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Germany: Midweek Bundesliga Preview [Tue Sep 20th, 2005]
The first midweek programme of this season’s Bundesliga sees champions Bayern Munich looking to extend their record-breaking winning run.
Spieltag. 6 Preview
Who can stop Bayern? Five wins out of five this season have followed hot on the heels of nine consecutive victories at the tail end of last term.
On Saturday. Martin Demichelis’s goal was enough to beat Hannover at the Allianz Arena and break the club's existing record of 13 straight wins. Now, the Rekordmeister are at the Waldstadion to face an Eintracht Frankfurt side that stole a late point in Hamburg on Saturday thanks to Cha Du-Ri.
Michael Ballack is still out with injury but Oliver Kahn – who collided with a post at the weekend – is set to start. While FCB aren’t exactly firing on all cylinders, they should manage to extend their winning run just a little longer.
In all, there are four games today, with the remaining five games of the round held over for a further 24 hours. On the same night as the Bavarians go in search of win number 15, Werder Bremen look to maintain the chase at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Bremen were 3-2 winners over Borussia Dortmund at the Weserstadion on Saturday, and have Johan Micoud bang in form. Gladbach lost poorly at Köln and will do well to raise a cheer here.
Dortmund should bounce back at the Westfalenstadion with a win over Arminia Bielefeld, while Hannover, disappointing on Saturday, should do enough to take something from the visit of Wolfsburg to the Niedersachsenstadion.
On Wednesday, Rudi Völler, caretaker coach of Bayer Leverkusen, will hope to make it two wins out of two since taking charge after the sacking of Klaus Augenthaler. Köln have been strong at home but suspect on their travels and could find the BayArena an uncomfortable place if the home fans lend the popular Rudi their support.
Sunday’s 3-1 win at Duisburg lifted their spirits, but Lukas Podolski was in fine fettle during his side’s win over Gladbach the previous day. An intriguing clash awaits.
Another fascinating encounter takes place at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion where VfB Stuttgart, fresh from their first win of the season at Mainz, play host to a Hamburger SV side that have hit something of a wall in recent games. Still unbeaten, HSV could only draw with FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Cup on Thursday and squandered a late lead against Frankfurt on Saturday.
A break from the AOL Arena might do them some good, but Swabia is not really the ideal place to visit when looking to return to winning ways. Jon Dahl Tomasson is in scoring form and the monkey seems to have gone from Giovanni Trapattoni’s back. Thomas Doll may be kept waiting for that elusive win.
As for Mainz, well Jürgen Klopp has his work cut out to keep the club in the top flight. Heartbreak on Saturday is followed by a trip to Kaiserslautern, who are playing well enough to keep their heads above water. Michael Henke is doing quietly effective work at the Betzenberg, but will be expected to see off the visitors in this south-western derby.
Hertha BSC have got into the habit of beating teams they are expected to at the Olympiastadion under Falko Götz, and should punch their weight to maintain that record against an MSV Duisburg that seem to be in free-fall.
In Wednesday’s final game, Wolfgang Wolf’s Nürnberg could prove difficult opposition for out-of-form Schalke at the Frankenstadion. Draws aren’t enough to catch Bayern, and the pressure is beginning to mount on Ralf Rangnick.
Brian O'Driscoll
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