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Bundesliga Mid Season Review 2011-12
The Final Weekend of 2011 in the Bundesliga ended with plenty of drama as Markus Babbel was sacked as coach of Hertha Berlin.
Markus Babbel is an ambitious man. He spent long years as a player with Bayern and Liverpool and thus has a winning mentality. He perhaps saw Hertha as a club that was not going to move forward. As a result, he opted not to extend his contract and he said as much to Hertha’s general manager Michael Preetz. Preetz according to Babbel refused to be truthful to the media. Babbel was sacked this week. He will be replaced by Michael Skibbe. Hertha’s final result under Babbel was a 1-1 draw against Hoffenheim in Sinsheim. Hertha is seated not too securely in mid table. Babel’s former team meanwhile secured the Autumn Championship in Bavaria.
Prinz Poldi reigns supreme- Reflections on the Bundesliga Weekend
Prinz Poldi’s performance against Freiburg lit up the league on a weekend that saw Bayern increase the gap between themselves and their rivals.
When Cristian Molinaro saw red about 15 minutes before half-time at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart’s afternoon turned completely sour. Stuttgart started the day brightly by grabbing an early goal. Bayern equalized soon afterwards through none other than Mario Gomez. Gomez grabbed the winner in the second half. He also scrambled the ball away from the goal-line, preventing a Stuttgart equalizer.Bayern, after taking the lead, shifted down to third gear. Stuttgart came within inches of scoring an equalizer. Daniel Van Buyten’s giveaway to Cacau led to the Stuttgart man aiming towards an empty net only to send the ball slightly over the net and into the stands. Due to other results, Bayern now has a three point lead over their rivals and a superior goal difference to go along with the lead.
Schalke Emerges as Bayern’s Closest Contenders for the Bundesliga
Schalke has the right combination of youth, experience, attack and defence in their team. They celebrated their fourth home win of the season in a 3-1 success against Hoffenheim.
Last season, Leverkusen occupied the spot which Schalke currently occupies. Leverkusen escaped literally on Friday night. A second minute Michael Ballack goal set the stage for wave after wave of Freiburg attacks which somehow failed to result in an equalizer. Now we know Michael Sorg wasn’t kidding when he said that his team’s results do not match their performances.A performance like that in the Champions League on Tuesday night might see Bayer 04 become the laughing stock of Valencia for a while. What has to be said is that Simon Rolfes was left on the bench for this one. Ballack broke his nose in the match as well. Signing Bernd Leno was a wise decision by the Bayer board- they will need him on Tuesday considering the way they played on Friday night.
Can Bayer Leverkusen Finally Emerge out of their Mini-Crisis?
Ninth in the Bundesliga with only four wins to their name, Leverkusen is in somewhat of a crisis.
How does one define a crisis? One of the common definitions of the word is “an unstable situation, especially one involving an impending abrupt change.” The change for Leverkusen is obviously the move from a very experienced manager in Jupp Heynckes to that of a smart and talented but less experienced coach in Robin Dutt. The change wasn’t abrupt- however, the team has struggled under Dutt this season.The Bay Arena clock showed about 82 minutes on Sunday. The match between Leverkusen and Schalke was seemingly heading for a draw. Then, Jefferson Farfan pulled off the sprint of the season, running from his own penalty area to Leverkusen’s, beating Bernd Leno and scoring- that is about 90 yards of running and no Leverkusen player caught him.