Tag Archives: der Klassiker

Sometimes after midweek games the weekend which follows can be a little slow, lacking in both goals and excitement. That wasn’t the case the weekend just gone, though ironically there were no goals in the biggest game of all. But then it didn’t need any, what it lacked in goals it more than made up for in terms of excitement. In one way it’s a good thing there were no goals because if there had been no matter who the goalscorer was it could not have bettered Pizarro’s goal against H96.

As for the other games on Saturday in total they racked up 26 goals with three high scoring games. Stuttgart’s 5-1 defeat of local rivals Hoffenheim, Bremen beating H96 4-1 and finally Leverkusen drawing 3-3 with Augsburg but only thanks to a last minute penalty. The Stuttgart game is interesting because the last time they scored five goals in a game was also against Hoffenheim, back in 2013 when they beat them 6-2. In charge of Stuttgart at the time was none other than Thomas Schneider. Bremen’s game was special and not just because they totally destroyed H96 which naturally I found most enjoyable. The main reason for it being special is Claudio Pizarro scoring his 100th goal for Bremen, because being the Bundesliga’s oldest scorer of a hat-trick at the age of 37 just wasn’t enough. Not only that but he’s the top scorer of the Rückrunde so far, having scored eleven goals. The only other draw of the weekend was Eintracht Frankfurt’s 1-1 draw with Ingolstadt, a result which turned not to be enough to save Armin Veh’s job. No big surprise there, with seven games without a win and the fans having turned against him weeks ago it seemed all but inevitable.

Ausburg v Leverkusen highlights

Köln v Schalke highlights

Wolfsburg v Gladbach highlights

Bremen v H96 highlights

Stuttgart v Hoffenheim highlights

Eintracht Frankfurt v Ingolstadt highlights

Dortmund v Bayern highlights

Mainz v Darmstadt highlights

HSV v Hertha highlights

Getting back to Dortmund the result of their game was anything but inevitable. I knew only two things for certain going into this game, that it wouldn’t end up quite as one sided as last time and it wasn’t going to disappoint. After the quarter finals of the DFB Pokal I was musing whether or not it would be good to see someone else in the final this year, a nice change from the Dortmund-Bayern match-up. I’ve changed my mind on that, I want them to go head to head once more. It’s tricky because I’d love for Bremen to get there too, but I think seeing a replay of this game especially seeing as it’s Guardiola’s last season at Bayern would be epic.

To be honest I wasn’t so concerned with the result as I was Roman Bürki not embarrassing himself like he did in the reverse of the fixture. He had a much better game this time round though he still had a few shaky moments in the opening minutes of the game, making two mistakes just a minute apart. I’ve seen the game twice and yet all that’s sticking in my head is not just Bürki’s mistakes but also the two great saves he made, one denying Costa the chance to score and secondly Vidal. The second one in particular goes some way to making up for the goal he almost gifted Müller in the first half. There is one non-goalkeeper moment I remember and that’s Erik Durm’s nice little turn and subsequent shot on goal in the 18th minute. Had that been a goal it would have been incredible, he scored midweek against Darmstadt but scoring against Bayern would have been a whole other world:

Obviously there were other important moments in the game but in the excitement the rest is forgotten and to be honest overshadowed somewhat by Freiburg’s victory over RB Leipzig on Monday night. No matter how great Dortmund’s game was nothing compares to that, not even getting the half-time interview with Jogi. What I lack in words I can more than make up for in terms of videos and pictures, getting nine videos from this week’s game:

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Posted in Fußball, Germany, Manuel Neuer

Tagged Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bundesliga, Claudio Pizarro, der Klassiker, Erik Durm, Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm, Robert Lewandowski, Roman Bürki, Thomas Müller, Thomas Tuchel

Joachim Löw at Borussia Dortmund v Bayern München 2015/16

Posted on March 5, 2016 | Leave a comment

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Posted in Jogi Löw

Tagged Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, der Klassiker, Joachim "Jogi" Löw

Roman and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, very Bad Day

Posted on October 5, 2015 | Leave a comment

Roman I’m sorry, I really am but there was no way I could resist that title. I’ve not seen the film that the title is borrowed from, nor do I know what it’s about but the title is a perfect fit and extremely ironic. For it’s not Alexander who had a bad day. Roman’s replacement in the Freiburg goal, Alexander Schwolow had himself a fairly decent day. True Freiburg did only draw away at KSC but he had a good game and made several very important saves. It’s in large part thanks to him that they have that point.

This is post number 707, I said I wanted to do something special for it, well I think der Klassiker is sufficiently special. Plus it has almost all of my favourite Germans in it (plus Roman who’s Swiss), and just to make it right I have to put Jogi in here too. Can’t have post number 707 without him, it would of course been perfect if Hansi had been at the game too, then he’d be in the post as well but you can’t have everything:

I’m not taking any delight in Bayern’s win over Dortmund yesterday nor am I enjoying Roman Bürki’s misfortune. But I can’t help but point out the irony of the situation. Last time Roman Bürki faced Bayern was when he was still a Freiburg player and that time he was on the winning side. This time not only was he on the losing side but he himself as the title suggests had a truly awful day. Because not only did Bayern absolutely destroy Dortmund but he himself made several critical mistakes. His first der Klassiker will not be a memory he’ll treasure forever, that’s for certain. More like a nightmare he’d do anything to forget. Up until now he’s been mostly perfect in his first season at Dortmund with no major mistakes to speak of. Yesterday afternoon put a halt to that and witnessed some unusually poor decision making from him. For the fourth and fifth goals he was just a bystander, completely helpless, and the first could only be described as comical.

Not that his mistakes take anything away from the quality of the goals of course. But it was embarrassing, hugely so for him to be caught out in such a similar way twice in the same game. Not just for him but for the defence too, to be caught out by such a simple move. Just what Roman was doing I don’t know, especially the second time. I think his reaction says it all, I’m not sure he knows either:

On the subject of reactions, Manuel Neuer’s reaction to the fourth goal was great, not quite as cool as getting to see him run to the touchline to find someone to hug but still worth making a GIF of:

It was also not a good day for Bernd Leno, he had to suffer the embarrassment of putting the ball in his own net when he miss hit a back pass from Jonathan Tah:

One final GIF, returning to the Dortmund game, this very amusing one of Thomas Tuchel that I just could not resist making:

Thomas Müller opened the scoring in somewhat comical fashion it has to be said, he also got the second, successfully converting a penalty. Robert Lewandowski also scored two, continuing his record breaking ways, his first goal coming 22 seconds after the restart. It’s starting to become a theme with him, quick goals in the start of the second half. Aubameyang also continued with his record breaking, he’s scored in eight games in a row now for Dortmund.