Bundesliga Team Of The Week: Round 29

Bayern Munich took another step towards the title coming back from a goal down to beat Eintracht Frankfurt.  Schalke under the temporary guidance of Mike Büskens and Youri Mulder hammered Cottbus 5-0, while Werder Bremen won to maintain second place.

Cup finalists Borussia Dortmund suffered a heavy 3-1 home loss to Hannover, while Stuttgart inflicted more misery on Nürnberg with a 3-0 win at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion.

Drobny

Ismael   Fahrenhorst   Pander

Bruggink   Frings   Ernst   Schweinsteiger

Kuranyi   Toni   Cacau

Goalkeeper:

(1)  Jaroslav Drobny (Hertha Berlin)

The Hertha keeper was probably the stand-out player in a rather disappointing game at the Olympiastadion.  He secured the home side a point with three great saves from Ben-Hatira, Demel and Reinhardt.

Defenders:

(2)  Valerien Ismael (Hannover)

The former Bayern defender makes his second appearance of the season in the Bundesliga team of the week.  He was solid at the back all night for Dieter Hecking’s side and ventured forward to become involved in their second goal.

(3)  Frank Fahrenhorst (Hannover)

Centre-back Fahrenhorst was dependable, reliable and even got his name on the score sheet at the Signal Iduna Park against a poor Borussia Dortmund.  He came on in the first half to replace Vinicius, who was in danger of being red carded and scored with five minutes of his arrival.

(4)  Christian Pander (Schalke)

Before his injury earlier this season, Pander’s name was being mentioned as an outside bet for the European Championships.  That may be wishful thinking now, but his performance against Cottbus showed signs of old.  He was a danger going forward down the flanks and he will no doubt be knocking on the national team door again next season.

Midfielders:

(5)  Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen)

In the weekend win over Schalke it was Baumann and Borowski who starred in the Werder midfield, but against Rostock, it was Frings who was the driving force behind Werder’s important win.  Full of energy and self-confidence, Frings has certainly sent out a positive message to Joachim Löw as regards his readiness for Euro 2008.

(6)  Fabians Ernst (Schalke)

While the four-goal haul from Kuranyi grabbed all the headlines, the dynamic midfield performance from Ernst was the driving force behind Schalke.  He was full of running and his ball winning tackles in the middle of the pitch helped set up at least two of the goals.

(7)  Arnold Bruggink (Hannover)

Dutchman Bruggink revelled his role of midfield playmaker and became the centre point for all of Hanover’s best attacking play.  He scored the first goal and provided the assist for the third.

(8)  Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich)

Schweinsteiger looks like he is returning to his best just at the right time.  Altintop’s injury has meant more game time for the blond youngster and he is taking the extra opportunity well.  His energy and superb passing were a joy to watch.  His excellent ball provided van Buyten with the first goal, while his tenacity laid the second goal on for Luca Toni.

Forwards:

(9)  Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke)

Kuranyi has come under pressure in recent weeks and there were accusations that the German international received preferential treatment from trainer Mirko Slomka (being picked when clearly out of form).  In the first game in the post-Slomka era, Kuranyi helped himself to four goals and sent out a timely reminder as to his potential value to Germany in the summer’s European Championships.

(10)  Luca Toni (Bayern Munich)

The unstoppable Italian scored two at the weekend against Dortmund and bagged another two on Wednesday against Frankfurt to turn the game around for Bayern.  Toni has now hit 20 in the league this season and with five games left, there should be a few more on the way.

(11)  Cacau (Stuttgart)

If VfB fans very worrying that the absence of Mario Gomez would damage their European ambitions, they needn’t have bothered.  Brazilian striker Cacau has stepped up to the mark and he netted one and had the presence of mind to set up da Silva in a decisive opening 13 minutes against Nürnberg.

Honourable mentions:

Vicente Sanchez and Albert Streit were handed rare starts for Schalke and impressed throughout.  Daniel Baier (Wolfsburg) had a fine game in defence and was unlucky to finish on the losing side.

Daniel van Buyten Bayern Munich played well alongside Lucio and headed Bayern back into the game against Frankfurt.

Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen) and Raphael Schäfer (Stuttgart) both had fine games in goal for their respective sides, while Tamas Hajnal (Karlsruhe) and Szabolcs Huszti (Hannover) both had impressive games.

source: goal.com

News in brief – 17.04.2008

* Carlos Alberto, the Brazilian who was loaned at FC Sao Paulo, was suspended by the club until the end of the loan period. This suspension was issued for disciplinary reasons. Carlos Alberto will still be able to train with the team, but he will not be nominated anymore to the match squad.

* The Danish Daniel Jensen will be back to team training next week and he has a good chance of making the trip at Karlsruher on 25th April. Torsten Frings meanwhile had to suspend his training today because of a toenail problem, but will be able to return to training tomorrow.

* Diego was late at the morning team training. The Brazilian said the the alarm clock was to blame, he’s sorry for being late, but he’s ready to pay his fine, which will be decided these days.

* The grades for the game against Hansa(according to Kicker): Wiese 3 – Fritz 4 – Mertesacker 4 – Naldo 3,5 – Pasanen 3 – Baumann 4 – Frings 2 - Borowski 3 – Diego 4 – Sanogo 5 – Klasnic 3,5

Baumann takes a knock

Werder Bremen will have to make do without the services of Frank Baumann for the next ten to fourteen days. The Green-Whites captain picked up an injury in a challenge with Tim Sebastian during Werder’s 2:1 win over Hansa Rostock on Tuesday and played out the final few minutes in some discomfort as the coach had already made his three substitutions. After several examinations, Baumann was diagnosed with ligament damage to his right ankle, which is expected to keep him out for about a fortnight.

The loss of another important player was enough to give trainer Thomas Schaaf some pause for thought: “Everyone knows how highly I rate Frank Baumann and just how vital he is to our system. Especially considering the sort of form that he has been in of late, it will be difficult to compensate his loss.”

Schaaf can consider himself to be in some sort of luck though. With the Bundesliga taking a break this weekend for the DFB Cup final, Baumann has won some extra recovery time: “I certainly want to be back for when the close of the season heats up.” Werder will have challenges from close rivals in the table, HSV and Bayer Leverkusen, as well as local north German rivals Hanover 96 – three games in which they could well do with having their captain on board.

source: werder.de

Lothar Matthäus pays Werder a visit

In the company of a hoard of interested media representatives, Germany’s international record cap holder, Lothar Matthäus, paid a visit to Werder Bremen. The World Cup winner from 1990 is currently undertaking a trainer seminar and, together with seminar supervisor, Erich Rutemöller, he looked to exchange ideas with Werder coach Thomas Schaaf and general manager Klaus Allofs.

Following some intensive discussions both on and off the pitch, Schaaf commented: “I don’t need to explain football to Lothar, he’s experienced too much to need that and he has gathered some experience as a coach too. I do know that every encounter, every day, is important and you can always learn something and then test to see if it suits you or not. That’s what helps you develop. We discussed the work that we do here, the working atmosphere, how things look on a personnel level and which work sequences are in operation. That’s the whole points of this visit.”

Matthäus himself was quite impressed by the discussions: “Erich Rutemöller was of the opinion that Werder is so well structured that it would be work making a stop here during our seminar. I will have a more exact look at the set up here over the next two days and try to take as much on board as possible. It’s not as if we just go to the training pitch and then for a coffee.”

source: werder.de