth towards the right direction, especially in the second half where they had Bayern on the verge of conceeding a few times while it still was only a two goal deficit. Bayern´s first two goals however deserve a mention, Mueller hit a wonderfully curved weak foot shot and Alaba with a great free kick from the edge of the box. The big surprise result of the weekend was Augsburg´s home loss to FSV Mainz, meaning a very big step forward for Mainz and away from the relegation zone. Since the bottom three clubs lost big (Stuttgart 0-4 at Leverkusen, Freiburg 0-3 at Wolfsburg, Paderborn 0-4 at Frankfurt), this win is quite the big deal. Under these circumstances, Dortmund - Cologne, which ended in a goalless draw, helped both: Both teams - and Mainz aswell - are pretty much stuck in limbo right now, quite far away from the relegation zone, but also quite far away from the top six. Hannover, who are still winless in 2015, are slipping deeper and deeper into the danger zone, only three points after the christmas break is what I´d consider worrying. They definetly need a win asap. Augsburg´s unexpected loss, combined with a win from Hoffenheim (a team which is consistantly unconsistant this season) managed to bridge the gap between 6th and 7th place. Both teams are seperated by only 2 points. Schalke defended 5th place with a last minute draw in Berlin, but lost ground in the battle for the CL-spots. 4th place Leverkusen (42 points) and 3rd place Gladbach (44 points) managed to pull away a little bit as of now. Schalke´s chance to catch up comes next week, when they play Leverkusen at home and Gladbach will play a tough away game at Bayern.

I love how his hat stayed on!

The Paderborn win streak was one of those common "surprisingly promoted clubs" phenomena. They were pretty fast out of the gate, got some troubled opponents in the first few games and thanks to that got a few wins under their belt. Everything turned into a big party for a while up until they lost big to a team that was bottom tier at the moment (0-4 to Werder on matchday 13 it was, they haven´t been the same since. Right now they loose to teams they are on level with. Nobody expects them to beat Bayern, Gladbach and teams like that, but getting pummeled by Mainz and losing to Hamburg at home by three goals are losses that hurt. Of course there is still lots of time and 30 points to be won, but it´s not going to be easy for Paderborn. It never was to begin with, so maybe that will turn out to be the club´s biggest strength. I think Bayern should beat Donezk, but over the last three matches (Cologne, Hannover in the Bundesliga, Braunschweig in the cup) they looked sluggish. Set pieces, Neuer and at times the refereeing seemed to be the only thing to work from the get go. Of course, when you are up 1-0 after a great 45th minute free kick against a lower division team or get awarded debatable free kicks at the edge of a box and gifted a penalty against opposition that was testing you, the match will be way easier at one point, but it´s nothing to rely on. Especially considering there are stronger teams than Donezk with actual home games.

Been away for a while, here is what happened in Germany. Cup: Besides Werder Bremen losing to third division Bielefeld, Round of the last sixteen pretty much concluded as aspected. Bundesliga teams won their respective matches, with both Bayern and Dortmund being troubled a bit. Same goes for Bayer Leverkusen who needed an extra time win at home against second division Kaiserslautern. Quarterfinals: Bielefeld - Moenchengladbach, Dortmund - Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen - Bayern Muenchen, Wolfsburg - Freiburg Bundesliga: On the bottom end, Stuttgart and Freiburg are the teams you have to be most-worried for, at 18th and 17th place which would mean direct relegation. Paderborn is - as of now and barely - clutching 16th, a place that would mean a play-off against second divisions third place (very open race there, lots of teams tied and close to each other on points). What speaks against those three is their incredibly negative trend: Freiburg and Paderborn both won one match in 2015, Stuttgart managed three draws and no win so far. Speaking FOR at least Paderborn and Freiburg is the fact that both teams are only - again, as of now - one win (2 points for Paderborn, 3 for Freiburg) away from places which would prevent relegation. Hertha BSC Berlin and Hamburger SV sit on 14th and 15th place, both having won 25 points so far. Last season, 27 points were enough for Hamburg to win 16th place and enter the relegational playoff, I´m pretty certain you will need more this year. Dortmund seems stabilized after all the domestic trouble they went through so far this year, but 29 points at the moment mean that they are not out of the battle against relegation yet. They are six points away from the danger zone (relegation), but still would have nine points to catch up. Werder Bremen - somewhat of a team of the second half of the campaign, winning as many points as the top two Bayern and Wolfsburg - and Hoffenheim (after getting lots of praise in the early parts of the season) are both sitting on 33 points, which still means five points to go for an Euro League spot. The battle for CL-qualification is shaping up very interestingly: Augsburg (6th), doing amazing work for quite a few years, are tied with Schalke (5th place) and only one point behind fourth place Leverkusen, which would mean a Champions League qualification spot. Gladbach in third place hasn´t pulled away yet, they sit at 41 points. Bayern profited from a Wolfsburg loss and horrible refereeing, turning a 0-1 deficit at Hannover into a 3-1 win. Bayern´s 61 points mean they are eleven ahead Wolfsburg. The form they have shown over the last three domestic games however aren´t very promising for their Champions League campaign. It will be interesting to see if their is a different showing on European level.

Cena vs Rusev was great fun. I think I would have liked the finish better if Cena would have still been conscious for a moment followed by slowly passing out. It looked a little bit like it was the groin shot / head kick combination that finished him off instead of the Camel Clutch, I would have liked "going low" better as a difference maker than being the actual decider. It is a minor thing, though. The big thing will probably be the usual "John Cena problem" with him going over Rusev clean in a few weeks time, maybe using a Super Angle Adjustment in a good match with a deflating finish and Rusev being stuck in limbo afterwards since "undefeated streak" was the best gimmick they actually had for him. Which is a shame, because the guy has a unique and menacing look, good agility and a well suited set of moves for what he does.

Dortmund vs Juve had a good first half. Both teams looked really shaky, giving up goals due to horrendous defending. Juve looked stronger in the second half and controlled the game, should have made it 3-1 at one point. Leaves all possible outcomes for the 2nd leg.

Real screamer by Coutinho. Bundesliga Day 22 concluded today. Both top teams won their matches (Bayern and Wolfsburg), both widened the gap to third place. Bayern is now eight ahead of Wolfsburg, who are in turn 10 ahead of Gladbach. After that it´s pretty close in the battle for respective spots in Euro- and Champions League. Both, Bremen and Augsburg, were able to equalize in stoppage time. Augsburg not only took the cake by using the 94th minute against Leverkusen, but also their goal keeper to achieve that. BEWARE, LOW QUALITY! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2htlkc_augsburg-kalecisi-hitz-94-dakikada-topu-aglara-yolladi_sport Werder Bremen´s 1-1 draw at Schalke means an unbeaten run of six games for the Northern Germans, who will host Wolfsburg next week. Down at the bottom Dortmund manages to claw their way back out of the depths of the Bundesliga with a 3-2 win in Stuttgart. Dortmund looked better than their opposition in every regard, but still showed that they have a long way to go, Three Bundesliga wins in a row is what counts, though, and it´s a first all season in the Bundesliga for Dortmund. Stuttgart needs to make something happen, and they need to do it fast since they are the only team as of now which is more than one game away from the safe zone. Hertha BSC Berlin is the other team who is now on a sport for direct relegation after a 1-2 defeat at Wolfsburg. Paderborn won last week in somewhat surprising fashion in Hannover, but are right back down to earth after being crushed 0-6 by Bayern. Thanks to Freiburg only drawing Hoffenheim at home, Paderborn manage to stay away from sixteenth place which would mean a play off against 2. Bundesliga´s third place. Still quite a few games to go and only three points between 17th and 11th place, so this is long from being over. .

Was a thrilling game, both teams came to score goals which made it very entertaining. I think IF Dortmund would go on a run, this is game which turned it around for them. Mainz got a very early lead, Dortmund answered with blazing guns but didn´t mention to equalize beforet the second half. After the break, guns blazing turned into tanks walzing. As soon as Dortmund scored the 2-1, Mainz just shifted gears it seemed and Dortmund occured to be visibly shaken for a few minutes, but they didn´t crumble, came back and won the game. I reccomend everyone checking out the third goal, fantastic pass by Marco Reus and a clever finish by Aubameyang. I apologize for the horrible music and quality. Today sees the derby of Moenchengladbach vs FC Koeln. Both clubs have a livid rivalry, often lots of bad blood among them. Hope that their will be no riots, but singing wars and an emphatic match. The other classic match up of today is Bayern and Hamburger SV, which is - as usual over the last few years - barely a classic historically. HSV however has won their matches of the last two matchdays and Bayern hasn´t been as dominant as they used to be or at least not as lethal with their dominance. Leverkusen host VFL Wolfsburg in today´s top match. A loss for Leverkusen would certainly cause trouble among the West-German squad who are currently sitting at sixth place.Also the teams of the hour meet: Werder Bremen plays FC Augsburg, Werder having a 4-0 run and Augsburg being unbeaten over the last four games, drawing their last match against Frankfurt and winning three before that. Looks like a fun day in the Bundesliga.

In a surprising turn of events, Marco Reus signed a contract extension for Borussia Dortmund till 2019. The new contract doesn´t have 25-million-euro-clause like the last one had. Didn´t expect that, to be honest. I thought he was set to play somewhere else next season, whether it was Bayern or one of the big clubs outside the Bundesliga.

Saw it aswell. It was like all the Africa Cup finals I have ever seen. Lots of physicality, lots of spirit, lots of defending and thousands of long distance shots which rarely came close and the occasional half chance. The PHs made up for the whole match with drama, some comically bad and some extradordinarily well taken kicks. The story around the Goalkeeper was quite something. Ivory Coast was so close on a number of occasions over the last few years. Good for them to finally win the damned thing again after 23 years.

Bundesliga matchday 20 is almost concluded as of now with Augsburg leading Frankfurt at home 2-1. EDIT: it´s 2-2 now, thanks to Frankfurts goalscoring machine Alex Meier. Dortmund got their first win 2015 at Freiburg, winning by 3-0. Freiburg seemed absolutely abysmal and never seemed to be able to do anything while leaving much space for Dortmund. Reus and Aubameyang (2) scored the goals. Bayern won their away game in Stuttgart 2-0, wonderful shots from Robben and Alaba. Still not the Bayern performance one grew used to in 2014, but a deserved win thanks to individual class. Werder Bremen won their last four matches including 2-1 wins at home over Dortmund and Leverkusen. Since the change in their coaching staff after being winless after matchday 9 they got 22 out of 33 possible points. They are now sitting on 8th place. Even Hamburger SV won their match, the first time in two years they managed to win two in a row. Big wins for the Northern German teams who are battling relegation. Hertha won their first match after firing coach Jos Luhukay 2-0 at Mainz. Wolfsburg solidified second place with a 3-0 at home against Hoffenheim, two assists from the debuting André Schuerrle. FC Köln drew Paderborn at home with a 0-0, which is their fifth goalless draw in a home match this season.

Glad to help and contribute, these topics here are give and take, in a pretty relaxed atmosphere and it´s always good to give something back with so many mainstays contributing so much good stuff. The frightening thing is just how uninspiring Dortmund LOOKED actually. They didn´t seem to develope anything at all to create stuff from what I saw (bits and pieces of the simulcast aswell as the final ten minutes). Some of their at one point great players like Gündogan, Reus and Sahin looked terrible and like they are totally lacking confidence. I get the feeling creeping up on me - and I hate to say it for he has done a hell of a job for 6 out of the 7 years - that Juergen Klopp might not be the right guy for this job as of now. Just as Zheroen said, there just doesn´t seem to be a plan B to take a turn in a different and better direction.

It´s a mix of losing important players to other teams and injuries coupled with stubbornness in re: their playing style and a false sense of security, I´d say. First the players: Of course they had some incredible bad luck with a lot of key players not being there for a majority of the pre-season. Some even suffer from the dreaded "Post-World-Champion-Syndrome", which is often seen in players every four years. Most of Borussia´s world champions didn´t even get to play much, but maybe this is the actual problem. Most of Bayern´s World Cup Players were starters, therefore somewhat "World Class". Dortmund had Hummels, who was playing on a high level during the summer, but never really got into that form. He was out with injuries a lot. Großkreutz, Durm, Ginter (who came from Freiburg) and Weidenfeller all didn´t play a single minute while officially being part of the "23 men roster that was best of the world". I know it is a shot in the dark, but especially Großkreutz struck me as guy who was there for his hard work and who might let this get to his head. He has been atrocious all season up until now. Durm and Ginter are young and have every right to be inconsistent, but they are already needed and with lots of defenders out or off in regards to form they are a liability. Reus, who could have been the guy hungry and motivated after the injury right before the World Cup, got the same injury three times before the winter, the final injury putting him out in a game against Paderborn that might even had turned things around. Gündogan came back in the middle of the season, no real preperation etc. Lots of other players had problems with injuries aswell (Mhkitaryan, Subotic, Kuba, Pisczek, Sahin) or were the "new guys" who were still learning the system and playing style (Immobile, Ginter even "rusty" Kagawa to an extent). Then, system and playing style: Dortmund still tried to play the football they played successfully since Klopp took over in 2009 and it backfired horribly. Fast paced football with high pressure and 90 minutes of running only works if all your players are at 100%. And if the players are used to it and have adapted it already (which might be a reason why Immobile and Ginter had so much trouble so far). For the first ten or so games they only seemed to lack the finish, and it seemed accurate to blame it on the loss of Lewandowski. But then they even started lacking in the creational department and had so many individual howlers. Here I´d like to say that DfA´s golfer analogy is quite accurate imo. They never got off the ground when it came to finishing / finishing off games in the league (prime examples would be games against Hannover, Hamburg, Paderborn and Wolfsburg where they weren´t able to score or even finish off opponents). Overall it seemed more fitting to blame their losing streak on lack of fitness and later on lack of confidence, which came after the beginning of a first long winless spell. The Champions League seemed to be the competition where they got a little extra mileage out of the tank. But when you play some midtable teams in the Bundesliga, it seemed like all the weariness took its toll. And once they got into a bad stride, then the club itself (all its coaches, players, fans) and even opponents stated that they are "way better than their current spot in the Bundesliga table". I think up until Christmas they still thought to turn stuff around with a good winning streak and make Top 7 at least, if not Top 3. Judging from the approach of the Leverkusen game last Saturday, they might have realized they are battling relegation and this realization came not a day too soon. Trying to be defensively sound is the key. They haven´t managed to come back from being a goal down for a win at any point this season and this is a big weakness. Next step would be to overcome the problem of scoring goals, which is of course easier said than done. All this, however, I only believe to have "figured out" in retrospective. It will be great fun when the match against Augsburg tomorrow shatters all my "profund analysis".