The Fundesliga : Stuttgart, Bundesliga

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.

Ribery will be glad to see the back of his turbulent week

Daniel Moore — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:30:00 GMT

After a quite turbulent week for Franck Ribéry, it went from bad to worse as he was given a straight red card following a reckless challenge on Lyon’s Lisando Lopez.

The Frenchman’s moment of madness means he now misses the second leg next week, a game that Bayern can at least now afford to draw in order to progress to the final for the first time since 2001.

That man Arjen Robben was, again, the hero of Allianz Arena on Wednesday night, his long-range effort taking a deflection to leave goalkeeper Hugo Lloris stranded and unable to keep it out.

1-0 to Bayern, and sights are now firmly set on a place in the final on May 22.

Up at the other end of Germany, on the coast of the North Sea, Hamburg’s Europa League semi-final opponents were Premier League Fulham, playing in their first ever European semi-final.

With Ruud van Nistelrooy playing up front, and with the goal of progressing to the final at their home ground the Nordbank Arena, to target, Hamburg were unable to muster up a goal.

Fulham, on the other hand, didn’t even manage a shot on target, but will be well chuffed with the 0-0 scoreline to take back to Craven Cottage next week.

So, it looks like The Fundesliga might still be on target with its Europa League final prediction...

Own trumpet-blowing aside though, it’s a vital weekend in the Bundesliga.

The question is: will any of the five relegation-threatened clubs make a last gasp bid for survival?

The answer, probably, is: no.

Well, that’s a little bit of a lie. Bochum have a decent chance at home to Stuttgart on Friday night – but with die Schwaben well on form and hungry for a Europa League position next season, I wouldn’t be betting my house on it.

Another team with a chance to sneak a point or three is Freiburg; they’re at home to massive underachievers Wolfsburg, who themselves need a miracle to finish anywhere but in no man’s land this season.

Will Bundesliga top scorer Edin Dzeko notch another couple to put a nail in Nürnberg’s survival coffin?

The others three teams - Hertha Berlin, Hannover and Nürnberg - all face teams in the top five of the league, meaning there will be no chance of their guards being down while the players are dreaming of their summer holidays…

Of those top five teams, Schalke travel to bottom club Hertha Berlin. It’s a must-win for the home team, who can be all but relegated by the end of play on Saturday. And probably will be.

Bayern München are away to Borussia Mönchengladbach, who are another of the ‘no man’s land’ teams. It ought to be nothing else but a comfortable away win.

Leverkusen, who are rapidly realising that even a qualifying position for the Europa League is going to represent a struggle, face Hannover, who will see this as a game that isn’t a ‘must-win’, but one that could yield a huge point.

And Werder Bremen, now in third place and looking to end the season on a high and get back into the Champions League, face FC Köln.

I think we’ll see a surprise or two this weekend…

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

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

Schalke still scrapping as Bayern smash sorry Hannover for seven

Daniel Moore — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:04:00 GMT

BUNDESLIGA RESULTS Fri 16 Apr: FC Köln 2-0 VfL Bochum; Sat 17 Apr: VfB Stuttgart 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg 2-4 Werder Bremen, Schalke 04 3-1 Borussia M’gladbach, Hamburger SV 0-1 FSV Mainz, SC Freiburg 2-1 FC Nürnberg, Bayern München 7-0 Hannover 96; Sun 18 Apr: Borussia Dortmund 1-1 1899 Hoffenheim, Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Hertha Berlin.

Three scorers, two braces, one hat trick hero - that's the story of Bayern München's ruthless demolition of Hannover 96 on Saturday evening.

And this time boss Louis van Gaal had no temptation to rest his star wingers Ribéry and Robben; the eleven players selected represented the Dutchman's strongest available selection, with the hammering sending Hannover back into the second automatic relegation place in the Bundesliga.

No bonus points for guessing which on-fire ex-Chelsea and Real Madrid winger grabbed the bulk of the goals. Still guessing? Well, his surname begins with a R, and ends with OBBEN.

Earlier on Saturday, though, it was the Königsblauen of Schalke who had regained top spot, after an Ivan Rakitic-inspired performance led them to a 3-1 defeat of mid-table Mönchengladbach.

This time though there were to be no goals from 18-goal Brazilian-born striker Kevin Kuranyi, who incidentally might this week be offered the chance to rebuild his international career under Joachim Löw for Germany, after he walked out on the national team in 2008 after being left out of the squad for a World Cup qualifier.

Naughty boy. No, Rakitic grabbed two, and Jefferson Farfan scored another. The Croatian international's first goal was pretty good...

And, even if Bayer Leverkusen somehow failed to read last week's Fundesliga blog – where their Bundesliga-winning dreams were written off - hopes that they might capitalise on any potential slip ups from the top two were truly killed off by Stuttgart, who are unbelievably just four points off that third Champions League qualification place.

Just six games ago the gap between Leverkusen and Stuttgart in the league was a massive 18 points; the Werkself were being tipped to take the title, while die Schwaben of Stuttgart were floating around in the middle of the table. The gap is now four points in Leverkusen’s favour, who share 54 points with third-placed Bremen.

What's more, that's now five wins on the spin now for Christian Gross' men. Manager of the season, anybody? I think he's got to be up there.

Unfortunately for him – and his club – they won't make that third place though, as Leverkusen especially have a more than favourable run-in, yet Tottenham Hotspur's best ever Swiss coach can be chuffed with his achievements this season, which, hopefully, will be rewarded with a Europa League place.

"How'd you like me now, Sugar?!"

Current title holders, Wolfsburg, whose home form this season has been sketchy to say the least, shared six goals with Werder Bremen. Trouble was, only two of those came for the home team – with last year's top European strike partnership of Edin Dzeko and Grafite getting one apiece.

It also looks like Hamburger SV are going to have to actually go and win the Europa League this season if they want to qualify for it next time, as a home defeat to Mainz has surely put them too far off the pace now.

With Fulham boss Roy Hodgson this week coming out and saying his team are focussed more on the Europa League than the Premier League for the rest of the season, perhaps Hamburg's players are thinking that too; the two teams meet in the first leg of their Europa semi final this week. Great win for Mainz, though, with the victory representing only their third away win all season.

Meanwhile, with Bochum going down 2-0 to FC Köln on Friday night (side note: yes! I was at least close to calling a correct Köln result!), it opened up the door for one of Freiburg and Nürnberg to seize the initiative when the two met in their relegation six-pointer yesterday.

That win for Köln, by the way, now guarantees their place in the Bundesliga next season, with Manchester United loanee Zoran Tosic helping himself to both goals in their win.

Back to that six-pointer, and it was the home side who scored a huge, huge win, coming out 2-1 victors to tie on 28 points in the Bundesliga table with Bochum and Nürnberg. All to play for in the final three games, then...

The Sunday games didn't produce any exceptional results, although Borussia Dortmund will see it as a two points sorely lost as Hoffenheim held firm to secure a 1-1 draw at Signal Iduna Park.

And in the day's other game between Eintracht Frankfurt and Hertha Berlin, it was the visitors who led twice, only for die Adler to hit back twice to take a point that they'll be bitterly disappointed with.

With the game poised at 2-2 with 70 minutes played - after Ümit Korkmaz and Marco Russ had responded to Hertha goals from Gojko Kačar and Brazilian Raffael – the away team's Swiss defender Steve von Bergen was played clear through, only to inexplicitly pass it to an attacking team mate who was in a clear offside position, when a shot on goal from 12 yards was surely the better option.

It's exactly these awful decisions that have cost Hertha dearly this season, and although their relegation can't be confirmed next weekend, it's now looking likely that their Bundesliga judgement day will be on the 1st of March as they travel to Leverkusen.

So who is going to win the league? Two points the difference as it stands, and three games to play. Fixtures below for the top two:

Bayern: Borussia M'gladbach (a), VfL Bochum (h), Hertha Berlin (a)

Schalke: Hertha Berlin (a), Werder Bremen (h), FSV Mainz (a)

It's now going to take Bayern to lose one and Schalke to win all three for the Königsblauen to take the title...

Likely? As we've seen already this season, absolutely anything can happen at any given time, so it's faaaaar from settled yet...