On this week's podcast our German correspondent Hans looks at the Bundesliga after the mid-winter break.

Olympique Lyonnais vs. Dijon FCO

Match day 21 – Ligue 1.

In an unbelievably quiet transfer zone window, the report card on indecision in the last month will come 21 days later. That is because starting tonight, Lyon plays a match roughly every three days, for the next three weeks!

What to do when your squad is underperforming? You take them on vacation to Spain, naturally.

'What do you mean Gary got lost at baggage claim??'

So yeah, apparently this trip is actually happening. AVB did his best to downplay expectations prior to departure, insisting that trips of this variety are normal for English teams.

By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Jan 19, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In today's edition, Tony asks about Everton's tactics and upcoming schedule, looks at Steve Cherundolo's Hannover '96 back in action in Germany, wonders about the Rapids' priorities going into the season, and asks Joe Cannon not to quit his day job.

So, sitting here this afternoon thoroughly enjoying the Bundesliga back in action after an interminable winter break, I have come across a series of stories that might just warm the hearts of us Houston Dynamo supporters near and far.

First comes this excellent piece from Soccer America about Geoff Cameron in USMNT camp.

The Royal Blues have moved into the winter break as the number 3 in the Bundesliga. Schalke aims to win the title and Klaas Jan Huntelaar is instrumental in this quest. But the German club of the people fears an exit of their main goal scorer.

An interview....

Where will you play [read more]

'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.

Jozy Altidore and AZ return from the winter break with the first of two straight games against Ajax, with a trip to the final eight of the Dutch Cup on the line when the teams meet in Amsterdam on Thursday.

Charles Kazlauskas played the full 90 minutes in Helmond's midfield on Friday evening, as they marked their return from the winter break with a stale scoreless draw at FC Eindhoven.

Chasing the Big Leagues Fortuna Dusseldorf (Bundesliga II) is a post from: Just Football

Tales from Tier Two is a new series on Just Football in partnership with @tiertwofooty, in which we assess the promotion chances of the clubs in tier two of Europe's major leagues at the halfway point of 2011/12.

Charles Kazlauskas and Helmond Sport return from their winter break for a round of Friday night Eerste Divisie action at second-place neighbors FC Eindhoven.

Serie A returned this weekend after the winter break and there was some cracking action to start 2012. Inter Milan, Siena and Udinese had massive victories. While Lazio, Parma and Cesena all started 2012 miserably and the fans were thinking if their players were on holidays. Here are the top five goals 5.

Chasing the Big Leagues Clermont Foot (France Ligue 2) is a post from: Just Football

Introducing a new series on Just Football now Tales from Tier Two, in which we will be taking a look at how the season is unfolding for the promotion chasing teams around tier two of Europe's major leagues.

Looks like the 23 year old Argentinian striker/ winger has committed himself to remaining at Anderlecht to help them win the Jupiter League. He has been strongly linked with Arsenal with Wenger tracking him for months since the Europa Cup began. Suarez has scored 14 goals for the Belgian first division side.

Corner is a new feature each Monday on US Soccer Players that attempts to breakdown an issue trending in the world of soccer in under 400 words. Yes, this explanation counts. Germany's Bundesliga hasn't played a game that counted in the standings since December 18th. Their season won't resume until January 20th.

Football resumed in Spain after the short winter break, and it did not take long for the first upset of 2012 to occur, as a late equalizer from Espanyol in the Barcelona derby dented Barca's title hopes.

Real Madrid started off 2012 like they ended 2011, scoring goals. This week Madrid beat Granada 5-1 with Karim Benzema scoring twice and Cristiano Ronaldo hitting his 21st league goal of the season.

AS Lyon Duchère vs. Olympique Lyonnais

Coupe de France, Round of 64

Coupe de France greets us on the other side of the winter break, and OL travels to, well, Lyon. The fourth division team of Lyon Duchère, the youth club of Eric Abidal, hosts Olympique Lyonnais, the big boys this time.

• Kop That: The magic of the FA Cup http://t.co/1a3W9Til 23:40:28, 2012-01-05
• Kop That: Liverpool plea to Manchester United for truce on Luis Suarez http://t.co/T4QqhrP8 23:23:57, 2012-01-05
• Kop That: Podcast: Could Rooney quit United? Could Suarez quit England? http://t.co/vlGFPQBv 23:23:46, 2012-01-05
• Kop That: Liverpool and Manchester United to join forces to try to limit fallout from Luis Suarez case http://t.

Well it's happened again. Not even a full season back in top flight football and the "old dame" Hertha has been embroiled in a soap opera of daytime TV proportions, where nobody ends up looking good. Manager Markus Babbel and Sport Director Michael Preetz were entangled in a war of words where one was trying to paint the other as a liar and claiming who did or did not say what, when.

Mirror: Fergie must buy big to keep Rooney happy

Why Barton can't moan too much over red card Festive thrills mean we should never have a winter break When Wayne Rooney looks lost and unhappy, you know there is something wrong at Old Trafford. Dropped for the home defeat by Blackburn, United's only remaining player with the X-Factor was a non-factor as they lost against at Newcastle.

Mirror: Why Barton can't moan too much over red card

Fergie must buy big to keep Rooney happy Festive thrills mean we should never have a winter break How daft that Joey Barton's red card hasn't been rescinded. The fact that Nenad Milijas of Wolves didn't get let off after his unfair dismissal at Arsenal either just makes me more and more concerned about the poor standard of refereeing this season.

Mirror: Festive thrills mean we should never have a winter break

Fergie must buy big to keep Rooney happy Why Barton can't moan too much over red card ROBBIE'S TWEETS OF THE WEEK I love fancy dress and some of my former team-mates would tell you I wear it all the time!

UPDATE: In a bizarre set of circumstances, Gonzalez picked up an injury in his first training session with Nurnberg. In a collision with fellow US National Team player Timmy Chandler, Gonzalez tore his left anterior cruciate ligament and is expected to miss considerable time. Gonzalez is reportedly already on his way back to Los Angeles.

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.

Photo by Jose L. Argueta/ISIphotos.com

Two American strikers are drumming up some transfer buzz in Denmark.

According to multiple reports out of the country, Danish Superliga club AGF Aarhus is looking at Charlie Davies and Chris Wondolowski as potential targets during the transfer window, which opens Thursday and lasts through the end of the month.

Real Zaragoza have appointed Manolo Jimenez as their new coach until the end of the season.
Jimenez replaces Javier Aguirre, who was dismissed earlier this week with Zaragoza rooted to the foot of the La Liga standings having lost eight of their last nine league games.

The 47-year-old Jimenez, who will be presented on Sunday evening, has spent most of his career at Sevilla, representing the Andalusian club as a player from 1983 until 1997, then becoming reserve team coach for seven years until 2007, when he took over as first-team coach for three years.

48 year old Antoine Kombouare must feel hard done by after being replaced by former Chelsea and AC Milan supremo Carlo Ancelotti at PSG despite guiding them to the top of the French League before their winter break.

Kombouare served his club for two years but despite relative success the ambitious Qatari owners deemed him not a big enough name to guide their club to success and instead replacing him with Ancelotti.

So, with the winter break hitting its stride, and the transfer window yet to open, we arrive in a doldrums of calcio. Fortunately for us in the journalistic and blogging fields, Prandelli has chosen to make things interesting with some controversial selections. [read more]

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.

It's a special time of year. A time of year for gathering with people you hardly see and don't really know all that well, getting inappropriately drunk, and reminiscing about all the time you've wasted over the past twelve months that you're never getting back. If it's an especially good year, it won't end with you weeping softly to yourself in a corner somewhere.

As the Serie A season enters the winter break, Lazio sit firmly in fourth position on 30 points after an encouraging start to the season. They have only lost two games in the league (against Juventus and, once high-flying, Genoa) and they have qualified from the Europa League group stages. The additions made to the squad in the summer have been incredibly influential in helping carry the squad.

The winter break is now upon us which means no Serie A action until January 8. What will we do now? However, during this time there is at least one enticing encounter to look forward to; the 2012 Dubai Football Challenge which will see Milan take on Paris Saint-Germain. It is a match that will [...]

Serie A leaders Juventus lost their hold on top of the table after settling for a barren draw with Udinese at the Stadio Friuli last night. The draws sees Milan pip Juve to top spot although both clubs remain level on 34 points.

There was some good news for Claudio Ranieri and Inter Milan as his side were big winners on the night beating Lecce 4-1 at the San Siro to move up to to 5th place.

Jozy Altidore and AZ Alkmaar will play their final game before the month-long winter break on Wednesday evening when they travel to Amsterdam to face Ajax in the Dutch Cup.

Still everything to play for as La Liga heads into winter break

MirrorFootball has teamed up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Wednesday is La Liga day, and here's www.spanishfootball.info's David Cartlidge with his take on the week's big issues in Spain.

"April is the cruellest month", said the poet T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land. I can only say that he was very, very wrong. The title of the cruelest month can go easily to January, when the winter break and the rain sets in, and most loathsome and reprehensible of all, the transfer season, a hellish month as dark, dreary, and unenlightening as a typical Robert Smith song (sorry, Elaine) kicks off.

Jose Callejon scored twice as holders Real Madrid crushed Ponferradina 5-1 in a Copa del Rey last-32 second leg to progress 7-1 on aggregate.

Espanyol, Real Mallorca and Sevilla also booked their places in the last 16 with victories. The rest of the second legs are to be played on Wednesday and Thursday before the start of Spain's two-week winter break.

AC Milan moved to the top of Serie A ahead of the winter break after a 2-0 win over Cagliari on Tuesday night. An own goal by Cagliari defender Francesco Pisano and a second half strike by Zlatan Ibrahimovic proved enough for Massimiliano Allegri's men to secure victory against his former club and continue their [.

A coaching change at FC Ingolstadt led to an early winter break for Edson Buddle, who was sent home until the new year. The U.S. national team striker isn't going to lay around doing nothing during the German winter break though. He has headed to London, where he will spend a week training with West Ham United.

Real Madrid will go into the Spanish winter break with a three-point advantage over Barcelona after a 6-2 win at Sevilla.

With Barça away in Japan playing in the FIFA Club World Cup duty, José Mourinho's side took full advantage and went in front through Cristiano Ronaldo. José Callejón doubled the lead on 37 minutes, with Ronaldo's spectacular strike making it 3-0.