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
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