Ancelotti was at Juve no? And Capello was our youth coach. I always thought he was a stop gap who turned out to be a revelation. Sacchi was managing Parma I think.

But for it's worth, I think Donadoni is a good coach. You reckon there might be a trade between Donadoni and Carletto?

Like Italy don't reach the semis, and Donadoni 'resigns' rather than quits, and Carlo takes over and we get Donadoni?

^^^ The scenario suggested above by the good Captain has been discussed several times in the Italian press. My impression is that the pundits think it the most likely solution (for whatever that may be worth).

Bayern just officially signed Tim Borowski from Werder Bremen on free transfer for the next season. Rumours are signing it was Klinsis wish to sign him.
Anyway...it's a great add to Bayerns squad and it further weakens their main opponent Werder Bremen...good old Bayern transfer strategy

P.S. This was really unexpected. Bayern are always good for a surprise these days.

Anyway, no surprise Bayern get the best german players.

He's a very good player I used to like. Until this day.

Wow...I really start to like you

P.S You also start to get how german, non-Bayern fans, think

Unfortunately there's not much German coverage over here, which is a shame as it's a very good league!

As for this transfer: I haven't seen him too much, but I really do like Borowski as a player. I remember him at the World Cup in Germany having a great first game, then he was dropped when Ballack came back, which was a shame.

He's still fairly young isn't he? Mid-20s maybe?

Borowski is about 27, 28 I think,..

The Borowski before his injury and the one now is something like Emerson now and back then with Juve/Roma. But he could come back.


Why? I'm not a big Bayern supporter, I chear for BvB but they are out of the title race and will be out for a long time,..

Anyway, I do support Bayern, cause it is the only German team with a respectable history and with the chance to achieve something in the CL. No other team has a chance.

I'm a bit dissapointed in Werder. They sure did win the league title (which Schalke or Bayer Leverkusen, the 2 strongest Bayernjäger, never did!), but in the CL they are without any chance.

After Sammer's Borussia and Toppmöller's Bayer which Bundesliga team beside the Bayern team did do something notable in the CL or UEFA cup?

What u talkin about !!


There are pubs everywhere (in london) that show European football ! .. Especially Italian, German and Spanish !!

Well....these teams could only achieve such victories cause they spent way too much money. Leverkusen can be glad to have Bayer. Otherwise they'd play in the 2nd Bundesliga now. Dortmund is a club with a, to be polite, stupid management. They'd have to potential to among the best 3 teams in Germany...but they just keep buying sh!tty players.
And what means "respectable" history? Success? IMO there are many clubs in Germany with a more than respectable history despite the facts that there are few teams that were able to achieve european success.

Possibly, but I live hours away from London.

Lell Slapped With €100,000 Police Fine!

Christian Lell will have an unwanted present waiting for him when he returns home from Bayern's training camp in Marbella: a court fine of at least €100,000.

The defender was involved in a heated argument with his then girlfriend by his car following a night out in a Munich club in February of last year.

As police arrived at the scene Lell is alleged to have kicked them and called them something beginning with 'W'. He was also found to have alcohol in his system above the legal driving limit.

Courts in the city have now decided to fine the 23-year-old for his actions. "It's a punishment for resistance against police officials and offensive language," commented state prosecutor Anton Winkler to Bild. Charges of bodily harm have been dropped.

Asked about the fine from Bayern's camp in Spain, Lell only commented that he hadn't heard anything about it, but Bild claims the punishment consists of 80 days' wages. The newspaper therefore estimates that the player's net earnings are around €1250 per day, just short of €9000 a week.


Channel4

Anyone noticed Jan Koller has gone to Nurnberg?

Me

Hope he does well there.
Always liked the guy.

Another excellent article from soccernet. These guys own goal.com when it comes to quality.

This one is by Hesse-Lichtenberger

Media Hypes Things too Much

On the last day of the fransfer window Werder Bremen bought 19-yo german U21 international Mesut Özil for around 5 million euro (a lot of money for Werder) from Schalke. He was thrown out of the Schalke squad for disciplinary reasons.
Good player, bad character...as always. But usually players reach anotehr level after joining Bremen. they even made a good striker out of Boubacar Sanogo.

^ So Rakitic lost his competition in Schalke?! Hmh,...

The Bundesliga has resumed play after the winter break.

The result of the Friday game was Hansa Rostock 1 - 2 Bayern. Bayern were terrible in the second half and in a surprise to nobody, Mark van Bommel picked up a yellow. (goals were by Ribery and Toni)

A very good move from Bayern in the first goal. Quite lucky with the 2nd as Toni's went in via a deflection. Rostock did themself no shame, I've not seen too much of the Bundesliga this season, but they didn't look like a team about to be relegated to me.

Ze Roberto is class.

Where's Schweinsteiger? Injuried? Did Sosa or Altintop bench him?

Schweinsteiger was serving a yellow card suspension. (and probably also having his hair dyed yet again).

I guess even an in form Schweinsteiger would be benched these days. He's been terrible lately

Todays results:

Energie Cottbus - Bayer Leverkusen 2:3 (1:0)
The "german Arsenal", as I like too call Bayern, was very lucky to win today. Cottbus scored too goals from an offside position and Bayer got a "not very clear" penalty.

Karlsruher SC - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:0 (0:0)
The biggest surprise of this season, Karlsuhe in their first Bundesliga season since 2000 or so, go on to impress me. Nürnberg keeps on underachieving.

MSV Duisburg - Borussia Dortmund 3:3 (2:0)
Dortmund s@ckes in the first half but came back from beeing down to 2 goals twice. They equalized almost with the final whistle.


Hamburger SV - Hannover 96 1:1 (0:1)
Hamburg is out of the title race for now. Hannover might still make it to the UEFA-Cup.

Hertha BSC - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:3 (0:1)
Hertha....what a joke of a team. They spent some millions again and all their expensive players turn out to be shite Frankfurt was really good. Their new winger Martin Fenin (20yo Czech) scored all three goals...on his debut

Arminia Bielefeld - VfL Wolfsburg 0:1 (0:1)
Not a spectacular win by Felix Magaths side...as always.

WTF!! Bravo!!

Goal of the year in Germany

Klinsi will fix this for sure. He'll know how to handle Poldi, Schwein, Lahm&Co.

Btw. there is much talk about the new spanish assistant who will work with Klinsi. I'm very interested how this will work,...

I saw that the other day in a Diego compilation... magnificent goal!!

YUPIIIIYAYEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bochum just won for the very first time at the Weserstadion in Bremen. Shinji Ono is the f cking matchwinner,...came on in the 70th minute when Bremen was leading 1-0...two assists by the japanese. Now we're seven points clear of the relegation zone!!!!!

oh, and Schalke won 4-1 against Stuttgart (amazing game by Rakitic as far as I hear)

Yes! Bochum!! And the ninja did it...

Forza Bochum! Great result for them! Congrats!

Bayern-Bremen 0-1, Diego (who else?)

F ck yeah!

Couple of big games just started in Germany today.

Bayern 0 - 1 Bremen. Diego goal in the 6th.

Dortmund 0 - 0 Schalke (big local rivalry between these two)

Wiese saves a penalty by Toni. Sink those Bayern b@stards!

Zey Roubeytouh. 1-1 at the HT

HT Dortmund 1 - 2 Schalke.

The Bayern - Bremen game is rather scrappy. Lots of little fouls. No yellows from Van Bommel...yet.

His class can't be denied as well as the fact that Bayern deserved the equalizer.

Everyones playing for Schalkes so far. With the current results they'd only be 5 points away from the top.

Now he has his card
Great defending by Mertesacker btw.

FT Bayern 1 - 1 Bremen
Dortmund 2 - 3 Schalke

What exactly happened to Dortmund for them to collapse like this? I remember when they used to be a decent side, winning the league and stuff!

They missed the Cl quali once or twice and then had a huge financial scandal in 2003. All their stars like Rosicky, Koller etc. had to be sold. Now they're just a mediocre team with huge debts, while Schalke did a good job recently and managed to build up a really good team under manager Andreas Müller and Coach Mirko Slomka (both were in the legendary "Eurofighter" team that defeated Inter in the Uefa Cup final 1997).

All I know about Schalke is that they've a huge deal with Gazprom. 25M/euros per year or so. Unbelievable. Much better than the Milan-bwin thing.

Yap....secured their financial stability....and the get even more millions for titles. They've built up a pretty strong team in the last years. Their clash with Porto in the CL is a nice matchup...a test for them to see how good they really are.

Thanks, I did not know this. Shame.

Quaresma will murder'em.

We'll see. Schalkes defense is surely the best part of their team. Their attack is very very bad though (they rarely score....in years!). If Kuranyi will be out for one leg or our form Schalke won't have chance.
So, in short...yes I think Porto's the slight favorite for this game.



Not so much

Oh, but that wont happen like,..ever,..

Yay for La Palma!

In today's Bundesliga game, the final score is Bochum 2 - 1 Hanover.

Congrats Bochum!

^^


Wow...

@Silvio: Sell Milan, buy Bochum.

Hey, hey....seems that Bochum will enjoy another season in the Bundesliga (Thanks to Stani Sestak who has been amazing for the enire season).