Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fussball
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There are some benefits to being in a time zone that translates to a match starting at 9:30 in the morning. One of those benefits is that, after the final whistle has gone, there remains an entire day for digesting what has happened, and what it really means. On a day like today, when what needed digesting was something rubbery, grizzled and possibly pickled in urine, the amount of waking hours still left to make it through have not cast events in a light much brighter than the one that fell across the scoreboard at Allianz Arena, where a great, big “5” thrust its boorish chest out toward an embarrassed and crestfallen “1.” Read the rest of this entry »
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It’s difficult to know for certain what Michael Ballack’s main objective was at BayArena this weekend. Perhaps there was nothing more to it than the desire to show he can still shape a match, play hard and bring good things to his club while foiling the plans of the opposing club. In itself, not an ignoble intent.
Still, one cannot help but think Ballack was out to deliver something more Read the rest of this entry »
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Although the feel-good hit of the season took 22 matchdays to reach, The Werkself delivered, at Frankfurt’s expense, a sound distraction from last week’s Nürnberg debacle.
With some help from FC Kaiserslautern and a stumped Dortmund side, the gap between the latter club and ourselves has been narrowed to just 10 points.
Elsewhere on the ‘net, match recaps have already been handled earlier and with greater skill than I’m capable of, so instead I invite you to curl up with the three-point warmth of our win and spend a moment considering these:
01. There is no argument that, against Frankfurt, we looked like a squad that could take ownership of a match. The passing was fluid, possession held with relative ease and goal chances sprang eternal. Post-match, Jupp Heynckes said the first half was the best footy he’d seen us play this season. That’s open to debate, especially when you factor in that our opponents seemed quite happy to capitulate to our every whim. Yes. We played a solid match. But when you’re the only lady in the bar, it’s not hard to be the prettiest.
There were still signs of the 70th Minute Snooze we seem to have grown fond of this season, and a handful of missed scoring opportunities which we would have seriously regretted against a club more interested in fighting for a win.
02. Simon Rolfes makes everyone feel good.
It took the captain less than nine minutes to open the scoring, and his role for the week was not done with that. Rolfes was on top of the game and proved an important factor both offensively and defensively. A captain’s armband has never been so deservedly worn.
03. “Arturo is in dazzling form.” So says Rudi Völler, and anyone who’d argue against that is clearly not watching the same Arturo Vidal. Omnipresent on the
pitch, even if he does end up laying on it a bit more than I’d like to see. If Leverkusen were making a goulash of good things, Vidal would be required to stir it. With his foot.
04. Michael Skibbe always looks sad.
Every time the camera panned to him he looked void of ideas, as though he had absolutely no clue what could be done to change the course of the slaughter unfolding on the pitch in front of him.
When a Frankfurt supporter held up a sign suggesting Skibbe should follow Mubarak to Isle of Ousted Leaders, I was reminded of Skibbe’s lonesome walk from the Bayer 04 offices a couple of years ago, chipped coffee mug and chewed Werkself pen set in a cardboard box. I don’t believe Skibbe is the problem, but I do believe he thinks the problem cannot be anything else, and brooding failure is not the cornerstone of anything resembling success.
05. Bild will say just about anything, regardless of how stupid it makes them sound.
“Without Ballack, things go better.”
The confusion many of us felt at hearing that Ballack would be starting on the bench against Frankfurt has since been explained, clad in the machinations of an MRI.
Germany’s NT Captain certainly didn’t look happy to be sitting out the match yesterday, and spent a fair amount of the 90 minutes warming up in the hopes he’d be subbed on.
While the others spent Sunday training, Ballack was having his knee looked at by medical professionals. Nothing serious, thankfully, but Bild’s input was an absurd and unfounded contribution, especially if you look back a couple of weeks to when the same paper was all but attributing our wins against Mönchengladbach and Hannover to Ballack’s return.
06. We’re not the only ones who drop valuable points.
Despite failing to capitalize on the mis-steps of other clubs, we are not alone. This week saw Dortmund forced to settle for a point. Hannover met the same fate in Bremen, and Mainz somehow let themselves be over-run by FC Köln. That’s right. Köln!
The result is that two of our heel-nippers on the table have slid back a little. We’re now four points ahead of Hannover: five ahead of Mainz. Unfortunately, FC Bayern have squeezed their evil claws into the third-place position, and we’re exactly one match’s worth of points ahead of them.
07. As you digest the previous point, here’s some dessert: Mainz and Bayern will play one another next week. The week after that, Bayern play Dortmund, and the week after that they play Hannover. During the same period, we will be facing, in order, Stuttgart, Bremen and Wolfsburg.
Of the current top-five clubs, we’ve only two left to face (Mainz and Bayern). Bayern has to make their way through all the other four, while Dortmund, Hannover and Mainz each have to face three of the other four. Our neighbourhood will be undergoing some changes, and the majority of those changes will happen without any direct involvement from us. Any points dropped are going to cost more than their just face value, and there will be scant opportunity to earn them back.
08. Europa League play resumes this week.
Although we have a comparatively easy set of opponents over the next few weeks in the Bundesliga, we’ll also be playing the next two consecutive Thursdays against Ukraine club, FC Metalist Kharkiv. I suspect these will be hard-fought matches and we must be careful not to let our European achievements cost us too much, domestically. I base this claim on absolutely nothing, but what claim is genuinely based on anything else?
09. My apologies. I am aware that it has been too long since I last updated this blog, and my heart is heavy with shame. Don’t look at me like that. I said I was sorry.
10. There is no tenth point. Its dinner time and I must go prepare some.
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The best offence, as it turns out, is an attacking defence.
In stark contrast to last week’s debacle in virtually every position, some alterations to the starting 11 garnered solid results against the Foals and planted the Werkself back in second place on the table. Of the three goals scored by Leverkusen, though, none were delivered by the usual suspects.
Having returned to a lone-striker formation, Jupp Heynckes opted to start Kießling up front- a suitable reward for the hunger he showed against Dortmund. Sami Hyypiä was back in the starting squad, while Manuel Friedrich sat this one out thanks to a one-match ban. Michael Kadlec also returned, and Gonzalo Castro found himself pushed up to the midfield. Also factoring in from the outset, Arturo Vidal.
Between the three of them, we had all the goals we needed: Kadlec delivering the first from a free kick, Vidal crossing to find Castro just outside the ‘Gladbach goal, and a third, again from Castro on a counterattack after an unnerving flurry of activity that very nearly brought the hosts even.
The Foals managed a single goal, courtesy of Martin Stranzl, but what a goal it was.
The match helped to force Michael Ballack’s return, a topic hotly discussed in the preceding days and a decision Jupp Heynckes had been hesitant to make. When Sidney Sam came off injured after, from what I could see, was a slap in the face, Heynckes had his hand forced and the German National Team Captain strode out to prove what we’d all suspected: he was quite ready to bring his A-game.
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There are any number of ways I’d rather be starting off this week-end than writing about the results of today’s match at BayArena.
Being robbed at knife-point, for example.
Such was the devastation I and, likely, all Leverkusen supporters felt after the 5-and-a-half minute total collapse of our defense that allowed Dortmund to seize three goals and an apparent stranglehold on the league title. Read the rest of this entry »
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A drop from second place, compensated for with a fairly pedestrian win over Rosenborg Trondheim to assure ourselves a place in the next round of the Europa Cup. Vidal’s contract ironed out with Colo-Colo to guarantee we’ll have the Chilean’s much-appreciated services through 2014. Rene Adler out of the Europa Cup match with back pain, but looking to return for Sunday’s Bundesliga Derby with Köln. All these things have come to pass and all I have offered you is silence. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Bavarians started strong.
So strong, in fact, that Schweinsteiger scored the first goal within two minutes. That Schweinsteiger was wrongly ruled offside was quite a boon for Leverkusen and a rare bit of bad luck for Bayern.
That won’t win the guests any sympathy pity in this particular corner of the Internet, but odds are it will be heavily discussed over at Luke’s FC Bayern Offside page.
It took about a quarter-hour or so for the Werkself to come into the match and start ever so cautiously turning the tables at BayArena. That we didn’t manage to complete that turn has more to do with an unnecessary amount of respect being afforded our guests this week-end. Read the rest of this entry »
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There haven’t been many opportunities for Bayer 04 Leverkusen to play St. Pauli at Millerntor-Stadion, but the handful we did have ended badly. The closest we came to a Bundesliga win against their first club was in the 01/02 season, when we managed a 2:2 draw. Keeping one’s concentration against a horde of revellers waving Jolly Roger flags clearly was something the Werkself had a problem doing. But this ain’t your dad’s Werkself, and on the current Bayer 04 checklist, there’s now a tick in the “Win at Millerntor” box. Read the rest of this entry »
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It’s not easy to stay miffed with Bayer 04. After a Europa League performance against Aris that Rudi Völler described as “just bad,” which we managed to take three points from thanks to a lot of luck and a last-minute goal from Arturo Vidal, the Werkself promised to pick things up.
An earlier-than-expected return of Renato Augusto to the starting 11 hinted to greater achievement. Simon Rolfes was set for a full 90 minutes. No sloppiness would be tolerated, and, from the outset of this one, a complete turnaround looked to be on the squad’s agenda. Even an early lead by the Red Devils wasn’t enough to stymie that plan. Read the rest of this entry »
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The majority of media coverage following this weekend’s match between Schalke and Leverkusen will focus on the problems the Royal Blues have been facing- and continue to face- this season. However, I am the sort who prefers to focus on the positive side of things.
In this case, the positive side of Schalke’s loss is that Leverkusen won. Read the rest of this entry »
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