| 24.11.2008 |
|
||||||||
| The list of the Bundesliga's top goal scorers begins with Hoffenheim's Vedad Ibisevic, a journeyman striker who's somehow – doping? dumb luck? divine intervention? – racked up 16 thus far this season. But look just a little bit further down that list and you'll see two names whose goal tallies have been accompanied by personal tragedies. They are Wolfsburg's Grafite and Bielefeld's Artur Wichniarek. The Brazilian is mourning the death of his father last October, while the Pole lost his mother at the beginning of the season. Previously, I never had very many nice things to say about this pair of characters. Grafite earned himself a lengthy suspension last season for arguably the league's worst cheap shot – he tried to break the hand of a prostrate opponent. And the memories of Wichniarek's painfully unproductive, rancorous stint at Hertha Berlin from 2003 to 2005 always make wish I had an Excalibur every time I hear the phrase King Arthur – the striker's nickname in Bielefeld. Still, I can't help but think that these two players' current run of form is one of this season's nicer side stories. Football players may be egomaniacal dunderheads with fantastically limited horizons in many respects, but I think most do genuinely appreciate the sacrifices their parents made. So, if Grafite succeeds in leading the Wolves to a top five finish and Wichniarek helps Bielefeld stay in the first division, I'll find it hard to begrudge them their success. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 23.11.2008 |
|
||||||||
| I’d been trying to contain my excitement over Landon Donovan’s potential return to Germany for a couple weeks now. But when news came this week that he’d inked a deal to stay on loan at Bayern until mid-March at least, I felt it was time to open up. Donovan is the best all-around soccer player that my country, the United States, has ever managed to produce. You can make your arguments for Tab Ramos or Claudio Reyna -- capable players both, but not in the same game-breaking league as Donovan. You can also hold out hope, with some foundation, that Jozy Altidore or Freddy Adu will soon blossom into the kind of player that will make us forget all about Landon Donovan. Wait, why would we want to forget all about him? Well...because he is not just the best-ever US player, he’s also the most disappointing. With every honey-scented memory of Donovan slicing through the German defense in Ulsan in 2002 (a game that makes any good American soccer fan incapable of bringing himself to like Torsten Frings), you are forced to remember his timid lay-offs to less-well-positioned teammates in front of goal as the US crashed out to Ghana in Nuremberg in 2006. Every dominant performance you remember of Donovan in San Jose, willing his team to two MLS titles, must be tempered by his frequent indifference since in Los Angeles, as well as that famous whiff against Liverpool in the Champions League for Leverkusen in 2005. It was that game, more than any other one thing, that cemented Donovan’s reputation as a failure on the European stage and, much worse, as a quitter. Recalled (reportedly against his will) to Leverkusen after lighting up MLS, he never shined there. After just seven appearances for the pharmaceuticals, he announced he was leaving, and slunk back to the US. The US soccer community, a small-but-growing one that has all the tight-knit comforts and neuroses of many an embattled subculture, turned on him, big-time. Columnists criticized, bulletin boarders ranted, and most memorably, a pair of Los-Angeles-based satellite radio show hosts popularized a nickname for him that had been bubbling up for a short while: Landycakes. The name was meant to embody Donovan’s every expression of surrender to the cold dark German winter, his every statement of devotion to his television actress wife over his career, his every wuss-out on the pitch. For a time, during the run-up to the 2006 World Cup especially, to refer to Donovan as anything other than Landycakes seemed an absurd bow to formality. In Germany, Donovan did play well in the drawn ultimate fighting/soccer match against Italy, but not really otherwise. He was headed for the well-trod oblivion of wasted potential, another player of the golden-ball-at-the-U17-World-Cup- followed-by-not-very-much school, a type of player anyone from Spain, Portugal, or half of South America will be more than a little familiar with. So the news that Donovan is coming back to Europe with an alleged new thirst for achievement is doing my heart good. Having been in Germany for a few years now, I have missed his rejuvenation with the Galaxy, where his partnership with God’s Gift to Soccer(TM) saw him score 20 goals this past season, his best ever tally. If that’s an indication of what Donovan is now prepared to do with world-class service, then I say Bayern may well like what they get Sure, the timid are already lining up to say that Bayern, a mega-club with mega-club pressures from the practice field to the press room to the pitch on game day, is a step too far, that it’s going to eat Donovan alive. They say he’d be better off moving into some sort of footballing starter home, something along the lines of Hanover, Valladolid or Fulham. A modest place, but built solidly enough; a place where he could get more steady playing time and stay out of the spotlight. I’m glad he resisted that temptation and reached for the brass bier stein. This is a guy who appears to be aware of his place in American soccer history, and knows that he’d instantly put himself at the top of the heap should he break into the Bayern side. For all the United States’ success at placing players abroad in recent years, no outfield player has ever been a regular at a big, Champions League-contending club in a top-five league. (That definition allows me to discount DaMarcus Beasley’s run to the CL semis in 2005, as it was with PSV. gotcha.) Succeed at Bayern and all is forgiven. There’s plenty to say that his ride on the Saebenerstrasse won’t be an easy one, but there may be a way in for the guy. Let me explain. Bayern already has one unhappy striker who can’t seem to get into the side no matter what he does. But while Donovan can no longer match Podolski’s explosiveness and has never been as ruthless a finisher, his tactical understanding dwarfs that of the little Kölner. Having been pampered in Cologne and surrounded by those who could cover for his mistakes with Germany, Prince Poldi has been at sea with Bayern. Mostly, I reckon, because his coaches are just plain fed up trying to teach the little brat to track back effectively or stick with a defensive assignment. For Donovan, that’s no problem. He’s had to be mister all-around-everything so many times in a career in the often woeful MLS, that there is no other way to play for him but two ways. What’s more, the finishing rate he achieved in 2008 suggests Donovan may even be able to light a fire under the errant Miroslav Klose’s kiester. In the attacking midfield, where Donovan often finds himself assigned on national team duty, the situation at Bayern is more complicated. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Franck Ribery have their places on lockdown, as they should. But the other competitors, Tim Borowski, Jose Ernesto Sosa, Hamit Altintop, and Toni Kroos, are a mixed bag. Toni Kroos is by a long stretch the most talented of the bunch -- hell, aside from Ribery, probably the most talented player at Bayern. But he’s already losing patience with the team and his stage-mom dad is angling to get him a loan move. Jose Ernesto Sosa has shown flashes of brilliance, but more often has appeared indecisive and has not settled at Bayern. He’s expected to leave sooner rather than later. Hamit Altintop is a quick, mentally tough player I like very much, and one who I would see as Donovan’s biggest competition in midfield. Unfortunately he’s been rather injury prone lately, which makes it tough to hold down a place at a club like Bayern. Which brings us to Tim Borowski. Through a number of solid substitute performances, he’s deservedly played his way into the first-man-off-the-bench status. But rumors out of the Bayern camp would have it that he’s a prima donna jerk, constantly whining after more playing time and winning little love from his teammates. This chemistry factor is, I would hope, one of Donovan’s aces in the hole. It’s tough to say what kind of impression he will make on his teammates but he already has the hierarchy of the Bayern coaching staff on his side. Both Jürgen Klinsmann and his top assistant Martin Vasquez know Donovan well from their mutual days on the SoCal soccer scene, and I can’t help but believe that won’t give him a leg up. (When I watch Vasquez standing on the sideline giving last-minute instructions to the likes of Christian Lell, as the defender prepares to enter as a sub, what can the guy really say to him, in his halting German? Or, if it’s the other way around, How much can Lell understand with his schoolboy English?) Much as I have looked on in disappointment at Landon Donovan -- and that is MUCH -- I really think he has a great chance of hacking it at Bayern. I can’t wait to find out. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 20.11.2008 |
|
||||||||
| Such is the nature of modern soccer in general, and Real Madrid in particular, that a coach of Bernd Schuster's standing is hanging onto his job by his fingernails. The German, who was a successful player both at Real and city rivals Atletico, as well as with Barcelona, won the much coveted La Liga title and the Spanish Super Cup in his first season as Real boss last year. Despite giving the demanding madridistas exactly what they want (which is the Spanish title plus the humiliation of Barcelona), Schuster has one eye on the exit and the other on the knives hovering over his back even though this season, only his second in charge of Los Blancos, is barely at the halfway point. With six months to go, Real are only five points behind Barcelona in the race for La Liga and second in their Champions League group. A lot can happen in half a year and Schuster is more than capable of turning Madrid's stumbling form around. But history tells us that success is everything and the only thing that matters at the Santiago Bernabeu. Schuster need only look at his predecessor to realize that even delivering the Spanish game's greatest prize is no guarantee for staying the hands of those who wish to betray the coach. Fabio Capello took over a team bloated from the excesses of the galactico period, cut out the fat, bought in lean and hungry players and turned Real Madrid into a force again. In the one season he had in charge (after returning to the Bernabeu after a similarly successful season-long spell in 1997), Madrid reclaimed the title for the first time since 2003 – and more pleasing still he stole it from the all-conquering Barcelona team of Frank Rijkaard. Capello couldn't even count on the fact that he had wrestled La Liga away from Madrid's fiercest rivals after a two-year period of domestic dominance, during which Barca also became European champions, the other Holy Grail for any Los Blancos coach. The axe fell on the Italian and Schuster stepped into one of the most worn-out hot-seats in world soccer. Now it seems Bernd's days are numbered as he has been given the Kiss of Death -- the vote of confidence from chairman Ramón Calderon and his board of directors. Calderon said this week that "the ideal thing would be to finish the season with the same coach that begun it" -- but also hinted that his patience with Schuster would not be unlimited. To sound of sharpening knives, Pedja Mijatovic, the club's sporting director, also announced that Schuster still enjoys his confidence, despite recent results. "My confidence in the coach has not changed since the beginning of the season," Mijatovic told a packed press conference at the Bernabeu. Mijatovic compared the current situation with that of two years ago, when many fans were chanting for the sacking of Capello. "In our first season," he added, "we had to make a difficult decision with Capello, and we did not get it wrong. Now we have a lot of confidence in a coach who had a great season last year. We continue to be very content with him." Mijatovic added that "it has been bad luck that we have not achieved the desired results in our recent matches. ... At the end of the season we shall see which decisions we have to take." He finished his statement by admitting that Real would try to make signings in the January transfer window, in order to strengthen an injury-plagued squad. "This situation obliges us to enter into the winter market. ... It is not about signing for signing's sake, but to bring in someone who can help until June, and into the future. We are considering several names, and we will do whatever is necessary to sign two or three players." And so Madrid look set to resort to their two main options when success is not immediate: sack the coach and splash its millions on the transfer market. (To be fair, this is the model which every top club around the world considers to be the recipe for success). The possible signings mentioned by the Madrid media include strikers Hernan Crespo of Inter Milan, Diego Milito of Genoa and Ricardo Oliveira of second division Zaragoza. Mijatovic is desperate to reinforce Real's slender strike force, given that veteran Ruud Van Nistelrooy is out for the rest of the season with knee ligament problems. Most sections of the Spanish media expected Schuster to be sacked after last Saturday's 1-0 defeat away to lowly Valladolid. Online opinion polls in the digital versions of Marca and AS show that most fans want to see the back of Schuster, who joined from Getafe in July 2007 after Capello was sacked. Anything less than a handsome defeat of lowly Recreativo Huelva on Saturday will surely see Schuster looking for gainful employment elsewhere. Schuster will have to improvise a makeshift team out of an injury-plagued squad if he is to get a stay of execution as he will be without Miguel Torres, Pepe, Mahamadou Diarra, Ruben de la Red, Arjen Robben and Ruud Van Nistelrooy. In addition, Gabriel Heinze is suspended after being sent off for dissent in last Saturday's defeat in Valladolid. Everything considered, it appears that the crazy world of soccer – and the even crazier world of Real Madrid – will claim the job of another talented coach who can't live up to the ridiculous demands of the modern game. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 14.11.2008 |
|
||||||||
| The 13th round of play is upon us, and one team of professionals is under particular pressure – the Bundesliga's referees. Last week's matches were full of controversy, with calls and non-calls being questioned in Hertha v Hoffenheim, Karlsruhe v Leverkusen, Frankfurt v Stuttgart and Hamburg v Dortmund. The last of those clashes ended with Dortmund coach sprinting onto the pitch, haranguing referee Jochen Drees and holding up two fingers in what looked to be a V sign. Klopp, who being German isn't necessarily aware of that gesture's significance in England, said he was mad that only two minutes of injury time had been given. Dortmund fullback Robert Kovac also got in the action, earning a post-match red card for saying that Drees had "wet his pants." Indeed, the schoolboy-looking Drees probably briefly contemplated doing precisely that when faced with the enraged Croatian defender. The irony was that Bundesliga refereeing has been pretty good this season. And while some decisions last week were questionable, none of them were huge clangers that led to manifestly unfair results. Nonetheless, what would soccer be without little scandals? The sports pages this week have been full of self-righteous debates about whether today's players have enough respect for refs, or vice versa, or both, or whatever. The respect issue crops up nearly every season, usually around the point when Bayern start getting results again and sportswriters have little to "analyze." Referees are to football what rain is to England –- an occasionally irritating but ultimately indispensable fact of life. Officials make mistakes, players and coaches get angry, and then they kiss and make up. End of story. Nothing to lose your cool – or wet your pants – about. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 06.11.2008 |
|
||||||||
| The rumors flying around regarding the future management structure of Bayern Munich and what effect it may have on the current staff of the German national staff suggests that certain people consider jumping out of the frying pan into the fire to be a good career move. News that Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff is considering succeeding Uli Hoeness at Bayern Munich when the latter moves onto the Bavarian giants' advisory board next year also suggests that, despite his business degree from Hagen University, Bierhoff is not the smartest cookie in the jar. Either that or he is blissfully unaware what joining Bayern Munich's management can do to a man. Just look at his former team-mate and managerial colleague Juergen Klinsmann. Klinsi left the national set-up after taking Die Mannschaft to a World Cup semi-final on home soil and, after a period filled with speculation and presumably many long, thoughtful walks on Californian beaches, eventually joined Bayern Munich as coach. Klinsmann's Germany finished third at the 2006 World Cup. For a country used to reaching the final at least, this could have been described as a failure, one which could have ended a very short career in management before it ever really got started. And yet, the affable Klinsi was taken to the nation's heart (if, indeed, he had ever left it, considering his feats as a player). Not only had he provided the country with a team with the promise of a great future, he did so with an attractive playing style and a warm, genuine smile. The hierarchy at Bayern Munich, as was much of the country as a whole, was smitten. Fast forward to 2008 and Klinsmann's now careworn features are more likely to be seen dominating the back pages of German newspapers under less-then-favorable headlines. Take a glance at the Bayern bench during a game and see if you can spot the sunny smile which graced the dug-outs of Germany during the summer of 2006. More often than not, you’ll see a stressed-out, frazzled-looking Klinsmann despairing at his team's intermittent woefulness, while Hoeness the Destroyer makes a mental list of replacements behind his portly grimace. Should Bierhoff decide to take on the well-furrowed seat next to Klinsi on the Bayern bench, he would be wise to do his homework as to what will be expected of him at Germany's most demanding club. Hoeness, as part of the unholy trinity alongside Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, has been responsible for making Bayern the most successful German team of modern times. This hard-nosed trio have driven the club with a ruthlessness and professionalism that has made them and their club hated, but has stocked the trophy room with silverware and the dressing room with global talent. If Bierhoff is to become team manager, he can forget about having an easy life. If he thinks that he will be swapping handbags-at-dawn standoffs with Michael Ballack and the diva-esque behavior of other inflated international egos for a cushy existence of watching his harmonious stars sleepwalk to title after title, someone had better dig this dreamer in the ribs. Taking over from Hoeness as team manager doesn't mean Hoeness will disappear. It doesn’t mean the Three Horsemen of the Bavarian Apocalypse will be calling it a day. It will mean that these tough characters will become Bierhoff's bosses – and that they will demand even more from him than they do of themselves. Sitting next to Klinsi again may stir memories of the summer fairytale of 2006 for Bierhoff and hopes of an equally rewarding relationship but the cut and thrust of a Bundesliga season is a very different proposition to masterminding an international tournament – just ask Klinsmann himself. And if they consider making a play for current national coach Jogi Loew in a bid to get him to sign on again for another collaboration which may help create their previous magic, then all reason will have gone out the window. Managing a league club is very different from managing a national team. Managing Bayern Munich is very different from managing any other club. Bierhoff may want to ask himself whether the grass at the AllianzArena is actually greener. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 02.11.2008 |
|
||||||||
| After burying the hatchet with captain Michael Ballack, Germany coach Joachim Loew said Sunday that he's also ready to make peace with midfielder Torsten Frings. Grab a box of tissues and picture this: Frings walks into the coach's office and Loew, wearing his best black turtleneck, asks the German national team stalwart to have a seat on the couch, make himself comfortable and talk about his feelings. While I'm not sure exactly what I feel about coach Jogi's touchy-feely side -- part of me wants the drama that comes with a public player-coach throw down while my rational side knows that's exactly what the team doesn't need -- Loew's his methods, which he said he'll repeat with Frings, seem to have worked last week with Ballack. The captain left his session of soul searching with his head hung appropriately low and saying: "I realize it was not okay to go public. I apologized to Joachim Loew. He is the coach, he makes the decisions and we have to respect them." All Ballack had done was be a bit critical -- in an interview -- of Loew's decision to drop veteran Frings from the lineup for a pair of World Cup qualifiers. While I think Loew didn't have a choice but to hug it out with Ballack, I don't think Frings' negotiation position is as strong and that there's a good chance this row could spell the end of Frings' national team career. Still, if Frings can swallow enough humble pie, he may end up back on the roster for a little while at least. That a lot more than Kevin Kuranyi can say. Even after apologizing for leaving the stadium during the middle of a game, Loew said he won't consider nominating the Schalke striker to the national team. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
