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. 

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.