Week Three: Frankie says...

The name Wolfsburg usually provokes stifled yawns from anyone outside of that VW dominated town. The performance of their football club has been akin to that of a modern day Boro or Southampton & Coventry of EPL seasons passim. They lig around just above the drop zone creating an obstacle to hungry newly promoted teams who would love to establish themselves in the top flight if they could only survive one season. But no, these teams are getting in the way like some air-headed student caught in the rush hour at London Bridge station.

The latest coach charged with injecting some much needed interest into this intensely dull club is last year's sacked Bayern coach Felix Magath. The former Stuttgart boss has made some changes and the effect has been, well negligible really but they did get a creditable 1-1 draw with title challenger's Schalke which was, after all, the purpose of all this preamble. In fact, if it weren't for a late equaliser from Halil Altintop, things could have been a lot better for Magath's men.

This weekend Bernt Schneider marked his 250th appearance in a Leverkusen shirt with a virtuoso performance against Karlsruhe who contributed to the occasion with some comedy defending. Maik Franz got the ball rolling with an own goal and it went rapidly downhill from there.

Meanwhile at the top of the table (well just below but we'll come to that later) two unfashionable clubs and one historic club have made excellent starts to the season. The admirable Bielefeld's 2-0 win over hopeless Hertha maintains there unbeaten run and puts them second. In third are Bochum whose Friday night win over Hamburg saw them go top for a short while at least. Fourth place belongs to Eintract who beat Rostock which, if truth be told, isn't as impressive as all that.

Champions Stuttgart welcomed back last year's player of the season Mario Gomez from injury. He celebrated by scoring the only goal in the game against Duisberg. Werder Bremen licked their wounds after the pasting they took at home to Bayern last week by earning a hard fought away win at Nurnberg. Young debutant Martin Harnik was the scorer. Borussia Dortmund, recovered some pride following their (gerd) mullering at the hands of Schalke last week by posting their first win of the season against Cottbus.

Which brings us to Bayern. We could talk about yet another goal by Luca Toni or the fine individual strike by the excellent Hamit Altintop but what Bayern are really about this year is Frank Ribery. Everything goes through him and while he did not score in last weekend's 3-0 thumping of Hannover, it would be right to say that nobody does anything on the pitch without Frank's say so kapish? Some have asked what Bayern would do if he got injured. Well, in truth they'd probably still manage fine especially since they have no Champions League football this season. However, and I can't believe I'm saying this, right now Bayern are a pleasure to watch and most of its down to Frank.

That's it. Results and tables here. More interesting stuff here and here.

Week Two: Connect Four

This weekend saw two tasty clashes. At the Arena Auf Schalke, there was a chance for Schalke to gain swift revenge over bitter local rivals Brassic Dortmund after surrendering the title at the Westfalon last season. Meanwhile in the Weserstadion, the two early season favorites for the championship Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich met. Just how good were Bayern and how much of a challenge will Bremen be in the forthcoming season?

Both games ended in four-goal tonkings. Schalke worked off their frustration to give BVB a damn good 4-1 thrashing which, while going down a treat in Gelsenkirchen, would not have filled the big hole left by last season's failure. Bremen meanwhile, submitted to a 4-0 (gerd) mullering courtesy of Messer Ribery & Toni. At least returning hero Mirolsav Klose's did not score which would have hurt Bremen supporters. As it is, this will be a crushing blow to Werder's challenge and only underpins the belief of most German hacks that the title will be in Bavaria by March.

Elsewhere, Hamburg have got of to a great start to the season with two wins from two. This week Druggie Leverkusen were seen off with a 1-0 victory at the AOL Arena thanks to want-away striker Rafael van der Vaart. That's no goals so far Bayer.

The Champions Stuttgart were stunned by a 3-1 defeat at unfancied Hertha. Bochum (who are on Setanta this Friday) scored a decent away win at Cottbus. Ex-Bayern coach Felix Magath has finally kicked some life into Wolfsburg as they won 3-1 at Duisberg and the Admirable Bielefeld notched up an admirable draw with Eintract Frankfurt. Nurnberg's win at Rostock makes up for last week's home defeat to Karlsruhe.

Speaking of which, is was all smiles at the Wildparkstadion as Karlsruhe played their first Bundesliga home game since 1869. The smiles were even broader when they took the lead against opponents Hannover. However, dreams of UEFA Cup football next season may have to wait after the Hanoverians turned the game around and left with 3 points and a 2-1 win. And they were so looking forward to visiting Blackburn too.

That's it. results and table here. Highlights here.

Week One: It's not Santana

Karlsruhe are one of German football's more established clubs. They were contending for the old German Championship at the turn of the century but hit hard times in the 1990’s falling as far as the Regionaliga (Germany’s third tier) for one ignominious season.

This season marks their return to the Bundesliga and there is a certain reassurance in seeing their name in league table. Like the English pound, the Autobahns and Radio 3, the universe is just not the same without them. I’m thinking of setting up a Give Karlsruhe Listed Status So I Can Sleep Comfortably In My Bed group on Facebook but I’d only get bored after a few days and go back to hunting for pictures of Laura Esposto. That’s pretty much what happens with every other Facebook group I belong to.

Anyhoo, Karlsruhe’s first match of the new Bundesliga season couldn’t have gone better as Hajnal scored a brace at German Cup holders Nurnberg. The match finished with a 2-0 vistory for the new boys and a large pint of misplaced optimism for their supporters who’ll be dreaming of Champions League football in three years.

Last Friday saw the much anticipated clash between champions Stuttgart and runners up Schalke. The live UK TV audience of approximately ten Setanta subscribers watched an entertaining 2-2 draw between two of this years contenders for the runners up spot, the other being Werder Bremen who also played out a 2-2 draw with newly promoted Bochum.

This year’s champions Bayern Munich (yes I know) led the procession at the Allianz Arena against Rostock. Luca Toni and Mirolsav Klose, with two goals, set the Bavarians ball of vengeance in motion. Oh yes, those souvenir cans of Whupass are in the shops now folks.

Elsewhere, the admirable Bielefeld beat the inadequate Wolfsburg 3-1, Hertha’s European push has not got off to the best start after losing 1-0 at Frankfurt. Hamburg will hope their comical start to last season will never be spoken of again and beat Hannover for good measure. Druggie Leverkusen drew 0-0 with Cottbus.

Finally, Borussia Dortmund (whom I have more than a soft spot for) kicked off their inexorable return to the glory days from mid table mediocrity with a home defeat to Duisberg. Slow and steady wins the race.

That's it. Results here, table here, clips here.

Some links to start the season

As stated before, the purpose of this blog is to approach the Bundesliga from a position of almost complete ignorance. While this may change over time, I will never shy away from encouraging readers to look elsewhere on the web for Bundesliga news and analysis. Consider the Bundesbag as a companion piece. A bit of weekly fun and nothing more.

To that end, allow me to submit some useful pre-season nonsense from professional writers who know a damn site more than I do

Eurosport season preview:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/09082007/58/bundesliga-exclusive-season-preview.html

and their list of transfers by club

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/germany/bundesliga/transfers.html

Uli Hesse Lichtenburger on why you should watch the Bundesliga:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=449154&root=europe&cc=5739&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos3

The excellent Raphael Honigstein

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/08/10/believe_the_hype_the_bundeslig.html

Finally, the season kicks off tomorrow with champions Stuttgart against runners up Schalke. It should be a tasty encounter. I predict Stuttgart will open a can of traumatic memories on the giants of the Ruhr. If you have Setanta you can watch it live. Highlights of the rest of the weekends action will be on early next week on the same channel. I'll be back with a full round up then.

That's it. Enjoy.