I tend to get too excited about the young kids, when they move. I will often over-value the transfers of the the Zuculini, Sven Bender and Lewis Holtby's of the footballing world. I will see Ralf Fahrmann's move to Eintracht as the bargain of the century. But youth takes time to develop, so this year […]

Goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny (Hertha Berlin) Make no mistake about it, Berlin's rise from bottom half side to title contenders was based on defense. They were a hard side to break down and on the off-chance that a team did, there was Drobny to get by. His performance against Bayern was the stuff of legends. Defenders […]

Cologne dominated much of the game at home against Arminia Bielefeld, but in the end, couldn’t break down the central-half pairing of Herzig and Andre Mijatovic with Dennis Eilhoff in goal. With over 60% of possession and 16 shots on goal by Cologne, it was down to the organization of the two central defenders to […]

Arminia Bielefeld gained a point and a little breathing room in their fight to stay up this year. Things didn't start brightly when their defenders fell asleep and allowed Andriy Voronin to ghost onto a ball delivered by keeper Jaroslav Drobny and slot home a 13' lead. They leveled in the 40' when right back […]

KSC went to Schüco Arena and came away with their first victory in four road matches and ended an eight game winless streak against Arminia. Arminia were their own worst enemy as they played a terrible first 75 minutes of football. They looked technically deficient compared with their southern foes. They gave away possession too […]

Here's this week's Bundesliga XI. It is packed with Bayer 04, Hoffenheim and Werder players. It does include a special shoutout to the man who ended Energie's goal drought, an under appreciated defender from Arminia and a goalkeeper who lost. 1. Schalke 04 Now 10 of their last 13 have been scored by defenders. This […]

While this is expected to become a weekly column, I have decided to hand out the first Weekly XI based on the cumulative efforts of the first three weeks. I will use a 3-4-3 formation for my picks. GK: Mathias Schober (Schalke 04) – The veteran backup has taken over during Manuel Neuer's injury and […]