Preview: In the second part of the four-part series (first part here) of the review of the 2008/09 Bundesliga season, a look-back at how the season had treated the top six clubs in the league. Wolfsburg are the champions, while Bayern Munich have to settle for second. Then there is VfB Stuttgart behind those two, Hertha Berlin and Hamburg both in the Europa League spots. Borussia Dortmund is there too, but just outside of a European spot. Oh yeah, a handful of what I am to type in this entry...I got the idea from here. It's where I got the quotations of the things they say this season in the Bundesliga.
How ironic is it that Felix Magath, who was credited for Wolfsburg's run-in to their maiden league title since their founding after the Second World War by a group of Volkswagen workers, had to leave for Schalke after his job is done at the Volkswagen Arena? But then, he had already decided to do so during the season itself. Schalke needed a coach after Fred Rutten was being released and, it actually initially ended up with Wolfsburg fans feeling that they had been betrayed for Magath heading to another club which will not be playing European football next season after doing well with theirs when it was officially made known that he will be Rutten's successor. Magath did admitted after Wolfsburg won the league title on the final matchday that it would be even more harder for him to leave.
But for the former West Germany international who had coached clubs like his former club Hamburg, VfB Stuttgart, Bayern Munich among others...had already decided to do so during the season itself in being Schalke's coach for next season. If the atmosphere on the final day of the season was anything to go by when Wolfsburg was hosting Werder Bremen (5-1 to Wolfsburg, and they certainly won the league title in style), the Wolfsburg fans had only nothing but 'Thank You' to their coach. Felix Magath is your old-school kind of coach who does not believe in innovations and the like in football coaching. In fact, the artificial hill which had been nicknamed 'Mount Magath' to keep the Wolfsburg players fit at the training ground had achieved some sort of legendary status after players had talked about how it is like training on that. Magath's successor Armin Veh had said on his unveiling that he would retain the artificial hill which was built at the club's training ground. Now it is just whether Veh can keep hold of the players who were instrumental in Wolfsburg's run-in to the title under his predecessor. Top goal-scorer Grafite could still be staying around but, the future of the Brazilian's striker partner in Bosnian international Edin Dzeko...he had been courting interest from a whole host of clubs including the one he had always supported in AC Milan. Wolfsburg had already turned down an offer from the Italian side but, one just have the feeling that is not the end of AC Milan's pursuit (AC Milan after all, are looking to move on since Brazilian playmaker Kaka is on his way to Real Madrid next season).
Credit to Wolfsburg for holding on their nerves till the final matchday of the season because in the season where consistency is found left wanting on clubs who want to be league champions...the Wolves (that is their nicknames) did what they should. Alright, so maybe their away record is not something to write home about but, their home record is among the reasons why they are deutsche meister (German champion) for the very first time. Another reason I can think of out of my head is who is their coach. Felix Magath. Being given the boot by Bayern Munich two year ago after Bayern was in a danger of not even qualifying for the Champions League (it never really helped when Ottmar Hitzfeld was roped in to 'save' the club), the man who despite led Bayern to league titles and cup triumphs...was having last laugh at Wolfsburg. It was amazing it only took two seasons for Magath to do so because when he arrived from Bayern, Wolfsburg's prospects were rather bleak. From leading the club to a UEFA Cup spot...to a league title in his second season there. Magath knows how to win it, from his time at Bayern. It will be big shoes for Armin Veh to fill as he will have to lead a side which will be in the Champions League for the first time next season. But then, Veh had experienced it before with VfB Stuttgart when he led them to an unlikely league title in the 2006/07 season...though the record on the Champions League level was rather questionable when Veh was still at Stuttgart.
"I want to improve every single player every single day." Well, that was what the now-former Bayern Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann used to famously say during his eventual ill-fated stint at the club. In the end, he was still being shown the door. The 1-0 home loss to Schalke eventually sealed Klinsmann's fate in his first job as club coach after his Germany job. The Bayern Munich board had thought that he would be able to 'transfer' the good vibes during the time when Germany hosted the World Cup (Klinsmann was the coach of the national team then)...to the club. But as everyone soon found out, Klinsmann was never really well-liked by the Bayern fans anyway. Results on the pitch is one thing (it soon led to the constant chants of 'Klinsmann raus!', or 'Klinsmann out!' in English), and there is also something which club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge admitted on an interview which was done days after Klinsmann got the boot that they underestimated over the fact that there are Bayern fans whom had not still forgave Klinsmann for what he did when he was the coach of the national team.
Back then in the lead-up to the World Cup on home soil, Juergen Klinsmann dropped the undisputed first-choice goalkeeper for Bayern Munich and the German national team in Oliver Kahn for...Jens Lehmann. Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge admitted that they (as in the Bayern board) thought that the good vibes surrounding how the national team did during the World Cup back then would not be a problem. For all the talk of change and going against the norm in football coaching, in the end Klinsmann himself was his own victim. It was reported that on his eventual final match in charge in the match against Schalke, Klinsmann said this to his players when they were a goal down - "Men, we need a goal." If the change word sounds rather Obama-ish (all the more Klinsmann himself spent a large part of his time in the United States after he stood down from his Germany job with his American wife and two young children), wait till you read how Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness once reacted to Klinsmann's TV interview which he did almost a month after his sacking. Hoeness said, "If Jürgen Klinsmann is the Obama of German football, then I'm Mother Theresa." Time and again when Klinsmann was still the Bayern coach, he was actually living on borrowed time. There will be matches which would be deemed as an 'end game', the match which would decide whether he would lived to see another day or not. Back then after Bayern was being thrashed by Wolfsburg 5-1 away, came eventual European champions Barcelona famously steam-rolling past them in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg. So at that time, their match against Eintracht Frankfurt was deemed as an 'end game'. They won 4-0 then and though eventually they got eliminated in the Champions League, after their away win at Arminia Bielefeld...came the match which eventually sealed Juergen Klinsmann's fate - the home match against Schalke.
While Juergen Klinsmann's time at Bayern Munich as coach (he used to play for the club in his playing days) would be seen as a failure, he did had his glory moments during his time at Bayern. Ironically it came when his side were away at VfB Stuttgart in the third round of the DFB-Pokal. I should know, because my club got steam-rolled by Bayern with a 5-1 scoreline. And this was before the end of the first-half of the season in the league, it was an almost-last minute equaliser which made it 2-2 for both sides. The third round of the DFB-Pokal was the first competitive match since the end of the winter break in the Bundesliga. Now it will be up to Louis van Gaal to prove his worth, and I am hoping (though usually for some strange reason, I will jinx it once I typed it out) that he had learned from his time at Barcelona in regards to player policy. Interim coach Jupp Heynckes had already did the best he could during his short stint at Bayern and he led the club to a runner-up spot and that also means, an automatic Champions League spot next season. Louis van Gaal first made his name when his young and talented Ajax side won Europe's biggest club football prize in 1995. They even beat Bayern along the way then.
As a VfB Stuttgart supporter myself when it comes to Bundesliga football, I could had just use an entire entry typing about how the club season's fortunes was like when we went from Armin Veh to Markus Babbel sitting at the dugout (Babbel took over in last November after a string of poor results under Veh). It is amazing whenever I looked back because even with Babbel being the youngest coach in the Bundesliga and he does not even have the full coaching licence (it is back to the coaching school for him at the moment), apart from that DFB-Pokal exit which Bayern Munich dished out...Babbel had only lost twice since he took over from Armin Veh. The 4-0 thumping courtesy of Werder Bremen, and the final match of the season which went 2-1 to Bayern. Still along the way, Stuttgart actually went from almost being in the relegation mire to...playing in the Champions League qualifying rounds next season. Before the transformation by Markus Babbel, I used to think that if anyone told me that my club would still be playing in Europe next season, I would had really laughed out loud. When Babbel came on board after being formerly of Veh's assistant, I used to think that I would be happy if my club was still in the top-half of the standings at the end of the season.
It certainly went beyond my expectations. VfB Stuttgart did conjured up amazing results along the way in the season. Stuttgart, which was the second-best team in the second-half of the season after eventual league champions Wolfsburg, once beat one-time league leaders Hertha Berlin 2-0 at home, drew 2-2 against Bayern Munich at home when it looked like the three points would be taken by Bayern (this was when Juergen Klinsmann was still Bayern coach). That is not all though. While the 4-0 away loss at Werder Bremen put a dent on Markus Babbel's record, back when my club hosted Werder Bremen...it was 4-1, to us. I should know, I watched that match and nevertheless...I enjoyed it. Not only that, there was the match away at Bochum which after a clanger from my club goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, it went 2-1 to Stuttgart eventually. Also, the 2-0 home win against Schalke which after Schalke's Kevin Kuranyi's penalty attempt was saved...I knew the tide would swung to my club. Then there was the 2-2 away draw at Arminia Bielefeld and the almost-last minute goal which went 1-0 to my club when we hosted Hamburg. According to the German sports magazine kicker on its website, most of Stuttgart's goals this season came in the 76-90 minute range.
But in the 3-3 home draw against Hoffenheim, my club almost never got the share of the spoils if not for Hoffenheim's Sejad Salihovic blasting his penalty wide at almost literally the last minute. Till now, I still wanted to curse the fact that match was not shown here. Already before the start of the match, the doping allegations against Hoffenheim was hanging in the air. It almost had the ingredients of a derby match (it was a derby actually considering both clubs are located in the same state), except no sending-offs. But then it was what happened before Salihovic blasting his penalty which kind of summed up how Jens Lehmann was like since he returned to Germany from being in between the posts at Arsenal. The Lehmann people knew him from his time in the Premier League. So Salihovic lost his right shoe after a foul just outside the box, with Lehmann dashing out to pick up the boot and threw it over his shoulder. It landed on top of the goal-net, from where the Hoffenheim midfielder had to retrieve it. While the Stuttgart goalkeeper said that it was within the law (over what he did) with Salihovic seeing the funny side to it...Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangnick was definitely not amused after the match in regards to that matter. He said, "I've always respected Lehmann but that was unsporting conduct and should have been a yellow card." In fact, that mini-incident before Salihovic's penalty even reached England with bemusement from the English press - of course!
In a season where defensive-like scoreline (just think of your 1-0s) is frowned upon, for a period of time this season...'master of effectiveness', Hertha Berlin almost dared to challenge against the norm that 5-4 kind of scorelines are the way to go in the Bundesliga. For long, the capital-based club had been what would be called a 'grey mouse' in Germany and the last time they won the league was in 1931. But it was not as if Hertha Berlin had their solid back-line to thank for the time when they were at real dizzying heights. There was also Andriy Voronin as well. The Ukraine international came to Hertha on loan from Liverpool (he had since returned back to where he was originally at) and his goals at one time was the reason why Hertha was on top. Naturally during those times when he kept finding the net, the sentiment back in England was why he was being released by Liverpool in the first place. But then Voronin was always warming the bench at Anfield and heading back to the Bundesliga was a perfect option for him given he was already playing there before his move to England. They certainly liked him in Germany all over again during those times.
But then as they say: The higher you climb, the harder you fall. It was pointed out in the German media that Hertha Berlin did not know how to handle the pressure of being at the top of the league standings. When just about everyone at the club (there was even at one time, Hertha's Swiss coach Lucien Favre was dancing around after a match, surrounded by his players) was caught up in the euphoria, that was when reality sets in. The performances on the pitch was starting to show, and even Andriy Voronin was once needlessly sent off in Hertha's away match at Hannover (2-0 to the hosts). So while all along, Favre, the now-former club general manager Dieter Hoeness (because Hoeness was being released of his contract a year earlier after whatever disagreements there seemed to be in the Hertha boardroom in the off-season with his former assistant and former Hertha player in Michael Preetz taking over his place) were saying that a Europa League spot was what they had been targeting all along with even if one get the feeling that they are secretly aiming for a Champions League spot, had to readjust their expectations toward the final stretch of the season. In the end, it was VfB Stuttgart which took the final Champions League spot. In the final match of the season, Karlsruhe handed Hertha a 4-0 thrashing.
Off the pitch, I mentioned earlier that Dieter Hoeness had left Hertha Berlin earlier than what his contract had stated. An era was over in the history of the club when the younger brother of Bayern Munich general manager (Uli Hoeness, that is) was the servant of the club for more than a decade (he had been there since 1996). For whatever reason which led to Dieter Hoeness departing (some said that it was due to disagreements with coach Lucien Favre, some said that it was due to Dieter's know-how in the transfer market), when Dieter first arrived from his time as VfB Stuttgart general manager (during his time at his former club Stuttgart, he did oversaw the club winning the league title)...the club was actually in the second division.
Bayern Munich president Franz Beckbenabuer once said along the line that it was England's loss that Martin Jol was at Hamburg. Jol would always be remembered in England for his time as manager of Tottenham Hotspur and the club almost breaking up the monopoly of the Premier League's 'Big Four'. Until the Dutchman's arrival at Hamburg, his last German football connection was that he once had a playing stint at Bayern (though he never last that long there due to homesickness). While the focus on the opening match of the season (a 2-2 draw between Bayern and Hamburg) was Bayern off to a stuttering start under Juergen Klinsmann, back then I already had the feeling (though I was still not sure then, given it was the opening match) that maybe...Jol could do something with Hamburg. In fact, it was his Premier League experiences which convinced the club to get him as their coach before the start of the 2008/09 season. Soon, Jol had a legion of admirers in the German footballing community for the work he was doing at Hamburg.
And he is actually Dutch. All along, Dutch coaches in the Bundesliga do not always enjoy a good reputation with their track records (it never helped when Martin Jol's fellow compatriot Fred Rutten, someone who was highly-rated in Holland before the Schalke move came along...was being sacked during the season itself) and Martin Jol had helped to erase some of those unwanted reputation. But then as Jol's reputation in German football grew, soon came the inevitable envious glances from England. It never helped in Hamburg's UEFA Cup campaign, Jol's side met Aston Villa in the group stages and later on against Manchester City in the quarter-finals. During those times, the question of when will he make a return to the Premier League was being inevitably raised. It always made the German media going all jittery. After all until they secured a Europa League spot on the final matchday at almost the last kick of their match away at Eintracht Frankfurt, the club was actually on the verge of something special - a treble. They were chasing for the league title, the domestic cup, and the UEFA Cup. In the end, both their domestic cup and UEFA Cup ambitions were ended by of all clubs - their most fiercest northern rivals Werder Bremen. Even before those two campaigns went up in smoke, pundits had already started to write Hamburg off as one of those challenging for the league title.
Hamburg is actually a club which once punched above its weight in the 70s and 80s both in the league and in Europe (their financial might was shown during those times when Kevin Keegan went from Liverpool to there with the man being at the prime of his career with him saying the move to Germany was to gain experience, and the Englishman soon became a fan favourite in Germany). The club this season did topped the league standings, though not a permanent basis. As soon after the final whistle on the final matchday of the season even with Hamburg are through to the UEFA Europa League next season at the skin of their teeth, the blame game began. It began with coach Martin Jol. About the number of injuries on his squad and the like. Then came the day when Ajax took Jol away. The Dutch giants were looking for a coach, after Marco van Basten resigned with a match to go out of his own accord (the Ajax legend concluded that he was not good enough). Ajax's search ended up in Germany, which no surprises...shook the German media. Germany was already liking Jol, and it ended up...the lovefest only lasted a season. Bruno Labbadia had since been installed as Jol's succesor, and it is now up to the former Hamburg player to continue where Jol left off.
While during the course of the season I always like to refer the now-former Hamburg coach Martin Jol as 'BMJ' (an adaptation from his nickname which he earned during his time in England as 'Big Martin'), 'Kloppo' was how I always like to refer to the Borussia Dortmund coach. Juergen Klopp is actually his full name ('Kloppo' was the nickname given by the German press). Days after Juergen Klinsmann got the boot from Bayern Munich, the joke was going around that Bayern actually got the wrong Juergen all along. Like Klinsmann, Klopp was viewed in Germany as another who was a visionary, someone who is not afraid to take risks...just like the former Germany and Bayern coach. Klopp's work with Mainz (he had spent a large part of his playing career there) convinced Dortmund to bring him on board ahead of the season. It was said that Klopp was actually also considered for the Bayern job before Klinsmann landed it instead.
Well, Bayern Munich's loss is Borussia Dortmund's gain. Juergen Klopp, who once had a TV pundit job on the sidelines when he was still Mainz coach (he was a pundit during the World Cup when the tournament was held in Germany itself and was also part of the ZDF television's punditry team for the German national team's Euro 2008 campaign), brought the feel-good factor back to the club which boasted the largest stadium in the country. The Westfalenstadion has a seating capacity of 80,708. Huge as it may be with it even being nicknamed as the 'German Wembley', Dortmund's home record was not really that good this season for some reason or another. The draw jinx did came to an end at home for the club along the way in the season but, the two derby matches against their biggest cross-town rivals Schalke (both ended up in draws) also had its selling points. People were saying that they should make DVDs out of the Bayern Munich-Hoffenheim (2-1), Hoffenheim-Werder Bremen (5-4) matches to show why the quality of the Bundesliga is there and it can hold its own against their counterparts in Spain, England...I also have a suggestion. To prove why the Rhur derby always generate lots of emotions (it once had a say in the title race...on the final day of the 2006/07 season which Schalke blew it and VfB Stuttgart won it), someone should make a copy of the derby which ended 3-3 to Dortmund. Players being sent off, questionable refereeing decisions...what more can you ask for in a derby which is the mother of all footballing derbies in Germany?
Other than that, there were players who did well under Juergen Klopp. Neven Subotic (whom Klopp brought over from his time at Mainz and is among a group of young and exciting defenders in the Bundesliga), Nelson Valdez (considering all the more it used to be that the striker does not always find the net that often!), Nuri Sahin blossomed under 'Kloppo'. It is kind of a pity that until Hamburg 'stole' the last Europa League spot away from them at almost the last minute on the final matchday of the season, Dortmund was odds-on favourite to finish in an European spot in the league. As they say: You win some, you lose some.
