2. Bundesliga 2007/2008

This season should be very exciting as at least nine teams are serious competitors for promotion. There are some well-known names in here, like 1.FC Köln, 1.FC Kaiserslautern. Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1860 München. The ttop three will earn promotion while the last four will get relegated.
The following teams are competing this season:

1. FC Kaiserslautern
TSV 1860 München
Alemannia Aachen
SpVgg Greuther Fürth
Kickers Offenbach
SC Freiburg
FC St. Pauli
FC Erzgebirge Aue
FC Augsburg
1. FC Köln
SC Paderborn 07
VfL Osnabrück
TuS Koblenz
Borussia Mönchengladbach
Carl Zeiss Jena
1. FSV Mainz 05
TSG Hoffenheim
SV Wehen Wiesbaden

Here are some news on 1860 München:

new players:
Markus Schroth (Nürnberg)
Daniel Bierofka (Stuttgart)
Berkant Göktan (reserve team)
Benjamin Schwarz (reserve team)
Timo Gebhart (youth team)

players that left:
Philipp Pentke (Augsburg)
Patrick Milchraum (Aachen)
Nicky Adler (Nürnberg)
Paul Agostino (Adelaide United)
Nemanja Vucicevic (Köln)
Roman Tyce (Unterhaching)
Daniel Baier (Wolfsburg)
Harald Cerny (end of career)

The players missed most are probably Baier and Vucicevic for their assists and goals. However, Schroth and Bierofka should be able to compensate them. Our main problem is the lack of depth, especially up front. We have only four Strikers, while Göktan and Schroth should form a good attack Di Salvo and Wolff score only rarely, so we are in trouble, if one of them gets injured or suspended.

1860 has just recently found a new main sponser: Trenkwalder, who according to some newspaper pay 1.5 Mio €, according to our officials however it's more like 2 Mio €.
Trenkwalder have a red brand, so there are really some idiots who insist on forcing them to chage the colour, they even started a petition

Keep up the good work lionman. 2. Bundesliga will be very interesting again next season, so I'm pleased that you'll keep us informed. Reading news articles is one thing, I actually prefer the view of the fan.

blutgraetsche wrote:Keep up the good work lionman. 2. Bundesliga will be very interesting again next season, so I'm pleased that you'll keep us informed. Reading news articles is one thing, I actually prefer the view of the fan.

Of course I will keep with updates. On paper, this could become one of the closest seasons ever.

Friend to Monchengladbach, decent striker from what I've seen.

St. Pauli for 1. Bundesliga!

Pauli and Werder have always been friends, having a mutual enemy ("Scheiss HSV, Scheisse Scheisse HSV!") always helps. And they are the definition of "cult".

I thought this map may be useful.

After I have finally returned home from holiday, here are some updates on 1860 München:
We sold our left back SChäfer to Wolfsburg for around 1Mio €, Torben Hoffmann has now moved from VB to LB, but the jury is still out.

Just recently we bought striker Mustafa Kucukovic from HSV for 80.000€, though we have to pay an additional, unknown sum should we earn promotion this season.
His contract runs until 30.6.2011. While he is supposed to play first in our reserve team, he is considered to play in our first team soon. He may even make the squad next sunday.
I'm somewhat sceptical about this transfer. While I completely agree that we need another box striker, and he is very cheap -we can't afford much more at the moment - I'm not yet convinced of his abilities. He has a good record in the Regionalliga, but his Bundesliga games with HSV did not really impress me at all. Let's hope Marco Kurz will do another miracle with him as he did with Göktan.

Here is the standings after 2 matchdays:

1 1860 München 2 2 0 0 9:3 6
2 Kickers Offenbach 2 2 0 0 5:2 6
3 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2 1 1 0 4:1 4
-------------------------------------------------
4 SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2 1 1 0 4:3 4
5 VfL Osnabrück 2 1 1 0 3:2 4
5 Alemannia Aachen 2 1 1 0 3:2 4
7 1. FC Köln 2 1 0 1 2:1 3
8 FSV Mainz 05 2 1 0 1 4:4 3
9 SC Freiburg 2 1 0 1 2:2 3
10 FC St. Pauli 2 1 0 1 1:2 3
11 TuS Koblenz 2 1 0 1 3:5 3
12 Borussia Mönchengladbach 2 0 2 0 1:1 2
13 Erzgebirge Aue 2 0 1 1 3:4 1
14 Carl Zeiss Jena 2 0 1 1 2:3 1
-----------------------------------------------------
14 1899 Hoffenheim 2 0 1 1 2:3 1
16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2 0 1 1 2:4 1
17 SC Paderborn 2 0 0 2 0:3 0
18 FC Augsburg 2 0 0 2 3:8 0

Congrats on the great start lionman!

Looks like you guys did some great business as well. Hope to see you in the 1. Bundesliga next year, as the true representative of Munich.

3rd matchday (this weekend):

FSV Mainz 05 - Borussia Mönchengladbach
1. FC Köln - Carl Zeiss Jena
VfL Osnabrück - SC Paderborn
Alemannia Aachen - Kickers Offenbach
1. FC Kaiserslautern - SpVgg Greuther Fürth
Erzgebirge Aue - SV Wehen Wiesbaden
1899 Hoffenheim - 1860 München
FC St. Pauli - TuS Koblenz
FC Augsburg - SC Freiburg

blutgraetsche wrote:Congrats on the great start lionman!

Looks like you guys did some great business as well. Hope to see you in the 1. Bundesliga next year, as the true representative of Munich.

It was an excellent start indeed with wins against Augsburg and Lautern - we hadn't gained a point against them last season. But realistically we will not be promoted. We simply lack depth and our players are still rather unexperienced. If we want to have any chance, we must be injury-free and have a series like Freiburg did last season.
As for business, there wasn't that much. We made two very good signings with Bierofka and Schroth, but that was really all we could afford. Now with Kucukovic we have to wait and see. The players missed most are probably Schäfer and Baier, as they starded regularly and could have given us more depth. On the other hand, we earned ca. 1.5Mio €, which eases our situation a little bit. Especially with Schäfer it was just the question to keep him one more season and lose him for free or taking the money. Unfortunately, this will be the case next summer again, should we not get promoted.

cologne getting badly done athome 1-3 with 55 mins gne 3rd goal a bit lucky its on BWin

I seriously hope you will though, you are being missed in the 1. Bundesliga. Once you are promoted, your finances should stabilise also. Just make sure you never go back to the Wildmoser days.

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:cologne getting badly done athome 1-3 with 55 mins gne 3rd goal a bit lucky its on BWin

Daum is really ruining his reputation there. It's still a massive club with a proud history, but the environment there is just awful, it's an awfully run club.

Would like to see them back in the 1. Bundesliga, but with those idiots in charge, it probably won't happen.

blut zeiss jena from the east seem to remember cardiff playing them in the cup winners cup years ago?

Yeah, those Eastern clubs are weird though. In the lower divisions, there is a serious problem with right wing hooligans causing a lot of trouble.

It remains to be seen if Rostock and Cottbus can remain in the 1. Bundesliga this season, I'm rather sceptical. They have a proud football tradition in the East, including Jena where some of our best players are from (e.g. Schneider), a traditionally more technically orientated football school, but they simply lack the financial muscle (so far).

If the Bundesliga really allows investors to take over clubs in future, and it looks like they will, we may see a rise in the East. A lot of potential there.

blutgraetsche wrote:I seriously hope you will though, you are being missed in the 1. Bundesliga. Once you are promoted, your finances should stabilise also. Just make sure you never go back to the Wildmoser days.

After this season we have to pay 2Mio € less for the VIP longes if we stay in the 2. Bundesliga, so we will have a little bit more finacial room. But of course promotion would not only help us to keep our talents, but TV money alone is abput 10Mio € more, if I recall correctly.
After the 7th matchday things will become much clearer, as we play a lot of good teams at the start of the season. Should we then still be near the top, we really might have a shout for promotion.

Bierofka could miss out the next game because of problems with his back , Schroth still needs some couple of weeks after his injury, so Kucukovic better show something.

Btw, what do you think of the plans to reindroduce relegation matches?

Koln have pulled one back. Good finish on the volley.

2-3

bloody missed it doing some spuds. can see them getting another though

blutgraetsche wrote:Yeah, those Eastern clubs are weird though. In the lower divisions, there is a serious problem with right wing hooligans causing a lot of trouble.

bit like in england, not the right wing thing but many of the first hooligan clubs are in the lower divisions

lionman wrote:
Btw, what do you think of the plans to reindroduce relegation matches?

I'm not really sure to be honest. There are good arguments for both sides, but I tend to keep the current system, simply because it has worked well in the last 15 or so years. Going back to relegation play offs is not really necessary.

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:bloody missed it doing some spuds. can see them getting another though

told you could have won a few quid on this on bwin

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:bloody missed it doing some spuds. can see them getting another though

They've done it. 3-3 with five minutes of normal time remaining.

unreal 4-3

Now that's some great comeback. Who scored the goals?

arise sir lehmann the 2nd ffs

Are Leipzig in the league below this one? and where are Dresden?

the 4th was an og by the keeper basically punched it into the net from a corner

Tweedle wrote:Are Leipzig in the league below this one? and where are Dresden?

Leipzig are in the Oberliga, so that's two divisions below. Dresden are in the Regionalliga Nord, the third division in Germany.