Dortmund in Trouble

Scoreless draws are usually boring as hell to watch. When they’re on, I usually “speed watch” them. Today’s Matchday 22 game between Borussia Dortmund and FC Nürnberg was not one of those games. At kickoff, Dortmund were sitting at the top of the Bundesliga standings [51 points], two points clear of Bayern Munich. FC Nürnberg are bringing up the rear, sitting in last place with a measly 12 points. At this stage of any Bundesliga season, no team with as few points as FC Nürnberg have avoided relegation to the second division. Today was a “first vs. last” clash. I expected Dortmund to win in a blowout like they did the first time the two teams met this season [Dortmund won at home, 7-0]. That didn’t happen today.

FC Nürnberg goalie Christian Mathenia more than earned his pay today. For the first half, he was Nürnberg’s only defense [or so it seemed to me]. Mathenia made two brilliant saves against Dortmund’s lone striker Mario Götze. Götze had fired off five of his side’s six efforts on goal by the hour mark, In the second half, Nürnberg’s defenders woke up. It looked as if Nürnberg were happy to settle for a draw, so they packed their defenders in their own penalty area. This made it difficult for Dortmund to break through with a goal. Paco Alcácer substituted for Maximillian Phillip at the 63-minute mark. He narrowly missed scoring when he pushed a shot just wide of Nürnberg’s net. Jacob Bruun Larsen substituted for Dortmund’s Thomas Delaney at the 80th minute. At the 86th minute Bruun Larsen took a pass from Alcácer and put it in the back of Nürnberg’s net, but the goal was disallowed – Alcácer was clearly offside when he received the ball before he passed to Bruun Larsen. Four minutes of extra time were added, but Nürnberg fended off every Dortmund challenge. Nürnberg earned that one point with the draw. Christian Mathenia earned his first “clean sheet” against Dortmund.

Borussia Dortmund are in trouble. At one point in the season, they were nine points ahead of Bayern Munich in the standings. Now they are only three points ahead. Dortmund have racked up numerous injuries. Team captain Marco Reus has missed several games with a thigh injury. Christian Pulisic injured his hamstring in last week’s UEFA Champions League loss to Tottenham. Key defenders Lukasz Piszczek and Manuel Akanji have missed games, and Dortmund’s defense [lack thereof] shows. Last week, they snatched a draw from the jaws of victory against Hoffenheim. Days before the Hoffenheim game, Werder Bremen eliminated them from DFB-Pokal competition. Tottenham hammered them last week 3-0, and now the scoreless draw against a last-place team. They need to right the ship quickly. By the way, their next Bundesliga game is against Bayer Leverkusen, the hottest team since the end of the winter break. Since losing the first game after the winter break 1-0 to Borussia Mönchegladbach, Bayer Leverkusen have won four straight, including a 3-1 Matchday 21 victory over Bayern Munich.

Meet Claudio Pizarro

Meet Claudio Pizarro. He is the fifth-highest goal scorer in Bundesliga history with 195 goals, the latest of which he scored today. He’s been around a long time. By soccer standards, Pizarro is ancient [40 years, four months and 13 days old], and he is well-traveled. After spending the first four seasons of his professional career playing club football in the Peruvian First Division [Primera División Peruana – 1996-1999], the Peruvian striker came to the Bundesliga. Since coming to the Bundesliga, Pizarro has played for Bayern Munich [twice], Werder Bremen [four times], and one season at 1. FC Köln. While bouncing around these teams, he managed to squeeze in one season at Chelsea in the English Premier League.

Today I was watching the Matchday 22 game between Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen. At the 25-minute mark, former Bremen striker Davie Selke put Hertha ahead 1-0. As the game progressed, it looked as if Hertha’s defense would make this slimmest of leads stick. Whatever Werder tried to break through Hertha’s defense didn’t work. Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt brought Pizarro off the bench just past the hour mark [Pizarro rarely starts anymore]. Werder began to dominate possession in the second half but couldn’t score. As the game got to 90 minutes, one of the officials flashed the amount of stoppage time added – four minutes. Hertha was still leading 1-0 when Hertha’s Fabian Lustenberger fouled American Josh Sargeant just outside the penalty area five minutes into stoppage time. The referee awarded Werder a free kick. Claudio Pizarro took the free kick. Two deflections off Hertha players later, the ball found the back of the net. Werder Bremen snatched a point on the road. Hertha Berlin let one get away.

Claudio Pizarro is now the oldest goal scorer in Bundesliga history.

Hoffenheim win 3-3

Those who say there are no “moral victories” in sports didn’t watch the Bundesliga Matchday 21 game between Borussia Dortmund and Hoffenheim. Dortmund were in complete control of the game at halftime, leading 2-0. Captain Marco Reus was out for today’s game with a thigh injury, but Dortmund has an embarrassment of riches with the young players acquired during the last off-season [Jadon Sancho, Paco Alcácer]. Hoffenheim were lucky the score wasn’t twice that, because they didn’t have it together at all in the first half. Things didn’t look much better for Hoffenheim when Dortmund went up 3-0 at the 66:58 mark. Dortmund were playing at home at Signal Iduna Park, where they rarely lose. Hoffenheim were as good as dead. Today’s match commentators implied as much. Dortmund were toying with Hoffenheim like a cat does a squirrel before going for the kill. At 69:17 Paco Alcácer came off the bench for Dortmund, replacing Maximillian Philipp. Since coming to Dortmund on a loan from Barcelona, all he does is score goals. This season he’s scored ten, and is in the hunt of the Torjägerkanone, awarded to the league’s top goal scorer.

Sancho nearly made it 4-0 when his shot hit the post at 74:04. But at 74:39, Hoffenheim striker Ishak Belfodil, a second-half substitute, made the score 3-1. The ball barely got past Dortmund keeper Roman Bürki, but it was enough. Finally, the game was interesting. Commentator Phil Bonney said it was a shame Hoffenheim didn’t get their first goal when the game was 2-0, but there were still fifteen minutes to play. A lot can happen in the Bundesliga in fifteen minutes – just ask anyone who plays Bayern Munich. At 82 minutes, Dortmund substituted defender Ömer Toprak for midfielder Mario Götze, who had one goal and one brilliant assist before coming off. It seemed as if Dortmund were slowly locking down Hoffenheim and would take the three points with a victory. However, almost immediately after Toprak came on for Götze, Hoffenheim defender Pavel Kaderábek put a fantastic header past Bürki to make the score 3-2. In an instant the game seemed to be slipping away from Dortmund. They were still leading, but there was a sense of impending doom in front of the home fans. Suddenly, it was “game on” again.

Paco Alcácer nearly made it 4-2 with a shot that went just wide. Dortmund were awarded a corner kick off the play but couldn’t capitalize. They had two more corner kicks in rapid succession and still could not score. This would come back to bite Dortmund. After a foul in Hoffenheim’s end, Hoffenheim brought the ball into Dortmund’s end. A Dortmund foul resulted in a free kick for Hoffenheim. Unlike Dortmund just minutes before, Hoffenheim capitalized on the foul. Midfielder Dennis Geiger, another second-half substitute for Hoffenheim, delivered the free kick into the Dortmund penalty area. Ishak Belfodil made a diving header at 86:49, tying the score 3-3. To give you an idea how significant this is, Hoffenheim have been horrible at scoring from set-piece plays. This time they did, against the league-leaders in their own yard. There the score remained until the referee blew the whistle at the end of two minutes of stoppage time. This game was reminiscent of last year’s Revierderby against Schalke, when Dortmund blew a 4-0 halftime lead and drew with Schalke 4-4. This was a massive comeback by Hoffenheim. Dortmund had the three points in the bag, and they let them slip away. It was a very hard-fought point for Hoffenheim.

Roman Bürki did not have a bad game. He made some brilliant saves in the first half to keep Hoffenheim scoreless. His defense let him down in the second half – again. Defense has always been Dortmund’s Achilles’ Hell, and so it was today. This hasn’t been a good week for Borussia Dortmund. Earlier this week, Werder Bremen eliminated them from the DFB-Pokal. With today’s draw, and Bayern Munich’s 3-1 win over Schalke, Dortmund are only five points clear of Bayern. There are thirteen games left to play this season, and the title is still Dortmund’s to lose. Dortmund has to put this result out of their minds of they are to keep ahead of Bayern. Mario Götze said this on his FB page:

“Happy about the ⚽️ and the 🅰️ but the result feels like a defeat...”

FC Köln Wakes Up

It hasn’t been easy for FC Köln this year. By finishing in fifth place in the Bundesliga for the 2016-17 season, they qualified for the UEFA Europa league for this this year. A big part of their success came from Anthony Modeste, the French international who scored 25 goals last season [third-best in the Bundesliga]. But after last season, Modeste took his talents [and most of FC Köln’s offense with him] to Chinese club Tianjin Quanjian F.C. The first half of the current Bundesliga season was horrendous for FC Köln. They managed only three draws [against Hannover, Schalke, and Werder Bremen] in the first 14 weeks. This was FC Köln’s worst start ever in their history. On December 3, the team fired coach Peter Stöger [who was unemployed for one week – he replaced Borussia Dortmund’s coach Peter Bosz on December 10]. Since Stefan Ruthenbeck replaced Stöger, FC Köln has gotten off the deck by winning three straight matches. They are still mired in last place in the Bundesliga and may still face relegation to 2.Bundesliga at season’s end. All FC Köln needs to do is finish in 15th place to avoid the season’s end relegation playoff [they are currently four points behind 16th place Werder Bremen]. There is a glimmer of hope. That hope is Simon Ferodde.

During the just-completed winter break, Ferodde transferred from VfB Stuttgart to FC Köln. The transfer has paid immediate dividends. Last week, Köln pulled off the upset by defeating Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1. Ferodde got the winning goal with a header at the end of stoppage time [it was the last play of the game]. To put this in perspective, Borussia Mönchengladbach defeated Bayern Munich 3-1 in Week 13, giving Jupp Heynckes his first taste of defeat since taking over from Carlo Ancelloti. Borussia Mönchengladbach are currently in fifth place in the Bundesliga standings. Köln beat a good quality team. This week, Terodde scored the game’s only goals as Köln defeated 17th place Hamburg 2-0. That’s three goals in two matches for Terodde – not too bad for one week’s work. Things are looking up for Köln.

Borussia Dortmund - Time to Panic?

What has happened to Borussia Dortmund? They started the current Bundesliga campaign in beast mode. Through the first seven weeks, they won six and drew once. They scored 21 goals while surrendering only two. They gave up zero goals in the first four matches. They seemed to be running away with the Bundesliga. Then the wheels fell off. Their last win in Bundesliga play came on Matchday 7 against Augsburg. That was September 30th [it’s mid-November now]. Since then, they’ve lost [including today] to RB Leipzig [at home!], Hannover 96, Bayern Munich [at home!] and VfB Stuttgart. The best they could manage was a 2-2 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt. In their last two UEFA Champions League matches, they managed two 1-1 draws against APOEL Nicosia. In four days they play Tottenham in the UEFA Champions League, then Schalke four days later. Schalke is the team immediately behind them in the Bundesliga standings. They might catch a break the following week against Bayer Leverkusen [they’re currently 9th in the Bundesliga].

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is but one barometer to measure Dortmund’s success. As he goes, so goes Dortmund. But lately, he’s been in a bit of a funk. He hasn’t scored since Matchday 8. For reasons unexplained he was suspended for the Matchday 12 match against VfB Stuttgart. That’s not to say that Dortmund’s current slide is Aubameyang’s fault – it isn’t. Since that Matchday 7 victory against Augsburg, Dortmund have surrendered 14 goals while scoring only eight. After seeming to runaway with the league in the first seven weeks, Dortmund now find themselves in third place behind Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig [same as last year]. Bayern Munich fired Carlo Ancelotti for lackluster play – could Peter Bosz be next? Since replacing Thomas Tuchel, Bosz introduced an always-pressing style. Is the team already exhausted? I don’t know, but during today’s Bundesliga telecast, Bosz was quoted as the rest of the league have “figured out” Dortmund. I just got back from two weeks in Korea and last night I watched Der Klassiker against Bayern Munich [Bayern won 3-1]. Dortmund’s defense wasn’t pretty. They kept giving Bayern too much space to operate, and Bayern made them pay. Today against Stuttgart, Stuttgart ran Dortmund into the ground. If Bosz doesn’t make any adjustments to the league’s having “figured out” his team, he could follow Ancelotti to the unemployment line.

Nov. 19th note - Between September 30th and now, Borussia Dortmund have fallen from first place to fifth. Meanwhile, Schalke now sits in second place. Good luck Dortmund, you’ll need it.

Bundesliga Match Day 4

Fox Sports televised six Bundesliga games this weekend. On Friday, Hannover defeated Hamburg 2-0. After spending last season in 2. Bundesliga, Hannover are in surprisingly good form. They’re so good right now that for the first time since Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, Hannover found themselves in first place, even if it was for only two days. Three of the televised games were blowouts: Bayern Munich 4, Mainz 0; Bayer Leverkusen 4, Freiburg 0; and Borussia Dortmund 5, FC Köln 0.

Robert Lewandowski scored a pair for Bayern, which puts him at 5 goals thus far season. Maximilian Philipp and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang each scored a pair for Dortmund. That puts Aubameyang at four goals to date. Dortmund are in beast mode this season, scoring ten goals without allowing a single goal in four games. New coach Peter Bosz’s always-pressing style is paying dividends for now. I don’t know how long Dortmund can keep up the pace, but right now they don’t appear to miss Ousmane Dembele. Dembele made the move to Barcelona for a truckload of money, but in his La Liga debut yesterday he severely injured a hamstring, which will put him out of action for three to four months. FC Köln hasn’t shown any offense so far – in four matches they’ve scored only twice. They miss Anthony Modeste, who transferred to Tianjin Quanjian of the Chinese Super League this summer.

Timo Werner [pictured above] has been playing extremely well as of late. Having been awarded the Golden Boot for the most goals scored during this summer’s Confederations Cup [3], Werner recorded his fourth goal of the season in RB Leipzig’s match with Borussia Mönchengladbach. His is the top German scorer in the Bundesliga. Of the six matches televised this weekend, the RB Leipzig-Borussia Mönchengladbach match, which ended in a 2-2 draw, was the most entertaining. Werner drew first blood in the 17th minute, but seven minutes later Borussia Mönchengladbach equalized after Belgian midfielder Thorgan Hazard converted a penalty shot. Jean-Kévin Augustin [signed this summer from Paris Saint Germain] restored Leipzig’s lead in the 34th minute. Leipzig held the lead until Lars Stindl hammered home the equalizing goal from outside the penalty area. Leipzig’s goalie Péter Gulácsi did everything right, going airborne in the direction of Stindl’s shot, but Stindl’s thunderbolt was in just the right spot, out of Gulácsi’s reach. Leipzig kept pressing, but Mönchengladbach’s defense responded to each challenge. It was a riveting contest. With RB Leipzig’s second place finish n the Budesliga, they are playing in the UEFA Champions League, just like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. They’re playing with the big boys in Europe now. They played Monaco to a 1-1 draw last week.

Last week Hoffenheim stunned Bayern Munich at home 2-0. They started today’s match against Hertha Berlin in 7th place with the chance to move up to third with a win. They had a very good season last year, which was good enough to earn them the chance to get into the UEFA Champions League. They lost a two-game playoff to Liverpool, so now they’re playing in the Europa League. As it is, Hoffenheim, like RB Leipzig, are doing double duty in the Bundesliga and European football. It’ll be interesting to see how both of these clubs last. They no longer have the luxury to rest while Bayern and Borussia play the extra games with the rest of Europe. Hertha Berlin are no strangers to European play. Like Hoffenheim, they too are playing in the UEFA Europa League. Last week they played Athletic Bilbao to a 0-0 draw.

As for today’s match, Sandro Wagner put Hoffenheim ahead early with a header in just the sixth minute of play. Hoffenheim held the lead until Hertha Berlin’s Alexander Esswein equalized in the 55th minute. Both teams seemed to play like they were tired, and they probably were. After the equalizer, it was a pretty dull game. I know, for a lot of people this is a dull sport.

Bayern Munich 3, Bayer Leverkusen 1

After a three-month summer break, the 2017-18 Bundesliga season finally kicked off at Munich’s Allianz Arena as Bayern Munich began defense of their Bundesliga title against Bayer Leverkusen. Both teams have new looks. Top scorer Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez left Leverkusen, taking his prodigious goal scoring back to England to play for West Ham. Midfielder Sven Bender joined his twin brother Lars from Borussia Dortmund. Heiko Herrlich is Leverkusen’s new coach, who replaced interim coach Tayfun Korkut [who replaced Roger Schmidt, whom Leverkusen sacked after getting thrashed by Borussia Dortmund 6-2 last year]. Bayern Munich also have some new faces - Sebastian Rudy and Niklas Süle signed from Hoffenheim, French midfielder Corentin Tolisso [signed from French club Lyon], and Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez is on loan from Real Madrid. Bayern lost Phillip Lahm and Xabi Alonso to retirement. The Video Assisted Referee [VAR] made its debut the in Bundesliga regular season.

Bayern’s summer acquisitions are already paying dividends. The Hoffenheim Connection got Bayern on the board first. New guys Sebastian Rudy and Niklas Süle connected for the first goal in the 10th minute. Leverkusen’s Domink Kohr picked up his first yellow card of the new season with a hard foul on Franck Ribéry. After Bayern were awarded the free kick, Sebastian Rudy lofted the kick into the Leverkusen penalty area, and 6’5” defender Niklas Süle made the header which gave Bayern the early lead. Bayern team captain Manuel Neuer is still recovering from a broken foot he suffered against Real Madrid in UEFA Champions League last spring. Leverkusen had their chances. Macedonian striker Admir Mehmedi forced a save from Bayern backup goalie Sven Ulreich and Karim Bellarabi put the follow-up wide, almost equalizing in the 11th minute.

In the 18th minute Bayern made it 2-0. Leverkusen showed they are still having problems with the set piece plays as Corentin Tolisso made his Bundesliga debut, scoring his first Bundesliga goal on a header from a corner kick play [the assist from Arturo Vidal]. Four minutes later Tolisso nearly got his second goal, hitting a cross off the woodwork that almost found Robert Lewandowsky.

To start the second half, Leverkusen substituted Julian Brandt for Leon Bailey, and Aleksandar Dragovic for Sven Bender. Leverkusen came out attacking to begin the second half. The VAR made its presence felt in the 52nd minute when Robert Lewandowski was pulled down by Charles Aranguiz in the Leverkusen penalty area. Upon review, Lewandowski was awarded a penalty shot, which he converted to give Bayern a 3-0 lead. Julian Brandt took his first shot on goal in the 55th minute, but the shot went wide right. More substitutions came in the– Bayern’s Arjen Robben came on for Thomas Müller 61st minute, Leverkusen’s Kevin Kampl came on for Charles Aranguiz at the same time, while Rafinha came on for Mats Hummels two minutes later.

Leverkusen finally got on the board in the 65th minute after Julian Brandt [from the penalty spot] found Admir Mehmedi, who hammered a thunderbolt of a goal past Bayern goalie Sven Ulreich. Domink Kohr nearly made it 3-2, just barely missing a chance off a Leverkusen free kick in the 72nd minute. Bayern substituted Kingsley Coman for Franck Ribéry in the 77th minute.

With Manuel Neuer not providing his usual sweeper-keeper excellence, Sven Ulreich is proving susceptible to challenges from the opposing team. He’s not as good with his feet as Neuer. Ulreich made the saves when he needed to, but he doesn’t quite provide that security blanket the Bayern is used to with Neuer in goal. That’s not quite fair to Ulreich since Neuer is one of the best goalies in the world today, but that’s what Bayern must contend with until his return. Leverkusen had their chances to score but couldn’t capitalize on Bayern’s defensive lapses. There were at least three times when Leverkusen should have scored but didn’t. Leverkusen played better at the beginning of the second half, but Bayern settled things down and in the end, Bayern prevailed 3-1.

The weather was absolute crap. A torrential downpour drenched both sides just before halftime. As a result, the beginning of the second half was delayed for 10 minutes.

Next week Bayern travel to Werder Bremen, while Leverkusen hosts Hoffenheim.

As always, in-studio hostess Kate Abdo was stunning. 😊