I would like to ask how the fans react to França. Are they happy with him and do they feel he is a good addition to the team and is he adapting well to the german game.
Franca is still having huge problems with the way of playing in Germany. Anyone is waiting for the final breakthrough when time and again he is performing well, but then he regularly disappoints again. In the winter break he was one of the best players in the friendlies, but he seems to be scared of the tall and physical defenders in Bundesliga. His strength definitely are his technical skills, but he doesn't have much space for such things in league games. On the one hand he's having bad luck to come in a situation, in which hardly anything is working for the whole team, but on the other hand one goal in eight games is not what the fans expect of a 9.5 M transfer. The club is not worried though, they say that in the worst case they can immediately sell him back to Brazil and get almost any another player for him instead.
Many other Brazilians have flounder before catching fire. Give him at least a year...especially when the midfield and defence get sorted out and he'll come good. I bet if he came into a side like Bayern or Dortmund he'd be banging in goals like Amoruso or Elber.
I'll give him some extra time before making a decison, i mean he's had some injury problems, the team is crap in general right now, and as olaf mentioned he's only played 8 games, that's less than half. Why he cost so much is a mystery to me though if Ze Roberto was only sold for what 10 million euros? I think that he was a bit overvalued, but could still turn out to be a good deal.
Sorry to drift off topic: Bri, did you see Aachen at Freiburg on DSF last Monday? Man, the Straub save in the stoppage time of the second half alone was worth watching the game. Really incredible how he saved the header after already lying on the pitch. Hot candidate for "Save of the Year" if we had such a category.
I actually didn't see the save (darn classes getting in the way of soccer) but a friend told me that Straub had about 5 "blinding" saves in the second half alone, i remember a beautiful double save that sounds like the one he made against Freiburg to keep Alemannia up against Union Berlin earlier this season. He's just been phenomonal the whole season. I remember seeing Kicker list him as the best keeper of division two for the first half of the season and he definitely deserves it. Here's to hoping that he keeps it up. And by the way, any possible way you might be able to find video of second league highlights even on the web, i would love to see this save. i haven't made it to an away game yet this season but i figure part two of the Rhein Derby will be the best time. Can't wait, just over a week, until then, lets hope Alemannia can best Greuter Fuerth!
Hey Bayer fans Are there any Leverkusen-only forums out there? Are they all in German or are there any in English?