Klinsmann the new Boss for Bayern?

Ok, now this is some really great news.

Jurgen Klinsmann will be introduced later today as the new head coach of Bayern Munich. Klinsmann will replace Ottmar Hitzfeld at the end of the 2007/08 season.

Damn, this has got me giddy all over.

Oktoberfest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am taking a week off to go to Munich, Germany for the 2007 Oktoberfest. I will get to be in Munich while Bayern Munich plays their away match against CF Belenenses, so hopefully I will get to watch the match with some Bayern supporters.

I don't plan on any updates while I am away, just alot of beer drinking.

Prost!

See you all on the 8th!

Weekend Update

I really hate not having the internet at home, as it cuts down on the amount of soccer info I get, especially on the weekends. Despite the lack of web access, I did get to catch several matches this weekend.

DC United picked up another three points with an early goal and some great work from Troy Perkins. I tell you, for my money, Troy is actually playing better this season than he did last season. His command of the 18 yard box and his effectiveness in the air have seen huge improvements over last season. His defensive line in front of him has also gotten alot better. DC United has not allowed a non-PK goal in their last five matches. It is a little sad to see Boswell sitting on the bench, but why mess with something that works?

Considering the depleted offensive unit that Soehn took to Toronto, I fully expected a 0-0 draw. I knew that our defense would be able to weather any type of storm that Toronto attempted to throw at the United goal and considering that Toronto can't score any better than a high school nerd, I figured we wouldn't leave Canada with anything less than a point. However, it was good to see that United has the ability to go against the run of play and steal goals, even when neither Moreno or Emillio are on the field.

DC United travels to Dallas for a match up with the Western Conference leaders Saturday night. Dallas will have had two weeks off, so I expect a very tough match up in Texas.

My other United, Manchester United, took the pitch Sunday in probably one of the worse situations that they could have been in. Having only taken 2 points from a total of 9 possible, United have already put themselves against the wall in the Premier League. Facing off against Tottemham, who were in just as bad a situation in the league, it was a must win for Sir Alex and his boys.

I was shocked at how bad United played. They never looked that threatening. I am trying to figure out what is really going on at Old Trafford? It was good to finally see Hargreaves get on the pitch and he looked good in his defensive midfield role, but despite the goal, United's other midfield signing, Nani, never really looked that interesting. I was disappointed with how Carrick was playing, almost resigning himself to sit back with Owen and just let Tevez, Scholes, Nani and Giggsy try and do the most in offense. I really, really think that United should look to try and bring in another striker. Saha seems to always be injured and Ole isn't that much better in the health department. SAF really only has Tevez and Rooney, who is out for a while with his broken foot. Is the transfer deadline closed? This would be the perfect situation for Rossi to be brought in...oh wait, they sold him. Nevermind.

Over in Deutschland, Bayern Munich rolled on to their third clean sheet victory of the Bundesliga season, dumping Hanover 3-0, to increase their goal differential to +10. Anyone who is set to play in the UEFA Cup should start looking for another way to get some silverware because I really don't see Bayern missing out on any of the three trophy's they are contenting for this season. I really hope that they have a home UEFA Cup match when I am in Munich for Oktoberfest this year, it will be great to see a match in Allianz Areana.

Final note, I am happy to see that Yallop decided that it would be better for Beckham to sit out the trip to Denver considering his ankle and recent playing time. It was also interesting to see that whether or not Beckham plays, it seems that the Galaxy are now bleeding 3-0 losses. Has anyone got a Yallop/Lalas countdown clock going?

Soccer News & Notes: 8/12/2007

Wayne Rooney Breaks foot, Manchester United held.
Manchester United were held 0-0 today against Reading at Old Trafford. Despite something along the lines of 70% of the possession during the match, United were unable to crack the Reading defense. Considering that Reading were able to hold United 1-1 twice last season, this seems like a fair result. United shouldn't have that much of a problem in the rest of the league.

Then again, with Wayne Rooney breaking his foot during the first half against Reading, the entire outlook for United might have to be re-examined. The addition of Carlos Tevez seems to be an even brighter point in the summer transfer market action now. During the match the announcers were listing off that Saha & Ole were down with injuries, so adding Rooney to that list isn't promising for Sir Alex Ferguson.

Steve McClaren is probably the only person who is going to be in more of a bind than SAF will be, as England really haven't any other options for striker in their upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers. The return of Michael Owen might be able to ease the pain of losing Rooney, but Owen has his own injury demons to deal with.

Bayern Munich start off Klose; 3-0 victory over Rostock
A very much retooled Bayern Munich dropped Hansa Rostock 3-0 in their Bundesliga opener Saturday behind two goals by new striker Miraslav Klose and one goal behind Italian striker Luca Toni. The Bayern defense looked very good in the match.

The inclusion of Ze Roberto, Frank Ribery, Toni and Klose showed to be an excellent grouping. Ribery was excellent in the midfield, especially working with German International Bastian Schweinsteiger. I'm not the only one picking Bayern to win the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the UEFA Cup this season.

USA vs. Mexico off; USA vs. Brazil on.
According to Washington Post uber Soccer Guru, Steve Goff, the September 9th away match in Azteca Stadium for the USA vs. Mexico has been canceled. Due to the cancellation, the USSF has been able to pull of a major coup and schedule a match in Chicago's Soldier Field against Brazil.

If this is in fact true, and Steve is rarely, rarely wrong, it is interesting. I have just as much mixed feelings about its cancellation as I did when the match itself was announced. The idea of getting our new guys and new look squad an away match in Azteca, in front of 110,000 Mexican fans would be huge in the way of getting them all ready for World Cup Qualifying and for playing in the World Cup. That said, having a third match against Mexico in one calendar year is a little over kill.

Playing against Brazil is another matter. I like this. I wish it could be held in Europe, but getting the Copa America Champions is a great match to line up. I am hoping that the USSF still gets a match scheduled for the Sept. 12 match date as well. Even if the match in the USA, get a match scheduled.

Weekend of Football

I just finished my weekend of football. In three matches, I was able to see five of the biggest clubs in Europe, if not the world. We had one winner and one really, really great match in Spain.

Super Classico
Barcelona hosted Real Madrid in the second Super Classico of the La Liga season. Both clubs were coming in off of their midweek Champions League matches that saw them both dumped out of Europe, which made this match just that much more important. The club that showed that it had already moved on from their midweek loss would be able to put their domestic league season on track.

This match did not disappoint. A 3-3 affair with Messi picking up a hat trick for Barcelona, saving them from embarrassment in second half stoppage time; it was a great match to watch. Ruud van Nistelrooy picked up a brace for Real in the draw.

This was one of the fastest and most exciting matches I have seen in a long, long time. Both clubs were going full tilt and charging right at each other. It was a great match, if you missed it, you missed out.

Milan Derby
The second Milan derby was held earlier today, with Inter further cementing its hold on a true Sudetto with a 2-1 victory over rivals, AC Milan. This was a much different match from the first Milan Derby, a more controlled and structured match when you compare the two.

Ronaldo played against his former Serie A club and opened up the scoring with a 40th minute strike for Milan, giving the “visitors” a 1-0 lead for most of the match. Cruz and Ibrahimovic picked up the goals for Inter in the second half.

Despite the fact that Inter have been dumped from the UEFA Champions League, you have still got to give them a lot of credit for this season that they are having. They are undefeated in the Serie A in something like 20 matches and had a 17 match win streak. Unless they monumentally slip up, they should have the Scudetto on their jersey’s next season.

Week of Truth
So in one of the worst seasons that Bayern Munich has ever had, current “interim” coach Ottmar Hitzfeld labeled this last week as the “Week of Truth.” They faced off against Hertha Berlin last Saturday and came away with a 3-2 victory. They then followed it up with their midweek UEFA Champions League home match against Real Madrid, which saw Bayern dump Real out of the Champions League. The final test in the week of Truth was their home match against Weder Bremen.

I would say that going 2-1-0 in the three matches is a very good record, considering that Bayern are still alive in the Champions League and are only 6 point sback of first place in the Bundesliga and 3 points back of second. Bayern played well in all three matches, so they have nothing to really be ashamed about. That said, I have two nitpicking points.

Claudio Pizzaro is a wasted player now. I have watched him play over the last few Bundesliga matches and he has really lost a step form the guy I watched several years ago. Last week against Berlin and this week against Bremen, he was always crying for the ball when it was never sent anywhere near him and when the ball was near him, he would either stop his runs or he would flail at the ball in some child like action. His killer touch has left him and Bayern should seriously consider trying to get him moved out of the club.

Oliver Kahn is showing his age. He is still a great goalkeeper, but his timing is getting a bit slow for him, as he showed in the collision that gave Bremen their goal. Was it is timing or was it his decision making? Bayern had Van Buyten and Lucio around around Almeida who had the ball, yet Kahn still ran out to try and get the ball, allowing Almeida the chance to chip the ball at the goal. Hopefully the next week he gets some amount of rest and will be able to pull things back together for their match with Frankfurt.

All in all, three very good matches to watch as I spent time on the couch drinking beer. None of the matches gave me the desire to channel surf, which is always a challenge after several beers have been emptied.

UEFA Champions League: Round of 16

Here are my picks for today’s matches:

Celtic vs. AC Milan:
Despite getting a good offensive result over the weekend, I have some doubt that Milan will be able to continue their goal scoring patterns. Celtic is running away with the SPL, but that really doesn’t say a lot for their form. I think that a 1-1 draw might be in the cards here.

PSV Eindhoven vs. Arsenal:
Arsenal played a 120 minute match last week, then played another spirited draw on Saturday. I am beginning to wonder if Arsene Wenger’s boys have anything left in the tank. A friend of mine of has season tickets at Emirates says that Arsenal will make it to the final and finish second in the EPL. I highly doubt either, especially if they have to keep playing replay matches in the FA Cup and have continue playing overtime matches. PSV are running away with the Eredivisie title and are coming off of a 2-0 victory over SC Heracles Almelo. As this is a home match for PSV, I feel that they might pull off a 1-0 or 2-0 victory.

Lille vs. Manchester United:
It has already been said that Lille need to play a perfect match in order to defeat United and I agree with this idea. United did stumble with their quest for the FA Cup over the weekend with a 1-1 draw against Reading, but in all honesty, United fielded a weaker side and didn’t have the best run of play against Reading, so a 1-1 draw isn’t the end of the world. Reading, IMHO is also a better club than Lille is, so with a full strength squad at his disposal, I fully expect Sir Alex Ferguson to get the best out of his boys. United should pick up a 2-0 victory.

Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich:
Wow, just a few years ago this would have been a dream match up that would have any football supporter drooling. Now the only thing people will be looking for is if the stadium opens up and swallows both clubs for their mediocrity. Bayern is one of my favorite clubs in Europe; however, I am really not that interested in this match up. UEFA should just call this one off, it could be the snoozer of the round. 0-0 draw.

Weekend Soccer Wrap Up: 2/12/2007

Manchester United 2 – 0 Charlton
In the end of this match, United walked away with all three points and moved their magic number to 9 for the EPL championship. However, the beginning of the match seemed less likely to have this result. Not to say that United were lucky, but this was a different game for United when compared to their last two outings.

After the first 15 minutes, I was certain that the match would end up a 1-1 draw and the title race would be much tighter. However, despite all of the problems that United were having in the final third of the field, Charlton were having just a little more trouble finishing and getting their defense together. Park’s goal came more from a lack of aggression from the Charlton defense and goalkeeper than Evra’s cross or Park’s head. Ryan Giggs damn near made it 2-0 because he wanted the ball more than the Charlton defense. Fletcher’s goal was made out of the same premise, Charlton’s defenders were a step off their pursuit, which gave Rooney the chance to take his shot and still get his rebound for the cross.

I was pleased in the end of the match. United picked up the points, kept their third consecutive clean sheet and were able to give Saha a start, Carrick a full rest, Giggs only 60 minutes of work as well as Larsson 30 minutes of work. Damn near everyone got some time in or was rested enough.

This Saturday United host Reading in their FA Cup clash at Old Trafford. Van Der Sar is expected back and I hope to see a full line-up sent out for the opening whistle. Even though United have a 6 point lead in the league, bringing home the FA Cup should still be a priority. If keeping Ronaldo out until the last 30 minutes is possible, I would still be ok with that. It would give him some time on the pitch, yet keep him for the mid-week clash with Lille. I would also like to see Saha get his second straight start and have Larsson or Ole start along side him, keeping Rooney out until the Lille match.

Bayern Munich 1 – 0 Arminia Bielefeld
In a match of under achievers, Bayern finally put up a victory for the first time in five matches. Roy Makaay’s 9th minute goal sealed up Ottmar Hitzfeld’s first home match of the season. Bayern remain 4th in the Bundesliga with 37 points.

I sat down and watched the match on Gol TV and as the match unfolded, I was impressed for the first 15 minutes. Bayern were attacking well and actually should have definitely had two goals, maybe a third as well. After the first 15 minutes, the match really slowed down and was stagnate. Bayern’s defense wasn’t the most composed, yet they got the job done against a Bielefeld side that had their own finishing problems. If Bayern were facing any of the top three Bundesliga clubs, they would have surely lost 2-1.

Ottmar Hitzfeld has his work cut out for him. He has got to get Bayern up to at least 2nd place, which means they must overhaul the five point gap between them and Bremen. However, I have got to believe that Hitzfeld is primarily focused on the Champions League match up with Real Madrid. He has two more weeks to get his squad in order and get them playing his brand of football. If that doesn’t happen, Bayern will get dumped out of the Champions League, by a much more confused Real club. Bayern have one more Bundesliga match up this coming weekend against Alemania Aachen, so Hitzfeld has one more shot at getting his squad right.

Hopefully Hitzfeld can get his men to regroup and they can get a good result from the Aachen match and carry it over to their Champions League match up with Real. If not, Bayern look to finally be losing their position as top dog in the Fatherland.

Weekend Soccer Preview: What I’m Watching

I am only planning on watching two matches this weekend, due to family commitments.

Saturday: Manchester United vs. Charlton 10:00am/FSC
Sunday: Bayern Munich vs. Arminia Bielefeld 3:00pm/Gol TV

Manchester United vs. Charlton
United reduced their magic number to 10 wins with their 4-0 romp over Tottenham last Sunday and increased their goal differential to 17 over Chelsea. Having scored 11 goals in their last three matches in all competitions, United are firing on all cylinders. Charlton have gone 1-1-1 in their last three matches, scoring two goals and allowing two goals. Their last match was against Chelsea, losing 1-0.

Considering United’s form of late, I fully expect a victory. Considering that United have a week between this match and their FA Cup clash with Reading, SAF should be sending out his first squad, minus Van De Sar and his broken nose. Charlton’s defense hasn’t been horrid over their last few matches, but they have left in more than three goals twice this season, 5 in a 5-1 loss to Tottenham in December and 4 in a 4-0 loss to Arsenal the beginning of January. Considering this, I can see United at least dropping 2 or 3 goals on them and taking all three points.

Bayern Munich vs. Arminia Bielefeld
Well, how far the mighty have fallen. FC Hollywood looks like a shadow of its former self, having only picked up 1 point out of 9 since the return from the Bundesliga break. They have only scored two goals in this three match stretch, allowing six. Their coach, Felix Mageth was fired and replaced with Ottmar Hitzfeld, who was released two and a half seasons ago to make way for Mageth. This is a club in a serious state of funk. If there is any consolation of sign of hope for Bayern, it is because Bielefeld is going through an even worse stretch of play. They too have only picked up 1 point out of their previous 9, but their last victory was a 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on November 11th. So if Bayern are to break out of this funk that they are in, this is the perfect opportunity.

The biggest factor in the match will be if Hitzfeld has been able to apply his form of football on the Bayern players in a way that they can execute his game plan. The match against Nurnberg I think was more a result of the players not having any time with their coach, than an utter domination by Nurnberg. The last time these two clubs met, it was Bielefeld picking up all three points with a 2-1 victory; it will be interesting to see if Bayern can produce a different result with Hittzfeld at the helm. Considering current form, a 1-1 draw doesn’t sound very off.

Magath out at Bayern.

Well, I missed this when it came out.

Bayern Munich seems to have fired Felix Magath today, after dropping 5 points from their last two matches in the Bundesliga. Bayern now sit in fourth place in the Bundesliga. Magath has been replaced with Ottmar Hitzfeld, the same man who Magath replaced.

Magath guided Bayern to two consecutive seasons in which they won the German double; the Bundesliga championship and the German Cup. Bayern have already been bounced from the German Cup tournament earlier this season, so a defense of that double is not possible. Bayern have advanced to the knock out stage of the UEFA Champions League and will face Real Madrid.

Ottmar Hitzfeld will guide the club at least until the end of the season. Hitzfeld was replaced in 2004 by Magath.

I can take this event in two ways and both of them have something to do with a guy who is currently a shitty Chelsea midfielder, Michael Ballack.

On one hand, this has everything to do with the departure of Ballack to Chelsea. Without his presence and creativity in the midfield, Bayern has been unable to really get any type of presence on the pitch this season. The absence of Owen Hargreaves due to injury and mentally because of the expressed interest from Manchester United hasn't helped the Bayern midfield this season. Mark Van Bommel was brought in to "try" and replace Ballack, but his touch just isn't the same. The sudden retirement of Deisler was yet another blow to the weak midfield to boot. So the Bayern Munich club that has slipped to 4th in the Bundesliga and has been dumped from the German Cup is not the one that won two straight German doubles. This firing has more to do with Ballack leaving the club than anything else.

Or does it?

Is this the final act in a very revealing performance that has shown that Felix Magath isn't really that great a coach? Sure he guided Bayern to two straight doubles, but did the success of the last two seasons have that much to do with Magath running the ship or with Ballack in the midfield? Magath never won a championship as a manager until he was given the keys to the most talented club in Germany. Now that the club no longer has the main creative spark, he has been unable to guide FC Hollywood to the top of the league. Are we seeing that Magath really cannot coach a squad the doesn't have a truly gifted and talented midfielder running the match? I think we have.

I hope that Hitzfeld can turn things around for the club. They have to face an equally unimpressive Real Madrid squad that will probably have a new coach either before or right after that face Bayern, so if Hitzfeld is to steady the ship, that will be where he has to hit the mark. One has to expect that if Hitzfeld fails to get Bayern to the Semi Finals of the Champions League and fails to climb to at least 2nd in the Bundesliga (which I still think they can win) he will be sacked at the end of the season and a new face will be brought in.