Hmh, I hope not. I was happy to see Pippo reach Gerd's european record but this? Hmh, I think he's a one-season wonder. Maybe I'm mistaken but...he doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary to me. Only thing is he's very consistent. You think Hoffenheim are in the process of becoming a force in Germany? Rangnick usually does well in his first season, but shortly after that messes up. I'm not sure what to think now.

So, Werder Bremen are in complete free fall in the league. And it's just gotten worse. Diego has been handed a 4 game suspension for grabbing an opposing player by the throat and Pizarro got a 3 game suspension (not entirely sure of the reason for this one, my German sucks. Fillipo? La Palma?)

It was a card wasn't it, in the last game they lost.

I cannot believe Thomas Schaaf has not been sacked yet... it's obvious that his team does NOT have any defensive plan... for some years now!

It's Bremen. In recent years their tactic was to score one goal more than their opponent. A strategy that worked pretty well if you ask me. They've made the Cl five consecutive times, won the Meisterschaft in 2004 as well as the DFB Cup. Bremen are not the kinda club that fires their coaches when there's problem. Even if Bremen loose their last match there's not a chance that they sack Schaaf. It's the kinda deliberateness that many clubs lack nowadays.

They could have done much better, especially in the CL! Getting hammered by two much inferior Greek teams is quite an indication that some things are not working well at all...

Diego got a harsher suspensio cause of his "repeated crime". Pizarro..he got banned cause of "touching" the face of an opponent player.

Ah, Bremen never will sack Schaaf. They never got a good defensive plan really. Their keepers mostly didn't do well - Reinke, Vander and Wiese, and their defense never had good players, exept maybe Wome and Frank Baumann. Bremen just has a "inspirational" crisis, and their loss of players like Klasnic and Klose, top-strikers, hits them even harder. Frings is out of form, Borowski left. But,..no one is more loved in Bremen then Thomas Schaaf. Well, maybe Otto Rehhagel and Andi Herzog to some point.

Results of note today:

Stuttgart 2 - 2 Bayern (Khedira double, Toni and Borowski for Bayern. Oddo redcard late in the game)
Bremen 2 - 1 Wolfsburg (including a Josue own goal)
Leverkusen 1 - 1 Cottbus
Hertha 4 - 0 Karlsruhe
Bochum 1 - 2 Cologne

How are Bochum doing at the moment?

One word:

HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh...we're having an amazing run right now. 12 games in a row without winning a single one. The logical result: Only Gladbach has gathered less points.

Oh dear. That's no good.

Who?


I hope you can get Gekas back in January to help you avoid relegation.

Josue - Wolfsburg DM, came from Brazil last season. Promising young player.


Stuttgart - Bayern 2:2

Toni scores, Oddo red-carded. Still, Massimo is doing a bit better then at the start. His crosses seem to find Toni. Finally a player heigh enough to reach his balls.

Amazing effort by Markus Babbel. New Stuttgart coach still unbeaten. An this comes from a man that overcame a Guillain-Barré syndrome, which paralized him for months. I hope he Markus stays fit and top!

Not that young...he's 29.
And maybe they should pair Oddo up with Jan Koller. Btw...I don't think he'll retain his spot in the starting 11 when Lell returns. Klinsmann is, just like Hitzfeld, a fan of that idiot.

..that old! Gee, here I was thinking he'll be very good in a couple of years, but...hmh...

Hitzfeld usually had an eye for good fullbacks. At Bayern, at BVB,...but Lell. I cannot see why he's been considered good.

Massimo Oddo got a 3 game suspension for his redcard. For those who didn't see the game, he basically karate-kicked a guy on the other team in the chest. not a nice foul at all and I think the ban is deserved.

Ouch.

I don't think so. It wasn't a deliberate foul it was just poor timing. And a stupid idea, but 3 matches look a bit harsh to me. It goes shoulder to shoulder with Pizzaro. His foul was much worse..

It would be worth seeing it on Youtube, only then can one say for certain. Maybe if some of you find a clip or something post it here? Oddo is, to put it mildly, a bit of a street fighter, so all this isn't surprising. I just hope it wasn't a deliberately dirty foul. I'd hate to associate something like this to him.

So, Ivica Olic will be a Bayern player - he'll be signed by them after this season's end.

Some very good news for Bayer Leverkusen and the German NT: Bernd Schneider has returned to training with the team. He was out for 8 months following a slipped disc in his neck that required surgery.

Indeed. I like him very much. He missed in the German Euro squad. But I don't think he'd be picked again by Löw...

So the Bundesliga starts this weekend after the winter break.

The Pokal (cup) started up again today, however. And, well, not a good day if you're a Stuttgart fan. Bayern thumped Stuttgart 5-1. Bad, bad loss. In one of the other games, it was Ivica Olic (+10 other guys in Hamburg uniforms) 3 - 1 1860 Munich.

There are some more games tomorrow, including Leverkusen-Cottbus and Dortmund-Bremen.

Best scene from Stuttgart vs. Bayern game. Ribery trying to fool Lehmann

I read that Bayern won 5-1 @ Stuttgart, I haven't seen much German football this season, but I'd always thought Stuttgart were fairly decent, so that'd be a monster result!

(LaPalma, hows Der Hammer been doing this season?)

So,...Bundesliga back after the winter-break. Some highlights:

- HSV win against Bayern via Mladen Petric. Absolutely undeserved, after Toni's regular goal was dissalowed.
- Hoffenheim top Bundesliga; new signings Sanogo and Hildebrandt do good
- Borussia M'Gladbach still last
- Podolski back at Köln; this could mean Köln will play a bigger role in the second part
- Awfull week for the referee's

Okay, for guys who saw the Bayern-HSV game: WHY was Toni's goal disallowed? I can't figure out why. It looked fine to me. OTOH, very nice goal from Petric and glad to see HSV win it.

Fishdoll

FT Hoffenheim 1 - 4 Leverkusen.

Hahahahahaha.

My mission: Rescue the Bundesliga thread:
The (interesting results so far:
Bielefeld - Bochum 0:1 (spectacular goal by Klimowicz...great buy)
Bayern - Cologne 0:2 ( )
Stuttgart - Hoffenheim 2:1 (Markus Babbel does a great job at Stuttgart. Gomez too, he scored again)

Won't see the Bayern game til later, LaPalma. Who scored for Koln?

Fishdoll YAY Bochum!

Why do you like Leverkusen?

Leverkusen have some good young players: Adler, Helmes, Rolfes, etc. And now they also have Toni Kroos.

I do like them. But really the celebration was because I REALLY REALLY dislike Hoffenheim.

Ehret and Brosinski...Köln almost scored a third goal moments ago...must be carnival why they're that good

Haa! More power to the kid.

And what did Hoffenheim ever do?

Being spoiled newly-rich idiots. Oh, and they're arrogant as well.


He's merely a kid. He'll be 24 by the end of the year.

Exactly. But a 23-year old is in a way a kid when compared to more established strikers like Drogba or Eto'o and others. Sure in a few more years, he'll be an established player on the stage of world football. As far as I'm concerned, Super Mario is my favorite German striker in a long, long time. I believe in 33, oh yes, I do!

I wasn't aware that you watched Bundesliga games, acid.

He doesn't. He PMd LaPalma for the info, and now he's dishing it out. The way Shakespeare's stories are 50% ripoffs..except with new dialogue.

I watch them more than I watch La Liga matches. Boy, you should check out my iPod, it's full of video compilations of my favorite players from the German teams. Not quite as much as Serie A, though. It's like this: Italian, International NTs, German, Spanish, Portuguese, English and a bit of French (Lyon, and now Bordeaux).

Still I don't get to watch football as much as I'd like to, busy and all. And the little fact that football doesn't come that much on TV as other sports is another. But yeah, I do get by.


Shut. Up.

So, judging by the competition or similar clubs - Manchester City, Chelski, etc. Hoffenheim isn't that bad - they have money, and Rangnick is arrogant, but they know how to spend it - Salihovic, Demba Ba, Ibisevic,...who would have tipped to see them as star or at least top Bundesliga players?

Anyway,...newsflash:

- Stuttgart-Hoffenheim 3:3; Janker and Ibertsberger (Hoffenheim) came 10 minutes late for a random doping test, questions started to be raised already

- Gomez ration: 30 matches played/ 33 goals scored

- Werder loose to Cottbus; Milan MUST be carefull - Werder is clearly better then the present results show, so you never know when that old feeling comes back...

- Bayern loose yet again, this time against Köln; Donovan will return to MLS (no buy-out); Hertha looses against Wolfsburg - big chance today for HSV or Leverkusen to break through..

- M'Gladbach wins finally 3 home points

- Revierderby BVB-Schalke ends 1:1

What? That's incredible! Are you sure? Somebody here said he's not doing well.

Me. But that was before this new coach came in...

Leverkusen-Hamburg is on now.

It's 1-1. Goals by Jansen for Hamburg and Helmes for Leverkusen (really nice goal, that one).

I'm pretty much sure - this ration includes Bundesliga, Pokal (Cup) and UEFA Cup...

Lerkusen lost to Hamburg (2:1, two goals by Jansen, his first in 2 years). Leverkusen are obviously no top team, they can only win when they're without pressure, unlike Hamburg. Maybe they'll really win the Meisterschaft this year.


I guess they said it was 23 goals in 30 games on TV yesterday. Still very impressing.

Fishdoll +1 cookie to LaPalma for Bochum's 3-2 win over Cottbus today.

Other scores of note from the Bundesliga

Dortmund 0 - 0 Hoffenheim
Frankfurt 1 - 2 Schalke
Hanover 1 - 0 Leverkusen
Hertha 2 - 1 Gladbach