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.

Update

As the EURO is wrapped up it's time to concentrate in the Bundesliga again.

The next season is still a mystery and teams are building up their squads. The transfer market has cooled down a bit but there will surely happen something big before it closes again. Many players have changed clubs inside the Bundesliga, and I've listed some interesting ones for me as well. Here are some big transfers:

Marco Reus (Möchengladbach ->Dortmund)
Shinji Kagawa (Dortmund -> Man U)
Mario Mandzukic (Wolfsburg -> Bayern München)
Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen -> Bayern München)
Dante (Mönchengladbach -> Bayern München)
Tranquillo Barnetta (Leverkusen -> Schalke)
Eren Derdiyok (Leverkusen ->Hoffenheim)
Ivica Olic (Bayern Munchen -> Wolfsburg)

Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen -> Hoffenheim)
Rene Adler (Leverkusen -> HSV)

Mladen Petric (HSV ->?)
Eljero Elia (Juventus -> Werder Bremen)
Naldo (Werder Bremen -> Wolfsburg)
Luuk de Jong (Twente -> Mönchengladbach)
                                                                                  Luuk de Jong scored 25 goals last season for Twente.

Of course, these are only a fraction of all the transfers. But the biggest lost for the whole league is the transfer of Shinji Kagawa off to England. He was without a doubt the best player of the last season, and will surely show the islanders what Bundesliga is made of.

Other than that the teams seem as strong as they did last year. Bayern has three top strikers and if Dortmund will continue with one striker tactics they have a problem as well. But I think Klopp might find room for both Reus and Lewandowski now that the Japanese is gone. It's left to be seen how many players will change clubs so the real speculation of the season can begin.

The season is wrapped up

As you might have noticed,the season has ended without much effort from the blogger. It was a great season and Dortmund made it again. The decicive game against Bayern exceeded every expectation and offered a great deal of drama. In the cup final Bayern had another chance, but at the latest in that game Dortmund proved their superiorty this year. I can congratulate Dortmund of their double! And wish Bayern better luck next year. Maybe they can turn one of their three second places this year into a first place.

For Finland the second half of the season didn't go as well as hoped. Teemu Pukki didn't get enough time on the field, but was able to score some goals nonetheless. All in all it was a great season from him, and as the team for the next year is being formed I think Schalke will count on him even more. Alexander Ring got to play a few minutes in a couple of games and had a few chances of scoring goals. Hope he will get more responsibility next season. The third name in the Bundesliga next year is indeed Timo Furuholm who represents Fortuna Düsseldorf, that is if he stays in the club. So lots and lots to hope for the next season.

Although the Bundesliga is over for this year there is still much more football to come. You should check out my other blog lamboftheday.blogspot.com. That is about the EURO 2012 and will be updated almost daily.

Thanks for all readers! The blogging will start again next year as the Bundesliga starts. Enjoy the EURO 2012!

A Finnish head coach

I totally agree that it was about time to sack Robin Dutt. I think he lacked - or still lacks - some basic coaching skills and stays to his routines in coaching. He made always more or less the same substitutions and played with the same tactics. There were many times I cursed when Derdiyok was substituted for Kiessling on the 70th minute or vice versa, when the right move would have been two attackers or even a slight change in the tactical side. Maybe he was good in other areas in coaching. I think everyone remembers the start of the season when he wouldn't let Ballack play. So he was brave and he had a certain vision,at least in the beginning of the season. In the long run he ran out of ideas, and maybe the team owners saw that. Dutt is not the only one to blame in this situation, but something had to be done to keep the chances for the euro-games alive.

 

For me the selection of Sami Hyypiä was a huge surprise. Ok, he was a great player and a successful one as well, but the coaching experience is almost non-existent. Half a season as the second or third coach in Leverkusen and the Finnish national team are a joke compared to other Bundesliga managers. The achievements as a player speak for themselves and he has lots of experience from different leagues. The experience from the very top of European football might be the most important thing here and Hyypiä could develop a great manager. I think Leverkusen is taking a risk here, but Hyypiä even a bigger one. Its always hard to change the course of a team that is doing bad, and chances with failure are even bigger than when you start from the beginning of a season. Let's hope for Hyypiä's sake that he doesn't have to conjure any magic. Hopefully the sacking of Dutt is the necessary wake up call for the team to improve.

There is six games to go in the league and Leverkusen is on the 7th place with 40 points. Everything from 5th to 9th position is possible for them as the teams in those places have 40 or 41 points. All of the remaining games are against teams that are below them in the table, except for Hannover game. So it shouldn't be too hard a task to finish in the top seven that qualify for the euro games, or at least qualifications for them. All the best to Sami Hyypiä. Let's hope he makes a good job with Lewandowski and leads his team to good performances in the remaining games.


Some statistics of Sami Hyypiä:

105 caps in the Finnish national team (5 goals)

1992-1995     MyPa                 96 games  (8)
1996-1999     Willem II          100 games  (3)
1999-2009     Liverpool FC   317 games (22)
2009-2011     Leverkusen        53 games  (3)

Winner of the Champions League 2005
Winner of the UEFA Cup 2001
Winner of the FA Cup 2001, 2006
Winner of the League Cup 2001, 2003

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.

Bayern is back.

14 goals in the last two games. Bayern is back. Or is it? The game they are playing reminds of the way they were playing in the beginning of the season. 7-0 against Freiburg on the 5th round, and 7-0 against Basel in the Champions League game. There is a similarity, not only in the results, but the way they are performing. The attacking players are playing with joy, and must be full of confidence. That makes Bayern a very hard team to beat at the moment.

There is still five points difference between the two top teams, but that is not enough for Dortmund to start slacking. Bayern is coming strong now, but are they able to keep on going? Dortmund hasn't been showing too many signs of slowing down, but there is the game between Bayern and Dortmund which will be crucial in the battle for the championship. Mönchengladbach and Schalke aren't too far behind, but both teams performances haven't been too impressive in the last rounds. So it really seems that it's going to be Bayern or Dortmund. And it's going to be tight. The question is, will Bayern play like this until the end.

If Bayern and Dortmund are playing good so are a few other teams as well. Looks like Mainz players have finally started to play as a team and Tuchel can breath a little easier. After the Christmas break only one defeat, and the position in the table is steadily rising. Also Augsburg has climbed up from the bottom and it seems they are getting away from the relegation battle. Of course they are still in the danger zone, but if I had to guess the three last teams would be from these four teams: Kaiserslautern, Hertha, Freiburg, Hamburg.

What is left to be said of the last two rounds in this blog is of course two words: Teemu Pukki. It's great to see him play more than 15 minutes per game again. And to see him play well is even more great. Two goals in the last two games show that Pukki is in Gelsenkirchen to stay, and hopefully will play in an even bigger role next season. Alexander Ring finally made the debut in the Bundesliga. There's not much to be said about his performance, but it's a delight to see two young Finnish players in action.