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 [.

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 [.

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 [.

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.

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 [.

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 [.

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 [.

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.

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 [.

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.

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.

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 [.

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 [.

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.

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 [.