How To Choose Your Ideal Bundesliga Club - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Are you new to German football, and attracted to the much-lauded mix of exciting end-to-end football, standing fans, cheap beer and cheap tickets, not to mention the chance to watch football in a country where the national team can actually amount to something come crunch time?

How To Choose Your Ideal Bundesliga Club - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Are you new to German football, and attracted to the much-lauded mix of exciting end-to-end football, standing fans, cheap beer and cheap tickets, not to mention the chance to watch football in a country where the national team can actually amount to something come crunch time?

One of the biggest reported issues surrounding the New York Red Bulls over the last few seasons is their goalkeeper situation. Bouna Coundoul was never the best option, neither was Greg Sutton or Frank Rost.

Manager Hans Backe has made a couple decent moves this winter in goal but none that really strike anyone following this league has something that will help their cause in being a MLS Cup contender.

By Chris Wright

In which, during his side's 3-1 Nordderby win over Hamburg in the Bundesliga, Werder Bremen hardman Marko Marin gets hacked down mercilessly by an empty plastic cup thrown from the crowd...

Of course, objects being thrown from the terraces is deplorable, but the fact that Marin instinctive reaction is hit the turf holding his Achilles as soon as he feels the nudge is, to my eye at least, indicative of the mindset of flimsy footballers these days.

By Chris Wright

In which, during his side's 3-1 Nordderby win over Hamburg in the Bundesliga, Werder Bremen hardman Marko Marin gets hacked down mercilessly by an empty plastic cup thrown from the crowd...

Of course, objects being thrown from the terraces is deplorable, but the fact that Marin instinctive reaction is hit the turf holding his Achilles as soon as he feels the nudge is, to my eye at least, indicative of the mindset of flimsy footballers these days.

By Chris Wright

Barcelona may have had a naff old season by their standards, but there are at least a few crumbs of comfort to nibble on elsewhere as the Catalans have successfully defended their crown as the highest-paying sports team in the world.

Barca's £101,600 average weekly wage is still the highest paid to its players by any sports team on the surface of Planet Earth though, of course, we can't speak on behalf of any of the subterranean clubs, e.

Mario Gomez with girlfriend, Silvia Meichel. Images: Sky Germany.

Last Friday, the Bayern Munich 'ballers of past and present turned up to celebrate club legend Uli Hoeness' 60th birthday at an open bar party. Present were Mario Gomez and his girlfriend, Silvia Meichel. Isn't she just a breath of fresh-faced, normal air, Kickettes?

While staring at this photo of two Borussia Dortmund boys and their WAGs at a post-fashion show party in honour of sweets and other high carb/high sugar delights, we were struck by one undeniable truth: shop assistants lie. Oh, how they lie.

They lie to the innocent and cash-rich when they tell them, "Why yes, Mr Kehl, Palm Beach suits are going to be huuuge this Spring.

UEFA Power Rankings 20 February 2012 - The 90th Minute Soccer Blog

Below are my weekly power rankings for the top (8) clubs teams in UEFA. These rankings are a combination of their play in domestic and UEFA competitions.

Real Madrid continue to be in the top spot while there's little change in the rest of the power rankings.

In an interview with US Soccer's official site, United States National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann outlined his scouting system, the role of his scouts, and how that information is used at National Team level. "When we scout our own players, if they play in the Premier League or they play in the Bundesliga, Portugal, Italy, or players in Mexico and MLS, it's really to see where they are at that specific time to get a.

In our recaps of Seattle Sounders FC's Academy Alumni the focus was primarily on the players within the NCAA system. Players like Sean Okoli (second leading scorer on the U18s in 2010/11), Deandre Yedlin and Nick Palodichuk are following typical American collegiate paths. Yedlin and Okoli even got picked for the recent United States U-20 path.

After winning MLS Cup, earning a place in the Champions League and become the MLS equivalent of a SuperClub, the LA Galaxy had questions to answer at the end of 2011.
The possible departures of David Beckham, Juninho and the confirmed loss of Donovan Ricketts raised questions. Add to that the threat of extend loans from Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, the Galaxy had quiet cause for concern.

Holger Badstuber. Seen here reinforcing today's remit of focussing only on football results. No, we really are that easily distracted. Image: GUENTER SCHIFFMANN/AFP/Getty Images.

With everyone stomping all over what we consider to be our remit this weekend namely waffling about matters only loosely related to the playing of football we've decided to do the reverse.

Despite the papers spreading stories about LP's medical with Arsenal, his agent has denied the transfer rumours thus far. Gosh that sucks for us as he looks so good in that jumper.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

When centerback Bakary Soumare left MLS in 2009, he was one of the league's top defenders, a young player with a bright future and one who fetched the largest transfer fee for an MLS defender prior to Tim Ream's sale to Bolton. After a few years in Europe, Soumare could be on the verge of returning to the league where he began his professional career.

What better way to show equal respect to female officials than dropping trou right in front of her? Bibiana Steinhaus got a lot more of Cristian Molinaro than she was hoping for, one would imagine.

Football's one of those special jobs where what is normally considered sexual harassment is just getting ready for work.

By Chris Wright

Yestereve, with Bayern Munich 1-0 down against Borussia Dortmund and with just five minutes left to play, Arjen Robben pressed his 'Streets of Rage' special button and went a-tumblin' in the area in search of a penalty which duly arrived.

Robben then stepped up to take it himself and, saints be praised, missed the bugger not that Dortmund centre-half Neven Subotic had much in the way of sympathy for the floppy Dutchman.

By Chris Wright

Yestereve, with Bayern Munich 1-0 down against Borussia Dortmund and with just five minutes left to play, Arjen Robben pressed his 'Streets of Rage' special button and went a-tumblin' in the area in search of a penalty which duly arrived.

Robben then stepped up to take it himself and, saints be praised, missed the bugger not that Dortmund centre-half Neven Subotic had much in the way of sympathy for the floppy Dutchman.

Click here to view the embedded video.

New kits are coming thick and fast, and while most are going with the standard 'cute boy in a clean shirt' approach, Leeds United are enticing their fans with something a little different.

Tell us, Kickettes: do you even buy replica shirts?

The Top 20 Derbies In Europe By Attendance - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Watched by a global TV audience of around 650 million, it's been described as 'the mother of all derbies' and the second most important game in the world (after El Clasico) but is the Manchester derby the biggest derby in Europe?

By Chris Wright

Here we see Bayern Munich fans attending the Champions League Final dressed as Franck Ribery with an impressive attention to detail...

My morale compass ain't quite sure if this is funny or offensive so I ain't saying a goddamn thing.

Photo: Getty

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.

Newcastle United pulled off a coup today in the signing of Senegalese striker Papisse Demba Cisse. The former Freiburg striker has nine goals from 15 appearances so far this season, and finished last season as one of the top goalscorers in the Bundesliga with 22 goals to his name.

The striker signs on a 5 and-a-half year deal, and the transfer fee is thought to be in the region of £7.

'Gladbach - Bayern Munich 2:30pm ET - GolTV 1st versus 4th in the Bundesliga, with Bayern in their historic spot at the top of the table. 'Gladbach trail by four points and 19 goals, with Bayern picking up the season after the winter break on a three-game win streak. These two teams opened their seasons against each other, with 'Gladbach winning 1-0 at Allianz Arena.

With one blast of the newly patented Kickette Pheremone Spray™, this Kickette soldier girl is ensuring that Manuel Neuer will comply with her whims for the next 24-hours.

You reckon this stuff will catch on?

Edson Buddle's European venture has come to a screeching halt.

Despite Buddle scoring six goals for FC Ingolstadt this season, the club released him from his contract Tuesday for unspecified reasons. Buddle had been sent away from the team prior to the 2. Bundesliga's winter break, the first indication that his time in Germany may have been coming to a premature close.

A whole gaggle of interesting matches to watch this weekend. We've chosen a handful each on Saturday and Sunday, including the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations, a couple each from the big leagues (Premier League, including Chelsea-ManUtd; Serie A, highlighted by AC Milan-Napoli; La Liga the one we're most interested in is Atletico Madrid-Valencia), plus a few wild cards (e.

Dopo la vittoria con conquista del primo posto da parte del Borussia Dortmund, vittorioso pr 2 a 0 sul campo del Norimberga, si attendeva la risposta del Bayern Monaco ma i bavaresi non sono andati oltre l'1 a 1 sul campo dell'Amburgo, nella 20/a giornata di Bundesliga. Stesso risultato, ma tra le mura amiche, perContinua a leggere .

Good heavens. We hope you warmed your hands first, Sami! Images via gq-magazin.de.

Avert your eyes, Kickettes! We haven't revealed this much flesh on the site in one go since Tim Howard was kind enough to get his nekkid on for ESPN, and our server collapsed under the weight of our rampant lust.

verrückt!! There's nothing quite like a goofy footballer pretending to be an overzealous fan and you can count on Germany and Bayern Munich's Thomas Mueller to do it! As the Euro 2012 approaches, the German National Team have been hard at work rolling out campaigns to drum up home support, launching new jerseys (ironically, it's back to 1972′s away green kit!

Just two of the weapons...

Addition by subtraction for Jose Mourinho?

It's a big moment today for Barca. The Nou campers just crested a double-digit deficit to Real Madrid in La Liga with Real Madrid's talent it's hard to see Mourinho's troops dropping that trophy. Gulp.

The Champion's League is where Barcelona must make their name this year.

photo by Bill Barrett/ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

A handful of Americans could be in action on Thursday afternoon as the knockout phase of the Europa League begins, including two who will be in direct competition with one another.

Jozy Altidore and Sacha Kljestan are set to battle in the first leg of their Round of 32 Europa League fixtures.

When you play in the Bundesliga, you don't get many chances to share the pitch with Lionel Messi, so Bayer Leverkusen's Michael Kadlec and Manuel Friedrich wasted no time in trying to snag Messi's shirts during the first leg of their side's Champions League tie against Barcelona. And now Bayer sporting director Rudi Voeller, himself a legendary footballer, is intent on punishing the two players for what he saw as an overzealous schoolboy pursuit of a fellow professional's shirt.

By Chris Wright

After barely surviving the drop last year and playing like clueless loons for the majority, Borussia Monchengladbach are currently riding high in second spot in the Bundesliga table (three points behind leaders Dortmund), and with good reason. For you see, coach Lucian Favre has got the playing some simply sublime tiki-taka style passing football the kind of football that has seen them christened 'Borussia Barcengladbach' by the entire German sporting press me.

Ever Banega in happier automotive times. Images: vcfcentral.com, JOSE JORDAN/AFP/Getty Images, AP Photo/Roberto Pfeil.

From attempting to leave the gas station while the car is still being filled to an ice skating mission on a frozen but ultimately not frozen enough pond, we're heavy contributors to the pantheon of dumb.

There is an excellent Arsenal transfer rumour out this morning saying that the brilliant Bayern Munich and Holland hitman Arjen Robben is fully intending to leave the Bundesliga this summer, and would love to return to London where he had three excellent season's with Chelsea. He has been turned on by the other Bayern players [.

By Chris Wright

Unsurprisingly, Hamburg striker Paolo Guerrero has just been slapped with an eight-game ban for his disgusting, studs-up assault on Stuttgart keeper Sven Ulreich's fleshy bits at the weekend...

Awful tackle, malicious in it's intent and execution.

On the day Steven Gerrard scored a hat-trick to demolish Everton, Mario Gomez went a step further and scored four times within a 23-minute period to lead Bayern's 7-0 rout of FC Basel at Allianz Arena.

Despite his stellar finishing last night, the dominant striker is in no mood to celebrate just yet, suggesting that the Bavarians have a lot more to accomplish over the next two months.

Having scored seven goals in each of their previous two matches, Bayern Munich continued their goal binge by beating Hertha Berlin 6-0 on Saturday. Bayern made such easy work of their hosts, that they resorted to playing rock-paper-scissors to decide who would take free kicks just to keep themselves entertained.

It could have been carved out of stone by a Kickette sculptor from ancient times, it's so purposefully defined. Image: AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson.