Euro Bites: Bundesliga

A round-up of Bundesliga news ahead of the start of the new season as the DFB cup throws up some upsets.

A DECENT EMBARRASSMENT FOR HOFFENHEIM

1899 Hoffenheim is expected to play a decent role in the upcoming Bundesliga season. However, their first competitive appearance this year, the first round of the DFB national cup competition, had nothing decent about it. The former village club, sponsored by SAP-founder Dietmar Hopp, lost 2-0 to second tier TSV 1860 Munich on Saturday night. Not even the substitution of former national player Kevin Kuranyi in the 62nd minute could bring a decisive turnaround to the poor performance from Hoffenheim. TSV, the traditional rivals of Bayern Munich, has been paralysed by a power struggle for months with a Jordanian investor reportedly trying to hinder Felix Magath in becoming TSV´s new general manager. The current squad was only reinforced by three nameless players - yet proved to be good enough to beat a decent Bundesliga club.

A SURPRISING EMBARRASSMENT FOR INGLOSTADT

Ingolstadt FC seemed to make everything right. The recent promotion into the big league was celebrated as a sensation, and the down-to-earth-club (yet well-sponsored by Ingolstadt’s power source Audi) is a serious candidate for being around for a while in the Bundesliga. Yet they failed to dominate fourth division Unterhaching, who won the DFB Cup tie 2-1. In addition, the club in Munich’s suburb was the starting point for the managerial career of Ingolstadt’s Ralph Hasenhüttl, whose 48th birthday was completely spoiled by the loss on Sunday. Unterhaching is a club without a serious sponsor and who just recently dropped out of professional football after decades of being a celebrated underdog. The second round of the cup, which assures around €250.000 will almost double Unterhaching’s current budget.

A THIRD EMBARRASSMENT FOR HAMBURGER SV

Hamburger SV is the only founding member of the Bundesliga to have played all 53 seasons in the Upper House. The club has earned a reputation of being an “immortal dinosaur”. In two consecutive relegation showdowns against second league teams, HSV had been nothing but outrageously lucky. That luck, however, seems to be gone now. Hamburg lost its DFB cup game to the fourth league club CZ Jena 3-2, despite the fact that Bruno Labbadia’s team scored in the 94th minute to take the game into extra-time. Labbadia heavily criticised the attitude of his players afterwards. HSV will start the new Bundesliga season with an opening game against champions Bayern Munich on Friday. No good luck expected there either.

MARIO GÖTZE’S GOT ISSUES

Mario Götze scored quite an important goal on Sunday when fifth league Nöttingen FC hosted Bayern Munich. After the clear underdog surprisingly equalised Munich’s early lead, the World Cup final hero gave his answer just one minute later. The rather boring game ended in a slightly underwhelming 3-1 win for Munich. Although the 23-year-old scored 15 goals in 48 games last season, his future in Munich remains uncertain - even more so with the celebrated arrivals of Arturo Vidal and Douglas Costa raising the competition in Munich’s midfield. Götze and manager Pep Guardiola are said to not get along too well – and the Germany star is believed to have two options now: leaving for England or Spain, or staying another year and hoping that Jürgen Klopp, his beloved former Borussia Dortmund manager, will take over for Guardiola.

SHOTS FIRED AT HERTHA BERLIN COACH

A yet unknown motorcycle rider fired a shot into the front window of the Hertha BSC Berlin team bus on Sunday. Nobody was injured. The driver was on his way to pick up the players from Bielefeld station in the late afternoon, where the Bundesliga squad will play their first round national cup game on Monday night. The bullet came straight at the driver’s face but was stuck in the window. After calling the police, the driver picked up the team from the station. The hotel where the team is staying was patrolled by police overnight.

A CARING NURSE

If you found a whole stack of a football club`s top secret documents, what would you do? The nurse of a retirement home actually called the club and said she had found a backpack that belongs to Peter Knäbel, general manager of Hamburger SV, including payroll information for players and management staff as well as Knäbel’s credit cards. If you were the person at the football club picking up the phone, what would you do? Right, you would not believe her. And that´s exactly what happened. The nurse insisted, however, and things finally resolved when Knäbel returned from a trip. HSV can be grateful the data did not go public. Also undisclosed is the fact whether the nurse received some finder´s reward.