Bundesliga - Day 23: Forget about professional football...

1.FC Nürnberg - Hamburger SV 0:0
Bayer Leverkusen - Hannover 96 2:0
VfB Stuttgart - Werder Bremen 6:3
VfL Wolfsburg - FC Energie Cottbus 3:0
Arminia Bielefeld - FC Schalke 04 0:2
MSV Duisburg - FC Hansa Rostock 1:1
Bayern München - Karlsruher SC 2:0
Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Bochum 1:1
Borussia Dortmund - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:1

This weekend was really frustrating. And I am not talking about the first division results. I couldn't care less this time. To be honest, I didn't really pay attention to what happened in Germany's highest level of playing. Because this weekend saw the local derby in Cologne. Albeit in the 5th division. former local bigshots Viktoria and Fortuna went head to head on Saturday afternoon sitting in the top two spots in the table before the match. The atmosphere was great and I haven't felt such an excitement before a football match in a long time. The audience who turned up was huge for a 5th divison match, must have been around 1.500 as predicted. The match was moved from Sunday to Saturday which was a smart thing to do since Sunday is the day when the 2nd division a.k.a. 1.FC Cologne is playing.
Well, well, well, Fortuna started out pretty well, using their wingers frequently but they were still lacking clear chances. Meanwhile Viktoria was nowhere to be seen. They were simply trying to clear every ball which entered their half into the sky or elsewhere. And after only 12 minutes they cleared it a little further towards the goal, the Fortuna defender reaches it first and plays it back to his goalkeeper. IN SUCH A POOR WAY! that the goalkeeper has to use his hands to clear the ball. Free kick in Fortuna's box, and it's 1-0 Viktoria. To cut a long story short: While playing the better football Fortuna was outclassed by a witty Viktoria side which simply waited for mistakes to happen. The result after 90 minutes was Viktoria 4 Fortuna 0. And while this looks pretty clear Fortuna had enough chances (e.g. a penalty) to score and maybe equalize. What a horrible experience. You go to a match in high spirits and all your hopes and dreams get crushed in just 45 minutes. I was totally devastated and my weekend was in ruins. I just hope the team will bounce back after losing the first two games after the winter break.

As for the first division the press is raving about the performance of Stuttgart and Germany striker Mario Gomez who scored three times in a 6-3 win over Bremen(1st half, 2nd half). Gomez had offers from numerous clubs before the season, it seemed, but he decided to stay with Stuttgart. His value is believed to be something around € 30 mio which by far would make him the most expensive German player. Of all German strikers he is at his best right now. World Cup darlings Klose and Podolski are struggling at Bayern, Kuranyi seems to have problems finding his role at Schalke where he sometimes looks a little lost and noone really understood why Mike Hanke (Hannover 96) was playing on the national team anyway. No, Gomez is at the top right now and if he stays healthy (and doesn't vent his anger on medical boxes. Which he did once and broke his hand by doing so) he should be Germany's life insurance for this year's Euro tournament.