Dortmund need to postpone their lap of honor through the Bundesliga. Manuel Neuer may have made the "next big step" in his career from one Europa League bound club to another. A wild winning spree at the bottom of the table leaves Cologne and St. Pauli as this weekend's biggest losers.

Leverkusen 2-1 Hoffenheim.

English speaking BVB fans are on cloud nine. Their German speaking counterparts are on cloud seven. But maybe there's a way to bring the two together for the big party on May 14th. Roman Weidenfeller will volunteer as a translator. A 2-0 victory over Nuremberg clinched Dortmund's seventh German championship and the first title after nine years, thanks to Leverkusen doing, what Leverkusen does best.

• What's left to play for on matchday 33? (Die Bundesliga UK)
• The potential effect of FIFA's Financial Fair Play rules on the Bundesliga's sugar daddy/corporate toys. (Bundesliga Fanatic)
• Looking for the positives after a 4-1 thrashing. (Deutsche Welle)
• Looking for an English teacher.

There has been some media rumbling about the supposed strained relationship between Schalke coach Ralf Rangnick (pressing, quick transitions, running) and Schalke striker Raul (icon, legend, artist). Saturday's 5-1 thrashing of Cologne probably offered the best of both worlds. And after looking at Raul's umpteenth chipped beauty that made it 4-1, you might agree with fromer Frankfurt striker turned TV pundit Jan Åge Fjørtoft, who tweeted:

#schalke coach ragnick said #raul is not running enough.

Time to slowly boot this blog up again starting with some links...

• Prince Poldi turns into Prince Carnival. (Dirty Tackle)
• Marcell Jansen scores a proper Wembley Goal. (101 Great Goals)
• Raphael Honigstein dissects Bayern Munich's wonderful world of lame ducks and uninspired football.

• The Independent proves prophetic qualities in its' pre-CL profile of attack minded Schalke coach Ralf Rangnick. (The Independent)
• Leander Schaerlaeckens is less prophetic but all the more impressed by Ralf Rangnick's attack minded Schalke. (ESPN)
• Zonal Marking is not too impressed by all the ludicrous defending going on between Inter and Schalke.

Bayern Munich, freshly freed from Louis can Gaal's dictatorship, do a Schalke and put five past a sorry opponent. Leverkusen, being that opponent, suffered a severe case of title race deja-vu. Dortmund seized the opportunity to put one hand on the Bundesliga shield. Elsewhere teams struggled to achieve that one decisive victory to escape all their relegation woes.

The Bundesliga is back in its 49th incarnation and Friday's curtain raiser was both wonderful and frightening frightening at least for Bayern, Leverkusen and who else might have had vague hopes to win the league next year.

Dortmund 3-1 Helpless SV. Defending champions Dortmund kicked off the new season in style and with a promise of beautiful football, only they seem to be able to deliver this season.