I missed the first round of games on family vacation. While I still have the Gladbach-Bochum game on DVR to watch for fun, my first game of the season, albeit delayed, was Dortmund's 1-0 victory at home over Köln. It was a thoroughly deserved victory where Dortmund put the Billy Goats to the sword and could have easily won by half a dozen goals, so commanding was their display.

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German international striker Lukas Podolski has returned to Bundesliga football club FC Cologne (1. FC Koeln / 1. FC Köln ) after a somewhat unsuccessful spell at Bayern Munich. Here is a look at Podolski's FC Köln official presentation on June 24, 2009 at the Rheinenergiestadion in Cologne. Podolski spent the last three Bundesliga seasons [. Click to continue reading...

RheinEnergieStadion

I used the stats feature at ESPN Soccernet to calcluate the clubs with the best attendances. Out of the top 20 attendances in Europe, Germany had 9 clubs. This post is to equip you with a tool to help promote our great league. Because, while we are in a slump in the Champions League and don't make all the news with £80 million transfers, we have the most competitive league, the funnest league and the best attended league in the world.

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Christophe Daum pulled off the biggest surprise of the early silly season, by quitting Cologne to return to Turkey via Fenerbahce. I would love to hear Jan's input on this, but my take is that it could be a sucker punch for the Billy Goats as they face the sophomore curse. Daum had a somewhat iconic air at Colgne.

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1. FC Köln is a German professional football club based in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs Kölner Ballspiel-Club 1901 and SpVgg Sülz 07. The club's main rivals are Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Fortuna Düsseldorf – all clubs from the same general region, near the [. Click to continue reading...

9:30 ET Schalke 04 VS TSG Hoffenheim
9:30 ET Bayern Munich VS VfB Stuttgart
9:30 ET VfL Wolfsburg VS Werder Bremen
9:30 ET Arminia Bielefeld VS Hannover 96
9:30 ET Energie Cottbus VS Bayer Leverkusen
9:30 ET FC Cologne VS VfL Bochum
9:30 ET Karlsruhe VS Hertha Berlin
9:30 ET Borussia Monchengladbach VS Borussia Dortmund
9:30 ET Eintracht Frankfurt VS Hamburg SV

The Meisterschaft will hinge on Wolfsburg, whom only need a draw at home to Werder Bremen, who wouldn't been keen on helping Bayern Munich in the first place.

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Cologne dominated much of the game at home against Arminia Bielefeld, but in the end, couldn't break down the central-half pairing of Herzig and Andre Mijatovic with Nico Eilhoff in goal. With over 60% of possession and 16 shots on goal by Cologne, it was down to the organization of the two central defenders [. Click to continue reading...

I doubt many people expected Cologne's visit to Allianz to produce one of the best games of the weekend, but Christophe Daum and his scrappy side went to Munich (with only one win in their last 15 visits) and shocked the Bavarians. Two beautifully crafted counters along with 45 minutes of organized defending was [. Click to continue reading...

1. Hertha Berlin (2-1 home win against Bayern) Just think how good this team could be with half their starters back. Actually it probably wouldn't be much better as those injuries haven't been significant to their back line, and that is where the strength of the Old Lady lies. I will say, that after [. Click to continue reading...

Hertha Berlin 2-1 Bayern Munich As we all expected, Hertha go top after a typical home victory over Bayern Munich. Not! Congratulations to all Hertha fans. It is time to start talking about this fairy tale rather than Hoffenheim. And Rafael Benitez shows that his ability to judge strikers might be as poor as [. Click to continue reading...

Club Wealth Real Madrid €365.8m Manchester United €324.8m Barcelona €308.8m Bayern Munich €295.3m Chelsea €268.9m Arsenal €264.4m Liverpool €210.9m AC Milan €209.5m AS Roma €175.4m Inter Milan €172.9m Juventus €167.5m Olympique Lyon €155.7m Schalke 04 €148.4m Tottenham Hotspur €145m Hamburg SV €127. Click to continue reading...

Talented strikers from the former Yugoslavia are a valuable commodity in the Bundesliga this season. A wave of Yugo-nostalgia has spread across the German league and is following a trend of Soviet Chic in Germany. Matchday 19 highlighted the dependence many Bundesliga squads have on their striking stalwarts from nations that once belong to the Socialist [. Click to continue reading...

VfL Bochum Rank: 17th Preseason Prediction: 17th What was I thinking? In the final 2007-08 standings I had grouped Bochum among a few sides that I referred to as being consistently adequate, hovering just above relegation. I was prepared to keep them there, too, except for the signings over the summer of Hashemian and [. Click to continue reading...

VfL Bochum Rank: 17th Preseason Prediction: 17th What was I thinking? In the final 2007-08 standings I had grouped Bochum among a few sides that I referred to as being consistently adequate, hovering just above relegation. I was prepared to keep them there, too, except for the signings over the summer of Hashemian and [. Click to continue reading...

VfL Bochum Rank: 17th Preseason Prediction: 17th What was I thinking? In the final 2007-08 standings I had grouped Bochum among a few sides that I referred to as being consistently adequate, hovering just above relegation. I was prepared to keep them there, too, except for the signings over the summer of Hashemian and [. Click to continue reading...

Eintracht Frankfurt 4 - 0 Hannover 96

The route was on in Frankfurt as Eintracht scored 4 goals in the shutout victory. Former AEK Athens striker Nikos Liberopoulos paced the winners with a brace.
FC Schalke 04 3 - 1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Halil Altıntop scored twice as Schalke 04 gears up for midweek UEFA Cup action. Click to continue reading...

Edin Dzeko Against Cottbus 1. Bayer Leverkusen The subtitle to their season should be "how we got to the top with a crap defense". They conceded goals by a misdirect from the wall on a free kick, allowing Tim Sebastian to waltz freely on another and letting 5'9 Iashvilli outjump a defender. If it [. Click to continue reading...

Edin Dzeko Against Cottbus 1. Bayer Leverkusen The subtitle to their season should be "how we got to the top with a crap defense". They conceded goals by a misdirect from the wall on a free kick, allowing Tim Sebastian to waltz freely on another and letting 5'9 Iashvilli outjump a defender. If it [. Click to continue reading...

Please click on picture to see all the caricatures of German footballers from Pit Hammanns Hamburg SV The Dinosaurs face Schalke in the most intriguing game of the weekend. They have lost three of the last four matches against the Royal Blues at Nordbank. Chances for this weekend's game don't seem great with Nigel de [. Click to continue reading...

Schalke has a superb record against Köln, but manager Christopher Daum has only ever lost twice in seventeen matches against them in the Bundesliga. That form continued today as Köln walked away deserved 1-0 winners against the league leaders. Indeed, the score line doesn't do justice to the performance by Köln. Click to continue reading...

Here's this week's Bundesliga XI. It is packed with Bayer 04, Hoffenheim and Werder players. It does include a special shoutout to the man who ended Energie's goal drought, an under appreciated defender from Arminia and a goalkeeper who lost. 1. Schalke 04 Now 10 of their last 13 have been scored by defenders. Click to continue reading...

1. Hamburg SV HSV have just opened up a cemetary next to the Nordbank Arena. With Martin Jol leading the way, Hamburg top the table for the first time in nine years. Meanwhile, the big man's old club are in last place in the EPL. Supporters of Tottenham Hotspur are putting in [...] Click to continue reading...

Welcome back to Bundesliga Statistics for week two. Standing alone at the head of the table? Newly promoted TSG 1899 Hoffenheim with two wins from their first two games. Astounding stuff, but we're here to talk numbers not newcomers. Last week five categories were featured, this week it's been expanded to [. Click to continue reading...

If you're anything like me, you love reveling in statistics. While in isolation, especially at the beginning of the Bundesliga season, they don't reveal much. But as time goes on it should be possible to discern patterns between some of these statistics and how the table shakes out. Here are some of the [. Click to continue reading...

1st Schalke What You Know: If baseball's Chicago Cubs had a baby with the Red Sox prior to 2004, Schalke would be the offspring. What You Don't: All things both good and bad must end. What to Expect: Yes, Campeones! I say that, bucking all trends, and knowing full well that Schalke could be leading the league by 6 [. Click to continue reading...

A look at Bayer Leverkusen's Bruno Labbadia concludes our The New Gaffer: Introducing... series this week. So far we've examined, in order: the journeyman, the company man, the stranger and, er, Martin Jol. Labbadia is a mix between a poor man's Jürgen Klinsmann and a poor man's Christian Bale (take a look! Click to continue reading...