The Weakerthans @ Stollwerck, Cologne

It never was a secret that The Weakerthans from Winnipeg, Mb. are one of my favourite bands of all time. Ever since I first met Stephen, their guitarist, while he was on tour with his first band Painted Thin, and then ever since he joined The Weakerthans and I got to see them play live on their first tour in 1998 I always tried to keep track on what they are doing. I still admire the records, I simply love "Fallow" and I adore "Left & Leaving", although I have to admit, that "Reconstruction Site" and "Reunion Tour" weren't able to keep up with the first two. Still, those are great records on their own with wonderful songs.
I must have seen the band numerous times. From their aforementioned first tour in 1998 when I had the pleasure of joining them for two days in Herten and Cologne (where they played a fantastic show in front of only 50 people at the "Between") to a show in 2001 when A Modest Proposal were opening up for them, to a sold out show in 2003 and a festival show in 2006 - they never disappointed me. So when word spread that they were coming to Cologne again I was sure to get a ticket for the show.
I always liked bands from Winnipeg, why I can't really tell. Maybe it was because I instantly fell in love with the guys of Painted Thin in 1997 when they were on a two month tour of Germany. Bands like them, the follow up Sixty Stories, who are now called Anthem Red, The Bonaduces, The Paperbacks, A singer/songwriter like Mike McKenzie. They were writing the songs I really liked and which I still like. Their music is very relaxing to me and their lyrics somehow seem to realy strike a chord with me. I can't really say why since it is very strange that someone from a city like Cologne could relate to what people write in the middle of nowhere. Which is what Winnipeg was described to me by those bands. Maybe it's just that the people there have a talent to write wonderful lyrics which everyone can relate to.

So yeah, The Weakerthans live on stage in Cologne. A friend of mine told me she was doing an interview at the venue and I gladly dropped by to hang out and say hi to Stephen and John K. It's really nice to meet people after two or three years and then you find out that nothing really changed. Although the contact is rather fragile there still is this warm feeling of meeting a good friend again. And although I didn't have the chance to talk to Stephen a lot (we promised to meet up for a drink next time) buying socks wth Mr Samson at a huge department store in Cologne sure was fun. By the time we got back to the "Stollwerck" the place was packed with people. A lot of friends were there as well and everything was set up for a great night. First up were Jonas Goldbaum from Austria and that's where I'll leave it since the music wasn't tempting enough to lure me into the room. Pretty average Indie stuff. I took the time to have some chats with friends I hadn't seen in a long time. That's what makes such shows special. People popping up out of nowhere. Great.
Next up were House & Parish, an all-star band from Brooklyn made up of ex-mebers of The Promise Ring, Texas Is The Reason and The Gloria Record. I saw them play live at the "Blue Shell" a few months ago and when you keep in mind what ex-bands are in that band it's a little bit disappointing to a certain extent. Don't get me wrong, they know their trade and the music is good, but the little extra is missing. It just won't stick in my ear. Maybe this night it was all because of the Canadian band that was playing next.
Those goys really know how to create a warm and pleasant atmosphere. Although they are not an all out rock band playing faster, harder, louder, they manage to draw people into their set and make them feel comfortable. And although there were some songs missing which some people certainly would have liked to listen to this show was nearly perfect. John K. is one hell of a frontman. When some Propaghandi die-hard demanded they play "Stick that motherfucking flag up your goddamn ass, you sonofabitch" he simply replied that they don't play this song and why should they play it when they have so much better songs themselves. Brilliant. That's how you bring people to listen. And he said it all with his big smile. They really got me again and I will definetely return when they come over here again next year. Because it's always great to meet old friends.

Envy @ Gebäude 9, Cologne

I have been waiting for this one for a long time. The first time I was able to experience the whole intensity of an Envy live set was over eight years ago when they played the "Sojus 7" in Monheim. guess what, they were the supporting act for Jimmy Eat World on that day. Several other bands played, but I can't remember the names, I'm sorry. Anyway, those were the days. You can't imagine a billing like that today, can you? I was completely blown away by the energy the band was creating on stage. They were moving all the time and their brutal and chaotic hardcore sound was turning the whole room into a warzone. Great stuff.
They never returned for another show so I had to rely on their records which were always keeping the same level, very exciting and intense, pure despair and melancholy, anger and frustration. But also with a great sense for melodies. So when their "Insomniac Daze" LP came out in 2006 I was quite surprised how this monster changed into something even more interesting. Wonderful melodies and epic 10 minute songs with vocals screaming, talking, sometimes even whispering. This was even better than everything the band had done before. So I was really looking forward to their show in Cologne. Would they be playing the old stuff as well? No disappointment there, they actually delivered stuff from all of their LPs, I think. But the intensity was there again. Although there wasn't as much movement as there was eight years ago, but on another level it was the same. The audience stood and watched with their mouths wide open. At the end of the songs when they were fading out the music you couldn't hear anyone talk. This was awesome. I really loved that show and I sincerely hope I won't have to wait another eight years...

Euro 2008 Qualifiers: Better luck next time, England

So we are all set and ready for next year's Euro championship in Switzerland and Austria and England won't be there to play in the finals. They had their chance to make it, a chance they actually didn't deserve after they blew the whole thing against Russia. They had to thank Israel to get them back into the race and all England had to do was to get a draw against Croatia. And what did they do? They lost. They were trailing 0-2 after only 14 minutes, they got back into the game after a strange penalty call and a goal by Crouch and then there was Mladen Petric who delivered the final blow 13 minutes from time.
Frankly I don't see this as a surprise. England have been playing horrible over the past few years, their World Cup campaign was doomed from their first match and although they have such an amount of talented players (no goalkeepers though) they never lookede like a team with potential. It's a pity that there won't be any English supporters cheering for their team at the Euro 2008. When I was watching the England vs Sweden match with 30.000 fanatics at a site in Cologne last summer I was glad those crazy people came over and created such a great atmosphere. But, to be honest, if the team plays so bad it can't be helped. It's a pity that Scotland didn't make it. That would have been a pleasant surprise.

So here we are and those are the teams that will face each other next year

Poland
Portugal
Italy
France
Greece
Turkey
Czech Republic
Germany
Croatia
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Romania
The Netherlands
Austria
Switzerland

No real surprises and upsets there. Poland are a fresh face, but they played really well. It's also good to see Greece trying to defend their title. Russia seem to have gotten over their recent drought and only Austria look like they will be the first to go home. Luckily for them they won't have to make a long trip, hehe.

Three examples of sports gone wrong

I stumbled across some thing over the past few days and I though I should share those with whoever wants to read this. There was this article in the New York Times for example, which deals with the strange halftime rituals during Jets games. Apparently hordes of men assemble at a certain gate during halftime and yell at women to expose their breasts. What the fuck?! Now I have always been interested in fan-dom and whatever surrounds the people who worship a team to the extent that they go competely crazy and have no other thing in their life besides their love for a club. But this is something way too strange and it sounds rather astonishing that noone is taking any action against what is happening there at this infamous Gate D. It's always disghusting to see those so called documentaries about spring break idiots on German television where they praise and hail those drunkards who only have alcohol and bare breasts on their mind. So this article - at least to me - sounds like there are some college jocks gone berzerk during halftime in New York. If this was to happen at a football match in Germany I don't think there would be any difference. But there would at least ONE person who would go against this. Especially with a lot more women attending the games nowadays. Some people over might just turn around and say that that's just those crazy uncivilzed American blokes, but I don't think that something like that should be a ritual anywhere. It's playinly disgusting.

Other news came from England, or should I say Thailand (courtesy of the Guardian Blog? Manchester City coach Sven-Göran Eriksson went to Bangkok to pay a visit to City owner Thaksin Shinawatra, former prime minister of Thailand. And when he went back to Britain he brought with him three players, Thai internationals, to have them sign to Man City. One of them seems to be good enough to make it to the first team, but the other two will be sent to farm teams somewhere else in Europe.
Now completely agree that is not the game it was some 20 years ago. It isn't even the same game it was 10 years ago. At least not from an economical point of view.The money clubs pay for players to sign them has risen constantly and so has the money the clubs pay their players as a monthly salary. There weren't any players making over ₤ 100.000 a week some ten years ago! But you can't help it. Where'S success there's big money and that's it. No need to whine about that. We as fans want to see great football, we have to acceppt that there is a certain price to pay. And I don't mean the constantly rising ticket prices. But there is a limit to what a fan should take from his club. And when they introduce players to your team who will never (no offense to the Thai football, but I just don't see it happen...) make it in a professional league it just sounds too much like there is one more loony owner who excersises his rights to play with his new tool. This is simply ridiculous. There's a difference in playing friendly matches in Asia and buying players.

Last but not least the story in Germany at the moment. The conflict between the top managers of Bayern Munich and their fan base (courtesy of allesaussersport.de, a German blog - all German). This all started a few days ago when Bayern manager Uli Hoeness, the most hated figure in German football, attacked a club member at the yearly members gathering for Bayern Munich. The fellow was complaining about the atmosphere and that was when Uli Hoeness snapped. Just to get an impression, this is a video of the speech he gave as a reply.



He's furious about the attitude the fans show. They, in his opinion, should be grateful that they have such a wonderful stadium, they are responsible for the atmosphere at the ground and that they only pay € 7,- for a terrace ticket. He's right with all of them, but does that mean a fan has to stay silent when there are certain things that are bugging him? There has always been some incidents between to bosses of Bayern and some of the groups who do a lot for the chanting and choreography in the "Kurve", where the terraces are located. The mood is getting more and more unfriendly since Mr Hoeness went on local television to accuse two groups that they where trying to achieve "Italian surroundings" in Munich. Now remember that in Italy's Serie A there are certain fan groups who call themselves "Ultras" and who effectively control large areas of the stadium. They control who enters the blocks where they stand, they control the singing, sometimes they even control what players is signed. There was this famous incident when a black player was about to sign a contract with Hellas Verona when the racist part of the fan base went on a rampage and the president pulled way from signing the player. The power of the "Ultras" could be seen a fortnight ago when they laid their grip on Italy again after a fan of Lazio Rome was shot by a police officer at a motorway parking space before a game.
The word "Ultra" has a totally different meaning in Germany and maybe that's why Mr Hoeness is a little bit confused. Ultras in Germany are something different than hooligans. Although there might be certain areas where those two groups overlap there is a difference.

I won't go into the details, if you are a German native speaker allesaussersport.de has it all wrapped up brilliantly, but this episode has all what it takes to refuel my disgust for someone like Herr Hoeness. At one time he's all about helping the fans with everything. But on the other hand he just doesn't seem to understand at what lengths some people go for their club. And right now he's on the verge of smashing everything he built up over the past 30 years. We'll see how they get out of this...

In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (7): Entombed - Clandestine

I encountered this record when I was in ... what was that? 8th grade? Or was it 10th grade? Must have been 10th grade, I think I got this one in 1992 through a friend who was introducing me to all kinds of hard music. He started out with stuff like Gang Green or Sodom, but this little gem stuck with me through all the years. At first I only had a cassette with the record and I only found out about the great cover later.
Back then when I was thinking of Death Metal I always thought of pure noise with growling vocals noone could understand. The kind of "music" my parents warned me about. I think I once got a copy of Morbid Angel's "Blessed Are The Sick", a record I today consider to be a great piece and a Death Metal classic, but back then I wasn't able to listen to this at all. So when I was given "Clandestine" I wasn't expecting much although the classmate was praising this thing all the way.
The voice on the record was what got me hooked instantly. This wasn't anything like what I've heard before. Hard, yet you were able to undertand what the fellow was "singing". He was growling, true, but this was different. And the the guitar sounds. This crunching tune was and still is brilliant. To me this had a lot more of a punk feeling than all the other metal records I was listening to at that time. I was always annyed by long and boring guitar solos noone really wanted to listen to. But here there was just plain and brutal music without too many extravaganza. The only thing I found a little disappointing was that "Clandestine" only had 9 songs. I would have liked to have more.
I somehow got my hands on some merchandise later and I was happy that I had a sweat shirt and a T-shirt with the picture of the LP. The sweat shirt disappeared somehwre along the way, but the T-shirt is still in my possession. It's a bit small and worn out, but I still cherish it, haha.
I didn't really get into what Entombed were doing after that great record. The "Hollow Man" EP and the "Wolverine Blues" LP weren't my stuff anymore and by today I have completely lost track of what they are doing now. I just lost interest. Still "Clandestine" and - although I don't like that one as much - "Left Hand Path", their debut are two of my all time favourite records. I own some other Swedish Death Metal records like Dismember "Like An Everflowing Stream" or Unleashed "Where No Life Dwells", but nothing ever topped Entombed at that time.

Smalltown Canada with a little muslim twist

This .... is brilliant. Wonderful. Great. I was introduced to this series at a wedding of a friend of mine. Her husband is from Canada and so was half of the crowd there and one of those guys talked to me about this series. It's set in the small (fictous) Canadian town of Mercy, Saskatchewan and the viewer is introduced to the problems and struggles a small muslim community is facing when it is trying to establish a mosque - in the parish hall of a church.
"Little Mosque On The Prairie" is a very funny program that I found very entertaining. Of course what we get to see is all cliché all the way. There's Baber, the fundamentalist ecomonics professor who wished that his daughter wears a head scarf. There's the convert muslim wife Sarah, who just can't seem to fit in with the crowd at the mosque. There's her husband Yassir, the contractor who only set up the mosque so that he can have a bureau for his business for free. There's his daughter Rayyan, a doctor who although she is wearing a head scarf is calling herself a muslim feminist. And it doesn't end there. There's the smalltown idiot who just pokes his nose into everything he can find. There's the bigot radio chat show host who senses danger in everything which he can't understand. And there's the understanding priest who gets along pretty well with the liberal iman of the muslim community.
This series has all what it takes for a classic. There is something similar on German television, a series called "Türkisch für Anfänger" (Turkish for beginners). The setting here is a multicultural couple and their four children, who have to cope with each other while living in one house. The Turkish children and the German children stumble into hilarious situations all the time and there's trouble in every episode. I still found "Little Mosque..." a little bit more sarcastic, something that I really like when it comes to topics like this. The way the characters are portrayed really gets you into the story. There is no overlaying storyline, instead each episode is one closed story in itself. But there's always some very dark and hard punchline that just leaves you laughing out loud. I recommend this to everyone who is fed up with all the "terrorist" or "war on terror" headlines. It's some nice 20 minutes of relief.

This AIn't Vegas + Patterns @ Gebäude 9 Café, Cologne

There used to be a lot of shows in the small café of the Gebäude 9 club back in the days. Compared to the huge hall in the back of the building which fits an audience of around 500 the frontroom with the bar (called "the café") is a way more nice and cozy room. As I said, back in the days there used to be a lot more shows there, bands like Braid, The Get Up Kids, Ensign or Hot Water Music played there and it was always a very good time.
So I was extremely pleaed when I found out that a friend of mine was setting up a show for the British band This Ain't Vegas, who I had seen some time ago, but I can't quite remember what they sounded like. I thought I remembered them as rather hectic and lively. Anyways, I arrived at the club at around 8.30 pm and there was almost nobody there. So I hung back, drank a few drinks and had a little chat with some of the people I knew who were already there. Patterns climbed on stage at around 9.30 pm and those guys sounded like they really like Fugazi. Very tricky yet very pounding progressive stuff with lots of breaks and weird guitar and bass ... well, yes, patterns. By the time they had finished the room was decently filled and the audience was warmed up for This Ain't Vegas. Now they didn't sound like anything I rememered. Or at least like what I thought they would sound like. This wasn't as complex and strange as I had it in mind. Quite the opposite, they were rather straight forward and rockin' out very well. This wasn't stuff that had you screaming at the top of your lungs or yelling out for more, but it was just the right music for a Wednesday night when you knew you had to go to work the next day. Nice one. Apparently the guy who set up the show advertised the whole thing as the last show before the great breakthrough for the band (it seems like they are entering the UK charts). Well, then it was nice to be a part of this...

Bundesliga: Day Thirteen - At last, the crisis!

MSV Duisburg - VfL Bochum 0:2
FC Schalke 04 - Hamburger SV 1:1
FC Hansa Rostock - FC Energie Cottbus 3:2
SV Werder Bremen - Karlsruher SC 4:0
VfB Stuttgart - Bayern München 3:1
Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:1
Hertha BSC Berlin - Hannover 96 1:0
VfL Wolfsburg - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1:2
DSC Arminia Bielefeld - 1.FC Nürnberg 3:1

Here we go again, the Invincibles, the untouchable Bayern team who everybody thought to easily walk through the season without conceding a loss in all 34 championship matches, that Bayern team lost this weekend to defending champions Stuttgart. And it wasn't as if BAyern was unlucky, no, Stuttgart deserved to win. Bayern was completely helpless. And now, as always, the whole country is talking about Bayern's crisis. That a common thing the media does when Bayern loses a match. And now that they haven't won in four matches (draws against Dortmund 0-0, Frankfurt 0-0 and Bolton Wanderers 2-2) they are looking for reasons. Now as much as I love to see Bayern lose it's just pathetic how people change their opinions so suddenly. A few weeks ago this team was the biggest show in German football and now they are just a bunch of helpless idiots? Come on, you gotta be kidding me. This just shows that certain people consider Bayern to be German football and those people sit in offices at e.g. the biggest tabliod, the only free TV sports station or at Germany's biggest football magazine. It's a complete joke.Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gave life to a team who were lying on the floor in the past season. He now has the best line up in the German Bundesliga and he now has lost one match. That's right, we are talking about one match. And the big bosses in Munich start to get nervous. Hilarious. There's this TV program called "Doppelpass" some sort of chat show with football topics and this represents at best what the German media is like. They always have one writer from Germany's largest tabloid "Bild" sitting there. Then they have Germany's most senile and retarded "expert" Udo Lattek, a guy who had success in the 70s and 80s but since didn't seem to have moved one inch. He always talking about his players having to "eat grass" in order to win. A relict from a time long forgotten. And then the program has a call in section where the viewers can voice their opinion on the current state of German football. And this is where it really gets funny, 'cause I think that some of the calls definetely have to be fake. Those callers most of the times side with what the panel has to say and they usually sound like they've written down what they wanted to express before they reached for their phone.
Anyway, I still believe that there is no way that another team will win this year's championship since the rest of the pack is playing way too unsteady. Schalke and Hamburg drew on Saturday (1-1), Bremen beat Karlsruhe (4-0) and by doing so sent the promoted side back to where it belongs. Down the table Rostock beat Cottbus (3-2) in an all east German derby, Bochum won against Duisburg (2-0) and Dortmund drew with Frankfurt (1-1).

And way down the leagues Fortuna Cologne got back on track for their campaign towards promotion. They won 2-0 against Troisdorf on Friday!

A day at the record store (III)

I had a little time on Thursday so I decided to stop by at the record store to grab a copy of the new album by German punk rock superstars Die Ärzte. And this is what I got.

Die Ärzte Jazz ist anders LP
This band is by far the best when it comes to putting out unique records. You can imagine the fun they must have when they think of the things they want to have for a vinyl release. They had double 10" records in gatefold sleeves, they had wonderful "normal" double LP releases with heavy vinyl, they had one record the put into a blue flokati rug thing (unfortunately that one is missing in my collection). And now they came up with a pizza box. Yup, that's right, a pizza box. The thing looks like what you get when you order a pizza to your home. But inside is not something to eat, although it looks like it. The picture LP inside has a normal pizza on the front (A) side and the bottom of a pizza on the B-side. A bonus 7" looks like a tomato slice and the lyrics sheet is just covering the floor of the box. This looks brilliant. A hilarious idea. And to round it off it comes with a coupon for the free download of the LP and 7" songs from their website. This is fan service at its best.


The music is just your usual Ärzte kind of silliness. Wonderful pop songs with lyrics in between the range of hilarious nonsense to wonderful love songs. The single "Junge" describes what most of us had to listen to when we were 16 years old and when you take into account that the members of Die Ärzte are now in their mid 40s it's rather funny to listen to such lyrics. This is a must have.

Pelican Pink Mammoth 10"
I just happened to come across this record while flipping through the stands. And since I'm a sucker for 10"s I just had to take this along. Although I just can't get into the mood to listen to their latest release this one is slightly better. Their new record "City Of Echoes" is a bit too widespread when it comes to trying out new things like changing the tempo in a song and so on. So what you get here is one song of pure and classic Pelican heavyness and the flipside will give you a nice remix of two of their songs. All this in a nice cover sleeve with a nice inlet. Not something one has to have but it sure is a nice record.

NPB: Chunichi Dragons are Nippon Series Champions

Chunichi Dragons of Nagoya won the Nippon Series against Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters with a 1-0 perfect game in Game 5. Starter Daisuke Yamai and closer Hitoki Iwase retired all 27 Fighters Batters and won the match against the Fighter's ace Yu Darvish who delivered a strong performance once again and proved that he was a worthy winner of the Japanese equivalent to the Cy Young award, the Sawamura award. So this gives the Dragons their first title since 1954 and with this at least one drought ended this year, when the Cubs and the Indians saw their hopes buried in the MLB across the Pacific.

The usual debate: British secretary complains about footballers wages

There is an article on Guardian Unlimited which deals with the British sports minister complaing about the wages of professional football players. Now we all know that those guys who play in the big leagues earn a lot of money and, well, yes, I have to admit that sometimes I have to shake my head as well when I hear about the sums which are payed for certain players. But then again, isn't this obvious? With all the media attention and the sponsoring of sports during the past years there wasn't really any doubt that with the money that is payed for the broadcasting rights on the rise there will also be a huge rise in salaries for players in professional leagues. And as long as there are clubs who are willing to pay that much for certain players those sums will get payed. Period.
What might be true though is that "people in the street" will find it harder to afford tickets for 1st division games in Europe. Although this might not be true for Germany yet the tendency is going towards that direction. At the moment prices for football matches are very low in Germany compared to other sporting tickets or leagues elsewhere. But with clubs turning into huge companies which are trying to get profit first it will only be a matter of time until prices will rise. I for myself don't see any reason why I should pay high prices if I don't want to. In the end what it comes down to is that it's the individual decision of every fan. If you don't like it, don't pay it. I've been going to my 5th division crap team, I pay my money there, yes, I think it's expensive, but still I go there because I want to, so why should I complain?

Update: As one would have expected it didn't take long for the clubs to reply.

German Football: A round-up

Just in case someone's wondering why there weren't any comments on the past few roundfs of the German Bundesliga, well, it's because I just don't think there's anything worth to write about. Quite frankly, the German league is becoming more and more boring as it progresses. Bayern in cruising at the top and the rest of the pack are stumbling right behind them in respectful distance. Last weekend Dortmund came close to giving them their first defeat this season but all that came out was a 0-0 draw. Add this with a draw in the big match last weekend (Schalke vs Bremen), some mediocre teams fighting for the international places and a defending champion who is struggling to keep touch with the top places and there you have it. Looks like this will be a season everyone will forget as soon as it is over.
The case is different for the 2nd division in Germany which hosts a lot of big names this year. Front runners are Borussia Mönchengladbach, one of the top teams in the 1970s when they were well known for their style of attacking the opponents and playing wonderful high speed football. A lot has changed since they won five championships and they were relegated last season after playing horrible most of the time. But it seems they are back on track and now they are leading the table and their way of playing football looks very good to me. Different from what their rivals 1.FC Cologne are doing. They have the highest payed coach with the biggest name in the business (Christoph Daum), they have a huge following who even come to the stadium when the teams is playing horrible (well, that's most of the time) and they have the biggest budget in the league. Still there is no sign of the club and the team going anywhere. They lose games they are not supposed to lose, the play like they just learned the game yesterday and the president is just talk all the way. From what it looks like right now 1.FC Cologne will be stuck in the 2nd division for quite some time.
This week also saw the German Cup competition (DFB-Pokal) take action again with 16 matches being played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some huge upsets there (Berlin losing to 3rd division Wuppertal, defending champions 1.FC Nürnberg losing to 2nd division Jena on penalties, Bochum losing to 2nd division Aachen, etc.), but all in all nothing special. What frustrates German fans mostly is that the public television always picks the Bayern Munich games for their live coverage. Usually there's one match that's shown during each round of play. in the first round it was Bayern against 3rd division Wacker Burghausen and now in the 2nd round it was Bayern against M'gladbach. Sure, that's big names, but Schalke vs Hannover (2-0 a.e.t.) or Dortmund vs Frankfurt (2-1) were big names as well. We'll find out what game will be broadcasted in the next round. These are the ties which will be played on January 30th:

VfL Wolfsburg - FC Schalke 04
1899 Hoffenheim - Hansa Rostock
FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Arminia Bielefeld
Borussia Dortmund - Werder Bremen
Rot-Weiss Essen - Hamburger SV
Alemannia Aachen - 1860 München
Wuppertaler SV Borussia - Bayern München
Werder Bremen II - VfB Stuttgart