SoccerBlogs

Just three days after Arjen Robben missed a penalty kick that might have won the Champions League final for Bayern Munich, his club hosted his national team -- the Netherlands -- for a friendly in the same stadium that housed his nightmare. And though some of the 33,000 fans in attendance at the Allianz Arena were forgiving, others booed Robben's every touch of the ball after he entered the match as a second half substitute for the Netherlands, who lost 3-2.

Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich - A classic.� 90 minutes remains in Mourinho's quest to ignite Madrid's everlasting dream of winning a 10th Champions League title. A trophy which Heynckes conquered for Los Blancos in 1998, ending a 32 year wait.

Real Madrid became the unwilling victims of an incident on Tuesday, when mysterious thieves crept into the Bayern Munich visitors' dressing room and stole three boots belonging to Mesut Ozil, Karim Benzema and Ronaldo. Of course, it's not so funny when you're actually in the situation and kick-off is only moments away.

Successfully maintaining their four points gap with Barcelona in La Liga after beating Sporting Gijon on the weekend, Real Madrid are set to really test their strength against Bayern Munich this Tuesday evening.

Jose Mourinho' side will try to step aside their poor record meeting against Bayern in Germany, as Mourinho claims that history won't be a determining factor for Los Blancos in that clasch, considering their ambition in getting through the semifinal is bigger.

Nothing screams "BLOCKBUSTER" more than the Champions League semi-final showdown between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.� There have been a handful of Bayern-Real playoffs in the last decade, but tonight's edition will be exceptionally gripping because both sides are simply� desperate� for the win.

Champions League action resumes tomorrow with some very interesting fixtures. Real Madrid travel to Nicosia to play surprise package APOEL while Bayern Munich will be in France for a crunch fixture against Olympique Marseille.

Madrid who are one of the favourites to make it through to the final, have a rather easy fixture against Cypriot side APOEL.

Bayern Munich proved that their 7-1 victory over Hoffenheim over the weekend was no fluke as they thrashed Swiss club FC Basel 7-0 to move into the quarter finals comfortably.

Bayern's victory was the biggest win in a Champions League knockout stage match after they bettered their own record set in 2009 at the same stage of the tournament when they beat Sporting Lisbon 7-1 at the Allianz Arena.

I was born in Chicago, the youngest of three, and a son of German parents. My father was a diplomat and stationed at the German consulate in the Windy City. As was the case with his career, we moved to a new city in the world every three to five years. These cities included countries such as Italy, USA, South Africa, Estonia, and, of course, Germany.

Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich angered their supporters yesterday with news that they would be making a spectacular signing before the transfer window closed only for the fans to later find out that it was a marketing gimmick.

Apparently, Bayern was trying to gain interest for their new app by creating intense speculation as to who the signing would be.

There's nothing a little mid-match Tango won't do for you just ask Valencia's Pablo Hernandez! The striker was highly instrumental in Los Che's 4-1 Copa del Ray win over city rival Levante last night setting up the goals and missing a few for himself.

Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has advised his club against buying rising star Marco Reus. The 22 year Borussia Mochengladbach player has been the centre of attention for a number of clubs including Arseanl who had shown an interest in him early last month.

Surprisingly, the reason why Schweinsteiger is opposed to Reus's move is because Reus is a direct rival for his position in the team.

By� Max Grieve

Jupp Heynckes was, to a point, playing the fool, but there was a grim undertone to his comments. "I have watched and coached in the Spanish League," he declared earlier in the week. "I know how hard it is to beat Barcelona. And now I'm left to wonder if Barça can't beat Chelsea, how can we?

The race for the Bundesliga title is getting very interesting with each passing week as� Bayern Muinch, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke all notched up wins to ensure that there was no let up in the league standings.

All three teams are level on 40 points with fourth place Borussia Mochengladabch only a point behind.

Marco Reus, the rising star in the German Bundesliga having helped Borussia Mönchengladbach to a respectable fourth place during the winter break, will be leaving the club at the end of the season to play for Borussia Dortmund.

It was announced today on Mönchengladbach's website that the player will remain at the club for the 2011-12 season before signing a five year deal with the current German champions Dortmund for a transfer fee of 17,5 million Euros.

Mario Gomez (left) is the top scorer in the Bundesliga this season

FC Bayern München secured the tag of Herbstmeister (autumn champions) in Germany last night. Despite going down to ten men following Franck Ribéry's red card on the half hour mark, FC Bayern were seldom troubled by visiting 1.

A pair of Bavarian SC boys teams closed out the inaugural season of U.S. Club Soccer's National Premier Leagues with victories on the final day of the Midwest Developmental League playoffs Sunday in Libertyville, Ill.

The Bavarians slipped past the Madison 56ers 1-0 in Under-15 action, while the club's Under-16 side rolled past the Chicago Magic 4-0.

Real Madrid's recent La Liga success in beating Barcelona 2-1 at Camp Nou notably give a strong sense of confidence for Jose Mourinho's side ahead of their upcoming Champions League's second tie against Bayern.

Mourinho himself stated that considering his squad's performance this season, getting into the final would be something they deserved and obviously will target after already looking home and dry in clinging the league title.

When I first started watching football as a child in the mid-1980's FC Cologne (1. FC Köln) was one of the traditional powerful clubs of the Bundesliga. Cologne was the first champion of the Bundesliga in 1963/64 and in 1978 won the "double," which to this day is the pinnacle of success in the Rhein city.