Come on, quick! Now’s the time to get rid of players you don’t need and then go and get some new ones! Why? Because after the qualifying games for the Champions League and the European Cup, it’s clear that all the German teams involved have made it into the group phase of the continental competitions. There’s new money available, the first games are out of the way and decisions about location have been made: so now it’s a game of musical chairs, with Bremen hoping Silvestre will set down on their seat, Hannover wanting to tempt Hajnal from Dortmund, Wolfsburg grabbing Diego and Demichelis looking to sit down anywhere except at Munich – he doesn’t get along well with the trainer. Really, any team with ambitions to take the Champions’ League should be looking to sign him: after all, ex-Bayern defenders are as close as you can get to guaranteed title success (see Lucio at Inter Milan last season).
The most active player in transfer musical chairs is Schalke 04. With the amount of fluctuation in the squad (26 changes!), it’s hard to believe that they were vice-champions last year. You’d think that coach Magath would just sit back and let a successful team have another go, but at the moment, I’m not at all sure whether the team we saw this week will still be there in seven days time! It’s certainly making life difficult for autograph-hunters, who are best advised to hang around airport departure areas if they’re looking to get signatures from players like Tore Reginussen (Tromsö – Schalke – Lecce).
The latest Schalke-signings are a Romanian named Ciprian Deac and the wing defender Hans Sarpei from Bayer Leverkusen. Meanwhile, negotiations are at fever pitch surrounding Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Milan and Rafael van der Vaart, currently at Real Madrid, where Schalke have been faithful customers of late. The only question is, whose money is it that they are spending? We can only hope that Magath still has a close eye on the bank balance – and on the wording of the contracts. Albert Streit, for example, who was signed by Schalke on an easily misinterpretable contract is still laughing all the way to the bank.
Anyway, all this cash flying around doesn’t seem to have had much effect on the performance of the teams involved. Just look at Schalke, and wealthy counterparts Wolfsburg, on the second match day this season. They both played poorly, with Schalke losing 1:2 to Hannover. The newly-formed defence based on Sarpei and Metzelder was weak; Schalke haven’t lost their first two matches since 1987, and this was the year in which they went down a league. My tip for Magath: it’s a good idea to have a whole functioning team before the start of the season.
Meanwhile Wolfsburg, who’d got the cheque-book out for Diego, did actually manage to make a good start and were 3:0 ahead of Mainz after just 30 minutes. Nevertheless, Mainz coach Thomas Tuchel just didn’t give up and his team fought back: 1:3, 2:3, 3:3, 4:3. This should prove more than anything else the old adage that “money can’t buy goals”, and whilst Chelsea and Madrid might seem to contradict that rule, it’s still the case that money doesn’t always win.
There was even more corroborating evidence for this in the form of Kaiserslautern’s astonishing victory against Bayern Munich. It was a big fight with a lot of effort and a bit of luck that got the newly-promoted players their victory against last season’s champions. The man of the match was without doubt Ivo Ilicevic. In the space of two minutes, he’d scored one goal and laid the groundwork for another. This has put him on the list of players Bayern want to sign for the sole reason that it will harm their opponents.
“We had a great talk and he’s on the right path. The aim is to get him back to top fitness; until them, we won’t nominate him for the first European Cup games.” That’s what Joachim Löw said last Friday about Michael Ballack, now at Leverkusen. The coach doesn’t seem to be convinced yet. My advice to you Michael, try and get back on track in the everyday matches: that 3:6 home defeat against Mönchengladbach just won’t do; it makes you and Hyypiä look less like old masters and more like stumbling pensioners!
What else is going on then? Well, the award for caring and sharing goes to the Bremen trainer Thomas Schaaf. He managed to integrate the new player, Marko Arnautovic, into the successful squad, and got the thanks he was looking for in the form of two goals in the 4:2 victory against Cologne. This was, by the way, one of the only two home wins this time round, with Kaiserslautern being the other team to win in their own stadium. No draws, by the way, and seven away wins, breaking all Bundesliga records in this category. What a match day!
(by Stefan Reichart and Brian Melican)
Results Matchday 2
1. FC Kaiserslautern – Bayern München 2:0
FC Schalke 04 – Hannover 96 1:2
Werder Bremen – 1. FC Köln 4:2
VfL Wolfsburg – 1. FSV Mainz 05 3:4
Eintracht Frankfurt – Hamburger SV 1:3
1. FC Nürnberg – SC Freiburg 1:2
FC St. Pauli – 1899 Hoffenheim 0:1
Bayer Leverkusen – Borussia Mönchengladbach 3:6
VfB Stuttgart – Borussia Dortmund 1:3
Table
1 1899 Hoffenheim 6 P
1 1.. FC Kaiserslautern 6 P
3 1. FSV Mainz 05 6 P
4 Hamburger SV 6 P
5 Hannover 96 6 P
6 Borussia Mönchengladbach 4 P
7 FC St. Pauli 3 P
8 Borussia Dortmund 3 P
9 Werder Bremen 3 P
9 Bayer Leverkusen 3 P
11 SC Freiburg 3 P
12 Bayern München 3 P
13 1. FC Nürnberg 1 P
14 VfL Wolfsburg 0 P
15 FC Schalke 04 0 P
16 Eintracht Frankfurt 0 P
17 1. FC Köln 0 P
18 VfB Stuttgart 0 P
