Los geht's

Finally it's started again. The Bundesliga season 2012/2013 is underway. Don't want to linger too much on the favorites, but once again Bayern is expected to go all the way. Dortmund is the other candidate to the top. Those two will race against each other and it will be a huge surprise if the Champion won't come from those two teams.

Every year there is at least one team that surprises everyone. Two years ago Mainz 05 and last year Mönchengladbach were able to tease the top teams until the end of the season. This year I would lift two teams which are capable of doing something big. Stuttgart showed great form towards the end of last season and their team has only gotten stronger. Harnik is in a good form as well as Ibisevic who scored twice in the Europa league qualification against Dynamo Moscow.

Stuttgart is playing against Wolfsburg in the first round which I consider the second team capable of harassing the big ones. The team is strong on paper and it played a solid second half of the last season. They have gotten two big players who are the top of the league when they succeed. Ivica Olic and Diego form a very dangerous duo, but their form is a questionmark. Olic scored twice in the last pre-season game so he is at least finding his form. To me Diego is a very interesting player. He was one of the best Bundesliga players some years ago in Werder Bremen, but then his magic just disappeared. He is a player that can bring Wolfsburg a long way, or take it down as well. Wolfsburg is a team that can go either great or its performance might be miserable as well. Magath has showed that he is a strong manager that can lead a team to the trophy, but when it starts to wrong the team might be found in the relegation battles.

There are of course at least Schalke 04, Hannover 96 and maybe even Bayer Leverkusen that are able to fight for the top positions. I still doubt it. Hannover just doesn't have the material and Schalke is still too young a team. Leverkusen still has the potential, but I'm very doubtful with the coaching. Let's hope I'm wrong as the eyes of whole Finland, let alone the Germans, are focused on Sami Hyypiä. 

March of the Japanese

Finally the Japanese footballers have started to break through to the top teams in European football. Of course the shining star at the moment is Shinji Kagawa who was, at least as far as I'm concerned, the best player in the Bunedsliga last year. Japanese players have tried to make it in Europe before without a greater success. The most successful player might be Hidetoshi Nakata, who played mostly in Italy, but never made the big headlines. Now its Kagawas time to show the world some Japanese football.

Kagawa's shoes are not easy to fill. I think that Götze has the potential to do that as he showed the season before. No one else in the team doesn't even come close. The hole that Kagawa left is even bigger if we talk about the Japanese players. There are in fact ten Japanese in the Bundesliga this year. Hasebe who plays for Wolfsburg is often seen on the field and Schalkes Utchida has been an important player for the Gelsenkircheners for the past season or two. Both of them are good examples of Japanese hard working players.

Last season Stuttgart made a great deal when they bought a German-Japanese player. Gotoku Sakais performance in the14 games he played for Stuttgart was outstanding. He hardly lost any one-on-one situations and was  very good to both directions from his back post. He made five assists and
scored an average of 3,43 in the kicker marks last season. I was really impressed with his attitude and the pace he goes into battling situations. I think Gotoku Sakai is the man to keep a closer eye on for the 2012-2013 season.

Another interesting player is MönchengladbachsYuki Otsu, who played in three matches last season. He is a promising attacker who scored two beautiful goals in the Olympics for Japan. Especially now when Marco Reus is not there anymore to score goals young players have to step up. Otsu might be one of those, although he hasn't been playing too much in the pre-season games. All in all ten Japanese players is a big bunch that will keep some Japanese focus in the Bundesliga as well.