Wednesday 12 December 2012

12.12.2012 Quickies

Considering today's date is 12-12-12 regardless of preference for the British or American date format, here's a special set of quick musings for the month. Think pesky foreign managers in England and overlooked aspects of European competition.

Thursday 6 December 2012

Pick of the month: November

Each month, The Football Neutral will pick an article from the previous month worthy of being highlighted and revisited. It may be that the article is topical or that the issue merits greater discussion in football. The Football Neutral is not one for rehashing article's crafted elsewhere, it is better to allocate credit and kudos where it belongs. Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and all that jazz. November's pick of the month comes from Siddharth Mohan of The Hard Tackle on the perceived team of the moment, Borussia Dortmund.

Dortmund are truly relevant once more on the biggest stage domestically and on the continent in a manner not seen since the mid 1990s under Ottmar Hitzfeld. Jürgen Klopp's Dortmund could repeat history. After all, Dortmund won the Bundesliga twice in succession and tasted Champions League success in the in the season following the retention of Dortmund's league title. Klopp's Dortmund have also won two domestic league titles in a row and have qualified, undefeated, for the knock-out stages from a group containing the champions of Spain, England and the Netherlands...in the season following the retention of Dortmund's league title.

Can Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund Echo Hitzfeld’s Champions League Success?

Tuesday 4 December 2012

German football's inconsistent dinosaur



So there's a bit of a love-in with the Bundesliga at the moment, which is nice when you ignore hooligans, extremists and all. Borussia Dortmund has been propelled to European relevance and domestic success by general manager Hans-Joachim Watzke and trainer Jürgen Klopp. Nice. The club that exists to dominate all domestically and dine at Europe's top table, FC Bayern München, seems imperious once again with a mightily impressive squad. Behemoth. Schalke are proving to be a decent Champions League side too. Depth. Yet the interesting story is at Hamburger SV, Germany's oldest professional football club in its 125th year of existence under the guidance of head coach Thorsten Fink.