2014/15 Bundesliga Thread

[cheevers]

With the season schedule released today I decided to see if we had enough interest for a Bundesliga only thread. So feel free to drop in, have a glühwein, bratwurst and put on your favourite pair of Lederhosen.

Fanatics and those looking to find out more are all welcome.

Season kicks off August 22nd with Munich hosting Wolfsburg.

Teams in the Bundesliga this year:

FC Augsburg

Bayer Leverkusen

FC Bayern München

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Eintracht Frankfurt

1. FC Köln

1. FSV Mainz 05

Hamburger SV

Hannover 96

Hertha BSC

SC Freiburg

SC Paderborn 07

FC Schalke 04

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

VfB Stuttgart

VfL Wolfsburg

SV Werder Bremen

[cheevers]

To summarize last season:
-Bayern strolled to the title
-Dortmund got hurt a lot, still finished 2nd
-Munich, Dortmund and Schalke all qualified automatically for the Champions League with Leverkusen having to qualify in.
-Wolfsburg, Möchengladbach and Mainz all qualified for the Europa league
-Braunschweig were relegated to no ones surprise, although they put up a good fight. Nuremberg fired 3 managers (trainers) and were also relegated. Hamburger were awful all year, awful in the playoff against the 2.Bundesliga club, but still managed to hang on to there top flight status. Sadly this means their stupid clock continues.
-Top scorers were Lewandowski (Dortmund) with 20, Mandzukic with 18 and Drmic (Nuremberg) with 17

Most titles:
Bayern Munich 23
Borussia Möchengladbach 5
Borussia Dortmund 5
Werder Bremen 4
Hamburger SV 3
VfB Stuttgart 3

[cheevers]

Major transfers so far:

Augsburg IN: Marcus Feulner (Nuremberg) OUT: André Hahn (Mönchengladbach), Ji Dong-won (Dortmund)

Bayer Leverkusen IN: Tin Jed### (Roma) Josip Drmic (Nuremberg), Wendell (Londrina), Dario Kresic (Mainz) OUT: Emre Can (Liverpool), Sidney Sam (Schalke)

Bayern Munich IN: Robert Lewandowski (Dortmund), Sebastian Rode (Frankfurt) OUT: None

Borussia Dortmund IN: Ciro Immobile (Torino), Nuri Sahin (Real Madrid), Adrián Ramos (Hertha), Ji Dong-won (Augsburg) OUT: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern)

Borussia Möchengladbach IN: André Hahn (Augsburg), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim), Yann Sommer (Basel), Ibrahima Traoré (Stuttgart) OUT: Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona)

Eintracht Frankfurt IN: Aleksander Ignjovski (Bremen), Timothy Chandler (Nuremberg) OUT: Joselu (Hoffenheim), Sebastian Rode (Bayern)

FC Köln IN: Tomáš Kalas (loan Chelsea) OUT: Kevin Mckenna (retired)

FSV Mainz IN: None OUT: Dario Krešić (Leverkusen)

Hamburger SV IN: Johan Djourou (Arsenal) OUT: Pierre-Michel Lasogga (Hertha)

Hannover 96 IN: Joselu (Hoffenheim) OUT: None

Hertha BSC IN: Valentin Stocker (Basel), John Heitinga (Fulham) OUT: Adrián Ramos (Dortmund)

SC Freiburg IN: None OUT: Oliver Baumann (Hoffenheim)

SC Paderborn 07 IN: None OUT: None

FC Schalke 04 IN: Sidney Sam (Leverkusen) OUT: None

TSG Hoffenheim IN: Oliver Baumann (Mainz) OUT: Fabian Johnson (Borussia Möchengladbach), Stefan Thesker (Hannover), Joselu (Hannover)

VfB Stuttgart IN: Florian Klein (Salzburg) OUT: Ibrahima Traoré (Borussia Möchengladbach)

VfL Wolfsburg IN:Sebastian Jung (Frankfurt), Aaron Hunt (Bremen) OUT: None

SV Werder Bremen IN: Santiago Garcia (Palermo), Álex Gálvez (Rayo Vallencano) OUT: Aaron Hunt (Wolfsburg), Aleksandar Ignjovski (Frankfurt)

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Bayern signed Spanish under-21 player Juan Bernat today. Starting to load up on some youth again

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Bernat

[nik-]

Originally Posted by cheevers

To summarize last season:
-Bayern strolled to the title
-Dortmund got hurt a lot, still finished 2nd
-Munich, Dortmund and Schalke all qualified automatically for the Champions League with Leverkusen having to qualify in.
-Wolfsburg, Möchengladbach and Mainz all qualified for the Europa league
-Braunschweig were relegated to no ones surprise, although they put up a good fight. Nuremberg fired 3 managers (trainers) and were also relegated. Hamburger were awful all year, awful in the playoff against the 2.Bundesliga club, but still managed to hang on to there top flight status. Sadly this means their stupid clock continues.
-Top scorers were Lewandowski (Dortmund) with 20, Mandzukic with 18 and Drmic (Nuremberg) with 17

Most titles:
Bayern Munich 23
Borussia Möchengladbach 5
Borussia Dortmund 5
Werder Bremen 4
Hamburger SV 3
VfB Stuttgart 3

Looks like La Liga ... if La Liga only had one of Barcelona or Real.

[polak]

Bayern landing Lewandowski is ridiculous.

[cheevers]

Yeah it really is a shame, teams seem to only be able to compete for a few seasons with Bayern before the inevitable drop off, be it Dortmund now or Leverkusen, Schalke and Bremen in the past.

If you are looking for a team to support check out this website for a fun chart. A few years old but still good.
http://soccerlens.com/files/2012/02/...-flowchart.jpg

Also if watching the games is not enough check out the excellent Talking Fußball podcast. Really well done show by a few english guys. You can listen either on the website http://talkingfussball.com or by downloading episodes on iTunes. I highly recommend it.

On another note, I don't know if people are interested but I can add usernames beside the team symbols on the first post if people are wanting to see allegiances. Let me know.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by nik-

Looks like La Liga ... if La Liga only had one of Barcelona or Real.

Part of it stems from a practical application of economics.

Most of the Spanish teams are either broke or so close to as makes no difference, with the exceptions of Real and Barca who arent broke but are heavily in debt.

Most English teams are bankrolled by foreign billionaires who dont care about losses and never would have if FIFA didnt implement Financial Fair Play.

[nik-]

Yeah, I get the reasons. It must be terrible to cheer for a team you know is likely never going to win.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by nik-

Yeah, I get the reasons. It must be terrible to cheer for a team you know is likely never going to win.

I hear that a lot, but crazy things happen in sports. Maybe they wont win the league, but they might qualify for a European spot or win a side tournament or even get bought by a Russian billionaire.

[nik-]

Yeah, crazy things happen in sports. But a system with no playoffs is pretty insanely tilted in favour of teams who can afford the most talent.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by nik-

Yeah, crazy things happen in sports. But a system with no playoffs is pretty insanely tilted in favour of teams who can afford the most talent.

No argument there, but thats hardly unique to the Bundesliga.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Locke

No argument there, but thats hardly unique to the Bundesliga.

No, for sure. It's all the leagues. The list of EPL winners is comedy, same with La Liga. Serie A is pretty much a three team league too.

[Howie_16]

Big Hamburg SV fan here. How can anyone not love a team called Hamburger anyway?

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Sounds like Kroos to Real Madrid is a done deal. Too bad, I will miss him in a Bayern shirt

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Kroos to Real Madrid is done.

[troutman]

How come Frankfurt and Koln are never competitive? Those are big, wealthy markets.

[cam_wmh]

Didn't see it mentioned (month old news), but Dortmund signed their replacement for Lewandoski, Ciro Immobile from Torino.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27676398

[Locke]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Didn't see it mentioned (month old news), but Dortmund signed their replacement for Lewandoski, Ciro Immobile from Torino.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27676398

Thats a good signing. Hes not the same class as Lewandowski, but he might find a good fit at Dortmund.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by nik-

Yeah, crazy things happen in sports. But a system with no playoffs is pretty insanely tilted in favour of teams who can afford the most talent.

How would having playoffs change anything in La Liga or even the BPL? Could a Stoke or Everton beat the Big 4 over multiple rounds? Would Deportivo get past both Barca and Real?