First half done

The christmas is gone and the games are on pause. It's still hectic among the teams and especially inside the tranfer market. Especially Schalke bought an interesting player, Obasi from Hoffenheim. People might think why do they need one more striker, especially when Obasi has only scored three goals this season. After looking at his stats I can say that I understand why he was bought, but I'm quite sure he won't be scoring too many goals. He might prove useful against tougher teams as he is quite strong and wins a lot of his challenges. I'm quite confident that he won't be threatening Pukki's game time as he is a totally different kind of a player. I think that Schalke wants to secure their offensive play and keep their material broad, in case someone else than Farfan gets injured.

Now to the breaking news. It seems another Finnish player is joining a Bundesliga team. Alexander Ring, who has lived in Germany as a youngster is almost certain to transfer to Borussia Mönchengladbach. As I've seen him play and develop this season I can say that if not immediately next season he is going to be an important player and hopefully play a big role in Mönchengladbach's team. Ring is young but exceptionally mature as a player. Of course he makes mistakes, but his attitude on the field is superb. He just doesn't give up and plays every situation until the end. He is the most promising player of Finnish football and together with Pukki they make a great duo that can bring the Finnish national team a long way. Ring has also a great shot and decent passing, so if he will join the Mönchengladbach squad he will be also of use -already this season.

Enough of the Finnish players for now and lets concentrate on the league. The last round proved crucial for a few teams. I think you can say that Leverkusen and Werder Bremen lost their chances to the trophy because of their losses on the last round. Both teams were unable to score any goals. Leverkusen lost to Nürnberg which is one of the worst teams in the league and with 11 points to the top Leverkusen has no chance of reaching Bayern anymore. Werder proved that it just isn't powerful enough to compete with the strong tems in the league. Sure Pizarro can score against the teams in the end of the table but against Schalke he was not even a slight dangerous. So the table shows that there are four teams that still reach for the title, Bayern being the favorite of course in the second half of the season. There are still a lot of matches to be played and as the last matches by the bavarians showed it is not obvious that they will win. Especially the games against Schalke, Mönchengladbach and Dortmund will be crucial when the champion will be decided. Of course the teams in places two, three and four are playing also against each other which all play a big role too. If I would have to put my money on one team I would definately say that Bayern will win the Bundesliga. But I think Dortmund has improved a lot since the start of the league and is my next choice for the first place. Here you can make your own calculations and predict who'll win: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/spieltag/1-bundesliga/2011-12/18/tabellenrechner.html

At the moment as the league is on a break the most exciting thing is to see if Alex Ring really will be transferred. But one thing is for sure, he will leave from HJK now or at latest next summer. And probably to Germany, since he knows the ways and the language. So I'm sure that we can enjoy his performances in the Bundesliga in the future.