The Fundesliga : Hamburg

Felix the cat needs to land on his feet against Bayern

Terry Duffelen — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:40:00 GMT

There is always a degree of fascination in watching old footage of football players who have gone on to become top coaches.
Take Felix Magath. It was his magnificent strike in the 1983 European Cup Final that proved decisive in Hamburg's victory over Juventus. The young Felix is full of life, grinning from ear to ear like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

Who knows what ambitions he had at that age, but it's fair to say that the last thing on his mind would be to look ahead to the distant future and a critical club board meeting in the industrial town of Gelsenkirchen with his job on the line after having presided over a humiliating 5-0 defeat to a newly promoted side.

Magath's career as a coach has not been a complete success. However, after shortish early spells at Hamburg, Nuremberg, Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt, a decent showing at Stuttgart gave him the chance to take the biggest job in Germany at Bayern Munich.

Despite delivering a domestic double twice, his apparent lack of progress on the continental stage was deemed insufficient for a club of FC Bayern's stature. Magath's reputation for being a strict disciplinarian has not made him the most popular individual in some quarters.

He moved to Wolfsburg, where he led the rather anonymous Volkswagen-owned club to an incredible title win. This earned him a shot at the one of the toughest jobs in the Bundesliga but potentially the most rewarding: coaching FC Schalke 04.

The announcement of Magath's appointment sent shockwaves through German football, not because of the appointment itself but the timing of the announcement, before the end of the 2008/09 season, while still at Wolfsburg and with the title race in the balance. The powers that be at Die Wolfe were not happy about the way the transition was handled and chose to announce Magath's departure before it had actually happened.

The controversy didn't affect the team's path to the Bundesliga title, inspired by the goals of Grafite and Dzeko. Amidst a shower of Wolfsburg's official beer, Magath was sent to the industrial heartland and to that huge stadium that looks down on the city of Gelsenkirchen like a giant cathedral.

Grafite soaks Magath, but the gaffer was on his way

Once he arrived and presumably had a chance to look at the books, Magath began to play down Schalke's chances of winning the Bundesliga anytime soon. The club has spent great deal of money supporting a succession of coaches and had accumulated a large squad and a massive wage bill. Club debts were on the verge of crippling the club. Cutbacks would have to be made and the transition may not be a smooth one.

However, last season, with the squad he had inherited, Magath orchestrated a title challenge that saw the club lose out to Bayern and finish as runners-up. With Marcelo Bordon and Heiko Westermann at the back and a revitalised Kevin Kuranyi up front, Schalke played an unspectacular but extremely effective brand of football.

The unexpected outcome fuelled expectations but unfortunately, for the Gelsenkirchen club, Magath was compelled to ship out many of his high earners and radically reshape the first team. Out went Kuranyi, Westermann, Bordon and Rafinha plus mainstay squad members such as Gerard Asamoah and Carlos Zambrano.

While the squad (and presumably the wage bill) was trimmed, Magath did not shirk from spending big in the transfer market – to the tune of about £24m. Attacking midfielder Jose Manuel Jurado was brought in from Europa League winners Atletico Madrid along with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Atleti's neighbours Real.

Then, of course, there was Raul who arrived having finished his spell at Real Madrid. Excitement at the arrival of the Spanish legend had reached fever pitch, but the outcome has made for a disastrous first half of the Bundesliga season – culminating in the aforementioned 5-0 defeat to newly promoted Kaiserslautern.

Let's work together: Jurado, Raul, Huntelaar (and an arm)

With half of their Bundesliga games consigned to the defeat column and a baying crowd of fanatical supporters literally turning their back on the team, a weary Magath was brought before the board this week to explain himself. Whatever he said, it worked: the board voted to keep him at the club, presumably on the basis that he got them into this mess so he can bloody well get them out of it.

It's not all bad though. Two wins in the last five (albeit to the struggling St Pauli and abject Werder Bremen) suggested that before the last weekend at least, a corner had been turned. And the club have successfully negotiated their way into the Second Round if the Champions League.

The triad of Jurado, Raul and Huntelaar are showing signs of improvement, with the latter taking to the Bundesliga like a duck to water. Jefferson Farfan is having a good season too.

But Magath still has it all to do if Schalke are to meet the expectations of their vociferous support at the Veltins Arena. Already the winter break has been shortened and the players will have to return early after Christmas in the hope that they can reboot their season and pull away from the bottom four. The Bundesliga is sufficiently fluid that a rise up the table to a Europa League spot is not completely out of the question.

Tomorrow they have to return to their home crowd and face not only their disgruntled fans but a resurgent Bayern Munich. If ever a response was required, it will be this weekend.

Ze Roberto: A man for all seasons (and virtually all positions)

Terry Duffelen — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:01:00 GMT

Mistakenly written off as past it, the Brazilian is still a key man in the Bundesliga, reports Terry Duffelen

It is the 86th minute of the first game of the 2010/11 season at the Imtech Arena, home of HSV Hamburg. The home side are locked at 1-1 with last season's Bundesliga runners-up, Schalke.

With the ball at his feet, Hamburg's Ze Roberto charges from the left flank into the opposition penalty area. Head back, chest puffed out, in full flow, you can see the whites of his eye flicker as he looks up to spot the run of Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Brazilian midfielder-slash-wingback's cross is inch-perfect and Van Nisterooy's run is perfectly timed. He cannot miss, Hamburg retake the lead and wrestle three points away from a dogged ten-man Schalke side.

Ze Roberto's assist (the first of seven so far this season) is typical of the man. He is the archetypal selfless runner who seems to derive as much pleasure creating a goal as scoring one. He plays like he knows that when a great goal is scored it is merely an end of a flowing movement – the final chord of a beautiful composition.

Wherever he plays on the pitch (and that could be pretty much anywhere) he is easily distinguishable by his explosive pace, intelligent running and reliable crosses. To watch him could be to mistake him for a player in his twenties. Only his face reveals a man who has charged headlong into northern European winters for over a decade.

Jose Roberto da Silva Jr began his Bundesliga career in 1998 at Bayer Leverkusen. He was part of the 2002 squad that progressed to the Champions League final (which he missed through suspension) against his old club Real Madrid under coach Klaus Toppmoller.

That same season, Leverkusen also came within a whisker of winning the Bundesliga but lost out by one point to Borussia Dortmund, hence the well-earned unofficial nickname Neverkusen.

However, the club Ze Roberto is best associated with is probably Bayern Munich, where he was a double winner thrice in his first spell and again upon his return in 2007, after a sabbatical back in Brazil with Santos.

At 35, in the summer of 2009 he was deemed surplus to requirements at Bayern Munich by incoming coach Louis van Gaal – a decision the Dutchman later regretted. Hamburg wasted no time in signing the former Brazil international and he took his place in coach Bruno Labaddia's team, either on the flank or through the middle.

For a while it looked like HSV were the real deal and would become genuine title challengers. They notched up impressive wins against Bayern and their bitter local rivals Werder Bremen.

However, as the pressure mounted, the wheels fell off. Hamburg missed out on a place in the Europa League final (held at their very own stadium) and failed to qualify for Europe competition via the league. Labaddia didn't even make it to the end of the campaign, sacked as he was in between the two legs of the Europa League semi-final against Fulham.

This season, former Stuttgart and Wolfsburg coach Armin Veh has been given the task of delivering the Bundesliga title to the ambitious but underachieving northern club. While results so far have been have been patchy, at least one man's form has been consistent.

Ze Roberto set up Paulo Guerrero's strike that condemned early pacesetters Mainz to their first defeat of the season, and his pinpoint centre to Mladen Petric last Saturday sealed an excellent win against Hoffenheim, their first three points since mid-October.

Inevitably, questions will arise at the end of the season as to whether the two-time Copa America winner will return to Brazil or stay in the Bundesliga for another campaign. Part of the joy of watching him is that he plays each game like it is his last.

At present, however, Hamburg will be grateful to have his energy, enthusiasm and skill ahead of their visit to Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund on Friday.

Werder seal Champions League berth as Bundesliga says willkommen to McClaren

Daniel Moore — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:13:00 GMT

Steve McClaren's career is really starting to rebuild itself quite nicely.

Fresh from winning the Dutch Eredivisie with FC Twente - the clubs' first ever title victory – the miraculously Dutch-sounding Englishman has now moved to last season's Bundesliga champions, VfL Wolfsburg, to replace coach Lorenz-Guenther Kostner.

Kostner, at least, signed off his half-year tenure at the Volkswagen Arena with a 3-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, as striker Edin Dzeko grabbed his 22nd league goal of the campaign to put him one ahead of Leverkusen's Stefan Kiessling in the scoring charts.

Kiessling, having failed to score in Leverkusen's 1-1 draw with Munchengladbach, ends the season in second place in the race for the Bundesliga’s golden boot. That's now 48 league goals for Dzeko in two seasons – an incredible haul, especially with his team struggling this season to finish anywhere near a respectable position.

Not even a brace in Bayern Munchen's 3-1 win at relegated Hertha Berlin could keep Arjen Robben in contention for the honour, as the Oranje winger ended the season on 16 league strikes; still, a fantastic achievement for a winger (although didn't Cristiano Ronaldo play on the wing for Manchester United last season?).

Bayern's title winning celebrations can be found here. Well-deserved, it must be said. And they're still on for the treble, with the DFB final against Bremen on Saturday, and the Champions League final against Inter Milan a week later.

Schalke's season-long search for a maiden Bundesliga success ended in disappointing fashion, with a drab stalemate away at Mainz.

Kevin Kuranyi, tipped by many to play a part in Germany's World Cup campaign until coach Jogi Low put an end to that by leaving him out of the squad last week, has since agreed a move to Russia to join Dynamo Moscow, having previously been linked with Juventus.

The consolation for Schalke, of course, is an automatic place in next season's Champions League, meaning a minimum €20 million boost to their currently decimated finances.

But this weekend gone by was all about the relegation battle, and who would follow Hertha Berlin out of the Bundesliga.

Well, the answer is Bochum, as they turned in a performance fully worthy of relegation to the 2. Bundesliga, going down 0-3 at home to fellow battlers Hannover.

And with Hannover's victory comes FC Nurnberg's 16th place finish – meaning a two-legged playoff with 2. Bundesliga third-placed team FC Augsburg for the spot in the top league next season.

I'm going with Nurnberg to stay up, just.

So, in effect, it didn't really matter what Nurnberg did on Saturday with Hannover's victory, but they won nonetheless, against a FC Koln team seemingly already on their summer holidays. 1-0 to the home team, goal scored by Bayern Munchen loanee Andreas Ottl.

SC Freiburg ended the season on a high by beating Dortmund 3-1, and they'll be hoping to take their end of season good form into 2010/2011 – 10 points from their last five games allowed them to go into the matchday 34 with absolutely no concerns for their Bundesliga future.

And the big derby game up north, Werder Bremen at home to Hamburger SV at the Weserstadion, ended up a stalemate, but a stalemate good enough to put the home team into the qualifying stages of the UEFA Champions League next season.

Leverkusen will be gutted to only end up in the Europa League after their pre-Christmas form, but only have themselves to blame as Bremen took full advantage of their drop in form to secure third place with two points to spare.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, who it's fair to say hasn't really enjoyed the sort of maiden Bundesliga season that he'd have hoped for, scored Hamburg's equalising goal, taking his tally to five league goals for the season. Rather disappointing for the once-prolific ex-Manchester United frontman.

The only other game, Hoffenheim against Stuttgart, ended up 1-1, with neither team having anything to play for apart from putting on a good show for their fans, although they obviously weren't that bothered about that, either!

That’s probably a bit harsh on Stuttgart’s Brazilian striker Cacau, who scored a spectacular opening goal where following a quick succession of slick passes, as Stuttgart took the ball from the edge of their area to the back of the Hoffenheim net within about 15 seconds. Great goal, more of that at the World Cup please, Cacau.

Definitely the Bundesliga goal of the week.

BUNDESLIGA RESULTS Sat 08 May Hertha Berlin 1-3 FC Bayern Munchen, 1899 Hoffenheim 1-1 VfB Stuttgart, Werder Bremen 1-1 Hamburger SV, SC Freiburg 3-1 Borussia Dortmund, FSV Mainz 0-0 Schalke 04, Borussia M’gladbach 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen,VfL Bochum 0-3 Hannover 96, FC Nurnberg 1-0 FC Koln, VfL Wolfsburg 3-1 Eintracht Frankfurt.

This week's fixtures, along with The Fundesliga's predictions:  

Wednesday
Relegation playoff, first leg.
FC Nurnberg 2-1 FC Augsburg

Saturday
DFB Pokal final
FC Bayern Munchen 3-1 Werder Bremen

Sunday
Relegation playoff, second leg.
FC Augsburg 1-1 FC Nurnberg

Bayern now one step from glory on two counts as Hamburg choke

Daniel Moore — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:08:00 GMT

It’s safe to say there were mixed fortunes for the sides representing Germany in European football this week.

Bayern München, leading 1-0 from their first leg clash with Lyon last week, thoroughly battered their French counterparts at the Stade Gerland, with a hat-trick from tireless Croatian schemer Ivica Olic sealing a 3-0 win.

Hamburg, the country's only other European competitor, meekly went down 2-1 to Fulham in the Europa League.

That bit of sad news aside, though, The Fundesliga is sporting a massive smile today, as its prediction of a Fulham and Atlético Madrid final has finally come true - that really is a turn up for the books!

But in an effort to grab The Fundesliga's glory, Hamburg this week parted company with manager Bruno Labbadia, presumably also hoping that a change of manager would provide a huge morale boost in their season-defining game at Craven Cottage.

And it looked like it was working early on, when Mladen Petric nestled home an inch perfect 30-yard free kick to make it 1-0 on the night, and put HSV up on aggregate with a vital away goal.

But the joy was to be ultimately short-lived. Goals from Simon Davies and Zoltan Gera put the hosts in the ascendancy, and they held on to record a victory on a night that must surely go down as the club's most historic ever. Still, cracking goal from Petric though...

It seems this sudden manager-axing is rather contagious at the moment in Deutschland, with Heiko Herrlich this week also being shown the exit door by Bochum.

With the team once known as Die Unabsteigbaren (the unrelegatables) needing something of a miracle on Saturday when they travel to the Allianz Arena to face Bayern, one can only presume the directors are pinning all their hopes on a new face achieving the impossible.

So, sort of what Hull City tried in appointing Iain Dowie, and we all know how that turned out...

Over to matters on the pitch, and it's yet another action-packed weekend of Bundesliga action ahead of us.

This will be the weekend when, finally, Hertha Berlin say 'auf wiedersehen!' to the Bundesliga, with Kaiserslautern already promoted to take their place next season.

Bayern München can't wrap up the title this round of fixtures, and only a brave man would bet against both them and Schalke winning their respective games this weekend.

And if that does indeed happen, then Stuttgart will be looking to take full advantage of Werder Bremen's slip up; with Bremen travelling to Gelsenkirchen to face Schalke.

As Leverkusen and Dortmund both have favourable fixtures, we might see the second-half-of-the-season-wonders, Stuttgart, be within a point of Bremen and European football come the final day.

The bet of the day for me has to be FC Nürnberg away to Hamburger SV. You can get 3/1 on them coming away with a win, against a deflated side just knocked out of the Europa League and mathematically unable to qualify for the competition again next season.

Aside from Hannover, who have an absolutely massive chance to record three points at home to Mönchengladbach and put themselves in with a chance of survival in a week's time, the other two games not mentioned are really a much of a muchness; nothing really to play for apart from pride and a few extra Euro by finishing a position or two higher up the table.

Penultimate weekend of the campaign; squeaky bum time, as Sir Alex would put it...

This weekend's fixtures, along with The Fundesliga's predictions:

Saturday

Borussia Dortmund 2-0 VfL Wolfsburg
Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Hertha Berlin
Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 1899 Hoffenheim
Schalke 04 2-1 Werder Bremen
FC Bayern München 3-0 VfL Bochum
Hannover 96 1-1 Borussia M’gladbach
FC Köln 2-2 SC Freiburg
VfB Stuttgart 3-2 FSV Mainz
Hamburger SV 1-2 FC Nürnberg

Schalke go level with Bayern as Hamburg’s season turns to farce

Daniel Moore — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:34:00 GMT

And so the Bundesliga title race takes yet another tantalising twist.

Schalke’s late, late show away to Hertha Berlin, coupled with Bayern München’s inability to take all three points from Mönchengladbach, means the top two are now tied on 64 points.

For the top club, Bayern, it wasn’t usual goal-scoring predator Arjen Robben doing the foraging, but rather a striker that has been terrifying defences in the Bundesliga for years but has fallen out of favour with die Bayern in recent times; Miroslav Klose.

The Germany striker’s header rescued a point for the league leaders, who knew that only a defeat here coupled with a Schalke victory would see them re-surrender top spot.

Schalke duly won their away match against Hertha Berlin, but only in the most dramatic of fashions.

The victory may have allowed Schalke to keep parity with Bayern, but only in the unfortunate knowledge their two remaining fixtures are tougher than the Bavarians’, who also boast a substantial goal difference advantage over them.

Schalke's Marcelo Bordon celebrates his side's late winner

Schalke’s Heiko Westermann was the hero of the hour for the away team, scoring the game’s only goal with just three minutes of the game remaining to all but condemn Hertha to relegation.

They now go into next weekend’s game at Bayer Leverkusen knowing only a win will give them any sort of chance of avoiding automatic relegation to 2. Bundesliga, and even then they will need then to follow it up with another victory on the season’s final day, as well as hope that other results go their way. Unfortunate.

The three teams all vying for that final Champions League berth all got the wins they required, with Lucas Barrios hitting a hat trick for Dortmund as they beat Nürnberg 2-3, Stefan Kießling helping himself to a brace as Leverkusen strolled to an easy win over Hannover, and Torsten Frings converting a 91st minute penalty to give his team, Werder Bremen, a priceless 1-0 win over FC Köln.

Hamburger SV are the team with egg all over their faces this weekend, though, as their 5-1 roasting at the hands of Hoffenheim was the straw that broke the camel’s back for their board, who took it upon themselves to dismiss manager Bruno Labbadia on Monday afternoon after a very poor campaign for his team.

The Rothosen can no longer qualify for the Europa League via the Bundesliga this season, and now know that they’ll need to overcome Fulham at Craven Cottage this week, and then actually go on to win the competition at their own Nordbank Arena in the EL’s inaugural year if they are to be in it again next year.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has but three Bundesliga goals to his name since arriving at the club in January, must be wondering what he has let himself in for.

Chinedu Obasi puts Hoffenheim 3-0 up against Hamburg

Freiburg predictably beat Wolfsburg to take a huge step towards safety, while Stuttgart cantered to an all-too-easy yet quite impressive 0-2 victory away at Bochum.

It’s looking ominous for Bochum at the moment; they next travel to Bavaria to face wannabe champions Bayern München before a do-or-die showdown with fellow relegation-candidates Hannover on the final day.

It’s quite likely that, by the end of next weekend, it will be Bochum and Nürnberg occupying the two final relegation places, but with all still to play for in two weeks time.

The only other game this weekend from the top division, which the Fundesliga has neglected to talk about mainly due to it being drenched in ninth vs tenth nothingness, is Mainz against Frankfurt.

In all honesty it was probably the most exciting game of the weekend, with six goals shared equally between them to ensure both teams earned a solitary point.

But let’s face it; the highest either team can climb to by the end of the season is seventh, so let’s not waste too long discussing them!

In other news this weekend, second division Kaiserslautern have achieved promotion back to the big time, as third placed Augsburg failed to win their game away to FSV Frankfurt.

Germany’s very own red devils are back in the top league for the first time since the 2005/06 season, and it looks like St Pauli will be the second team to join them in the promotion party next week if they can take three points in their penultimate match.

It won’t be official, however, but would require a 14 goal shift in goal difference with Augsburg, who themselves would need to close a three-point gap on St Pauli.

The Fundesliga fully approves of St Pauli’s imminent return to the Bundesliga, by the way... great team, great fans.

Meanwhile, back in the Bundesliga...

Goal of the weekend that meant something:

Three minutes of the game to go, 0-0 away to bottom club Hertha Berlin, and the ball is parried by the HSC goalkeeper and let loose in the six yard box.

Who’d you want it to fall to? Surely not Heiko Westermann, the Schalke defender with just one goal to his name all season?

Well, it did fall to him, and he lashed it home to give them a priceless 0-1 win. South German daily newspaper the Süddeutsche Zeitung deemed it a goal “worth 20 Million Euro” after it guaranteed Schalke 04 a place in next season’s Champions League and kept die Königsblauen hot on the heels of leaders Bayern.

...Goal of the weekend that didn’t:

HSV’s Robert Tesche wins this one with a superb 35-yard lob of Hoffenheim ‘keeper Daniel Haas. The only problem, though, was his team were already 3-0 down. And it got worse.

Hoffenheim surged to a 5-1 victory, Hamburg can no longer finish in the top five and Coach Bruno Labbadia has subsequently been sacked. Dang.

BUNDESLIGA RESULTS Fri 23 Apr: VfL Bochum 0-2 VfB Stuttgart; Sat 24 Apr: Borussia M’gladbach1-1 Bayern München, FC Nürnberg 2-3 Borussia Dortmund, Hertha Berlin 0-1 Schalke 04, Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Hannover 96, FSV Mainz 3-3 Eintracht Frankfurt, Werder Bremen 1-0 FC Köln; Sun 25 Apr: 1899 Hoffenheim 5-1 Hamburger SV, SC Freiburg 1-0 VfL Wolfsburg.