<>作者:Rothose
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<>The Bundesliga season 03/04 is over. In this thread, i will name my tops & flops of the season, looking at the teams, players, coaches ..
Lets start with the teams :
<B>Teams - tops </B>
<B>1. Werder Bremen</B>
This choice is pretty obvious. Werder was by far the best team of the campaign. The team is very well balanced from the defence through the midfield up to the strikers. And the calm city Bremen, far away from the media hype surrounding the teams in the bigger cities, is the ideal place for younger players to develop into stars. And Werder's season isn't over yet, they are awaiting Aachen in the german cup final next saturday...
<B>2. VfL Bochum</B>
With the 3:1 win over Hannover, Bochum secured themselves a spot in the UEFA-Cup for the next season by snatching away the 5th place from Dortmund. Every season has 1 or 2 big surprise teams, Bochum is one of them this year. Coach Neururer built a very good team which plays nice attacking football, it was often a pleasure to watch this team. By finishing ahead of local giants Dortmund and Schalke, Bochum can call themselves 'Ruhrgebiet Meister'.
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<>Unfortunately, Bochum has to pay the price all the small teams have to pay when they begin to shine : they will lose some of their best players to bigger teams. Topscorer Hashemian ( 16 goals..) will join Bayern in the next seaosn, right winger Paul Freier is close to a move to Leverkusen and central defender Frank Fahrenhorst will join Bundesliga champions Werder Bremen. Though Bochum already announced some good reinforcements for the next season, it will be very difficult to repeat their actual success.
<B>3. Bayer Leverkusen </B>
Last year, Leverkusen avoided relegation on the last day of the season. But this season under new coach Augenthaler, Bayer Leverkusen again played the attractive attacking football they were famous of in the years before. Without the slump directly after the winterbreak, when Leverkusen lost 5 out of 6 matches, they even would have been able to fight for the championship. Though they are a bit lucky to finish 3rd ( Bremen was partying their championship too much, they seemingly forgot that they still had to play 2 matches in the league and handed Leverkusen an easy 6:2 away win last saturday.....), Leverkusen deserves this place overall.
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<>The next season will be difficult, because Leverkusen will lose Lucio and the Bayer company seemingly doesn't want to invest big money into the team anymore. So it's very important that Leverkusen qualifies for the champions league, but this should be possible, even without Lucio.
<B>4. VfB Stuttgart</B>
Stuttgart had a good season overall, though they were very unlucky to lose the 3rd place to Leverkusen on the last day of the championship. Stuttgart produced some exiting new young players in the last couple of years, the latest name to mention is Philip Lahm. On the other hand, their future now doesn't seem to look so bright anymore. Stuttgart still is in debt, the champions league would have been a good medicine to their still existing financial problems. Without the CL, Stuttgart may be forced to sell their defender Bordon already in the summer to Schalke 04 ( the player signed a contract with Schalke for 2005 ...). It will be very difficult to find a proper replacement for Bordon. In addition to that, coach Felix Magath will join Bayern Muenchen in the summer, it will be interesting to see who will replace him.
<B>5. Hansa Rostock</B>
Rostock was always one of the first teams to be mentioned when talking about the relegation candidates at the begin of the season. But Hansa proved all the journalists wrong which saw them in Bundesliga 2. They had a very bad start into the season, but after they fired their coach and replaced him with Hansa assistant coach Schluenz, everything went fine. Hansa never got into relegation trouble, played some fine matches against bigger teams, esp. at home, produced the best german goalscorer of the season ( Martin Max, 20 goals...) and finished the season on pos. 9. Well done, Hansa !</P>
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<><B>Teams - flops </B>
<B>1. Hertha BSC Berlin </B>
It was a very difficult question which team to mention as the No.1 flop of the season. First i wanted to go for Bayern, but they finished on pos. 2 and can call themselves vice-champion at least. So i decided to go for Hertha.
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<>Hertha's aim for the season was to qualify for the champions league, some writers in the football magazines already saw them as a championship contender. But everything Hertha could celebrate this season was their stay in Bundesliga 1, which was assured last saturday when they drew 1:1 at 1860 munich. Their desastrous season was a result of too high expectations into the team and a general manager Dieter Hoeness ( younger brother of Bayerns Uli Hoeness ) overestimating the team and his own capabilities. Coach Stevens never fitted to Hertha and esp. to the city Berlin. His replacement Meyer did a good job in rescueing Hertha but will not continue his coaching job, new coach for the next season will be former Hertha scout and youth coach Falko Goetz who was already coaching Hertha for a couple of games back in 2002 when he took over after Juergen Roeber was fired. Overall, Hertha still has a good team and should be placed in the upper half of the table in the next season.
<B>2. Bayern Muenchen</B>
Bayern intended to defend their title, to win the german cup and to stay in the CL as long as possible. At the end of the season, they are walking away with empty hands without a single title. Overall, they played poor football and were never able to meet their own potential. This was the reason why the Bayern management decided to replace coach Hitzfeld by Magath. But many players in the Bayern squad are mourning the loss of their beloved coach and are threating to leave the team ( e.g. Sagnol, Ballack ). The next season will be a difficult one for Bayern for sure.
<B>3. 1860 Muenchen</B>
1860 ended the season in a complete desaster by relegating into Bundesliga 2. This was all a result of the 'visions' of megalomaniac ex-president Wildmoser who was planning to build a team which can contend for the UEFA-cup qualification. Wildmoser was the one and only leader at 1860, he had everything under his control. When he was sent to jail because he and his son, managing director at 1860, were involved into a bribe scandal concerning the new munich stadium, everything fell apart in the club. The new leaders reminded me more of comedians than of businessmen who are able to lead a football club.
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<>The relegation of 1860 can be very costly for Bayern, too : Both clubs are financing and owning 50 % of the new stadium in Munich, if 1860 stays in Bundesliga 2 for a longer period of time, the whole stadium financing may crash because 1860 will not be able to pay back the credits for the stadium due the much lower TV money and attendance in Bundesliga 2.
<B>4. Borussia Dortmund</B>
Loads of injured players, failed to qualify for the CL, big financial troubles and missing the UEFA-Cup qualification on the last day of the campaign - the 03/04 season was a complete desaster for the 2002 champs. Due their desastrous financial situation, Dortmund will be forced to sell their biggest stars like Dede, Frings, Rosicky and Koller. The next season will mark a new beginning for Borussia Dortmund, it will be very interesting to see what the new Dortmund team can do in 04/05.
<B>5. VfL Wolfsburg</B>
'Money does not score goals' - this proverb is often mentioned by fans in Germany esp. when talking about teams owned and supported by big companies like Bayer Leverkusen or Wolfsburg ( owned by Volkswagen). Well, Wolfsburg scored a lot of goals, but they conceded even more . Wolfburg's spent big money in front of the season ( only Bayern splashed out more ! ) , D'Alessandro was one of the biggest signings of all Bundesliga teams, their aim was to reach the UEFA-Cup but they totally failed by ending the season on the 10'th place. It was pretty obvious that there are many great individuals in the team, but these individuals didn't fit together overall and weren't able to build a unity. As a result, coach Juergen Roeber, the 'architect' of the team which should reach the CL in 2007, was fired a few weeks ago and replaced by Erik Gerets. Due the worldwide economic crisis, the Volkswagen company wants to cut their invests into the team, so Gerets will not be able to spend millions into new players like his predecessor. Nevertheless, if Gerets is able to form the individuals into a real team, Wolfsburg will enjoy a better season next year since the team still is loaded with lots of talent.</P>
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