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Bremen must stop conceding late goals
Bremen has conceded two late winners in two of their first three games. The attack of Bremen is clicking as they have scored five goals; unfortunately, those famous and comical errors at the back continue to set back the ambitions of Thomas Schaaf’s side. Against Dortmund in match-day one, Bremen failed to take their chances and was beaten by an 82nd minute strike from Mario Götze, (2-1).
Against Hannover in the weekend, Bremen, having clawed back to 2-2, fell prey to an overhead kick by Szabolcs Huszti. The effort would have been a brilliant one had it gone in without any help from a Bremen player. Indeed, the ball was deflected into the back of the net in injury time.
Schaaf’s side has to tighten up defensively. Or perhaps, they could take a lesson or two from the Bremen of old and score four goals in each game to win.
Petr Jiracek’s red card was extremely ill-timed
HSV celebrated the return of their former hero Rafael Van der Vaart against Eintracht Frankfurt. HSV was behind 2-1 at half-time. Petr Jiracek saw a red card in the 47th minute. The timing of it could not have been worse as HSV had just found their feet minutes before half-time. As a result, they conceded two more. A late strike acted only as a consolation.
Jiracek meanwhile will be suspended next week. HSV could have picked up their first points of the season in that game. Jiracek picked one of the worst moments to see his first red in HSV colours. After three match-days, HSV remains pointless, seemingly doomed for their first ever relegation.
Borussia Mönchengladbach’s new boys have not gelled yet
Luuk de Jong and Granit Xhaka scored but Gladbach failed to register any points against Nürnberg in Borussia Park. Nürnberg is a tough outfit of-course. Coach Dieter Hecking always has a game plan and his charges can produce some good football. However, the Gladbach of last season would have been fully expected to beat the side from Southern Germany.
Gladbach’s expenditure in pre-season was high. They invested the money they earned from the sales of Marco Reus and Dante on good players. Unfortunately, the side is yet to gel. The back-line looked leaky in the Champions League qualifiers. Conceding three goals at home is never a good sign, especially if it happens in two games.
The absence of Dante has really hurt the club. The new boys of Gladbach must find a way to gel together before their season ambitions fall into serious jeopardy.
Claudio Pizarro is the best foreigner to grace the Bundesliga
When Claudio Pizarro came on in the 88th minute against Mainz for Bayern, he became the foreigner in the Bundesliga with the most number of appearances and highest number of goals. He had a golden chance to add to his ever-increasing goal tally but wasted the glorious opportunity. Many famous foreigners have graced the Bundesliga. Some of them such as Bixente Lizarazu, Willy Sagnol and Ze Roberto starred for Bayern.
Pizarro has performed consistently over spells in Bremen and Bayern. He is a true legend of the Bundesliga.
Is the best Dortmund side one without Marco Reus?
Reus injured himself while starring for Germany against Austria in midweek. Thus, the Dortmund side which took to the pitch did not have him in the line-up. Mario Götze, for the first time this season, started the match. Dortmund, also for the first time this season, won a match convincingly. They beat a talented Leverkusen side 3-0 this week. They were helped out of-course by a Leverkusen defence that looks very leaky.
Reus has scored for Dortmund. However, the Ruhr side hasn’t performed as well as they can with him in the side. Reus is definitely an excellent player. Everybody takes time to adjust to a new side. Klopp’s team, if they want to win a third title in a row, needs to play their best football every match especially because Bayern looks extremely dangerous this season.
Is the best Dortmund side the one with or without Reus? We will surely find out more in mid-week when Dortmund takes on Ajax in the Champions League.
