Heading into this World Cup, no team should be looking for any extra motivation. After all, this is the World Cup , where the world's best will be gathered for one big battle royal to decide who takes home the title, World Champion! Never will these teams ever again experience the spectacle or pageantry that will be apart […]

Following a busy season, Raphael Honigstein of The Guardian and Footbo was kind enough to talk with me and address a few questions I had about the end of the season and the start to the silly season. Which player(s) surprised you the most this season? a) Misimovic. We knew he could play football, but […]

Finally Dusseldorf has come good for visiting dignitaries Bayer Leverkusen. After a poor run of form in the league at the LTU, the Werkself took apart Bayern Munich 4-2 in their temporary home to gain passage to the final four of the DFB Pokal. Klinsmann tinkered with his lineup a bit as congestion is building […]

Bayer Leverkusen returned to form and dismantled league leaders Hoffenheim in front of 30,000 at the Rhein-Neckar Arena. Scoring two minutes into the match set them up for an inspired first half and scoring again one minute into the second half sealed the three points for die Werkself. Hoffenheim struggled to find defensive cohesion, especially […]

Edin Dzeko Against Cottbus 1. Bayer Leverkusen The subtitle to their season should be “how we got to the top with a crap defense”. They conceded goals by a misdirect from the wall on a free kick, allowing Tim Sebastian to waltz freely on another and letting 5’9 Iashvilli outjump a defender. If it weren’t […]

1-2-3 – Current ranking of Bochum, Cottbus, and Bielefeld on the "Anti-Fair-Play Table." Here Bochum has a commanding lead thanks to their 33(!) yellows in 12 games. This trio tops another table as well, but this one's about "Anti-Results." All three are currently in the relegation zone. Coincidence? Probably not considering Anti-Fair-Play cellar dwellers Leverkusen […]

Please click on picture to see all the caricatures of German footballers from Pit Hammanns Hamburg SV The Dinosaurs face Schalke in the most intriguing game of the weekend. They have lost three of the last four matches against the Royal Blues at Nordbank. Chances for this weekend’s game don’t seem great with Nigel de […]

The future is now as Germany are hit by injury to Robert Enke. Not that I wanted any injury to Enke, as I think he is a fantastic keeper and seems like an all around good guy; however, he has broken his hand during the run up to this round of World Cup qualifiers for […]

0 – Number of wins by Frankfurt, the last remaining winless team 5 – Total number of shots by Gladbach in their 0-1 defeat to Hamburg 7 – Goals scored by Patrick Helmes this season, that's equal to or more than 8 teams (Hertha, Köln, Hannover, Karlsruhe, Bochum, Cottbus, Frankfurt, and Gladbach) 8.06 – The […]

A hat trick by Patrick Helmes and an unrelenting offense saw Bayer Leverkusen take apart Hannover 96 tonight. The illness and injury riddles Reds, were humiliated by Bayer 04, but also their lack of fight as they seemed disinterested in the proceedings. Bayer have the most fluid attack in the Bundesliga with Rofles and Augusto […]

I have just returned from my summer holidays, where I had a lovely respite from footie. However, here we are with the season two weeks deep and I am behind. But I am afforded the luxury of making my tactical analysis on two games rather than one, which can be useful. I decided to spend […]

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 new Bundesliga season is just days away, so Bundesliga Talk writers Mark Moll and Double Pivot decided to interview one of the preeminent writers and authors on the topic of German soccer, Raphael Honigstein. Many readers may know Honigstein best from his appearances on the Football Weekly Podcast by The Guardian. Here's the transcript […]

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 […]