Monday, June 01, 2009

Bundesbag: Any other business

And lo, the German club football season did come to a halt. Last week the Bundesbag took you through the final round of what has been a vintage season for the Bundesliga. If you followed us for the last ten months as a novice, you picked the right season to get involved. You may not encounter a campaign quite as exciting as this one but the Bundesliga will still be relied upon to produce unpredictable results and unlikely heroes in the future.

This season has featured so many wonderful protagonists: Jurgen Klinsmann and his failed revolution at Bayern Munich; Andrei Voronin's one man crusade to win the title for unfancied Hertha; Ralf Ragnick, Dietmar Hopp, Vedad Ibisevic, Carlos Eduardo and the rest of the Hoffenheim gang who lit up the Hinrunde with their ambition and breathtaking football; Artur Wichniarek who lost his father shortly before the start of the season and went on to score 13 of Bielefeld's 29 goals (a statistic which, alas for him, was not enough to keep his team up); Jurgen Klopp who took a tired and listless Dortmund squad to the verge of European competition; Martin Jol whose Hamburg team, unlike his craven contemporaries in the Premier League, tried to win every competition and very nearly blew the lot.

But ultimately, the season belongs to Wolfsburg. Ninth at the Winter Break, champions in May and destroying pretty match everything in their path to the top. Their front pairing of Edin Dzeko and Grafite scored more goals in a season than any other strike partnership in the history of the Bundesliga. You know you've achieved something special when you've broken a record held by Gerd Muller. Daily Mail readers and disciples of Samuel P Huntington may be interested to learn that Dzeko is a Muslim and Grafite a confirmed Christian.

However, the Bundesbag's Order Of Merit (were such a thing to exist) goes to the coach Felix Magath. Turfed out by Bayern after winning two domestic doubles in succession, he exacted his revenge by reducing his former employers to also rans and must have taken great satisfaction as he watched his team demolish the Bavarians 5-1 in April, a match that proved to be the signature performance of this truly great football team.

Another contender for this fictional award was Hans Meyer who did for 'Gladbach what he has a reputation for and that was rescue them from relegation. Meyer last performed this feat with Nurnberg. However, after a while things started to unravel and they were relegated last season. Perhaps with that in mind Mayer has stepped down as coach (no doubt with a handsome bonus for his trouble) citing the need for a new broom.

Nurnberg themsleves are back in the Bundesliga after a 5-0 (gerd) mullering of Cottbus in the two legged relegation play-off. Joining them are Freiburg and Mainz who both gained promotion automatically.

Finally, the German Cup was won by Bremen who beat Leverkusen thanks to a single goal by Mesut Ozil who has some big shoes to fill now that Diego has gone to Juventus.

That's it. The Bundesbag will pop back from time to time over the close season if there is anything exciting to remark upon. Plus we've resurrected the old Bundesbag Twitter ID which will keep you up to date with any snippets of information that comes our way. Then we'll be back for a new season in August. We hope you have enjoyed SPAOTP's coverage and hope to see you again, as semi-legendary commentator Gary Preston might say, "...when the whistle blows for another exciting season in the Bundesliga."

1 comment:

Chris O said...

It has been a pretty remarkable season to get into the Bundesliga, as is the case for me. Fascinating seeing the current strengths and weaknesses of each team, and pleasantly surprised by the emergence of Wolfsburg as champions. Can't wait for next season to start now!

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