Brazil coach Dunga has named his squad for the November's friendlies against England and Oman. Of note is that FC Porto striker Hulk , fellow striker Carlos Eduardo of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Michel Bastos of Olympique Lyon are included in the squad and could possibly make their international debuts. Click to continue reading...

Lindsey Dean of GolTV was kind enough to speak with me about the Bundesliga.  Those of us in America will know Lindsey as the voice of Hallo Bundesliga, the league's review show on GolTV.  Lindsey is originally from Maine and grew up in New England; however, he enrolled at the University of Copenhagen in 1977 at the age of 19.

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I tend to get too excited about the young kids, when they move. I will often over-value the transfers of the the Zuculini, Sven Bender and Lewis Holtby's of the footballing world. I will see Ralf Fahrmann's move to Eintracht as the bargain of the century. But youth takes time to develop, so this year I am going to concentrate on the seven best transfers made so far this summer, in relation to how the players will aid their teams in the coming year.

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With this weeks 4-0 drubbing of England u21s by the German u21s, Die Mannschaft completed a hat-trick of youth level European Championships (winning the u17, u19, and u21 tournaments). Such success indicates that the future of the Bundesliga is bright, and that while the Serie A begins a period of decline, the Premier League is used as a scapegoat for the failures of the English national team, and La Liga devolves into a 2 horse race, the Bundesliga is poised to regain its place amongst the top 3 leagues in Europe.

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TSG Hoffenheim have acquired Ghanaian international striker Prince Tagoe from Saudi Arabian club Al Ettifaq on a free transfer, enrolling with the budding African delegation of his national team-mate Isaac Vorsah, Senegal's Demba Ma and Nigeria's Chinedu Obasi Ogbuke.
Hoffenheim's director of Sport Jan Schindelmeiser has described Prince Tagoe as "technically strong, two-footed and has proven his goalscoring instinct both for his club and national team. Click to continue reading...

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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Armin Veh was announced as Wolfsburg's new manager after their title celebrations. The ex-Stuttgart manager will now try and replicate his 2008 Champions League form. It should be easier with the imminent loss of Dzeko and Misimovic.

Mario Gomez became the most expensive player in Bundesliga history, swapping Stuttgart red for Bayern red.

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TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is a German football club based in Hoffenheim, a suburb of Sinsheim, Baden-Württemberg. In 2007 the club decided to adopt the use of the short form name 1899 Hoffenheim in place of the traditional TSG Hoffenheim. A fifth division side in 2000, the club made a remarkable advance to the Bundesliga in [. Click to continue reading...

With Hamburg's win today over Energie Cottbus, the Dinosaurs join Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich in a three way log jam in second place behind surprise front runners Hertha Berlin. All four are four points behind the pace with upstarts Hoffenheim a mere five points off the pace with just ten games remaining. Click to continue reading...

3 - Likely number of German top goalscorers over the past 10 years by season's end.  With Ibisevic's injury cementing his tally at 18, it seems likely that Patrick Helmes (17), Mario Gomez or Grafite (14 each) will end up with title of Torschützenkönig.  BUT if Grafite were to win, it'd increase the number of [. 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...

Bayer Leverkusen returned to form and dismantled league leaders Hoffenheim in front of 30,000 at the Rhein-Neckar Arena. Scoring two minutes into the match set them up for an inspired first half and scoring again one minute into the second half sealed the three points for die Werkself. Hoffenheim struggled to find defensive [. 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...

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...

1-2-3 - Current ranking of Bochum, Cottbus, and Bielefeld on the "Anti-Fair-Play Table." Here Bochum has a commanding lead thanks to their 33(!) yellows in 12 games. This trio tops another table as well, but this one's about "Anti-Results." All three are currently in the relegation zone. Coincidence? Click to continue reading...

0 - The number in Frankfurt's win column (still, and I'll keep on mentioning this until Frankfurt take note and do something about it) 5 - Difference in points between 1st (Hamburg) and 11th (Bayern). 6 - Number of goalscorers Hamburg and Werder Bremen have in the top 12 (ie, those who have scored at least 4 [. 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...

0 - Number of wins by Frankfurt, the last remaining winless team 5 - Total number of shots by Gladbach in their 0-1 defeat to Hamburg 7 - Goals scored by Patrick Helmes this season, that's equal to or more than 8 teams (Hertha, Köln, Hannover, Karlsruhe, Bochum, Cottbus, Frankfurt, and Gladbach) 8.06 - The average number of [. 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...

Stuff to read while your gun shop gets held up by an 11 year old....... TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Cinderella story in the making. (SoccerLens) Did Rafa mastermind Lucas' red card in Beijing? (Liverpool Offside) Championship ain't all it's cracked up to be. (Guardian Unlimited) Liverpool's incredibly perplexing summer signing. 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...

The Deutsche Presse Agentur released a poll yesterday about predictions for the upcoming season. Bayern Munich was the unanimous favorite of Bundesliga coaches to repeat as champions. The most common reason given was the quality of Jürgen Klinsmann's squad. What follows is a hasty translation of what each of the 18 gaffers [. Click to continue reading...