The Fundesliga : Wolfsburg

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.

Müller lights up Allianz Arena with title-clinching hat-trick

Daniel Moore — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:49:00 GMT

Well, they started off slowly, were also rans at the midpoint stage and showed their superiority towards the season's finale; now Bayern München are Bundesliga champions for a 22nd time in Germany.

But did you really doubt that they would be? For all of Bayer Leverkusen's early form, you'd have been forgiven for thinking that they had peaked far too early – and they did - now the Werkself look unlikely to even qualify for that third Champions League spot in the Bundesliga.

As for Schalke, for all of their endeavour, Kevin Kuranyi's fantastic 18 league goals, and they fact they were able to keep up with Bayern towards the latter stages, they just didn't have the quality to put lesser teams to the sword when it mattered - and it ultimately cost them.

Yes, Bayern are die Meister, again, and can you really see a team stepping up the pursuit next season to dethrone them of their title?

In a season that threatened, on more than one occasion, to go completely off the rails, Bayern are now on for spectacular treble. A DFB Pokal final date with Werder Bremen awaits them in less than two weeks, before they travel to Real Madrid's grand Bernebeu stadium a week later to lock horns with Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan.

This weekend it was youngster Thomas Müller who first received the adoration of the Allianz Arena's 60-odd thousand spectators with his hat trick, before his team mates joined in after the final whistle to kick off their title-winning party.

Müller, incidentally unlikely to be on the plane to South Africa with Germany, delivered a glimpse into the future of the national team's front line with his finishing.

His hat trick goal was something else, with his quick feet, vision and cool head leaving virtually the entire Bochum defence scratching their heads as to where he'd disappeared to with the ball...

Bundesliga runners-up, Schalke, ended their home campaign with a whimper, going down 0-2 to the now-hot favourites for the vital third Champions League spot, Werder Bremen.

Klaus Allof's men produced the kind of display that, had they matched regularly over the course of the season, would surely have been enough to mount a serious title challenge of their own. Maybe next year?

Hamburg were also top performers on Saturday. After their recent turmoil they produced exactly the kind of result that their fans would have hoped for as they roundly thrashed Nürnberg 4-0.

Late season wonders Stuttgart played out an entertaining 2-2 draw with Mainz, while Bosnian hotshot Edin Dzeko scored a cheeky back-heel following some quite disgraceful Borussia Dortmund defending as last season's Champions Wolfsburg drew 1-1 at their neighbour's home ground. Could that be Dzeko's final goal for die Wölfe? I've heard Arsene Wenger is quite the fan.

Yet as much as the title race and general top-half-of-the-table-stuff interests us, it's really all about the relegation scrap now.

Hertha Berlin are gone, but Hannover are still very much alive. They're now out of the drop zone after a very un-Hannover like 6-1 mauling of Borussia Mönchengladbach, while Bochum and Nürnberg drop down a place with their defeats, away to Bayern and Hamburg respectively.

And what an ending it is set to be; next up for Bochum? Hannover. For Nürnberg? FC Köln.

Two of the trapdoor spots are now left tantalisingly ajar for two teams, so here are the various ways that each team can avoid falling into one of the said spots:

Hannover:

− Victory away to Bochum
− Draw at Bochum as long as Nürnberg don't win.

Nürnberg:

− Victory against FC Köln as long as Hannover and Bochum draw.
− Victory against FC Köln as long as Bochum don't win by more goals than Nürnberg.

Bochum:

− Victory against Hannover as long as Nürnberg don't win.
− Bigger winning margin than Nürnberg.

My brain hurts. In any case I predict Bochum and Hannover will draw, while Nürnberg will win, meaning Bochum slip into the playoff relegation spot on goal difference and Bochum automatically go down.

That would then mean a game between Hannover and 2. Bundesliga team Augsburg to decide who plays in the top league next season! If only the relegation in this season's Premier League was even half as exciting as this!

Meanwhile in other news, punk football is back in the Bundesliga! That's right, 2. Bundesliga outfit St Pauli have all but confirmed their place in the top league next season after a thumping 1-4 win at Greuther Furth.

Their win kept them three points ahead of third-placed Augsburg, but crucially stretched their goal difference advantage to 16 goals. What with Hamburg's season going somewhat down the pan this campaign, St Pauli will be salivating at the mouth already just thinking about next season's clash at their Millerntor-Stadion...

BUNDESLIGA RESULTS Sat 01 May: FC Köln 2-2 SC Freiburg, Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Hertha Berlin, Bayern München 3-1 VfL Bochum, Borussia Dortmund 1-1 VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-2 1899 Hoffenheim, Hamburger SV 4-0 FC Nürnberg, Hannover 96 6-1 Borussia M’gladbach, Schalke 04 0-2 Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart 2-2 FSV Mainz.

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

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