Young-Pyo Lee has joined Dortmund after the club agreed to terms with Tottenham Hotspur for the South Korean fullback. Lee's survival at Spurs this long has been something of a oddity for us Lilywhites as he had fallen behind Gareth Bale, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Jamie O'Hara and Gilberto in Juande Ramos' estimation. He had been a […]

1st Schalke What You Know: If baseball's Chicago Cubs had a baby with the Red Sox prior to 2004, Schalke would be the offspring. What You Don’t: All things both good and bad must end. What to Expect: Yes, Campeones! I say that, bucking all trends, and knowing full well that Schalke could be leading […]

The Deutsche Presse Agentur released a poll yesterday about predictions for the upcoming season. Bayern Munich was the unanimous favorite of Bundesliga coaches to repeat as champions. The most common reason given was the quality of Jürgen Klinsmann's squad. What follows is a hasty translation of what each of the 18 gaffers had to say […]

This week we make the short trip west on the A40 from Dortmund past Bochum to Gelsenkirchen, home to Schalke 04 and their new coach, Fred Rutten. Much like his new Ruhr rival, Jürgen Klopp, Rutten has been a one club man for almost his entire 30-year playing and coaching career, all with FC Twente […]

Continuing our series introducing the Bundesliga's newest gaffers is Jürgen Klopp now with Borussia Dortmund. For those of you at home wondering why Klopp was chosen to follow Klinsmann wonder no more. Was it to juxtapose the long-serving Klopp with the journeyman Klinsmann? Was it because both were football commentators for the German public television […]

The fixtures for the opening day of the 2008/2009 Bundesliga season have been announced. All of these matches will be played on Saturday, August 16: FC Bayern v Hamburg Schalke v Hannover Wolfsburg v Cologne Bayer Leverkusen v Borussia Dortmund Eintracht Frankfurt v Hertha Berlin Karlsruhe v Bochum Energie Cottbus v Hoffenheim Arminia Bielefeld v […]

Relegation Crunch Time With two games remaining a total of six points is all that distinguishes the bottom five squads from one another. Three: Rostock, Duisburg, and Nürnberg technically inhabit the relegation zone with 27, 29, and 31 points respectively. Bielefeld (32 pts) and Cottbus (33) are flirting with danger, being out of immediate harm's […]