Like all streakers, the one that invaded the pitch during Sunday's match between Hertha Berlin and Cologne had an important message to share with everyone.

Just kidding he was being a vulgar, self-important idiot and he went down like all the rest...

[Photos: Getty, Reuters]

Sylvie van der Vaart on set at The Super Talent show in Cologne.

One cannot help but notice that when it comes to the German football players, not many of them fancy playing in the Premiership. I first started following the German Bundesliga around half a decade ago; the reason why I tuned in every single week to catch up with some Deutsch football was that I could never get to see enough German representation in the Premier League.

By AriesBayern head coach Markus Babbel was very annoyed with Jens Lehmann after his team's 2-0 defeat by Cologne over the weekend. He decided to come out of his area, rush way out to tackle an opponent and of course was left with egg on his face when the ball ended in the back of an unguarded net! Reminds you of his mad rushes when he used to play for Arsenal doesn't it?

Last month we brought you news of FC Koln's Poldi-Pixel experiment, through which the smallish German club is aiding their prince's return home by selling pixels like advertising for €25 a pop. Despite the masses of billionaires with loose cash who read The Offside on a daily basis, it's not showing the most rapid progress [.

Jens Lehmann was dropped by Stuttgart after attending Oktoberfest, hours after his team's defeat against Cologne (2-0) in Bundesliga. Plus, Arsenal's former goalkeeper gifted his rivals the 2nd goal by losing the ball outside the area. As we can see up there in the picture, Jens is smiling (something suspicious in itself) next to his wife [.

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 [.

The FIFA series has been around for years now and the latest release "FIFA 10″ is getting a lot of attention after last season's highly acclaimed FIFA 09. Last season's version was reviewed very highly and EA Sports is set to improve with FIFA 10. I was able to ask FIFA 10 producer David Rutter some questions about the game.

Preview of this weekend's important Bundesliga fixtures! FC Bayern München v FC Köln This Saturday's bundesliga clash between Munich and Cologne should be an interesting one. Former FC Bayern striker Lukas Podolski will make his return to the Allianz Arena after his summer sale to FC Köln. Podolski spent three years in Munich but were [.

German Bundesliga side FC Koln ( Cologne) have unveiled their new home shirt for the 2009-10 home season. Over 1400 fans were present for the live unveiling. The red and white strip is manufactured by Reebok. It uses the PlayDry technology for optimum moisture management. Sponsors REWE have their logo in the centre of the jersey, while [.

The new Hamburger SV home shirt ( heimtrikot) for the 2009-10 German Bundesliga season has been officially unveiled. HSV finished 5th in the German Bundesliga last season. The new HSV home jersey is manufactured by Adidas, and can be bought for 79.95 euros online. The shirt bears a resemblance to an outfit worn by the club [.

I'm hoping to have a few goodies ready for you sometime tomorrow, plus I had a word with U.S. attacker Mix Diskerud about the upcoming U-20 World Cup and I will bust out a new Top 5 List. But that's all for tomorrow, for now we watch TV...Let's begin with Cologne's Adil Chihi, who gave his side momentary hope against the Bundesliga leaders with this thunderbolt.

MLS on TeleFutura: New England - Chivas USA at 3pm. EPL on Setanta: Birmingham City - Aston Villa at 7am. On Fox Soccer Channel: Fulham - Everton at 11am. Bundesliga on GolTV: Cologne - Schalke 04 at 11:30am. ESPN2 has a La Liga game scheduled for 11am, teams not available at press time. La Liga on GolTV: Xerex - Athletico Bilbao at 3pm.

The German striker could be on the move.

It took forever, but we FINALLY got around to the last You Write the Caption contest. How could you forget this image of an enraged Michael Ballack chasing down Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo during Chelsea's Champions League semifinal loss to Barcelona (yes, it's been that long).

It may have been more than a month ago, but this image is still funny, and so are the top entries from the contest.

Cologne's Lukas Podolski hit up the WBA middleweight world boxing blah-do-bloo in Nurburg with his girlfriend, Monika Puchalski. July 11, 2009. Image by Getty Images

I'm sick of this crappy little network and having to deal with their bullshit.

They suck. Plain and simple! They promised us 3 games a week and they are already backing off to 2 games a week at best. They promised a contest that never materialized. They pick up Europa and won't even show German teams.

Strange records were equalled or broken this weekend.

3. Hannover scored three own goals in their match against Borussia Mönchengladbach. They set a new record for own goals scored by one team and equalled the record of most own goals in a Bundesliga match (Kaiserslautern 1-3 Stuttgart, 9th November 1963).

German international Lukas Podolski has agreed to a deal with Bundesliga team Cologne. This deal takes effect at the end of the current season and will end a long unhappy streak for Podolski at Bayern. Podolski was frequently overlooked by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who preferred to start Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose and even Landon Donovan was starting over Podolski.

Link:

Wolfsburg bounced back from the Stuttgart drubbing last weekend. It was the Dzeko- Grafite combine yet again which sank Borussia. Dzeko opened the scoring with his 21st goal. Lovely one touch football!

Grafite added one more and Dzeko rounded of the rout with yet another.

Bayern eventually overcome Klinsmann's bad karma with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Leverkusen and with referee Thorsten Kinhöfer still confused about what constitutes a penalty nowadays following the Champions League semis.

Had Klinsmann been still in charge, Bayern would have played poorly and van Buyten and Demichelis would have conceded a penalty each.

In other words: our Wolfsburg Offside is looking for someone to take over and join our lively Bundesliga family here at The Offside.

Please send your fake takeover applications to admin@nufc.co.uk and the real ones to daryl@theoffside.com.

Update: Just as I write this post the Borussia Dortmund Offside goes up for auction as well.

It took forever, but we FINALLY got around to the last You Write the Caption contest. How could you forget this image of an enraged Michael Ballack chasing down Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo during Chelsea's Champions League semifinal loss to Barcelona (yes, it's been that long).

It may have been more than a month ago, but this image is still funny, and so are the top entries from the contest.

On the 20th of June 2006 in Cologne, Germany, I was sat high behind the goal in the RheinEnergieStadion (then called simply 'The FIFA World Cup Stadium') when in the fourth minute, a figure crumpled to the ground. It was hard to see who it was from my unique vantage point, but the man sitting to my left immediately turned round and said 'any money it's Owen'.

Over two years ago I got curious about Internet based club TV services, which more and more Bundesliga clubs were launching at the time. With Cologne being a prominent absentee, I decided to make my pick of test subscriptions based on presumed benchmark (Bayern), sympathies (Hamburg) and Champions League football (Stuttgart).

Cologne's Lukas Podolski hit up the WBA middleweight world boxing blah-do-bloo in Nurburg with his girlfriend, Monika Puchalski. July 11, 2009. Image by Getty Images

The Manchester City career of Elano is hanging by a slender thread, with the Brazil international left out of the club's trip to South Africa and seemingly top of their clear-out list.

The Bundesliga side, Cologne, have approached City about taking the 28-year-old on loan and though he is understood not to be keen on the idea Elano may soon have to resign himself to a new challenge.

Borussia Dortmund got off to a winning start in the 2009-10 Bundesliga, as they beat FC Koln ( Cologne) 1-0 at home. FC Koln substitute Marvin Matip scored an own goal in the 75th minute and that ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides. Final score :- Borussia Dortmund 1-0 FC Koln ( [.

Schalke 04's Halil Altintop tries to ignore Kevin Kuranyi as he unwillingly finds out what he had for lunch during Sunday's match against Cologne.

[Photo: REUTERS/Ina Fassbender]

The German Bundesliga began its 2009-10 season this week with a full set of matches starting on Friday through Sunday. On Saturday there were 6 matches including clubs Schalke, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Hertha Berlin, and more. Here's are video highlights from each of Saturday's matches.

TSG Hoffenheim (1) – Bayern Munich (1) – German Bundesliga – Saturday August 8, 2009

Hertha Berlin (1) – Hannover 96 (0) – German Bundesliga – Saturday August 8, 2009

FC Nuremberg (1) – Schalke 04 (2) – German Bundesliga – Saturday August 8, 2009
Mainz (2) – Bayer Leverkusen (2) – German Bundesliga – Saturday August 8, 2009 Werder Bremen (2) – Eintracht Frankfurt (3) – German Bundesliga – Saturday August 8, 2009 Borussia Dortmund (1) – FC Cologne (0) – German Bundesliga – Saturday August 8, 2009

[101 Great Goals] The decision making abilities of Mad Jens took a predictable hit this weekend, as the older he gets the crazier his adventures. On the pitch against Cologne it was a typical adventure of Lehmann-esque proportions, as evidenced above. Jens, using his everyday skills of logic, decided bolting 40 yards from his net [.

Here are the fixtures for the 2009/2010 Bundesliga season. There should be some great action this year in the Bundesliga and we all look forward to seeing the results. Check back often for more information about this Bundesliga season. Friday, 25 September 2009 Nurnberg v VfL Bochum, 19:30 Saturday, 26 September 2009 Borussia Dortmund v Schalke 04, 14:30 Cologne v [.

Lehmann committed an error to gift Cologne their second goal at the weekend when he raced out of his area only to lose possession and allow Wilfried Sanou to shoot into an empty net from 45 yards out.

Establishing something comparable to England's Big Four remains a distant dream for last season's top four in the Bundesliga. Wolfsburg are 7th after disappointingly drawing with Bochum. Munich are 8th after disappointingly drawing with Cologne. Stuttgart are 13th after disappointingly losing to Bremen.

With the first quarter of football almost over in most leagues around Europe, now is a good time to measure the current progress of some of the giant clubs on the continent. Actually, analyzing the success or failure of clubs in general won't be nearly as exciting as identifying a more specific object of analysis.

First of all, I need to apologize. I interviewed Tim back at the end of August and am just now getting this out. I feel I did a disservice to the time he was so kind to give me. But, better late than never, so I have transcribed our talk about new South Americans in the Bundesliga.

Sylvie van der Vaart on set at The Super Talent show in Cologne.

Kenny Cooper and the Lions will try to bounce back from their midweek cup blowout when Kaiserslautern come to town while Steve Cherundolo and Hannover will hope to keep their momentum as they visit Cologne.

Hungary vs. Sweden, Puskás Ferenc Stadion, September 5th 2009. Sweden won the 2010 World Cup qualifier 2-1.

Photo credit: photoreti via the Pitch Invasion photo pool.

Related posts:

1. Photo Daily: NK Maribor Fans Are Lonely Fans in Slovenia look lonely.

I'm no huge fan of freestyling - the team mechanism is what does it for me - but this is really quite exceptional. They're two of a group of 'professional freestlyers' who do perform across a variety of genres - footy, basketball, breakdancing, etc - with some sort of Nike affiliation. So they're just ridiculously [.