We were promised the excitement of two creative teams, forward-moving and hungry for three points. And for a short while it looked like that might be delivered,though the wrong squad (from this blog’s perspective) started the pressure at HSH-Nordbank Arena. We soon managed to start closing down the HSV options, missed what would have been a game-changing opening goal, and settled in for an evening of defence. What few openings did arise ended in a tangle of legs and a whistle. In lieu of goals, tackles of dubious merit took centre stage. By the time everyone got to go home, Vidal (always Vidal,) Barnetta and Kießling had picked up yellow cards on our side; Guy Demel was the only- but not only deserving- to make the books for Hamburg.

The final 10 minutes very nearly made the match as a flurry of action erupted, triggered by Hamburg’s near-success on goal. Our best chances came with minutes of regular time left to be played. First Rolfes had an 81st-minute header pass just over the Hamburg crossbar. Moments later, Sami Hyypiä saw his attempt cleared by Frank Rost, and finally Kießling had an unsuccessful go before the action changed sides and Hamburg were treated to a two-minute- long minute of added time.

Defensively we were iron-clad today. Hyypiä was outstanding, repeatedly breaking the hearts of Hamburg supporters as they saw run after run burst against the unconquerable Finn like gnats on windshield.

There’s no way anyone could criticise what we did to disrupt HSV’s game. One would have expected, though, that we would have been the squad dominating attack while the chaps without their star strikers would have had to relegate themselves to defensive tactics. Jupp Heynckes says the match went much as he anticipated, and attributed the overall low energy to fatigue from last week’s Internationals.

Aside from the three yellows we’ll carry over to Dortmund’s visit to BayArena next week, there are also new doubts about Renato Augusto as the calf injury he was recently nursed back from was aggravated again during today’s meet. His play today looked somewhat reserved to me, and he might have benefited from missing this particular tie altogether rather than run unnecessary risks. But it’s too late for that now.

Before moving on to the Victory Beard, it’s worth mentioning that I strongly dislike David Jarolim. He comes off as something as a petty hood. The sort who, in high school, would have spent his lunch breaks stuffing the smaller students into their lockers and his Friday nights drinking in the park, slashing tires and then retiring his bedroom to listen to bad Speed Metal while sniffing his fingers and thinking about which teachers he’d beat up if only he could get himself bitten by a radioactive spider. Ah, these little men and their big chests….

Matchday Nine. Still undefeated but no better positioned on the SVB/HSV roundabout than we were before we started. While neither side will turn their noses up at making off with a point, neither can be happy to have let the gap narrow to two points between first/second and third place. Nonetheless, let’s wipe today from the records and reveal another small piece of Glory. Surely next week will be a far more exciting affair.

-Bruno Labbadia

I’m sorry, what was that? Which year would you be talking about BL? August through December of 2008? Because from what I recall, the bottom half of the 08/09 season was not good and should have been enough to spoil the contract year for you. And if the results on the table weren’t enough, losing the confidence of the squad by spring thaw ought to have put a damper on things. C’mon, Bruno. Fess up. Your time at- and suspect departure from- Leverkusen is not, as you say, “water under the bridge.” Not unless you’re standing on a rainbow bridge overlooking unicorns and lollipops and dwarves making balloon animals for beautiful women too naïve to judge you.

Labbadia would like us all to believe that tomorrow’s clash between Hamburg and Leverkusen comes without any animosity between himself and the club. I don’t speak for them, but from a supporter’s perspective I’m sure I’m not alone in saying there is an unfulfilled grudge-match to be held between the Werkself and anyone Bruno Labbadia happens to be coaching. In this case, we get the added bonus of having it play out against our partners-on-points at the top of the table. That latter reason alone would make the trip to Hamburg one no footy fan would want to miss. The fact that we’re taking on last year’s failed coach upgrades the match to Doozy status. Let’s recap the facts as they exist in my own head (which sometimes differs from how they exist everywhere else.)

Michael Skibbe was unceremoniously run out of Leverkusen after the Werkself dropped to 7th place on the final, crucial matchday of the 07/08 Bundesliga season. I didn’t loathe Skibbe and didn’t blame him entirely for things having gone afoul.

Heralded in as his replacement, Bruno Labbadia: the coach who never says die. His flowing locks and jazzy, pitch-side garb looked sharp for the cameras and, for five months, so did the team he was nurturing. Then came the Rückrunde and our temporary move to Düsseldorf for home matches.

It started as something of a joke. “Oh, will we never win at LTU? Ha-ha!”

Soon it was “The curse of LTU.”

Eventually people noticed it wasn’t just the venue there was a problem with. Our matches against top clubs or Pokal opponents were going swimmingly but more often than not we looked confounded on the pitch. Out of sync. Easily discouraged. Unable to score. There were murmurings. The players had met to air their concerns. They didn’t have faith in what their coach was telling them to do.

Management assured us that Bruno was our guy and wasn’t going anywhere, even if we didn’t finish in Europe. And when we missed out on Europe through League achievement, finishing worse than we had under Skibbe, we were assured Bruno was going nowhere even if we lost the Pokal final.

Meanwhile, Martin Jol was packing his bags; high-tailing it from Hamburg to better-paying pastures. Hamburg was without a coach.

We lose to Werder Bremen in the Pokal final.

“We are still convinced that Bruno is the right trainer for us.” says management.

Labbadia, however, says it’s difficult to talk about the future. Things at Leverkusen need to be changed. Oh, and also, how about you guys let me out of my contract?

Word comes that Hamburg are talking to Labbadia. There’s an exchange of funds and Bruno is on a North-bound train.

Things happen so fast in football, don’t they?

Or was the ball moving before we plebes watching from the outside caught a glimpse?

Is it not possible that Bruno had made up his mind to walk away from the squad ready to see him go even before he travelled to Berlin on May 31, 2009, and that all he needed to do was somehow get out of that contract he was legally bound to see out through 2010? Could it be that I am suggesting to you- openly and without a shred of actual, incidental or anecdotal evidence; safe from claims of libel only because I hereby state that this is all conjecture and written (maybe) without me even believing it myself, (possibly) just for entertainment purposes- that Bruno Labbadia went to the Pokal final intending to do whatever he could to lead the Werkself to a loss?

Yes. That’s precisely what I’m suggesting. And now he must pay.

Oh, there is indeed water under that bridge, Bruno. And it’s cold and murky and deep and it stinks of schemes and wretched things. And if the Bundesliga gods are Just and Right then come tomorrow’s final whistle, Bruno, you will be flailing in those waters. Your pleas as useless as the flimsy limbs of your sidelined strikers. And even then, my friend, we will still only be but one match closer to done with you.

Wow. I’m gonna be some kinda pissed if we lose this one.

The city I’m living in is a mosaic of nationalities, ex-pats and those whose hearts reside in the land of their forebears. On a day like today, when key qualifying matches were being played around the world, it’s easy to find a makeshift “headquarters” where one can join the revelry or despair of supporters of virtually any nation. My mid-day was spent in a Bavarian restaurant, where I watched Germany seal their passage to next summer’s World Cup. By the time I was back home, the noise, noise, noise of honking horns had already started from the over-celebratory Italy supporters, mercifully petering out before it became farcical. Horns for a draw against Ireland? C’mon, guys. Show some restraint.

As early evening rolled around, I was back out to meet a friend at a pub frequented by the city’s South Americans. The main draw was Chile, but other screens were showing the Argentina/Peru tie, Maradona looking very much like Manuel Noriega’s grieving aunt, not an Argentine in the bar, one sagging lump of a man peppering the Chile chants with his own high-pitched Pe-Pe! Ru-Ru! Peru!

“Guess how old I am!” he urged me during half-time.

“Seventy-five,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “I am.”

The man looked like apple sauce come to life. I thought I was being polite when I guessed 75. I kind of expected he’d come back with “I’ll be 300 next week!”

The colours were mostly Chilean. A handful of Colombian kits. A pair of Uruguayans on mobiles trying to get the updates the screens weren’t providing. And me, still in the DFB’s latest stylings.

“Germany!” People said to me. “Your keeper is amazing. What’s his name? Who does he play for?” And I got to feel proud on two fronts, national and club- although I soon modified “He plays for Leverkusen- same as Vidal,” to the more compact “He plays for Leverkusen,” after Arturo sloppily opened the scoring for the wrong team.

It was a lucky match, today, for the Mannschaft. We didn’t dominate by a long shot, but when the shots came at us, Rene Adler was about as good a man as anyone could want to have standing between the attackers and the back of the net.

“Pressure there, pressure here: These are exactly the sort of matches you work hard for and why you put in hours of training each day,” Adler had said before the trip to Moscow. But nary a hint of concern crossed his face through 90 minutes. He looked calm, ready and confident, even when he was left to go one-on-one with Russia’s best- something that might have happened more often if it weren’t for Simon Rolfes, who kept the much-lauded Andrei Arshavin in check for the better part of the match. Pressure came, but it was artfully dispatched and there’s nothing I can tell you about that here that you probably haven’t already read- or seen- for yourself.

In just a year’s time, since he first stepped between the posts for the Mannschaft, Rene has more than proven his capabilities and developed into a solid, reliable ‘keeper. It has become brilliantly clear that he is precisely the sort of ‘keeper Ollie Kahn recently said Germany didn’t have: Weltklasse. So what do you think? Can we give the man more than the sick-leave confidence he’s been afforded until now and hand him his number one on a long-term basis? Show of hands? Excell- oh…. sorry. There in the back- Wiese…. You had something to add? No? Excellent! Looking forward to South Africa.

The Nürnberg side showed from the outset that they were desperate to keep Leverkusen from finding the back of their net. Too desperate. And it was that desperation that made for the sort of defending that put them down 1-0 on a perfect free-kick from Toni Kroos with just 2 minutes on the clock. The Werkself kept possession easily from that point, with a brief showing of fight from the visitors that was soon knocked out of them. Kroos, looking to double his successes for the day, was brought down in the box at 28 minutes, and our captain handily converted the penalty. It was right then that the skies darkened over Nürnberg. Barely through to halftime and if it wasn’t yet clear to that they were doomed, a third goal for Leverkusen, selflessly handed to Derdiyok by Kießling in the 34th, definitely sealed that prognosis. When a battered Judt was helped off the pitch by the Nürnberg medicos, the dread was such that it looked as though they might be taking him to the locker-room to put him down.

After the break, Leverkusen toned down their forward assault somewhat but didn’t play strictly defensive footy. They’d already proven the pitch was theirs, but still made opportunity for themselves up front and Kießling put the screws to his former club at the 68th minute. Next weekend, he’ll have plenty of time to carve that notch in his Bundesliga belt while less successful strikers play the World Cup qualifier against Russia. Adler, who’ll be wearing the NT Number 1 jersey, should be well rested for that clash after having what was essentially a day off today.

With a 4-goal lead, Jupp Heynckes was secure enough in the day’s achievements to let some of the Werkself Irregulars stretch their legs, swapping on Gekas, Reinartz and Sinkiewicz for Derdiyok, Barnetta and Friedrich, respectively. Gekas twice missed our fifth (or would that be once missed our fifth, then missed what would have been our sixth?) but this match was in the books and Bayer 04 was back in leadership position on the Bundesliga table. On Sunday, Hamburg will have to wholly have their way with Hertha to leapfrog us again. Hertha haven’t been putting up much of a fight in the Bundesliga this year, but who knows what tomorrow holds? Our part, however, is done. Matchday eight gets wiped off the Victory Beard and now we sit back and watch how the others make out.

We did not face a footballing juggernaut today. There are considerably tougher challenges ahead, and no doubt a few surprises, but an eight-match unbeaten streak is the best season start in club history and the stuff (if I’m not mistaken, which often I am when dealing with stats) of our Champs League years. Of our almost Deutsche Meister years. Sure; it’s much too early to speak on how the season will end. Even the squad and coaching staff are hesitant to start talking with bravado. But the tempo, the control, the sheer dominance of our squad today made the case for Leverkusen’s rightful place at the top of the table and spoke a warning to Hamburg- our next opponents and table-topping dance partner:

Hold back the edges of your gowns, ladies. The Werkself are coming for you.

Oh, and another thing. Screw you, Bayern München. Can’t you eke out a win- or even a damn draw- when I need you to?

So how was your Saturday? Over at this end of the keyboard, the few minutes of the Rhine Derby I managed to see contained what I’ve since read were the only truly exciting moments of the match: Two glorious saves from Adler in rapid succession and a class goal by Rolfes just as the official limbered up his lungs for the blowing of the final whistle, letting us keep our cleated boots firmly on the throat of the Billy-Goats and allowing us to go three points clear at the top of the table for about two hours.

Of course, this win was more important than being able to call ourselves league leaders. It was about shaking off the disappointment of being bounced out of the Pokal in the second round and proving we can stay focused even when the plan doesn’t go off as intended. And it was also about Köln losing to us once again.

As far as rivalries go, there was no shortage of that today. An altercation between Adler and Köln midfielder Maniche earned them each a yellow card. Maniche complained that Gonzalo Castro had called him a bad name (Oh, the humanity!) but whether or not that’s what prompted Maniche to use Vidal’s babymaker as a footstool toward the end of the match wasn’t specified. Whatever the reason, the Portuguese International earned himself a red card and won’t be there when Lukas Podolski leads his bedraggled band over to his former haunting grounds next weekend.

Lukas called today’s loss a “step backward.” Welcome to Köln, Poldi. City of regret.

That Köln’s two-match “winning streak” had to be brought to a halt by Leverkusen must’ve made the sting of their loss even worse, and there were most certainly some glasses raised for that very reason in the beerhalls back home.

Jupp Heynckes said he was pleased with the squad’s perseverance today, although the word on the ‘net is that the match was far from exciting, with our side keeping to the defensive style of play that seems to be this season’s MO. As a Leverkusen supporter, I can’t be unhappy with a win, but a bit more activity up front would be purty to look at, too. In my mind it doesn’t bode well for us that we leave Köln, whose good form of late might just as easily be a fluke, with only a single goal for our efforts.

Here’s the Victory Beard, matchday seven cleared off:

Next up, the Werkself face a struggling Nürnberg side before taking things to Hamburg, where we might finally be able to do something about the carousel we’ve been on with HSV for the past few weeks.