| 19.02.2009 |
|
||||||||
| If you need a symbol for Schalke's troubled season thus far, look no further than reserve goalkeeper Ralf Faehrmann. The youngster got clonked in the face with a beer bottle during a late-night visit to a disco this week and showed up at practice wearing a protective mask. The words "late-night disco" and "football player" almost always seem yield some sort of disaster, and though police said Faehrmann was blameless, he should have known -- given Schalke's current luck -- that he was courting trouble. Last week, a presumably Dortmund-supporting computer geek hacked the club's website and posted a message that striker Kevin Kuranyi had been unconditionally released. On second thought, considering Kuranyi's season, maybe it was a Schalke fan engaging in some wishful thinking. The fact is that, despite their enormous payroll, the Royal Blues are anything but regal. They haven't gelled as a team, and what's worse, if last week's loss to Bochum is any indication, some players have given up trying. So Friday's match against arch-rivals Dortmund is a must-win. Schalke fans will forgive the team a lot if it can put the hurt on their hated enemy. On the other hand, the players will be lucky to get out of the arena alive, if they fail to give one-hundred percent. Maybe they should give Faehrmann a start in goal. At least he's shown he's willing to play through a little pain. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 17.02.2009 |
|
||||||||
| I have to preface this entry with a confession. I am completely out of my mind. You see last weekend I sprinted away from my job to catch the Hertha-Bayern match, secure in the knowledge that Bayern would win and go top of the table, and hoping against hope that Berlin would at least put up a good fight. But at some point, I started hallucinating. I imagined that Hertha, who were missing their three best players, completely stymied the reigning champions in midfield. Players like Max Nico and Rodnei, who was making his Bundesliga debut, discovered previously untapped reserves of strength and held their own against Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger. In Jefferson's parallel universe, Andriy Voronin scored both of Hertha's goals. In my mind's eye, I saw Berlin exploit a bad defensive lapse to take the lead and coolly execute a counterattack to win the match after Bayern had equalized. After the match, I fantasized about a post-game interview with the Hoeness brothers, in which Dieter couldn't stop smiling and Uli could only play with his glasses and grumble about the pitch. And in the days that followed, a vision of the Bundesliga table with Hertha Berlin at the top refused to loosen their grip on my overheated psyche. Even the Berlin newspapers, who never have much good to say about Hertha, speculated about the Bundesliga title coming back to the capital for the first time since 1931. Obviously, I've gone insane. Completely lost touch with reality. Taken an extended vacation in la-la land. Hertha Berlin beats Bayern to go top of the Bundesliga after round 20? Couldn't happen. Has to be a dream. But do me a favour. Don't wake me up just yet. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 16.02.2009 |
|
||||||||
| As recently as the beginning of the year, it would have seemed ludicrous to use the name David Beckham in the same sentence as the phrase "for sporting reasons." Ever since the former England captain turned his back on Europe for the dizzying lights, if not heights, of Major League Soccer, many have questioned whether Becks was ever going to do anything "for sporting reasons" again. Signing a money-bags contract with LA Galaxy had the distinct whiff of being nothing more than the latest in a long line of advertising contracts that he has tucked under his Armani belt. Beckham would be given America and in exchange, US soccer would be given a glamorous and high-profile shot in the arm. Those critics in Europe, myself included, saw the move as the death of Beckham's ambition; a final, fat pay day to soften the blow of age and immobility catching up with him. But since January, I have rediscovered the joy of Becks. I have even found myself giddy with excitement at the sight of him in the black and red of AC Milan. I've become a fan again. Beckham of all people has added his considerable star-studded weight to what could be a growing trend, that of the footballer who does what he does for the love of the game, pure and simple. At around the same time of Beckham's loan move to Milan, I wrote in this very blog about the transfer of Bayern Munich's Lukas Podolski to his spiritual home at FC Köln (there’s my link to Germany, by the way, before editors and audience alike start complaining about random non-Bundesliga stories cropping up). Poldi will head back to his heartland this summer in a move which is motivated, for the most part, by a desire to play for a team he loves in an environment that he feels comfortable with. While the personal details of the contract he's signed have not been divulged, just the standing of the two clubs involved in Podolski's transfer suggest that Cologne may not be able to lavish the riches on him that Bayern can. So I like to think that Podolski's move has less to do with the cash and more to do with what feels right in a sporting context. Beckham, if his loan move at San Siro becomes permanent, is unlikely to go wanting in the money department. Milan can and probably will pay him a wage that any multi-millionaire soccer star would consider quite adequate, thank you very much. But it warms the very cockles of my heart to see that Becks is doing it for the chance to play at the top of the game again. Okay, some may say he may be doing it just to get back into the England team but if that was the case, then why not just join Manchester City? They have more money than sense there and he could walk into their first team on a weekly basis. No, Becks wants to be at Milan because they are one of the best clubs in the world and he wants to prove that he is still good enough and still has the desire to be a part of such a team. He wants to show all those armchair experts that he's more than just a walking endorsement in a pair of obscenely tight designer trunks. Right, I'd better go…My humble pie is ready. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 05.02.2009 |
|
||||||||
| So the transfer window is closed and one deal in particular had me raising my eyebrows -- Werder Bremen loaning out striker Boubacar Sanogo to Hoffenheim. On the one hand, I'm glad because the deal means the standings leaders acquire someone who could take over for injured goal-machine Vedad Ibisevic -- and help the upstarts give Bayern a run for their money. On the other, though, I wonder what in the world Werder were thinking. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one golden rule of transfer was NOT to strengthen the competition. With Werder languishing in the middle of the table, you'd have figured the last thing they would have wanted was to help out any of the teams above them. And it's not as if Bremen have talent to spare up front. While Sanogo was scoring a goal for his new employers against Cottbus last weekend, Bremen were playing -- and losing to -- lowly Bielefeld with only one striker in their starting eleven. The decision to move Sanogo would be understandable, if Bremen were playing basketball in North America. The NBA rewards teams who finish outside the playoff with better chances of signing rookies in the league's annual lottery. But there are no ping-pong balls in the Bundesliga. You finish in ninth, you finish in ninth -- and lose the big bucks that come with qualifying for international competition. Even if Hoffenheim decide to purchase the Ivorian striker, the money doesn't add up for Werder. Does this mean that Bremen commercial manager Klaus Allofs and coach Thomas Schaaf has decided to throw in the towel this season? Or has someone somewhere seriously lost the plot? |
||||||||
|
||||||||