I'm probably going to the friendly between Union Berlin and Celtic 12th of July. Should be fun, right?
Bundesliga 13/14
- Thread starter Balu
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
They are a second league team, no idea how good they will be this season but they have pretty cool fans as far as I can tell, they pretty much helped build their stadium with their own hands.
Gomez is gone to Fiorentina for €20m (16 now, 4 over the next years). Rummenigge confirmed the deal on Bayern's website, contract will be signed the next days. Probably means, new Lewandowski rumours coming soon 
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."Heno" is currently undergoing a medical ahead of his move to Dortmund.
It's official now. Good business for Dortmund
Iirc Gomez is now Bayern's second biggest sell by a mile (3rd is Podolski with €10m I believe), that's pretty insane imo (in a good way :> ).
Rummenigge said Lewandowski will be at Bayern "in 2014". Pep says Pizarro and Mandzukic are enough as he has 8 attacking midfielders, plenty of whom can play as a false 9.Gomez is gone to Fiorentina for €20m (16 now, 4 over the next years). Rummenigge confirmed the deal on Bayern's website, contract will be signed the next days. Probably means, new Lewandowski rumours coming soon
With Gomez gone for half of his former price to a team that doesn't even play CL, and Villa gone for 5 mio (I know he's 31, but this is a price tag usually assigned to Norwegian defenders or Romanian midfielders...) are strikers gong out of fashion?
I wouldn't say that strikers go out of fashion but that a certain type of striker is. The classical central forward whose only contribution to the game is scoring goals is definitely less wanted these days, especially in teams that have quality players all over the field.
But there are other striker types that are still very much wanted, like Lewandwoski for example. A big striker that can physically hold his ground against defenders but is not a brute oaf you lump balls to but an intelligent player that can pass as well as he can finish, that leads the line in attack and defense and is far more than just a good finisher.
I always saw Drogba at his height as the perfect prototype of this kind of striker, even though he probably fell over a bit too easy for my taste, he had it all. A physical beast of a player who could was fairly fast for his size, could shoot, could pass, was strong in the air and on the ground and had an eye for his team mates as well as an eye for goal.
The change in the style of forward being wanted by most teams has a lot to do with formations these days being almost entirely one striker formations and the increased importance of the attacking midfielders to contribute goals as well.
RvP is another great example of such a striker, while being physically less imposing than some of his counter parts he is still a great all round player that can setup goals just as easy as he can score them himself, he is also not shy of putting in a tackling high up the pitch to win the ball back and with the increased importance of goo pressing in today's game this has become another requirement for a striker, to be the first defender and hassle opponents so that they lose the ball or make a bad pass that can be intercepted.
The pure goal scoring machines like Gomez that are highly reliant on good service from other players and don't offer much else to the game but their good goal instinct and finishing abilities are slowly but surely running out of fashion in most leagues.
Just look at the type of striker that replaced Gomez for Bayern, it was Mandzukic who is by no means a better finisher than Gomez but works so hard in defense as that it's practically impossible for opponents to have a calm build up game from the back, he was a large part of the reason why Pirlo never found his game against Bayern.
Konami stealing from the Bayern faithful - or paying their respect?
or paying their respect?
Just wait for Cavani's transfer to become official.
New Borussia Dortmund signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has wasted no time impressing his new employers after he was timed sprinting at a speed faster than Usain Bolt.
The 24-year-old ran 30 metres in 3.7 seconds while at Dortmund's pre-season training camp in Bad Ragaz in Switzerland - almost 0.1 seconds faster than the iconic Olympian in his record-breaking 100m run in Berlin in 2009.
Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc was left stunned by the former Saint-Etienne striker's achievement, telling Bild: "Pierre is surely one of the fastest players who has ever played here."
Legendary coach Otto Pfister, who has known Aubameyang throughout his career, has warned the Bundesliga to be wary of the Gabon international's threat next season.
"Aubameyang will be fatal to the Bundesliga - but only to his opponents," he added. "I've never seen a player so explosive as he."
The 24-year-old ran 30 metres in 3.7 seconds while at Dortmund's pre-season training camp in Bad Ragaz in Switzerland - almost 0.1 seconds faster than the iconic Olympian in his record-breaking 100m run in Berlin in 2009.
Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc was left stunned by the former Saint-Etienne striker's achievement, telling Bild: "Pierre is surely one of the fastest players who has ever played here."
Legendary coach Otto Pfister, who has known Aubameyang throughout his career, has warned the Bundesliga to be wary of the Gabon international's threat next season.
"Aubameyang will be fatal to the Bundesliga - but only to his opponents," he added. "I've never seen a player so explosive as he."
Odonkor might have something to say about that.
Odonkor wasn't really a footballer though
Odonkor wasn't really a footballer though
True. How he ever made it into the national team is beyond me.
Heno & Aubameyang with fine starts to their Dortmund career - two assist and a goal in two games for Mchitarjan.
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Masterstroke by Klinsmann for the WC 2006 to include Odonkor.
Dortmund later sold him for €8.5m to Betis Sevilla.
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Masterstroke by Klinsmann for the WC 2006 to include Odonkor.
Dortmund later sold him for €8.5m to Betis Sevilla.
Klinsmann trying to do everything a bit differently, then, taking influences from other sports
. He also tried to hire a field hockey coach as tactical advisor, but was blocked.Germans consider themselves lucky he only found a sprinter and not a weightlifter.
He wanted him to become director of football, the job Sammer got. I don't think that would have been a problem. Peters is actually a really smart guy with lots of knowledge about youth sports, how to structure academies and things like that. We got lucky with Sammer, who was of course the better choice, but that doesn't mean Peters would have been a mistake.Klinsmann trying to do everything a bit differently, then, taking influences from other sports
Germans consider themselves lucky he only found a sprinter and not a weightlifter.
There are actually quite a few things Klinsmann did really well with the nationalteam and with Bayern, he broke up old structures and brought a new mentality in. He really shouldn't be a coach though.
Thiago is starting his first game right now. Bayern play Hamburg at the Telekom-Cup, a mini tournament between 4 Bundesliga teams with 2 games over 60minutes this weekend. Gladbach won the first semi final 1-0 vs Dortmund with a last minute penalty.
One of the journalists asked Guardiola about the formation, because they couldn't make sense out of the list of players, so Pep wrote them down in the following way:
-------------Mandzukic
----------Pizarro
-----Shaqiri - Ribery - Kroos
-------------Thiago
Alaba - van Buyten - Boateng - Lahm
-------------Starke
Very weird formation. Will be interesting how it looks on the pitch.
One of the journalists asked Guardiola about the formation, because they couldn't make sense out of the list of players, so Pep wrote them down in the following way:
-------------Mandzukic
----------Pizarro
-----Shaqiri - Ribery - Kroos
-------------Thiago
Alaba - van Buyten - Boateng - Lahm
-------------Starke
Very weird formation. Will be interesting how it looks on the pitch.
Watched a bit of that game, Thiago was excellent. Awesome pass to Ribéry for Mandzukic' goal.
That's a lovely goal all around, brilliant pass from Thiago then a lovely touch from Ribery (who surely has to be in the top 3 for the ballon D'or).
That really was a great goal.
Also interesting that Ribery is playing in the center now but that might change of course, considering that Pep said after the game that he is still testing out players in different positions.
Also interesting that Ribery is playing in the center now but that might change of course, considering that Pep said after the game that he is still testing out players in different positions.
Great goal, really impressed by Ribery's composure there. Made it look easy but it really wasn't
Many goals at Gladbach-Bayern. See and listen to what Heynckes, Vogts, Beckenbauer and Hoeneß had to say:
erm... sorry, wrong clip.
9 goals, 8 different scorers.
Bit scary, even if it was a fun tournament.
erm... sorry, wrong clip.
9 goals, 8 different scorers.
Bit scary, even if it was a fun tournament.
The scary thing is, most of the players already look like they improved individually. Everyone looks much more confident on the ball, tries more difficult passes, there's even more brilliant movement without the ball and the opponent can't focus on a single player because everyone is capable of creating and scoring. If the team works as hard and with as much determination as they did last season, next season will be brilliant to watch.
Even if it's just a pre-season tournament it's really amazing to see the goal scoring potential in this team which makes them so damn hard to defend against and under Pep they look even more variable than last year.
To be honest I'm a bit afraid that this Bundeslig season will pretty much look like last season in terms of Bayern dominance.
Sure Dortmund has somewhat kept their quality at the same level as last season but imo have failed to get the desired depth into their team in that department they just can't compete with Bayern.
The same pretty much goes for all the other teams in the league that will compete for a top 4 finish.
To be honest I'm a bit afraid that this Bundeslig season will pretty much look like last season in terms of Bayern dominance.
Sure Dortmund has somewhat kept their quality at the same level as last season but imo have failed to get the desired depth into their team in that department they just can't compete with Bayern.
The same pretty much goes for all the other teams in the league that will compete for a top 4 finish.
That'll either be a hand time (which are usually .25 seconds out) or using electronic gates that time from first movement (a saving of up to a half second).
Might be the case that it's stopped by hand but I don't think it's out of the questions that he is faster on the first 30 meters where Bolt never seems to that super fast. I don't have an exact time split but I always had the feeling that he is the fastest on the second 50 meters where other runners usually seem to be at top speed already he looks like he can shift into another gear and get away from the other runners.
Yes, it's out of the question that he is faster on the first 30 meters. I don't believe that for a second.
Bolt's reaction time is what makes him start "slower", but by the 30m mark he has completely offset that, in fact, as you can see in this table, from his record run, he has offsetted that by the 20m mark already. His acceleration is top notch.
Bolt's reaction time is what makes him start "slower", but by the 30m mark he has completely offset that, in fact, as you can see in this table, from his record run, he has offsetted that by the 20m mark already. His acceleration is top notch.
Interesting time table and I have to say I quite underestimated his acceleration a bit.
Non the less 3,7 on 30 meters, even if hand stopped, isn't too shitty for a footballer but of course his acceleration is of little use if he can't make smart runs.
Non the less 3,7 on 30 meters, even if hand stopped, isn't too shitty for a footballer but of course his acceleration is of little use if he can't make smart runs.
Well yes it's in the final 50m where his long legs and top speed hammer home the advantage and any hope the likes of Gay and Powell had of competing with him in Beijing, Berlin and London disappears when he is already ahead at 30m.
Pretty surprised that there isn't more news or build up about the game today, Dortmund v bayern in the DFB super cup, starts in around 4 hours. Looking forward to it, basically the first competitive game of the season, replay of the champions league final last season.
I can't wait for it! Looking forward to seeing Bayern under Pep
Sahin starting behind Lewa for BVB.
Bayern lining up 4231 with Thiago and Kroos in the middle.
Bayern lining up 4231 with Thiago and Kroos in the middle.
Schweinsteiger on the bench for Bayern. Sign of things to come?
ESPN line ups there saying the coach was Jupp Heynckes. 
Watch Thiago put in a MOTM performance.
Watch Thiago put in a MOTM performance.
Supposedly not completely fit.
Possibly, but that doesn't tell us anything. He is recovering from injury and hasn't had much of a pre season from what I hear.
Sahin plays as CM as usual, Gündogan in the AM tonight.
Yeah. The line-up I saw showed Sahin behind the striker.
Goal - Rues scores. What a blunder by the keeper.