DESPITE REACHING THE FINAL, it’s fair to say that the West German team at the 1982 World Cup would scarcely make it onto anyone’s list of most popular international sides. Even in…
Tag: bundesliga
IT’S ONLY TWO YEARS SINCE VFL WOLFSBURG finished second to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga title race. In the same season – 2014/15 – Die Wölfe also won the DFB-Pokal and reached…
In 2014, SC Paderborn 07 faced the likes of Werder Bremen and Mainz in their sole season in the Bundesliga. Fast-forward to three years later and they were competing with the same…
THERE IS A JAPANESE PHRASE which translates roughly to “the frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean”. A general interpretation is that those who do not experience the world…
FALSE NINE, REGISTA, LIBERO; these are all terms that will undoubtedly be familiar to the typical football enthusiast. As indeed will the players associated with them, the likes of Lionel Messi, Andrea…
WHEN, IN 1977, writer and director George Lucas released to astonishing critical and commercial acclaim the first of his opening trilogy of Star Wars films, science fiction fans across the United States…
Reporting for pre-season training in the summer of 1971, not many at Bayern Munich recognised Gerd Müller. To those even remotely familiar with the career of Der Bomber, this would seem perplexing.…
Werder Bremen were in trouble. Viktor Skrypnyk’s side was only one point above the relegation zone entering the winter break during the 2015/16 Bundesliga season. Thankfully, Bremen managed to pick up a…
HELD IN THE FELICITOUS WARMTH that blessed the afternoon of 15 May 2004, as Arsenal came from behind to defeat Leicester City 2-1 at Highbury, many thousands lined the stands of the…
ANDRÉ SCHÜRRLE EMBARKED ON A POWERFUL, driving run down the left wing, and lifted a hopeful ball towards the six-yard box, picking out the awaiting Mario Götze. The substitute immaculately controlled the…
This feature is part of The Masterminds: 10 Under 45 “Is it your birthday? No? Then you’re not getting it.” As the seven-year-old child glanced longingly at the table tennis set he…
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. With just eight games remaining of the 1968-69 Bundesliga season, 1. FC Nürnberg parted company with their unpredictable, often volatile, yet metronomically successful coach Max Merkel. It…
This feature is part of The Masterminds FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT IS A RUTHLESS PROFESSION. The prerequisites for managing a professional team in Germany, a country known for producing excellent football, players, coaches and…
The tenure of Pep Guardiola at German giants Bayern Munich will be remembered for a number of things: the dominance on the ball, the switches in emphasis from central penetration to wing superiority,…
With 404 goals for Hamburg and 43 for the national team, German star Uwe Seeler has every right to be labelled as one of the greatest players of all-time
“Dortmund stands for attacking football. That’s what I feel comfortable with. We will defend a lot and attack a lot. I enjoy that and the fans enjoy that,” Thomas Tuchel said at…
I once heard a joke involving Owen Hargreaves when the midfielder was a Manchester United player. The joke went along the lines of ‘Hargreaves ruled out for a further four weeks after…
ONE OF THE great misfortunes of being a professional athlete is that your biggest failures are inevitably caught on camera. The ubiquity of media coverage for modern-day sport is a double-edged sword:…