It's just the beginning

So the season is underway and the big teams have held their guts. Bayern has been very convincing, but as the last season shows early rounds do not tell the whole truth. Eintracht Frankfurt has been better than expected and they are in the lead alongside Bayern with six points.

From what I've seen this far I could predict a few relegating teams,although it's early. I'd say Greuter Fürth has got a very difficult season in front of them and it's pretty obvious that they will not stay in the league,although they managed to beat Mainz in the second round. Hoffenheim is a team that will be battling for relegation if they don't pick up their game. One scored goal in two matches doesn't promise very much. It seems Ryan Babel is desperately needed in the squad, and maybe he will be enough to change the course. My personal Black Horse Stuttgart has collected zero points so far and are on the last position. The game against Bayern showed that they are not ready to battle for the top positions. I'm sure they will pick up their game as the season goes on. It just has to happen quickly, before the team loses its faith in itself.

From a Finnish point of view the start of the season has been both good and bad. Pukki hasn't got any playtime and it seems that there is not going to be much time for him if there are no injuries, especially now when Afellay joined the Gelsenkircheners. Pukki still showed some good form in the national friendly against Czech republic when he scored the only goal of the game. And not only did he score, but he was able to find his teammates with accurate passes and won many one on one situations as well. Hopefully Huub Stevens will find some use for him in Schalke's attack. Marica has proved himself useless, so that place is to be filled but probably with Afellay.

Good news for the Finns are that Alex Ring has been playing decent minutes in Mönchengladbach shirt and that Hyypiä and Leverkusen got their first win this season. Ring has showed in the few games that he is ready to fight for his place in the opening eleven and is capable of scoring as well as defending tight against anyone. A pity is that Mönchengladbach is nowhere near the team they were last season. But as I said many times before. It's only the beginning.

Ready for the second half.

Almost all transfers are made. The last big one quite shocking for those Freiburg fans who still hope to stay in the league after the spring. Papiss Demba Cisse got transferred to Newcastle with big money. Of course Freiburg has a little time to buy a player to fill his spot, but filling those boots will prove hard. Cisse was able to score 37 goals for Freiburg in 65 Bundesliga fixtures. That is more than great especially when you look at Freiburg's total goal amount and place in the table since he has been playing there. The other players in the team are capable of scoring too, they showed that  during the last rounds. But no one comes even close to Cisse. That is for sure.

The first round after the winter break starts with a few interesting matches. A very big match at the end of the table is played between Augsburg and Freiburg. Both of the team dread losing this one, and it's interesting to see if it's only about avoiding mistakes. Augsburg didn't convince in the friendlies during the break (1 win-1 draw-1 defeat). Greuter Fürth that they lost against is on the second place in the 2. Bundesliga though. Freiburg performed a little better with two wins and one defeat. They beat CFR Cluj and Xerez and lost against Werder Bremen. The good thing for them is that they scored three times against Werder without Cisse. Both for Freiburg and Augsburg the game is crucial when thinking about the ABSTIEG they want to avoid and may even be the decisive game.

The first round of the spring season starts, in my opinion, with the most exciting game: Borussia Mönchengladbach - Bayern München. The Bavarians want to pick it up from where they left in December. And now they have Schweini back in the squad, so it looks very promising for them. But one should keep in mind that Mönchengladbach beat Bayern in the first round of the Bundesliga this season and will want to do that again. Mönchengladbach played decent games during the break and if they can keep scoring they might even win. Draw is tempting from a betting point of view but i think we could see some goals. The last game that Borussia won was 0-1 but this should be exciting. Let's hope Ring will come from the bench and score the winning goal.

Finns on fire

I just have to praise the Finns on their performances in the friendly games.

First of all it happened: Alexander Ring got loaned to Mönchengladbach, and I'm quite sure he's there to stay. But the weird thing is he has scored three goals in two friendly games even though he isn't supposed to be a goal scorer. As I have stated out earlier he has a good shot and he has scored a few times during the last season, but the goals have come as a surprise - even for himself I'd figure. He has proven that he has joined the team with the right attitude. The attitude makes him such a good player, and that is one crucial thing that is so different about him compared to other finnish players. But the fact is, like he said himself, he is not exactly finnish. The attitude and the way of playing definitely comes from his youth years in Leverkusen's youth teams. He has proved himself useful and we might see him on the pitch quite soon. Maybe even in a week.

Schalke hasn't been performing too good in the friendlies, but then again the games are not so important. The great thing is, that Teemu Pukki has answered for most of Schalkes goals. It's hard to tell without actually having seen the games of how the players actually played, but at least Pukki has scored more than the other strikers, and that can only be a good thing. Pukki has said that he is happy about the first months in Schalke and that it has gone better than expected, but shows a good attitude in saying that he wants to maintain the same level.

There has even come a third finnish player to Germany. Timo Furuholm transferred into Fortuna Düsseldorf from Inter Turku out of the blue and with good luck he will be playing Bundesliga next year, as the Düsseldorfers are leading the 2. Bundesliga for now. In any case the flow of finnish players to Germany is more than amazing, and seeing them perform well makes even a pessimist finnish football fan get excited and dream of better results for the national team too. The greatest thing in all this is that Finland hasn't had good strikers ever (if we don't count Jari Litmanen as one), but now its starting to look better.

Finally I can't ignore Wolfsburg's  actions on the transfer market during the Christmas break. They have bought eight players, and three have left. I've regarded Magath and his actions weird this season, but it seems he is really desperate. I have no clue of the new players, but if he's trying to build a winning team for this season with those players he's more dumb as it has seemed before. I have thought during the fall season that Wolfsburg plays like a team who's gonna drop into the second league. Now I could even bet money on it. Magath seems to have lost it and the first games are going to show how the break has worked for him. If and when it's going to go bad for Wolfsburg I suggest they sack Magath immediately. They have bought so many players that someone else could actually make the best with the new players.

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.