Germany U21 team | Löwland

I got part of a Freiburg Friday because I did get to see two matches at least, the 2-2 draw at home with Hertha BSC and the 3-3 draw away at Hoffenheim. I didn’t get to see the two I really would have liked, the victories against Köln and Schalke but I did at least get a few extra seconds of footage of Jogi from the Hertha match and some new pictures:

Today the dates for the new season were released. SC Freiburg will kick off their 2. Bundesliga campaign at home, playing host to 1. FC Nürnberg. That certainly smarts given the relegation connection. Back in 1998/99 it was them who were against all odds relegated in a similarly tight relegation battle, everything that could go against them did go against them, including they themselves losing to Freiburg 2-1 on the last day of the season. All of their relegation rivals won, and so down they went. Freiburg’s second game is against 1860 München, a fact which is equally troublesome, a painful kind of symmetry there for it was the other Munich based team, Bayern of course that Freiburg beat on the one but last day of the season. Did that and got relegated anyway, and now on the second match-day of the new season they will face the other Munich.

The 2. Bundesliga kicks off on Friday 24th July and the season will end on the 15th May 2016. The winter break begins on the 21st December and the season resumes on the 6th February.

In the top flight, champions Bayern start their campaign on the 14th August at home against HSV. I hope they crush them. Newly promoted Ingolstadt play Mainz and Darmstadt face H96, I will naturally be rooting for the former. There’s a Jogi vs. Hansi match-up on the first day of the season with Stuttgart playing Köln. Roman Bürki and his new team Dortmund kick off the season with the battle of the Borussias, they face off against Mönchengladbach.

The early weeks of the season have some great clashes lined up with Bayern paying host to Wolfsburg on MD6 and der Klassiker on MD8.
The Hinrunde begins on the 24th July and ends on the 20th December. The Rückrunde begins on the 16th January and the season will end on the 14th May, 27 days before the start of Euro 2016.

I may not have got to see all the matches I wanted to see, but I did get a new video from the DFB site and some new pictures of Hansi. Besides how could I not be happy today, it is after all one year today that Germany beat the USA and Jogi debuted his famous wet look. Football tomorrow night in the form of the semi final of the U21 Euros which sees Germany face off against Portugal, Minions on Monday and a great new book to read. I really can’t complain. Plus the first match I got to see was at 5:00am, which of course meant getting up at 4:00am. Previously my solution to that would have been to stay up all night and pay the price later, I didn’t take that route this time instead doing the sensible thing of an early night for an early start. One step at a time and all that, but that is most certainly progress.

I am however worried about my plans for next week, I do hate it when people don’t share my appreciation of or need for a military precision schedule. For once though it’s not just that, I actually have tickets for a one time screening of a documentary about Niki Lauda, it’s not like I can wait that long before knowing if they’re coming or not. I hate it when people want to make plans, but then seem to forget about it. It’s fun spending time with other people sometimes but with the worry it creates I wonder if it’s worth it. After all if I were to go by myself I could go whatever time I wanted, not have to worry about other people being late or forgetting to show up and more importantly not have to play the waiting game in regards to organizing the whole event.

The video features Marc Andre ter Stegen, Emre Can and Leonardo Bittencourt sharing their thoughts on Portugal. The Hansi pictures are from the DFB delegation’s visit to the Theresiendstadt camp and some kind of memorial related to that.