2/14, Mathis/Cherundolo: Hannover 96 v B. Leverküsen {R}

Clint and Steve should be starting again for Hannover 96 as they host Bayer Leverküsen at the AWD-Arena in Hannover.

Leverküsen are fourth on 35 points, while Hannover enter the contest relatively safe above the relegation zone, in 12th spot with 23 points.

I'll do my best to do a pre-game media and news round-up-- but be forewarned that my German isn't very good. Rusty as a nail, but worse.

So if anyone speaks/writes/understands the German language, your assistance at finding stories and/or translating them would be greatly appreciated. My wife speaks limited German, but between her and Babelfish, that only represents a good start.

So yeah, that's how the Babytigers are spending their Valentine's Day evening... news-gathering and translating relevant soccer stories from German to English.

Anyway, here are a couple of items to get us started, with a full news round-up later...

Wende in Hannover? -- Sport1.de Bundesliga Fussballsiten I assume this one's a preview?

Der Traum von ausgleichender Gerechtigkeit -- Hannover 96's official site

But noch nicht dabei -- Hannover 96's official site

The articles on Hannover's site resemble previews and team news, from what I'm able to gether.

Kickoff's at 15:30 Central European Time (no idea what that is in the States, or even in Melbourne time for me here). Anyone with TV and/or webcast info, please post it within...

 

* * *Ich bin William, und dieses ist die Nachrichten* * *

Some for starters, some later on, with t-minus two hours to go before kickoff in this one...

Warning: Many of these articles may require Babelfish, or even Google's translation device.

And now, die nachrichten...

• [*]Brdaric-Tore aus dem Leihhaus -- HAZ.de, the website of a Hannover-based newspaper Implies that Mathis could likely start in midfield
  
  [*]Live ticker -- HAZ.de
  
  [*]Hannover want Kleber talks -- skysports.com
  
  [*]Xavier's Euro 2004 dream -- skysports.com
  
  [*]Ziegler keen on Hannover stay -- skysports.com
  
  [*]Hannover welcome out-of-sorts Bayer -- sportinglife.com

Fortunately, some of the normal sources have German Bundesliga sections (sportinglife.com's is quite extensive, actually... they appear to preview every match). So there's a fair bit of English-language sources.

But I'll continue to search for news-- in fact, Soccernet's preview, oddly enough, isn't up yet... so more undoubtedly to come.

 

One other thought... does Kicker or Bild have websites worth browsing for relative pre-match info?

Hey, I'm learning right alongside the rest of you lot...

 

Hey, she was helping me translate some of this stuff. So she's just as guilty.

Actually, wish I could actually see the match here. However, neither Fox Sports 1 or 2 here have the rights to show live Bundesliga, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Our wedding anniversary is on Monday here, by the way-- it'll be two years since the wedding in Geelong.

She still doesn't understand the game, but I can only hope that she's learning.

What's more important is that she fully supports me in whatever I do, and she's willing to help me whenever I ask for her assistance.

And with what she does, I give her the same support.

 

Not that old-- only hitting the big four-oh at the end of May next year!

 

That's all the articles I can find. Hope that'll work for our purposes.

 

Cherundolo and Mathis both start for Hannover.

Lineups, courtesy of Soccernet...

HANNOVER 96
25 Marc Ziegler
6 Steve Cherundolo
24 Kostas Konstantinidis
2 Bergantin Vinicius
14 Abel Xavier
21 Souza Kleber
17 Nebojsa Krupnikovic
44 Clint Mathis
27 Silvio Schroter
13 Thomas Brdaric
11 Daniel Stendel

Subs
1 Gerhard Tremmel
16 Markus Schuler
3 Dariusz Zuraw
5 Christoph Dabrowski
19 Sanchez Jaime
7 Mohammadou Idrissou
23 Stanko Svitlica

BAYER LEVERKÜSEN
Jorg Butt 1
Silveira Juan 4
Ferreira Lucio 3
Jens Nowotny 5
Diego Placente 35
Marko Babic 19
Clemens Fritz 17
Carsten Ramelow 28
Bernd Schneider 25
Dimitar Berbatov 9
Oliver Neuville 27

Subs
Frank Juric 20
Radoslav Kaluzny 21
Teddy Lucic 6
Hanno Balitsch 14
Johannes Nasmanidin 16
Francoaldo Franca 11
Kenan Sahin 18

 

I'll look for something, Nancy-- but for the moment, it looks like the matchtracker (as linked above) is our best hope for following this.

 

Re: * * *Ich bin William, und dieses ist die Nachrichten* * *

And that's the matchtracker.

 

Hannover's site also has a LiveTicker as well.

 

Could not find any audio links.

The ticker's our means of staying in touch, therefore.