Cottbus vs Bochum 2-1 Six points in the first two games of the year for Cottbus made them at least leave the last spot. A good start with a first minute goal by Reghecampf helped them against a harmless Bochum that just had five shots on goal over the whole 90 minutes. Juskowiak scored the game winner before Gudjonsson made the score look nicer for Bochum with their only shot goal in the second half in the last minute. Nürnberg vs Rostock 0-1 A discussion worthy goal (someone was in passive offside, but difficult to say in how far the defence was irritated by that) of Prica decided the game. Nürnberg did not get along too well with the burden of Rostock forcing them to be the active team. For the first time Rostock started with all their six Swedish players. Stuttgart vs Berlin 3-1 Open game, in which Stuttgart scored the lead by Amantidis (28) and added another goal by Hleb (69), both assisted by Kuranyi. When it looked like they could bring the game home easily, Marcelinho caused some suspension with his 20th BL goal in his 50th BL game in the 80th. In the stoppage time Ganea secured the three points against Hertha, which neglected the defence in the hope to score the equaliser. For Ganea it was the sixth goal of the season, all scored as substitute player. Schalke vs Kaiserslautern 2-2 If I were mean, I’d say that DFL did the first step to help Kaiserslautern today. The ref stole a clear win for Schalke when he wrongly annulled a further Agali goal (would have been the 2-1) and counted Kaiserslautern’s equaliser resulting from an active offside position. In the first half Schalke basically must have scored at least one or two goals more than the lead by Agali (5). Kaiserslautern scored on their first attack by Klos in the 31st. After the break it was an open game, in which Agali again scored the lead (69), but Harry Koch’s offside goal in the stoppage time cared for the equaliser that didn’t keep Kaiserslautern from dropping to the last rank. For Agali this were goals no. 5 and 6 in just 8 games this season. 1860 vs Hannover 0-1 Surprising, but no undeserved win for Hannover with a goal coming off a nice combination in a counter attack, scored by Krupnikovic already in the 26th. 1860 had some chances to score the equaliser in the second half, but Tremmel had good saves to gain a shutout. On the other hand Hannover also had several chances to decide the game with a second goal, but missed even the biggest chances. For 1860 Chinese Jiay Shao had his first game, watched by 300 million in a live coverage in China. Bielefeld vs Bayern 0-0 The game was as bad as the result tells. Bayern started without seven and dressed 18 year old Bastian Schweinsteiger for the starting lineup for the first time, but he also had a rather bad game. Bayern had just one single chance to score by Elber after six minutes, something that made Hoeneß quite angry.
Dortmund vs Leverkusen 2-0 An early goal of Ewerthon (3) and a red card for Bastürk (6) decided the game already at the beginning. Leverkusen never fought against the loss and could be quite happy to only get one further goal against by Koller in the first half. In the second half Dortmund concentrated on controlling the game. Hamburg vs Bremen 1-0 Barbarez scored the game winner in the middle of the second half in an open game between the two Northern teams
Bad result for 1860, and a worse one for Leverkusen. It seems the theory that they can still perform against the top sides didn't work out. They are losing to everyone now and not scoring goals either. How long has Toppi got? I reckon the next couple of games will decide his fate.
They have lots of mercy with Toppi as they refuse to do what the public wants them to do. Wednesday is the cup game in Unterhaching - a loss and the Bayer officials can't protect him anymore. Next weekend in Bochum will be another crucial game for him - at least if they drop to a relegation rank, they'll slowly wake up and react IMO
Toppi lost his team some time ago. Basturk's red card was a disgrace, since he has obviously given up on the team (you yourself have tipped him for an off-season move out of the Bundesliga). The whole team's effort is an abomination. We'll see what the new coach has in store for the team soon enough. Oh, and Olaf, where's Bayer's prodigious talent, Simak? Why, on the bench, of course, a monstrous head-case (and headache for coach and GM, to boot). I'm just laughing at the ridiculous posters on BigSoccer who, despite evidence from the World Cup, were touting Simak as something special (or at the very worst, still significantly better than Landon). Please. Still think that Bayer wouldn't do better with Landon? Hmmm... on second thought, I think Landon can do better than Leverkusen. If you don't believe me, watch what he does this weekend in the U.S. match against Argentina. He'll be running our MLS-only squad out of the attacking midfield, and Argentina will be showing up with their best domestic talent. Watch, and Learn. And I don't want Landon "infected" by Bayer's negativity. At least Calmund was smart enough to buy insurance against relegation, so their finances won't be blown apart in the off-season. Question remains, which players have contracts that bind them to the 2. Bundesliga? Not many, I would wager...
Landon Donovan should join SV Hamburg on loan from Bayer. I really would like to see him here, he's the young attacking midfielder/forward we need and if Landon wants to make himself a name in soccer, he has to leave the US sooner or later to prove himself in a big european league.. Bayer Leverkusen always sucked big time - no fans, no tradition, a real plastic club and the city sucks, too. Hope that they will get relegated alongside Kaiserslautern and Wolfsburg ( the 2nd german plastic club !) .
I think Landon should have been with Leverkusen for that game on Sunday. Could he do better than Bayer Leverkusen? After a season or two with them, certainly.
Currently it looks like Bastürk will sign a new contract with Bayer. He doesn't feel good enough to go to Arsenal or ManU yet. Simak certainly is not anywhere near justifying the transfer sum. In the first game after the winter break (against Cottbus) he was definitely the only Bayer player delivering a solid performance, that's why I don't actually understand Toppmöller that he took out exactly him for the Dortmund game. I am still convinced that he'll make it: he's not a kind of player who turns everything around in the relegation fight, but in a good working team he'll be a valuable offence director. I always said that in this situation Bayer has to call Landon back regardless of his personal interests. It seems that the further loan is connected with an Anschutz-deal they are about to sign though. From the sportive perspective it is grey theory if they were better with him (speaking for it is already the fact that he doesn't carry the tons of mental problems of the others; speaking against it is that one new player usually goes down with the rest of the team), but it was definitely negligent to not try everything in their situation; especially if you got an extremely easy possibility to get a good player. Some teams have insurances against relegation, with Leverkusen it is just a rumor so far (I hope they did). Nowotny recently said that relegation would already a big catastrophe for Bayer as all stars would be gone in this case. They definitely got enough money to collect a new team, also the Bayer corporation would increase the sums to make this "accident" undone. --- Tegtmeier: your hopes and fears about the teams who you want to relegate are up to you, that's what I don't care about. I also agree that Leverkusen is an ugly city, no doubt about that. But regarding the other points you must have been sleeping in the last decade. No fans? A bit more than 20.000 is the official average - means that every ninth citizen is in the stadium, one of the best per head averages of the league. Hamburg has nine times more citizens and just twice as much attendance, that's really not glorious in comparison - and this despite of their tradition. Keyword tradition: Leverkusen is in Bundesliga since 1980, there is hardly a handful of other clubs being in for a longer time, all others were out in between or are now. And Bundesliga without Leverkusen in the last years would have meant a massive decline in playing quality as well as in attractivity of the whole game, and you really would have had lots of excitement in the championship race if Bayern or Dortmund had clinched their titles somewhen in March or April...
Poor Bayer - it does seem a bit strange that they don't try harder to bring back Donovan - but perhaps there's more to that story. Landon seems happy in MLS, but I wonder if there is part of him that would like to be the white knight for the old team that benched him. I mean, it would be pretty cool to come back and spark the team turn-around. That's assuming, of course, that it could be done.
All I can say is that it's nice to finally see HSV work their way back up the table...nine games in a row without a loss! Europe, here we come (again).