| 31.08.2009 |
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| With no apologies to those who may be getting a little tired of our apparent obsession with the uniquely featured Frenchman, our Ribery debate rumbles on like the after-effects of an ill-advised 3am kebab with all the trimmings. This time, however, we have a new character to throw into the mix. Perhaps the oldest looking 25-year old in history, Arjen Robben made his bid for Bayern immortality at the weekend by netting two goals on his debut to help Munich sink champions Wolfsburg. The Dutchman, arriving as the transfer window creaked towards closure, stepped up to make his claim as the Bundesliga's new star with a second-half performance of the kind of attacking instinct Ribery and Co. have been lacking. Far from looking glum (well, glum-er) the former Chelsea flyer looked positively reborn after swapping Real Madrid for 14th place in the German league. And here lies our link to Monsieur Franck. Robben arrived at the Bernabeu in 2007 with a couple of Premiership winners medals, a pair of English league cup medals, and an FA Cup medal after just three seasons with Chelsea. His marauding wing play, electric pace and ability to get in among the goals made his a much sought-after talent. It was only natural then that when he came to move on, one of Europe's biggest clubs was there to snap him up and send him onto the fields of Spain in the colors of Los Blancos. It should have been a dream come true. It wasn't. While he managed to nail down a first team place in Madrid's 2007/8 La Liga-winning team and show flashes of the form he enjoyed in England, injuries and the subsequent arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo et al cut his five-year contract at Madrid short. His move to Real had promised much but delivered much less than expected and he joined Bayern earlier this month for €22 million after being pimped to the cream of European soccer as part of Madrid's transfer fee recuperation operation. Robben's slept-in face had been looking particularly downcast for the last couple of months as Madrid began building a new Galacticos project and he became - very publicly - excess to requirements. By Saturday evening. however, that crumpled visage was creased in happiness as he celebrated not only a debut double but the resurrection of a career. The Santiago Bernabeu could legitimately challenge Man United's stadium as the real Theatre of Dreams but to many established stars it has become the Elephant's Graveyard. The Bundesliga may not have the bling of La Liga or the caché of the Premiership but when top players get there, more often than not they get the chance to play and the chance to shine. Bayern Munich may be behind in brand recognition and may not currently be seen as a force to be reckoned with in European competition but Robben has the potential to make an impact in Bavaria unlike any he could have hoped for in the Spanish capital. Those looking wistfully at pastures new may do well to look at the Dutchman and listen to his story. That means you, Franck. |
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| 28.08.2009 |
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| As a Hertha fan, I’m not going to get any points for objectivity here, but in my eyes the emerging star of the new season is Berlin’s Gojko Kacar. Just how good is the 22-year-old Serbian midfielder? Well, he’s scored ALL of Hertha’s goals in the Bundesliga after three weeks. And he found the net twice in the space of a quarter of an hour on Thursday against Danish side Brondy to engineer a remarkable comeback and send Berlin through to the group stage of the Europa Cup. Stuttgart recently offered Hertha 12 million euros for Kacar, and the Old Lady, as the club is known, politely told them to get bent. Wise decision. Kacar reminds me of Patrick Viera in his Arsenal prime, and a number of Europe’s biggest clubs (Man U, Real) is reportedly tracking his progress in the footballing province of the German capital. Given his relative youth and assuming his form curve continues to rise, his value should be around 20 million – enough to balance even Hertha’s books. And Gojko’s goals in Berlin’s Jahnparkstadium did more than just help otherwise hapless Hertha. They also meant that all the German teams qualified for the group stages of the two international club competitions. And that, as an astute colleague over at the Offside points out (http://hertha.theoffside.com/match-reports/gehn-wir-nicht.html), means that the Bundesliga has a good chance to overtake Italy’s Serie A in the UEFA rankings and earn a coveted fourth spot in the Champions League. Bayern and Stuttgart both got fairly easy draws in that competition, and look for Wolfsburg to pull one or two upsets as well. Again, no points for or claim to objectivity, but I’d welcome seeing more of Germany and less of Italy in the CL. Whatever it’s flaws, the Bundesliga is a more-or-less financially responsible league with a reasonable amount of competitiveness and a fairly attractive style of play. There’s no German word for cantenaccio. And if I were building a team right now, I’d take Kacar over Viera in a heartbeat. |
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| 24.08.2009 |
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| The season is barely underway, but one classic battle is already in full swing. In this corner, weighing in at 62 kilos, is Franck Ribery – the marvelously skilled Frenchman who figures that, having served out half his contract, the time is ripe for him to move on to bigger and better things, namely, Real Madrid. And in the other corner: his opponent, current employer and Bundesliga heavyweight champion of the ages Bayern Munich, who reckon that, having given Ribery the chance to earn a medium-sized fortune, they can expect him to serve out the term of his legal obligations to play for the club. Ribery’s strategy is the one perennially favored by players who want to leave and are being made to stay – develop a bewildering variety of niggling illnesses and injuries that force the employer into selling mode. Bayern, in turn, are counting on the fact that with the next World Cup drawing nigh the Frenchman will have to play if he wants to secure his spot on his national team. And thus far, Monsieur Ribery has landed the better blows. Bayern’s strategy is based on the idea that if a prima donna doesn’t want to take the pitch, the rest of the squad can compensate. Go ahead and be that way, club bosses would like to be able to say, and you can watch your teammates win from the stands. But as Munich’s humiliating defeat this weekend to featherweights Mainz showed, Bayern need Ribery more than vice versa. The lack of creative punch in midfield was shocking and exposed a defense that has so far been the footballing equivalent of a glass chin. Bayern manager Uli Hoeness may want to consider throwing in the towel while the transfer window is still open. The way the squad has played to date – two points from three matches against less-than-stellar competition – there’s nothing to stop Ribery sitting back and watching the pressure build until Bayern have no option but to flog him off in the winter break. And if he needs any encouragement, he should watch a tape of the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammed Ali’s 1974 championship bout against George Foreman. For eight rounds, underdog Ali did nothing but bide his time and provoke his mighty opponent into squandering all his energy. Foreman eventually went down like a sack of potatoes. Bayern – currently in 14th place – have to be worried as well about landing face down on the canvas. |
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| 15.08.2009 |
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| Despite the fact that there are officially 16 days left in this summer's transfer window, you can imagine the management at Bayern Munich relaxing slightly as the pages of the calendar turn. Each day that passes brings that satisfying slam in the faces of all those covetous, swarthy foreign types who keep sneaking a peak through the curtains at their best players ever closer. Given the declaration by Florentino Perez earlier this month that his ostentatious shopping spree with his Real Madrid club card was at an end, the likes of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Uli Hoeness and Franz Beckenbauer may have even let out a sigh of relief and chinked Weissbier glasses, satisfied that their league campaign could start with all their stars still on the books. It's not too far-fetched to believe they even called off the private investigator they may have had tailing Franck Ribery to his secret Spanish classes or the surveillance team monitoring the Frenchman's phone for the words "Amigo", "Los Blancos" and "shedloads of cash". After all, when Senor Perez announced that Xabi Alonso's 30 million euro ($43 million) move from Liverpool was his last signing of the summer, why would there be any reason to doubt him? Maybe because Senor Perez has a reputation for collecting star players like Paris Hilton collects tiny, slightly neurotic-looking dogs? The news that Real Madrid could re-launch their bid to sign Ribery will have Bavarian SWAT teams and packs of trained Dobermans surrounding the diminutive French midfielder's Munich mansion as the Bayern hierarchy realize the folly of believing a man who has already chosen the title of Real Madrid's end of season DVD: "Confessions of a Shopaholic". If the Spanish sports dailies Marca and AS are right, Real are preparing a tantalizing offer to prise Ribery from Bayern's grip. According to Marca, in a bid to persuade the Bavarian giants to part with Ribery, Perez is parading a number of Dutch players in front of the Bayern hierarchy in the manner of some down-at-heel landowner in a Bronte novel, trying to find rich husbands for his slightly dowdy and unwanted daughters. Marca said "the key" to capturing the Frenchman may be for Real to offer "two of their Dutch internationals and more than 30 million euros for Ribery" to Bayern coach Louis Van Gaal, a Dutchman. Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Royston Drenthe and Rafael Van der Vaart – once coveted like the last X-Box in the shop on Christmas Eve – are all available. However, the Dutchmen are now the soccer equivalent of Gran's self-knitted reindeer jumper on Boxing Day. Perez can't even give them away after inheriting them from his predecessor. It remains to be seen whether Rummenigge, Hoeness et al will be seduced by this assortment of Dutchmen with reputations for surliness and the habit of getting injured when coming into contact with grass. Marca believes that the deal would make "an appetizing offer to the German team as the amount would surpass 60 million euros -- 30 in cash and a bit more than 30 more for the players released, a figure approaching the 80 million that Bayern was demanding at the start of the summer for Franck Ribery". My guess is that Perez will get his man, either in a deal which takes Ribery to the Bernabeu before the end of August or in a deal which sees the Frenchman paraded in white as the first mega-signing of the 2010/11 season. It could be the cash-plus-players deal which seals it or the reaching of the end of Bayern's patience with a player who so obviously wants for pastures new. And if Ribery does leave for Spain, don't bet against Perez adding others stars to his menagerie of talent before September. |
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| 14.08.2009 |
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| Welcome back. This being the start of the season, and I myself being a geek, it's time to make some predictions -- and also reflect on what a weird pursuit making predictions is. If you think about it, there's very little to be gained, and much credibility to be lost, trying to reverse the normal relations of past, present and future. So why are football fans driven to do this? I'm reminded of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson's characterization of the types of people who become Hell's Angels: "They are urban outlaws with a rural ethic and a new improvised style of self-preservation. Their image of themselves derives mainly from celluloid, from Western movies and the two-fisted TV shows that have taught them most of what they know about the world they live in. Very few read books, and in most cases their formal education ended at fifteen or sixteen…They are the sons of poor men and drifters, losers and the sons of losers." Or maybe, we're just geeks. Whatever the case may be, here's how I predict the table will look next May. 1. Bayern 2. Wolfsburg 3. Dortmund 4. Bremen 5. Schalke 6. Hamburg 7. Stuttgart 8. Hoffenheim 9. Hertha 10. Leverkusen 11. Cologne 12. Moenchengladbach 13. Bochum 14. Nuremberg 15. Freiburg 16. Frankfurt 17. Hanover 18. Mainz And while I'm in my Delphi oracle mode, here are a few more random pronouncements. Mehmet Scholl will be the next coach of Bayern and sooner than anyone thinks. Wolfsburg will get into the final sixteen of the Champions League. At least one of following will be out of work before January: Jupp Heynckes, Bruno Labbadia, Michael Skibbe, Michael Frontzeck, Dieter Hecking. Schalke will not win the title this year -- or any year for that matter. Do you agree, disagree or think I'm an absolute moron. You're all free to write in with your opinions -- just keep 'em clean. Let the fun and games begin. |
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| 13.08.2009 |
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| After what seems like eons wondering whether Florentino Pérez is going to stop behaving like a Somali pirate and leave the rest of the world's clubs to negotiate their league campaigns in peace, we're finally at the point we've long been waiting for. The 2009/10 season is underway at last. There are many reasons to be cheerful at this fact: 1) We won't have to be concerned with trying to work out the baffling rules of cricket for much longer. 2) The onset of soccer means that the stifling hot weather will soon pass and we can soon return to grumbling merrily about the gloom and damp which accompanies most of the Bundesliga season. 3) Ballspiel gets underway again and gives you, most beloved reader, respite from the wars and pestilence that blight the time between league championships. Yes indeed. Like a death row inmate with Johnnie Cochran as his lawyer (before his demise, of course), the blog writers-slash-soccer nuts at Deutsche Welle have escaped the chair and have been given a season-long reprieve. On the condition that we continue to follow the ins and outs of the German league with the irreverence it deserves, while actually getting some of you to tune in from time to time, the powers-that-be-paying-us have decided that Ballspiel is once again a going concern. Stay tuned from August to May as we try and answer the following questions: - Does Franck Ribery sleep under a Chelsea FC duvet or does he have a Real Madrid toilet seat cover both of which he's keeping secret from Franz Beckenbauer? - Does Felix Magath really believe he can win the Bundesliga title with Schalke or is he conducting a scientific experiment to see if having a decent coach makes any difference at all to the club's ability to embarrassingly implode? - Will Louis Van Gaal's mind control device have enough juice left in it to convince Mario Gomez he's a prolific striker beyond the first month of the season? - Can moving back to Cologne reignite Lukas Podolski's love of the game or will it just ignite his love of the local beer and penchant for sporadically dressing like a clown? All these questions and more will be thoroughly researched and investigated by our crack team of pub experts and crippled former lower league players. Now that's a promise you can believe in. Ballspiel: Because we care…and someone out there might be mildly curious. |
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