Friday December 24th 2021
The newcomers to the Bundesliga
Tough Danes, crazy keepers and FC Hollywood
By D. Bedürftig, T. Erdenberger, T. Nordmann & S. Uersfeld
The first half of the Bundesliga season provides plenty of spectacle. The winners of the first 17 games are as diverse as they are surprising: The (almost) invincible Freiburg, a goalkeeper with magnets in his gloves, the new FC Hollywood – and, crazy, even Greuther Fürth.
Climbers
SpVgg Greuther Fürth
Are they completely crazy at ntv.de now? Did the intern look too deep into the glass? Or what’s going on here? After all, the Franks are on their way to becoming the worst Bundesliga team of all time. They are hopelessly outnumbered in many games, lose in every possible way, and simply are not competitive. But instead of sending coach Stefan Leitl into the desert, the club around managing director Rachid Azzouzi kept calm and just kept working. That is why there was a win against Union Berlin, a respectable performance in Dortmund and a point against Augsburg in the last three games. Giving up, says Azzouzi, is not an option. Dignity instead of chaos. Greuther Fürth is one of the most exciting teams in recent years. Confronted with the hopeless mission to stay out of the league, the shamrock thinks of the future and (so far!) Does not destroy the years of development work. (sue)
Sc freiburg
The unconquerables. They were actually the Gunners from Arsenal FC, who became champions under Arsene Wenger in the 2003/04 season without losing a single game. Preston North End also achieved this unique achievement in Great Britain, but that was a little longer ago. That was in 1888/89. However, a good 130 years later, SC Freiburg was also preparing not to be defeated. Under the finesse-rich direction of Christian Streich, the Breisgauer beat BVB on the second day of the match and established themselves at the top of the table. Bayern, Dortmund, Freiburg: This is how the table read on the 10th matchday. No other team was undefeated at the time. Afterwards, it set the first defeat against Munich and three more, but Streich’s Freiburg climbed back to third at the end of the first half of the season with a success against their direct competitor from Leverkusen, surprising everyone after finishing tenth last year. (dbe)
Bo Svensson
More (re) entrants than climbers, but still came back with a rocket start: Bo Svensson had left the Bundesliga in 2014, at that time as a player for FSV Mainz 05. The well-deserved Dane said goodbye to his coaching career after seven years. At the beginning of the year, it led the 42-year-old back to the rubble where his ex-club was located. In terms of sport, after a disastrous series of only seven points at the winter break, things were bad for the Mainz team, emotionally the carnival club was dead. Worn down by player strike, series of bankruptcies and frequent coach changes.
Then a triumvirate of alumni took over: Christian Heidel became a member of the board, ex-trainer Martin Schmidt is the sports director and Bo Svensson. Together they brought the club’s identity back and Svensson made sure that the almost excluded relegation was retracted prematurely. This season it continues like this: 57 points in the calendar year 2021 mean 4th place in the cumulative Svensson table. “The key moment was the first week, when Bo managed to gain trust in the team and suddenly everyone had a bit of the feeling that something was still going on here,” said Heidel in an interview with RTL / ntv. “After two training sessions with Bo, the team felt that there was someone who knew what he was talking about. The training was also completely changed. Bo is very tough, both on himself and in dealing with the team, but he takes them Player in the arm too. “(Ter)
Manuel Riemann
In the summer of 2007, Uli Hoeneß was honestly and mightily astonished. “He has a magnet in his glove,” said the FC Bayern patron when he talked about Manuel Riemann. The goalkeeper of SC Wacker Burghausen was 18 years old at the time and drove Munich almost crazy in the first round of the DFB Cup, right up to the penalty shoot-out. He had saved two penalty kicks, sunk one against Oliver Kahn himself. But it wasn’t enough for the sensation – and for a long time not for the big dream of Riemann. It was only at the age of 33 that he made it into the 1st Bundesliga – with VfL Bochum. And once there, he really wants to stay. And for that he does everything, really everything. All the energy he had expended in the grueling second division years was discharged in this half series. “He has a magnet in his glove”, this is the moment that some footballers have felt this season.
Most spectacularly Jude Bellingham, the jewel of BVB. How Riemann parried the free-standing youngster’s shot already belongs in the hero video of the season. The man who used to be imperfect has stabilized. The kicker marks only indicate a fatal dropout, but that of all things in the duel in the relegation candidate Arminia Bielefeld. Riemann is a man of extremes. Always and everywhere. Only minutes before his devil action against Bellingham he had frivoled the ball in dribbling. But the risk he plays is often rewarded. At VfL they know that, they love him for it. And let him get away with his occasional exaggerations. But not only because of his parades and his furious opening of the game with precise, long tee-offs, he is a key player for the Bochum team, but also as an emotional driver. If something doesn’t suit him, he takes on his colleagues in the game – and doesn’t shy away from the wake-up call on the microphone. Which, however, not everyone in the club approves. But football always calls for guys. He has one with Riemann. An extreme one at that. Someone who also wrote an insane drama in the cup. When he came on as a substitute to save a penalty and then converted the decisive one. (tno)
Hansi Flick
On March 31 of this year, football Germany had finally embarrassed itself and a lot of people in the country wished that Joachim Löw’s era would come to an end sooner rather than quickly. The World Cup qualifier against North Macedonia was lost in Cologne (1: 2). Anyone who thought they had reached the lowest point had to readjust. The fact that the following EM in the summer did not end as a GAU, but only bitterly (in the round of 16 against England), that did not change the situation that Löw’s successor could only win. In the results anyway (that was clear because the opponents didn’t seem terribly intimidating), but also in the way the games were approached and the choice of staff. The stubborn Mr. Loew had caused national head-shaking orgies again and again with his stubborn nomination.
How good, how different, how liberating it would be with Hansi Flick, nobody could have guessed. One would like to know if Löw is sometimes surprised when he sees what this team can do when it is handled correctly. After all, it’s not as if Flick suddenly discovered reservoirs that were inaccessible to Löw. Sure, a few talents like Jamal Musiala or Florian Wirtz have matured again at a rapid pace in their development, but what else? Otherwise the selection is similar to the same. But somehow everything seems more motivated, more planned and more professional. Flick puts the training of the standard situations in the hands of a specialist, Flick is omnipresent in the stadiums, while Löw was more of a pleasure visitor. And Flick doesn’t fire his national players after the courses, he obliges them to be a national player every day of the year. He’s keeping the pressure up. And even if he has not yet had a top level opponent, Flick is a winner. (tno)
Teenage sensations
Musiala, Bellingham, Wirtz – they can all dominate games in their own way, so differently, so brilliantly. And they are precisely the transfers that clubs have to make in order not to lose touch internationally. The top trio was loosened from other clubs in recent years and then did not spend long playing youth games. They are simply too strong for that, too formative in their way. The only thing they have in common is their position, which is somehow anchored in midfield and which made them the heartbeat of their teams’ game even as a teenager. With top clubs, at least national top clubs. Particularly noticeable: the Dortmund Jew Bellingham, who does not hold back with his opinion next to the square. In some situations, hashtag Zwayergate, this may be interpreted unfavorably for him, in others it makes him appear like a natural born leader. And in the second row, youngsters like Freiburg’s Kevin Schade are already waiting, who will soon attract attention. (sue)
Lars Windhorst
“The new FC Hollywood” headlined the Süddeutsche Zeitung after Windhorst’s last conspicuousness after Hertha’s win against Borussia Dortmund. Windhorst may be an investor, and one who always sails close to the bankruptcy line, but he has succeeded in revamping the corner bar charm of the Berlin cult club. Windhorst celebrates Hertha’s successes with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas and discusses the latest bankruptcies with fans on Facebook, of which there are of course still plenty in the Westend. With Windhorst’s money, Hertha is still not on the way to the national top, but at least it has become one of the most entertaining clubs in the league. Because he has escalated the absurdity and has become his own content machine. Probably the most unlikely newcomer of the year. (sue)