SoccerNews - Continental Tires

SoccerNews
Issue # 1, 3rd June 2016
Continental/Division Tires
Alexander Bahlmann
Head of Communications &
Public Relations PLT
Buettnerstraße 25 | 30165 Hannover
Phone: +49 511 938 2615
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.contisoccerworld.de
Soccer News # 1/2016 2
News
mels in the dressing rooms of the time-honoured Olympic Stadium, while party noises
could be heard in the background from
the Bayern rooms. Hummels’s last shift for
black-yellow ended early in the 78th minute,
with the groggy 27-year-old sitting on the
bench for a further 60 minutes wearing a sad
expression. “I had cramps on and off again.
You then can’t play on that level”, said the
defender, who had announced his move to
Bayern Munich on May 10. His conclusion of
the unsuccessful day: “Shit!“
The Winners
Wept for Joy
The match won’t go down in
history as a classic, but the
emotional output following the
Cup final made the encounter
between FC Bayern Munich and
Borussia Dortmund ultimately
something very special. It was
world champion Mats Hummels’s last match for the BVB,
and Bayern’s farewell to coach
Pep Guardiola. But much more
happened in Berlin.
The atmosphere at the Olympic Stadium
was once again fantastic, with the German
Wembley shaking. However, breathtaking goal
scenes and brilliant play remained a rarity during the 120 goalless, but passionate minutes.
The penalty shoot-out proved the highlight
of this still exciting fourth final encounter between the best two German teams. With a 4-3
success Bayern won the DFB Cup for the 18th
time, and thus the double after achieving the
2016 championship title.
Tackling Thomas Mueller pushed Mats Hummels over the edge. Shortly afterwards the Dortmund captain
had to be substituted. Photo: Imago
When Brazilian Douglas Costa netted the
decisive shot, Munich’s rejoicing was limitless,
while in Dortmund’s group Hummels and
Tuchel particularly struggled to accept defeat.
Tears were also flowing with the winning side.
Guardiola, who has left the Bavarians after
three years and seven titles to join Manchester City, cried without restraint.
Naked emotions: sad Hummels, sobbing
Guardiola
“I am unbelievably sad today”, said Mats Hum-
It was even more emotional in the Munich
dressing room. After his last match with Bayern, Pep Guardiola cried incessantly, much
to the amazement of his team. “Previously
he had to execute his job, now he can be human”, Thomas Mueller said. The coach, who
previously didn’t like to be celebrated, ran
to the fan corner together with the players
and celebrated with the supporters. Pep flew
upwards as the players tossed the Spaniard
in the air several times. The coach was as
happy as a child, dancing, singing and crying.
Captain Philipp Lahm spontaneously added a
nice touch during the Cup award ceremony.
He called up the coach, and the team cheered
Guardiola on as he finally agreed to hold the
“Pott” with Lahm. But then Lahm backed off,
Pep Guardiola stood alone at the forefront on
the podium and kissed the golden Cup in a
shower of confetti, cheered on by the team.
Guardiola: “Many thanks Germany!”
The Catalan achieved seven titles with the
Bavarians: three national championships, two
DFB Cup titles, the World Club Championship and the UEFA Super Cup. The dream of
Soccer News # 1/2016 3
winning the Champions League did not quite
come true; under his direction the Bavarians
were eliminated by Spanish teams in the
semi-final on three occasions. Guardiola received a worthy farewell on the big occasion
of the DFB Cup final, something not necessarily expected after his decision to leave the
club. “I shall miss my players”, he disclosed,
deeply moved. The following day the 45-yearold even made a speech in front of thousands
of fans in Munich’s Marien Square: “It was an
unbelievably good time. On behalf of my family I say many thanks Germany! Particularly to
Munich and its people“.
No wonder Dortmund’s mood was less jubilant. But in Berlin the losers always celebrate,
with the previously organised winning party
turned into a seasonal conclusion party. The
2015-16 season certainly wasn’t a disappointing one for the Westphalians, but ended frustratingly on a national level. After losing 4-3 to
Liverpool in the Europa League, Dortmund
became the best runners-up in the long Bundesliga history – behind Bayern. Dortmund finished second in the DFB Cup – behind Bayern.
And Dortmund lose their captain Hummels – to
Bayern. “It was an incredibly good time”, said
a deeply moved Hummels in a speech during
the party at Kreuzberg. “I shall miss all the
guys very much. Definitely”. He will earn the
club a transfer sum of 35 million Euros.
had a go at the leaving captain. Asked about
Hummels’ performance in the final, Tuchel
said shortly: “He can play better”. Tuchel gave
the impression he didn’t approve of the defender’s substitution. Hummels wanted to be
replaced “because he was exhausted”. The
BVB coach roasted his key players as well as
himself.
The second and third takers, Lars Bender and
Sokratis, missed for Dortmund in the penalty
shoot-out, prompting an early indication of
the final result. Tuchel regretted their nomination after the match. He queried that the key
players had not volunteered during his search
for takers. Only with the second whistle of referee
Marco Fritz, pushing for the start of the shootout, had it been possible to persuade Sokratis
and Bender. It then became his mistake to put
them second and third.
Pep Guardiola, who said farewell after three years with Bayern, cries deeply moved after the Cup triumph.
The coach is leaning against Jerome Boateng. Photo: Imago
On the night the Bavarians also achieved
the “triple“, by winning the party title. It was a
stormy affair at the club restaurant The Grand;
celebrations were wild and rompish, marking
Championship, Cup and Arturo Vidal’s birthday. A highlight came with Thomas Mueller
and David Alaba belting out the suitable song
for the occasion together with the Austrian
band Seiler & Speer – “Last night was a heavy
one for me.” A drying out period was necessary after the heavy weekend as many of the
players had to join their national teams.
Tuchel criticised key players because they
didn’t want to take penalties
That didn’t interest coach Thomas Tuchel
much on this for him also a bitter evening.
He failed to win his first title as a professional
coach, reacted contritely and bad-temperedly
Mats Hummels, honoured as a loser at the Berlin final, leaves the podium sadly. After eight and a half years with
Dortmund he moves to FC Bayern. Photo: Imago
Soccer News # 1/2016 4
on Sunday (May 29, 17.45hrs) will be fiercely
competitive. For on May 31, Loew must cut his
number to 23 players for participation at the
European Championship and hand the list to
the European Football Association (UEFA). Consequently Loew must decide on the four field
players who will be discarded. The last test for
the final European Championship squad against
Hungary will take place at Gelsenkirchen at
18.00hrs on June 4.
The hotel Giardino at Ascona. Foto: Getty Images
News
Countdown to the European
Championships for the World Cup
champions
The top hotel on Lago Maggiore, located in the
southern-most part of Switzerland and the Italian-speaking zone covering the entire canton of
Ticino, will be reached by a 40 km bus journey.
Some of the older German internationals and
many staff of the German Football Association
(DFB) know the location very well. For the “Giardino” was the base for the DFB team at the
2008 European Championship and the starting
point for the participation in the final in Vienna.
The practice pitch is new, however, now nearer
to the team hotel thus avoiding driving through
an 8 km tunnel to Tenero. After arrival, practice
has been scheduled at Stadio Comunale, the
small site of FC Ascona, in the evening.
National coach Joachim Loew has nominated
27 players, among them 14 of the World Cup
squad who won Germany’s fourth World title
two years ago. The training sessions and the
international test against Slovakia in Augsburg
“We are strong but not invincible”
“A joint start of the preparations for a tournament has always been our ideal vision”, Loew
explained. “But this situation only came about
through Bayern’s regrettable elimination in the
Champions League semi-finals”. Only Lukas
Podolski, who still has to play the Turkish Cup
final with Galatasaray Istanbul, and Toni Kroos,
Champions League finalist with Real Madrid,
need to join the team later. Mario Goetze suffered a broken rib the day before the Cup final
between FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund.
But Loew is quite confident that the scorer of
the winning goal in the World Cup final will be
quickly fit again – thanks mainly to the excellent
treatment by the DFB’s medical department.
The physicians and physiotherapists will also
have to take intensive care of captain Bastian
Schweinsteiger, as Manchester United’s midfielder was recently forced to break for several
weeks due to injury.
“We are strong but not invincible”, said Loew
when he presented his tentative squad at the
French Embassy in Berlin. The national coach
surprised by nominating three young debutants. But calling up Julian Brandt (Leverkusen),
Julian Weigl (Dortmund) and Joshua Kimmich
(Bayern Munich) goes with his philosophy of
specific support for young talents. He did not
follow the recommendations of naming a few
players who attracted particular attention by
their strong performances in the final phase of
the season, such as Moenchengladbach’s Andre
Hahn. Besides Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski
is another deserving veteran in the squad. It will
be the fourth European Championship participation for both the former Munich and Cologne
players.
Loew dismissed critics who nagged that “Poldi”
was no longer good enough for the national
team. The national coach stressed that the
offensive player enjoyed a good season in Istanbul and points out that Podolski plays an important role in the team’s social structure. Loew also
remained faithful to the flagging world cham-
New faces in the German national team: goalkeeper
Bernd Leno (above right), Julian Brandt (above left),
Joshua Kimmich (below right) and Julian Weigl.
Photo: Getty Images
Bastian Schweinsteiger (left) and Lukas Podolski
Photo: Getty Images
pions Andre Schuerrle and Julian Draxler. But
Christoph Kramer, the high flyer of two years
ago who showed only average performances
with Leverkusen, fell by the wayside. Compared
to the 2014 World Cup, Loew executed an alternate generation among the goalkeepers. Manuel
Neuer remains the number one, of course, but
behind him Bernd Leno replaces Ron-Robert
Zieler and Barcelona’s Marc-Andre ter Stegen
supersedes Roman Weidenfeller.
Loew and his assistant Thomas Schneider have
contrived the training schedules meticulously;
the organisation under the direction of team
manager Oliver Bierhoff and Georg Behlau will
hopefully run as perfectly as most recently at
the World Cup. Top rank preparation of the players for the major tournaments after a hard and
long season is a specialty of the DFB. “We know
that there is still some work to do in order to
play at a top level in France”, Loew said after the
tests against England (2-3) and Italy (4-1) at Easter. The German U20 juniors will be the sparring
partners for the A team in Ascona for several
days. The squad will leave the Giardino on June
3, will take two days off after the international
friendly against Hungary at Gelsenkirchen, before moving into the European Championship
base camp at Evian on Lake Geneva.
Soccer News # 1/2016 5
ALLEZ BOOM!
Yawn, Sigh, Grumble…
What have cup-winners Bayern Munich got
to do with the Duckburg Dynamos? Why do
the Bundesliga champions ride to the title on
broomsticks? Our author knows the answers.
By Freddy Boom
Boy, oh boy, am I shattered. Completely shattered. A Cup Final
that went on all night, at the end of a seemingly never-ending
season … head drooping, eyelids propped open with matchsticks, tired digits tapping out tiresome digits. As you can see,
fellow Knights of the Round Ball Game, I’m running out of steam
and I have to resort to wistful word-play involving digits. Dig it?
What I really need..is...is...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz............... Intermission.
Do not adjust your set. Normal service will be resumed as soon
as possible. …………............................ Dum-dee-dum, cue Mozart’s 40th
on a xylophone, irritating elevator music…………...............................................
30 minutes later
By Jove, readers, I needed that. A quick forty winks – or powernap, as it’s known internationally by men (and women) of the
world. The European Championship is looming, you’ll need all
the stamina you can get. You don’t want to be cracking open
that magnum bottle of energy drink just to get through the
opening game. Anyway, now the little grey cells have been
reset, the cranial cavity’s contents carefully washed, waxed
and polished to perfection, it’s time for you fans of the PDF
download to prick up your ears. Because here comes a quick
run-down of the entire 2015-16 Bundesliga season and DFB
Cup action. In the trade, this is known as Karma Cleansing – not
to be confused with the 1997 album of the same name by the
The champions of Germany wear blue – or at least the Quidditch players do. Rheinos Bonn in action on their broomsticks. Photo: Volker Lannert
gone-and-thankfully-forgotten Canadian hard rock band Harem
Scarem who, again, should not be confused with the eponymous Scottish folk combo whose work included such gems as
“Let Them Eat Fishcake” … But I digress. Anyway, here it is, in the
right order this time:
1.) Cup: Since the media, who always seem to be as late as a
Nobby Stiles tackle when it comes to keeping up with events,
have spent every minute since the weekend claiming that FC
Bayern Munich was the most important team in this season’s
DFB Cup competition, I feel duty bound to interrupt with a cry
of “Non, mesdames et messieurs!” and rally to the cause of a
little club called Verein für Laufspiele Sportfreunde Lotte e.V.
founded in 1929 in the fair town of Lotte (rhymes more or less
with “otter” as pronounced in Britain, with a virtually silent “r”) in
Westphalia. In the first round of the DFB Cup, VfL Lotte’s pictur-
esque ground provided the backdrop for the match against the
mighty Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Despite a raucous 90-minute rendition of the club’s battle-cry “Volle Lotte!” (“hit the gas!”) from
more than 7,000 throats, Lotte lost 3:0. If you’re wondering why
I’m mentioning this, it’s because, to my mind, FC Bayern Munich
winning the DFB Cup is about as relevant as Scrooge McDuck’s
Duckburg Dynamos beating Goosetown United. Yawn, sigh,
grumble … And because the amateur teams in the competition
usually return to blissful provincial obscurity after the first or, if
they’re really lucky, the second round, at the latest. Which is a
pity, because Lotte in Westphalia is well worth a second look.
Or did you know that the sporting minnows from Lotte are to
be thanked – or blamed, depending on how you look at it – for
Afri-Cola Leipzig winning promotion to the Bundesliga? Yessiree,
welcome to Freddy Boom’s fabulous free research workshop!
For you, the honorable members of SoccerNews reading circle,
Soccer News # 1/2016 6
Quotes of the season:
Easy:
crash, bang, wallop.
Bremen’s hat-trick hero Claudio Pizarro after his club’s 4:1 away win over Bayer Leverkusen, in answer to
the question of how he had done it.
I have, with my unerring telepathic trawling
talent, dragged up from the internet equivalent
of the Mariana Trench (look it up), the following:
‘Twas in the early summer of 2013 that Lotte,
the newly-crowned champions of the Regionalliga West (the fourth tier of Germany’s football
pyramid) were pitted against Regionalliga
North-West champions Leipzig in the promotion play-off for a place in League 3. Lotte lost
the away leg 2:0, but were leading 2:0 at home
in the second leg after 90 minutes and only
lost after Leipzig scored twice in extra time.
The rest, as they say, is recent RB-Leipzig Bundesliga promotion history. But let me conclude
by drawing your attention to the VfL Lotte website: www.sf-lotte.de. We city-dwelling sophisticates, urban trendsetters, craft beer quaffers,
and tattooed Taliban-style-beard-sporting parents in SUVs on the school run, would be well
advised to look to the provinces for a change.
In Lotte, for example, they don’t just play a
mean game of football, they also go in for such
pastimes as creative dance for kids, a traditional parkrun event and Wavesy. Wossat? Please
google it yourself, I’ve still gotta Lotte tell you.
2.) Bundesliga: Right then, friends of the hallowed turf, the season’s over and I’d like to
congratulate this year’s German champions:
Rheinos Bonn. Although they were only founded in summer 2015, the young team managed
to beat rivals such as the Three River Dragons
from Passau to win the German Quidditch
Championship. For me, that’s so much more
remarkable than the 26th Bundesliga title –
which was a foregone conclusion after their
5:0 thrashing of Hamburg on the opening day
of the season – of the Munich Monsters under
Supreme Mugwump Pep Guardiola. Not least
because Quidditch is played with a confusing
number of balls, as well as with three goals
at either end and the added handicap of a
broomstick between your legs. If this sounds
familiar to you, it’s because Quidditch is played
not only by Harry Potter and his pals at Hogwarts, but all over the world. There’s even an
International Quidditch Association. Don’t believe me? Try http://iqaquidditch.org and read
Phew!
Headline on Spiegel Online following Werder Bremen’s nail-biting 1:0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on
the last day of the season. The winning goal, which secured Werder’s Bundesliga survival and consigned
Frankfurt to the relegation play-offs, came just two minutes before the end of the season.
about the 2016 World Cup! As an international
pursuit, Quidditch is the craft beer of trend
sports; around the globe, young people on
broomsticks are running (they only fly at Hogwarts) in pursuit of the elusive Golden Snitch
which, due to the limitations of Muggle technology, can’t fly either. Instead it wings its way
around the pitch concealed in a sock attached
to the waistband of a neutral but nippy Snitch
Runner.
But, dear readers, what review of the season
could be complete without a last, lingering look
at England’s madcap Premier League season,
or rather at Gary Lineker’s underpants. At the
start of the season, in his dual function as football guru and presenter of BBC TV’s “Match
of the Day”, the former England international
promised he would present the first show of
the new season in his underpants if his old
club Leicester City won the Premiership. A
different footballing prophet, who shall remain
nameless, was more pragmatic: this visionary
fan from Guildford in Surrey bet 75 pounds on
the Foxes winning the title at odds of 5,000
to 1, which eventually left him 112,500 pounds
better off. Just to put those odds in context
for you: British bookmakers considered that
Leicester City winning the title was less likely
than the Pope turning out to play for the traditional (Protestant) Scottish club Glasgow Rangers (4,000 to 1), Elvis still being alive (2,000 to 1)
and Barack Obama confirming that, in fact, the
Apollo moon landings had never taken place
(500 to 1).
I just love giant-killing stories about rank outsiders who win through against the odds – and
in case you’re wondering, I’m about to prove
that my little excursion into the obscure Scottish folk rock scene was not (as it no doubt
seemed) the product of a tired mind. No, because now, on behalf of all Leicester City fans,
Sportfreunde Lotte lovers and others on the
footballing fringe, I have a message for the
members of the mainstream establishment,
and it’s: Let Them Eat Fishcake!
Soccer News # 1/2016 7
Did you know …
… that the cup went
missing after the
1985 DFB Cup Final
in Berlin?
May 26, 1985 was hot, a real
scorcher. The temperature
was 36°C in the shade at the
Olympic Stadium, the sort of
weather in which most people would prefer to be at the
beach. But professional footballers – and fans – are made
of stronger stuff. It was only a
bit of sunshine, after all. And
this was DFB Cup Final day.
Played in Berlin for the first
time. Well … not really! Actually, six cup finals had already
been held at the Olympic
Stadium, but 1985 was the
year that the “German Wembley“ became the permanent
Cup Final venue. Until then,
the venue had always been
fixed at short notice once the
finalists were known. But then
Germany applied to stage the
1988 European Championship. This was a bit tricky, because European opinion was
divided on whether or not
West Berlin was part of the
Federal Republic of Germany.
In the end, the decision was
taken not to stage any Euro
1988 games in Berlin in order
The traditional chant since 1985: “Berlin, Berlin, we’re going to Berlin” – to the Olympic Stadium to be precise. Photo: JoJan
to win the votes of Eastern
European members of UEFA.
In return, Berlin was chosen
as the permanent venue for
the DFB Cup Final. And so it
was that May 26, 1985 was
the day of the first real “Berlin,
Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin”
final. This now-traditional ter-
race chant, which translates
as “Berlin, Berlin, we’re going
to Berlin”, has become the
triumphal marching song
for winning semi-finalists’
fans – the German equivalent
of England’s “We’re on our
way to Wembley.” The teams
facing each other on this
occasion were Bundesliga
champions FC Bayern Munich
and Bayer 05 Uerdingen,
who had finished in 11th place.
The result appeared to be a
foregone conclusion, even
in these Saharan conditions,
and the match started as
expected: Munich got off to
a flying start, taking the lead
after less than eight minutes.
However, Uerdingen hit back
immediately, equalizing only a
minute later. The second half
began with more drama: a
Bayern player was shown the
red card with 47 minutes on
the clock, and ten minutes lat-
er the score was 2:1 – for Bayer
05 Uerdingen! The form book
was turned on its head, Bayern struggled in the heat, and
after 90 minutes, Uerdingen
were, sensationally, DFB Cup
winners. It was a historic victory for the small club from
North Rhine-Westphalia –
with post-match celebrations
that went down in history,
too. The team travelled down
the famous Kurfürstendamm
in an open-topped bus to
show the trophy to the admiring crowds. But soon
after, disaster struck: the 5.7
kilogram cup, 52 centimeters
high, made of sterling silver,
decorated with 250 grams of
gold plate and worth around
100,000 euros, went missing.
Uerdingen’s players, coaching
staff and officials were at their
wits’ end. But the feverish
search eventually bore fruit:
The cup was discovered in
Wolfgang Schäfer’s bed, next
to the obliviously snoring
scorer of the winning goal. It
was a match made in heaven,
even if it was only short-lived,
because the cup was never
intended to be a long-term,
live-in companion. And the
cup-kidnapper’s excuse, after
being caught in flagrante delicto, as it were? “I was totally
legless, but can you blame
me?”