Train TicketsArchive for the ‘Bundesliga’ Category
Bundesliga boosted by European success
November 25th, 2011 | 
Author: Thu Nov 24 05:50PM
After years of watching rivals from England, Spain and Italy grab the limelight, German clubs can be forgiven for believing they have finally cracked the Champions League.
Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich both won this week to book places in the last 16 of Europe’s top competition. And though Borussia Dortmund lost again after seeing talisman Mario Goetze limp off against Arsenal, they still have an outside chance of going through.
Bayer Leverkusen’s qualification with a match to play has surprised everyone at the club. Their 2-1 victory against Chelsea means that whatever happens in the final round of games, coach Robin Dutt can count on Champions League football in the new year.
Die Werkself were perhaps lucky to plunder a late winner against Chelsea (former Stamford Bridge star Michael Ballack admitted as much), but Manuel Friedrich’s towering header might just be a turning point in their season.
”This is a big victory for us, but we believed in it for every minute,” a beaming Ballack told journalists after the match.
Dutt hasn’t changed too much on the pitch since taking over at Leverkusen last summer, but off it he has sought to impose his own ideas. He even banned much-loved chocolate spread Nutella from the club canteen.
The former Freiburg supremo’s job was in peril after a listless home defeat to Schalke a month ago, but team malcontents Simon Rolfes, Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Kiessling are now letting their football do the talking. Seven points from three Bundesliga games and Champions League qualification have silenced the critics.
Like some Leverkusen players, Uli Hoeness isn’t a big fan of modern healthy-eating fads: the Bayern president is a very wealthy man, but his riches come not from his wonderful goalscoring with Bayern in the 1970s but from a hugely successful sausage business. Hoeness recently told a business magazine that he had ”never seen a happy vegan.”
Like the rest of Bayern’s hierarchy, Hoeness was delighted to see their team seal top spot with a match to spare in what was labelled the ”group of death.”
Bayern swept aside a dangerous Villarreal side aside 3-1 with a performance full of pace, determination and teamwork.
Franck Ribery was particularly bullish after the match. “I want to play in the final in Munich. That is a dream for us. We should not fear anyone.”
His coach Jupp Heynckes also saw the match as a statement of intent.
“It was a very difficult group with teams from the four best leagues in Europe and we have marched through,” he said. “It was important that we could decide the group before the last matchday.”
What’s particularly satisfying is seeing moneybags Manchester City struggle to make it through the same group. It’s long been a bone of contention for Germans that – while they must balance the books – their English, Italian and Spanish rivals can run up massive losses. And Manchester City are the biggest villains of the piece, having last week announced an English record loss of £195 million.
“After winning such a tough group, all you can do is pay compliment to the team and the coach,” said chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Now Bayern want to eliminate City by beating them in their final group match.
“We are not going to give anything away in Manchester,” Rummenigge insisted. “First of all, there are points for the five-year ranking at stake, and then there is 800,000 euros to the winner.”
In the week City announced their staggering loss, the Bavarian club posted profits of 1.3 million euros, loose change for City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan but a figure Hoeness and Co. are proud of in the current economic climate.
But how good are Bundesliga teams on the pitch?
After the Dortmund match, Arsene Wenger said he believed the standard of the Bundesliga has risen sharply, while Benfica coach Jorge Jesus this week insisted the Premier League was below the standard of the Bundesliga.
Alex Hleb, who has played in Spain, England and Germany isn’t so sure: ”Barcelona and Real Madrid are fantastic teams. I don’t think Bayern stand a chance against them.”
Still, the signs are good for the Bundesliga. In each of the three seasons between 2006 and 2009, Germany had only one Champions League quarter-finalist, but in 2009-2010 Bayern reached the final and last year Schalke surprised everyone by reaching the last four. The Bundesliga is now the third strongest league in the UEFA classification so will have an extra Champions League spot from next year.
With Schalke and Hannover set to qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League, perhaps the tide is turning in favour of German teams in Europe.
- Comments1 – 8 of 8
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germany,the only european nation with any kind of economy at the moment and their league is the most profitable in europe.about time we asked the question,what are they doing that the rest of us arent?part of the reason must be that they fill all their stadiums every game due to low ticket prices.£60-80 to go to the emerites to watch arsenal take on fulham?over £50 to watch bolton at home?
From amcquater on Thu Nov 24 06:27PM
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They do not pay outrageous salary to player. They require players to play professional football. They do not charge fans outrageous price to go into the ground. They do not sell live football right in the highest possible price but aim to have the wildest coverage. I actually prefer Bundasliga than PL.
From chonetsao on Thu Nov 24 07:15PM
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The reason for this is what # 2 stated. They play financially responsible football. I haven’t ever heard of Bundesliga teams eg. do the crazy transfers some clubs (Real, Man City…) do with those crazy sums of money, and I’ve never heard of a Bundesliga club paying the explicit wages that PL clubs does to its top players. Also I think this makes for a more unpredictable, entertaining league, as money has less role in defining the positions of clubs and it’s more about talent.
From da_flyin_finn on Thu Nov 24 07:22PM
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Bundesliga is the best!
From jarharnamme on Thu Nov 24 07:32PM
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The reason for their improvement is obviously the reform they made on youth development 11 years ago. They’ve invested 520 million euros since 2000 and now we see every age group they produce 4-5 top class players and plenty of above average players. Also, thanks to that they start producing great young coaches like Klopp,Tuchel,Fink,Dutt,Slomka,Rangnick,Markus Babel,Stanislawski,etc. Bayern were lucky to have a great coach like Van Gaal who gave them a new philosphy that they will use for many years. He gave young players a chance (Badstuber,Mueller,Contento,Alaba,Kroos) and transformed Schweinsteiger from a winger into a top central midfielder.Schalke’s success in the Champions League was a miracle though. The way they eliminated Valencia was so lucky.Valencia missed millions of chances. Inter were terrible last season(and they still are) so that wasnt really a surprise.Then they got found out against United.Still Schalke has plenty of great youngsters so they will do well in Europe in the next years as long as they dont lose them like Neuer.
From filip_vas19 on Thu Nov 24 07:55PM
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The Bundesliga is a brilliant league and like Serie A and the EPL can be very unpredictable. But where it ranks higher is the way it promotes itself and operates. When I lived in Germany near Stuttgart, I used to watch football on free-to-air television and I was even lucky enough to go to a game. The fans were a great bunch and even though my German was rubbish to start with, they were a decent, friendly bunch – I think I saw some idiots once or twice but it wasn’t really noticeable. Fans feel valued in Germany, whether they make it to games or not. And the atmosphere for the 2006 world cup was the best.
As well as laying the foundations for successful, great football, Germany really deserves it, too.
From blythesimon on Thu Nov 24 07:57PM
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English stadiums are famous for their great atmosphere, but if teams keep raising ticket prices because they need to offset their financial mismanagement, the fans will some day stop going. Even in the lower leagues ticket prices can be extortionate. In 2005 I once paid £14 for a student ticket to watch Oxford united in league 2!! You can get a ticket to watch Bayern Munich or borussia Dortmund for 20 quid and they are champions league teams.
In England players are ridiculously overpaid and the fans are the ones paying for teams risky investments and rising debts.
The German league should serve as a prototype for other leagues of how to manage their finances and still remain competitive. Plus they have the best stadiums in the world thanks to the 2006 world cup and the boom that came with it. You don’t see any poor facilities anymore anywhere in the top 2-3 divisions. With very few exceptions.From h_fend on Thu Nov 24 09:54PM
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Velbert 02 über Alles
From felice_tedechi on Fri Nov 25 01:31AM
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Article source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/the-ballacks/article/162/
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Ref’s suicide bid forces media rethink
BERLIN — While the reasons for the attempted suicide of Bundesliga referee Babak Rafati remain unclear, calls are coming from within German football to change the image of referees in the media.
Both the German Football Federation (DFB) and Cologne police have refused to release the reasons behind Rafati’s suicide attempt after he was found in the bathtub of his Cologne hotel on Saturday having slashed his wrists.
The 41-year-old was discovered by his assistant referees just hours before he was due to officiate a German league game between Mainz 05 and Cologne, but was released from hospital on Monday and is continuing to receive treatment.
German daily newspaper the Cologne Rundschau reported Monday that a senior investigator from the Cologne police had said Rafati’s attempted suicide was for ‘private reasons’ not related to football.
In the past, Rafati has on several occasions been voted the Bundesliga’s worst referee in a poll of professional players by German football magazine Kicker.
The magazine’s CEO has said they are considering doing away with such surveys in future.
“We are considering whether or not in the future to include surveys of Bundesliga players on the question of who is the worst league referee,” Kicker chief Klaus Smentek told SID, an AFP subsidiary.
That comes after calls from within German football to cease such negative treatment of referees.
Germany’s former World Cup referee Bernd Heynemann, who officiated at France ’98, has said the ‘worst referee’ polls have to go.
“These polls are not meaningful, the referees have the weakest lobby and so such surveys are a waste of time,” he said.
Lawyer Rainer Domberg, a spokesman and ombudsman for Germany’s top referees, says the blame culture aimed at football officials here has to change.
“Referees need a different culture of recognition,” he said.
“In 95 percent of the games that they officiate, their performance is flawless. Referees seem to suffer under a curse they don’t deserve.”
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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Article source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gZJCOSbeUoA6BdqFN-qyqmsK9t5g?docId=CNG.79f628c9c1938ad91cee1d0a964c4b1a.c1
German Bundesliga Team of the Week
All eyes were on the Allianz Arena this weekend as Borussia Dortmund recorded an impressive 1-0 win over Bayern Munich.
By Gabriel Tan
Mario Gotze may have claimed the credit with his well-taken second-half strike, but it was the Dortmund rearguard who had to be at their very best to keep out the potent Bayern attack.
Elsewhere, Marco Reus kept up his impressive scoring run with a hat-trick against Werder Bremen, while Schalke were dominant in their 4-0 win over Nuremberg.
Here, we take a look at this weekend’s standout performers.
GK: Thomas Kraft (Hertha Berlin)
The one-time Bayern man may have conceded two goals against Freiburg, but it was his brilliant save in the 28th minute that kept his side in the game when he made a fine stop from Anton Putsila’s long-range effort.
Also showed good handling throughout the game, but will have to work on his kicking, having nearly handed Freiburg early on when he completely missed a backpass.
RB: Lukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund)
The Polish international remained steadfast against Bayern despite coming up against the dangerous Franck Ribery.
Piszczek managed what most defenders often fail to do – focus on the ball rather than Ribery’s tricky footwork. It resulted in the Frenchman having a quiet game, which normally means half the battle against Bayern is won.
CB: Dennis Aogo (Hamburg)
The versatile defender played an integral part in Hamburg’s 2-0 win over Hoffenheim on Sunday. Carried out his defensive role well by keeping the opposition attackers at bay, and also laid on an assist for Marcell Jansen with an incisive pass.
CB: Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund)
The German international showed absolute disregard for his body against Bayern, throwing himself in front of numerous goal-bound efforts, and did not lose a single aerial challenge all night long.
Also put in a number of crunching challenges on Mario Gomez, which helped ensure the normally-lethal Bayern striker had a quiet game.
LB: Filip Daems (Borussia Monchengladbach)
Despite the Gladbach youngsters getting the plaudits for the club’s stunning performances this season, Daems showed there is plenty of life left in this old dog left against Bremen on Saturday.
The Gladbach captain emerged triumphant every time an opposition attacker ran at him, and belied his increasing years with a number of lung-bursting runs down the left.
Gave Sokratis Papastathopoulos a torrid time, which arguably resulted in the Greek international getting sent off after he let his frustration boil over.
RM: Hasan Salihamidzic (Wolfsburg)
Another veteran who looks like he could still give the younger brigade a run for their money, netting a brace in Wolfsburg’s 4-1 win over Hannover.
Gave his side the lead in the 22nd minute when Ron-Robert Zieler let his rather tame effort fly past him, before he showed good awareness to nod home from close range after Chris had flicked on a corner.
CM: Michael Ballack (Bayer Leverkusen)
And making it three senior players in a row is Ballack, who was the dominant player in Leverkusen’s 2-0 win over Kaiserslautern on Friday.
Held on to the ball well and dictated proceedings for Leverkusen, and was even rewarded for his efforts when Kevin Trapp fumbled his shot into the back of the net.
CM: Lewis Holtby (Schalke)
Just when you thought it would be a week of experienced players dominating the Team of the Week, 21-year-old Holtby claims his place with an accomplished display against Nuremberg.
Now regularly deployed in a deep-lying role, Holtby protected his back four well, but always looked to drive his team forward. Managed to get on the scoresheet in the 84th minute, when he danced his way past a dejected Nuremberg defence, before firing past Raphael Schafer.
LM: Martin Harnik (Stuttgart)
Stuttgart claimed a 2-1 win over Augsburg on Sunday evening, and they have Harnik to thank for after the Austrian netted a well-taken double.
Harnik handed his side the lead four minutes before halftime when he capitalised on a poor clearance from Dominik Reinhardt and fired past Mohamed Amsif, before netting bagging a second-half winner when cut in from the left, before dispatching his shot into the far corner.
ST: Marco Reus (Borussia Monchengladbach)
Although normally deployed as a winger, Reus was fielded as a supporting striker against Bremen on Saturday, but made a mockery of playing in an unfamiliar role as he bagged a hat-trick.
The 22-year-old got on the scoresheet with an outstanding solo effort, carving the Bremen defence open with an incisive run before firing past Tim Wiese, before he doubled his tally with a clever chip after Patrick Herrmann cut the ball back to him.
And he ensured the match ball was his to keep in the 51st minute when he reacted the quickest after Wiese had blocked Mike Hanke’s effort.
ST: Stefan Reisinger (Freiburg)
Freiburg looked dead and buried before the end of the first half against Hertha after going 2-0 down thanks to goals from Adrian Ramos and Peter Niemeyer.
Enter Reisinger, who singlehandedly rescued a point for his team with a second-half double. He pulled one back when he danced past a challenge before powering a shot into the bottom corner, before rescuing an unlikely draw five minutes into injury time when he tucked home a Papiss Demba Cisse cross.
Article source: http://www.espnstar.com/editorial/news/detail/item709614/German-Bundesliga-Team-of-the-Week
Bundesliga Weekly Thirteen – Cologne Klungel
It’s a long story, like these things always are, but the German term “Klungel” comes from the same stem as the English “cling”. Thus it has to do with sticking together, which is why it originally meant a knot or a bundle. Until the inhabitants of Cologne got hold of the word, that is, because they changed the meaning to denote kith and kin, family.
This is the story behind an expression every German knows: Kolscher Klungel – Cologne Klungel. It’s usually defined as a local form of nepotism, though this explanation falls somewhat short. For one, because the term also has positive connotations, such as friendship, or better: loyalty.
Second, because many people who happen to come from somewhere else now use this expression rather freely to describe bizarre goings-on on the shores of the river Rhine that utterly mystify strangers. In other words, whenever something happens in Cologne that doesn’t appear to make any sense whatsoever, you can just shake your head ever so briefly, smile and say: ‘Well, that’s Kolscher Klungel for you.’
And you would have done that on Sunday at 2.49pm. That was when Cologne FC president and club legend Wolfgang Overath, having opened the annual general assembly of club members nine minutes earlier by saying “My club is Cologne FC,” declared that he and the rest of the board would step down.
Trust this club to grab the headlines even during an international break and two days before a much-anticipated game between rivals Germany and Holland! And headlines Overath’s departure did make, as it had been entirely unexpected. Friedrich Neukirch, vice-president and as such a member of the board, later explained why nothing had leaked out: “We didn’t want to kick up a breeze before the meeting, that’s why we didn’t speak with any of the club panels.”
In a way, this statement was emblematic of one of the problems at the root of the dispute that led to the board’s and Overath’s demission. Over the last couple of years, the board had come under heavy criticism from some of the club’s members, in part because they felt the board was running the club in an aloof and autocratic manner. This led to the formation of a pressure group called “FC:Reloaded” that demanded a change of the club’s statutes to give the members more influence.
Another criticism levelled at Overath and his men was that the club had not made any progress in sporting terms since he became the president in 2004. At the time, Overath said his plan was to qualify for Europe within four years, but the seven years since have seen eight different coaches (plus two interim coaches), three different business managers (or directors of football, as the post was renamed in late 2010) and a series of relegation fights.
There are some observers who considered both charges unreasonable, arguing that things will be even more chaotic when members try to run a professional club and that expecting Cologne to challenge for honours borders on having delusions of grandeur (the latter is an accusation regularly levelled at the club’s support).
Be that as it may, the matter came to a head during the 2010 general assembly. Cologne had just lost 4-0 at home to fierce rivals Monchengladbach and were in last place, so the meeting was predictably tumultuous. Overath and the other members of the board were loudly criticised, not always in a proper manner, and the members voted not to exonerate the board of their responsibility for the previous fiscal year. This – basically a technicality having to do with German club law – amounted to a vote of no confidence and deeply hurt Overath.
You can call that thin-skinned, but the beginning of the 2011 meeting made clear that tempers were still flaring. Overath, suffering from a cold, made a strange noise before beginning his speech – whereupon one of the members yelled: “Yeah, go ahead and weep!” And when Overath then looked back at the 2010 meeting, saying that he had been “insulted and vilified by a small group only, I know the others aren’t like that,” there were boos and someone shouted: “Step down!”
It proved to be an unexpectedly prophetic heckle.
Believe it or not, but that was the civil part of the afternoon. After the president had made his announcement, most of the rest of the meeting became a shouting match between the pro-Overath camp and the “FC:Reloaded” group. At 6.56pm, a member declared Cologne were just “a carnival club” and three minutes later brawls broke out in two different corners of the assembly hall.
And suddenly quite a lot of eyes will be on a seemingly rather mundane clash between Cologne and Mainz on Saturday, despite the fact Bayern play Dortmund and Monchengladbach meet Bremen – meaning the top four sides play among themselves – on the very same day. The Cologne players certainly have some experience as regards performing in the shadow of boardroom upheaval and internal strife, but it’ll be interesting to see how Lukas Podolski copes.
After all, the team’s biggest, perhaps its only, star has now lost two men he liked and trusted very much – first coach Frank Schaefer, now Overath – and is known as a player who needs a harmonious environment to blossom. It’s probably over-interpretation, but Podolski had a quiet, subdued game against Holland, while all around him the German attack dazzled, delighting the Hamburg crowd.
Bayern’s coach Jupp Heynckes, incidentally, will have been as thrilled by the Holland game as the fans. For one, national coach Joachim Low achieved the prestigious 3-0 win against Germany’s eternal rivals even though he rested both Philipp Lahm and Mario Gomez. Second, two of the best players on the night were Toni Kroos, in splendid form pretty much since the season started, and Thomas Muller, while the defence, built around Holger Badstuber, Jerome Boateng and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, kept yet another clean sheet against notable (and normally goal-hungry) opposition.
However, at least one of them will have a major challenge ahead of him even before he meets second-placed Dortmund at the weekend. On Thursday, Manuel Neuer will be a contestant on the celebrity edition of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
Article source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/984189/bundesliga-weekly:-thirteen---cologne-klunge
Bundesliga blog: Big match preview – FC Bayern vs Borussia Dortmund
By Ross Dunbar in Mirror Football Blog
Published 12:10 14/11/11
Welcome to our new German football blog, courtesy of
BundesligaFussball
‘s Ross Dunbar
***
All eyes will be on the Allianz Arena on Saturday night as the Bundesliga resumes following the last international break of the year.
For some, it is the perfect cure to the lack of domestic club football over the past two weeks and it is certainly shaping up to be a cracker.
Current German champions Borussia Dortmund make the trip to Bavaria to face up to the flying league-leaders FC Bayern who are looking to extend their five point gap.
In the race for the championship, it is a crucial match even at this early stage in the season and both sides will have a few injury blows to contend with.
The home side will be without key midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger after he sustained a broken collarbone in the Champions League clash with Napoli.
FC Bayern will also be missing dynamic Ukranian midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk who picked up a red card against FC Augsburg last Sunday.
Even without Schweinsteiger and Tymoshchuk, Heynckes is expected to stick to his 4-2-3-1 formation and is likely to re-call Luis Gustavo to the starting eleven.
But that still leaves the FC Bayern coach with some selection headaches with the other midfield position to be filled.
Austrian youngster David Alaba started against FC Augsburg but has started just twice this season and the 19 year-old could find himself thrown in at the deep end on Saturday.
As for Dortmund, they will have a huge hole in their back-four with Neven Subotic ruled out for up to six weeks following a serious facial injury sustained last week.
It would appear to be a simple decision for Jurgen Klopp with Felipe Santana the third-choice central defender at the Westfalen.
But it could pose a serious problem for Dortmund with BVB relying hugely on the continuity of their back-five and it was no coincidence to see Die Borussen’s sticky form coming when there were selection issues at the back.
Klopp’s men are expected to line-up almost identical to the side which beat Wolfsburg 5-1 last week and it throws up some interesting battles in the match.
The Dortmund coach looks to have hit the jackpot after finally settling on a midfield pairing since Nuri Sahin departed for Real Madrid in the summer.
Rookie midfielder Moritz Leitner (
click here for a profile of Leitner
) has taken over from Ilkay Gundogan and Sebastian Kehl to partner the industrious Sven Bender in the middle of the park.
The 18-year-old Leitner, who had a spell with 1860 Munich last season, could find himself locking horns with FC Bayern’s teenager David Alaba in what could be a fascinating battle between two of the best prospects in German football.
But Klopp has a tendency to draft in former Dortmund skipper Sebastian Kehl in to the midfield which brings a staleness to the side with Bender and Kehl both defensive-minded players.
The champions overcame a massive hurdle in February when they beat FC Bayern for the first time in 20 years at the Allianz Arena to kill off their title hopes.
Goals from Lucas Barrios, Nuri Sahin and Mats Hummels capped off a sublime performance from the young Dortmund side in a 3-1 victory.
It is almost imperative Dortmund don’t allow the gap at the top of the Bundesliga to open up to eight points between them and FC Bayern.
And perhaps more importantly, BVB’s rivals for the Champions League places – Schalke, Gladbach and Werder – could already have opened up a gap if they win on Saturday afternoon.
***
Read more from Ross at
BundesligaFussball
or follow
@rossdunbar93
on Twitter
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‘Bundesliga is the strongest league in Europe,’ says Hamburg’s Frank Arnesen
What does England’s win over Spain say about their Euro 2012 chances?
Following Capello’s 1-0 win against the world champions at Wembley, Goal.com wants to know what you think it means for the national side’s chances in the summer tournament
Article source: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3275/bundesliga/2011/11/12/2754676/bundesliga-is-the-strongest-league-in-europe-says-hamburgs-frank-
Reds, white, and blue
Jürgen Klinsmann, the German coach of the US national soccer team, may have a long flight to reach the US’s next game against France in Paris on Friday. It will be an even longer haul next week after the team’s second game against Slovenia when he heads back to home to California.
Steven Cherundolo, on the other hand, won’t even have to change time zones. He lives in Hanover, where he’s spent the last thirteen years playing defense for Hanover 96 in the German league, the Bundesliga. He came to Germany in 1999, roughly the same time his career as a US national team player started taking off.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: There is plenty for Cherundolo to celebrate this seasonSince then, Cherundolo has established himself as a mainstay on both teams. For the US, he’s earned 74 caps and played in two World Cups (with an injury preventing a third).
In over 350 games for Hanover, Cherundolo has seen the team through a promotion from the second league into the Bundesliga. He is also in his second season as the team’s captain and speaks perfect, accent-free German.
Cherundolo spoke with Deutsche Welle ahead of the upcoming game.
DW: Which do you prefer – flying all the way across the Atlantic to play a home game in the US, or staying here in Europe, but having to play as the away team?
Steven Cherundolo: That’s a tough question – I love going home, I love spending time in the US. And of course, playing in front of our own fans is always a pleasure. But due to our heavy schedule this year with Hanover 96, I’m looking forward to the short travel. I think I’ll take the away game this time around.
These games will be the sixth and seventh for the US under coach Jürgen Klinsmann. What’s your take so far with him at the helm?
The important thing is to see the group gelling together again under the new coaching staff, and us as a group moving forward. Maybe at a slower pace than we expected, but for sure, we’re moving in the right direction. That is, to me, the most important indication that we’re doing good work.
The casual observer in the US might not have known about Klinsmann’s background as a player and coach before he was hired by the US. Germans certainly know him, and you’ve been here long enough to have heard plenty about his career. What was your reaction when you found out he was going to be your new coach?
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Jürgen Klinsmann is no stranger to GermansFirst and foremost, I have to say anytime a coaching change takes place, it means that we’ve done something wrong. A coaching change is never all positive. Having said that, we really want to thank Bob Bradley and all his staff for the time they gave us. But we were excited about Jürgen and his new ideas. Here [in Germany] he’s basically a living legend. He was one of those personalities that certainly polarized. You either loved him or hated him. But after the 2006 World Cup, as the German head coach, the majority of the fans loved him here in Germany.
Now the US has a German coach to go with a couple of US players who were born in Germany but have US eligibility (Timothy Chandler, Danny Williams, Jermaine Jones). What do you think of the increasing German influence on the US national team?
I really don’t see it that way. I see players as good players and players who are not so good. Anytime a player can come into our group and help the team out and advance the team in the quality department, then I could care less where he was born. Important is how a player fits in the group, and I think that’s something the coaching staff has to decide. The group, as well, will either accept you or throw you out, so to speak. It has a lot to do with the personality, and very little to do with where you were born.
How do you see your role on the US team?
Certainly one of the older guys! Maybe the oldest guy now, who has been around and seen a few qualification games, and I think that’s the biggest thing that’s coming up this summer for us – the biggest challenge. Really, to help prepare the guys on things that I’ve seen that are going to challenge us this summer. Any time you can help out a younger guy, telling him, “Listen, this is what the situation is going to be like in Costa Rica, or in Honduras, or Guatemala,” then the better prepared they are for that game.
You’re spent your entire 12-year career at Hanover. With the exception of 2001/02, when the team was promoted to the Bundesliga, a lot of the time in the last decade has been spent in the bottom half of the table. But last season, and this one so far, have been the complete opposite. What has changed in the last two seasons?
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: A standard presence on defenseI think a few things. The current coaching staff really has a plan, and they stick by it. They have a way to train this group of guys that seems to fit unbelievably to the group of guys we have. I think we have a really good mix of experienced and inexperienced players. On another note, I think personalities fit so well together. Guys are doing a lot together off the field and out of the locker room. It’s just one of those rare situations. Not only do we compliment each other as soccer players on the field, but also off the field as well. I think in one’s career you come around a group of guys like that maybe once or twice, and one of those times is happening now.
What has Mirko Slomka changed at the club since he’s been here?
I think the biggest thing is continuity. He has not changed his way one bit how he is coaching this team. After losses, after wins, we continue to do the same work, and that’s very easy for a player to adapt to and to progress with. That’s something that I think is very important in this business, because there are a lot of ups and downs. There’s a lot of pressure from the outside – from the media, from the fans – and the more continuity you can have on the inside, with the management and the coaching staff, the better off the players are.
What do you think is going to happen first: Hanover wins the Bundesliga, or the US wins the World Cup?
How about we do it at the same time?
Interview: Matt Zuvela
Editor: Michael Lawton
Article source: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15495290,00.html
Borussia Dortmund’s Neven Subotic rejects Sotirios Kyrgiakos’ apology for …
Premier League Bosman List – All the players available for free in England next summer
A host of big-name stars could leave their clubs for nothing come the end of the season, and here Goal.com gives you the full list of players who might be up for grabs
Article source: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3275/bundesliga/2011/11/10/2751034/borussia-dortmunds-neven-subotic-rejects-sotirios-kyrgiakos
Tutored in Germany, Playing for the US
All of these players have a similar profile. They have mothers who are German and fathers who were stationed in Germany as members of the United States military. As such, the players are American citizens, which allows them to join, and potentially bolster, a United States squad that over the last two decades has become competitive on the world stage, but hardly formidable.
The phenomenon that these players represent is not new. As far back as 1992, Thomas Dooley, a German-American player, joined the United States team, and he became the captain for the 1998 World Cup. He, too, had a German mother and a father who had been in the American military. But the current trend is more profound.
When the United States team takes on France on Friday afternoon in an exhibition game at the Stade de France north of Paris, about a quarter of the American roster — Timothy Chandler, Jermaine Jones, Danny Williams, Fabian Johnson and Alfredo Morales — will be more familiar with Germany than with the United States.
All five play professionally in the German Bundesliga, one of the elite leagues in the world, with a level of play significantly higher than that found in Major League Soccer, the top North American professional league.
Waiting in the wings behind those five are other German-American players who may also compete for a spot on the national team as 2014 draws closer. David Yelldell, a goalkeeper, made his United States national team debut against Paraguay in March. Six other German-Americans are on a separate roster being put together for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
All of this is occurring as the United States team is being guided by Jurgen Klinsmann, a former German star who replaced Bob Bradley as coach in late July. Klinsmann is clearly intrigued by the emergence of numerous players with a background in soccer so similar to his, and his presence as coach may make it easier for them to become integral members of the American team.
Still, this growing German-American pipeline was put in place before Klinsmann took over. Although he stands to benefit from it, the situation is somewhat accidental.
“It’s just a coincidence,” said Thomas Rongen, a former national team youth coach and the person most responsible for the United States outreach to players in Germany, an effort he began several years ago. He said Klinsmann “doesn’t care where the players come from.”
“He doesn’t have any strong feelings toward Germany versus Holland or Norway, Sweden or wherever it might be,” Rongen added. “He just says that he wants the best players that fit our philosophy.”
Klinsmann echoed those sentiments last month, saying it was “awesome” that players like Chandler, Williams and Johnson were becoming part of the team but pointing to the larger, global search for talent that is imperative for the United States as it seeks to improve its talent base.
“The way things go with soccer globally, we have many more players to come that have dual citizenship and grew up in a different place,” he said. “This is how France won the World Cup in 1998.”
He added, “You see the global chase for players and we’re part of that.”
Many national teams have diverse makeups, including Germany, which Klinsmann coached in the 2006 World Cup and which has leaned heavily for much of the last decade on the Polish-born twosome of Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose.
Diversity is also a characteristic of the United States team, which includes first-generation Americans like defender Oguchi Onyewu and midfielder Maurice Edu, who each have Nigerian parents, and forward Jozy Altidore, whose family is from Haiti.
But the increasing presence of German-American players stands apart, if only for the simple volume that it represents. The Dutch-born Rongen was coach of the United States’ under-20 team when, disappointed by its results, he began leading an intensified search in 2009 for overseas players who would be eligible to join American national teams.
“I needed to go outside the country,” he said. He added that he was a firm believer in the notion that the United States must develop top-level players of its own more consistently, but said that this country was still not ready to do so and that it made perfect sense to look elsewhere.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/sports/soccer/in-global-search-for-talent-us-soccer-team-trends-german.html