Track And Field World Championships: A German Medal, A Kenyan Sweep and a Russian Diva

Finally I was able to watch two sessions of the World Championships in Osaka. They were showing some finals and some heat-races. A German guy won the silver medal in the Discus Throw competition, something the two commentators were very happy about. That guy absolutely went insane after he was sure the medal was his, ripping of his shirt in front of the spectators. Something you would expect from thiose crude German barbarians, right? But he had every right to be happy, leaving two times Olympic champion Virgilius Alekna of Lithuania behind him. The winner was Gerd Kanter from Estonia, in third came Rutger Smith from The Netherlands.
Then there was the awesome showing by young Kenyan runner Janeth Jepkosgei who was in front right from the start and delivered a great race. Oe of the great favourites, Maria Mutula from Mozambique collapsed only a few metres before the finish.
Just minutes before her three athletes from Kenya won all three medals in the men's 3000 m steelechase, something that had to be expected since Kenya has always been very dominant in this discipline.
The women's pole vault was won by Jelena Issinbajewa from Russia who is dominating all action. She is just playing the the rest of the pack only delivering two jumps when others are already struggling. The winning height was 4,80 m, but she also tried her luck with another shot at the world record (5,02 m). No wonder she is called the female Sergej Bubka.
Too bad I missed out on the final of the women's 100 m. Apparently from what I've read a lot of runners came in with the same time and it took long minutes to figure out who won this whole thing. Just look at the numbers:
1 Veronica Campbell (JAM) 11.01
2 Lauryn Williams (USA) 11.01
3 Carmelita Jeter (USA) 11.02
4 Torri Edwards (USA) 11.05
5 Kim Gevaert (BEL) 11.05
6 Christine Arron (FRA) 11.08
7 Kerron Stewart (JAM) 11.12
8 Oludamola Osayomi (NGR) 11.26
Heck, I didn't even know Christine Arron is still around...

Whatever results are achived at such competitions, since this summer German media are always anxious to point out that when an athlete improves rather rapidly there might be a chance that this is because of the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Although noone wishes to expose a lot of athletes the sudden rise of people like Janeth Jepkosgei always leaves room for some doubt. Interestingly enough comments on doping by athletes are rather rare. I read something about a British heptathlon competitor who was nagging about some of her opponents who had been doing drugs before and were banned for two years. But when the reporter started to ask questions about her teammates and trainers she suddenly bacme very quiet. Up until now I think there hasn't been a doping case during these World Championships but the threat is always looming over the whole event.

Track And Field World Championship in Osaka

The 11th Track & Field World Championships kicked off at Osaka, Japan this weekend and a few medals have already been won by some athletes. I was watching the 20 km men's walk last night when coming home slightly drunk. This is wonderful stuff to watch before you go to bed. There isn't happening anything, just a few guys walking through streets. But because the weather over there has been very hot and humid lately a few people weren't able to cope with the conditions. A German athlete was redirected by an official and had to turn around a few metres to get back on track. Some newspaper was guessing that he might have got himself a shock because he collapsed 200 metres before the finish line. The winner himself had cramps in his legs after crossing the finish line.
Later that day there was the final of the men's 100 metres competition which is always a huge fuzz. This year's favourites were world record holder Asafa Powell from Jamaica and Tyson Gay from the USA. Gay won, Powell came in 3rd but this final didn't have the flair and glamour like some finals of the past. Maybe it's because I didn't follow the 100 metres competition as closely as I did a few years back.

But the one thing I like about watching Track & Field is the commentators on German television. There is a station called Eurosport and the two guys doing the commentary there are Dirk Thiele and Siggi Heinrich. Those guys are on air for hours and hours and still they always give you the impression they are having the time of their lives. Even boring competitions become interesting when those two sit behind the microphone. They have a clear division on who is doing what, Thiele commenting on the long disctance running, Heinrich doing the sprint competitions. The same goes for throwing and jumping. They are hilarious at times but both experts on their respective fields. I love to listen to them and hope to do so over the next few days.

Bundesliga: Day Three - Bayern keeps rolling

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

Not many upsets on this day. All teams who were expected to win did so. Dortmund was able to at least get out of their slump for one day by beating Cottbus in style. Klimowicz scored twice after being on the bench at the start of the game.
Bayern meanwhile look like champions already. They beat Bremen a week ago and were very convincing again against Hannover who didn't have any chance to score a goal. Bayern are now clear at the top of the table with 9 points and 10 goals without having conceded even one goal themselves.
Strangely enough the two teams behind Bayern are Bochum and Bielefeld. Those two usually struggle against being relegated to the 2nd division but this year it seems they might have a chance to go far. Bielefeld beat Berlin and Bochum won against Hamburg.
Bremen got the winning goal against Nürnberg and it was scored by upstart Martin Harnik, a young Austrian striker who scored in this weeks international friendly against the Czech Republic and who was also responsible for 1.FC Cologne (who won against Jena in their 2nd division match by rallying in the 2nd half and scoring 3 goals in the last 15 minutes after trailing 1:3) crashing out of the Cup competition against the 2nd team of Bremen.
Schalke almost blew it again at Wolfsbrug where they left points in the closing days of last season's campaign for the title. Frankfurt won against Rostock who are clearly heading for relegation. They have no points and are in last place.

Although we are only three days into the season things are starting to clear up a little bit. But the top of the table sure looks very interesting:

1 Bayern 10
2 Bielefeld 7
3 Bochum 7
4 Frankfurt 7

A win in style: Summer Koushien is over

The summer tournament at Koushien Stadium is over and we have a winner. Saga Kita High School have won in style. A grand slam homerun in the bottom of the 8th inning took them to a 5-4 victory over Koryo High School from Hiroshima, who had advanced to the final for the first time in 40 years. This makes Saga Kita the first public school to win the title 1996.
I really enjoyed watching the few matches I was able to see. Although I know that there is a lot of talk about the pureness of "koko yakyu" (high school baseball) in Japan it definetely is different from what you get to see if you tune in to some major league games, whether it is MLB or NPB. The boys playing on the "sacred dust" of Koushien for their schools sure look like they are really enjoying themselves. You always have to keep in mind that the whole tournament is televised live throughout the entire country and of course the must be millions of sponsorship money in it as well. This is the big stage for those kids, this will determine their future as professional players. But when you watch the games at least I never had the feeling this was going through their minds at all. They looked like they had the fun of their lives. Even when they lost they still had some sort of snmiles on their faces. Yeah, I know, it might be fake but I'd really like to imagine that it isn't. Plus, the line up they do when the game is over shows real sportsmanship. Both teams congratulate each other on playing a good game. That's how it should be.
I'm really looking forward to the Spring Koushien. Hopefully it gets such a great coverage as well.

Another thing which I really found exciting is the way the teams were supported by their schoolmates. There are two major terraces in Koushien, one next to the right outfield, the other one right across the pitch at left field. Those are always filled with the supporters of each school and they make one hell of noise when their team is batting. The cheer for them constantly. Occasionally you get to see some players from the teams standing there, those must be the guys who didn't make it to the first team. But they are cheering for their friends really hard and they seem to be overjoyed when they finally get the win. Great.

If you are interested in a more in-depth article on how the game went be sure to read the article at Japan Times Online.

We won the first game at Wembley: Germany - England friendly

The big rivalry continues, although it might only be a onesided affair. Germany and England met at Wembley for the first time since Didi Hamann scored the last goal in the old stadium during a World Cup qualifier in 2000. There might have been the usual hype around such a match, but because it was a friendly and because there were a lot of players missing on both sides (Germany: Klose, Podolski, Gomez, Jansen, Frings, Ballack, Borowski - England: Rooney, Gerrard) noone really knew what to expect from both teams. Germany are well on top of their group in their campaign for a Euro2008 spot in Switzerland and Austria while England are struggling in their group. Germany have been playing fantastic football since the World Cup 2006 while England were so and so in eevry match they played. It seems that the enormous amount of talent assembled in the English team just doesn't fit together as a team. They tried their luck without Beckham, that didn't work out so they brought him back but the performances weren't very convincing either. This being the outlines of the game I wasn't really sure what to expect.

So with 1966 in the back of their heads (as usual) England got the better start by scoring on a mistake of Schalke defender and first time international player Christian Pander after 9 minutes. Germany had a lot of trouble adjusting to the game with a line up that never played together. Philipp Lahm was the screening defender in midfield, a part usually played by Thorsten Frings. He did well most of the time, but he, as well as his teammates, had a lot of trouble with Joe Cole who was always dangerous. After a few minutes Germany got a hold of the game and after a mistake by England keeper Paul Robinson Kuranyi was able to capitalize. Only a few minutes later the aformentioned Christian Pander scored a terrific goal from 30 metres range by hammering a shot past Robinson. The score stayed like this to the end, although England had a lot of chances in the 2nd half.

All in all it was a rather disappointing match but you always have to keep in mind that those were two teams who are still at the beginning of their seasons. Everything seemed to be a little slow.

Some highlights of the game, unfortunately with the horrible German commetary by Steffen Simon.

The strange story of an old punk turned model in Japan

So I never had a morning like this. I was waorking as usual and while there was nothing to do I was looking at spiegel.de which is one of the (if not the) biggest German news site. And guess what I find there. An article about a friend of mine. He went to Japan to study there for a few semesters and now he's a model there. Something we all here were going nuts about. That guy is anything but a model. He always looks like he's way too tired, he always sneaks around like nothing can bother him, he always wears old clothes, worn out sneakers, and so on. But he's a really nice guy and he's a very good friend of mine.
So some guy I know from my internship last year did an article about him and his story which can be found here >>> Big in Japan: Wie ein Altpunk zum gefragten Model wurde (German). It's kind of funny to read a story you have heard and told a million times before. Yes, he was "casted" off the street. Yes, he didn't have any interest in modeling at first but was persuaded by a friend who was visiting him in Tokyo at that time. Yes, he's worked for very big names. And, hahaha, yes, he is an old punk! This is great, if there is one guy who deserves this attention it's him. Congratulations, David!

Meanwhile his roommates back in Cologne are going crazy because the media is calling them. Apparently they there are more newspapers who want to do an interview with him. Maybe the fairy tale continues over here...

Remembering the good Times: Quest For Rescue Record Release Show

There are certain bands who, although they haven't released anything in a long time, are always there and you never lose track of what they are doing. Remember how long it took Social Distortion to put out the follow up to their classic "White Light, White Heat, White Trash" LP? Well, Leverkusen's finest Quest For Rescue are in that league as well. If remember it correctly the release show for their 2nd record "Turnip" took place at Cologne's "Underground" in 1998. And although they played new songs every now and then at some show the new record never came out. But that's history now, folks. It's finally here.

Last Saturday Quest For Rescue played their release show at Cologne's "Gebäude 9". This is a very nice place to set up shows. A lot of great bands played there over the years and during the later half of the 90s it could be considered the living room of Cologne's punk- and hardcore scene. Bands like Ensign, Highscore, The Get Up Kids, Braid, etc all played there and there always was a huge turnout. So this place holds a lot of memories for a lot of people. While I was talking to two friends before the show we all felt this mood of nostalgia while remembering the past.
So the stage was set for yet another memorable evening. Lots of old folks showed up, people you hadn't seen in months, even years. They were the only band playing so everything was focused on them. Before the show they were showing a nice slide show of old pictures and then without further ado they came up on stage and put on a nice set. They even played very old songs. One I was especially looking forward to was "90210", a song I had never seen them play live. Great.

I had to leave early because of that damn football tournament I was supposed to play the next day, but I managed to get the encores which were "Blister In The Sun" and "Some Times Good Guys Don't Wear White". A great way to end the show. So be sure to pick up their new record "Common Grounds"!

More pictures of the show can be found HERE.

Copa Colonia 2007: "The ball knows us"

It's a tough life. After drinking for the past two days, on Friday out of frustration, on Saturday because there was a good show, I was asked to take part in a football tournament on Sunday. Boy, that is hard. I had to get up at 10 am, I tried to at least wake up a little bit before the first game started at 11.30 am. Our team was "Bolzen" and we represented the magazine with the same name. A lot of players were acquired from Cologne Sunday League team "FK Trimmdich" and those guys can play. A nice location right in front of Cologne's big stadium, nice muscial backgroud with DJ Ben of "Bass Präsidium", so there we were. We were lucky enough to get through the group phase but then we were eliminated in the quarterfinal conceding the winning goal in the last minute losing 1-2. but it was fun and although I had a week off from work I feel like I might need another one rather soon...

Bundesliga: Day Two - Horrible Results

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

Horrible. Terrible. Disgusting. That's what's coming to my mind when I see the results of this day's matches. Dortmund lost to Schalke, Bayern won against Bremen, even Berlin had a win against last year's champions Stuttgart. Let's go into the details.
Dortmund will have a lot of problems in this season. They spent a lot of money before the season to get back to the places which grant you a place in the European Cup rounds, but losing the first two matches they won't be anywhere near those spots for a long time. On the other hand Schalke seem to be back on track after only drawing against Stuttgart in their first game.
Munich seem to be ahead of the pack by thrashing Bremen. And although Berlin had a lot of problems in the off-season with losing a lot of players to other clubs they seem to be getting back on their feet after a terrible loss to Frankfurt in their first match.
The big surprise is Bielefeld. They were on track to win both of their first two games and would have been in the second spot of the table. But Frankfurt made a late rally to score the equalizing goals in the closing minutes.

Verbandsliga Mittelrhein
SC Fortuna Köln - VfL Rheinbach 0:1

This just fits into the pattern of what happened last night when Fortuna Köln lost their second match against VfL Rheinbach in a 5th division match. Fortuna was dominant over the whole match but failed to capitalize on that. Rheinbach on the other hand had only one chance in the first half and that was when they scored. They lost a player shortly before half time, but Fortuna never came back. They had a lot of chances, hitting the post and the crossbar numerous times, but there was no goal. Still this match left us with hope for the future. The fan support was great and the team was playing well.

MLB: Boston signs a Cologne player

While browsing through the pages of the "Boston Herald" I came across some interesting news. It's only a small notice but it seems that the Boston Red Sox have signed someone from Cologne (bottom of the page under the headline "Going Deutsch"). This will usually end up in a big story in our local newspaper here. Normally papers would write that some German player is going to the states and they would expect him to play on the major league level, not telling their readers that there are also smaller clubs and farm teams.
Now I know that there are Baseball teams in Cologne, the Cardinals are a first division team, there used to be the Cologne Dodgers as well, but I don't know if they are still around. I wasn't aware that the scouting system of MLB clubs also included German amateur teams.
Well, it will be interesting to see what will happen to that player.

NPB and Koushien: A nice start into a new day

After waking up today I watched two games from Japan. First up was a match at Koushien Stadium where Aomori Yamada played against Seiko Gakuin. This was an interesting game with both teams being in a deadlock in the first few innings. But then a grand slam homerun for Seiko Gakuin in the 5th broke up the tie and sent them up 4-0. Aomori Yamada would score as well in the remaining innings, but they faied to capitalize on a loaded bases situation in the top of the 9th when their clean up hitter and pitcher struck out in three straight pitches. Seiko Gakuin won 6-4.
I also watched the closing innings of Niigata Meikun vs Kofu Shogyo on Wednesday, a very close game. I tuned in when the score was tied at 1-1 and it was already the 6th inning. Both teams went on scoreless until a single would give Niigata Meikun the winning run in the 12th inning.
Watching those students play in front of a huge (although not sell out) crowd at koushien Stadium is a lot of fun. It seems as if they are enjoying every minute they get to stand on the field, sometimes they laugh, sometimes they are frustrated with themselves, but they never have this dull and emotionless expression that some professional players seem to have when they play. Also I noticed that the games at Koushien have a much faster pace than professional baseball matches. Maybe that is because there are four games on each day and they have to get through the program as quick as possible.

This concludes this round and now these teams are left in the competition:
Day 10 (07-08-17):
Game 1: (Nagasaki) Nagasaki Nichidai vs. Kyoto Gaidai Nishi (Kyoto)
Game 2: (Shimane) Kaisei vs. Yoshikan (Oita)
Game 3: (Shizuoka) Takoha Gakuen Kikugawa vs. Nichinan Gakuen (Miyazaki)
Game 4: (Gunma) Maebashi Sho vs. Saga Kita (Saga)
Day 11 (07-08-18):
Game 1: (Tochigi) Bunseigei Daifu vs. Imabari Nishi (Ehime)
Game 2: (Nara) Chiben Gakuen vs. Teikyo (East Tokyo)
Game 3: (Niigata) Niigata Meikun vs. Ogaki Nichidai (Gifu)
Game 4: (Hiroshima) Koryo vs. Seiko Gakuin (Fukujima)

So when the Koushien broadcast (which can be found on the Asahi Shimbun website) ended I tuned into the top game of the NPB Pacific League where 1st place Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters took on 2nd place Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Fighters starting pitcher Yu Darvish carried a no-hitter into the 6th inning, I think, when it was crashed by a single. That guy seems to be the new top prospect of Japanese baseball after Matsuzaka Daisuke went to the MLB. He also made his first big impact while playing at the Koushien tournaments and is currently engaged with Actress Saeko who seems to be pregnant with his child. So he's all set to fill in as the new star celebrity of Japanese Baseball.
Fighters, who are the defending Japan Series champions, went on to win 0-8. This was only the 2nd time I watched an NPB game, the other one being Tohoku Rakuten Eagles against a team whose name I forgot. What's most interesting is the noise in the stadium. The crowd is always chanting, shouting and singing, bands can be heard and theer is constant noise, even when the sides change offense and defense.

Still up and running: Takeshi's Castle on German TV

A few years ago a German sports channel was showing "Takeshi's Castle", a game show from Japan which aired from 1986-1989. This was all more like a live video game where actual people try to find their way through different tasks, some requiring physical strength, some skill, some just pure luck. Behind this was Japanese director, actor, painter, musician, writer ... Kitano Takeshi.

In a way it can be a fun show to watch, but what makes it horrible is the German commentary. It is now shown on RTL2, a station known for its rather... well... they are not known to show high class intelligent television, if I may say so. So the commentary during the show I was watching a few days ago was just racist, frankly speaking. The guy speaking there was going through all the clichés and prejudices Europeans have on asian people. There were derogatory remarks about their height, lots of jokes about the colour yellow, it was just stupid.

I have no idea how that show was percieved in Japan but I guess the comments on the show were not quite as bad as they are on German TV.

A Modest Proposal - No Action Left In This

Bundesliga: Day One - Worth The Wait

VfL Bochum - SV Werder Bremen 2:2
Hannover 96 - Hamburger SV 0:1
FC Bayern München - FC Hansa Rostock 3:0
Bayer Leverkusen - FC Energie Cottbus 0:0
VfL Wolfsburg - Arminia Bielefeld 1:3
Eintracht Frankfurt - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:0
VfB Stuttgart - FC Schalke 04 2:2
1.FC Nürnberg - Karlsruher SC 0:2
Borussia Dortmund - MSV Duisburg 1:3
Finally, the waiting is over. Today the new season of the German Bundesliga started. Lots of money has been spent on new players, in fact the most ever in the history of the Bundesliga, so it will be interesting to see if the quality of the games will improve. A lot of articles have been published, lots of talking about who is the favourite and who will get relegated, but today it's all back to normal. It's on the pitch. We're on our way!
Somehow I realized how much I really missed the radio coverage. Listening to the broadcasts every Saturday afternoon has become a common pasttime for me over the past few years. I don't really see the need for a Pay TV contract, because I love to listen to the radio. Wonderful.

No surprises on the first day. Bayern won in style against Rostock, Schalke and Stuttgart both scored twice in the inaugural match of the season, but were both not convincing. One result might cause some concern, Wolfsburg lost to Bielefeld. Wolfsburg having named Felix Magath, the former Bayern coach, their new coach and manager, went into the season with high hopes of getting into international competitions. They aimed for the UEFA cup or the Champions League but seem to have a long way ahead of them.
Berlin will have to struggle through this season. They lost a lot of players over the summer and it seems they can't compensate their loss. On the other hand a lot of people do not think that Frankfurt will escape relegation, but they came to a good start today.
Hamburg will look to forget the past season when they were almost relegated. A win against north German rivals Hannover will be one step in the right direction.
Bremen were a bit disappointing only achieving a draw against Bochum who lost their top scorer Theophanis Gekas to Leverkusen. Leverkusen only drew against against Cottbus, a team a lot of people think will go down to the 2nd division after this season.
On Sunday Dortmund and Nürnberg both lost to teams who were promoted from the 2nd division. In both cases this has to be seen as a setback since both clubs had high aspirations before the season. Dortmund lost at home to MSV Duisburg while Nürnberg were defeated by Karlsruher SC, also at home.

So it's only the first round, but already everybody is sucked into the fascination of the new season!

Because the Summer Koushien started: Ookiku Furikabutte

Today the final round of summer tournament of the Japanese high schools started at Koushien stadium in Osaka. I really don't have the insight on which school might be a favourite to win the whole thing this year since there are so many changes on the teams each year, mainly because the students graduate and new players will come to the teams with each school year. But because the tournament started today I found a new anme series which is airing on TBS in Japan at the moment. It's called "Ookiku Furikabutte" and just as other school animes it's about a high school baseball team that is aiming to go to Koushien at least once in their three years at high school. It is set in Saitama and tells the Story of Mihashi Ren, the pitcher for Nishiura High School. He always thought that his spot on the team of his Middle School was because his grandfather was the manager of the baseball club. When he joins his new club he doesn't want to be a burden for his teammates and doesn't try to mix with them. But the catcher Abe Takaya believes in him and his arsenal of pitches which are extremly slow. Together they enter a match against Mihashi's former high school.

As I said, this series is airing right now but it shows a lot of potential. True, the first match is already dragging over three episodes, but the character development takesa very slow and nice way. There's funny points every now and then. Especially the character of the team manager, a woman called Maria Momoe, might be in for a lot of funny parts.

It might not be a hit like "H2" which also turned out to be a very good drama, but it's a very good sports and high school anime. The animation is good, sometimes it looks like they used real life examples e.g. for the windup the pitcher does on the mound. It looks very authentic. The voice actors are also very good. I'm looking forward to the future episodes

DFB-Pokal: The German Cup, First Round.

Here are the results of the first round:

1899 Hoffenheim - FC Augsburg 4:2 a.e.t.
SV Sandhausen - Kickers Offenbach 0:4
VfL Osnabrück - Borussia M'gladbach 0:1
SC Verl - TSV 1860 München 0:3
FC St. Pauli - Bayer Leverkusen 1:0
1. FC Magdeburg - Borussia Dortmund 1:4
SpVgg Unterhaching - Hertha BSC 0:3
Eintr. Braunschweig - Werder Bremen 0:1
Rot-Weiss Ahlen - Hannover 96 1:3
Rot-Weiss Essen - Energie Cottbus 6:5 a.p.s.
SV Wilhelmshaven - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:4
Rot-Weiß Hasborn - Hansa Rostock 0:8
SV Wehen Wiesbaden - VfB Stuttgart 1:2
1. FC Gera 03 - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 0:3
Wuppertaler SV Bor. - Erzgebirge Aue 4:3 a.p.s.
FC 08 Villingen - SC Freiburg 1:3
Victoria Hamburg - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:6
Holstein Kiel - Hamburger SV 0:5
W. Bremen II - 1. FC Köln 4:2 a.e.t.
1. FC Union Berlin - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:4
SV Babelsberg 03 - MSV Duisburg 0:4
Bayer Leverkusen II - SC Paderborn 07 0:1
1. FC Normannia Gmünd - Alemannia Aachen 0:3
TSG Neustrelitz - Karlsruher SC 0:2 a.e.t.
TSV Havelse - TuS Koblenz 0:3
Dynamo Dresden - VfL Bochum 0:1
SV Seligenporten - Arminia Bielefeld 0:2
Würzburger FV - VfL Wolfsburg 0:4
Eintracht Trier - FC Schalke 04 0:9
Wormatia Worms - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:6
SV Darmstadt 98 - Greuther Fürth 1:3
Wacker Burghausen - Bayern München 3:4 a.p.s.

So the main surprises were the defeat of Cologne against the 2nd team of Werder Bremen and Leverkusen's loss at St. Pauli. For 1.FC Cologne that is the usual case in each year of cup play. Although at one point they were leading the competition for playing the most finals (I think they won the cup three times, last time in 1983 against city rivals SC Fortuna Cologne) over the past few years they haven't achieved anything. As for Leverkusen, they were sort of the dark horse for this season in the Bundesliga, assembleing a strong squat of young players and were higly rated to be one of the top five clubs. But they didn't deliver in Hamburg when they lost to 2nd division FC St. Pauli.
But the biggest surprise of all the matches was the last one on the list. Bayern Munich just barely defeating Wacker Burghausen, a third division team, who were relegated from the 2nd division after last season. Bayern spent 70 mio Euro on new players, Wacker spent nothing. Everybody expects Bayern to become the next champions and noone would be surprised if they won the cup as well. But yesterday they struggled. Burghausen even went up 1:0 and they had the chance to close it with their last penalty.

Anyway, few outs, the big name still in the box, let's wait for the second round...

In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (6): Tommy heavenly6/Tommy february6

Crazy stuff. This is the lead singer of the J-pop band The Brilliant Green with her solo stuff. Kawase Tomoko started off with her solo alter ego Tommy february6, the name coming from her nickname and her birthday. It's brilliant 80s pop music which came out in tons and tons from production studios in Europe. To me it sounds a lot like the stuff produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman or Dieter Bohlen (anyone remember C.C. Catch?). I hated that sound back then but it seems with a change of language it really gets into my ear. She released two albums under that name (a self titled debut and another one named "Tommy Airline"), both with lots of hit potential. The mixture of Japanese and English phrases are well balanced and she even does a coverversion of "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You".

And just when you thought it can't get anymore weird she pulls off another stunt and changes her image completely. Now calling herself Tommy heavenly6 she now plays rock music. Apparently she changed her whole image on a television show after performing as Tommy february6. The heavenly6 thing was put up for two albums (again a self-titled one and the follow up named "Heavy Starry Heavenly"). Sometimes this is a bit too poppy but there are some good rocking songs on those records as well.

What I find very fascinating about this is the rapid change of her image. I believe I have never experienced an American or European poptar change their appearance so fast and unexpected. True, there have been image changes every now and then but that was mostly because the perfomer was lacking success at that time and was trying to give his or her career a boost by doing so. This could be seen when all those boygroup guys went solo after their "band" split up. But this is unheard of over here.
The Briliant Green are back together again it seems as they contributed a song for the now showing drama series "Tantei Gakuen Q", an adaption of a manga novel. So we might not hear new stuff from both Tommys in the near future.

8-ball at Yankee Stadium, Red Sox welcome a new member

That was fun to watch. I wasn't able to connect to the Red Sox stream today so instead I tuned in to the Yankees game against the White Sox. The match started rather boring with nothing happening in the 1st inning but then things changed. First Yankees starter Roger Clemens was roughed up by the White Sox offense in what turned out to be an 8 run top 2nd inning and then in the bottom of the 2nd White Sox starter John Garland was also pounded and in the end after that inning the score was 8-8.
Continuing the game in the 8th inning Yankees catcher Jorge Posada had to pull out of the game because, as the commentators (who I really like, those guys know what they are talking about. And the play-by-play announcer doesn't try to be the wise guy. Plus they root for their team which is fine, but they also acknowledge the efforts by the opposing team. A bad example would be the commentators for the White Sox. Boy, those guys just suck big time.) pointed out he might be dehydrating because he played the night game the day before and it was very hot and the game was going on forever. I still keep learning everyday...
In the end the White Sox won the whole thing 13-9 and Alex Rodriguez still has to wait for his 500th homerun.

Elsewhere the Red Sox eventually got past the Orioles in a 7-4 win at Fenway. First appearance by newly acquired reliever/closer Eric Gagne who came in by a trade with the Rangers. Hideki Okajima once again pitched a scoreless 8th in relief of starter Tim Wakefield.
Tied at 1st place in NL Central are the Brewers and the Cubs. I have to admit that I have a weak side for losing teams so I'm following closely what the Cubs are doing this season. Seems like they always have games that might give you a cardiac arrest. A lot of late inning runs or even walk-off runs or homeruns.
But today they seem to have lost (5-7 to Philadelphia in the 7th, game still going on while I write this). But that didn't mean a thing since Milwaukee also lost (4-12 to the New York Mets). Which I find great 'cause a good friend of mine told me he is a Mets fan. They lead their division NL East. I watched some of their matches and I like their way of playing. They are up against the Cubs from tomorrow on, that should be some fine games.

I think I am finally getting the hang of this...

Pre-Season Test match: SCB Viktoria Cologne vs Borussia Dortmund

There was a test match before the start of the new season yesterday. Borussia Dortmund payed a visit to 5th division team SCB Viktoria Cologne. Lots of those matches take place in the pre-season, as I might call it. Most of them are just show offs for smaller clubs, the big shots of the 1st division Bundesliga don't always play with their best team, but it is a chance to get to see your favourite every once in a while.

The stadium where this match took place is located in a park like area in Cologne which makes it very nice to go there. The weather was fine and so my father and me were looking forward to a nice game. Being from Dortmund my father always was a fan of Borussia and I tagged along when I was a child. Since then I don't really care about Cologne's big club 1.FC Cologne. I've never watched a match of the BVB before, so I was very curious about what to expect.

We arrived there early and got tickets for the main part of the stadium. We sat down at one end of the pitch, located perfectly to see all the goals of Dortmund in the first half. They started with Weidenfeller in the goal, Kringe, Brzenska, Amedick and Buckley in defense. Midfield was Aleksandrov, Federico and Petric and Valdez and Smolarek played up front. Borussia got ahead quickly 2-0 but then found themselves fooled by Viktoria striker Jonas Wendt, who scored after playing around Brzenska and then lifting the ball over the surprised Weidenfeller. From the on the BVB took over and scored goal after goal. Only Valdez didn't seem to be in the mood since he left out a lot of clear chances. If he plays on like that he won't be in the first team for a long time.

After the break Borussia made some changes and so a few young players got the chance to prove themselves with the big ones. One of them was Marco Rummenigge, son of former Borussia midfielder Michael Rummenigge who was part of the team that won the DFB-Pokal in 1989. He played really well and looked a lot like his father back in the days. Another youngster is Christopher Nöthe, who scored once and had his moments during his few minutes of play.

The absolute highlight came during halftime though. A young german singer called Diana Sorbello entertained the crowd with some of her songs. Or should I say "tried to entertain"? To be honest this was awkward. Full playback songs with some football content (e.g. a cover version of the 1974 World Cup song "Fußball ist unser Leben" (Football is our life) and some other hilarious tunes). The poor girl was walking up and down in front of the fans, trying to get at least something like a response, but somehow noone seemed interested. When I searched for her homepage (which can be found HERE) I was surprised to read that she has a university degree and is even trying to get an even higher degree at the moment. I will never understand why they play such music at football matches...