BAVARIA IS NOT A LEADER
This is an event in itself - Bavaria is not used to seeing in any place other than the first. However, this season Bavaria was not as willingly put on as it was before. Firstly, there is the Bremen “Bremen”, which is gaining strength every year. And secondly, Bayern itself was mired in perestroika - Ballack left the team, and at first they didn’t even buy anyone in his place. Only after some time, the bosses came to their senses and persuaded Mark van Bommel to move to Munich. They say they even used a friend’s call - Roy Mackay personally negotiated with van Bommel. Bayern made a conscious bet on the Champions League, and in the Bundesliga was going to win in the classroom. But this class was slightly reduced, and teams such as Hannover or Wolfsburg did not fail to take advantage of this. Bayern also lost to Werder, and barely escaped in the match against Schalke. Fortunately for the Munich team, the rivals also regularly “gave a cock,” and according to the results of the first round, Bayern Munich is only three points behind the leaders. It is clear that this is a complete trifle - in the second round, everything can change. Nevertheless, Bayern does not look like a clear favorite - the same Bremen has no less chances.
WERDER - THE MOST IMPORTANT TEAM OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP
For already a year, matches of the "Bremen Town Musicians" have been a pleasure to watch. Manager Klaus Allofs managed to find a great replacement for Joan Mick - the Brazilian Diego took the place of the playmaker, instantly becoming the idol of the fans and the best player in the first part of the championship. Coach Thomas Schaaf does not change his playing philosophy: Werder Bremen is primarily an attack. In 17 matches, Bremen scored 47 goals - 17 more than the next team. Everyone at the Werder Bremen is attacking - 10 goals were scored by Miroslav Klose, eight on Diego’s score, six accurate shots were delivered by Naldo, the central defender, by the way. It is clear that the defense of such a team cannot be perfect, however, in this component, “Werder Bremen” managed to add. The team found good extreme defenders - Wome and Fritz, and the arrival of the best German defender Mertezakker added reliability in the center. “Werder Bremen” even learned to play the score - incredible, but true.
FAILED RESIGNATION OF ARMY FE
At the beginning of the season, the Stuttgart coach led the bookies in the “Quick Resign” nomination. Fe was generally considered a frivolous coach, and when his team began to miss 3-4 goals, only the lazy did not demand to remove the “specialist”. However, the leadership of Stuttgart has gained patience and is now glorifying its own wisdom in every way. Unexpectedly for everyone, the team began to play - the young striker Mario Gomez began to score in every match, the Mexican legionnaires Pardo and Osorio squandered in the Bundesliga, the club school gave Stuttgart several new, interesting players. For a long time, it seemed that the winning streak of Stuttgart was about to break, and the team would go where it came from, but the ending of the first round showed that Stuttgart had already walked up some weight. When the team stopped playing, it didn’t fall apart and gave out four dry matches in a row. To fight for the championship in the Champions League, “Stuttgart” is too early, but progress is obvious.
NEW STARS
Immediately several young football players showed themselves brightly in the first round matches. Jan Schlaudraff of Alemannia scored the most beautiful goal of the fall, has already scored in the national team and right now is choosing between Bayern, Werder Bremen and everyone else - customers are in line. Indeed, the selling price of a striker is only 1.2 million euros, you can’t buy a Cheburashka in the Russian Championship for that kind of money. Mario Gomez and Aaron Hunt also delight team coach Joachim Lev, who now has an interesting selection of forwards. 20-year-old goalkeeper Manuel Neuer forced out Captain Frank Rost from the Schalke goal. The 23-year-old defender Heiko Westermann from Arminia is also knocking on the national team and big clubs, and Andreas Ottl is already playing in a big club - he confidently took the place of a defensive midfielder in Bavaria. There are also discoveries among the legionnaires - Hertha striker Marco Pantelic, who eclipsed Dimitar Berbatov's “Killer of Moments” last year, and this season strives to move Miroslav Klose himself. And what goals he scores - he throws the goalkeeper with a shot from behind the free-kick, beats three defenders, and he beats his head superbly.
KINDERGARTEN JUDGE
According to the liking and custom, the judge is considered young at the age of 35 - he has at least ten more years of work ahead of him. But how then to characterize the arbiter, who is only 23 years old - from the sliders, presumably, has not yet come out? There are just so many referees to Michael Kemper, and he is already serving the Bundesliga matches. Moreover, at the age of twenty, he worked at matches of the second division, where monsters “play”, ready to tear three Campers apart. Presumably, after such a school, Kemper is already not afraid of the devil himself, even Oliver Kahn. If all is well with the young referee, he has every chance of breaking the eternal record of Marcus Merck, who has won his 300th Bundesliga match this year. Dr. Ruthless himself has been working in the Bundesliga since 1989 - then he was 27 years old, so Kemper has four years of handicap. However, the title of the most promising arbiter in Germany is somehow not good, Robert Kheutzer was considered as such before Kemper. I don’t even want to remember what happened to him.
Kirill DEMENTYEV