Stickied German Football

[Dirk]

HSV with the 2nd win in a row (which is also the 2nd win of the season ) and now unbeaten in 4 matches and for the first time for weeks out of the two relegation places and into the "familiar" relegation playoff place.
Darmstadt lost again (7th in a row) and they are now bottom.
Surprisingly Ingolstadt won at home against RB Leipzig.

Ah, yes.... Wolfsburg lost 0-5 at Bayern and is now on the same points level as the HSV. Good to see that!

 

[Luke_1884]

Excuse my ignorance but where have RB Leipzig come from?

I don't pay as much attention to the Budesliga as I should do but I wouldn't normally associate them with being near the top end!

 

[Super_horns]

They are like a franchise really based around the Red Bull drinks company.

 

[Dirk]

Excuse my ignorance but where have RB Leipzig come from?

I don't pay as much attention to the Budesliga as I should do but I wouldn't normally associate them with being near the top end!

RB Leipzig was "formed" in 2009 but to get into the German League System at a more prominent level and not in the 10th or lower Leagues they "purchased" the starting place of a club called SSV Markranstädt ( a small town with approx 15.000 citizens in the district of Leipzig) who played in the Oberliga Nord-Ost (5th League). In 2010/2011 SSV Markranstädt didn't play in the league system therefore. Later when RB Leipzig was promoted to the 4th League, the second and third teams were sent back to Markranstädt to secure them a place in the Landesliga (6th league). Nowadays Markranstädt plays in the Oberliga Nord-Ost again like in 2009 before "the deal". And RB Leipzig marched through the German League System due to excellent scouting (Ralf Rangnick is the man here who was even considered for the English Manager Job for a short time before Sam Allardyce got it (and blew it) ) and money of course.
Because of the methods how they "lured" their way into the league system (not from the bottom but already from the 5th league) many people here are disliking the club because he has no tradition. But on the other hand they are doing an excellent job in scouting and have the youngest team in the league.

 

[mistermagic]

WTF. Corner stats?

As a kid, when we played football, we had the "3 Corners for 1 penalty" rule, so this was relevant for the end-result.
What is this all about? Betting about how much corners there are? I don't get it

Nobody does mate.

Excuse my ignorance but where have RB Leipzig come from?

I don't pay as much attention to the Budesliga as I should do but I wouldn't normally associate them with being near the top end!

I don't understand. Why should you pay attention to the Bundesliga?

Yesterday was very exciting at the bottom with Ingolstadt, Hamburg and Werder all winning. Darmstadt are now bottom (and I reckon they'll stay there) with Ingolstadt leaving that spot for the 1st time in nearly 2 months.
I gave Hertha/Werder a watch last night and Werder really don't look as shit as their form suggests. It's not like I watched the game properly (it was a terrible watch until the 35th minute) but in the second half, most of the chanes were for Werder. Sorry Dirk, but it looks like they could become a mid-table side and not relegation candidates (which they usually are).

EDIT: Wolfsburg have to be candidates for the drop though. I have no doubt that Ismäel (who was terrible at Nürnberg) will fail in his task.

 

[Luke_1884]

Nobody does mate.
I don't understand. Why should you pay attention to the Bundesliga?

I've wanted to watch more of the Bundesliga for a while now, had enough of the PL and La Liga being shoved down my throat from Sky Sports. I don't know why but I just find the division and it's teams interesting, much more so than any other foreign league. Bias too maybe, I like the Germans and their country. So purely from a personal level I should take a bit more interest in it.

 

[mistermagic]

British coverage must be seriously shit if you've only heard of RB Leipzig this weekend.

Then, y'know, there's Twitter. And the rest of the Internet for non-Sky information.

 

[GodsGift]

Schalke have been superb against Leverkusen despite (wrongly) going down to ten men pretty early on.

Still 0-0 though.

 

[Dirk]

FC Augsburg sacked Coach Dirk Schuster and his whole staff after the 1-0 loss against Hamburg!!!!
Wow, that's a bit of a surprise. Last season he worked at Darmstadt and made the miracle true that the Hessians could stay in the Bundesliga. After Augsburgs Coach Markus Weinzierl went to Schalke, they hired Schuster.
This is now the second coach in 2 weeks who has to leave after a loss against HSV.
Next weekend HSV is playing at Mainz.
Beware, Martin Schmidt!!!!

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Glad you aren't at Borussia Park then...

 

[Dirk]

Dirk, I'm thinking of coming over for HSV/Hertha and Werder/Darmstadt. Those games are on March 4th. What are the chances that the games will be played on seperate days?

Actually the exact dates for the weekend 3.3-5.3 are not finally terminated, that's why all 9 matches are dated at the 4.3.
I don't know how the DFL terminates this finally with 1 Friday, 5 Saturday noon, 1 Saturday evening and 2 Sunday matches. Normally the teams in the European Competitions will get a Sunday date when they play the week before or a sooner date (Friday, Saturday noon) when they play the week after. But this isn't the case for the 4 mentioned teams. But the chances are still there that one of the matches is on Saturday and the other one on Sunday.

mistermagic : Yesterday the DFL published the exact dates for the 23.matchday. Bremen/Darmstadt now on saturday, HSV/Hertha on sunday.
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/...assiker-gladbach-gegen-bayern-am-sonntag.html
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/spieltag/1-bundesliga/2016-17/23/0/spieltag.html

 

[mistermagic]

Vielen Dank.

Speaking of Weinzierl, how do you rate him now that we're almost halfway through the season?

 

[Dirk]

Speaking of Weinzierl, how do you rate him now that we're almost halfway through the season?

He's a good one. After the unlucky start Schalke was really improving with 12 unbeaten games. Actually they have a bit of a down again with 4 winless games (although you can't count the meaningless last EL match at RB Salzburg where they played mostly with reserve players). Today only a 1-1 at home against Freiburg. I hope that their winless streak will go to 5 matches because Tuesday they are at Hamburg

HSV today with a 1-3 at Mainz although they played again a very good first half and went 1-0 in front and could've made it even 2-0 (curious action with a goal post and a penalty worthy action from the Mainz defender) but Mainz itself improved and in the end deserved winner. But this HSV is now way better than 2 months ago.

 

[mistermagic]

Just realised that my March 5th plan is the same day as my half-marathon so I can't go.

Pretty shit set of results in the Bulli Zwei. Only 0-0s and 1-1s.

 

[Dirk]

ffs Leverkusen. Losing at home against #17 Ingolstadt. Bloody fucking plastic club
Now the HSV is again #17. At least Darmstadt lost again 0-1 at home against Bayern, boring match I felt asleep while watching it.

 

[SALTIRE]

Belter of a goal to win it from Costa though.

 

[mistermagic]

Ok I'm all set for Werder/Gladbach in early February followed by St Pauli/Dresden.

 

[Dirk]

In half an hour the last matchday before the Winterbreak begins with 4 matches today and tomorrow the top match #1 vs #2 Bayern vs Leipzig.

HSV has to play at home against Schalke. Unfortunately I can't be in the Volksparkstadion today so I have to watch it on Sky Germany. Schalke in a bit of a mini crisis. After their unbeaten run of 12 matches they haven't won in 3 BuLi Matches. Hopefully they can extend this winless streak for another match.
#5 Dortmund plays against Augsburg. and has to win, too. The gap to #1 Bayern and #2 Leipzig is already 10pts.

 

[mistermagic]

Yo, Dirk, any chance you get us 2 tickets for St Pauli/Dresden on February 12th? Apparently the game is sold out...

Could always go to Duisburg/Münster but it's a wee bit far from Hamburg on the train...

 

[Dirk]

St.Pauli tickets? Good one

And why Duisburg vs Preußen Münster instead?. This is 3.Liga. Why not Hannover vs Bochum? With the ICE you are in no time from Hamburg to Hannover and the chance to get tickets for a 2nd Liga match in a 50.000 Arena are much greater than those at St.Pauli

 

[mistermagic]

Hannover vs Bochum is on the 13th mate (would have loved to attend mind).

 

[Dirk]

Right. Sorry, missed it that this is the Monday niight Match.

 

[Super_horns]

Well both Dortmund and BM drop points at home to teams with new management...

 

[mistermagic]

Watching Gladbach. Looks like a bottom of the table tie. And it is.

 

[Dirk]

btw: the HSV is now unbeaten in 3 matches, before the winter break we'll have next weekend Augsburg at home, then Mainz away and Schalke at home. 6 points from 9 is the target.

...and 6 points it is! Mission accomplished! 2-1 win against Schalke and another good performance in the 2nd half (minus the failed penalty from Djourou)

Gladbach lost again, 1-2 against Wolfsburg (2nd win in a row). Expect the sacking of Coach Andre Schubert tomorrow. A pity, he's a likeable Guy and he brought the Fohlen, when he took over from Lucien Favre after 6 consecutives losses at the beginning of last season, to a 4th place finish and another Champions League place. But they are now again in a bad slide and he hasn't the backing from Sporting director Max Eberl anymore (that was the impression in the after match interviews).

Dortmund only 1-1 against Augsburg, not enough. They have now 11 points less than last season before the winter break. And when tomorrow at Bayern vs Leipzig one team wins they are 13 points behind.

edit: 12 points behind not 13 (the amount of 4 winning matches)

 

[mistermagic]

Bayern/Leipzig is over. 3-0 at half-time. Not even a contest. Such a letdown. I was expecting a much better scenario.

 

[Stevencc]

 

[Dirk]

Yeah, like I mentioned it in yesterday's post. Gladbach sacked Andre Schubert and replaced him with Dieter Hecking (who was sacked by Wolfsburg in October ).

Bayern/Leipzig is over. 3-0 at half-time. Not even a contest. Such a letdown. I was expecting a much better scenario.

Especially the first half was a demonstration from Bayern and a lesson for Leipzig. Best performance so far from Bayern in this season and another example that when it counts they deliver.
Leipzig was intimidated.

 

[Dirk]

Bundesliga resumed today with the Friday evening match between SC Freiburg and Bayern Munich:

Very cold in the Black Forest (the sky commentator said "Some of the crowd surely pissed ice at half time") and Freiburg had a dream start, 1-0 after 4 minutes until Lewandowski made the 1-1 in the 35 minute after a corner. Not the best match but I had the hope that Bayern would lose 2 points until Lewandowski again in stoppage time with a brilliant goal. Damn!!!

 

[mistermagic]

How Lewa managed to create space in order to make enough room for him to shoot is great (as much as this goal didn't please me).

With this brace, Lewandowski becomes Bayern's top ever goalscorer and only 2nd to all-time Bundesliga goal-getters to Claudio Pizarro.