Germany: 2006-2007 Bundesliga Preview

Bayern Munich pose for their 2006-07 team photo. And just in case you forgot, they threw in a few of last year's trophies to remind you what to expect this year in the Bundesliga.



While teams in England, Spain, and Italy are still immersed in pre-season training, world tours, and courtroom trials, respectively, one of the great leagues of Europe is already playing some meaningful games. In Germany, the Bundesliga has yet to kick off, but the German League Cup has already commenced. This pre-season showcase tournament, which features the best six teams from last year's league table, is taken far more seriously than most other games played in the lazy days of late July and early August. Yesterday, Werder Bremen defeated Hamburg 2-1 to book their place in the final, where they will meet the winner of today's match pitting Bundesliga champs Bayern Munich against Schalke 04. All of this action means that it's probably a good time for a preview of this season's Bundesliga.

In the past, I have not been a great fan of German soccer. The national team played a boring, mechanical style, only made all the more aggravating by their amazing efficiency at penalty shoot-outs and consistent ability to advance deep into tournaments full of teams that played better, more attractive football than ze Mannschaft. The domestic league was not much better; year after year, Bayern Munich would thrash all pretenders to their throne. Aside from a brief period of success for Borussia Dortmund, one which ended abruptly with the club basically plunging into bankruptcy, it was a one-horse race for Bayern. But after their impressive showing in this summer's World Cup, I have a new appreciation for the German national team. With players like Ballack, Podolski, Frings, and Lahm, they now play an attractive brand of footie to match their impressive array of talented youngsters. Of course, back in the Bundesliga, there's not much to suggest that anything has changed, except for the small detail of the sale of one Michael Ballack to everyone's favorite oil magnate, Chelsea's Roman Abramovich. And this, for the non-sarcastically inclined, is no small detail.

For the past few years, Ballack has been far and away the best player for Bayern. All of their play ran through their talismanic midfielder. And if you're going to be dependent on a midfielder, Ballack is one of the best out there. Unfortunately for Bayern, aside from players like Lucio, Sagnol, Schweinsteiger, Roque Santa Cruz, and Ze Roberto, there wasn't a lot to strike fear into any teams outside the Bundesliga; since they last won the title in 2001, Bayern have fallen short in the Champions League. Now, not only is there no Ballack, but Ze Roberto has been deemed surplus to requirements, a seemingly shocking decision after his superb World Cup; but with the likes of Owen Hargreaves, Sebastian Deisler, and Martin Demichelis (you may remember him as the player who said that he had lost the will to live after being left out of Argentina's Cup squad), Bayern clearly feel confident that they can replace the Ballack-Ze Roberto duo in the center of the pitch. More importantly, Bayern have addressed their two glaring weaknesses: centerback and striker. At the back, Valerien Ismael was almost single-handedly responsible for the Germans' loss to AC Milan in the quarters of the Champions League; he will now be replaced by Belgian giant, Daniel Van Buyten - with him and Lucio, Bayern need only sign Dirk Nowitzki to complete a back-line with a combined height of 20 feet. Up front, Lukas Podolski becomes the latest in a long line of German players to burst onto the scene and promptly get snatched up by Bayern. With Phillip Lahm racing down the left and Schweinsteiger on the right, more than a few teams will be having flashbacks to ze Mannschaft that tore apart the Cup this summer. Still, all of these players are not what makes Bayern so special; rather, it is that they have known how to combine German efficiency with Latin flair. Consider that Bayern has raided some of the best players that Latin America has to offer and can now boast of attacking talents like Roque Santa Cruz, Claudio Pizarro, and Julio Dos Santos (and this is after they have let go of players like Ze Roberto and Paolo Guerrero, sold to Hamburg). Aside from that dreadful bubble that they now call home (whodathunkit, but I already miss that intimidating concrete jungle that was the Olympiastadion), Bayern need only find a way to overcome the loss of Ballack and it should be another profitable year for the trophy case in Munich. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Still, the rest of Germany's teams will not be pushovers this season. Bremen looked good yesterday and with talented players such as Frings, Tim Borowski, Patrick Owomoyela (helluva name for a German), and Miroslav Klose, they're my pick to give Bayern a run for their Euros. Plus, their uniforms are outrageous. Another team whose unis were clearly designed using only a box of highlighters is Borussia Dortmund. Not only do they have the best stadium in the league (Westfalenstadion, home to that classic Germany-Italy match), but they also have a team that can do some damage this year. Dortmund will be hard pressed to overcome the losses of Czech stars Tomas Rosicky (Wenger has plucked another one of the world's best young studs - Rosicky is a gem) and Jan Koller, but all is not lost in the Ruhr Valley: Sebastian Kehl, David Odonkor, and Christian Metzelder are all national team players who give Dortmund's fans cause for optimism, as does new signing, Paraguayan striker Nelson Haedo Valdez. However, they will have a tough time getting the better of their regional rivals, Schalke 04, who have German national team members like Gerald Asamoah and Kevin Kuranyi (more absurd German names) to go with South American stars Lincoln, Gustavo Varela, and Dario Rodriguez. Elsewhere, Hamburg have improved with the acquisition of the aforementioned Guerrero to go with their northern European contingent of Dutch playmaker Rafael Van der Vaart, hardman Khalid Bouhlarouz, and new Belgian defender Vincent Kompany. On the down side, their uniforms suck. A team that should battle all-year with Hamburg for one of the automatic Champions League spots is Bayer Leverkusen. They've got one excellent Brazilian defender (Juan) to play alongside a crappy Brazilian defender (Roque Junior), two Mannschaft stallwarts in Bernd Schneider and Carsten Ramelow (now those are German names), and a good signing in Sergej Barbarez to replace the departed Dmitar Berbatov. Plus, their keeper is named Butt and takes the team's penalties - what more could you ask for? One team that will disappoint this year is Stuttgart; after their success in 2002, the team has faded and I, for one, don't expect the Mexican influx of Pavel Pardo and Ricardo Osorio to change that.

In a recent interview, former Bayern defender Bixente Lizarazu (that's a Basque name, as long as we're on the topic) was asked to comment on the state of German footie. Lizarazu's answer was so simple, but it illuminated exactly why the Bundesliga deserves more respect: "The Bundesliga and German fans don't get anywhere near the credit they deserve. You decide to play for a German club and people ask you, 'Germany? Why not Spain, Italy, England...?' Because the level of football in Germany is excellent. And because it has, without doubt, the best stadiums in Europe today." Lizarazu, in a brief remark, has summed up why the Bundesliga has now become a more appealing league than even Italy's Serie A: fantastic fans, amazing stadiums (er, stadia?), a major club closely challenged by about six or seven quality teams, and some of the best football talent from all over the world. I never would have said it a few years ago, but there's a lot to like about Germany today. And what could be better than the title-winning team gathering in the town plaza to drink ginormous beers with their fans? So here's hoping that, come May of this year, we won't be stuck watching Oli Kahn pound a pony keg in Munich...

1. Bayern Munich (Again - but hey, what club has had better unis over the past ten years?)
2. Werder Bremen (Kappa = most underrated uni designer in the world)
3. Hamburg
4. Bayer Leverkusen
5. Borussia Dortmund (You think they miss Rosicky now? Just wait two years until Rosicky is one of the best playmakers in the world)
6. Schalke 04
7. Wolfsburg (Kevin Hofland is one of the best young defenders around)
8. Stuttgart
9. Hertha Berlin
10. Borussia Monchengladbach (On the strength of Kasey Keller's goalkeeping)