Just gettin' some writin' done.

58 Wörter

Speedtest

I write 58 words per minute. How many can you type?

Real Madrid - FC Barcelona

Halftime right now. 0 - 0 so far but very exciting match.

I hope you are watchin'!

Quote of the Day - David Beckham

Back from vacation with a quote of the day:

"Alex Ferguson is the best manager I've ever had at this level. Well, he's the only manager I've actually had at this level. But he's the best manager I've ever had." -David Beckham, former ManU-player, on his coach back then.

Prooves once again that you don't need much brain to be a good footballer. I'm not saying David hasn't improved. He managed to shape a big international career so he clearly knows how to promote himself. Oh and also that goal vs. Greece was great :)

One quarter of a century

Today, March 31st, is my birthday :)

One of the presents I got is a headset from Sennheiser, if any of you know that brand. Amazing quality, I'm enjoying it right now.

Anyways, I'm off celebrating!

Germany 4 : 0 Kazakhstan

Goals: 1-0 Klose (3'), 2-0 Müller (25'), 3-0 Müller (43'), 4-0 Klose (88')

Germany took another step closer to the finals of EURO 2012 in Poland/Ukraine with an untroubled 4-0 victory over Group A whipping boys Kazakhstan in Kaiserslautern.

Two goals apiece from Miroslav Klose - celebrating a decade of playing for the national team - and Thomas Müller made it five wins out of five for Joachim Löw's team, who are already eight points clear of closest pursuers Belgium and Austria.

I watched the game yesterday and it was a good first half. The sescond half was not that impressive, Germany was too satisfied with leading 3-0. Best players for me: Özil and Müller.

I also watched part of England vs. Wales before that. I fell asleep after 20 minutes though, because my couch is just too comfortable. No problem, because England scored their 2 goals right at the beginning of the game. Did anybody see the rest? Was it good?

Exams...

Hey Guys,

I have Exams until Tuesday so I won't be able to post much. Maybe 1-2 posts over the weekend. But be sure to check back after that!

Video Wednesday: Playing beyond the Rules

On March 13 this year, the second Bundesliga matchup of Cottbus vs. Osnabrück was suddenly interrupted, when Osnabrück's Flamur Kastrati fell into unconsciousness after a duel with an opponent.

Apparently Kastrati war heavily injured and had to be taken off the pitch and tight to a hospital. There the 19-year-old was diagnosed with a spinal trauma.

The players of both teams demanded that the match should be ended right there, but referee Marc Seemann (who was the ref in Hannover's match one week later) insisted on adding a 12 minute overtime. This is what the players did with that time:



I respect the players decision to continue this way. I couldn't have continued normally either. Cottbus won the match 2-0.

Do you think this is the right way to do it? Btw: Kastrati returned to practice after 10 days and will recover fully.

Recap: Hannover's Bundesliga Weekend

My club Hannover 96 has become the team with the best home record so far this season. 10 victories, 1 draw and 3 defeats translate into 31 points, 2 points ahead of Bayern. Additionally, they have breached the 50 points mark and are now officially playing their best season ever. The former record was 49 points. And there are still 7 more games to go!

My orginial intention was to blog about European football in general, but I am more and more amazed by and drawn to my club's success. I mean, you can't really blame luck for their 3rd place in the league anymore. This Saturday one could once again see a perfect execution of counter-attacking-football. It didn't take the offense more than 10 seconds to score once Hannover 96 got the ball from Hoffenheim.



Granted, Hoffenheim isn't the Hoffenheim of one or two seasons ago. But still, they have billionaire SAP founder Dietmar Hopp to support them with lots of money. I just don't see team spirit there, unlike Hannover's.

As you can tell, I'm all positive right now :)

Another video I NEED to show you is about Italian striker Mario Balotelli, currently playing for Manchester City. I just can't... how... I mean sure, sometimes the bibs are a little tricky to put on, but THIS?



What do you think of him?

Celebrating 100 Followers

Hey Guys,

even though I don't want to post on Sundays, I just have to show off that I breached the 100 followers mark some time yesterday.

Also, Hannover won 2:0, so the weekend's great.

Twitterfeed

Hey guys,

I just configured twitterfeed.com to tweet my posts to twitter. I hope that is more convenient for those of you who follow me via twitter.

Also watching Bundesliga right now, nothing special so far.

Quote of the Day - Ade Akinbiyi

"I was watching the Blackburn game on TV on Sunday when it flashed on the screen that George Ndah had scored in the first minute at Birmingham. My first reaction was to ring him up. Then I remembered he was out there playing." -Ade Akinbiyi, Nigerian Striker, on George Ndah


Wait... wat? Also look at his body.

Video Wednesday: Italian Joy

Hey Folks,

sorry that I wasn't online for a few days, but I was on vacation :) Im so glad people contienued to comment! Returned yesterday and immediately watched Champions League - Bayern vs. Inter.

What a shameful display by the German team, I have to admit. When their best team is on the pitch, including Robben and Ribery, their offensive abilities are incredible. Until the 68th minute when Robben got injured, Bayern dominated Inter and had oh so many chances. But you know how it is in Football: if you don't score the goal, your opponent will punish you for it.

Munich's young Brazilian defender Breno primarily caused the 3rd goal of Inter. But I was so dissapointed by all of Bayern's defense that I actually started applauding Inter :) I wasn't quite as happy as him though:



That vid is from last years final but I think it applied last night as well. Too fanatic? What do you think? =D

The loss does not really matter anyways, Germany overtook Italy in the 5-year-ranking which means more international participants from here!

What else? Oh yeah, Hannover lost to Cologne 4 to nothing. After the last weeks' high this was not totally unlikely. I hope it is the warning shot at the right time!

Quote of the Day - Mark Viduka

"I would not be bothered if we lost every game as long as we won the league." -Mark Viduka, Australian Striker


See, you don't need to be smart to be good, right? :)

Cologne - Hannover tonight. Lokking forward to another great game.

Video Wednesday: 3rd Eye

I'm sure the visitors from the UK know the show Soccer AM 3rd Eye. For you other visitors, in this show they display some fun clips which were seen on the TV, in which things don't go the way everybody would expect them to do normally.

To show you what I mean, have a look at this video of French striker Thierry Henry and his actions before the match. It is a few years old but shows what a cool guy Henry acutally is. Atleast when he's not using his hand to defeat the Irish ;)

Hannover 3:1 Bayern

Unbelievable match. Perfect teamplay by Hannover, who completely disabled Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. Last one scored a goal but who cares if you can counter-attack so, so well. I can't even pick out a single player in the Hannover squad who didn't perform amazingly.
The stadium was sold out (49,000 visitors). Absolutely priceless to see the huge number of Bayern-fans leave the stadium with sad faces. And Hannovers fans finally start to accompany the good performances of their team with equally good PARTY!!

Just listen:



They are singing about the European cup, the tournament we want to qualify for. And the chances are not bad. We are now 5 points ahead of Bayern. Side note: Bayern just announced that their coach Louis van Gaal is going to quit after the season. I am actually surprised that they don't fire him right now. Bayern's gameplay was lifeless.

This is the best season since the last 30 years, if not EVER. Sky's the limit, really.

Sunday Break

Dear readers,

I will take Sundays off from blogging as I need some time to chill out :)

Back on Monday with a weekend recap. I still can't believe Hannover beat Bayern though. This was possibly the greatest match i've ever seen my team play. So proud.

Bundesliga Matchday 25

So what's up with Matchday 25? Here are some things to look out for.

Bayer Leverkusen vs. VFL Wolfsburg
Bayer is to me the most underrated team in the league. They play so well (good passing, marvelous solos by Sidney Sam e.g.) but yet not much is written about them. Media interest concentrates on Bayern, Dortmund and also Hannover as they are doing surprisingly well. Once Ballack gets into better shape and improves his form, Leverkusen is the best club behind Dortmund and really hard to beat.
Wolfsburg does not have much to hold against them. Diego, their no 10 playmaker, is what we call a "diva": sometimes brilliant, most of the time just to arrogant. This weekend he's going to show his arrogant side. My tip: Leverkusen 2:0 Wolfsburg

Match of the Day: Hannover vs. Bayern
After their dissapointing loss this Wednesday, Bayern Munich really needs to focus on the last chance that they have to get to the international cups next season: qualify through a good placement in the league. Preferably ranks 1-3 because then they would get a chance to play in the highest of European cups, the Champions League.
Interestingly, their opponent is Hannover 96 (best team ever, for sure ;D) who are for the first time in club history placed ahead of Bayern this late in the season. If Hannover manages to pull off a victory or at least a draw, they stay on track to the Champions League themselves. Also, Bayern's coach Louis van Gaal might get fired if they lose to Hannover!
But Bayern usually plays strong when under pressure. Their individual quality is so hard to defend against and to be honest, I am afraid Hannover might lose. Even more so because Ya Konan will miss the match due to an injury. My Tip: Hannover 1:3 Bayern.

On a Site Note: Premier League: Liverpool vs ManU
On Sunday there'll be Liverpool vs ManU in the Premier League. Liverpool are unbeaten in their last five matches at home while the leaders have now lost two of their last four away. Sir Alex Ferguson's men will try to recover from their 2-1 defeat at Chelsea which made the title race itneresting again.
Kenny Dalglish's men will also be determined to recover from losing 3-1 at West Ham United.
United have already beaten Liverpool twice at Old Trafford this season but have lost on their last two visits to Anfield Road. My Tip: Liverpool 1:2 ManU

Quote of the Day - George Best

"In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol; it was the worst 20 minutes of my life." -George Best, former winger of Manchester United, † 2005


Spoken like a true player, right?

German National Cup: David vs. Goliath inc

Interesting game last night. Bayern Munich, the favorited team, vs. Schalke. And guess what, Schalke won and they earned that win.

During the game Schalke displayed the perfect tactic against this season's Bayern: do not let their wingers, Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben, get a shot at anything. Where Ribéry is not really in shape right now and pretty much destroys his game by himself, Robben is still one of the most dangerous players in the world. But, if you keep harrassing him, you take away his joy which results in a significant performance drop, to be seen last night. Munich, having their tactics designed to especially favor those two players, was shot down entirely. This could be the way to go for Hannover 96 this weekend and I'm sure Hannover's Coach Slomka has kept an eye on Bayern's last matches. Just keep counterattacking and keep pressuring "Robbery"!

Now that Schalke has andvanced to the final of the cup, there will be mathcup "David vs. Goliath". Schalke, who have won the cup 4 times so far, have an amazing squad this season. Their estimated value is around 132,000,000€ (or 183,018,000 US$) altogether with an individual average of about 4 million € (or 5.5 million US$). I take these estimates from transfermarkt.de; that site usually has a surprisingly precise number.

Schalke's opponent will be the MSV Duisburg. It is a team from Germany 2nd division who won against another 2nd division team. Their altogether value is just 17 million € with an individual average of 630k €. What a difference! But what seems to be so clear could be misleading: In 1992 a 2nd divion club managed to actually win the cup. It's name? Hannover 96.

Do you think "David" Duisburg has a chance against "Goliath" Schalke? Which team will win? On a site note: My roommate, ManU fan since forever, is so sad because they lost to Chelsea. What could I do to cheer him up?

Video Wednesday: Introducing Ya Konan

The (admittedly) only star of Hannover 96, my club, Didier Ya Konan of the Coite d'Ivore (country in Africa :p) scoring last fall against Cologne. Unbelievable how much skill one little man can have in his foot!

Bundesliga: Dortmund unstoppable?

The weekend featured a matchup of the best two teams in Germany right now. Dortmund vs. Bayern is a prestigious duel with quite some history. These teams were the last two in Germany to win the Champions League. This season Dortmund has one of the youngest teams ever and is virually unstoppable. The average age in this match was something like 22. Incredible! Their oldest player, goalie Roman Widenfeller (who is only 30, no age at all for a goalie), missed the match due to an injury.

At the beginning of the second leg, Dortmund's young midfielder Kevin Großkreutz predicted that they wouldn't lose a single game for the rest of the season. This still stands, which is quite impressive. Their only two losses happened during the beginning of the season, when Dortmund weren't rolling as much as they are right now.

This weekend the team was perfectly prepared for Bayern by coach Jürgen Klopp. Bayern's feared "Robbery" wingers did not have a single chance, as they were immediately doubled by Dortmund's right/left defender and their respective midfielder once they received the ball. This is the way to go against Bayern. I hope Hannover 96, who are playing Bayern next weekend, can copy some of this. Btw Hannover is the second best home team with 8 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses and Bayern is only the sixth best away team with 4 / 4 / 4. So shouldn't be a problem, right? :)

What do you think about the new "beardy" look of Dortmund's coach Klopp? Is that fashion now?

It has begun...

As of today, Tuesday March 1st, this blog has officially started. My plans for the future are:

• Post six days a week about the most important subject in the world.
• I take Sunday off for now, gotta rest sometime, right? :)
• Posts will be following a weekly rythm. You'll find out.
• If you're interested in European football and especially in an honest opinion from the fan, this is the blog for you.