ReiseReise

In the light of a tragedy like that I feel weird reporting that, but I guess I feel like the Bundesliga chronicler (is that even a word?).... Hamburger SV edges out a 1:1 draw, fending off a tough opposition of Fuerth. Very shaky game and Hamburg are lucky to avoid relegation, not only judging by the two relegation-play-offs, but also looking at the overall season. A lot of stuff has to happen if they want to prevent another season like that next year.

I saw 90 minutes of the FA Cup when the German Cup started and I switched the channel. Th FA Cup was a great match, incredible start for Hull, followed by a great comeback by Arsenal and some incredibly bad officiating. I switched back for the final five minutes of the game to see what looked like to be a guy putting Arsenal´s name on the trophy when Mertesacker collapsed like a horse (or rather giraffe) that got shot, followed by a tremendous missed Fabianski diving tackle and a spectacular miss by a Hull player I don´t remember. The German final only had one thing the FA Cup match had: Really horrendous officiating. The referee managed to miss on what to me was a clear cut penalty and two Bayern players should have gotten second yellows for numerous tactical fouls in regulation. The refs worst moment was when he and his assistants first didn´t catch Hummels offside, then failed to note that Dante´s clearance of Hummel´s header was about 3 or 4 feet behind the line. Robben scored an ugly as f... goal at the beginning of the second half of extra time after a bad throw by Weidenfeller, Dortmund pushed on and was finished of in injury time by a Mueller goal. Football sucks, Bayern even more and I´m in a really foul mood right now.

German Cup Final-last-minute news update: - Mandzukic got suspended and left Munich - Schweinsteiger injured for Munich, Kehl out for Dortmund - Alaba could be out aswell

I know that this stuff has been going on for years and years and it is probably a pretty normal thing to do. But somehow it always seems like this kind of stuff backfired. I can imagine Hull having prepared something like that aswell, though.

That was a 0-0 game if I ever saw one.

Bundesliga on its way to conclusion as Hamburger SV play Spvgg Greuter-Fuerth, determining the final spot in the league. Hamburg has their home game first and it looks the support is their, stadium is sold out and the crowd solidly behind the team. This should be intense.

Congrats to Sevilla in any case, they looked to be superior in the will-department today. Benfica created quite some high caliber stuff, especially in the 2nd half of regulation, but it really just looked as if they weren´t able to score today.

Good question, I was thinking the same. Marin´s game must have really ticked the coach off. The game deserved a goal or two during the second half, the extra time didn´t see too much, a really good chance for Sevilla they should have taken. That´s going to be interesting. EDIT: Those stop-and-go Cardozo and Rodrigo penalties were incredibly awful. I´d be mad if I was a Benfica fan, manager or team-member.

Definetly. I guess it was a somewhat justified substitution, though. Can´t really recall him even touching the ball once.

How exactly has no-one scored yet in that second half?! EDIT: Nevermind. Both teams are somewhat shit at finishing today, that´s basically it. EDIT 2: In what might be a shitty day of his career the former German next big little thing Marko Marin gets taking off after being subbed for 25 minutes. Poor dude.

No idea. It was the same with the Champion´s League up until a few years ago. I guess some of the major footie markets view it as a kind of CL-Rejects-Battle. The match is a tough affair. Sevilla looked really solid and more threatening, up until the very last few minutes of extra time where Benfica had three pretty good chances with one resulting in a maybe-penalty. Here´s hoping this is a signal of things to come in the second half.

Seeing the first sub within 25 minutes of the €-League final I ask myself how mad I´d get after getting injured while making a good run and evading a really rash challenge. I´d probably break some stuff in the lockerroom.

Özil looked pretty good up until his usual bad run of form. It´s always fun to compare the thoughts people had before the season. I guess no-one thought Man U would drop down the way they did, Moyes or no, especially since they basically kept all the players, I expected them to finish top four.

Man City looked to be in no trouble of losing the title today. Congrats to all the Citizens on the board. Man U not even in any European competition next year just seems very weird, albeit they just didn´t perform. Will be interesting to see what will change under the "Feierbiest" van Gaal. 2.Bundesliga finished today. 1. FC Koeln and SC Paderborn are surely promoted. Fürth will battle the Hamburger SV coming Thursday and coming Sunday. At the bottom of the table Energie Cottbus who were in the Bundesliga not that long ago reached last place and are relegated together with Dynamo Dresden, a club notorious for pyro-technique and chaotic fan behaviour. The third league won´t like that too much. There will be a play off between 16th place 2. Bundesliga and third leagues third place finishers aswell. Fighting against relegation will be Arminia Bielefeld, while SV Darmstadt tries to make it up into the 2. Bundesliga. Some interesting Play-Offs. Both promotional candidates showed good form and have been strong in their home games this season.

Thanks for the positive feedback on my little write up guys, both for the likes and comments. Very much appreciated. =) Death from Above, I saw too little of Sommer to really judge him, just saw a formidable performance in the EURO league round of 16. Swiss goalkeepers have proven really hard to judge in the Bundesliga, Zuberbuehler being a desaster in the early 2000s, Benaglio performing really well at Wolfsburg. Is Ter Stegen really heading to Barca? Thought they got sanctioned with a transfer ban? I´m a St. Pauli fan myself, but oddly enough it is the exact opposite. I don´t know, I actually want them to somehow squirm through it and then have a few more years as bad as this one, (just barely succesfully) battling relegation. Personally I laughed a lot about their performances this season. I guess as a Hamburg-born, part of me wants the city to have a premium division footie club.

Bundesliga finishes as follows: Top of the table: 1. Bayern 90 points 2. Dortmund 71 points 3. Schalke 64 points ---- 4. Leverkusen 61 points Bayern won the league in march, since then, but only since then, experienced somewhat of a slump regarding their form in the league. In the end it is still the second best finish for any team since the 3-point-per-win-rule was put into effect in the 1994/1995 season. Dortmund was plagued by a ridiculous amount of injuries all season, loosing Gündogan and Subotic very very early in the season, Błaszczykowski right after the winter break and many other players like Hummels, Lewandowski and Reux for extended amounts of games during the season, but managed to get out of the season with the third-heighest amount of points in their history. Schalke started really shaky and had some injury trouble on their own, but their very young team clawe their way into a great third place finish and will continue to learn. Leverkusen looked to be Bayern´s hunter in the first half of the season, but experienced an incredible loss of form right after the winter break. They recovered under interim-coach Sascha Lewandowski (no relations to the striker), managed to get 13 points in the last five matches and are now heading for CL-qualifiers after a tough win on the last matchday. The battle for the EURO-League 5. Wolfsburg 60 points 6. Moenchengladbach 55 points 7. Mainz 53 points -------------------- 8. Augsburg 52 points Wolfsburg could have been included in the top of the table group aswell, playing a good season and coming very close to edging out Leverkusen due to a very good run of form late in the season. Ultimately they dropped too many points against weaker opponents at home to take it all the way. Moenchengladbach had their loss of form at the beginning of the second half of the season after a great run in their first seventeen games, taking wins in all but their last games at home until christmas. Mainz and Ausburgs are teams with very limited capacities, who made the most of it. Augsburg, up until now, was thought to be battling relegation every season, but they were never in any danger. They will vividly remember this season, especially for beating the mighty Bayern to end their unbeaten run on national competition after more than one and a half years. Mainz ultimately profited of Bayern and Dortmund reaching the German cup final, but played a great season and deserves European club footie. The middle of the pack 9. Hoffenheim 44 points 10. Hannover 42 11. Hertha BSC Berlin 41 12. Werder Bremen 39 13. Frankfurt 36 14. Freiburg 36 Hoffenheim with their second best performance in the Bundesliga was the team whose matches saw the most goals, 72 scored compared to 70 conceeded. That´s spectacular stuff to watch, but never more than the middle of the table in any league I assume. Hannover might have had different expectations and goals, but after being part of the relegation battle long enough they were probably happy to be relatively far away from 16th or even 17th place. Hertha had a fantastic first half of the season, scoring 28 points and was never in any fear of relegation which was their major goal after getting promoted in 2013. Bremen had a few runs of bad games, but was ultimately more stable than they were last season, showing progress especially during the latter stages as opposed to their last season, where they went without a win for 14 games in a row. Frankfurt was playing EURO-League and it showed, after they got eliminated in a thrilling performance against Porto in early 2014, they started winning again and fastly climbed back up the ladder, having nothing to do with relegation in the end. Freiburg suffered from the same problems, their first seventeen games were heavily influenced by their run in Europe, which ended even sooner and helped them stabilizing aswell. Once more they overcame the loss of key players despite limited financial possibilities. The deep depths of the Bundesliga 15. Stuttgart 32 Points ------------------------------- 16. Hamburger SV 27 ------------------------------ 17. Nuremberg 26 18. Braunschweig 25 The last years have seen a steady decline at the bottom of the table, this year being a low point so far. Only once were the last four teams worse at the end of the season, and never before has their been a comparable bad run of form among the bottom three teams, all of them losing their five final games of the season. Stuttgart kept the league firing two coaches, Hamburg did the same to at least make it to the 16th place, Hamburg, whose nickname is "the dinosaur of the Bundesliga" since they have been a part of it from the start and have never been relegated until now, have a chance to play the 2. Bundesliga´s third place in a two-leg-playoff. A win would keep them in the league. Nuremberg couldn´t avoid relegation despite using the same "tactics" as Stuttgart and Hamburg, ultimately they seemed to lack passion. Braunschweig showed lots of spirit, but a distinct lack of class aswell. They were the only team of the bottom four to keep their coach and they will probably keep them in the 2. Bundesliga, their year of Bundesliga was more of treat to the fans and the city. The relegational playoffs which Hamburg will be playing will be coming Thursday, May 15th and May 18th, Sunday. Possible opponents are Fürth, Paderborn or Kaiserslautern. Wall of text...ending.

The Bundesliga has it´s last half of this season ahead of it. As of now, Braunschweig and Nuremberg go down to the 2. Bundesliga, Schalke is taking the third CL spot, Wolfsburg the fourth. Leverkusen, Moenchengladbach and Mainz are going into the EURO-League. Hamburger SV seems to get a final chance to stay in the Bundesliga, drawing in Mainz and therefore winning 16th place, which would result in a playoff against the 2. Bundesliga´s third place. Still 45 minutes to go, a lot of stuff can change.

Loews reasonings for some nominees of the 30 men roster are weird. Gomez was injured too much while Khedira´s injury shouldn´t be a problem. Durm gets a shot because "while he made be young and without many Bundesliga matches he had good performances in the Champion´s League", meanwhile Robert Zieler gets nominated as the third goalie while Leno stays at home despite having played many CL-games. Grosskreutz gets a shot at being in Brazil because he "showed great form" while Max Kruse who had a brilliant season has to watch the World Cup on TV. I assume quite a few of the suprises are going to be cut, I´d guess Meyer and Mustafi are almost certain to go, I would say Höwedes, Goretzka and Hahn aswell. Not sure if he keeps Volland, I could see why, he could be a good sub on the right wing. Considering Müller is on the squad aswell, Germany has two definite strikers in Klose and Müller. A healthy and fit Miroslav Klose would still be the very best solution. As for Germany´s chances I have to say I´m almost certain we won´t be winning this. Everybody has us as favourites and I don´t really see why. The team plays some great quality footie, but they just don´t strike me as a title winner team. They choke when a good quality side takes it to them with physical footie and disciplined defending and I´m almost 100% certain this will show when Ronaldo and Pepe tell their teammates to give them the ball and wait for counter attacks to upset us in our opening match. I would of course love to be wrong, but this is what I´m afraid will happen.

Not a real swing, but an interesting developement nontheless: The Bundesliga once saw a battle between Borussia Moenchengladbach and FC Koeln (Cologne) on the final day. Both were tied on points, but Cologne was leading by 10 goals on goal differential. Cologne was playing at the already relegated FC St. Pauli while Gladbach played against Borussia Dortmund. Gladbach trashed their opposition 12 - 0, while Cologne luckily won their match solidly by five goals to nil to secure the title, but it was a huge scandal with people claiming a work and the like, especially since the betting scandal which shocked the Bundesliga in the early seventies wasn´t too long ago. As for the most dramatic finals to a league championship, the Bundesliga final 2001 should be a very good contender. Anyone who would want to see Liverpool fans heartbroken will wish for a final like Schalke and Bayern had battling on different pitches for the last two matchdays back then. Matchday 33 of 34 sees both teams head to head, with Schalke leading on goal differential. Schalke play an away game at Stuttgart, Bayern play at home against Kaiserslautern. There are two goals in the 90th minute: Schalke conceeds, and within seven seconds, Bayern scores. Both games were tied, but just in that moment first Schalke loose the game and in quick succession Bayern win theirs. On the final matchday, Schalke play at home against the already relegated Unterhaching, Bayern play in Hamburg against HSV. While Schalke overcomes a 0-2 deficit to win 5-3, Bayern is closing out the game pretty well. Up until the 90th minute, where Sergej Barbarez scores a very late 1-0 winner for Hamburg and ultimately for Schalke, who are now the champions for the first time since 1958, a year in which there wasn´t even a Bundesliga yet. Well, only that´s not how it turned out. While Schalke fans storm the pitch and celebrate their title, the big tv screen in the stadium reveals that Hamburg and Bayern are still in injury time. Bayern pushes up for one final attack after 94 minutes, when a Hamburg defender slides into a pass, playing it back to HSVs goalkeeper Schober. The guy, who is on loan from Schalke 04, picks up the pass and the referee decides it is an intentional backpass, awarding Bayern an indirect freekick within the box. The Swede Patrick Andersson steps up and smashes the ball in the bottom left corner with everybody in Schalke´s stadium looking on helplessly and in disbelief. I will post a video, albeit it is in German, which deals with the final minute on matchday 33. You can hear the commentary from the Stuttgart vs Schalke game shouting. The video follows up with the final matchday and we see at first Schalkes 5-3 goal by Ebbe Sand, then Barbarez taking the lead for Hamburg with a great header, followed by the final minutes uncut if I saw it correctly, the Bayern equalizer. The second video is shorter, but shows how Schalke fans storm the pitch in Gelsenkirchen.

Great game, can´t imagine this not being a major factor in the title race. Liverpool looked like a championship side for 79 minutes, then conceeded and looked incrediby shaken. You don´t win a title like that, you need to seal a game like that out, at least as soon as you get caught the first time. It´s 3-1 in an away leg, nine minutes to go, and all but two men are pushing up the field after they win a corner. Crystal - major creds to them - counter in a situation where there shouldn´t be any room to counter. They probably played like that all season (I haven´t seen too much BPL this year), but normally this playstyle wins you sympathies, but no titles.

Looks a bit like ´pool are trying to lose their shot at the title in spectacular fashion. Edit: Congrats to City I guess. Shame for Liverpool, who knows if they will get another season like this over the next few years.

With a HEADER if my eyes didn´t deceive me. The atmosphere is awesome, though. The fans seem to be proud and happy with Palace´s season.

You won´t get any closer overcoming a 0-2-away leg deficit than Valencia did. What a heartbreaking way to miss out on the final.

As a German I have to ask: Are you kidding me, Spain? After we get an all German final you have to top our shit by not only having a national affair for a CL final, but even a city derby. Damned Spain, always taking away our shine. Kidding aside, both teams have a rightful claim to Europe´s club footie crown. Both have performed well and won the majority of their matches, mostly in convincing fashion. Their previous matches in Spain made up for interesting footiematches. Premiere League and La Liga have some great season finales coming up. A very cool Cup final in Germany with Bayern vs Dortmund and of course the pre World Cup atmosphere with the temperature rising! Looking forward to it all..

Why I see what you aiming at, the CL games previous week might have had the same foundation to them, but there was a major difference between Chelsea´s defensive style of play and Real´s style of play. That being said, defense winning championships is a major rule of tumb and you can´t blame a team for "parking the bus" if they have to. It´s not repulsive or bad, but it makes for boring footie. In Bayer vs Real it was apparent that Bayern´s style of play is great for keeping possession, but against Real they weren´t able to do anything else while Real had ALL the good chances. When Chelsea played the away leg against Atletico, they didn´t counter at all. I´m sure though that today´s match will see an attacking Chelsea team. They need a goal to win it as much as Atletico does.