Matchday 3 (Season 2008/2009)

[Bundesliga Offside]

Well, I thought it would be an interesting idea to have matchday threads, where people can discuss the weekend's action. This way readers of our blogs don't have to wait until we come up with our assessments of the games. And before writing our round-ups, us bloggers can steal the best thoughts and opinions from this thread and sell them as our own. A win-win situation.

Friday
Karlsruher SC - 1.FC Köln

Saturday
Schalke 04 - VfL Bochum
VfL Wolfsburg - Eint.Frankfurt
Bay.Leverkusen - 1899 Hoffenheim
Energie Cottbus - Bor.Dortmund
Arm.Bielefeld - Hamburger SV
Bor.M`gladbach - Werder Bremen

Sunday
Bayern München - Hertha BSC
VfB Stuttgart - Hannover 96

[diana]

This way readers of our blogs don't have to wait until we come up with our assessments of the games.

Thank you very much for saying what I had been feeling.

But anyhow, not sure if this is good news for Hoffenheim given their opponent's injury list is growing. Leverkusen's injury list now includes Gonzalo Castro.

http://www.bundesliga.de/en/liga/news/2008/index.php?f=105116.php

And speaking of Hoffenheim, according to what I read on my local Yahoo service (it got the article from Reuters), the club has been voted as Germany's most hated. I don't know, the way I read how Hoffenheim rise to the promised land is definitely admirable given - 1. They don't get big-name players. 2. The squad is actually the youngest in the league. 3. They even have a coach who has Bundesliga coaching experience (and I read Ralf Rangnick was infamously known as the 'Football Professor' in the late 90s). Yes, Dietmar Hopp's money is partly why they are at where they are now but he didn't do a Chelsea. That heartens me...or maybe I am slightly biased given I am a supporter of Chelsea's rivals ManU when it comes to the Premier League. Hoffenheim's rise to the top is an 18 years of work in the making. The way I see it, Hopp is like what you call a local boy make good. What is wrong of repaying back to the club you once played for?

The original article - http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/080829/3/4intj.html

Usually for some reason I jinxed the team I am rooting for if I say my prediction out loud. But then this time, I am throwing down the gauntlet by saying I am rooting for Hoffenheim to stay up in their maiden season. Maybe I am a football romantic at heart. I had always like a Cinderella-like stories myself. Or maybe again, Cinderella has always been my most favourite fairytale growing up.

[diana]

I was watching the repeat of the Karlsruher SC - 1.FC Köln match on TV (given the original broadcast was on another channel and my father was watching the UEFA Super Cup and I couldn't protest given his club ManU was in action) and it scared me on Cologne's Ümit Özat collasping on the pitch. I remembered watching coach Christoph Daum was shedding tears. The TV cameras did aimed at him at one time when the medical staff was attending to Özat.

Considering there has been cases in the past of footballers who died on the pitch before, it's understandable how Daum felt. It's always scary. So the reports I read said that Özat's conditions have stabilised. Jan, I know you are a Cologne supporter. Any latest developments on what really cause the collaspe?

Whenever I read of such reports, it always reminded me that heart-related diseases has struck on especially my mother side of the family. My late maternal grandfather actually died of a stroke six years ago. This was after he was being admitted to hospital two weeks beforehand. Died in his sleep. He has already contracted heart attack when I was seven (this was eight years before he came down with a stroke) and even all the more back then it puzzled the doctors given my grandfather had never dranked and smoked ever in his life. He has always lived healthily. So on the day he came down with stroke, I remembered my mother was almost shaken by it. It's her father after all. Which was why I still remembered on the morning the doctor called us that my grandfather died (I was actually preparing for school and I still attended anyway), my mother broke down at once. With my grandmother (who is still alive), he actually also live with us (it only happened after we moved house).

The last time I ever met my grandfather at the hospital (this was the week before he eventually passed away), he still recognised me. Considering whatever the aftereffects after someone has come down with a stroke, I was already mentally prepared of him not able to recognise his eldest grandchild. He became a grandfather after I was born. It was ironic, given he actually passed away on the week before his birthday. The week before it's Chinese New Year (the most biggest event for the Chinese and people like me of direct Chinese descent given my grandparents actually came from China themselves). My late maternal grandfather was actually a Chinese New Year baby himself. Yeah, in his time, the lunar calendar was used and not the Roman calendar we use nowadays. So whenever there's Chinese New Year, it was even all the more special in our family and among our extended relatives. Since then, Chinese New Year has never really been the same again. Given I had always knew growing up, the first day of Chinese New Year...is also my grandfather's birthday.

Sorry if I launched into a 'soap opera'. Given again, my grandfather's death six years ago had made me realised that my most biggest fear in life is - losing someone who is close to me. Because for the first time ever in my life, I experienced such things.

[Hamburg Chris]

Wow, some really interesting results today, with Gladbach knocking off Bremen, Hamburg coming back from 2 goals down to win, Leverkusen pounding Hoffenheimn, and Koln blanking Karlsruhe. The 'Gladbach-Bremen match was on in the US but I didn't have a chance to watch it yet--my kids were watching SpongeBob .

I am really liking HSV's new style--it's a whole lot more entertaining football than Stevens' brand.

[Bundesliga Offside]

TBH Hamburg are lucky that they got through their squad reshuffle with two victories. Their defense looks unusually shaky and uncoordinated at the moment. Even Frank Rost makes mistakes now. That's something which Hamburg need to work on. Otherwise I'm impressed as well. And they can come back from 0-2 down on the road, no matter whether it's Bayern or Bielefeld.

Anyway, the Gladbach - Bremen match is well worth watching, if you can catch a rerun. At least check out the highlights.

[diana]

*jaw dropped*

Bloody brillant. The Gladbach-Bremen highlights, that is. I had checked the TV listings here and the match's not shown (it has the Schalke-Bochum and the Wolfsburg-Frankfurt matches, but both are on delayed telecast). All the more the highlights I watched was from GolTV (and Ray Hudson was part of the commentating team and he was almost a hoot with some of his descriptions! ), it even made it all the more exciting. I missed Ray Hudson's commentating!

Chris, if you are interested (given your kids watching Spongbob, you said) - http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1519542/ It's what I was watching and yes, on GolTV.

[DoublePivot]

So I picked at Weekly XI on BLTalk for the first 3 weeks

Schober
Friedrich, Subotic, Westermann
Dejegah, Kuba, Marin, Schweinsteiger
Helmes, Ibisevic, Wichniarek

Had I done it on last week, Tranquillo Barnetta would have had to have been included.