Well season in Germany will start soon, here Eurosport's preview
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bundesliga - Exclusive season preview
Eurosport - Thu, 09 Aug 09:39:00 2007
With champions Stuttgart kicking the season off on Friday at home to runners-up Schalke, eurosport.yahoo.com's Michael FitzGerald takes a previews the new Bundesliga season.
Bayern Munich fans may have suffered one of the most exasperating seasons in recent times last campaign, though scarcely has the level of excitement and optimism among the club's fans been higher than it is now.
General manager Uli Hoeness responded by throwing money at the problem, in quantities never previously seen in the Bundesliga. In came Franck Ribery, Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose, Hamit Altintop, Marcell Jansen, Jan Schlaudraff and Jose Ernesto Sosa, while Roy Makaay and Claudio Pizarro were both shown shown the door.
"The competition will be looking at us through binoculars next season," was the confident prediction from Hoeness, his arrogance seeming not to have been curbed by last season's failings.
Leading daily tabloid Bild has now dubbed the team 'Super Bayern,' while 16 of the 18 coaches in the Bundesliga have already tipped the club to win back the Bundesliga title.
Keen to prevent that from happening will be Stuttgart, the current German champions. When I previewed the Bundesliga on these very pages this time last year, I tipped Bremen to pip Bayern to the title, with Schalke in third. Stuttgart hardly came into my reckoning- in fact, they hardly came into anybody's reckoning until December.
Consistency proved the key as Stuttgart doggedly stuck to the coat-tails of Schalke as the weeks ran down, despite the loss of injury to top scorer Mario Gomez, and the South Western club took advantage of Schalke's 2-0 loss to arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund on the penultimate day of the season to move into top spot and clinch the title a week later.
While established stars in the team like Fernando Meira and Cacau undoubtedly played their part, it was the performances of lesser-profile players in the squad like Roberto Hilbert, Sami Khedira and the Mexican duo of Pavel Pardo and Ricardo Osorio that made the difference. Their lack of experience did not show has they reeled off eight wins in the final eight games of the season to take the title.
Huge credit for the success must go to coach Armin Veh, who was brought in midway through the disappointing 2005/6 season to turn things round after Giovanni Trappatoni's disappointing reign. The good news for the club is that Veh remains in charge, along with pretty much the entire team that helped win the title. Benchwarmers bumping up the wage bill like Benny Lauth and Marco Streller have been offloaded, while livewire striker Ewerthon has been brought in on loan from Real Zaragoza and playmaker Yildiray Basturk has been signed from Hertha Berlin.
On the face of it, the club seem ideally placed to fight again for the title, though the general feeling in Germany is that they will struggle to replicate their form of the last campaign. The extra strain placed on the squad by Champions League football is also likely to take its toll on domestic form, to a far greater extent than with the likes of Bayern and Werder Bremen, both of whom possess larger squads.
Which brings us on to Bremen. Had it not been for the transfer sagas surrounding Miroslav Klose and to a lesser extent Torsten Frings, they would surely have won the title.
Despite always having previously stated his desire to test himself in abroad, Klose became the object of desire of the mighty Bayern, and was soon wooed by the sweet talking of Uli Hoeness. His form duly suffered. After bagging ten goals in the first half of the season, only three followed the second half, and the club's fans finally turned on him when he was found to have met secretly with Bayern bosses in a Hannover hotel in April.
The one bright spot among the end of season gloom was the form of striker Markus Rosenberg, who had been brought in from Ajax in January. His eight league goals signalled that Miroslav Klose will not be missed as much as might have been feared.
Bremen sporting director Klaus Allofs is one of the most respected judges of footballers in Germany. He sanctioned the signings of Boubacar Sanogo and Carlos Alberto, having persevered through weeks of legal wrangling and bureaucracy in the case of the latter. Whether the Brazilian will have quite the impact compatriot Diego had last season remains to be seen, but his showings in pre-season have been promising. Sanogo will add physical presence to the attack, though it is the defence that has always been Bremen's Achilles heel.
Dazzling, attacking football has too often in the past been undone by sloppiness at the back. Injuries prevented Per Mertesacker and Naldo from stringing enough games together in the centre of defence last season, and their performances are likely to dictate Bremen's fortunes once again in the coming season.
Many Germans, particularly some of the more cynical Dortmund fans, would say that I have already mentioned the three teams capable of winning the league. Any talk of Schalke would be unnecessary, they would argue.
It is indeed difficult to argue with them. Despite being the second most prestigious club in the country, behind the mighty Bayern, they have not held aloft the Champions plate since 1958. As team assistant Charly Neumann put it aptly after the defeat to Dortmund consigned them to yet another second-place finish: "God is not a Schalke fan."
It is not, though, the preferences of any particular deities upon which I am writing off the Ruhr giants for the coming season. Rather the fact that where their rivals have invested well, Schalke have stood still. Maybe even gone backwards.
Hamit Altintop has gone to Bayern, and playmaker Lincoln, upon whom last year's capitulation was blamed, has left for Galatasaray. Huge efforts were made by the club to bring in Stephen Appiah from Fenerbahce, but the Ghanaian's wage demands were considered excessive and the deal has collapsed.
In terms of dark horses for the coming season, Bayer Leverkusen may flirt with the top three. Last season's top scorer in the Bundesliga, Thoefanis Gekas, has arrived at the BayArena from Bochum, and Manu Friedrich, signed from Mainz, will shore up the defence.
The title race, however, is likely to be dictated by the form of Bayern. If their array of world stars hits the ground running, it is difficult to see anybody being able to live with them. Even if Toni takes a while to find his shooting boots, there is always Klose to supply the goals in the meantime.
Stuttgart and Bremen look best equipped to challenge the Bavarians, though of the two, Stuttgart are perhaps the more reliable. There is evidently a real feeling of togetherness within the squad, and the fact that no big players have been lost will ensure the team begins the new campaign with morale high.
Bremen should at worst take the final Champions League spot, and possibly have a run in the Champions League, assuming they aren't placed in another group of death right from the start.
The fate of Leverksuen and Schalke hangs largely on the form of Kevin Kuranyi and the aforementioned Gekas, though anything less than a top five finish at the end of the season will be regarded as a disaster.
Hertha Berlin's exodus of young talent will hit them hard, though Borussia Dortmund may well raise one or two eyebrows if they can take advantage of their spectacular home support. Diego Klimowicz is a shrewd acquisition from Wolfsburg, and they could also challenge for the European places should the under-rated Sebastian Kehl manage to keep himself fit.
Karlsruhe, Hansa Rostock and Duisburg are the new boys, and have a better chance of remaining in the top flight than promoted teams in other top leagues around Europe. Karlsruhe may suffer for losing Giovanni Federico to Dortmund, though their domination of the second division last season suggests they have perhaps the best chance of staying up.
No such indecision from these quarters regarding the destination of the title this season though. Put your money on Bayern.
Eurosport
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bundesliga - Exclusive season preview
Eurosport - Thu, 09 Aug 09:39:00 2007
With champions Stuttgart kicking the season off on Friday at home to runners-up Schalke, eurosport.yahoo.com's Michael FitzGerald takes a previews the new Bundesliga season.
Bayern Munich fans may have suffered one of the most exasperating seasons in recent times last campaign, though scarcely has the level of excitement and optimism among the club's fans been higher than it is now.
General manager Uli Hoeness responded by throwing money at the problem, in quantities never previously seen in the Bundesliga. In came Franck Ribery, Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose, Hamit Altintop, Marcell Jansen, Jan Schlaudraff and Jose Ernesto Sosa, while Roy Makaay and Claudio Pizarro were both shown shown the door.
"The competition will be looking at us through binoculars next season," was the confident prediction from Hoeness, his arrogance seeming not to have been curbed by last season's failings.
Leading daily tabloid Bild has now dubbed the team 'Super Bayern,' while 16 of the 18 coaches in the Bundesliga have already tipped the club to win back the Bundesliga title.
Keen to prevent that from happening will be Stuttgart, the current German champions. When I previewed the Bundesliga on these very pages this time last year, I tipped Bremen to pip Bayern to the title, with Schalke in third. Stuttgart hardly came into my reckoning- in fact, they hardly came into anybody's reckoning until December.
Consistency proved the key as Stuttgart doggedly stuck to the coat-tails of Schalke as the weeks ran down, despite the loss of injury to top scorer Mario Gomez, and the South Western club took advantage of Schalke's 2-0 loss to arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund on the penultimate day of the season to move into top spot and clinch the title a week later.
While established stars in the team like Fernando Meira and Cacau undoubtedly played their part, it was the performances of lesser-profile players in the squad like Roberto Hilbert, Sami Khedira and the Mexican duo of Pavel Pardo and Ricardo Osorio that made the difference. Their lack of experience did not show has they reeled off eight wins in the final eight games of the season to take the title.
Huge credit for the success must go to coach Armin Veh, who was brought in midway through the disappointing 2005/6 season to turn things round after Giovanni Trappatoni's disappointing reign. The good news for the club is that Veh remains in charge, along with pretty much the entire team that helped win the title. Benchwarmers bumping up the wage bill like Benny Lauth and Marco Streller have been offloaded, while livewire striker Ewerthon has been brought in on loan from Real Zaragoza and playmaker Yildiray Basturk has been signed from Hertha Berlin.
On the face of it, the club seem ideally placed to fight again for the title, though the general feeling in Germany is that they will struggle to replicate their form of the last campaign. The extra strain placed on the squad by Champions League football is also likely to take its toll on domestic form, to a far greater extent than with the likes of Bayern and Werder Bremen, both of whom possess larger squads.
Which brings us on to Bremen. Had it not been for the transfer sagas surrounding Miroslav Klose and to a lesser extent Torsten Frings, they would surely have won the title.
Despite always having previously stated his desire to test himself in abroad, Klose became the object of desire of the mighty Bayern, and was soon wooed by the sweet talking of Uli Hoeness. His form duly suffered. After bagging ten goals in the first half of the season, only three followed the second half, and the club's fans finally turned on him when he was found to have met secretly with Bayern bosses in a Hannover hotel in April.
The one bright spot among the end of season gloom was the form of striker Markus Rosenberg, who had been brought in from Ajax in January. His eight league goals signalled that Miroslav Klose will not be missed as much as might have been feared.
Bremen sporting director Klaus Allofs is one of the most respected judges of footballers in Germany. He sanctioned the signings of Boubacar Sanogo and Carlos Alberto, having persevered through weeks of legal wrangling and bureaucracy in the case of the latter. Whether the Brazilian will have quite the impact compatriot Diego had last season remains to be seen, but his showings in pre-season have been promising. Sanogo will add physical presence to the attack, though it is the defence that has always been Bremen's Achilles heel.
Dazzling, attacking football has too often in the past been undone by sloppiness at the back. Injuries prevented Per Mertesacker and Naldo from stringing enough games together in the centre of defence last season, and their performances are likely to dictate Bremen's fortunes once again in the coming season.
Many Germans, particularly some of the more cynical Dortmund fans, would say that I have already mentioned the three teams capable of winning the league. Any talk of Schalke would be unnecessary, they would argue.
It is indeed difficult to argue with them. Despite being the second most prestigious club in the country, behind the mighty Bayern, they have not held aloft the Champions plate since 1958. As team assistant Charly Neumann put it aptly after the defeat to Dortmund consigned them to yet another second-place finish: "God is not a Schalke fan."
It is not, though, the preferences of any particular deities upon which I am writing off the Ruhr giants for the coming season. Rather the fact that where their rivals have invested well, Schalke have stood still. Maybe even gone backwards.
Hamit Altintop has gone to Bayern, and playmaker Lincoln, upon whom last year's capitulation was blamed, has left for Galatasaray. Huge efforts were made by the club to bring in Stephen Appiah from Fenerbahce, but the Ghanaian's wage demands were considered excessive and the deal has collapsed.
In terms of dark horses for the coming season, Bayer Leverkusen may flirt with the top three. Last season's top scorer in the Bundesliga, Thoefanis Gekas, has arrived at the BayArena from Bochum, and Manu Friedrich, signed from Mainz, will shore up the defence.
The title race, however, is likely to be dictated by the form of Bayern. If their array of world stars hits the ground running, it is difficult to see anybody being able to live with them. Even if Toni takes a while to find his shooting boots, there is always Klose to supply the goals in the meantime.
Stuttgart and Bremen look best equipped to challenge the Bavarians, though of the two, Stuttgart are perhaps the more reliable. There is evidently a real feeling of togetherness within the squad, and the fact that no big players have been lost will ensure the team begins the new campaign with morale high.
Bremen should at worst take the final Champions League spot, and possibly have a run in the Champions League, assuming they aren't placed in another group of death right from the start.
The fate of Leverksuen and Schalke hangs largely on the form of Kevin Kuranyi and the aforementioned Gekas, though anything less than a top five finish at the end of the season will be regarded as a disaster.
Hertha Berlin's exodus of young talent will hit them hard, though Borussia Dortmund may well raise one or two eyebrows if they can take advantage of their spectacular home support. Diego Klimowicz is a shrewd acquisition from Wolfsburg, and they could also challenge for the European places should the under-rated Sebastian Kehl manage to keep himself fit.
Karlsruhe, Hansa Rostock and Duisburg are the new boys, and have a better chance of remaining in the top flight than promoted teams in other top leagues around Europe. Karlsruhe may suffer for losing Giovanni Federico to Dortmund, though their domination of the second division last season suggests they have perhaps the best chance of staying up.
No such indecision from these quarters regarding the destination of the title this season though. Put your money on Bayern.
Eurosport
Buy on AliExpress.com
