Preview: German Bundesliga I, Matchday 1
The new season in Germany kicks off this week and most teams appear to be more or less 100% ready for their opening matches, which should provide us with many great matches among some of the top teams in Bundesliga history.
Friday 20th August 2010
20:30 CET
Bayern München - VfL Wolfsburg
The 2010 champions will host the 2009 champions in Munich for the opening match and we are in for a treat here! Just a few weeks before the “Wolves” were crowned champions in 2009 they crushed Bayern at home 5-1. Last season, the Bavarians responded. They beat them both at home and away 3-0 and 3-1 respectively, with Arjen Robben scoring 3 of those goals. Tonight (and at least for another month) Robben will not play (due to injury), so the rest of the squad will have to pull it off.
Perhaps the task will not prove as difficult as it may sound, let’s not forget that a week ago Bayern beat Schalke 2-0 thanks to Thomas Muller (who extended his contract to 2015) and Miroslav Klose.
Wolfsburg conceded 58 goals last season, the second-highest figure in all the club's years in the Bundesliga. VfL have never let in less than 41. So it comes as no surprise that the club signed 31-year-old central defender Arne Friedrich, who made some excellent appearances during the World Cup a couple of months ago, to help them improve in that domain. They also signed forward Mario Mandzukic from Dinamo Zagreb, even though Dzeko, Grafite and all the other regulars are still in the squad.
Perhaps the biggest transfer for Wolfsburg this season is head-coach Steve McClaren, who managed to win the Dutch title for Twente last season.
Bayern’s executives were obviously impressed by the performance of Toni Kroos at Bayer Leverkusen (on loan) so they asked him to come back this season. It is the same with Andreas Ottl (on loan to Nürnberg), Breno, Braafheid and Sosa.
Goalkeeper Michael Rensing and of course Luca Toni are no longer in the squad.
- Odds on the home win around 1.60 (1.62 at Bwin) do not seem as tempting, so I only find some value in the “over 2.5 goals”, 1.62 at Bwin.
Saturday 21st August 2010
15:30 CET
Borussia Mönchengladbach - 1. FC Nürnberg
This is a match between two teams who will certainly be looking to avoid relegation this season. In fact, the visitors had to participate in the playouts in May, in order to avoid relegation this season, while the hosts did a little bit better and secured their spot in the top league a few weeks earlier.
Gladbach signed the Belgian striker Igor de Camargo from Standard Liege, a very gifted player, alongside Mohammadou Idrissou from Freiburg. After 6 years and 151 appearances (scoring 42 goals), 37-year-old Oliver Neuville will continue his career in Bielefeld.
The visitors will try to stay out of trouble this season as they have changed their squad quite a bit. Some of the players who were transferred to the club this summer are Timmy Simons, midfielder from PSV Eindhoven, Per Nilsson from Hoffenheim, Jens Hegeler (on loan from Leverkusen), Julian Schieber (on loan from Stuttgart) and Rubin Okotie from Austria Wien. On the other hand, Diekmeier, Breno Nordtveit, Choupo-Moting, Ottl, Tavares and Gygax (as mentioned a few months ago) have all left the club. But there are still many regulars left, such as captain Andreas Wolf (183 appearances) and Christian Eigler who practically saved the season for them last year, however I expect the team to face many difficulties in the early stages of the season.
- Home win, 1.91 at Bet365
FC Köln - 1. FC Kaiserslautern
Here are another two teams who will be looking to simply stay away from the danger-zone this season. Believe it or not, the hosts were the best away defence in the Bundesliga last sesason, conceding only 13 goals in 17 matches! However, their performance at home was poor and they will be under some pressure here to beat Kaiserslautern, because a similar away form seems highly unlikely for them this season and if they don’t take advantage of their home field they will be in serious trouble.
Martin Lanig, Andrezinho, Ionita, Giannoulis, Jajalo and Varvodic are the new additions to the squad, while Matip, Wome, Ishiaku, Tosic, Kessler, Nottbeck, Zielinsky and Gardawski have left the club.
The Red Devils have been in impressive pre-season form, no more so than against five-time European champions Liverpool, beaten 1-0 at the Betzenberg by a back-heeler from new signing Ilian Micanski.
Other transfers include Simunek, Jessen, Kirch, Amri, Rodnei, Hoffer as well as some players on loan, such as Petsos and Moravek.
Sidney Sam, Klinger, Mandjeck, Buchner, Paljic, Pavlovic, Jendrisek and Steinhofer have left the club.
- No bet.
1899 Hoffenheim - Werder Bremen
The hosts have caused some major surprises during the past 2 years in the Bundesliga, however their main, long-term goal still is to secure their spot in the top league each season.
Not much activity for Hoffenheim during the summer transfers so far, with Mlapa, Ozcan, Starke and Vestergaard having joined the club, while Wellington, Nilsson and goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand have left it.
The visitors didn’t seem to be too much affected by the absence of Ozil, who has just transferred to Real Madrid, as they beat Sampdoria by 3-1 for the first leg of the Champions League play-offs.
Most of the regulars stayed at Bremen and the back-ups that left were replaced by other back-up players, such as Felix Kroos, the younger brother of Toni Kroos!
- The visitors should be better prepared for this. Away win, 2.45 at Bwin.
SC Freiburg - FC St. Pauli
The hosts were deep into the danger zone last season, but a wonderful finish, losing only 1 of their last 8 matches, gave them the ticket to participate once again in the top league this season. Rosenthal and Nicu were signed in order to aide the club’s efforts this season and Pamic came on loan from Leverkusen.
On the other hand, Cha Du-Ri, Idrissou and Langer have left the club.
The visitors return to the Bundesliga I after 8 years of absence and they must be looking to stay there for good this time. Some of their transfers include Gerald Asamoah, Bartels, Kessler and Volz, while a few of their players were released (Borger, Goufan, Biermann) or retired (Meggle).
- No bet.
Hannover 96 - Eintracht Frankfurt
The hosts secured their spot in the Bundesliga this season in the last match against Bochum by beating them 3-0 away from home, a result that sent Bochum to the 2nd division.
Some quite skillful players joined the club this summer, including Pogatetz, Markus Miller, Stoppelkamp, Zieler, Stindl and Carlitos, whilst a number players left the club, including Durica, Balitsch, Arouna Kone, Elson, Rosenthal and Stajner.
Frankfurt had a good run last season and after their primary target was reached (avoiding relegation) they put up some very good performances, including an amazing last-minute comeback against Bayern Munich, followed by 2 more comebacks against Bochum and Leverkuzen!
They seem to have increased their strength this season, with the additions of Gekas, Tzavelas and the return of Habib Bellaid.
On the other hand, Teber, Liberopoulos, Spycher, Proll and Toski have left the club.
Last season both matches ended in a 2-1 win for the team that was hosting each one.
- I guess we could try a bet on the home win, or “over 2.5 goals” but the only safe choice is no bet.
18:30 CET
Hamburger SV - Schalke 04
This weekend we have another major match between two of the top clubs in Germany.
The hosts were very unstable last season and dropped too many points at home against inferior opponents, such as Gladbach, Bochum, Hoffenheim, Hannover and Mainz.
Goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny joined the club, while some of the other transfers include Diekmeier, Westermann, Choupo-Moting, Kacar and Sowah. Bastian Reinhardt, Marcus Berg, Jerome Boateng, Schulz, Beister, Arslan and Sidney Sam have left the club.
The visitors managed to get the entire European Continent talking about one of the biggest transfers of all times, as Real Madrid’s captain and icon, Raul Gonzalez was called to give the squad a huge boost in the offensive line. In addition, Christoph Metzelder was also transferred from Real Madrid to help secure Schalke’s defenses, as goalkeeper Neuer played very well in the World Cup, however he conceded some embarrassing (to say the least) goals at critical points last season. Alongside Metzelder we could see youngster Kyriakos Papadopoulos, who has just been transferred from Olympiakos and was rumoured to have been desired by many top European clubs. Sergio Escudero and Tim Hoogland are, among others, some of the new additions to the squad.
On the other hand, many players have left the club this summer, including Westermann, Marcelo Bordon, Mineiro, Gerald Asamoah, Ze Roberto, Rafinha, Moravek, Kevin Kuranyi and Sanchez.
Tim Hoogland, one of the new additions, will miss this match due to a knee problem.
They may have lost the Super Cup to Bayern already, but I feel they will be again a serious contender for the title this season.
Sunday 22nd August 2010
Three of the four teams playing today had to play a Europa League match on Thursday night, however only Stuttgart had to travel abroad, as Dortmund and Leverkusen played at home.
15:30 CET
FSV Mainz 05 - VfB Stuttgart
The hosts were a very pleasant surprise last season, as they remained undefeated at home until Feb. 27th, counting 7 wins and 3 draws, while the final count was 9 wins, 6 draws and only 2 defeats, which means the collected 3 more points at home (1 win) than Werder Bremen who finished in 3rd place! They also got some impressive results away from home.
Stuttgart had their ups and downs during last season, but a fabulous 6 match-winning streak near the end granted them 6th place and a spot in this season’s Europa League.
Transferred in for Mainz are Marco Caligiuri, Haruna Babangida, Lewis Holtby, Szalai, Stefan Bell (from the youth squad), Mario Vrancic, Georgiev, Fuchs and Allagui, while Fathi, Hoogland, Rose, Amri, Bogavac have left the club and Wache retired.
Stuttgart also stirred things up a bit by signing Philip Degen (on loan from Liverpool), Molinaro (from Jeventus), Niedermeier (from Bayern), Harnik (from Werder) Gentner (Wolfsburg), Ziegler (Dortmund) and Audel (from Valenciennes).
- If you must bet on this match, I would only recommend “under 2.5 goals”, offered at 1.98 at Bet365.
17:30 CET
Borussia Dortmund - Bayer Leverkusen
Finally, the massive games of the weekend will be concluded with a football-fest in the Westfalenstadion, where nearly 80.000 fans are waiting impatiently to cheer for their favourite club for the first time this season.
The hosts could have claimed a spot in this season’s Champions League, however they were not able to hold on to 3rd place until the end, last season. The visitors, however, were more than upset when they saw their amazing record of 24 matches unbeaten that had brought them up to 1st place go down the drain after losing 5 out of 7 games right before the end of the season and winning only 2 of their last 12 matches, which barely left them any hopes of taking the 3rd Champions League spot before the final match where they also failed to beat Gladbach’s reserves.
Dortmund acquired attacker Robert Lewandowski, midfielders Shinji Kagawa and Piszczek, as well as goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak, while Tinga, Ziegler, Hottecke and Koch have left the club.
Keverkusen will try to reach the glory (or shame) of 2002, as they signed German idol Michael Ballack, among a few others, including Danish youngster Nicolai Jorgensen who is brought in as the 4th striker, but may prove to be quite useful, as coach Heynckes was very impressed by his skills during the summer training.
Kroos, Gekas, Petsos, Pamic, Hegeler, Sinkiewicz, Zdebel and Dum have left the club.
5 months ago, Dortmund became the 2nd team to have managed to beat Leverkusen, but that was Leverkusen’s worst defeat in the season, by 3-0! Given the extremely important home factor here, as well as the fact that Ballack is still recovering from an injury, I believe we could see very few goals here and perhaps a home win.
