As much as I would hate to see that it is certainly a possibility, they got unlucky in the draw. That said, I think Dortmund under Klopp has what it takes to get past Udinese. Whether they'll keep the nerve and actually do so remains to be seen.
I think we've been nothing but lucky this season myself. We'll see if that luck continues or if the BVB team finally learns to give their all for a full 90 f#cking minutes and stop acting like the f#cking matches are over after 45 minutes.
Well, this is not the CL, its the UEFA Cup and I think they're a UEFA Cup calibre team that could do very well. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if they get by Dortmund. I think every successfull team or a team looking to improve needs such "luck" to get the desired results. That can often be the difference.
And what happens when you don't improve and the luck runs out?? I'll give you a hint. See both Bielefeld and Nuernberg last season.
This year there are so many German teams in the UEFA Cup that it gets hard to get an overview when and where we can se which game ^^ -1st leg- Tuesday 16th, 18:00 DSF Hertha BSC - St Patricks Tuesday 16th, 18:00 ??? APOEL Nikosia - Schalke 04 Thursday, 18th, 17:00 DSF Cherno More Varna - VfB Stuttgart Thursday, 18th, 19:00 DSF VFL Wolfsburg - Rapid Bucuresti (summary on ARD) Thursday, 18th, 19:00 ??? Hamburger SV - Unirea Urziceni (summary on ARD) Thursday, 18th, 20:45 ARD Borussia Dortmund - Udinese Calcio -2nd leg- Tuesday, 30th, 18:00 DSF St Patricks - Hertha BSC Thursday, 2nd, 16:00 DSF Rapid Bucuresti - VFL Wolfsburg Thursday, 2nd, 18:00 ??? Unirea Urziceni - Hamburger SV Thursday, 2nd, 18:15 ??? VFB Stuttgart - Cerno More Varna Thursday, 2nd, 18:15 ??? Schalke 04 - APOEL Nikosia Thursday, 2nd, 20:45 ??? Udinese Calcio - Borussia Dortmund --- Does anyone know anything about the rest? I'd really be interested in the Hamburg match(es), because while noone has ever heard of Unirea, they might actually be pretty good for an unseeded UCR1 club... currently, they are leading the Romanian league, just beat Rapid Bucuresti 2:1 in Bucharest (and you might remember that Rapid threw out both Hamburg and Hertha not too long ago ). Unfortunately, DSF seems to always settle for the cheapest (least attractive) option :/
You mean the Rapid Bucharest which Nürnberg kicked out last year while struggling mightily in the Bundesliga? Based on last year (and the investments of this summer) I think the period after the Kirch debacle where Bundesliga clubs routinely would go out against clubs you had never heard of was exactly that: long ago. We'll find out soon...
UEFA-cup highlights are broadcasted on Thursday evening 11 PM CET on Eurosport DE. CL matches are broadcasted by Sat1 and Premiere. This year it is a fair TV broadcasting distribution, the 3 away matches of each team is in free-tv. Tuesday 16.08: Werder - Famagusta (Premiere) Wednesday 17.08: Steaua - Bayern (Sat 1) Tuesday 9.10: Bayern - Lyon (Premiere) Wednesday 10.10: Inter Mailand - Werder (Sat 1) Tuesday 21.10: Bayern - Florenz (Premiere) Wednesday 22.10: Panathinaikos - Werder (Sat 1) Tuesday 4.11: Werder - Panathinaikos (Premiere) Wednesday 5.11: Florenz - Bayern (Sat 1) Tuesday 25.11: Bayern - Steaua (Premiere) Wednesday 26.11: Famagusta - Werder (Sat 1) Tuesday 9.12: Werder - Inter Mailand (Premiere) Wednesday 10.12: Lyon - Bayern (Sat 1) source: Sat 1 tv schedule
Well... have you seen the matches? Nürnberg drew both home and away. They were better at home and had loads of luck in Bucharest, to me it looked like Rapid was the better team, Nürnberg won that the German way, with determination, grit & luck (plus, Rapid wasn't exactly in the best shape in their domestic league at that time, either). Anyway, I don't say that I expect an upset in Hamburg, I just think that the opponent might actually be able to play football on a decent level despite being an unknown team from the East, and I doubt that's the case with Cherno More Varna or St Patricks, I kind of expect those 2 to have all players restricted to their own penalty box for 90% of the matches, I'd ne surprised if those matches turn out to be interesting to watch.
Yeah, but they made 2 goals from 2 chances, Rapid made 2 goals from 20 Rapid was clearly better that game... of course as I said, Nürnberg was better in the first match, but even in that match I thought that Rapid looked like they could play, if they only wanted... they just didn't run, didn't fight. But well, I really don't want to discuss a match from a year ago in great detail, I just fear that a lot of Germans underestimate Romanian clubs because in most of Eastern Europe, football is really at rock bottom and when Germans played them in early rounds, they usually cruised through even playing at 50%. Against Romanian clubs on the other hand, the last 3 years results actually favour Romania, and I'm really not sure if Nürnberg barely coming out on top against half-hearted Rapid, who where having trouble in the league themselves last season should be valued too highly. I guess we'll see in Wolfsburgs and Hamburgs matches how strong the Bundesliga and the Romanian leagues really are. I would expect tough matches, but despite all I say here, I slightly favour our teams (Hamburg more so than Wolfsburg right now).
Yes we played Panathinaikos not too long ago but that doesn't mean much. Like I always say: whether Bremen wins or loses has not so much to do with the opponont. We have the majority of ball posession anyway and if we use our chances well and not screw up defensively too much we can beat any team in the world. On a bad day though we can lose to any team in the world. Schalke missing the CL was actually good for the UEFA coefficiant because it's more likely that they're gonna get points in the UEFA Cup. It was also good for Werder and Bayern financially. Overall it's looking pretty good anyway since we finally "lost" our bad years. It's hard to catch Italy and won't happen in the next 4 years at least. On the other hand we won't drop below 4th place for quite some time now.
HSV coach Jol says Unirea... is an outstanding team and the chances for who will advance to the group stage are 50-50. Now I'm rather worried as he will have watched them on DVD.
Coaches always say things like this before matches in Europe. If I were you I would be more worried if Jol says "We have nothing to worry about. This team is not in the same class as us". Or something similar. Its definately a good thing if your team takes their opponents seriously.
Yeah, coaches always say one must respect the opposition etc., but saying it's 50-50 and the other stuff he said goes some way beyond that. I'm expecting a real contest now although we surely must be favouries.
Schalke seems to take it serious, it's already 3:0! While Berlin is superior but couldn't convert any chances.
Following Werder's result, I'm sure we'll get to listen to the whole litany again about how poor the Bundesliga has become in comparison. In reality though, Bremen has of course not had a good start to the Bundesliga season either.
Well, that Werder result and six entire years of total suckitude. I'd guess the litany would stop if there was a counter example for a change.
I cannot give you Werder counterexamples but on the whole the league had nothing to complain about last year.
Well, I think they can't complain as well - they did like you would expect from a good second tier league. Nothing more, nothing less.