Augsburg ready for another season

I think it's time to concentrate on the lower end of the table on this round again.

Hertha took an important win in Mainz last weekend and Augsburg carried on with scoring points with a draw against Bremen. Augsburgs last defeat is from 18.2. against Leverkusen. It seems the man with the moustache, Jos Luhukay, has got his team into a flight that will result in a place among the 15 best in the end of the season. Six draws and two wins from the last nine games. If they keep it up the augsburgers can enjoy the top level Bundesliga even next year.

Augsburg against Köln might be the most interesting match this weekend. Köln is really struggling. 6-1 against the reigning champions last weekend doesn't leave much room for speculation. The Köln defence is just as bad as the numbers indicate. Solbakken has tried his best coaching the team, but maybe he has been a bit too ambitious. The Köln offence is still ok, but with the players he has a more defensive style could be better. The game against Augsburg is vital, and seeing Augsburg's record I'd say a draw is the way to go in the bets. If Köln loses, they'll drop below the Bavarians in the table and will have a hard time trying to get past them again.

Köln is still a team that can either win or lose heavily, as we saw against Dortmund. The strikers are still top class, but they need a self confidence boost. Podolski has been struggling and Novakovic hasn't found the form the whole season. The swede Mikael Ishak made an impression to me in the game against Hannover although he wasn't able to score. Maybe he is the man to place in the forward . At least he's got potential.

The other game in the relegation battle is between Kaiserslautern and Hamburg. Kaiserlautern has only seven games time to climb from the bottom, and it has to start now. This game is a matter of life and death to them. With a win they'll close the gap to Hamburg to three points and by losing the gap to the second last team will stay at least at six points. I don't see Kaiserslautern winning, although HSV has been horrible. To the hamburgers dropping one league below would be a catastrophe and I still kind of believe they will succeed in staying in the Bundesliga.So I'm going to bet this one for Hamburg and say byebye to Kaiserslautern and their  boring football with no goals.

Pukki against Ring

No game like against Bayern have we seen from the Hamburgers this season. I saw Mainz - Hamburg before the Christmas break in Mainz and when i compare that game to the one last weekend I must say i didn't reconize Hamburg as the same team. Ok, Hamburg against Bayern is kind of a classic, but I think Thorsten Fink had done something magical with his team under the game. Hamburg were definitely not the worse team in the tight battle. I'd like to say they were better, but maybe a tie was the fair result.

All in all Hamburg showed character in one to one situations and were able to play great as a team. Drobny made some good saves and the defence held tight nearly all the time. Even the attacks were working decently. Well, don't want to praise them too much. They didn't win, but it was without a doubt the best match I've seen them play in the last two seasons. Of course I haven't seen them all, but anyway. I was totally surprised, because I was more than certain that Bayern will crush them like bugs.

I'm not an expert in team budgets, but I'd reckon that Hamburg isn't one of the poorest clubs. And seeing their material, they finally came even close to the level that they should be playing on. Let's at least hope they won't be as bad as they were against Mainz, because that was just awful. One could say that was hardly football. This weekend Hamburg is facing Köln. Köln can either play great or suck really bad,so this is Hamburgs chance to take a big victory. The other option is a big defeat. At least that's my guess. 1-4 or 4-1.

That's enough for now. Except Gladbach against Schalke will be played on saturday night. Ring against Pukki. Just have to keep my fingers crossed even one of them gets on the pitch. At least Pukki should, because Marica scored twice two weeks ago. He's done for the whole season. And Schalke really messed it up on the last round. So wake up Stevens. Pukki in the starting eleven. Now. And if Pukki plays, then Favre should let Ringgo and try to slow Pukki down. May the best Finn win!