The Bundesliga remains ultra-competitive for clubs and managers!
The 2009-10 Bundesliga season is three fixtures old, and so far it shows no signs of being any more predictable than last season's tumultuous battle. Those who take only a cursory look at the Bundesliga may be surprised to know that Bayern Munich are currently as low as 14th in the table.
Bayern had a turbulent last campaign, the great hope that came in the guise of the former German coach Jürgen Klinsmann did not work out as planned. Instead Bayern hovered around the top four and suffered from inconsistency which ultimately led to the club's board sacking the mercurial coach, even if it was a little hasty.
His replacement has come in the form of Louis van Gaal. Fresh from his impressive transformation of AZ Alkmaar from Dutch also-rans to dominant Eredivisie champions last term. The expectancy is that he will re-establish Germany's premier club, but their start to the Bundesliga has been far from a blitzkrieg.
They drew their opening league fixture 1-1, with last season's surprise package TSG Hoffenheim. There is no disgrace in an away draw with last year's "Herbstmeister", but this result was followed by another 1-1 with Werder Bremen. A team that did fantastically well in the cups last season, winning the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) and losing the last Uefa Cup final, but whilst finishing a lowly 10th in the league.
Last weekend Bayern followed up their opening draws with a shock first defeat of the season, away to the newly promoted FSV Mainz 05. The new Bundesliga arrivals stunned Bayern by going 2-0 up within the first 35 minutes of the game, the goals coming from Andreas Ivanschitz and Aristide Bancé. The home team did concede an own goal after the break, but van Gaal's team were unable to force an equaliser and have suffered their worst start to a season in 43 years.
The Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg have meanwhile made a fairly decent start to their title defence. After they had lost Felix Magath, the manager who had led them to their first ever Bundesliga, there were understandable fears that it would precipitate a collapse in the club's fortunes.
The man brought in to take the helm of Die Wölfe is Armin Veh, who lost his job at VfB Stuttgart last November. Despite that ignominious end to his tenure, Veh has got a good record and has already won the Bundesliga title when in charge of Stuttgart in the 2006-07 season.
The start of this campaign saw Wolfsburg defeat Veh's old club Stuttgart 2-0 at home. This was followed by an equally impressive 3-1 away victory over FC Köln, who have been understandably buoyed by the return of their favourite son Lukas Podolski. The second win of the season also produced a debut goal for the club from Obafemi Martins, a player that Newcastle United will rue not getting more out of.
The last round of fixtures saw Wolfsburg's good start come to an abrupt end despite another Martins goal, after slumping to a 4-2 home loss to Hamburger SV. Their cause wasn't helped by disastrous defending which saw Veh's team 2-0 down inside the first ten minutes. Wolfsburg rallied in part thanks to Martins and restored parity to 2-2, before they lost concentration again and conceded two more in the last fifteen minutes.
With that result Hamburger SV have also shown that they may well build on the lone season's potential that Martin Jol established last time around. When you look at it the Bundesliga does appear to be a good league to regain work or swap jobs. Jol's replacement at Hamburger is Bruno Labbadia, who until the summer was in charge of Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
As for Leverkusen, they have promptly regrouped and are the team that sits atop the Bundesliga after the opening three matches. Their last match saw them destroy reigning Bundesliga 2 champions SC Frieburg 5-0 away. This followed a solid 1-0 victory over TSG Hoffenheim the previous weekend.
Who may you ask is their new manager? He is the vastly experienced Jupp Heynckes, who has managed Real Madrid and Benfica amongst others, but who spent the tail end of last season filling in for Klinsmaan after his sacking from Bayern.
So where did Felix Magath go after securing a footnote in the history of Wolfsburg? Rather than go to a new and exciting challenge in another domestic league he instead decided to take the helm at FC Schalke 04. The team from Gelsenkirchen were looking to recover their momentum after the failure of Fred Rutten in his inaugural season in charge. To have snared Magath from the current Bundesliga champions shows their intent and so far things are going well for them.
They lie in third place in the table and are equal on points with Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen. In their opening two fixtures they secured relatively routine victories against FC Nürnberg and VfL Bochum. Although it should be noted that Nürnberg were promoted via the Bundesliga 2 play-offs, and that Bochum finished 14th last season.
In their most recent fixture Schalke drew 0-0 with TSG Hoffenheim, and so after only three fixtures there are no 100% records left in the division. This is a telling statistic which contributes to the belief that the 2009-10 Bundesliga is set up to be as competitive and as compelling as it's predecessor.
Not only are Bayern Munich currently languishing in 14th place, but they are closely surrounded by Borussia Dortmund and Herha Berlin. This doesn't even take into consideration the likes of Stuttgart and Hoffenheim who are more than capable of challenging the other teams if they get their acts together.
There is much uncertainty about who will win the Bundesliga this time around and how many teams will challenge, but a repeat of last May could very well happen. With only three fixtures left of the 2008-09 season there was as many as five genuine title-chasers. Why so many teams are now so similarly matched is unclear, but aside from Bayern Munich there are no teams significantly richer than any other. The result appears to be a levelling out the playing field.
At the other end of the table things are not looking as positively ambiguous. Play-off winners FC Nürnberg are third-bottom but have at least only suffered narrow defeats. Whereas Bundesliga 2 holders SC Freiburg are bottom and have already been at the hands of a couple of comprehensive defeats. Both teams have still gained a point from the first three games though and there is obviously a long way to go yet.
It has been reported in the past that ticket prices for Bundesliga matches are very reasonable indeed when compared to the rest of Europe, it certainly makes for a tempting long weekend away. Otherwise, if this season carries out its threat to be as entertaining as the last, it alone may be worth the subscription fee for ESPN- regardless of its Premier League delights...
Bayern had a turbulent last campaign, the great hope that came in the guise of the former German coach Jürgen Klinsmann did not work out as planned. Instead Bayern hovered around the top four and suffered from inconsistency which ultimately led to the club's board sacking the mercurial coach, even if it was a little hasty.
His replacement has come in the form of Louis van Gaal. Fresh from his impressive transformation of AZ Alkmaar from Dutch also-rans to dominant Eredivisie champions last term. The expectancy is that he will re-establish Germany's premier club, but their start to the Bundesliga has been far from a blitzkrieg.
They drew their opening league fixture 1-1, with last season's surprise package TSG Hoffenheim. There is no disgrace in an away draw with last year's "Herbstmeister", but this result was followed by another 1-1 with Werder Bremen. A team that did fantastically well in the cups last season, winning the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) and losing the last Uefa Cup final, but whilst finishing a lowly 10th in the league.
Last weekend Bayern followed up their opening draws with a shock first defeat of the season, away to the newly promoted FSV Mainz 05. The new Bundesliga arrivals stunned Bayern by going 2-0 up within the first 35 minutes of the game, the goals coming from Andreas Ivanschitz and Aristide Bancé. The home team did concede an own goal after the break, but van Gaal's team were unable to force an equaliser and have suffered their worst start to a season in 43 years.
The Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg have meanwhile made a fairly decent start to their title defence. After they had lost Felix Magath, the manager who had led them to their first ever Bundesliga, there were understandable fears that it would precipitate a collapse in the club's fortunes.
The man brought in to take the helm of Die Wölfe is Armin Veh, who lost his job at VfB Stuttgart last November. Despite that ignominious end to his tenure, Veh has got a good record and has already won the Bundesliga title when in charge of Stuttgart in the 2006-07 season.
The start of this campaign saw Wolfsburg defeat Veh's old club Stuttgart 2-0 at home. This was followed by an equally impressive 3-1 away victory over FC Köln, who have been understandably buoyed by the return of their favourite son Lukas Podolski. The second win of the season also produced a debut goal for the club from Obafemi Martins, a player that Newcastle United will rue not getting more out of.
The last round of fixtures saw Wolfsburg's good start come to an abrupt end despite another Martins goal, after slumping to a 4-2 home loss to Hamburger SV. Their cause wasn't helped by disastrous defending which saw Veh's team 2-0 down inside the first ten minutes. Wolfsburg rallied in part thanks to Martins and restored parity to 2-2, before they lost concentration again and conceded two more in the last fifteen minutes.
With that result Hamburger SV have also shown that they may well build on the lone season's potential that Martin Jol established last time around. When you look at it the Bundesliga does appear to be a good league to regain work or swap jobs. Jol's replacement at Hamburger is Bruno Labbadia, who until the summer was in charge of Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
As for Leverkusen, they have promptly regrouped and are the team that sits atop the Bundesliga after the opening three matches. Their last match saw them destroy reigning Bundesliga 2 champions SC Frieburg 5-0 away. This followed a solid 1-0 victory over TSG Hoffenheim the previous weekend.
Who may you ask is their new manager? He is the vastly experienced Jupp Heynckes, who has managed Real Madrid and Benfica amongst others, but who spent the tail end of last season filling in for Klinsmaan after his sacking from Bayern.
So where did Felix Magath go after securing a footnote in the history of Wolfsburg? Rather than go to a new and exciting challenge in another domestic league he instead decided to take the helm at FC Schalke 04. The team from Gelsenkirchen were looking to recover their momentum after the failure of Fred Rutten in his inaugural season in charge. To have snared Magath from the current Bundesliga champions shows their intent and so far things are going well for them.
They lie in third place in the table and are equal on points with Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen. In their opening two fixtures they secured relatively routine victories against FC Nürnberg and VfL Bochum. Although it should be noted that Nürnberg were promoted via the Bundesliga 2 play-offs, and that Bochum finished 14th last season.
In their most recent fixture Schalke drew 0-0 with TSG Hoffenheim, and so after only three fixtures there are no 100% records left in the division. This is a telling statistic which contributes to the belief that the 2009-10 Bundesliga is set up to be as competitive and as compelling as it's predecessor.
Not only are Bayern Munich currently languishing in 14th place, but they are closely surrounded by Borussia Dortmund and Herha Berlin. This doesn't even take into consideration the likes of Stuttgart and Hoffenheim who are more than capable of challenging the other teams if they get their acts together.
There is much uncertainty about who will win the Bundesliga this time around and how many teams will challenge, but a repeat of last May could very well happen. With only three fixtures left of the 2008-09 season there was as many as five genuine title-chasers. Why so many teams are now so similarly matched is unclear, but aside from Bayern Munich there are no teams significantly richer than any other. The result appears to be a levelling out the playing field.
At the other end of the table things are not looking as positively ambiguous. Play-off winners FC Nürnberg are third-bottom but have at least only suffered narrow defeats. Whereas Bundesliga 2 holders SC Freiburg are bottom and have already been at the hands of a couple of comprehensive defeats. Both teams have still gained a point from the first three games though and there is obviously a long way to go yet.
It has been reported in the past that ticket prices for Bundesliga matches are very reasonable indeed when compared to the rest of Europe, it certainly makes for a tempting long weekend away. Otherwise, if this season carries out its threat to be as entertaining as the last, it alone may be worth the subscription fee for ESPN- regardless of its Premier League delights...
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