Die Bundesliga (R) Ruhr valley derby comments

OK so most Bundesliga teams spend less on players than the Coca cola league teams (or whatever the 2nd div in England is called) Charlton probably spends more than most of the big teams in the Bundesliga and yes you always hear about match fixing scandals and if you are a Shalke fan you might be a little justified in thinking that, but i still like the Bundesliga, it is the highest scoring league and the players are good even if they are not household names like in the EPL. It is not as good as what it was in the late 70's or early 80's but you can still stand up in the end zones, you can still drink beer in the stands and you can still take a discount train to the games ( at least you could the last time I was there?) I got to watch two games over here in Kanada on the iceberg -which was really wet this weekend thanks to the after shock of Hurricane Ike, close to 100mm of rain which meant no fishing on the weekend though we did manage our old timers game on Friday night in what felt like a Sauna- got to see the Ruhr valley derby and a game which I oddly enough had never seen in Germany before- the 1972 European cup final between USSR and West Germany.

Der 4. Spieltag
Frankfurt - KSC -:- (-:-)
HSV - Leverkusen 3:2 (1:2)
Hoffenheim - Stuttgart 0:0 (0:0)
Köln - FC Bayern 0:3 (0:0)
Hertha - Wolfsburg 2:2 (0:1)
Bremen - Cottbus 3:0 (0:0)
Dortmund - Schalke 04 3:3 (0:2)
Hannover - Gladbach 5:1 (2:0)
Bochum - Bielefeld 2:0 (2:0)

Dortmund 3 Schalke 3

Schalke went ahead 3-0 by the 60th min. Westermann looked as if he was playing as a Striker, Kuranyi was working hard even if he is not a goal scorer and you would assume the game is over? But this is the Bundeliga and a Ruhr Derby, the game is never over until the final whistle. After 60 minutes the game came apart for Schalke with two red cards and an "english refereeing decision" for a late penalty. ( english referees tend to think that whenever the ball touches your arm or anything close by that it is a penalty, even if you drive it as hard as you can at the defenders arm and their is no possible way he could move no matter how hard he tries, they do make up for that though by usually giving you at least 3 yellow cards before showing you red). Outside of the refereeing, the big change came from Alex Frei, the Swiss striker who was injured in Switzerland's first game at the EC 2008, not sure if the Swiss would of gone through if he had played but he is a striker up there with Dortmund's old Swiss striker star S.Chapiusat. two goals from Frei, the first being a beautifully struck left footed shot outside the area the second a penalty taken with the right foot. He also set up the first Dortmund goal with a nice cross.
You can see why Schalke lost to Atletico Madrid so badly as well, the creative midfielder is red card recipient Fabian Ernst a player who had some how manged to play for the mannschaft about 20 times. Come to think of it Schalke have a bunch of non talented players who managed to play for the national team somehow? G. Assamoah was on the team and probably played about 30 times? Jermaine Jones is on the fringe even though he is not good enough to play for the USA, Christian Pander has played a couple of times and I think even scored against England in a friendly last year? And Keven Kuranyi who has manged to get back on the team through hard work and determination are all internationals!??!!?!? To be fair Pander is young and has a ferocious shot and is probably the reason Westermann is playing an almost attacking midfielder spot and not in the back. This may not be the Dortmund of ten years ago when they were World champions but they still can give a good performance and refereeing or not a great comeback.

West Germany v USSR 1972 final in Belguim 3-0

Possibly the best german team of all time? Beckenbauer, Netzer, Muller, Maier, J. Heynkes and a young Paul Breitner are some of the players that were on this team. I had to get out the Bitburger for the game even at the high prices we pay in Kanada for beer, c'mon over 2 dollars a can! Oh and if you are at a pub you are looking at over 6 dollars or over 4 Euros or 3 pounds ! Even at the beer store or liquor store ( Kandians are not allowed to buy beer in Supermarkets except for Quebec)you pay almost 40 dollars for 24 bottles (330ml) of the local swill!! At the Billa or the Spar I used to get a bottle for 30 cents! Anyhow the marijuana is good ( or so i am told, heaven forbid i would dare try it!) and you can buy a house for a couple of dollars or a fur pelt. The Russians had a good team as well and it was interesting that many of the players were from Georgia and the Ukraine. The back pass rule was odd to see after so many years of it being outlawed but the style of play has not really evolved that much. Netzer loved to send those long passes across midfield Beckenbauer was moving in to the attack seamlessly and no one was afraid to shoot from any distance, the 3-0 margin was maybe a bit flattering to the Germans but they still deserved to win.