Into die Löwen's Den (FGC)

Satio · December 8, 2010

Ouch - nasty away defeat there but as you say, good job Karlsruhe lost - just a pitty you couldnt take advantage of their dropped points. Keep it up!

Dalbeider · December 9, 2010

I remember being terribly angry at this defeat at the time exactly for that reason, so yeah, it hurt.

Don't wanna spoil anything, but keep an eye on Karlsruhe from now until the end of the season.

***

April 8th, 2011

Karlsruhe's third defeat in a row, this time against Fürth, left us in a perfect position to attack the second place. We "only" needed a win against Cottbus.

April 10th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (3rd) vs. FC Energie Cottbus (11th) (2.Bundesliga 29/34)

Cottbus had been dropping like a rock since the half point of the season, and although their current home form was decent, they hadn't managed an away result in quite some time. It was a perfect chance to regain our promotion spot.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-4-2): Gábor Király (GK); Antonio Rukavina (DR), Christian Schwarz (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Stephan Buck (DCl); Alexander Ludwig (MR), Daniel Bierofka (ML), Florin Lovin (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Djordje Rakic (STl)

COTTBUS (4-4-2 defensive): René Renno (GK); Alexander Bittroff (DR), Takahito Soma (DL), Markus Brzenska (DCr), Adam Straith (DCl); Marc-André Kruska (DMCr), Marco Kurth (DMCl), Shao Jiayi (MR), Jules Reimerink (ML); Gabriel Jula (STr), Nils Petersen (STl)

***

We were forced to play Schwarz on the left back, but otherwise we had a full strength squad available. We looked good in the first minutes, with Rafa Jordá kickstarting the game with a very long shot that almost surprised a somewhat dubitative Renno. Four minutes in Rakic profited from a fantastic long pass by Lovin to run at Renno with lots of space, but he rushed his finish and the ball ended up flying straight towards the Hubble telescope.

We kept attacking well, but our finishing looked way off: Ghvinianidze sent way over the bar a header in a corner kick masterfully taken by Bierofka. Poor Schwarz could only enjoy eighteen minutes of first team football before going down injured. Kaiser replaced him, and Rukavina moved once again to the left back. But finally, in the 27th minute, Rakic justified his presence in the team with a delicious through ball towards Rafa Jordá, who did his best impression of a technical forward with a subtle touch past Renno to open the scoring.

Cottbus tried to react, and their first serious chance came from a corner kick, finished with a very high header by Straith. It was Uzoma's turn to try luck from outside the box, and the ball went, as predictable, way over the bar. A few minutes later, Lovin did the same, this time sending his shot wide to the left. Rakic and Rafa Jordá connected again in the 36th, but this time Renno did well to tip the Spaniard's shot wide.

Four minutes later Bierofka performed one of his silky runs on the left wing and crossed towards Jordá. The striker lost the ball before shooting, but it fell to Ludwig just on the edge of the box, and the attacking midfielder curled a beautiful shot into the top right corner of the goal to score the 2-0. Rafa Jordá tried to find the same corner from outside the box in the last minute of the half, but missed it by a few centimeters. After a very nice first half we found ourselves comfortably ahead.

HALF TIME - 2-0

With Cottbus seeming mentally out of the game, we just kept doing our thing, although chances were harder to come by now. Fifteen minutes passed without action, and Bierofka and Ludwig went to the bench, replaced by Halfar and Béda (Ghvinianidze to the right back, Kaiser to the right wing).

Jula managed to head the ball into our net in an extremely clear offside position, although the referee had whistled just a moment before he made contact with the ball. That inspired Cottbus to attack with more insistence, though, and we found ourselves on the defensive quite quickly. Petersen gave us a pretty bad scare with a header that smashed into the crossbar after a pretty bad jump by Király.

Bittroff almost gave a goal away with a terrible horizontal pass inside his own box, but thankfully (for him) Halfar failed to finish the job and shot straight at Renno's body. Rakic had forgotten how to score goals, and he proved it again with a horribly wide finish after Lovin had found him unmarked inside the box. Uzoma advanced into the box four minutes later only to shoot over the bar, as the tradition mandates. Renno had more work a bit later with a good save after Halfar tried a curling direct free kick from the very edge of the box.

Rafa Jordá kept looking for the third with a low, wide shot from outside the box ten minutes before the end. But only a minute later a free kick taken by Shao Jiayi was headed into the net by the always dangerous Jula, and Cottbus were suddenly back in the game. Halfar missed another chance to seal the game in the 83rd with another poor finish that Renno saved easily, and Rakic did the same one minute later allowing the keeper to save a one on one opportunity with extreme ease.

But in the 88th we managed a lightning quick play: Ghvinianidze served a throw-in, Rafa Jordá crossed first time and Rakic headed it in in the near post to score the 3-1 and put the game beyond any reasonable doubt. The game ended after a final wide shot by Jula, and we enjoyed the tasty flavour of three vital points.

***

TSV 1860 München 3 (Rafa Jordá 27, Alexander Ludwig 40, Djordje Rakic 88)

FC Energie Cottbus 1 (Gabriel Jula 81)

---

Rakic earnt a Man of the Match award after this game, but his misses almost made us suffer until the very end. He finally scored after a long while, though, and also assisted Jordá in our first goal, so the award was deserved in the end. We passed Karlsruhe on the table and stole the second place, keeping our distance with Bochum and Fürth.

Cottbus sacked Claus-Pieter Dollitz immediately after the game. I didn't mind that too much, to be honest.

April 11th, 2011

The sacks were coming left and right now. Next to become unemployed was Fortuna Düsseldorf's second manager of the season, Uwe Klein, after a 3-0 defeat against Hertha (seven points clear at the top of the table, by the way) which left his ex-club only one point above the relegation playoff place, occupied by Union Berlin at the moment.

April 12th, 2011

Rakic, Uzoma and Jordá made the Team of the Week.

Dalbeider · December 10, 2010

April 15th, 2011

The promotion battle was heating up to insane levels. Just before our meeting, Bochum's boss Peter Neurerer claimed otherwise, though: he basically stated that his side were the only promotion candidates that would play that game. Even though we were four points ahead of them. Nice.

Meanwhile, Karlsruhe seemed adamant in throwing away a fantastic season with an atrocious final streak. This time they only managed a 1-1 draw against Aachen at home. Good for us.

April 16th, 2011

VfL Bochum (4th) vs. TSV 1860 München (2nd) (2.Bundesliga, 30/34)

Maybe the toughest game we had until the end of the season, and one that could very well spell doom for our promotion chances if we didn't get at least a point. Allowing Bochum to get too close to us this late would become a serious problem.

***

BOCHUM (4-4-2 diamond narrow): Philipp Heerwagen (GK); Marc Pfertzel (DR), Björn Kopplin (DL), Anthar Yahia (DCr), Mergim Mavraj (DCl); Marcel Maltritz (DMC), Milos Maric (MCl), Andreas Johansson (MCr), Giovanni Federico (AMC); Jong Tae-Se (STr), Zlatko Dedic (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Sandro Kaiser (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Eke Uzoma (MCr), Florin Lovin (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Tiago Freitas (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Rafa Jordá (ST)

***

It was time for some 4-2-3-1 action: our main goal was to grab at the very least a point, and that formation had proven to be quite solid defensively. Bochum surprised with their diamond formation, sacrificing the wings that had given us so much trouble in our previous meeting. We thanked them by creating a quick chance thanks to a good long pass by Bierofka towards Ludwig, who couldn't finish the job with enough precision and sent the ball wide.

We controlled the early game, attacking their weak wings with insistence, and Lovin had our next chance in a corner kick, with a downwards header that went just a little bit wide to the left. Bochum's first relevant attacking movement ended in a weak header by Jong Tae-Se, easy for Király. Federico's high ball from the edge of the box a few minutes later was more dangerous, though, and the home team looked likely to start dominating the game soon.

The midfielder tried again, this time with a nice pass towards Dedic, who ran into it but came across Király, who dived at his feet to deny him the chance to shoot. Bochum kept attacking, and Jong Tae-Se had another chance with a narrowly high header after a cross by Kopplin. A good display of dribbling skills by Dedic capped with a nice low finish that Király dived into and held with both hands was the last action of the first half.

HALF TIME - 0-0

The first minutes of the second half were dominated by Bochum, but our defensive effort kept smothering their attacking intentions. In fact, the first chance was for us, a powerful header by Ghvinianidze on a corner kick that Heerwagen tipped over the bar with an acrobatic save.

We swapped our wingers near the 60th minute, bringing Savio and Halfar in for Bierofka and Ludwig, both looking pretty exhausted. Király had work in the 68th, when Dedic tried a through ball towards Jong Tae-Se and the keeper had to rush out again to prevent his finish. Dedic created danger again one minute later with a header that Király saved without much trouble, and again the next minute after breaking through the middle of our defense and shooting from the edge of the box, with Király once again saving our neck with a nice fingertip save.

Bochum's constant threats continued with a high header by Mavraj in the following corner kick. With little over ten minutes remaining Ignjovski replaced Tiago Freitas, and we moved to a 4-5-1. That move practically killed the game, denying Bochum any opportunity in the final ten minutes of the game. The game ended, and both teams split the points. Mission accomplished.

***

VfL Bochum 0

TSV 1860 München 0

---

The best 0-0 draw of the season, for sure. Great defensive display, and we achieved what we needed to keep our distance with both Karlsruhe and Bochum. With three home games and an away trip to Berlin remaining, we were very hopeful of holding on to the second place.

April 17th, 2011

Hertha also drew 1-1 against FSV, but Fürth won, and now they were the main threat to both Karlsruhe and us, sitting two points behind the third place and three behind the second.

[font=Courier New]| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Hertha BSC    |       | 30    | 19    | 4     | 7     | 60    | 36    | +24   | 61    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 2nd   |       | 1860 München  |       | 30    | 15    | 9     | 6     | 43    | 23    | +20   | 54    |[/b][/color] 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Karlsruhe     |       | 30    | 15    | 8     | 7     | 44    | 39    | +5    | 53    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Fürth         |       | 30    | 15    | 6     | 9     | 53    | 39    | +14   | 51    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Bochum        |       | 30    | 14    | 8     | 8     | 42    | 37    | +5    | 50    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Aachen        |       | 30    | 14    | 6     | 10    | 40    | 33    | +7    | 48    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Bielefeld     |       | 30    | 14    | 5     | 11    | 46    | 30    | +16   | 47    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Duisburg      |       | 30    | 12    | 9     | 9     | 29    | 22    | +7    | 45    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|[/font]

Next fixtures: Fürth-Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hertha-Cottbus, Augsburg-Bochum, Duisburg-Karlsruhe, 1860 München-Ingolstadt

Dalbeider · December 11, 2010

April 22nd, 2011

Fürth and Hertha won. We had to do the same to stay ahead. Hertha secured at the very least the playoff spot with their victory, by the way. Two more points were enough for them to gain promotion to the Bundesliga.

Guardiola threatened with the sack by the board. Barcelona were fourth in La Liga.

April 23rd, 2011

TSV 1860 München (2nd) vs. FC Ingolstadt 04 (9th) (2.Bundesliga 31/34)

First of two consecutive home games, Ingolstadt had been relaxing quite a bit in the second half of the season after almost ensuring their survival in the division during a splendid first half. They had nothing to play for, and that gave us hopes of an easy win.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-4-2): Gábor Király (GK); Antonio Rukavina (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Stephan Buck (DCl); Alexander Ludwig (MR), Daniel Bierofka (ML), Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Djordje Rakic (STl)

INGOLSTADT (4-4-2): Sascha Kirschtein (GK); Andreas Görlitz (DR), Ronald Gercaliu (DL), David Pisot (DCr), Mathias Wittek (DCl); Moise Bambara (MR), Danny Fuchs (ML), Malte Metzelder (MCr), Fabian Gerber (MCl); Steffen Wohlfarth (STr), Márkó Futács (STl)

***

Rakic only needed fifteen seconds to shoot for the first time, a 25 yard effort that went way over the bar. Still, it signaled our intentions of sealing the game as soon as possible. Ignjovski was the next to try, a low shot from the edge of the box that Kirschtein barely parried, his defenders clearing the ball from danger ahead of Rakic's arrival. Jordá tried his luck after receiving a good ball from Uzoma, but his turnaround shot went high and wide, not his best effort by any means.

In the 20th minute Rakic was fouled approximately five meters outside the box. Uzoma placed the ball, shot with his left foot and curled a beautiful shot into the back of the net to give us the lead. Faye was envious and wanted his share, but he wasn't as lucky: his direct free kick hit the post and bounced clear. A nice combinative play in which every single player on the pitch took part ended with a narrowly high header by Rakic. Uzoma wasn't so accurate when the ball was moving, as his terribly wide shot in the 38th minute showed. A wide free kick by Fuchs was both Ingolstadt's first shot at goal of the game and the last action of the first half.

HALF TIME - 1-0

Incredibly, we started the second half completely asleep at the wheel. A bad clearance by Király allowed Ingolstadt to patiently move the ball around for a while before finding Ersin Demir unmarked inside the box, and the striker took his chance to place the ball into the net and draw the game in the 50th minute.

But we weren't the only ones asleep: Wittek managed to control a cross from the right by Rukavina, but then didn't notice Rafa Jordá approaching from behind. The striker cleanly stole the ball and simply pushed it into the net while Kirschtein watched. With our lead restablished we went back to dominating the game, with Rakic sending a good chance straight at Kirschtein's arms. The striker was soon replaced by Tiago Freitas, while Savio entered the game in Bierofka's place.

Immediately afterwards Uzoma found Rafa Jordá on the edge of the box, and the Spaniard did his usual trick of turning around and shooting, this time with his left foot, to make it 3-1. Jordá tried to grab his hattrick five minutes later, but sent his shot into the sidenetting. Tiago Freitas joined the party with a nice movement and a not so nice finish, which ended with the ball going wide to the right.

The Brazilian was unlucky a few minutes later, when his close range finish after a fantastic pass by Ludwig was parried by Kirschtein. An injury to Ignjovski in the final minutes of the game forced his replacement, and Lovin came in. In the end we got what we wanted and expected: an easy win.

***

TSV 1860 München 3 (Eke Uzoma 20, Rafa Jordá 56 62)

FC Ingolstadt 04 1 (Ersin Demir 50)

---

Everything went according to the plan. Even Bochum's result, since they lost two points in Augsburg in a 1-1 draw and dropped six points behind us with only nine left to play. Karlsruhe and Fürth were now the only threats remaining.

Ignjovski's injury was a simple dead leag, he would be back in training after only a few days of rest.

Not everything is good for us in the day, though. Kai Bülow, who has featured only intermitently in our first squad, is finally fed up of warming the bench and requests a transfer. I promised him to help him find a more suitable destination in the next transfer window, although with Ignjovski's loan ending soon, he could find himself being useful again. Then again, he's no Bundesliga player, so if we promote his chances will be pretty close to zero.

April 24th, 2011

Karlsruhe kept falling deep into a bottomless pit, losing 2-0 against Duisburg and losing the third place to Fürth. This result also mathematically secured Hertha's promotion two weeks before facing us. That couldn't be a bad thing.

[font=Courier New]| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | P     | Hertha BSC    |       | 31    | 20    | 4     | 7     | 63    | 37    | +26   | 64    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 2nd   |       | 1860 München  |       | 31    | 16    | 9     | 6     | 46    | 24    | +22   | 57    | [/b][/color]
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Fürth         |       | 31    | 16    | 6     | 9     | 54    | 39    | +15   | 54    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Karlsruhe     |       | 31    | 15    | 8     | 8     | 44    | 41    | +3    | 53    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Bochum        |       | 31    | 14    | 9     | 8     | 43    | 38    | +5    | 51    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Bielefeld     |       | 31    | 15    | 5     | 11    | 48    | 30    | +18   | 50    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Duisburg      |       | 31    | 13    | 9     | 9     | 31    | 22    | +9    | 48    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|[/font]

Next fixtures: 1860 München-Augsburg, Bochum-Hertha (!!), FSV-Fürth, Karlsruhe-Osnabrück.

April 26th, 2011

Uzoma and Rafa Jordá were once again selected in the Team of the Week.

Mark Snellink · December 12, 2010

Good luck on the home stretch You seem so close

Dalbeider · December 12, 2010

It's almost there!

***

April 28th, 2011

Aygün was also worried about his future. Understandable, with a running out deal and only a pair of appearances in his first and probably only season in 1860. He, too, was promised to be allowed to leave at the end of the season (it's not like we were going to offer him a new contract at this point), and he seemed satisfied with that.

May 1st, 2011

TSV 1860 München (2nd) vs. FC Augsburg (16th) (2.Bundesliga 32/34)

Augsburg were holding on to straws. They had managed to chain two wins and a draw and had momentarily escaped the direct relegation zone, but any slip would bring them back down. In the meantime, their manager was under heavy pressure to save the team, and a defeat against a rival team (read: us) could prove too much to bear. An interesting game to say the least.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-4-2): Gábor Király (GK); Sandro Kaiser (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Alexander Ludwig (MR), Daniel Bierofka (ML), Florin Lovin (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Djordje Rakic (STl)

AUGSBURG (4-4-2 diamond): Simon Jentzsch (GK); Paul Verhaegh (DR), Marcel de Jong (DL), Uwe Möhrle (DCr), Jonas de Roeck (DCl); Lukas Sinkiewicz (DMC), Daniel Baier (MR), Marcel Ndjeng (ML), Torsten Oehrl (AMC); Nando Rafael (STr), Michael Thurk (STl)

***

Augsburg started the game with a very attacking mentality, striking at us from all sides in the first two or three minutes. It didn't last long, though, and soon Rafa Jordá was testing Jentzsch's reflexes with a low shot after a good movement by Bierofka and Uzoma. But in the 8th minute a corner kick taken by Baier struck an unaware Faye in the back of his head, and the balled rolled slowly into our goal to give Augsburg and unlikely lead.

But our reaction was instantaneous, taking us only two minutes for Bierofka to run on the left, crossing towards the penalty spot where Ludwig controlled and half-volleyed with his left foot to draw the game. Things calmed down a bit after such a crazy start, and the following minutes brought no danger to either goal, until Rakic sent wide a great chance after a quick counterattack down the middle of the pitch.

It was Rafa Jordá's turn, and the striker tried his luck from afar with a powerful piledriver that went over the bar. The game looked under control, but a terrible marking decision by Ghvinianidze allowed Thurk to receive from Sinkiewicz, advance into the box and score with a low shot without opposition. We found ourselves behind at the break, with a tough task ahead of us in the remaining forty-five minutes.

HALF TIME - 1-2

Thurk had a chance only three minutes into the second half, but he found himself without space and shot wide from a tight angle. Rafael tried luck from 25 yards with a flat, powerful effort that Király had to punch away. But in the 55th, after looking pretty ineffective for the previous ten minutes, we created a nice movement down the right flank after which Rafa Jordá sent a marvelous ball towards Ludwig, who entered the box, calmly dribbled past Jentzsch and placed the ball into the net to draw the game once again.

Our morale boosted, we kept pushing looking for the lead, and Rafa Jordá almost got it after a delicious through ball by Uzoma, but this time Jentzsch rushed out in time to stop his finish. We finally got ahead in the 61st, this time in a play started on the left wing by Bierofka, who was having a great game, and which Rakic finished with a perfectly placed right-footed finish that the keeper had no way to stop.

There was no reaction from Augsburg, and a long ball by Faye gave Rafa Jordá another chance which Jentzsch stopped with a good save. Lovin shot wide from distance a bit later, as Halfar readied himself to replace a tired but delighted Bierofka. Rukavina also replaced Kaiser, who had one of his worst games in recent memory. It wasn't Jordá's day, as the striker managed to "do a Cooper" by sending very wide a one-on-one chance after a fantastic pass by Lovin.

The Spaniard was replaced in the final minutes by Lauth, who still had time to waste another great chance by shooting at Jentzsch's legs with the whole wide goal at his disposal. Thankfully Augsburg were absolutely toothless in the second half, and we grabbed the three points despite wasting so many chances. A hard-fought and very pleasant win.

***

TSV 1860 München 3 (Alexander Ludwig 10 55, Djordje Rakic 61)

FC Augsburg 2 (Ibrahima Faye og 8, Michael Thurk 42)

---

A game of two halves, with the second being extremely enjoyable for the upwards of 36000 fans that gathered in the Allianz. The first, not so much. Ludwig made his legend even bigger with two goals that could very well be worth a promotion.

Bochum and Fürth won, the first defeating a pretty relaxed Hertha. Karlsruhe finally threw away their few remaining chances with a ridiculous 3-5 home defeat against last-placed Osnabrück. With those results, we had almost secured the playoff spot (+16 goals over Bochum) and only needed three points to seal promotion, provided we kept our goal difference advantage over Fürth. We could afford to lose against Hertha if we could defeat Bielefeld at home on the last fixture of the season. On the other hand, if we managed a win in Berlin we still had a shot at winning the league!

[font=Courier New]| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | P     | Hertha BSC    |       | 32    | 20    | 4     | 8     | 64    | 40    | +24   | 64    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 2nd   |       | 1860 München  |       | 32    | 17    | 9     | 6     | 49    | 26    | +23   | 60    | [/b][/color]
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Fürth         |       | 32    | 17    | 6     | 9     | 56    | 39    | +17   | 57    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Bochum        |       | 32    | 15    | 9     | 8     | 46    | 39    | +7    | 54    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Karlsruhe     |       | 32    | 15    | 8     | 9     | 47    | 46    | +1    | 53    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Aachen        |       | 32    | 15    | 6     | 11    | 43    | 36    | +7    | 51    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Bielefeld     |       | 32    | 15    | 5     | 12    | 49    | 32    | +17   | 50    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|[/font]

Next fixtures: Hertha-1860 München, Fürth-Cottbus, Bielefeld-Bochum, Aue-Karlsruhe

May 3rd, 2011

Bierofka made the Team of the Week. Shockingly, Ludwig didn't.

Dalbeider · December 13, 2010

May 7th, 2011

Babbel, being the nice bloke he is, tipped us as big favourites for promotion before our title clash. Of course, us winning promotion didn't preclude them winning the league, nor the game for that matter.

May 8th, 2011

Hertha BSC Berlin (1st) vs. TSV 1860 München (2nd) (2.Bundesliga 33/34)

Game of the season, full stop. Wait, I've said this before, haven't I? A title decider for both teams, and a potential promotion clincher for us. Even a single point would be enough if the other results went our way. Hertha had just seen their thirteen-game unbeaten streak broken by Bochum and their own relaxation after clinching promotion two weeks ago, but they were sure to put up a fight and secure the first place.

***

HERTHA BERLIN (4-4-2): Maikel Aerts (GK); Christian Lell (DR), Diego Contento (DL), Peter Niemeyer (DCr), Roman Hubnik (DCl); Patrick Ebert (MR), Lukas Schmitz (ML), Pál Dárdai (MCr), Fabian Lustenberger (MCl); Raffael (STr), Adrián Ramos (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Antonio Rukavina (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Stefan Buck (DCl); Eke Uzoma (MCr), Florin Lovin (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Tiago Freitas (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Rafa Jordá (ST)

***

Obvious switch to the 4-2-3-1 for our most difficult away trip of the season. I even pondered going 4-5-1 for a while, but in the end decided to give Tiago Freitas the nod. Neither team was pulling any punches, and both lineups offered the very best of both squads.

Things went crazy pretty fast: Lustenberger stole the ball from Tiago Freitas (possibly fouling him) and sent a long ball towards Ramos, who ran down the left flank on the counter and crossed towards the box, where Raffael got ahead of Faye to push the ball into the net and give Hertha the lead only two minutes after kick off.

Five minutes later it was our turn to counterattack: Rafa Jordá left Niemeyer for dead with a burst of speed, ran towards the left side of the box, feinted a shot and passed low towards Bierofka, who blasted it in to draw the game. A fantastic start for both teams. Hertha went forward again, with Raffael being the first to miss a shot at goal, with a high ball from the edge of the box.

The game finally slowed down a bit, as Hertha stablished control over the midfield and the possession of the ball. It took until the 28th for the next chance to appear, a powerful shot by Ebert that Király tipped wide with a good reflex save. We still attacked from time to time, and Rafa Jordá had a decent opportunity after a good pass by Tiago Freitas, but miskicked the ball and sent it well wide.

Ramos had another chance in the last minute of the half after running behind Ghvinianidze and shooting, but Király was there to prevent any further problems. The first half ended in a fair 1-1 draw.

HALF TIME - 1-1. Other results: Aue 0-0 Karlsruhe, Bielefeld 1-1 Bochum, Fürth 0-0 Cottbus

Rafa Jordá's aim was a bit off that day: after a great pass towards space by Ludwig he ran alone into the box only to blast the ball miles above the target. We were looking really good in the first minutes of the second half, though, and soon Ludwig had another chance after a good ball by Uzoma, although he also sent it wide.

Hertha weren't seeing as much of the ball as in the first half, and we made good use of our increased possession rate, constantly creating danger. Jordá and Ludwig connected again, with the first crossing low towards the second inside the box, but Aerts rushed out quickly to smother the ball. Ludwig was a bit slow there. He looked short on energy, and Halfar came in his place after a short while. Not much later it was Rakic who replaced Tiago Freitas, distinctly average once again.

In the 69th Aerts pulled off a fantastic double save, first against Rafa Jordá's header and a second later after Ghvinianidze pounced on the rebound, following a corner kick taken by Bierofka. Jordá tried another header after a good cross by Faye, but this time the ball went narrowly over. Uzoma tried one of his trademark banana shots after gathering a loose ball outside the box and sent it crashing into the right post of Aerts' goal.

Hertha didn't manage a shot at goal in the second half until Raffael sent a direct free kick over the bar with only three minutes remaining on the clock. Faye sent wide a long shot from outside the box with only one minute plus injury time remaining, and Bierofka did the same with a good-looking left-footed effort one minute later. We had dominated the whole of the second half, but in the end we couldn't manage to grab a deserved win. Still, a tremendously important point for us, and a league title for Hertha. Everyone happy.

***

Hertha BSC Berlin 1 (Raffael 2)

TSV 1860 München 1 (Daniel Bierofka 7)

---

Other results: Aue 2-0 Karlsruhe, Bielefeld 1-1 Bochum, Fürth 0-0 Cottbus.

Those results meant a few things:

- One: Karlsruhe had zero chances of promoting, either directly or via playoff, after having led the table for most of the season. Shocking.

- Two: Bochum weren't mathematically out yet, and even better, they faced Fürth next, but they'd have to overcome a -10 goal difference in just one game (which meant winning 5-0 or better), so it seemed pretty unlikely.

- Three: we had mathematically secured the playoff spot, which was good.

- Four: Hertha were the champions, congratulations to them for a fantastic second half of the season.

- Five: even if we lost at home against Bielefeld and Fürth won their last game, they'd have to recover six goals to take the second place away from us.

Conclusion: we could almost celebrate our promotion, only not just yet. A draw in our last game would be more than enough, though.

At the bottom of the table things were still wide open. Four teams battled to avoid relegation, and two of them already knew that they'd have to play a playoff at the very least. Augsburg were saved right then, but faced champions Hertha in their last fixture. The Düsseldorf-Osnabrück match was almost assured to witness drama in gigantic amounts.

[font=Courier New]| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | C     | Hertha BSC    |       | 33    | 20    | 5     | 8     | 65    | 41    | +24   | 65    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 2nd   | Pl    | 1860 München  |       | 33    | 17    | 10    | 6     | 50    | 27    | +23   | 61    | [/b][/color]
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Fürth         |       | 33    | 17    | 7     | 9     | 56    | 39    | +17   | 58    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Bochum        |       | 33    | 15    | 10    | 8     | 47    | 40    | +7    | 55    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Augsburg      |       | 33    | 9     | 7     | 17    | 41    | 58    | -17   | 34    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Düsseldorf    |       | 33    | 8     | 8     | 17    | 40    | 52    | -12   | 32    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  | Pl    | Osnabrück     |       | 33    | 6     | 12    | 15    | 35    | 48    | -13   | 30    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  | Pl    | Union Berlin  |       | 33    | 7     | 9     | 17    | 30    | 45    | -15   | 30    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|[/font]

Last fixtures: 1860 München-Bielefeld, Bochum-Fürth, Augsburg-Hertha, Düsseldorf-Osnabrück, Union Berlin-Ingolstadt

May 10th, 2011

Aigner is the next to state his decision to leave the club at the end of the season. It's not like I was going to offer him a new deal anyway.

Dalbeider · December 14, 2010

May 13th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (2nd) vs. DSC Arminia Bielefeld (8th) (2.Bundesliga 34/34)

And everything came down to this. Anything but a defeat, and we were up. Fürth had a difficult game ahead of them, and even if they won we had to go down very heavily to lose our place. So we were pretty confident. The only problem... who the heck thinks it's a good idea to schedule the last game of the season on a Friday the 13th??

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-4-2): Gábor Király (GK); Antonio Rukavina (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Alexander Ludwig (MR), Daniel Bierofka (ML), Florin Lovin (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Djordje Rakic (STl)

BIELEFELD (4-4-2 defensive): Rowen Fernandez (GK); Nils Fischer (DR), Markus Schuler (DL), Markus Bollmann (DCr), Fábio Fidélis (DCl); Maximilian Haas (DMCr), Rüdiger Kauf (DMCr), Franck Guela (MR), Arne Feick (ML); Pavel Fort (STr), Oliver Neuville (STl)

***

Bielefeld had nothing to play for, but still showed their professionalism by lining up a first choice eleven. In fact they struck first, with a distant direct free kick attempt by Neuville that Király caught without trouble. We struggled at first, failing to control the ball or to create any danger.

We slowly improved, and in the 21st minute Ghvinianidze had our first chance with a narrowly high header on a corner kick. Lovin tried his luck from afar only one minute later, but also sent the ball over the bar. And then, suddenly, the game died off. Neither team managed a single shot at goal for the reminder of an extremely boring first half. The fans were happy, though: Fürth were also drawing 1-1 against Bochum.

HALF TIME - 0-0

The second half started a bit more lively, and Ghvinianidze had another chance in another corner kick, his downwards header trapped by Fernandez with an easy save. Jordá struggled after two consecutive knocks, and was replaced by Lauth. Bierofka also left the field with Halfar coming in his place.

The winger soon made his presence felt with a good cross towards Rakic, whose header was tipped over the bar by a very concentrated Fernandez. But the game died again: Bielefeld had no interest in attacking, and the draw was more than good enough for us, so both teams took it easy. Nonetheless, in the 78th minute, Uzoma swung a corner kick into the heart of the box and Faye dived with all his strength to head it into the net and put us ahead.

That was the sign the fans had been expecting, and the chants, celebrations and waving of flags started in full strength. Ignjovski was allowed to join the party in what could be his last day with us as he replaced Uzoma in the final ten minutes. We controlled the remainder of the game without problems, while Bielefeld tried some half-hearted attacks that led nowhere.

Injury time went for almost six minutes, and when the referee finally whistled for full time, the players were at last allowed to join the celebrations. We were a Bundesliga team, eight years later!

***

TSV 1860 München 1 (Ibrahima Faye 78)

DSC Arminia Bielefeld 0

---

Woo! That party must have been something to remember. Too bad I was too drunk to even try. Herr Beeck was obviously delighted that I had achieved a long-term goal such as promotion in such a short time. I have fuzzy memories of him gulping pints of Bavarian beer like water during the celebrations.

It was time to gather our prize for finishing second in the league: a snazzy cheque worth seven. Friggin'. Million. That was enough to keep us in the black for a year or two, and that was without taking into account the increased income that playing in the top division would bring. Fantastic.

Regarding the rest of the league, Augsburg defeated Hertha 4-2 to secure their place in the 2.Bundesliga for the next season, while the other relegation candidates drew their games, so their positions didn't change: Osnabrück and Union Berlin relegated, while Fortuna Düsseldorf would have to face a two-legged playoff against the third-placed team in the 3.Liga, likely to be either Unterhaching, Dresden or Ahlen.

Fürth also drew 2-2 against Bochum and secured their promotion playoff position: Hannover, Nürnberg and (gasp) Werder Bremen were the ones most likely to become their opposition. Karlsruhe lost yet again, and finished the season in the 7th place. Their form for the last ten games of the season had been DWLLLDLLLL. Incredible, just incredible.

2.Bundesliga 2010/11 season, final table:

[font=Courier New]| Pos   | Inf   | Team          |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | C     | Hertha BSC    |       | 34    | 20    | 5     | 9     | 67    | 45    | +22   | 65    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 2nd   | P     | 1860 München  |       | 34    | 18    | 10    | 6     | 51    | 27    | +24   | 64    | [/b][/color]
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   | Pl    | Fürth         |       | 34    | 17    | 8     | 9     | 58    | 41    | +17   | 59    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Aachen        |       | 34    | 17    | 6     | 11    | 48    | 38    | +10   | 57    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Bochum        |       | 34    | 15    | 11    | 8     | 49    | 42    | +7    | 56    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Duisburg      |       | 34    | 15    | 10    | 9     | 36    | 24    | +12   | 55    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Karlsruhe     |       | 34    | 15    | 8     | 11    | 47    | 49    | -2    | 53    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Bielefeld     |       | 34    | 15    | 6     | 13    | 50    | 34    | +16   | 51    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Oberhausen    |       | 34    | 13    | 8     | 13    | 30    | 35    | -5    | 47    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Ingolstadt    |       | 34    | 11    | 11    | 12    | 40    | 41    | -1    | 44    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Cottbus       |       | 34    | 11    | 8     | 15    | 42    | 51    | -9    | 41    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Paderborn     |       | 34    | 11    | 8     | 15    | 33    | 47    | -14   | 41    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Aue           |       | 34    | 11    | 7     | 16    | 28    | 41    | -13   | 40    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | FSV Frankfurt |       | 34    | 10    | 7     | 17    | 30    | 39    | -9    | 37    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Augsburg      |       | 34    | 10    | 7     | 17    | 45    | 60    | -15   | 37    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  | Pl    | Düsseldorf    |       | 34    | 8     | 9     | 17    | 42    | 54    | -12   | 33    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  | R     | Osnabrück     |       | 34    | 6     | 13    | 15    | 37    | 50    | -13   | 31    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  | R     | Union Berlin  |       | 34    | 7     | 10    | 17    | 31    | 46    | -15   | 31    | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|[/font]

Makonnen · December 14, 2010

W000t!!! Well done. Bringen uns die Würste und Dirnen! Lassen Sie die Welt zittern im Voraus!

Dalbeider · December 14, 2010

Google Translator to the rescue! ...er, will do, I guess?

***

TSV 1860 München - end of season player summary

Goalkeepers

[font=Courier New]
Name               Apps    Conceded  Clean Sheets  MoM  Av.Rat.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gábor Király         32          25            15    1     6.98
Philipp Tschauner     4           5             2    0     6.55
Björn Bussmann        0           0             0    0      N/A [/font]

Király was first choice whenever he was available, and his overall performance was pretty good. Helped by a solid defense, his saves kept us in many games that weren't going our way. With almost a 50% ratio of clean sheets, he was a valuable asset to the club and one of the main reasons of our success.

Tschauner did decently well when called upon, with the one exception being his terrible match against Hallescher in the Cup. Bussmann didn't feature, but he was still regarded as someone to keep an eye on for the future.

Full Backs

[font=Courier New]Name                 Apps     Goals    Assists    MoM    Y.C   R.C  Av.Rat.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Schwarz        3         0          0      0      0     0     6.77
Antonio Rukavina    22(1)         1          0      2      3     0     7.04
Sandro Kaiser       12(4)         0          1      0      3     0     6.93
Ibrahima Faye          33         2          2      0      5     1     7.05[/font]

Faye was a great purchase in the end, becoming our most solid performer on the full backs and providing us with a good presence on the left, both on offense and defense. The only shame was that none of his attempts from direct free kicks went in, although he got very close a few times. Schwarz only featured as a last resort when Faye was either injured or suspended, and did little to become more than that.

On the right Rukavina had a great start, but his form suffered from many ups and downs, and Kaiser soon had his chance to shine after one bad performance too many by the Serbian. From then on both right backs rotated with almost equal chances, and both did acceptably well, although we missed a tougher, more defensive option from time to time. Looking towards our next season, this is a position we were seriously looking at improving with a new signing.

Center Backs

[font=Courier New]Name                 Apps     Goals    Assists    MoM    Y.C   R.C  Av.Rat.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mate Ghvinianidze   31(1)         2          1      3      7     0     7.20
Stefan Bell             0         0          0      0      0     0      N/A
Necat Aygün             2         0          1      0      0     1     7.05
Stefan Buck         19(2)         2          0      0      6     0     7.08
Mathieu Béda        22(3)         1          0      1      4     1     7.13[/font]

In the end, despite the great depth we had here, only three players were needed most of the time. Ghvinianidze was one of the top performers of the whole team and a great defensive asset most of the times, although he had the odd day off in which he looked a bit lost on the pitch. He was a sure starter whenever he was available, and did wonderfully well on average. We were delighted to keep him with us for another season.

The other spot at the center back line was shared almost equally by Buck and Béda, both pretty solid and consistent in their performances. With the starters doing so well it was tough for Aygün to break into the first eleven, and he didn't do himself any favours by sending himself off in his debut against Hallescher. Bell was never on the cards, and will return to Mainz having played zero competitive minutes for us. With Aygün and Bell both leaving at the end of the season, we'd do well to sign another player for this line come July.

Midfielders

[font=Courier New]Name                   Apps     Goals    Assists    MoM    Y.C   R.C  Av.Rat.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aleksandar Ignjovski  12(7)         0          1      0      0     0     6.87
Kai Bülow              2(3)         0          0      0      0     0     6.54
Florin Lovin          28(6)         1          1      0      3     0     6.91
Eke Uzoma             30(3)         4          5      1      7     0     7.12
Tiago Freitas          9(3)         0          1      0      0     0     6.65[/font]

Our central midfielders also had a pretty solid season overall. Uzoma was the standout of course, with four goals and five assists crowning a great season playing as the source of most of our creativity upfield. The only black spot on an otherwise immaculate season was his discipline record, seven yellow cards were too many. By his side, both Lovin and Ignjovski had decent if unspectacular seasons and provided an extra ounce of strength and balance to our midfield. Our goal was to try and keep Ignjovski on a permanent deal, but that would depend on having money available for transfers before the 1st of July. His loan deal had a €500k purchase clause included, so he was likely to stay.

Tiago Freitas came in the winter transfer window and started quite well playing in the hole in our 4-2-3-1 formation, but soon his form dropped sharply. He wasn't that much of a threat when played upfront either, so his signing was a bit of a disappointment. Bülow, on the other hand, was pretty poor when played as our most defensive-minded midfielder, and suffered due to our lack of use of the 4-5-1 formation, in which he'd have had more chances to shine. He will leave the club at the end of the season.

Wingers

[font=Courier New]Name                   Apps     Goals    Assists    MoM    Y.C   R.C  Av.Rat.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Bierofka       21(3)         2          7      0      1     0     6.89
Alexander Ludwig         34        10          7      6      1     0     7.09
Stefan Aigner          3(8)         2          1      1      1     0     6.85
Savio                10(16)         0          4      0      0     0     6.75
Daniel Halfar         7(17)         1          4      1      1     0     6.72[/font]

Ludwig. That was the best thing to come from our wings that season, funny considering that he was the only one of the five who wasn't a natural winger! His goals practically led us to promotion singlehandedly, propelling us to a great start and finishing the job against Augsburg three games before the end. And his assists helped too, of course. His relatively low rating shows his only weak point: a certain lack of consistency. He had a tendency to disappear from games in which he didn't start too hot.

Bierofka had a similar problem, which became worsened by his injuries, which kept him out of the squad for many games. Still, he tied with Ludwig as our best goal provider and even scored a vital one near the end against Hertha, and looked pretty solid on the left when fit. His advancing age was starting to become a problem, though, and he had looked a bit slow from time to time.

Savio was a big disappointment. He never got going, neither starting nor coming in from the bench, and in the final part of the season he was dropped altogether. Halfar started horribly, but soon found his place as the main backup winger for our 4-2-3-1 formation, and he started showing some promise in the final half of the season. Aigner wasn't so lucky: he only had one good game in the whole season and was pretty unremarkable otherwise, and that led to his departure at the end of June. Another winger for either wing was one of the priorities for the next season.

Strikers

[font=Courier New]Name                   Apps     Goals    Assists    MoM    Y.C   R.C  Av.Rat.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Djordje Rakic        17(10)         8          3      3      2     0     6.89
Benjamin Lauth        17(7)         4          2      0      1     0     6.77
Kenny Cooper          10(6)         3          4      1      2     0     6.98
Rafa Jordá            15(2)         9          4      4      2     0     7.29[/font]

Our most problematic line, at least until the winter. Cooper and Lauth were the starters at first, but neither did anything special, and Rakic started stealing minutes from them, doing reasonable well. But the goals weren't coming, and we had to look for an alternative. Rafa Jordá arrived, and everything changed. Scoring nine goals in the second half of the season, providing four more and leading the squad in overall average rating, he soon became the star of our striking line. Not bad at all for a winter free transfer. Now it was time to see if he could do the same in a full season, and playing at the top level.

From the other three, Rakic was the only one to come out of the season with any credit left, and only thanks to a decent final stretch after not scoring nor doing anything useful for a long while. Lauth was terrible since the winter, missing easy chances and helping very little in the creation of chances for his companions. And Cooper saw his chances reduced to zero with the arrival of Jordá, and didn't feature at all after the winter break, despite being the best rated of the three for some reason I cannot comprehend. Cooper will surely leave if an offer comes, and Lauth may follow the same route if we can find a better small striker to partner with Jordá and Rakic.

rudel.dietrich · December 15, 2010

Nice work

Back in FM 2007 one of my best managing feats was to take 1860 to a 2 Bundesliga title seven points clear. I had made some money and in the off season I signed some good players (including a young Zoran Tosic). I was feeling pretty good about myself. The next season I finished dead last in the Bundesliga and got fired

Good luck and enjoy this! There will be a lot of pain ahead

Edit: I see that you got a lot of mileage out of Alexander Ludwig. I have met him in person and he looks a lot like Brad Pitt. I will leave with that weird bit of trivia :o

Dalbeider · December 15, 2010

Haha, yeah, Ludwig's ingame pic (from the cut-out megapack from the Skinning forum) also made me think of Pitt . He was great in the 2.Bundesliga for sure, now let's see if he can keep it up in the top level. Next season's going to be tough for sure, I'd settle for a 15th place right here and now without hesitating. But I'm hopeful.

Thanks for reading and for the good wishes!

* * *

May 14th, 2011

The red side of München soon stole the spotlight from us, as Bayern secured the Bundesliga title in the last game of the season. Wolfsburg and Leverkusen would join them in the Champions League next season, with Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern slotting into the Euro Cup positions. St. Pauli and Nürnberg relegated, while Werder Bremen would have to fight for survival against Fürth. That was a big failure of a season for die Grün-Weissen.

Meanwhile, in the 3.Liga, Erfurt and Hansa Rostock secured promotion, while Unterhaching would become Fortuna's rivals in the playoff.

May 18th, 2011

Fenerbahçe were the new Europa League champions after winning 5-3 on penalties against Palermo, in a pretty unlikely final held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. The match finished 2-2.

May 21th, 2011

More titles decided: Wolfsburg won the German Cup after defeating Schalke 04 one goal to nil, scored from the penalty spot by Cícero in the 90th minute of the game. Nice. Schalke would still become the third German team in the Euro Cup, thanks to Wolfsburg's already secured Champions League place.

May 28th, 2011

Mortiz Leitner returned from his loan spell in Rostock, having amassed 23 appearances, five assists and a nice average rating of 7.14. He was looking like a very good option for the future already.

The Champions League final was held at Wembley, and Manchester United faced against Real Madrid in a match filled with points of interest, like Cristiano Ronaldo playing against his ex-team in the most important game of the season. Well, he didn't last long, as he was taken out of the field injured with only seventeen minutes gone. To compensate, his ex-understudy Nani sent himself off five minutes later, and Real strolled to a deserved 0-1 win thanks to a goal by Lassana Diarra two minutes into the second half. The game was anything but pretty, though, and the referee had to show *thirteen* yellow cards, plus Nani's red.

May 29th, 2011

Ghvinianidze got the usual call-up by Georgia, but there was a surprise for us that day: Eke Uzoma had done enough to earn a place in the Nigerian national squad, who faced Ethiopia and Malawi in the first days of June.

Unterhaching won their playoff match against Düsseldorf and promoted to the 2.Bundesliga. On the other hand, Fürth lost their matchup against Werder Bremen with an aggregate 6-1 result, and the Green and White secured their place in the Bundesliga.

€2.5M were paid off to the squad as a bonus for their league performance. They deserved every penny of it all.

May 30th, 2011

Time for the end of season awards. Thurk got the Top Goalscorer Award with 21 goals for Augsburg, helping them stay up. Hertha's Raffael won the Best Player Award, just ahead of Nöthe (Fürth) and Dedic (Bochum). Aaaand yours truly was awarded the Manager of the Year Award, with Büskens (Fürth) and Wiesinger (Ingolstadt) as second and third. I was absolutely delighted, to be honest, and also surprised at not seeing Babbel anywhere in the top three. I guess having the best squad takes points off you...

The Team of the Year was also kind to us, with Király being the first pick at goal and Ghvinianidze one of the three best defenders in the league. A nice showing overall.

I also got the chance to see Kai's yearly training report, his last task before the holidays and probably his last task as my assistant before helping me find his own replacement. He signaled Uzoma and Bussmann as the most improved players in our senior squad. After that, the players left on holiday. And so did I, sunny Spain was calling and I heeded that call without hesitation.

June 1st, 2011

Well, there was at least someone who still had a job to do before enjoying the summer: Király got an expected callup by Hungary to play against San Marino.

June 8th, 2011

Uzoma and Király didn't play at all, but Ghvinianidze did well in a 0-0 draw with Georgia against Denmark.

June 19th, 2011

Back to work. First news were good news: we signed a new sponsorship deal for a total amount of €2.57M for one season, almost one full million over our previous contract. With this, coupled with the marked improvement in the club's financial state after promotion and prize money, and predicting a significant increase in the number of season tickets sold throughout the summer, I was expecting a much more generous transfer and wage budget for the upcoming season.

By the way, the board reported that a total of €1.44M had been recouped throughout the last season in membership fees. That number should raise quite a bit next year, too.

The season summary also remarked my good olfactory sense regarding transfers. Two of my signings (Rafa Jordá and Ibrahima Faye) were chosen as the two best signings of the 2.Bundesliga. Yep, proud of that.

But the most interesting thing I found after my return to München was a small headline, announcing that Mexico had sacked José Manuel de la Torre as their national manager. I sent in my CV just in case. If I was really going to make a living of the whole managerial thing, it was a good idea to try and experiment it to the fullest, and an international job was a perfect opportunity to broaden my horizons.

Dalbeider · December 16, 2010

June 20th, 2011

The new season officially started. And no better way to start than announcing the Fans' Player of the Year, which happened to be Mate Ghvinianidze. I wonder if the fans would have chosen him if he hadn't signed a new contract two months before...

Our promotion also brought contractual changes to quite a few players, most of them first team regulars, and all of them in the shape of a 40% wage increase. That could hurt our budget a bit, but it's a necessary evil when you really want to attract the players needed to challenge for promotion.

Our first two games of the season were to be at home against Hamburg and away against Borussia Dortmund. Bayern would play the role of the visitor in the München derby in October, with the return leg scheduled for March.

The TV rights check arrived in the mail, and boy was it big: eleven million euros. Herr Beeck was actually speechless for a few minutes after opening the envelope. Her first words afterwards were, well, not words. More like howls. Happy howls.

After he calmed down a bit, we sat down to talk season expectations and the budget they would bring. It was better than last year, but not as good as I would have expected: one million to spend on transfers, and €300k/week for wages, with the expectation of staying clear of the relegation zone. Still, with our current spending at €237k/week, we had a loot of room to maneuver in.

The new season also brought a new batch of youngsters from the academy into our U18 squad. The best of the bunch according to our coaches was Torben Allgöwer, a quick and nimble 15-year-old striker with enough potential to become a world beater in the future. Christian Demir, also fifteen, and a midfielder with lots of technique and a great skill at taking free kicks, was the second jewel of the 2011 promotion. Lastly, there were hopes that Francis Guindo, another lightning-quick striker one year younger than Allgöwer, could become a very useful player for us in a few years' time. Overall, I was quite satisfied with the results of our youth system.

June 21st, 2011

It was time to start preparing the incoming new season. For starters, there was the issue of the non-playing staff. We needed a new assistant manager, four of five extra coaches, a scout or two, and at least one new physio, since our best one, Oliver Schmidtlein, wasn't willing to extend his deal and would leave the club on the first of July.

Our new assistant manager would be Colin Cooper, a 44-year-old coach who wanted to try the next step up towards becoming a full-fledged manager. A two times international player for England in his days, he played many years at the top level, spending most of his time in Middlesborough and Nottingham Forest. He quickly accepted a three-year deal at €1.8k/week, a bargain for someone of his quality. His tactical knowledge was top-notch, he did a great job in defensive training drills and he was also good at keeping players motivated and at correctly guessing their strenghts and weaknesses. Just what I needed from an assistant manager.

Regarding the rest of the open positions, Bruno Clément joined as a goalkeeping coach, Gary Anderson as a fitness coach, and legendary English striker Andy Cole, Steve Sedgley and Juan Carlos Añón as general coaches. Our new head physio would be Pete Friar, previously a Sunderland man, and one of the best physios available at the moment. Our new scouts were Simon Hunt and Tord Grip, a 73-year-old Swede who had been Sven-Göran Eriksson's right hand for most of his career.

The title odds for the Bundesliga were published by Sky Bet, and the favourites were, of course, current champions FC Bayern at 5-2. The rest of the candidates were very far behind, with Wolfsburg and Leverkusen at 16-1, Stuttgart and Hoffenheim at 20-1 and Hamburg at 25-1. Our odds? 2000-1. Hah.

June 22nd, 2011

With the backstaff sorted out, now we needed to focus on the playing staff. With a few players leaving on free transfers, some others very likely to be sold and a few gaps which already existed, we would need quite a few signings if we were to face the Bundesliga with a competitive squad. Our shopping list for the summer looked like this:

- A center-back, preferably a quick one with good marking abilities.

- Two full backs, one for each wing. The right back had to be defensive-minded.

- A defensive midfielder, two if Ignjovski didn't sign a permanent deal, also defensive-minded.

- An attacking midfielder and/or a winger, preferably someone who could play both roles.

- A quick, small striker.

Both new and old scouts were sent to look for suitable candidates. Since our transfer budget was quite small and half of it would probably be spent on keeping Ignjovski, the preference was for players on expiring deals, or transfer listed with affordable asking prices. Some bids were filled, but we expected heavy competence from other teams for some of our targets.

June 24th, 2011

Shock: Corinthians wanted me. Apparently they had just fired Adílson Batista and I was supposed to be the one chosen to replace him. They offered a pretty lucrative deal with good conditions regarding transfer and wage budgets, but I still had a job to do in München, so I respectfully refused.

June 25th, 2011

Ignjovski's loan was about to end, so we decided to make official our €500k bid to OFK Beograd. It was just a matter of waiting for their response to start negotiating with the player.

June 26th, 2011

Our first confirmed signing of the summer was for the left back position: 30-year-old former Saint-Ettiene player Sylvain Monsoreau agreed to join us on a free transfer. Also able to play on the center of the defense if needed, he would become a more defensive-minded alternative to Faye.

June 27th, 2011

Aww, my application to become Mexico's national manager was rejected. Then again, they chose Javier Aguirre, so it's likely that they knew what they were doing.

Aleksandar Ignjovski became our second signing, joining on a permanent deal worth €500k from OFK Beograd. We already knew him, and we knew he was capable of doing really well for us as a balanced option in our midfield if he could stay fit. He was expected to rotate heavily with Lovin in that position. Being only 20 years old and having potential for futher improvement was certainly a plus.

And the third came immediately after: 25-year-old Czech international Jiri Kladrubsky agreed to join 1860 at the end of his current contract with Sparta Prague. An extremely versatile defensive player, he could play in both wings on the defense, as a central defender or (his favoured position) as a defensive midfielder. He came as a roleplayer that would feature in most lineups in one position or another, although he was very likely to start most games on the right side of our defensive line. Great marker and a physical powerhouse, he was expected to become one of our best defensive-minded players. Sparta received a small €75k fee in compensation for negotiating the deal before the end of his contract.

June 30th, 2011

Our new central defender came from an unlikely place: three times German international Lukas Sinkiewicz agreed a free transfer from our bitter rivals FC Augsburg. The 25 years old center back could also play as a defensive (VERY defensive) midfielder, but his main strenghts were his height and a good amount of pace for someone his size. He would replace Aygün in our defensive rotation, hopefully featuring more than him in the first team.

July 1st, 2011

Players out of contract left the club, loans finished, and the already agreed new signings arrived. All in all, a pretty busy day.

To make the day even more interesting, we managed to land a potential new star for our team: Maximiliano Moralez, 24 years old and ex-Vélez Sársfield, agreed to our offer and joined on a free transfer. An attacking midfielder that could play in both wings and in the middle, fantastic passer and a box full of surprises thanks to his great flair and creativity, he would become the leading man in our attacking line. His wages were a bit above the average, but still affordable for us. He was extremely small, though, and I hoped that he wouldn't be intimidated by the average size of the German defenders.

Moralez wasn't too well known in Europe at that point, but our next signing certainly was: Sebastián Battaglia, a Boca Juniors player throughout most of his career but who spent two not too succesful seasons in Villarreal, joined us on a free transfer in what became our big name signing of the season, and one of the biggest ever in the club's long history. Battaglia was a fantastic defensive midfielder, powerful both physically and mentally, and with enough technical ability to know what to do when the ball falls on his feet. Twelve times international with the Albiceleste and 30 years old, his experience would prove invaluable to keep us in the top tier.

Our seventh and probably last signing wasn't, as we had expected, a forward, but another midfielder: Mourad Meghni, twenty-seven, ex-Lazio man and nine times international with Algeria, joined on a free. A creative midfielder that felt more comfortable in the middle but could also do well on the right wing, he would be used as a quality alternative to Uzoma as the creative force behind our attacking moves. He came with affordable wages and willing to share minutes with the rest of our quality midfielders, which was a plus.

There were few interesting options for the quick striker position, so we decided to let it be for a while, and wait until the scouts uncovered a hidden jewel somewhere. With Jordá, Rakic and Lauth as first options and Schäffler as a half-decent backup in the reserve squad, we weren't that bad upfront. Provided Lauth started scoring sometime in the future, of course.

To close up a hectic day, Herr Beeck decided it was a good moment to offer me a new contract. The deal extended its duration until the end of the 2013/2014 season and almost doubled my wages, raising them to a hefty €13000/week. I answered "JA!" after thinking for exactly 0.34 milliseconds.

Dalbeider · December 17, 2010

Huge post ahead, just to get rid of the preseason as quickly as possible and to get started with the real thing

* * *

July 2nd, 2011

With the signings already dealt with, it was time to sort out our sales. Cooper, Bülow and Biancucchi were transfer listed and offered to various clubs, hoping to spark some interest and received a good amount of money in exchange.

July 3rd, 2011

The season was starting to draw near, and the DFB Pokal 1st round draw was a herald of that fact. The draw was beningn to us, pitting us against fifth-tier outfit Borussia Neunkirchen.

We also received the first update on the season ticket sales. The final amount was expected to increase at a 30% rate over last year's ten thousand, and until that point 5883 tickets had already been sold, so we were on route to meet our objectives.

Offers came for our transfer listed players. Lens wanted Cooper and offered €2M for him, while Biancucchi had attracted the interest of Montpellier, who bid €1.1M. Bülow had a lot of followers, though, all of them offering the requeste amount of €1.2M. All offers were accepted.

---

Brestnik 1948 vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly)

It was also time to start the preseason proper with a three-game tour on Bulgaria. Brestnik were our first opponents, and a chance to see our new signings in action. It only took Moralez four minutes to provoke a penalty kick that the Argentinian starlet himself converted into the 0-1. From then on we controlled the game with ease until Lauth scored the second profiting from a terrible decision by the local keeper. The forward followed it up with a good assist towards Rafa Jordá, who scored the third with a low, placed finish in the 28th. The fourth took its time, but finally Rakic got his goal with a good header after a free kick taken by Bierofka with six minutes remaining on the clock. All in all, an easy and comprehensive win to start the preseason in good spirits.

Brestnick 1948 0

TSV 1860 München 4 (Maximiliano Moralez pen 4, Benjamin Lauth 25, Rafa Jordá 28, Djordje Rakic 84)

July 4th, 2011

A final surprise was awaiting Moralez in Argentina: he was chosen as the Argentinian Premier Division Best Player. Not a bad way to introduce himself in Europe.

July 5th, 2011

Pirin (Blagoevgrad) vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly)

The second game of our Bulgarian tour brought us to Blagoevgrad. Pirin gave us much more trouble than Brestnik, and not only were we unable to take the lead early, but Vasilev gave the home team the lead with a well-placed header after a cross from the right in the 31st minute. We improved noticeably in the second half after our usual switch to a 4-2-3-1, and Rakic hit the crossbar in one of our best chances. The draw came in a corner kick in the 78th, scored by Monsoreau with a good dive, but we couldn't get the lead in the final quarter. A poor showing.

Pirin (Blagoevgrad) 1 (Radan Vasilev 31)

TSV 1860 München 1 (Sylvain Monsoreau 78)

July 6th, 2011

Cooper agreed his move to Lens, and we happily took the €2M the French outfit sent our way for the American.

July 7th, 2011

Bülow was the next to leave, signing a deal with Lorient that would make us €1.2M richer.

---

Cherno More vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly)

We finished our short foray into Bulgaria with a trip to Varna to play against Cherno More. We took some beating in the early minutes, but a quick one-two between Rafa Jordá and Lauth ended with the Spaniard slotting the ball into the net to give us the lead in the 14th minute. The home team kept attacking and finally got their reward when Iliev connected a piledriver from 30 yards away that Király just couldn't stop. The second half was a thrilling affair, with both teams wasting chances left and right. In the end, though, neither managed to score, and the game ended in a pretty fair draw.

Cherno More 1 (Georgi Iliev 32)

TSV 1860 München 1 (Rafa Jordá 14)

July 8th, 2011

The third and last sale was completed when Biancucchi agreed his move to Montpellier, bringing €1.1M to the club's accounts.

With most of the transfer movement completed, we found ourselves around €20k above the weekly wage budget. But the extra income after our three sales had increased our transfer budget to over €2M, so we moved half of that money around to make space for those extra wages, and maybe allow for a final signing if we managed to find a good, cheap striker.

July 9th, 2011

US Orléans vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly)

With little time to rest after returning from Bulgaria we had to fly away to France to face US Orléans, from the French National division. We dominated the first half, with a free kick by Faye that hit the left post being our best chance, but the scoreboard was still 0-0 at half time. We tested the almost forgotten 4-5-1 in the second half, and ten minutes later Halfar gave us the lead after gathering a badly cleared ball inside the box. Orleans tried to get back into the game, but a great cross from the left by Monsoreau was finished by Ludwig to double our lead with only fourteen minutes remaining. That was enough, and we grabbed a deserved win just before finally resting for a full week.

US Orléans 0

TSV 1860 München 2 (Daniel Halfar 55, Alexander Ludwig 76)

July 10th, 2011

Youngster Moritz Leitner, one of our hottest up and coming players, seemed to have sparked the interest of Gladbach, among others, and the lad was making himself wanted by stating in the press that he would be happy to discuss terms with them, provided they came with a big enough offer. His deal still had three years left, so if he was to go, we were sure to earn big money for him. His market value by then was around 3.5 million.

July 12th, 2011

Problems. Mainz made a €650k plus 30% of a future sale for Bussmann, our young and promising goalkeeper. We rejected it immediately, but the last thing I needed at that point was for a bid war to start and destabilize the youngster.

July 15th, 2011

KSV Roeselare vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly)

Only two friendlies remained, and the next brought us to Belgium to play against Roeselare. Faye started the game hitting the post *again* with a direct free kick. Once again we had to work hard for our first goal, which came in the 44th after a delicious backheel pass by Lauth towards Bierofka, who finished the play with a nice right-footed finish. We kept dominating after the break, but a loose ball inside our box fell to Piette for an easy finish, and Roeselare pulled level in the 58th. Tiago Freitas sent a great chance into the woodwork in injury time, and the game ended in a draw.

KSV Roeselare 1 (Andries Piette 58)

TSV 1860 München 1 (Daniel Bierofka 44)

July 19th, 2011

TSV 1860 München vs. FC Nantes (Friendly)

The last friendly of the preseason was at home, introducing our squad to the fans in a promising match against Nantes. Things didn't start exactly well, as Béda failed to control an easy backpass by Faye and allowed Rodelin to score with ease beating Király in the one on one. We attacked continuously from then on, and finally found our prize when Ludwig went to the right and passed back towards the middle, where Moralez shot first time to draw the game.

We got ahead early in the second half when Rakic created a huge space in the middle of the defense that Lauth used to score with a perfectly placed finish. Only two minutes later the two forwards combined again, with Rakic crossing from the left and Lauth just putting his foot in to score the 3-1. Rakic almost got a third assist near the end, but Meghni sent his shot into the crossbar. A good victory in the end, and a nice way to end the preseason.

TSV 1860 München 3 (Maximiliano Moralez 35, Benjamin Lauth 56 58)

FC Nantes 1 (Ronny Rodelin 9)

---

Not a bad preseason all in all. Those three 1-1 draws should probably have been wins, but I didn't complain too loud about it. The new guys seemed to be settling in well, and Moralez was looking quality already with two goals despite playing most of the time on the wing. That would change once the real thing started, though: he was to be the sure starter behind Rafa Jordá every time we played the 4-2-3-1. The best news, though, was Lauth's resurrection, leading the scoring charts in the preseason with three goals, tied with Jordá, and looking like thrice the player he was in the second half of the last season.

Dalbeider · December 18, 2010

July 20th, 2011

Brazil's manager Mario Menezes was sacked after a pretty bad performance in the Copa América. I sent in a cheeky application, just in case, but if Mexico didn't want me Brazil was going to be even tougher.

July 21st, 2011

Time to decide the squad bonuses for the season. The league bonus was set at €2M, and the cup one remained at €500k. So, same as last year's. I expected Herr Beeck to be a bit less tightfisted with the club now raking the money, but alas.

July 23rd, 2011

Mo' money for us, this time Nürnberg paid €1.4M for reserve midfielder Dominik Stahl. He was never going to make the first team with so many quality midfielders in there, so he was sold for a tidy sum.

July 24th, 2011

The season ticket sales were going even better than expected: almost 14000 had been sold, and there was still a little time for that number to increase.

July 25th, 2011

No surprises: Brazil appointed Felipão as their new (old?) manager. Our international debut will have to wait.

July 30th, 2011

The draw for the second round of the DFB Pokal was held one day before our first round match. We weren't so lucky this time: we'd face either Union Berlin (unlikely) or Bayer Leverkusen (very likely). At least we'd play at home. Provided we won the first round, of course.

Said and done: Leverkusen easily won 0-3, and were already waiting for us in the next round. We couldn't disappoint them, couldn't we?

July 31st, 2011

Borussia Neunkirchen vs. TSV 1860 München (DFB Pokal 1st round)

The season finally started for real, and as it's traditional, it did so with an easy cup tie against a fifth tier team. The only thing I said to the players before the game was "Remember Hallescher".

***

NEUNKIRCHEN (4-4-2): Thomas Wiener (GK); Jeremy Groß (DR), Daniel Schommer (DL), Kai von der Gathen (DCr), Peter Ochs (DCl); Manuel Koch (MR), Sascha Wille (ML), Max Bode (MCr), Uli Bindewald (MCl); Thomas Ullrich (STr), Sascha Ropic (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-4-2): Philipp Tschauner (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Maximiliano Moralez (MR), Daniel Bierofka (ML), Sebastian Battaglia (MCr), Mourad Meghni (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

***

We took the chance to play with as many new signings as we could get away with, with only new-old guy Ignjovski remaining on the bench. Four minutes in and Sinkiewicz got really close to a lightning-quick debut goal with a powerful header that bounced on the woodwork, after a corner kick masterfully taken by Bierofka. Next to try was Moralez, with a low effort from the right side of the box that went narrowly wide.

Rafa Jordá should have buried it after battling for possession inside the box and winning, but his finish, somewhat disturbed by a defender, went licking the outside of the far post. It looked like we had finally got ahead when Lauth headed in a great cross by Moralez, but the referee signaled a foul by the forward, who jumped unfairly with his marker. Only one minute later Ochs clearly tripped Rafa Jordá inside the box and the referee awarded us a penalty kick that no one dared to discuss. Kladrubsky took the kick, aiming for a debut goal, but blasted it horribly high and wide.

Finally, in the 20th minute, a cross from the left by Bierofka gained the back of the defense, Rafa Jordá got there first and stretched to push it into the net to give us the lead. Two minutes later Moralez wasted another good chance with another good low shot that also went narrowly wide. In the 27th Battaglia won a high ball in the midfield and headed it towards Lauth, who dribbled past a very advanced Wiener and shot unopposed... into the post. Gah.

Bierofka tried luck from a free kick and sent the ball just a little bit too high. And in the last minute of the half a great cross by Bierofka was controlled and half-volleyed by Rafa Jordá a mere three meters from the goal line, but the Spaniard found Wiener on the way. Incredibly, the first half ended with us leading only by one goal.

HALF TIME - 0-1

Things made a 180º turn after the break: no shots at goal in the first quarter of an hour. That prompted us to make some changes, introducing Uzoma, Ludwig and Ignjovski into the game in the places of Meghni, Lauth and Battaglia, moving us to a 4-2-3-1. Just before them, though, Bierofka had a great opportunity after a good pass by Lauth, but shot wide.

Things improved, but the goalscoring chances didn't appear, with only Uzoma trying luck from afar and sending the ball clearly wide. A header by Sinkiewicz in a corner kick that went into the sidenetting was the last action of a total waste of forty-five minutes. At least we won.

***

Borussia Neunkirchen 0

TSV 1860 München 1 (Rafa Jordá 20)

---

Don't get me wrong, it was a very easy win and we were never in danger of losing, or even of conceding a single goal. But still, it felt so... short. Good debut for all the new guys, except Kladrubsky. Worst penalty kick I had seen until then. We were awarded €100k for our win, which is always a good thing.

Dalbeider · December 20, 2010

August 1st, 2011

Hm, wow. Manchester City came in with a €2.9M plus 30% of future profits for Leitner. I was certainly tempted, but decided to play their hand a bit more: I negotiated asking for €5M, plus that same 30%.

August 2nd, 2011

Double wow: they accepted. Leitner was looking promising, but this looked like the perfect chance to grab the money and run. Offer accepted. This could become the highest fee ever received by the club.

August 4th, 2011

The first round of international callups of the season came in, and Király and Ghvinianidze were joined by new guys Kladrubsky and Meghni, called up by the Czech Republic and Algeria respectively. Battaglia was left out of the Argentinian side by Sergio Batista, a shame.

August 5th, 2011

Leitner decided to join Manchester City. We got the hefty amount of €5M upfront, plus the promise of the 30% of any future profits the Sky Blues may get out of him. It looked like a great deal to me at the time, to be honest.

August 6th, 2011

TSV 1860 München vs. Hamburger SV (Bundesliga, 1/34)

Here we go again. The first Bundesliga match for 1860 in a looong time brought HSV to the Allianz-Arena. Among the early season favourites, they were expected to be a pretty harsh test for our chances of survival in the top tier.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Eke Uzoma (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Maximiliano Moralez (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Rafa Jordá (ST)

HSV (4-4-2 diamond): Jaroslav Drobný (GK); Vegar Eggen Hegenstad (DR), Felix Bastians (DL), Heiko Westermann (DCr), Joris Mathijsen (DCl); Diego Castaño (DMC), Robert Koren (MR), Marcell Jansen (ML), Zé Roberto (AMC); Ruud van Nistelrooy (STr), Mladen Petric (STl)

***

For being our first taste of what the Bundesliga has to offer in terms of player quality, HSV's lineup was quite on the scary side. And our awakening was certainly rude: with only 57 seconds gone, Zé Roberto whipped a free kick from the right wing and Koren outjumped Uzoma to head the ball in and give HSV the lead.

We reacted well, though, controlling possession for the first fifteen minutes without much trouble, although creating little danger. That is, until Rafa Jordá received from Ghvinianidze near the edge of the box, turned around and rifled an unstoppable piledriver past Drobný to draw the game. Hamburg answerd quickly with a similar effort by ultra-veteran van Nistelrooy, but Király was equal to his shot with a good save with his fists.

Battaglia took the job of shadowing Zé Roberto across the field, but still had time to send good balls towards Rafa Jordá, who tried another shot from the front of the area and met Drobný's save. The goalkeeper had more work when Uzoma tried a curling left-footed effort from afar, which he stopped by tipping the ball wide for a corner kick. Drobný got lucky after Rafa Jordá stole the ball from a half-asleep Westermann and shooted from really close, since he was just in the way of his shot and could push the ball away in time.

A very wide effort by Petric in the 40th was HSV's first shot at goal in a long while. Only one minute later Moralez splitted their defense with a fantastic through ball towards Bierofka, who cut in from the left and blasted the ball into the net with his right foot to put us ahead. And it could have been even better if Ludwig hadn't sent wide a fantastic last-minute chance after a great pass by Jordá. A great first half ended with the best team on the pitch on the lead.

HALF TIME - 2-1

The second half followed the same pattern, with us in control and creating good chances from the start. Battaglia had the first with a high shot after a good movement that allowed him to enter the box almost unopposed. HSV looked out of it, and we decided to reinforce our midfield with some fresh blood, bringing Lovin and Meghni in replacing Uzoma and Bierofka. Meghni took the spot behind Jordá, while Moralez moved to the left.

Our two Argentinians connected, with Battaglia assisting and Moralez cutting in from the left and crossing towards Meghni, who tried to finish the job but found the post in the way. Lauth replaced a pretty tired Jordá a bit later. HSV finally showed their face near our box in the 73rd with a very wide attempt by Jansen, their most dangerous player thus far. Choupo-Moting, who had replaced van Nistelrooy a bit earlier, had a better one after a bad clearance by Béda, but sent the ball narrowly wide to the right of Király's goal.

Trochowski gave us a pretty bad scare with a 30-yard cannonball that went wide by inches, and Király saved another good chance for Choupo-Moting five minutes before the end. Their best chance, though, came in injury time, when Petric shot with power from the edge of the box and the ball almost exploded after smashing against the woodwork. We held on in the end, though, and scored three fantastic points in our Bundesliga debut.

***

TSV 1860 München 2 (Rafa Jordá 15, Daniel Bierofka 41)

Hamburger SV 1 (Robert Koren 1)

---

Grrrreat. Starting the season with a win was just fantastic, and our first half performance (first minute aside) was a joy to behold. Moralez was born to play in the hole behind the striker, and Jordá looked in form. All in all, a pretty promising debut.

A shocking result for you all: Kaiserslautern 1-7 Köln. I'm sure the home fans were pretty happy watching that...

August 7th, 2011

The final season ticket sales were announced, and the final number was an annoying 13989. Eleven more and we'd have got the round number. Oh well, stil an increase of almost 40% from last season's sales, and better than what the board expected once again. The attendance to our first home game was also quite good (over 38000), so the season was looking good from a financial point of view already.

August 10th, 2011

Kladrubsky played 30 minutes as a substitute in the Czech Republic's 3-0 win over Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, Király started for Hungary in a 1-2 defeat against Greece, and Ghvinianidze had some time off the bench in Georgia's 2-2 draw against Montenegro.

Dalbeider · December 21, 2010

August 11th, 2011

Surprise, we found our new small striker! Dominique Malonga, a 22-year-old French forward who could also play as an attacking midfielder or as a left winger, and whose best assets were his great finishing, decent dribbling, dangerous long shots and quite good pace, joined from Cesena. He was co-owned by Torino, and the whole transfer costed around €1.05M. He was the perfect partner in crime for Rafa Jordá whenever we played with two forwards, and could even work playing on his own up front. His wages were pretty low (around €10k/week) and he didn't expect to play every minute, so he was ideal for our situation. Lauth's minutes were likely to be reduced after his arrival, and Rakic now officially became Jordá's backup, and nothing more.

Villarreal wanted to take our coach Eloy, and were negotiating a deal with him. We'd receive €160k in compensation if he went, and he was pretty replaceable, so I didn't mind that too much.

August 12th, 2011

Yep, there he went. I dipped into the market to look for good coaches that were available, and found not one but two: Cédric Leclouse and John Murtough. Both joined the club almost immediately.

August 13th, 2011

Borussia Dortmund vs. TSV 1860 München (Bundesliga, 2/34)

Not the easiest away game to follow-up on our debut match, but it could have been worse, really. Dortmund were a strong squad, but were expected in midtable, a place were we'd be terribly happy to be at the end of the season.

***

DORTMUND(4-2-3-1): Roman Weidenfeller (GK); Nenad Tomovic (DR), Florian Kringe (DL), Mats Hummels (DCr), Neven Subotic (DCl); Nuri Sahin (MCr), Sebastian Kehl (MCl); Jakub Blaszczykowki (AMR), Mario Götze (AMC), Shinji Kagawa (AML); Lucas Barrios (ST)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Florin Lovin (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Maximiliano Moralez (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Rafa Jordá (ST)

***

As one could expect, Dortmund went all-in from the start, with Götze connecting a good shot from the edge of the box in the first minute that Király punched away with some effort. Five minutes later Kehl tried luck from afar, but his shot was terrible and brought no danger to our goal. Tomovic got closer with a good left-footed shot, but Király did well to push it away from the target. The goalkeeper kept saving us with a great save against Barrios' finish in the 16th, and Sinkiewicz did well to prevent an easy second shot by Götze.

Dortmund's pressure was high and constant, and Sahin was the next to try luck from distance, sending the ball well over. Király did it again after a cross from the right was finished at point blank range by Barrios, throwing himself in front of the shot to prevent the 1-0. The striker finally managed to beat Király in the 31st after a cross by Kagawa, but he was clearly offside and the goal was quickly disallowed.

One minute later, though, Barrios finally found a space between our center backs and ran in, dribbling past Király and slotting it in to finally give Dortmund the lead. Our first chance of the half came in the 43rd, with Bierofka receiving from Moralez and shooting into Weidenfeller's good low save. In injury time Dortmund's defense stood back and allowed Rafa Jordá to run at them, and that almost costed them a goal that only another good save by Weidenfeller prevented. All in all, we couldn't complain too much about the result given both teams' performance in the half.

HALF TIME - 1-0

Dortmund still looked the most dangerous team in the first minutes of the second half, and things made a turn for the worse when Faye saw the second yellow of the game and the obvious red card afterwards. Monsoreau immediately entered the game replacing Moralez, while Malonga came in for Rafa Jordá, looking for speed and counterattacks instead of ball possession.

Sahin got the first shot of the half in the 58th with a very high ball from distance. Meghni replaced Lovin a bit later. Kringe almost got Dortmund's second with a good header in a corner kick, but Kladrubsky cleared the ball off the goal line. Monsoreau had our first shot of the half, but it would have been better if it hadn't ever come: terribly wide to the left.

With little to lose we went forward, but that only lead to bigger spaces at the back, and Barrios almost profited with a narrowly high header after a cross from the left. No one scored in the end, and we had to be thankful for having lost only by one goal.

***

Borussia Dortumund 1 (Lucas Barrios 32)

TSV 1860 München 0 (Ibrahima Faye sent off 55)

---

That was more like it. We were outclassed all over the pitch, and the result should probably have been bigger than that paltry 1-0.

Faye's sending off had been totally avoidable, though, and he was likely to rest for a few games after this. He was fined for 1 week's wages, and an uproar started. Faye declared that he was being treated unfairly, and Lauth jumped to his defense. That set a chain reaction that ended with most of the squad calling on my door to discuss the issue. Some of the conversations were... less than pleasant, shall we leave it at that.

Dalbeider · December 22, 2010

August 21st, 2011

TSV 1860 München vs. 1.FC Köln (Bundesliga, 3/34)

Köln's last away game had ended in a 1-7 victory. Yeah, they were scary, and Podolski was in a fine goalscoring form. Still, our chances of survival depended on good performances at home, and we were willing to repeat our great performance against HSV.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Stefan Buck (DCl); Eke Uzoma (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Maximiliano Moralez (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Dominique Malonga (ST)

KÖLN (4-4-2): Faryd Mondragón (GK); Miso Brecko (DR), Stephan Salger (DL), Geromel (DCr), Youssef Mohamad (DCl); Martin Lanig (MR), Lukas Podoslki (ML), Petit (MCr), Kevin Pannevitz (MCl); Sebastian Freis (STr), Milivoje Novakovic (STl)

***

Malonga got his first start up front ahead of Rafa Jordá, and he soon showed a glimpse of his skill with a good dribble through the middle finished with a narrowly wide low shot. We had the game under control for the first fifteen minutes, limiting Köln to a few counterattacks that brought little danger to our box. But the visitors soon learned which buttons to push to deactivate our midfield, and we found ourselves chasing after the ball before long.

Ludwig still managed to create danger after stealing the ball from Podoslki near Köln's box, but his finish was terrible and the ball went very wide to the left. Köln's first shot at goal was also very wide, a left-footed attempt by Pannevitz that never looked like finding Király's goal. Novakovic got much closer with a narrowly high header after a corner kick in the 30th minute of the game. Uzoma hadn't tried a long shot for a while, but his aim hadn't improved at all: his attempt went well over the bar. The last ten minutes brought no action on either goal, and the first half ended as it started.

HALF TIME - 0-0

We made a small switch during the break: Ludwig and Moralez swapped positions. Lanig started the second half with a high header in a corner kick, but we soon established ourselves and started dominating possession once again. Our first chance of the half was a really good one, a 25 yard piledriver by Battaglia that cannoned off Mondragón's crossbar.

We finally took a step forward and switched to a 4-4-2, bringing Rafa Jordá and Meghni into the game replacing Ludwig and Uzoma. But the effect wasn't the one we expected: Köln got free of our midfield pressure and started attacking again, with Király saving a double chance after a terrible mess inside the box following a corner kick. We recovered quickly, but it took us a long while to start creating danger again, with Rafa Jordá smashing a close-range finish into the back of a defender in the 78th.

Nothing else happened until the last minute of injury time, when Monsoreau tried to cross from the left wing but the ball bent towards the goal, surprising Mondragón and slotting itself into the net to give us a last minute victory. You won't hear me complain.

***

TSV 1860 München 1 (Sylvain Monsoreau 90+4)

1.FC Köln 0

---

Better lucky than dead, as they say. It was a pretty even match that anyone could have won, and in the end we got that final stroke of luck to turn the tide. With six points won out of nine in our first three matches, we sat in a pretty comfortable 9th place.

After the game we got a vote of confidence from Köln's manager, Croatian ex-international player Zvominir Soldo, who claimed that we should be able to stay in the Bundesliga without trouble if we kept our level of play. I was tremendously happy to hear that, for sure.

August 23rd, 2011

Stefan Buck made the Team of the Week, our first appearance in the Bundesliga.

August 26th, 2011

Uh-oh. Király requested a transfer. He didn't state his reasons, but I was sure they had something to do with the Faye affair. He, Battaglia and Sinkiewicz were among the most unhappy members of the squad after the whole debacle. I rejected his request, of course. We couldn't afford to lose our starting goalkeeper at that point.

kerzhakov954 · December 23, 2010

Really enjoyed reading through this, look forward to more. You seem to have a strong enough squad to survive, at least on home form over the past year or so, keep it up.

Dalbeider · December 23, 2010

Thanks a lot, kerzhakov954, and I sincerely hope you're right. Crossing fingers...

* * *

August 27th, 2011

SC Freiburg (12th) vs. TSV 1860 München (9th) (Bundesliga, 4/34)

This was the kind of game that could define our season early on. Freiburg were the main favourites for relegation for most pundits, but they had managed a decent start of the season thanks mostly to their 3-1 win against Mainz in the previous week. Still, they were one of the few teams in the league we had a real chance of defeating at their own stadium.

***

FREIBURG (4-2-3-1 deep): Simon Pouplin (GK); Mensur Mujdza (DR), Olivier Veigneau (DL), Heiko Butscher (DCr), Oliver Barth (DCl); Ivica Banovic (DMCr), Johannes Flum (DMCl); Jan Rosenthal (AMR), Anton Putsila (AMC), Maximilian Nicu (AML); Pa**** Cissé (ST)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Stefan Buck (DCl); Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Mourad Meghni (AMC), Maximiliano Moralez (AML); Rafa Jordá (ST)

***

Some changes were made for this game, the most significant the presence of Meghni in the starting lineup in Bierofka's place, moving Moralez to the wing, and the first start of the season for Ignjovski. Still, neither of them could do anything to stop Flum, who won a loose ball in our half of the field, advanced and shot with power from the edge of the box to give Freiburg an early lead, only three minutes after kick off.

The midfielder tried again with another bending long shot a few minutes later, but this time Király dived well to tip it wide. We got better quickly, though, and soon we started attacking with danger. In the 13th minute Ignjovski justified his purchase and his inclusion in the squad with a fantastic through ball that reached Moralez, and the small Argentinian surged forward and shot low to draw the game.

We kept the game under control, but suffered a serious setback when Ludwig was forced to leave the game injured. Bierofka came in his place, swapping sides with Moralez. Király soon had to dive to save a dangerous shot by Putsila, who had broken in through the middle. The attacking midfielder had another chance after breaking free from Battaglia's mark and receiving inside the box, but he was in a bad position to shoot and Király saved with ease.

We had more possession, but did very little of significance with it. Soon Cissé had another chance for Freiburg, finished with a horrible shot that went miles wide to the right. We finally got a chance of our own, a high header by Ghvinianidze in a corner kick taken by Bierofka, who followed three minutes later with a good dribble and a not so good finish with his left foot, easy for Pouplin to save. A downwards header by Nicu after a good cross by Cissé that Király saved without trouble was the last action of an interesting first half.

HALF TIME - 1-1

Barth quickstarted things for Freiburg with a dangerous-looking low shot from the edge of the box that went wide, but very close to the right post. Bierofka did well again on the left, dribbling easily past Mujdza but sending his shot high and wide. In the 57th minute Putsila gathered the ball outside the box and, withouth thinking too much, unleashed an unstoppable piledriver from 25 yards away that whistled into the back of the net, putting Freiburg ahead once again.

We tried to react quickly once again, with Meghni finding Rafa Jordá inside the box, but the striker couldn't finish the job properly and Pouplin grabbed the ball with ease. Rosenthal tried a long shot but found only air, and we decided to change things around a bit, bringing Malonga and Rakic in a taking Meghni and Rafa Jordá out, moving us to a 4-4-2. But Nicu broke our dreams with a great cross from the left side that Cissé managed to head into the net, scoring the 3-1 with only 22 minutes remaining.

Malonga could have put us close again after receiving from Ignjovski with space ahead, but his shot from the penalty spot was parried by Pouplin and Bierofka couldn't reach the rebound. Putsila almost got us on the counter after a long and high pass from a defender, but thankfully sent his finish wide. A high ball by Monsoreau was our last attempt of the game, which ended in defeat.

***

SC Freiburg 3 (Johannes Flum 3, Anton Putsila 57, Pa**** Cissé 68)

TSV 1860 München 1 (Maximiliano Moralez 13)

---

We had a 63% possession rate, yet Freiburg outshot us 12 to 8, 7 to 3 in on target shots. Pretty poor if you ask me.

Bad news for Ludwig. His groin muscle was torn, and he would have to rest for 5 to 6 weeks.

International callups again, and this time the surprising name was Rukavina, who hadn't played a game for us thus far but who was called by the Serbian manager for their games against North Ireland and the Faroe Islands. Ghvinianidze and Király were also included in their respective national squads.

August 28th, 2011

We were happy with three international players, but then the next day came with another round of callups, and the number raised to eight, a new club record: Faye with Senegal, Battaglia with Argentina, Kladrubsky with the Czech Republic, Uzoma with Nigeria and Meghni with Algeria. Not bad at all.

September 1st, 2011

We started preparing a new formation in training: a narrow 4-1-3-2 without wingers. It would be a while until the players were used to it, though, so it was unlikely we'd use it on a match too soon unless we really had no other choice.

September 3rd, 2011

Kladrubsky, Meghni and Faye made substitute appearances with their respective teams, neither having too much of an impact in their games. Only Senegal won against Lybia, while Algeria surprisingly lost at home against Canada and the Czechs were defeated by Scotland.

September 6th, 2011

Ghvinianidze had a weird day with Georgia. He played only a few minutes off the bench, yet he managed to assist Jano for his nation's only goal of the match. The problem, though, was that Malta scored two. Bittersweet performance, I guess.

September 7th, 2011

We added a new international player to our ranks after Uzoma played his first minutes with the Nigerian squad in a friendly against Kenya, an easy 0-3 win. Kladrubsky once again came off the bench with the Czech Republic, while Battaglia played the whole game with Argentina in a pretty poor 0-0 draw against Belgium.

Dalbeider · December 25, 2010

September 10th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (10th) vs. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (13th) (Bundesliga, 5/34)

A pretty poor start of the season had left Hoffenheim far from their intended top-half position, and instead found themselves looking at the relegation places from much closer than they would have wished. We had a chance to sink them a bit deeper, while pushing ourselves up towards the noble zone of the table.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-4-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Maximiliano Moralez (MR), Daniel Bierofka (ML), Florin Lovin (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl)

HOFFENHEIM (4-5-1): Tom Starke (GK); Andreas Beck (DR), Marvin Compper (DL), Matthias Jaissle (DCr), Josip Simunic (DCl); Isaac Vorsah (DMC), Tobias Weis (MCr), Luiz Gustavo (MCl), Chinedu Obasi (AMR), Yoann Court (AML); Guilherme (ST)

***

For the first time this season we started a 4-4-2 formation, planning on going on the offensive from the start against a pretty out of form Hoffenheim side. Faye returned to the starting eleven after a three-game rest to cool his mind. We started well, but the visitors hit us on the counter any chance they had, with Vorsah sending over the bar their first shot of the game, taken from over thirty yards away. Weis struck wood with a dangerous left-footed effort in the 19th minute, while we kept wasting minutes of possession without creating anything resembling a goalscoring chance.

Two minutes later Sinkiewicz had to leave the field injured, and Ghvinianidze came in his place. Weis struck again from just inside the box and Király had to respond with one of his usual great saves. We finally got some action of our own thanks to Moralez's pace and crossing, sending a good ball towards Bierofka who headed it a bit too high. Jordá tried to bend a shot from the 'D', but the ball went very wide to the right. A final wide shot by Guilherme marked the end of the first half.

HALF TIME - 0-0

The second half was even worse than the first, and the first fifteen minutes went by with little action on either goal. Looking for solutions, we replaced Bierofka and Lovin with Meghni and Battaglia and moved to our new 4-1-3-2, trying to push through the middle. But the ones who got through were Hoffenheim, with Guilherme gathering a good pass by Weis and chipping the ball over Király's half-hearted rush attempt to score the 0-1 in a beautiful fashion.

But our reaction was immediate: Uzoma sent a long ball towards the left wing for Malonga to run into, and the forward crossed low towards Moralez, who shot with his left foot past Starke's attempt to save to draw the game in the 69th, only two minutes after Guilherme's goal. The Brazilian striker tried to regain advantage for his team with a shot from the left side of the box, but the ball went towards the second stand instead of towards the goal.

In the 84th minute Malonga dropped to the left again and crossed towards Rafa Jordá, who tried to volley the ball but was impeded by Simunic: penalty kick and red card for the defender, according to the referee. Hoffenheim protested furiously, of course. Battaglia took it, but the ball smashed against the right post, leaving our conversion ratio at 0/2 for the season. Mlapa almost gave the whole Allianz a heart attack with an overhead kick one minute before the end, but thankfully the ball went over the bar. A fair draw in the end, although we left the pitch cursing our luck.

***

TSV 1860 München 1 (Maximiliano Moralez 69)

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 1 (Guilherme 67, Josip Simunic sent off 84)

---

Those missed penalty kicks were turning into a very annoying thorn on our collective side. The 4-1-3-2 worked fine, although once again we failed to translate our greater possession rate (53-47) into chances (5-14!).

Sinkiewicz only had a bruised rib: 4-5 days of rest and back into the fray.

Dalbeider · December 25, 2010

September 17th, 2011

It had been a while since a rival manager got on my nerves, and Hannover's boss Thomas Tuchel did just that before our match against them, stating that our squad didn't have enough quality to stay in the Bundesliga. Well, considering that they had just won their first game after five tries and were three points behind us...

September 18th, 2011

Hannover 96 (14th) vs. TSV 1860 München (11th) (Bundesliga, 6/34)

Of course Hannover were doing even better than expected, since the press put them in the 16th place come the end of the season. Still, with them having only one win thus far, we felt confident of grabbing something from our visit to the AWD-Arena.

***

HANNOVER (4-4-2): Wolfgang Hesl (GK); Steven Cherundolo (DR), Konstantin Rausch (DL), Karim Haggui (DCr), Emanuel Pogatetz (DCl); Sérgio Pinto (MR), DaMarcus Beasley (ML), Lars Stindl (MCr), Moritz Stoppelkampf (MCl); Jan Schlaudraff (STr), Mikael Forsell (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Mourad Meghni (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCc), Maximiliano Moralez (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

***

Many new things today, including the debut from the start of our new formation and Benjamin Lauth returning to the lineup. Things started quite even, althogu Stoppelkampf had the first chance of the game with a wide long shot from afar. In the 13th minute, though, we struck lucky: Lauth gathered a goal kick and passed towards Rafa Jordá, who stumbled ahead and shot. The ball hit a defender and bounced over Hesl, who couldn't do anything to prevent the 0-1.

From then on we slowed the game down to a crawl, controlling the ball and preventing Hannover from getting back into the game. In the 29th Meghni found Lauth inside the box with a precise pass, but the forward wasn't as precise with his finish and the ball went narrowly wide to the left.

Lauth had a similar chance two minutes later, this time assisted by Uzoma, but wasted it with another poor finish that Hesl tipped wide for a corner kick. He and the Nigerian swapped a few passes afterwards, and Uzoma finished the play with a piledriver that smashed against the crossbar and clear. Hannover finally had a chance in the 42nd, a low shot by Forssell that Király saved with ease. That aside, we kept the game under complete control until the end of the half.

HALF TIME - 0-1

Nothing happend in the second half until Stoppelkampf broke the offside trap and shot right-footed, forcing Király to turn the ball around the post for a corner kick. The goalkeeper did well again against a flat, powerful effort from afar by Beasley, pushing it away from danger. Hannover switched to a 5-3-2, and we responded by replacing Meghni with Ignjovski and Rafa Jordá with Malonga, keeping the same formation.

The game once again slowed down dramatically, and once again we struck lucky to break the stalemate: Lauth entered the box from the left and crossed low towards Ignjovski, whose shot hit a defender and fell to Malonga. The striker only had to push it over the goal line to score the 0-2, and his first goal for 1860.

We brought Lovin into the game in Uzoma's place to tie down any loose ends. Hannover went forward desperately, but only managed a very wide shot by Schulz already in injury time. A solid, if a bit lucky, victory against a direct rival in our fight to avoid relegation.

***

Hannover 96 0

TSV 1860 München 2 (Rafa Jordá 13, Dominique Malonga 71)

---

Great result, and that surely shut Tuchel's big mouth down for a while. Lauth played nicely in his return to the lineup, and looked likely to put new guy Malonga in some difficulties, although now that we were back to playing with two forwards even Rakic was expected to enjoy some minutes from time to time. The result allowed us to climb up to the 8th place, a full seven points ahead of the relegation playoff spot.

Dalbeider · December 27, 2010

September 21st, 2011

TSV 1860 München vs. Bayer 04 Leverkusen (DFB Pokal, 2nd round)

For the second round of the German Cup we welcomed a very dangerous Leverkusen side to the Allianz-Arena. They were just ahead of us in the league table, and they hadn't managed a win in their last three games after a very good start of the season, so we had a chance. Still, the league took priority, so we kept most of our usual starters on the bench.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Antonio Rukavina (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCr), Stefan Buck (DCl); Florin Lovin (MCr), Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCl); Daniel Halfar (AMR), Mourad Meghni (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Djordje Rakic (ST)

LEVERKUSEN (4-4-2 diamond): René Adler (GK); Daniel Schwaab (DR), Bastian Oczipka (DL), Manuel Friedrich (DCr), Leobardo López (DCl); Arturo Vidal (DMC), Sidney Sam (MR), Jonas Borring (ML), Michael Ballack (AMC); Stefan Kießling (STr), Eren Derdiyok (STl)

***

It was the first game of the season for players like Rukavina and Halfar, who hadn't featured at all until that point and would want to prove their worth. Rakic had our first chance quite early, receiving from Meghni in the edge of the box and shooting low and soft into Adler's easy save. But only four minutes into the game we were already trailing: Kießling crossed from the left, Derdiyok outjumped his marker and sent a great header into the crossbar and Ballack pounced on the rebound and pushed it over the line to score the 0-1.

Derdiyok was running rampant that day, and almost grabbed the second with a great run from the midfield line to the inside of our box, dribbling past everyone in his way before shooting over the bar. We had the ball, but Leverkusen destroyed us on the counter whenever they tried. In the 23rd Borring ran down the left flank and crossed towards the heart of the box, where Kießling got ahead of Buck to score the 0-2.

It was time to go forward with everything, and soon Bierofka had a nice chance after a good high ball by Lovin, but headed it over. Leverkusen defended their lead with ease, though, and things looked quite grim for us at half time.

HALF TIME - 0-2

And they got worse, mostly thanks to a terrible fit of bad defending in the 48th minute of the game that allowed Ballack, Kießling and Sam to move the ball around inside our own box as they wished, with the latter shooting and the ball slipping past Király's hands. Horrible. Then, only one minute later, Kießling received a long ball from Vidal and proceded to repeatedly skin every defender that he found in his way before dribbling past Király and scoring the fourth.

With the game already lost Jordá, Kladrubsky and Malonga came in for Rakic, Rukavina and Meghni, all absolutely dire. We managed to at least grab one goal back in the 72nd when Malonga crossed towards Jordá and the striker shot, Adler parried and the ball bounced on the nearby Friedrich and into the net for a quite unlucky own goal. But there wasn't any room for a miracle we didn't deserve, and to add insult to the injury the referee showed a pretty harsh red card to Lovin in the 88th after holding Helmes from behind when the forward approached the box. Ballack sent the free kick wide, and the game finally ended, thankfully.

***

TSV 1860 München 1 (Manuel Friedrich og 72, Florin Lovin sent off 88)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 4 (Michael Ballack 4, Stefan Kießling 24 49, Sidney Sam 48)

---

A nightmare that I tried to forget about as quickly as possible but still haunts my dreams. The only players to come with any credit left out of this game were Ignjovski and Bierofka, the rest were absolutely atrocious in every single possible way. The fans were furious, and they had a right to be. The only way to turn this around would be with a convincing win against Gladbach three days later.

We received €256k for our participation in the cup. Money is always good.

At least someone seemed to enjoy our display: Jupp Heynckes, Leverkusen's legendary manager, was quick to praise our playing style, stating that we had been unlucky to fall so heavily against them. Easy to speak when you've won 1-4, but hey, I'll take it.

Dalbeider · December 28, 2010

September 24th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (8th) vs. Borussia Moenchengladbach (16th) (Bundesliga, 7/34)

Gladbach had had a rough start, for sure. Three draws and three defeats in six games, only scoring three goals in the process, and sitting in the relegation playoff position weren't exactly good news for a team expected to be on the bottom half but far from the relegation battle. Then again, they had only conceded seven goals, so at least their defense was looking decent.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Mourad Meghni (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCc), Maximiliano Moralez (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl)

GLADBACH (4-5-1): Logan Bailly (GK); Tobias Levels (DR), Jean-Sébastien Jaures (DL), Anderson Bamba (DCr), Dante (DCl); Thorben Marx (DMC), Fernando Bob (MCr), Michael Bradley (MCl), Karim Matmour (AMR), Marco Reus (AML), Mohamadou Idrissou (ST)

***

We repeated the same starting eleven that had worked so well against Hannover, only with Malonga upfront instead of Lauth. Surprisingly, Gladbach stormed out of the gates looking for a quick goal, and their first chance came early, in a corner kick that Reus headed horribly wide. The possession was clearly theirs, and soon Matmour tore our defensive line apart with a nice through ball that Fernando Bob gathered before shooting low beneath Király's legs to score the 0-1.

With the lead secured, Gladbach sat back and gave us the ball, waiting to run on the break, like Marx did in the 16th. Thankfully his finish was pretty bad and the ball went high and wide for a goal kick. The game then entered the usual pattern of us having the ball but creating zero chances, while Gladbach tested our goal from time to time.

Marx tried again, this time from a huge distance, and his shot didn't go too far wide to the right. Fernando Bob also tried his luck from afar and got even closer, the ball clipping on the crossbar before going over. We just couldn't go through, and with a final header by Anderson Bamba that Király caught with ease, the first half ended.

HALF TIME - 0-1

Things didn't improve in the first minutes of the second half, and soon Király had to punch another long shot by Fernando Bob over the bar. We had to change things quickly, and soon Lauth and Ignjovski replaced Malonga and Meghni. And they made an instant impact: Moralez fought for a ball near the edge of the box, stole it and passed towards Lauth, who turned around inside the box and blasted it past Bailly to draw the game.

We almost gave it back immediately after Ghvinianidze missed an easy header, allowing Idrissou to cross towards an unmarked Matmour, but the winger's finish was weak and Király saved with ease. Reus had another chance almost immediately after, and once again Király saved his shot. We soon regained the initiative, though, and Moralez got close with a bending shot from outside the box that went a bit too high and a bit too wide, but only just.

Time passed and neither team was able to break the opponent's defensive line, and only Moralez kept trying from distance, although without much luck. Gladbach almost stole the win in injury time with a high header by Dante, and Lauth got a great chance in the last minute of the game after a good dribble but wasted it with a bad finish. A fair draw in the end.

***

TSV 1860 München 1 (Benjamin Lauth 62)

Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 (Fernando Bob 9)

---

Two points wasted in a terrible first half. At least we managed to react in the final half hour, and Lauth finally scored a goal in a competitive match. I wasn't keeping count, but it was surely close to a full year without scoring. Yikes.

September 25th, 2011

Well, it had been a while since I was linked with any club after the whole Corinthians affair, and now news came from Italy that Parma wanted me to replace Pasquale Marino. Parma were dead-last in the Serie A, so his sacking was understandable. Still, I had no interest in going there, not at this point at least.

September 30th, 2011

Faye finally got over his unhappiness after the fine I imposed on him for his sending off. The rest of the squad seemed to have calmed down, too, including Király, who made no further noises regarding his desire to leave.

The first head of the season rolled in the Bundesliga: Armin Veh was sacked by the HSV board after a pretty bad start of the season, with the team sitting 11th on the table, following a 0-2 home defeat against Werder Bremen.

Dalbeider · December 29, 2010

October 1st, 2011

Hertha BSC Berlin (18th) vs. TSV 1860 München (8th) (Bundesliga, 8/34)

Talk about terrible starts. Babbel's boys were doing a reprise of last year's first half of the season, only they had managed to do it even worse: zero points and only one goal scored in the first seven games of the season. We had to win this game, period.

***

HERTHA BSC (4-4-2): Maikel Aerts (GK); Christian Lell (DR), Ronny (DL), Kaká (DCr), Andre Mijatovic (DCl); Valery Domovchiyski (MR), Daniel Beichler (ML), Andreas Neuendorf (MCr), Fabian Lustenberger (MCl); Rob Friend (STr), Adrián Ramos (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Florin Lovin (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

***

Hertha's starting eleven hadn't changed much since the 2.Bundesliga days, and that was probably their downfall. We repeated formation, with Lovin and Lauth in the starting eleven replacing Meghni and Malonga. We got off to a pretty good start, and soon Moralez and Rafa Jordá combined through the middle to create our first chance, although Aerts tipped wide the Spaniard's finish. Hertha responded with a very, very wide long shot by Lustenberger.

The goal kick fell to Uzoma, who sent a quick through ball towards Lauth. The striker was on fire and placed a perfect low shot near the root of the right post to score the 0-1. Hertha tried to react quickly, and soon Király had to dive to save Ramos' dangerous-looking shot from the right side of the box. Mijatovic had a fantastic double chance in a corner kick, but first Király parried his header and then he sent the rebound into the sidenetting.

We managed to dodge Hertha's pressure in the 35th for long enough to create a good chance, a 20-yard effort by Moralez that hit the billboards behind the goal. The rest of the half was a calm affair, and we held on to our advantage until the break with little trouble.

HALF TIME - 0-1

Hertha tried to push forward even more after half time, but the chances kept falling towards our side, with Aerts saving with ease a finish by Rafa Jordá in the 53rd. Time passed with little action on either goal, so we took the chance to bring some fresh legs into the fray: Monsoreau and Meghni replaced Faye and Moralez. But an isolated direct free kick masterfully executed by Mijatovic in the 67th allowed Hertha to draw the game, the ball hitting the post before going in.

It was our turn to try to attack and recover the lead, but our plans suffered a setback when Monsoreau had to leave the match due to injury. Sinkiewicz came in his place, moving Ghvinianidze to the right back and Kladrubsky to the left. In the end neither team created a clear chance to grab the win and the game ended in another 1-1 draw.

***

Hertha BSC Berlin 1 (Andre Mijatovic 67)

TSV 1860 München 1 (Benjamin Lauth 12)

---

So we gifted Hertha their first point of the season with a pretty lackluster performance. There were few reasons to be happy after this, and we were having serious trouble to find any kind of consistency in our game, specially in attack. At least Lauth looked fine.

Monsoreau's injury was just a dead leg, which only kept him out of training for two or three days. With an international break upcoming, it had zero relevance.

October 2nd, 2011

More international call ups, with Uzoma keeping his place in the Nigerian side.

October 5th, 2011

The midfielder was soon joined by Király and Ghvinianidze, as our international host was reduced to only three players this time.

October 7th, 2011

Fabio Capello sacked by the English FA. Justified, in my opinion, since two defeats in a row against Wales and Montenegro in qualifying matches was just one step too far even for Capello. Sweden's national manager, Erik Hamrén, was also sacked in the same day.

October 10th, 2011

Guess who was chosen the new England manager? Yeah, you guessed it right. "Flash 'Arry" Redknapp.

October 11th, 2011

More international heads rollin', and big ones at that. Guus Hiddink was sacked by the Turk FA, Dirk Advocaat was forced to leave his place in the Russian national squad, and (gasp!) Vicente del Bosque was fired as Spain's national manager. What a day... I applied to all three open positions, just in case.

Dalbeider · December 30, 2010

I'm gonna try the absolutely novel and groundbreaking method of breaking up a gigantic post in two parts. You saw it here first, folks. I'm going to the patent office first thing tomorrow morning!

* * *

October 14th, 2011

New HSV manager Ronny Teuber debuts being massacred by Hoffenheim, six goals to one. Tough times ahead for the Hamburg faithful...

October 15th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (9th) vs. FC Bayern München (1st) (Bundesliga 9/34)

There it was, the game every football fan in München had been waiting for for years, a Münchner Derby in the Bundesliga. And it looked like we were toast even before starting: our form hadn't been exactly great following the Leverkusen debacle, while Bayern had notched three consecutive league wins (five counting all competitions) and were comfortable leaders, two points ahead of Wolfsburg and Leverkusen. We needed nothing short of a miracle to get anything out of this, but we would give it our best in any case.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Florin Lovin (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Maximiliano Moralez (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Rafa Jordá (ST)

FC BAYERN (4-2-3-1): Samir Handanovic (GK); Mariano (DR), Edson Braafheid (DL), Martín Demichelis (DCr), Holger Badstuber (DCl); Bastian Schweinsteiger (MCr), Siem de Jong (MCl); Arjen Robben (AMR), Toni Kroos (AMC), Frank Ribéry (AML); Mario Gómez (ST)

***

Back to the 4-2-3-1, we threw the best we had into the pitch hoping for it to be enough to stop a terrifying Bayern side, including the just recovered Ludwig on the right wing. It seemed to work just fine, and we held the ball for the majority of the first ten minutes of the game, keeping the red side of München well at bay in front of an almost full Allianz-Arena.

Bayern slowly started pushing forward, though, and now it was time for our defenders to do their job. But in the 17th everything went to hell: Battaglia stole a ball from Schweinsteiger inside the box in what looked like a clean tackle, but the referee saw a trip somewhere and called for a penalty kick. Ribéry didn't miss, scoring from the spot and giving Bayern the lead.

It was our turn to try and attack, but their defense and midfield worked very well together, making our attempts bounce once and again against their defensive wall, never making a dent. A wide header by Ghvinianidze in the 44th was our only approach, while Bayern only defended, happy with the result. The first half ended with a grand total of two shots at goal between both teams, one of them being a penalty kick.

HALF TIME - 0-1

Things looked a bit better in the first minutes of the second half, and soon Bierofka sent wide a good chance following a nice through ball from Battaglia. Immediately after Robben wasted the easiest chance of his life, heading over the bar a poisoned cross from the left that Király had watched fly over his head. The keeper did much better in the 54th when Ribéry shot from the edge of the box, pushing the ball away with a nice save.

It was time to go all in, and Ludwig and Bierofka were replaced by Uzoma and Lauth, moving us to the 4-1-3-2 formation. Then even worse news hit us: Moralez was injured. Meghni took his place as our most attacking midfielder. Bayern kept hitting us from time to time, with Kroos hitting the woodwork from afar in the 68th and Ribéry failing to score from the rebound thanks to another good save by Király.

A very wide shot by Uzoma in the 70th was our first approach in a long while, and led exactly nowhere. Two minutes later some magic was weaved in our midfield, with Meghni pulling a rabbit from out of nowhere with a fantastic through ball that reached Rafa Jordá inside the box. The Spaniard simply sidestepped to avoid Handanovic and finished the job with a placed shot, scoring a well deserved 1-1.

Bayern brought Olic, Müller and Klose into the game to try and regain their advantage, but fate had another surprise for us in store: Rafa Jordá nodded a goal kick towards Lauth, who was fouled from behind by Demichelis when he was about to face Handanovic one on one. Automatic red card for the defender with nine minutes still left to play.

Our numerical advantage didn't last much, though: Klose fouled Meghni and caused another injury, forcing us to play the final minutes of the game with ten players on the pitch. Bayern almost stole the win with a narrowly high header by Badstuber in injury time, but that was all they could manage. A good draw against a terribly difficult opponent.

***

TSV 1860 München 1 (Rafa Jordá 72)

FC Bayern München 1 (Frank Ribéry pen 17, Martín Demichelis sent off 81)

---

Not a bad result at all, all things taken into consideration, and we also extended our unbeaten league streak to five games. Our third 1-1 draw in a row, though, which was a bit more troubling. The fans were happy, too, specially given our comeback from behind to steal a point from the über-powerful neighbours.

We were also pretty damn lucky with Moralez's and Meghni's injuries, too. Moralez only had a dead leg, so after the usual 2-3 days of rest he'd be fine. Meghni didn't even have that, and the knock he received had no long term repercusions at all.

Dalbeider · December 30, 2010

Second part of today's post, look up for the first.

* * *

[font=Courier New]========================
BUNDESLIGA AFTER 9 GAMES
========================

| Pos   | Inf   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | FC Bayern      |       | 9     | 6     | 2     | 1     | 19    | 9     | +10   | 20    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Leverkusen     |       | 9     | 6     | 2     | 1     | 21    | 13    | +8    | 20    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Wolfsburg      |       | 9     | 5     | 3     | 1     | 14    | 6     | +8    | 18    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Köln           |       | 9     | 5     | 2     | 2     | 15    | 6     | +9    | 17    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Stuttgart      |       | 9     | 5     | 2     | 2     | 13    | 9     | +4    | 17    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Dortmund       |       | 9     | 5     | 1     | 3     | 16    | 9     | +7    | 16    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Kaiserslautern |       | 9     | 5     | 0     | 4     | 12    | 16    | -4    | 15    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Werder Bremen  |       | 9     | 3     | 5     | 1     | 14    | 11    | +3    | 14    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 9th   |       | 1860 München   |       | 9     | 3     | 4     | 2     | 10    | 9     | +1    | 13    | [/b][/color]
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Hoffenheim     |       | 9     | 3     | 2     | 4     | 18    | 15    | +3    | 11    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Frankfurt      |       | 9     | 2     | 5     | 2     | 10    | 11    | -1    | 11    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | HSV            |       | 9     | 3     | 1     | 5     | 10    | 19    | -9    | 10    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Freiburg       |       | 9     | 2     | 3     | 4     | 9     | 14    | -5    | 9     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Gladbach       |       | 9     | 1     | 5     | 3     | 6     | 9     | -3    | 8     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Mainz          |       | 9     | 2     | 1     | 6     | 9     | 14    | -5    | 7     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Schalke        |       | 9     | 1     | 3     | 5     | 4     | 10    | -6    | 6     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Hannover       |       | 9     | 1     | 3     | 5     | 7     | 15    | -8    | 6     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Hertha BSC     |       | 9     | 0     | 2     | 7     | 3     | 15    | -12   | 2     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font]

Not a bad first quarter of the season by any means. Having lost only twice in nine games was quite an achievement for a just promoted team, and our position looked pretty comfortable, even with an outside chance of getting closer to the European places if we managed to chain two or three wins. The top was in fact quite tight, with the top six separated only by four points, although Bayern and Bayer looked a small step ahead of the rest. Hertha were still winless, while Hannover, Schalke and Mainz were looking almost as bad as them.

[font=Courier New]==========================
PLAYER STATS AFTER 9 GAMES
==========================

[u]Average rating (min. 3 games played, league only)[/u]

Benjamin Lauth        [b]7.16[/b] (2[3] apps)
Lukas Sinkiewicz      [b]7.10[/b] (2[1] apps)
Maximiliano Moralez   [b]7.07[/b] (9 apps)
Mate Ghvinianidze     [b]7.03[/b] (7[1] apps)
Mathieu Béda          [b]6.99[/b] (7 apps)


[u]Goals (league only)[/u]

Rafa Jordá            [b]3[/b]
Maximiliano Moralez   [b]2[/b]
Benjamin Lauth        [b]2[/b]
Dominique Malonga     [b]1[/b]
Daniel Bierofka       [b]1[/b]
Sylvain Monsoreau     [b]1[/b]

[u]Assists (league only)[/u]

Maximiliano Moralez   [b]2[/b]
Mourad Meghni         [b]2[/b]
Benjamin Lauth        [b]2[/b]
4 other players       [b]1[/b]

[u]MoM awards (league only)[/u]

Gábor Király          [b]1[/b]
Maximiliano Moralez   [b]1[/b]
Stefan Buck           [b]1[/b]
Benjamin Lauth        [b]1[/b][/font]

October 16th, 2011

The attendance against Bayern was, of course, an all-time record for die Löwen: 69,374 fans filled the Allianz to the brim. How many of those were Bayern fans, though, the statistics didn't tell.

October 17th, 2011

Barça found itself in disarray after Guardiola accepted the offer to become the new Spanish national manager. Most of the staff followed him, and now Wenger was the main candidate for the job. The man himself said that he would be delighted in taking Guardiola's place, despite still being employed by Arsenal. A fun day to spend in the FM forums, for sure.

Lovin strained his wrist in training, and missed the following 7-10 days.

Dalbeider · December 31, 2010

October 23rd, 2011

FC Schalke 04 (16th) vs. TSV 1860 München (9th) (Bundesliga, 10/34)

Magath and his lads were in deep trouble. They had just managed their first win of the season to escape the direct relegation zone, but the manager's head was still too close to the guillotine's blade for his comfort. A defeat at home against us could spell doom for him, and we had a great chance to grab the points and run without looking back.

***

SCHALKE 04 (4-4-2 diamond narrow): Manuel Neuer (GK); Atsuto Uchida (DR), Lasha Salukvadze (DL), Christoph Metzelder (DCr), Benedikt Höwedes (DCl); Christoph Moritz (DMC), Ivan Rakitic (MCr), Julian de Guzman (MCl), José Manuel Jurado (AMC); Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (STr), Erik Jendrisek (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Eke Uzoma (MCr), Mourad Meghni (MCc), Alexander Ludwig (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

***

Despite their situation, Schalke still had enough quality to destroy us if they hit a sweet spot of form, so we had to be wary. Rakitic gave us fair warning with a nice little through ball towards Huntelaar, who shot from a tight angle and could only hit the sidenetting. Schalke controlled the early game with relative ease, and soon Metzelder had a not very frequent chance to shine with a shot from distance that Király had to tip over the bar with an acrobatic save.

Our first chance came in the 18th, a decent header by Ghvinianidze after a corner kick that Neuer saved easily. Lauth looked like his former self for a second when he wasted a perfect opportunity two minutes later, stealing the ball from Salukvadze and facing Neuer all alone, but failing to find the target with his finish. Another hard shot from the edge of the box forced Király to another fingertip save, this time the culprit was de Guzmán. Jendrisek hit another from a similar position after the following corner kick, but the ball flew high above the clouds and very far from its intended target.

De Guzmán tried again, this time with a wide header after a good cross from the right by Höwedes, of all people. We started trying to exploit their weak wings, and soon Ludwig found a good chance with a low first time effort from the edge of the box, barely tipped wide by Neuer. The next chance came through the middle, though, with Uzoma sending a good pass towards Lauth, who shot straight at Neuer's body. A very interesting first half ended, somehow, without goals.

HALF TIME - 0-0

That changed only six minutes into the second half, though: Rafa Jordá broke in from the right and crossed, the ball hitting Metzelder and bouncing towards the far post, where Lauth got first and pushed the ball in to grab the opener. This was Lauth's 50th goal for 1860, a nice milestone to achieve. Two minutes later Ludwig protested for what looked like a stonewall penalty, ignored by the referee.

Schalke poured forward but found few ways to hurt us in the following minutes, and we proceeded to reinforce our midfield by replacing Meghni with Ignjovski and Ludwig with Moralez. Jendrisek found a gap in our defense after a nice pass by Huntelaar, but Király quickly rushed out to grab the ball before the small forward had the chance to shoot. We weren't so lucky in the 65th, though, when de Guzmán found Huntelaar inside the box and the Dutch killer put the ball past Király with a subtle touch, drawing the game.

Meanwhile Jordá had picked up a minor knock and was replaced by Malonga, just in case. The game entered a weird impasse in which neither team dared to attack too much, fearing the response from the other. Farfán broke the stalemate with a weak shot that Király saved with ease.

An injury to Moritz in the final minutes left Schalke with only ten men on the pitch, and we quickly profited from the gap in front of their defense: Moralez ran into the space and sent a through pass towards Lauth, who calmly shot below Neuer's attempt at a rush to score the 1-2 five minutes before the end. Schalke went gung-ho with a desperate 3-2-4 formation, but we held them off with supreme ease, securing three very important away points.

***

FC Schalke 04 1 (Klaas-Jan Huntelaar 65)

TSV 1860 München 2 (Benjamin Lauth 51 85)

---

Best purchase of the season? So far, not selling Benjamin Lauth should count. He was winning points for us almost on his own, with some help from Jordá and Moralez, of course. The win pushed us one place further up and Schalke back into the red zone.

Of course, Magath was immediately sacked. And to make things a bit funnier, guess who was the first name on Schalke's agenda to replace him. Yep, mine. I said "No, thank you!" and returned to my job.

As everyone and his dog expected, Wenger became Barcelona's new manager. Now Arsenal would have to look for someone to replace the French legend, and maybe also for someone to replace Fábregas, since the midfielder was quite likely to follow his mentor back to his home town.

October 25th, 2011

Lauth made the Team of the Week to crown an awesome weekend.

The managerial game of musical chairs continued all across Europe. La Liga leaders Atlético de Madrid lost their manager Quique Flores to Arsenal, and were now forced to look for a replacement. They could sign del Bosque and complete the circle or go for another round.

October 27th, 2011

Tiago Freitas, who hadn't featured at all thus far, was suffering from a sports hernia, and would need a full month of rest to recover.

Well, it wasn't del Bosque, but there wasn't another round in any case: Guus Hiddink would be the new Atlético manager. That closed some of the most intense weeks in recent memory in the top level managerial world.

Dalbeider · January 1, 2011

October 29th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (8th) vs. Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1st) (Bundesliga, 11/34)

Four straight wins and a surprise defeat at home for Bayern last week had propelled Leverkusen to the top spot of the table. We still remembered the 1-4 defeat in the Cup, and of course, wanted revenge. If we would be able to get it was another completely different matter altogether.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

LEVERKUSEN (4-4-2 diamond): René Adler (GK); Daniel Schwaab (DR), Michal Kadlec (DL), Sami Hyypiä (DCr), Stefan Reinartz (DCl); Arturo Vidal (DMC), Sidney Sam (MR), Simon Rolfes (ML), Michael Ballack (AMC); Stefan Kießling (STr), Eren Derdiyok (STl)

***

Leverkusen started with three of their four defenders changed from our cup meeting, while we kept the core of the squad that won in Gelsenkirchen. Our first chance took ten minutes to arrive, but it was a really good one when it finally appeared: Uzoma launched a quick counterattack with a pass towards Lauth, who ran into the box and shot with power into Adler's spectacular save.

The visitors were still getting close to our goal with more frequency, though, Rolfes sending their first real shot at goal very wide to the left. "Mighty Mouse" Moralez was ruling the midfield like always, and with a short pass found Uzoma, who unleashed one of his frequent piledrivers to bend Adler's hands and score the 1-0 in the 20th minute of the game.

The goal didn't stop us from attacking, though, and we kept pushing Leverkusen back into their own half, preventing their attacks at the same time. Uzoma kept pounding Adler from afar, and the keeper did just well enough to tip another dangerous cannonball over the bar in the 27th. Moralez showed his skill with an electric dribble past Kadlec a bit later, but his shot from a tight angle was too easy for the goalkeeper.

Leverkusen seemed dead, but suddenly resurrected after a bad clearance by Sinkiewicz was collected by Rolfes on the left side of the box, and the winger unleashed an unstoppable shot from there to draw the game in the 32nd. We increased our pressure even more, but we only managed a wide shot by Uzoma before the first half ended in a pretty unfair 1-1 draw.

HALF TIME - 1-1

It looked like the players had decided to try to shoot from afar as much as possible, given Adler's weak hands in Uzoma's goal. The first to try in the second half was Ignjovski, from more than 30 yards away and with predictable (and not exactly useful) results. He did better sending the ball to Rafa Jordá and allowing the striker to run at Leverkusen's defense and try a shot from just inside the box, meeting a good save by Adler. Then it was Rafa Jordá's turn to assist Lauth, and the other striker also found Adler in the way of his finish.

We had Leverkusen trapped inside their own box, but whenever they managed to escape for a second they always did so with danger, like when Derdiyok headed over the bar a cross from the left by Kadlec. We were the better team by far, though, and soon Adler had more work, again thanks to a shot by Uzoma, this time low and from the edge of the area after an intelligent backpass by Lauth.

Soon Malonga and Meghni came in to replace the tired Rafa Jordá and Moralez, while Ghvinianidze replaced a quite bad Sinkiewicz. Time kept passing and our dominance started to dillute, and Friedrich gave us a scare with a wide header on a corner kick in the 74th minute. In the 80th minute disaster almost struck: Lauth was signaled a somewhat dubious penalty for a trip on Schürrle, but Ballack was kind enough to send it wide.

We gave Leverkusen our very sincere thanks with a fantastic team movement from the left flank towards the middle finishing with a nice sideways pass by Malonga towards Ignjovski, who shot from well inside the box to score the 2-1 and his first goal for 1860 in the 82nd minute. Ballack kept gaining new fans among our followers with a terrible miss in the 86th, alone against Király.

But in the 88th, the same Ballack showed why he's such a fantastic player, receiving outside the box, moving in and shooting with power with his right foot to beat Király and score a late 2-2 draw. And then, the unbelievable: first minute of injury time, Helmes ran on the counter down the left flank and crossed low towards the heart of the box, where Schürrle arrived unmarked and finished the job with ease to score the 2-3. There wasn't any time left after that, and we fell in a game we had clearly deserved to win.

***

TSV 1860 München 2 (Eke Uzoma 20, Aleksandar Ignjovski 82)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 3 (Simon Rolfes 32, Michael Ballack 88, André Schürrle 90+1)

---

Man of the match: René Adler. Rating: 9.30. That says it all, really. Most unfair result of my career until that point.

November 1st, 2011

Eke Uzoma made our third appearance of the season in the Team of the Week. Adler was there, too. Damn him.

Dalbeider · January 3, 2011

November 5th, 2011

VfL Wolfsburg (2nd) vs. TSV 1860 München (8th) (Bundesliga, 12/34)

Wolfsburg were very probably the most in-form team in the Bundesliga at the moment. Unbeaten since August counting league, cup and Champions League, they weren't leading the table only due to a pretty high number of draws. McLaren was doing a great job there, and stars like Dzeko and Diego made them downright scary. Not the best place to visit after an unfair home defeat, to be sure.

***

WOLFSBURG (4-4-2): Diego Benaglio (GK); Sascha Riether (DR), Marcel Schäfer (DL), Arne Friedrich (DCr), Simon Kjær (DCl); Mike Frantz (MR), Julius Wobay (ML), Makoto Hasebe (MCr), Diego (MCl); Edin Dzeko (STr), Matthew Amoah (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Stefan Buck (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Alexander Ludwig (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

***

We kept our 4-1-3-2 formation, hoping to overwhelm their midfield by sheer numbers. Still, it was Dzeko who got the first change to shoot at goal with a wide long distance effort in the sixth minute, and followed it up with a great header after a free kick crossed into the box from the left that hit the crossbar and bounced clear. The striker was unlucky in those early minutes, and another header following the very next corner kick also rattled the woodwork.

We finally got into the flow of things with a wide bending shot by Moralez in the 13th minute of the game. Wolfsburg answered via Diego, who also shot from distance and met a good and quite easy save by Király. The rhythm slowed down dramatically after that, and the first half just flew by with neither team creating any further goalscoring chances. No goals at half time.

HALF TIME - 0-0

Things reactivated quickly after the restart. A misunderstanding between Rafa Jordá and Moralez ended in a dangerous shot by Diego that Király had to palm away with a great looking save. Hasebe followed it up with a terrible effort from distance, and Wolfsburg kept pushing forward looking for the opener.

We tried to make our midfield sturdier with Lovin and Ignjovski replacing Ludwig and Moralez, and also brought Malonga in to replace a quite anonymous Lauth. Some good defending prevented a dangerous finish by Dzeko, and Frantz could only send the loose ball wide from the right side of the box. The home team were starting to look a bit desperate, clinging on long shots to create danger and never getting near our goal with their attempts. The next to try was Riether, sending the ball clearly over the bar.

But in the 82nd minute all our defensive work went to hell when Kjær outjumped Ghvinianidze to head in a corner kick, giving Wolfsburg the lead. We tried to strike back before time ran out, and Uzoma got close with a long distance shot that went a bit too high. Another corner kick, this time headed by Barzagli, almost doubled Wolfsburg's lead, but the ball went very narrowly wide to the right. After that they just passed the ball around and waited for the game to end.

***

VfL Wolfsburg 1 (Sebastian Kjær 82)

TSV 1860 München 0

---

A shame, really. Our great defensive display was foiled by a single corner kick. We didn't deserve much more out of this game anyway, but stealing a point would have been quite nice.

November 6th, 2011

International call ups were back: Faye, Király, Kladrubsky and Meghni were expected to travel with their respective national teams.

November 10th, 2011

Ghvinianidze joined our international host and the Georgia squad.

November 12th, 2011

Substitute appearances for both Kladrubsky and Meghni, with little time to show their quality on the pitch.

November 16th, 2011

Ghvnianidze and Kladrubsky faced against each other, with the first starting at right back and the second playing the last ten minutes of the game. The Czechs won 1-3. Király also took part in Hungary's 1-1 draw against Belarus in the playoffs for the upcoming European Championship, but couldn't help his team in the penalty shootout that decided the winner.

England fell against Greece in those same playoffs, by the way, after an aggregate 4-2 defeat. Not the best of debuts for 'Arry, huh?

Dalbeider · January 4, 2011

November 19th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (9th) vs. Werder Bremen (5th) (Bundesliga, 13/34)

Another in-form team. Werder, like Wolfsburg before them, hadn't lost a game since August, and were also close to the top of the table. The huge problems of last season forgotten, including the need to win a playoff against Fürth to avoid relegating to the 2.Bundesliga, Werder were once again a dangerous force.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Florin Lovin (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl)

WERDER BREMEN (4-2-3-1): Tim Wiese (GK); Sime Vrsaljko (DR), Sebastian Boenisch (DL), Naldo (DCr), Petri Pasanen (DCl); Torsten Frings (MCr), Philipp Bargfrede (MCl); Marko Marin (AMR), Bosko Jankovic (AMC), Josh Simpson (AML); Claudio Pizarro (ST)

***

Malonga for Lauth was the most noticeable change in our lineup, and it only took one minute and nine seconds to make effect: the French forward ran down the left flank, reached the goal line, stopped, crossed back towards the edge of the box and Moralez gathered the ball to shoot first time and beat Wiese, scoring the 1-0.

Werder were still recovering when Malonga almost scored the second after a run down the right flank by Rafa Jordá, outsmarting defenders and goalkeeper to be the first to reach a loose ball inside the box but finding Naldo in the way of his finish. A suicidal rush out by Wiese, who was looking extremely nervous in those first minutes, left the ball at Uzoma's feet and the goal completely unguarded, but the Nigerian midfielder failed to find the net with his 25-yard chip.

To round up Wiese's terrible performance he completely failed to grab a very long cross into the box by Moralez, the ball bending deviously towards the top left corner of the goal and slotting itself into the net for the 2-0 in the 12th minute of the game. Another counterattack masterfully led by Jordá ended in a wide shot by Lovin, while Werder looked completely lost on the pitch. We happily held onto the ball while the guys with the green shirts chased after it like headless chickens.

In the 33rd minute Rafa Jordá received from Lovin on the edge of the box and performed his trademark turn-around-and-shoot routine, beating Wiese with a well placed shot to score the third of the night. Werder's first approach came in the 38th, and it was a terribly high shot from distance by Bargfrede, so it almost didn't count. A high header by Ghvinianidze on a corner kick came just before a cross from the left by a very active Malonga was headed by the small Uzoma into the crossbar. Our best half of the season thus far ended with a very clear advantage for us.

HALF TIME - 3-0

Schaaf surely screamed his lungs out during half time, because Werder came out looking for a quick way back into the game, with Bargfrede skimming the upside of the bar from distance only two minutes into the second half. But our answer was smashing: Moralez assisted Rafa Jordá who turned around, skinned Pasanen with ease and shot low to score the 4-0 in the very next minute.

The small Argentinian midfielder still had more tricks up his sleeve, initiating a play five minutes later that ended in a cross by Malonga and a point blank header by Jordá that Wiese somehow managed to keep out of the net. The goalkeeper redeemed himself a bit more with yet another good diving save against Jordá, this time after a nice ball by Béda.

With the game in the bag, our two stars of the day left the field amidst a standing ovation, replaced by Lauth and Meghni. The Algerian soon joined the party receiving from Kladrubsky, dribbling past his marker and shooting with power to score the 5-0 in the 66th minute, his first goal wearing the 1860 shirt. Soon it was Ludwig's turn to enter the game, replacing a very solid Uzoma.

Five was enough, and we allowed Werder some breathing space in the final twenty minutes of the game. That relaxation brought us unexpected trouble in the final minutes, when Lauth had to leave the field due to injury, but we still held our clean sheet until the end, securing the biggest win in 1860's recent history.

***

TSV 1860 München 5 (Maximiliano Moralez 2 12, Rafa Jordá 33 48, Mourad Meghni 65)

Werder Bremen 0

---

Simply perfect. Moralez was divine, Jordá was lethal, and the rest of the squad looked rock solid throughout the whole game. Either that, or Werder were terrible. I'll take the first option if you don't mind...

Even Lauth's injury was pretty minor, a mild case of concussion that would keep him out for 5-6 days.

November 20th, 2011

Another head rolled in the Bundesliga. This time it was Michael Skibbe's, who was sacked by the Eintracht Frankfurt board after a pretty bad start of the season, leaving the squad in the 15th place. Once again I was the top favourite to take his place, and once again I denied any kind of interest on the job.

November 22nd, 2011

Rafa Jordá grabbed the Player of the Week award, although Moralez probably deserved it just a wee bit more. Both made the Team of the Week together with Béda.

November 27th, 2011

Boca Juniors hired Maradona as their new manager. Now that was sure to be interesting...

Dalbeider · January 5, 2011

November 27th, 2011

VfB Stuttgart (3rd) vs. TSV 1860 München (9th) (Bundesliga 14/34)

Yet more in-form teams coming our way. Stuttgart was a weird case, though. They were on a five match unbeaten run in the league, extended to eight counting other competitions, but they hadn't won a game at home in almost two months. That gave us some hope of stealing something away from the Mercedes-Benz-Arena

***

STUTTGART (4-4-2): Sven Ulreich (GK); Christian Träsch (DR), Cristian Molinaro (DL), Mathieu Delpierre (DCr), Serdar Tasçi (DCl); Christian Gentner (MR), Adrián Aldrete (ML), Federico Fazio (MCr), Matthias Lehmann (MCl); Pavel Pogrebnyak (STr), Ciprian Marica (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Florin Lovin (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl)

***

Only one change from our winning eleven against Werder, with Faye replacing Monsoreau. Stuttgart struck first, with Pogrebnyak receiving a long pass in the right side of the box, cutting in and shooting wide from a very tight angle. The game was slow, though, and it took us fourteen minutes to get near Ulreich's goal, but when we did it was for good: Faye took a direct free kick near the edge of the box and buried it into the top left corner to give us an early lead.

Stuttgart poured forward immediately, and soon Király had to dive in order to save a ball that, bounced off someone's legs after a huge mess inside the box, was flying towards the back of the net. A high header by Lehmann followed, and the home team looked ready to pound us until we yielded. Fazio followed suit with a dangerous-looking bending shot from afar that went just a tiny bit too far to the left of Király's goal. The best chance was for Pogrebnyak, though, who hit the crossbar with his header after a well measured cross by Molinaro.

We held on with all that we had, watching Gentner head another cross from the left wide in the 34th minute. But finally, in the 38th, Lehmann whipped in a free kick from the left flank and Serdar Tasçi outjumped Faye to draw the game. A very wide shot by Marica on a counterattack and a high header by Pogrebnyak marked the end of the first half.

HALF TIME - 1-1

The second half started much more balanced, with both teams fighting for possession in equal terms and Uzoma having our first shot at goal with a wide effort from the left side of the box. Soon Meghni and Monsoreau replaced Faye and Lovin, both tired and in need of a rest. Uzoma kept trying from distance, this time sending the ball over the bar, while Stuttgart's first half dominance seemed to have gone somewhere quite far away.

Rakic returned to the team after a long absence replacing Jordá in the 70th minute. But in the 75th, in their first approach of the whole second half, Marica nodded a goal kick towards Schieber, who outran Béda with ease and beat Király with a powerful finish to put Stuttgart ahead. We went forward trying to grab a last minute point, and Malonga got close with a header after a cross by Monsoreau that Ulreich caught with ease.

Stuttgart now tried to use quick counterattacks to create trouble for us, Marica heading the first of those over the bar. Ulreich saved the home team with a fantastic dive after Uzoma shot low and with power from the edge of the box after a bad clearance. A last minute chance fell to Rakic thanks to a delicious through ball from Meghni, but the striker wasn't quick enough and Ulreich got first to the ball, smothering it and holding it until the referee signaled the end of the game.

***

VfB Stuttgart 2 (Serdar Tasçi 38, Julian Schieber 76)

TSV 1860 München 1 (Ibrahima Faye 14)

---

Close, but no cigar. We probably deserved a point for our second half performance, but overall we weren't that sharp, and we were pounded to dust in the first forty-five minutes. It was a real shame that we seemed unable to get results with any kind of consistency.

December 1st, 2011

An interesting choice was given to us regarding our sale of Moritz Leitner to Manchester City. The deal included a sell-on clause that sent 30% of the profits to us, but the Citizens were offering a buyout for that fee, paying €3.66M now instead. I thought hard about this one, but in the end I decided to take the money. Leitner was good, but I somehow doubted that City would manage to double his market value before selling him.

kerzhakov954 · January 6, 2011

Keep up the good work mate, really enjoying this. You've had some great results, a few losses of late but they're expected considering you're newly promoted. Sitting in a good position at the minute i think.

Elrithral · January 6, 2011

Poor old Werder, but good old you. I'm impressed with your progress, Dal. I've restarted this challenge on FM11 with Dresden, Strasbourg, Torino, Preston and none of them seem to capture my imagination, I both love and hate this challenge. Good luck and kutgw.

Dalbeider · January 6, 2011

Cheers guys . Yeah, this challenge has been a thorn in my side since it appeared. Heck, 3 out of the 5 stories I've started have been based on it! My worst enemy is always reaching a plateau from which I can't escape no matter what I try. Let's hope I don't come across that with die Löwen. So far, so good...

***

December 3rd, 2011

TSV 1860 München (10th) vs. Eintracht Frankfurt (15th) (Bundesliga, 15/34)

It was kind of funny hearing Eintracht's new manager, Mirko Slomka, trying to tip us as favourites for relegation as we sat eight points ahead of them on the table and after they hadn't managed a single win in their last ten games. Still, he had debuted with a draw, so maybe he expected to do one better against us. We were sure to do our best to avoid that.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Alexander Ludwig (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

EINTRACHT (4-2-3-1 deep): Ralf Fährmann (GK); Patrick Ochs (DR), Giorgos Tzavelas (DL), Maik Franz (DCr), Marko Russ (DCl); Ricardo Clark (DMCr), Pirmin Schwegler (DMCl); Markus Steinhöfer (AMR), Alexander Meier (AMC), Ümit Korkmaz (AML); Ioannis Amanatidis (ST)

***

Things started slow, with Eintracht holding onto the ball and doing nothing worthwhile with it, until in the eighth minute everything went upside down when Béda was fairly sent off after pulling Amanatidis shirt when the Greek was running away from him and straight at Király. We were forced to replace Lauth with Sinkiewicz and switch to a 4-1-3-1.

The visitors needed five more minutes to create their first chance, a high header by Russ on a corner kick. Thankfully, Meier did us a favour by sending himself off in the 14th minute after a reckless two-footed challenge on Moralez, levelling the forces once again. After such a crazy start of the game we went on the offensive, having more of the ball and creeping closer to Fährmann's goal.

After a few minutes without chances on either side, Uzoma wasted our first real approach with a badly high finish after breaking into the box from the left side. The final fifteen minutes were even more boring, and only a horrible miskick by Amanatidis in injury time could be counted as a half-chance. No goals at half time, and deservedly so.

HALF TIME - 0-0

Things looked a bit better after the break, with Rafa Jordá heading a cross by Faye over the bar quite early in the second half. The striker got closer with one of his usual turnaround shots from the edge of the box, but once again the ball went a bit too high. Moralez tried to break through the middle, and almost accomplished his objective after a fantastic dribble, but Fährmann managed to save and hold his shot with a great dive.

A wide shot by Ludwig from the edge of the box was his last action of the game, as he was replaced by Malonga and Meghni replaced Uzoma, moving us to a 4-3-2. Eintracht finally showed signs of life in the 73rd with a header by Amanatidis that Király saved with ease. We kept attacking, but time was running out, and not even Meghni could find the target with a narrowly wide shot from outside the box six minutes before full time. That was our last chance, and the game ended in a very disappointing draw.

***

TSV 1860 München 0 (Mathieu Béda sent off 8)

Eintracht Frankfurt 0 (Alexander Meier sent off 14)

---

The game didn't deserve much more, to be honest, but we still should have won this. The two early sending offs were key in killing any rhythm the game may have had and making everything more difficult for us. Another wasted chance.

Dalbeider · January 9, 2011

December 10th, 2011

1.FC Kaiserslautern (8th) vs. TSV 1860 München (10th) (Bundesliga 16/34)

Direct midtable duel, 'lautern were only three points ahead of us, so a win would put us level with them. The best part, though, was that the fourth place was only two further points ahead. Europe was much closer than we thought would be at this point of the season. Their form was almost as irregular as ours, so anything could happen in this game.

***

KAISERSLAUTERN (4-4-2 defensive): Tobias Sippel (GK); Florian Dick (DR), Alexander Bugera (DL), Martin Amedick (DCr), Rodnei (DCl); Jiri Bilek (DMCr), Bastian Schulz (DMCl), Oliver Kirch (MR), Ivo Ilicevic (ML); Adam Nemec (STr), Matías Suárez (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCl); Florin Lovin (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl); Alexander Ludwig (AMR), Maximiliano Moralez (AMC), Daniel Bierofka (AML); Rafa Jordá (ST)

***

After our recent failures, it was time for a change, so we went back to the 4-2-3-1 that had worked quite well against Bayern back in the day, almost with the same players. The ball was all ours in the first minutes, but somehow the first shot was for Kaiserslautern, a wide powerful effort from inside the box by Nemec. We just weren't getting through, and soon Suárez tested Király with a low shot after skinning Sinkiewicz, well answered by the goalkeeper with a nice diving save.

Bilek followed up with a high thirty yard piledriver that didn't worry us too much. Our first dangerous approach came in the 30th minute, with a good movement on the left by Bierofka and a good low cross that Sippel barely parried before the ball reached Jordá. The best chance of the half fell to Schulz, though, who unleashed a powerful 25-yard shot that Király touched just enough to deflect the ball into the crossbar.

Bilek followed up with another long range cannonball that the Hungarian keeper pushed over the bar. Király still had more work after another good movement by Suárez, who was besting Sinkiewicz every time he got the ball, finished with a powerful but very centered shot that the goalkeeper pushed away with ease. We finally escaped the cage with a fifty-yard long pass by Kladrubsky that found Bierofka on the run behind the defense, but Dick charged his shot in time and deflected it wide for a corner kick. That was all for the first half.

HALF TIME - 0-0

We improved noticeably in the first minutes of the second half, with Lovin soon finding Rafa Jordá near the edge of the box and the striker shooting for Sippel to tip it over the bar. Not much later a loose ball fell to Bierofka near the six-yard box and the winger tried a first time volley, but his shot went wide.

A painful looking knock to Moralez forced us to make some changes, bringing Meghni in his place and also replacing Lovin with Uzoma, trying to increase our creativity, while Malonga replaced a pretty poor Ludwig and exchanged positions with Bierofka. The German winger connected quickly with the French forward with a nice through ball, but Sippel stopped Malonga's finish. He tried again with a good dribble on the left flank, shooting from a tight angle and finding Sippel's gloves in the way once again.

In the 69th Suárez stole the ball from Sinkiewicz in what looked like a clear fool, then ran towards Király and shot over the bar, wasting a great chance to put Kaiserslautern ahead. With fourteen minutes remaining Battaglia had to leave the field due to injury, leaving us with ten men on the pitch for the reminder of the game. We moved Meghni back a bit, changing to a pretty attacking 4-4-1 with advanced wingers.

The home team didn't profit from their superiority at first, and Malonga had a great chance after a beautiful long pass by Meghni, but sent his shot into the sidenetting. The Algerian did it again in the 86th, seeing Rafa Jordá's movement inside the box and sending a marvelous through ball towards him. The Spaniard hit it first time and, with a bit of luck, managed to beat Sippel and put us ahead so close to the end of the game.

We quickly pulled back to try and hold our advantage until full time, while Kaiserslautern tried luck with a terribly high long shot by Bilek. Good defending and a horrible finish by Suárez in their best chance in injury time did the rest, and we fled away from the Fritz-Walter-Stadion with the three points in the bag.

***

1.FC Kaiserslautern 0

TSV 1860 München 1 (Rafa Jordá 86)

---

Very important win, which pulled us just a little bit closer to the fight for the European places. Fifth-placed Köln was only two points away now, and that could be enough to grant us a place in the Euro Cup for the following year. Yeah, dreaming is cheap.

Battaglia had broken his right arm, and his rehabilitation period would last between 3 and 4 weeks. With the winter break about to start he would only miss one official match, so it wasn't that bad.

December 11th, 2011

More rumours pointing towards me, this time coming from back in Spain. Athletic had sacked Caparrós, and I was their main candidate for the job. It was damn tempting to join such an special club, but München was treating me well and I had no reason to leave with things going quite pleasantly for us. So I said no.

December 13th, 2011

Király earnt a place in the Team of the Week after yet another fine performance against Kaiserslautern.

Dalbeider · January 10, 2011

December 17th, 2011

TSV 1860 München (7th) vs. 1.FSV Mainz 05 (17th) (Bundesliga 17/34)

A theoretically quite pleasant way to end the first half of the season and head towards the winter break. Mainz had only earned two points in their last nine league matches and were looking like the most likely candidate to go down together with Hertha, who were still last. A win would leave us in a wonderful position to face the second half of the season looking up rather than down.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Gábor Király (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Aleksandar Ignjovski (DMC), Mourad Meghni (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

MAINZ (4-4-2): Heinz Müller (GK); Niko Bungert (DR), Radoslav Zabavnik (DL), Nana Attakora (DCr), Nikolce Noveski (DCl); Edgar Prib (MR), Elkin Soto (ML), Ludovic Sylvestre (MCr), Miroslav Karhan (MCl); Adam Szalai (STr), Sami Allagui (STl)

***

It was time to return to the 4-1-3-2 against a team we thought we could easily overwhelm just by sheer quality. Rafa Jordá quickstarted things eight minutes in with a good movement inside the box, but finishing it with a quite badly wide finish. Mainz defended with everything they had, forcing us to pass the ball around their box looking for a gap or to shoot from distance, like Ignjovski did in the 14th minute, forcing Müller to a difficult save.

Moralez also tried with a low shot from the edge of the box, but the goalkeeper dived well to save and hold the ball with relative ease. We kept battering them and Müller kept saving them, like he did in the 24th after a good finish by Lauth, turning around and shooting from just inside the box. Meghni followed up with a wide right-footed shot from the right side of the penalty area. Next was Moralez again, this time shooting over the bar from twenty yards away. Despite our total dominance, the first half ended without goals.

HALF TIME - 0-0

We kept trying immediately after the restart, with Lauth once again turning around inside the box but shooting a bit too high. Mainz also tried thir first shot at goal of the game, and fittingly, it was a terribly high effort by Prib from almost thirty yards away. Another combination through the middle between Jordá and Lauth ended with the German shooting from a forced position, easy for Müller to save.

Malonga and Ludwig came into the game replacing Lauth and Meghni, trying to increase our edge upfront in the final half hour. A bit later Faye replaced Monsoreau after the left back picked up a minor knock. We kept trying but we kept failing, with Jordá heading wide a good cross by Kladrubsky as the next example. But finally, eight minutes before the end, Malonga broke in from the left wing and crossed low towards the edge of the box, where Ludwig gathered, shot and scored the 1-0, with some help from a defender that deflected the ball enough to prevent Müller from doing anything.

Mainz gave up right then, and a great through ball by Moralez two minutes before the end allowed Ludwig to shoot low and placed to score his and our second goal of the day. Mainz had a final chance to claw one back in the 90th minute, but Vukcevic sent his shot well wide, and the three points stayed at home.

***

TSV 1860 München 2 (Alexander Ludwig 82 88)

1.FSV Mainz 05 0

---

Ugly, but it worked. Ludwig scored his first two goals of the season in a great performance from the bench, showing the rest of the midfielders exactly what they're supposed to do in this formation. To top it all, another clean sheet, our third in a row and our fourth in the last five games. Not bad.

Dalbeider · January 10, 2011

[font=Courier New]=========================
BUNDESLIGA AFTER 17 GAMES
=========================

| Pos   | Inf   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Leverkusen     |       | 17    | 11    | 4     | 2     | 33    | 19    | +14   | 37    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Wolfsburg      |       | 17    | 9     | 5     | 3     | 27    | 14    | +13   | 32    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Stuttgart      |       | 17    | 8     | 7     | 2     | 25    | 15    | +10   | 31    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Gladbach       |       | 17    | 8     | 6     | 3     | 18    | 12    | +6    | 30    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | FC Bayern      |       | 17    | 8     | 4     | 5     | 29    | 19    | +10   | 28    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Köln           |       | 17    | 8     | 4     | 5     | 27    | 21    | +6    | 28    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 7th   |       | 1860 München   |       | 17    | 7     | 5     | 5     | 23    | 16    | +7    | 26    |[/b][/color] 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Kaiserslautern |       | 17    | 8     | 2     | 7     | 23    | 29    | -6    | 26    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Hoffenheim     |       | 17    | 6     | 7     | 4     | 29    | 20    | +9    | 25    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | HSV            |       | 17    | 7     | 3     | 7     | 22    | 28    | -6    | 24    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Dortmund       |       | 17    | 6     | 5     | 6     | 21    | 19    | +2    | 23    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Werder Bremen  |       | 17    | 5     | 8     | 4     | 21    | 22    | -1    | 23    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Hannover       |       | 17    | 4     | 6     | 7     | 18    | 22    | -4    | 18    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Freiburg       |       | 17    | 4     | 5     | 8     | 15    | 25    | -10   | 17    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Frankfurt      |       | 17    | 3     | 7     | 7     | 18    | 24    | -6    | 16    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Schalke        |       | 17    | 3     | 5     | 9     | 14    | 22    | -8    | 14    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Mainz          |       | 17    | 2     | 3     | 12    | 14    | 32    | -18   | 9     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Hertha BSC     |       | 17    | 1     | 4     | 12    | 11    | 29    | -18   | 7     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|[/font]

I'm sure nobody at the club would had bet at us being closer to the Champions League than to the relegation playoff with half of the season already gone. Our position was enviable, and a win or two against some key opponents could put us deep into the battle for Europe. There were other reasons to be happy, though: our defense was looking rock solid with the occasional slip, being only behind Gladbach, Wolfsburg and Stuttgart in goals conceded. Our problem was upfront, but we seemed to be working on that lately, with attacking midfielders like Moralez, Ludwig and Meghni joining Jordá and Lauth as our main sources of goals.

With regards to the rest of the league, Leverkusen were looking comfortable upfront, but a defeat in their last game against Gladbach had prevented them from simply running away with the title. Gladbach and Stuttgart were looking really strong as of late, while Bayern had to be the biggest disappointment so far. Werder and Dortmund were sinking rapidly after a good start and could find themselves in trouble if they didn't pull themselves together quickly. At the bottom, the usual suspects (Hertha and Mainz) retained the last two places, and although Schalke remained in the playoff position, they were looking a bit better now, with Frankfurt, Freiburg and Hannover close at hand.

[font=Courier New]
===========================
PLAYER STATS AFTER 17 GAMES
===========================
[u]
Average rating (min. 6 games played, league only)[/u]

Maximiliano Moralez       [b]7.15[/b] (16[1] apps)
Benjamin Lauth            [b]7.11[/b] (7[4] apps)
Mate Ghvinianidze         [b]7.09[/b] (14[2] apps)
Eke Uzoma                 [b]7.01[/b] (13[2] apps)
Rafa Jordá                [b]6.97[/b] (16[1] apps)

[u]
Goals (league only)[/u]

Rafa Jordá                [b]6[/b]
Maximiliano Moralez       [b]4[/b]
Benjamin Lauth            [b]4[/b]
Alexander Ludwig          [b]2[/b]
7 other players           [b]1[/b]

[u]
Assists (league only)[/u]

Maximiliano Moralez       [b]6[/b]
Dominique Malonga         [b]5[/b]
Mourad Meghni             [b]3[/b]
Benjamin Lauth            [b]2[/b]
6 other players           [b]1[/b]

[u]
Man of the match awards (league only)[/u]

Maximiliano Moralez       [b]2[/b]
Benjamin Lauth            [b]2[/b]
Mate Ghvinianidze         [b]1[/b]
Gábor Király              [b]1[/b]
Alexander Ludwig          [b]1[/b]
Stefan Buck               [b]1[/b][/font]

Dalbeider · January 12, 2011

December 20th, 2011

Béda and Ludwig made the last Team of the Week of 2011.

December 24th, 2011

Markus Schupp sacked by Karlsruhe. Half a year too late, if you ask me.

December 30th, 2011

Like every winter, it was time to review our expiring contracts and take some decisions regarding who would stay and who would go.

- Ibrahima Faye: discipline problems aside, the left back had been a solid player for us thus far, but he was 32 already. He was still as quick and strong as ever, and his wage demands were pretty reasonable, so he was offered a one-year extension with a €1k weekly increase, and he immediately accepted.

- Benjamin Lauth: no one would have believed this six months before, but Lauth was once again an important player for us, although one we could replace with relative ease if he was to go. Being 30 years old was a disadvantage for him, but we still offered him a one-year extension keeping the same wage and reducing his squad status from first team member to rotation player, and he was happy to sign the deal.

- Florin Lovin: after a solid year in the 2.Bundesliga, the first tier was looking like a bit too much for the Romanian midfielder. He was still useful as a rotation player and a good all-terrain alternative in our midfield, so he signed another one-year extension, this time with a very small €750/week increase in wages.

- Mathieu Béda: the French defender had been quite solid so far, sending offs aside. At 30 years old, he still had a few good years ahead of him, and like Lovin, signed a one-year extension together with a €750/week increase.

- Stefan Buck, Daniel Halfar, Antonio Rukavina, Sandro Kaiser, Tiago Freitas: all five were backup players, and could be easily replaced if they left, so their contracts were put on hold for now. Buck was the one who was more likely to stay, although his performances thus far when called upon had been mediocre at best.

Tord Grip was also offered a chance to extend his contract one additional year, hopefully keeping him at the club until the end of the 2012/13 season.

---

Bonner SC vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly)

The first of the three winter friendlies arranged brought us to the old capital of the western half of Germany, Bonn, to play against the fourth-tier team Bonner SC.

With a thick layer of snow covering the pitch, we only needed seventeen minutes to take the lead thanks to Uzoma's traditional piledriver from outside the box. Eight minutes later Rafa Jordá profited from a great pass by Moralez to dribble past the keeper and score the second. The Spaniard closed the first half with a great assist towards Lauth, who shot right-footed to score the 0-3, but there was still time for Bonn to take one back before the break, courtesy of a loose ball and Schmadtke, who gathered it to make it 1-3.

The second half started much calmer, but in the 64th a cross by Rakic was headed into the net by Bierofka to restore the three-goal lead to the scoreboard. All in all, a nice run-out to keep the player's legs fit and ready for action.

***

Bonner SC 1 (Sören Schmadtke 45)

TSV 1860 München 4 (Eke Uzoma 17, Rafa Jordá 25, Benjamin Lauth 43, Daniel Bierofka 64)

January 1st, 2012

Happy new year!

The board once again offered me the chance to change my end of season expectations. This time, though, we were way below our wage budget and had no real benefit from raising the bar any further, other than increasing the pressure on the players. So I gave it a pass.

Cristiano Ronaldo swept the end of year awards, winning the Golden Ball, the FIFA Player of the Year and the Best Midfielder awards. Agüero was the Best Striker, Casillas the Best Goalkeeper and Chiellini the Best Defender.

Grip rejected to extend his contract for another year. He didn't state it clearly, but I had the feeling he was thinking about retirement. Understandable, he was 73 after all...

The year started with one piece of terrible news for us, though: Király had knee tendonitis. That meant a four-month long treatment that would leave us without our best goalkeeper for the most important part of the season. That hurt.

January 3rd, 2012

TSV 1860 München vs. DSC Arminia Bielefeld (Friendly)

Bielefeld weren't having a great season in the 2.Bundesliga, sitting 13th on the table, but still were expected to give us more work than Bonn did.

What we didn't expect was that Béda would commit an early penalty on Neuville, allowing the veteran forward to score from the spot in the 11th minute. That helped us take the game seriously, and soon Lauth got a goal disallowed for a clear offside position. The draw came in the 22nd, and in a somewhat unexpected way: Uzoma, in all his 1.68m glory, heading a corner into the net. But when we were already looking forward to the break, the referee decided to steal the spotlight with a very harsh red card on Kladrubsky.

We kept attacking despite that, and five minutes after the break Rakic put us ahead with a great header after a cross by Faye. The Serbian striker played really well that day, and managed to force a clear-cut penalty kick in the 70th minute for Lovin to transform into the 3-1. Not much later a great play by Malonga down the left flank ended in a cross that Bollmann pushed into his own net, making it 4-1. Nobody could tell we were one man down for the whole second half, and we scored a great win, despite the referee needlessly showing eleven yellows and one red in a friendly match.

***

TSV 1860 München 4 (Eke Uzoma 22, Djordje Rakic 50, Florin Lovin pen 70, Markus Bollmann og 73, Jiri Kladrubsky sent off 45+1)

DSC Arminia Bielefeld 1 (Oliver Neuville pen 11)

---

Meanwhile, we kept working towards the future securing our first signing for the next season: 25 years old Swiss international right back Scott Sutter agreed to join on a free transfer at the end of his current contract at Young Boys. His arrival made Rukavina's and Kaiser's chances of survival almost null.

January 6th, 2012

SV Sandhausen vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly)

The midseason break ended with a visit to 3.Liga side Sandhausen.

We dominated the game with ease from the start, but Gospodinov kept his team in the game with a succession of great saves throughout the first half. In the 43rd, though, Danneberg was sent off after picking up the only two yellow cards of the game thus far, and things became a bit easier.

Malonga finally opened the score with an easy finish after a cross by Faye in the 47th, but it took us until the 75th to score the second, also thanks to Malonga, this time assisted by Rakic. That was all in another easy victory.

***

SV Sandhausen 0 (Tim Danneberg sent off 43)

TSV 1860 München 2 (Dominique Malonga 47 75)

January 7th, 2012

There had been some background noise about Uzoma wanting a new contract, and given the good season he was having thus far, he was quickly offered an improved deal, more than doubling his quite low wages and keeping him with us until June of 2015.

January 12th, 2012

Bierofka caught a virus, and would be out of training and as far from the rest of the squad as possible for the following nine to eleven days.

Dalbeider · January 13, 2011

January 14th, 2012

Hamburger SV (10th) vs. TSV 1860 München (7th) (Bundesliga 18/34)

Back to work, and with a very tough opponent to face. HSV hadn't lost in their last four league games, and seemed to finally have found the good streak after a terrible first half of the season. Still, we were looking good as of late, too, so we would go out looking for the win.

***

HSV (4-4-2): Frank Rost (GK); Vegar Eggen Hegenstad (DR), Felix Bastians (DL), Heiko Westermann (DCr), Joris Mathijsen (DCl); Robert Koren (MR), Marcell Jansen (ML), Guy Demel (MCr), Zé Roberto (MCl); Ruud van Nistelrooy (STr), José Paolo Guerrero (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Philipp Tschauner (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Florin Lovin (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl)

***

Of course, HSV had the same idea of attacking from the start, and only two minutes into the game van Nistelrooy sent a header wide after a cross by Jansen from the left. Our turn came next, with Faye whipping in a free kick and Ghvinianidze volleying from a tight angle into the sidenetting. A fantastic strike from afar by Lovin almost gave us the lead in the 8th minute, but the ball bent just enough to hit the left post of Rost's goal.

HSV had the initiative most of the time, though, and Zé Roberto was the next to try from distance, sending the ball narrowly wide to the right. We were slowly being pushed backwards, but that allowed us to run on the counter like Rafa Jordá did in the 22nd minute only to see his shot stopped by Rost. We kept defending well and launching quick strikes towards HSV's half, and with a final low shot by Lovin well held by the goalkeeper we headed towards the dressing room for fifteen minutes of well deserved rest.

HALF TIME - 0-0

The second half started with a clear-cut chance for Jansen as a shot by Zé Roberto bounced towards him inside the box, but the winger found himself forced to shoot with his bad right leg and sent the ball very wide. Jansen did much better in the 55th minute, though, when after a cross from the right by Koren he lunged forward ahead of Kladrubsky and Béda to reach the ball and shoot first time to beat Tschauner and put HSV ahead.

Moralez and Lovin were replaced by Meghni and Ludwig and we prepared to change our mentality to a more attacking one. Ludwig was the first to try luck from distance, sending the ball narrowly high. Soon Lauth took Malonga's place in the field, and almost immediately got a goal disallowed for a clear offside position, following a great pass by Ludwig.

Seven minutes before the end Demel saw his second yellow card of the game and went to take a shower a bit earlier than he would have liked. HSV then went blatantly on the defensive and wasted time until it ran out, sending us to our first defeat in four league matches.

***

Hamburger SV 1 (Marcell Jansen 55, Guy Demel sent off 83)

TSV 1860 München 0

---

Almost there, but once again not good enough to grab something out of this game. A shame. Now we had to start our climb towards the top positions almost from scratch.

January 16th, 2012

Having international players sometimes has a bad side: we lost Faye for a few weeks as he joined the Senegal national team in the Africa Cup of Nations. At least we kept Uzoma...

January 18th, 2012

Uh-oh. Our starting right back, Jiri Kladrubsky, was forced to rest for four weeks due to a sports hernia. Kaiser would have a chance to play in his place.

January 19th, 2012

And it got worse. Philipp Tschauner broke a finger in training, and was expected to miss between five and six weeks. That left Bussmann as our only senior goalkeeper. Ugly.

January 21st, 2012

Sir Alex Ferguson announced that he would retire at the end of the season. For real.

January 22nd, 2012

Ronny Teuber sacked by the HSV board, even though he had improved noticeably on his predecessor's results. I wasn't the favourite to replace him this time. Only the second favourite. Sigh.

Dalbeider · January 14, 2011

January 23rd, 2012

TSV 1860 München (10th) vs. Borussia Dortmund (11th) (Bundesliga, 19/34)

More direct rivals involved in the pretty tight battle for the best places in the midtable. Borussia had been sinking for a while, but had snapped out of their winless streak the previous week with a convincing win against Mainz. Of course, that didn't change our objective: a win.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Björn Bussmann (GK); Sandro Kaiser (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Alexander Ludwig (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

DORTMUND (4-2-3-1): Roman Weidenfeller (GK); Nenad Tomovic (DR), Marcel Schmelzer (DL), Felipe Santana (DCr), Neven Subotic (DCl); Nuri Sahin (MCr), Renan (MCl); Lukasz Piszczek (AMR), Mohamed Zidan (AMC), Kevin Großkreutz (AML); Lucas Barrios (ST)

***

Many surprises in Dortmund's lineup, including the first start for usual reserve Zidan. Meanwhile, we were forced to change both fullbacks and the goalkeeper due to injuries and international callups. We dominated the first minutes, and Uzoma had our first shot at goal with a wide effort after a good combination between Monsoreau and Moralez. The visitors soon pushed forward, though, and Großkreutz was the first to test young Bussmann with a good header that the keeper saved with a secure-looking dive.

Things slowed down somewhat afterwards, and the battle moved to the midfield, with both squads fighting in equal terms for possession of the ball. Moralez broke the stalemate with a good direct free kick that Weidenfeller could barely push away, although he reacted well by rushing out at Ludwig's feet before the midfielder could score from the rebound.

In the 35th minute Nuri Sahin tricked our whole defense with a very short cross towards the near post from a dead ball situation, and Tomovic completed the set piece with a nice header to score the 0-1. The players reacted well, though, and soon Moralez was dribbling through the middle and shooting from the edge of the box, although Weidenfeller did well to save and hold on to the ball. A wide shot by Lauth marked the end of a very tight first half.

HALF TIME - 0-1

We came out from the break with all guns blanzing, and in the first minute Rafa Jordá sent wide a great chance after yet another defence-splitting pass by Moralez. Dortmund smothered our reaction somewhat in the next minutes, and Tomovic had a chance from afar with a narrowly high shot. We kept attacking, but it took time and effort to create chances, and time was starting to become a luxury for us.

Moralez volleyed wide a rebound after a cross by Monsoreau just before Ignjovski, Meghni and Malonga replaced Uzoma, Ludwig and Lauth. Moralez kept creating most of our danger with his silky runs through the middle, although his finishing tended to be a bit off, like in the chance he had in the 65th after finding a great space between the defenders and shooting over the bar.

Dortmund pulled back and started defending with everything while we kept trying. Still, Zidan managed a dangerous-looking wide shot in the 88th minute, while we constantly smashed ourselves against their defensive wall. Even Battaglia joined the attack in the final minutes, but could only manage a wide shot from the edge of the box in the 89th. It was all for nothing in the end, and Dortmund got away with the points.

***

TSV 1860 München 0

Borussia Dortmund 1 (Nenad Tomovic 35)

---

Uh-oh, problems. Two defeats in a row was something almost unheard of until that point. We'd do well to forget about delusions of European grandeur and start working on securing our survival first. So far, we were achieving neither.

Bussmann didn't look too bad on his debut, but he seemed a bit nervous and unable to catch some easy crosses. We started looking in the market to see if there was any good goalkeeper available, both as a short-term solution and as a long-term alternative for the aging Király. Tschauner and Bussmann were decent, but not good enough to start regularly in the Bundesliga.

January 26th, 2011

The chosen one was Sinan Bolat, a 23 years old Turk goalkeeper playing for Standard de Liège. He came on a €16k/week contract and expecting to play most games, and costed €1.7M in transfer fees. He was good enough then and was expected to improve in the future.

Faye took part in Senegal's destruction of Tunisia in the Africa Cup of Nations, with the impressive final result being 6-1.

gavrenwick · January 14, 2011

I love German football, and this is such a nice little story. Great to see you doing so well in the league so far, Dalbe. Good luck for the rest of season!

Dalbeider · January 15, 2011

German football is great, and the Bundesliga is a blast to play in. And thanks for those good wishes, gav. Looks like I'm going to need 'em...

* * *

January 28th, 2011

1.FC Köln (6th) vs. TSV 1860 München (11th) (Bundesliga, 20/34)

Tough task ahead of us. Köln were an in-form team, unlike Dortmund, and had climbed to the top thanks to their good results as of late. We'd have to improve lots over our last performances if we were to get anything out of this game.

***

KÖLN (4-4-2): Faryd Mondragón (GK); Andrézinho (DR), Jean-Patrick Abouna (DL), Geromel (DCr), Youssef Mohamad (DCl); Sebastian Freis (MR), Daniel Caligiuri (ML), Taner Yalçin (MCr), Kevin Pezzoni (MCl); Alexandru Ionitá (STr), Lukas Podolski (STl)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-2-3-1): Björn Bussmann (GK); Sandro Kaiser (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCl); Eke Uzoma (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl); Maximiliano Moralez (AMR), Mourad Meghni (AMC), Dominique Malonga (AML); Djordje Rakic (ST)

***

Bolat's transfer hadn't been completed yet, so Bussmann was still our only available goalkeeper. We switched to a 4-2-3-1 and gave Rakic some minutes, given Jordá's lack of accuracy as of late. Köln started the hostilities quickly with a wide 30-yard effort by Yalçin with little more than twenty seconds gone. Not much later Podolski tried luck from the edge of the box after a corner was refused by the defense, but the shot was weak and centered and Bussmann saved with ease.

Podolski created more danger with a cross from the left that Freis converted in a goal with a subtle touch, although from a clear offside position. Still, Köln were dominating us with ease, and Ionitá had their fourth chance in ten minutes with a very wide shot from just inside the box. Yet we survived, and little by little we managed to get more of the ball and even started creating some half-chances from counterattacs.

Köln needed thirteen more minutes to find their next chance, a flat long shot by Podolski that Bussmann gathered well. But in the 28th, the referee signaled a very harsh foul by Ghvinianidze on Podolski inside the box, pointing towards the spot despite our protests. Podolski himself took the kick and scored with ease, putting Köln ahead.

It got worse in the 34th, when a bad pass by Uzoma inside our own box allowed Podoslki to recover the ball and shoot, scoring the second. Only then we showed some signs of life in attack, with Uzoma assisting Malonga who cut in from the left and scored a great goal, which the referee promptly disallowed since the forward was offside.

A high ball by Sinkiewicz after a rebound followed, but in the 44th both Ghvinianidze and Ionitá failed to head a cross from the right and the ball fell to an unmarked Podoslki, who rifled it in with power to seal his hattrick and score the 3-0. Our worst first half of the season, by far.

HALF TIME - 3-0

The 4-2-3-1 was a clear failure, so we went back to the tested but not too effective 4-1-3-2. But whatever our tactical disposition, Meghni's two-footed challenge four minutes into the second half was a stonewall red card, and the referee agreed, sending the Algerian midfielder off. Ludwig replaced Rakic and we kept the same formation with Malonga alone up front.

Now Köln were free to do whatever they pleased with us, and Ionitá wasted a great chance for the 4-0 with a high header after a great run and cross down the right flank by Freis. Ignjovski and Lovin replaced Moralez and Uzoma, as we settled for escaping the game without conceding any more goals. Another high header by Ionitá followed, this time in a corner kick, and not much later Battaglia cleared off the line another header in another corner kick, this time by Mohamad.

Köln finally relaxed and we took the chance to finally get one shot at goal, a high effort by Malonga after a good run down the middle channel. Ten minutes before the end, though, a free kick taken low from the left side of the box was gathered by Chihi, who had time to turn around and shoot from the edge of the small box to score the fourth. Mondragón finally had some work after another great run through the middle by Malonga, and he resolved it without any trouble with a good diving save. Thankfully, the game ended shortly after, ending our agony.

***

1.FC Köln 4 (Lukas Podolski pen 28 34 44, Adil Chihi 80)

TSV 1860 München 0 (Mourad Meghni sent off 49)

---

No comment needed, I think.

Meghni earned a very well deserved 1-week fine for his violent behaviour, and at least he had the good sense of not complaining about it.

Dalbeider · January 17, 2011

February 4th, 2012

TSV 1860 München (13th) vs. SC Freiburg (14th) (Bundesliga, 21/34)

Our last chance to react if we didn't want to be brough down into a relegation battle. We were still far from the main contenders, but Freiburg was only three points behind, and despite having lost at home against 17th-placed Mainz last week, before that they had chained four games undefeated. A win was a necessity.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Sandro Kaiser (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Florin Lovin (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

FREIBURG (4-2-3-1 deep): Simon Pouplin (GK); Mensur Mujdza (DR), Pieter-Jan Monteyne (DL), Ömer Toprak (DCr), Heico Butscher (DCl); Ivica Banovic (DMCr), Johannes Flum (DMCl); Yacine Abdessadki (AMR), Zvonko Pamic (AMC), Maximilian Nicu (AML); Pa**** Cissé (ST)

***

Bolat's debut on goal came in a key moment, and he would be examined carefully by the fans. We dominated the early game while Freiburg defended well, preventing us from creating danger. In fact, the first shot at goal was for the visitors, a wide free kick by Banovic, and took almost nineteen minutes to appear. Three minutes later Nicu tried a right-footed powerful shot from the left side of the box, but the ball sailed miles over the bar, while Bolat still awaited his chance to show his shotstopping skills.

Our first chance arrived in the 26th, but we didn't need any more to open the score: Uzoma sent a quick through ball through the middle towards Lauth, who skillfully dribbled past Pouplin and calmly passed the ball into the back of the net. The goal didn't change either team's attitude, and ten minutes later Lovin found Rafa Jordá in the edge of the box, and, oh, you know the rest: turn around, shoot, goal, all that stuff.

With two shots at goal we had two goals, a world of difference with our previous fixtures. Moralez, who hadn't appeared until then, was the first to miss a shot, sending a powerful turnaround effort from the edge of the box over the bar. The half ended and we held a very comfortable lead.

HALF TIME - 2-0

Freiburg tried to attack more in the first minutes of the second half, mostly by sending crosses towards the heart of the box where Cissé tried and failed to beat Sinkiewicz, who was having a great game. The striker did better assisting Pamic in the 55th minute, and the attacking midfielder was the first to test Bolat's reflexes with a placed shot that the Turk tipped wide for a corner kick.

Our first shot of the half was for Moralez, a low effort after a cross by Lauth that Pouplin saved with ease. Ludwig came in Moralez's place a bit later, while Malonga replaced an excellent Rafa Jordá, once again looking like a lethal striker. Freiburg looked unable to create danger, and we happily kept the ball for a while, killing the game minute by minute. Only Lovin broke the boredom with a good bending shot that hit the sidenetting of Pouplin's goal ten minutes before the end. Nothing else of relevance happened, and we secured an easier than expected win to heal our recent wounds.

***

TSV 1860 München 2 (Benjamin Lauth 26, Rafa Jordá 36)

SC Freiburg 0

---

Just what the doctor ordered. An easy win to break the fall and maybe give us a push towards the top half once again. Freiburg looked absolutely lifeless, and were likely to find themselves in trouble unless they improved drastically.

Meghni got two additional matches added to his automatic ban after his sending off. Deserved, no question.

February 5th, 2012

Faye's and Senegal's adventure in the Africa Cup of Nations ended after losing 2-1 against Nigeria in the quarterfinals. Faye played a few minutes as a substitute, completing a solid championship.

February 7th, 2012

Rafa Jordá and Uzoma made the Team of the Week.

February 9th, 2012

The DFB Pokal semis were drawn, with Gladbach being heavy underdogs against Bayern in the first, and Hoffenheim and Stuttgart ducking it out for a place in the final in the other.

Sinkiewicz collided with Tiago Freitas in training and picked up a bruise in the ribs that would keep him out of contention for 5-6 days. Nothing too serious, thankfully.

Dalbeider · January 18, 2011

February 11th, 2012

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (8th) vs. TSV 1860 München (10th) (Bundesliga, 22/34)

Despite their good performance in the cup, Hoffenheim had been quite disappointing in the league, being third favourites for the title at the start of the season. Still, they were improving, and had managed a tremendous unbeaten run that lasted for the last fifteen league games. And still found themselves mired in midtable, just four points ahead of us. It was going to be tough, that was a given, but I felt we had a chance.

***

HOFFENHEIM (4-5-1): Tom Starke (GK); Andreas Beck (DR), Marvin Compper (DL), Matthias Jaissle (DCr), Juan Carlos Blengio (DCl); Luiz Gustavo (DMC), McDonald Mariga (MCr), Sejad Salihovic (MCl), Tobias Weis (AMR), Gylfi Sigurdsson (AML); Guilherme (ST)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Sandro Kaiser (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Florin Lovin (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

***

Faye was back from Africa just in time to play. Our main fear was Sigurdsson, who was in a great goalscoring form despite playing on the wing, and who would face against Kaiser. Still, the first attack of the game was ours and ended with a narrowly wide long range effort by Lovin. We were doing well, but in the eighth minute we received a bitter blow when Rafa Jordá had to leave the field injured, and at first sight it looked serious. Malonga replaced him.

The players looked a bit down after that, and Guilherme almost profited from it with a narrowly high header after a free kick taken by Sigurdsson. The striker did better with a good shot from the edge of the box a few minutes later, but Bolat was well positioned and saved without any apparent effort. The goalkeeper had it a bit more difficult when Beck tried luck from afar, and had to dive and tip the ball wide to prevent a great goal.

A high effort by Salihovic followed, and Hoffenheim were pretty much in complete control. Their attacks weren't getting any better, though, and Guilherme's next try was a quite wide shot from a difficult position on the left side of the box. We fought back in the final quarter, and Malonga had a good chance on the counter after a missed header by Jaissle, but his control was terrible and Starke gathered the ball with ease. A weak shot by Mariga that Bolat caught with ease was the last action of a goalless first half.

HALF TIME - 0-0

Not much happened in the second half until in the 58th minute Salihovic took a corner kick and Jassle headed it in unopposed in the near post, giving Hoffenheim the lead. We reacted quickly bringing out a pretty tired Ignjovski and replacing him with the more creative Uzoma. Our first chance came immediately after kicking off, with Malonga and Lauth playing a nice one-two in the middle before the German forward finished the play with a wide low shot.

We brought our final card out replacing Lovin with Ludwig, but it didn't help much: Salihovic scored his second assist of the game with a great pass towards the right side of the box, where Weis came in breaking the offside trap and shooting with power towards the near post to score the 2-0.

Once again we had a great chance after kick off, with Uzoma finding Malonga on the run inside the box, but the ball fell to his weak foot and he had to stop and shoot from a tight angle, making it easy for Starke to save. We struggled to create any further danger, and the following minutes were poor for the fans, with only a very wide shot by Mariga to break the boredom. Hoffenheim held onto the ball until the end with ease, securing their win.

***

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 2 (Matthias Jassle 58, Tobias Weis 89)

TSV 1860 München 0

---

Not much to argue about, really. Hoffenheim were better and won, plain and simple. We had our chances, we didn't take them, and we lost.

Rafa Jordá's injury was nothing but a scare. Dead leg, 2-3 days of rest and back.

February 12th, 2012

The Africa Cup of Nations ended with Nigeria as the winner, after defeating Ghana in the final with a clear 3-1. Lots of nations decided to sack their managers, including big names in the continent like Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Algeria. I applied to all three and awaited response.

February 15th, 2012

The same day that Kladrubsky returned to full training, Rukavina was absent with the flu. He was given permission to stay at home (and as far away from the rest of the squad as possible) for 4-5 days, or whatever it took for him to heal up.

February 16th, 2012

The same Kladrubsky was found sneezing the next day, and I feared the worst, but in the end it was just a simple cold. He was also told to stay at home for a pair of days just in case.

Dalbeider · January 19, 2011

February 18th, 2012

TSV 1860 München (13th) vs. Hannover 96 (10th) (Bundesliga, 23/34)

Another direct rival, sitting a single point ahead of us in the table, and also playing much better than us at the moment. It felt like a repeat of the Freiburg game from two weaks before, and I certainly hoped it would end with the same result, or better. Given our 0-2 win at their stadium, we were confident of knowing how to handle them.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Sandro Kaiser (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Alexander Ludwig (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Eke Uzoma (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

HANNOVER (4-4-2): Markus Miller (GK); Sofian Chahed (DR), Konstantin Rausch (DL), Karim Haggui (DCr), Dragisa Durak (DCl); Sérgio Pinto (MR), DaMarcus Beasley (ML), Leon Andreasen (MCr), Christian Schulz (MCl); Jan Schlaudraff (STr), Mohammed Abdellaoue (STl)

***

We brought out our most attacking midfield trying to look for the win from the start, and we only needed two minutes to create our first goalscoring opportunity, a narrowly high although quite weak header by Ghvinianidze on a corner kick taken by Ludwig. Another corner kick four minutes later was headed by Béda, also high, but getting even closer to the crossbar.

Our first combination attack was a beautiful first-touch movement on the left flank between Faye, Moralez, Uzoma and Lauth, who finished with a good shot that Miller saved with some trouble. Hannover tried to defend, but we kept pummeling them looking for the opener. Uzoma got close with a bending shot from afar that went a bit too high, while the visitors took until the 15th minute to get near our goal, and when they did the ball ended in the highest stand after Schlaudraff tried a long distance shot.

Schulz scared us with a great chance after a long pass launched a counterattack, but wasted it with a terrible finish that Bolat saved with ease. Moralez tried one of his mazy runs through the middle and shot wide from a somewhat difficult position. A great counterattack led by Lauth ended in what looked like a definitive pass towards Uzoma, who entered the box unmarked and faced Miller one on one, but sent a very easy finish wide to the left.

Bolat had to save a header by Haggui in a free kick crossed into the box from the left nine minutes before the end of the half, which ended with the worst news we could receive: Moralez injured, replaced by Lovin. A goalless draw after forty-five minutes we dominated completely.

HALF TIME - 0-0

We pushed forward even more after the break, and soon Rafa Jordá sent a header narrowly over the bar after a good run and cross by Lauth. The Spaniard still looked a bit out of form after last week's injury, and soon Rakic came in his place. Lovin got really close from the edge of the box after the ball was refused three times in a row by Hannover's defense, but Miller dived really well to tip his shot around the post.

Another corner kick followed, ending in another high header by Ghvinianidze. Schlaudraff tried again from distance in one of Hannover's rare attacks, and once again the ball went nowhere near its intended target. But their next counterattack was much better, with Abdellaoue dropping towards the right side of the box with the ball, attracting all attention, then suddenly crossing towards the opposite side where Beasley, completely unmarked, simply pushed it in to give Hannover a totally undeserved lead.

And we even had to be thankful that Abdellaoue was offside when he scored after a great cross from the right by Chahed only a few minutes later. The ensuing protests earned Schulz a second yellow card, meaning his sending off, so we played the final twenty minutes of the game against ten men. It took us eleven of those to finally find the draw: Lovin sent a pass towards the edge of the box where Lauth collected it and shot first time, hitting the inside of the post and scoring and spectacular goal.

With the draw in the bag it was time to look for the winner, and Uzoma got close with a first-time shot from just outside the box that Miller gathered with apparent ease. But Hannover managed to hold on to their point until the end, and we had every right to feel hard done by the result.

***

TSV 1860 München 1 (Benjamin Lauth 81)

Hannover 96 1 (DaMarcus Beasley 65, Christian Schulz sent off 70)

---

Quite unlucky, but our absolute lack of accuracy upfront was starting to worry me. Jordá seemed to have vanished somewhere far away, despite showing occasional flashes of his usual quality. Lauth (who would've thought) was the only one who kept being consistently dangerous, but he alone couldn't do everything.

What's with those annoying dead legs? Because that's what Moralez had, just like Jordá the previous week. Same diagnosis, same cure: 2-3 days of rest and back in the fray.

February 21st, 2012

The plague kept extending. Now Ludwig had to stay two days at home with a cold, too.

February 22nd, 2012

And Moralez followed up catching the flu, too. Damn German winter.

February 23rd, 2012

International callups again, and in a good number: Kladrubsky, Ghvinianidze, Bolat, Faye, Uzoma and Meghni all got called up by their respective nations.

February 24th, 2012

Sad news: Daniel Bierofka announced that he would retire at the end of the season. Our wingless formation had left him with few chances to shine, and being already 33, he decided it was time to call it a day. He would be remembered.

Tiago Freitas didn't play at all, but he kept getting involved in training injuries. A late tackle ended up meaning a gashed leg for Ludwig, making the midfielder miss between 7 and 10 days of training.

Dalbeider · January 20, 2011

February 26th, 2012

Borussia Moenchengladbach (5th) vs. TSV 1860 München (12th) (Bundesliga, 24/34)

Gladbach were certainly the surprise package of the season in the Bundesliga. Expected in the bottom half, they found themselves deep in the battle for the European places and in the DFB Pokal semifinal. Their form was also fantastic, and hadn't lost a competitive game since late September. A tough opponent for sure.

***

GLADBACH (4-5-1): Logan Bailly (GK); Paul Stalteri (DR), Jean-Sébastien Jaures (DL), Roel Brouwers (DCr), Dante (DCl); Thorben Marx (DMC), Fernando Bob (MCr), Michael Bradley (MCl), Karim Matmour (AMR), Marco Reus (AML), Igor de Camargo (ST)

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCr), Eke Uzoma (MCc), Florin Lovin (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

***

With our most creative midfielders out of the picture, we went for a sturdy midfield hoping to drown Gladbach's creativity. Snow fell from the sky, although not in enough quantity to be a hindrance to the play. Still, it made the ball quite slippery, and Bolat almost got into trouble when he failed to hold onto a shot by Matmour. Thankfully, the defense cleared the ball quickly.

Gladbach dominated, but not too clearly, and we enjoyed an early chance with a wide long shot by Uzoma, who was expected to play Moralez's role as the spearhead of our attack. The home team answered with a good cross by Matmour headed over the bar by de Camargo. The striker tried again in the 15th minute, sending a good effort from a direct free kick position narrowly wide to the right of Bolat's goal.

The match was quite even, with possession split almost equally between both teams. A run down the left flank by Lauth ended with a cross towards Uzoma, who volleyed it wide. Matmour struck back for Gladbach with a good left-footed effort that forced Bolat to tip the ball wide for a corner kick. The goalkeeper also did well to prevent a goal by de Camargo after a nice long pass by Bradley. Ghvinianidze got our last chance of the half with a great diving header in a corner kick, which unfortunately went straight at Bailly's hands. A wide curved shot by Matmour marked the end of an interesting first half.

HALT TIME - 0-0

The second half started really slow, with zero chances for neither team in the first quarter. A very tired Sinkiewicz left his place to Ghvinianidze, and Meghni returned from his three-match suspension replacing Ignjovski and moving to the center of our midfield. A very poor Rafa Jordá was also replaced by Malonga.

But in the 61st everything changed: Reus received on the left flank in a very doubtful position, then crossed towards the heart of the area, where Matmour simply pushed the ball in to give Gladbach the lead. We tried to attack, but for some reason we just couldn't get hold of the ball. Gladbach simply hid the ball away and killed the game with a short, methodic, slow and tremendously boring game, to the point that there were no more shots at goal until full time.

Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 (Karim Matmour 61)

TSV 1860 München 0

---

Another match in which we deserved more than we got. A draw would have been the fairest result, given both team's merits. Luck just wasn't kind with us in 2012.

It was time to try something different tactics-wise. I had been looking for an excuse to pull out my all-time favourite formation (3-5-2 with wingbacks), and this looked like the perfect moment for some experimenting. The only problem we faced was the lack of a backup left wingback, since Monsoreau couldn't really play in that position. Still, it was worth a try. We immediately started practicing the new tactic in the daily training drills.

February 29th, 2012

Five of our six internationals played in the midweek friendlies: Georgia managed a good 0-0 draw against Romania with Ghvinianidze playing the whole game. Faye got some minutes as a substitute in Senegal's 0-1 win against Ivory Coast, as did Kladrubsky, helping the Czech Republic assault Wembley and pull out an historic 1-2 win against England. Meghni wasn't so lucky, Algeria falling 4-0 against Scotland and the midfielder being pretty poor throughout. The highlight of the day was Sinan Bolat, though, who got his debut on Turkey's goal. Too bad he had to gather the ball from the back of the net four times in their defeat against France, and ended up being substituted by Cenk Gönen.

Dalbeider · January 21, 2011

March 3rd, 2012

TSV 1860 München (13th) vs. Hertha BSC Berlin (18th) (Bundesliga, 25/34)

Now this was a game we should win no matter what. Hertha had only managed a single victory throughout the season, and although they had chained three consecutive draws, they still were dead last and nine points away from the playoff place, looking extremely likely to relegate only one year after winning the 2.Bundesliga. A good target for our tactical experiments.

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (3-5-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Lukas Sinkiewicz (DCc), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sandro Kaiser (WBR), Ibrahima Faye (WBL), Eke Uzoma (MCr), Sebastián Battaglia (MCl), Maximiliano Moralez (AMC); Rafa Jordá (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl)

HERTHA BSC (4-4-2): Benedikt Pliquett (GK); Víctor Gutiérrez (DR), Serbin Radjabali-Fardi (DL), Roman Hubnik (DCr), Andre Mijatovic (DCl); Sascha Bigalke (MR), Daniel Beichler (ML), Diogo (MCr), Fabian Lustenberger (MCl); André Lima (STr), Valeriy Domovchiyski (STl)

***

Kladrubsky missed the game through suspension after picking his fifth yellow of the season against Gladbach, and Ghvinianidze and Moralez were unlikely to be able to play the full match due to fitness problems. Hertha showed a totally different eleven from the one they started in our previous meeting, meaning Babbel was desperately looking for solutions for their difficult situation. Again, snow fell heavily over the Allianz, but the soil heating kept it from settling.

The first attacking movement was for Rafa Jordá, who penetrated through the very center of Hertha's defense before shooting weakly and straight at Pliquett's arms. But a bad clearance by our defense gave Bigalke a great chance to put the visitors ahead in the 5th minute, which the winger thankfully wasted with a very wide effort. We moved the ball around comfortably, and soon Moralez had another great chance after a good movement by Jordá, his powerful finished being pushed away by the goalkeeper.

The Spaniard was looking very motivated that evening, and his was the play that led to the first goal: run towards the right side of the box ending in a low cross towards Lauth, who fought the ball away from Hubnik and shot from really close to beat Pliquett and open the score in the 20th minute of the game. Our goalscorer picked up a painful-looking knock two minutes later, but managed to soldier through the pain and kept playing.

In the 31st, in one of Hertha's rare attacks, Domovchiyski dropped towards the left wing and crossed towards Bigalke, who headed the ball into the net to draw the game. We pushed forward once again, looking to regain the lead quickly, but we only managed a narrowly wide shot by Lauth before the first half ended.

HALF TIME - 1-1

Malonga replaced Lauth at half time to prevent any chance of worsening his injury, and the French striker needed only thirty-five seconds to make an impact: Battaglia sent a great defense-splitting pass from forty yards away, Malonga ran into it, dribbled past Pliquett and scored the 2-1 with supreme ease. The game seemed to be once again under control, and soon Meghni replaced a quite tired Moralez.

Hertha tried to react switching to a narrow diamond formation, and we instructed the players to hit them back on their now weak wings. Malonga could have grabbed his second goal after controlling a cross by Faye inside the box, but his finish went wide to the right. The game soon became a midfield battle without a clear winner, and both goalkeepers turned into privileged spectators for the following fifteen minutes.

Only dead ball situations brought danger to either goal, and Faye had the best one with a powerful direct free kick that hit the outside of the left post before going wide. But in the first minute of injury time, and in their first shot at goal of the second half, Hubnik outjumped Sinkiweicz to be the first to reach a ball crossed from the corner spot by Neuendorf and head straight at the top right corner of the goal, drawing the game with virtually no time left to play. There was no last minute miracle, and Hertha stole one very undeserved point from the Allianz.

***

TSV 1860 München 2 (Benjamin Lauth 20, Dominique Malonga 46)

Hertha BSC Berlin 2 (Sascha Bigalke 31, Roman Hubnik 90+1)

---

So unlucky again. Still, the new formation worked quite well, and only our chronic lack of accuracy upfront prevented a clear win. Four games without a win, though, and with the Münchner derby coming up next. That was pretty worrying.

March 4th, 2012

Liverpool sacked Hodgson with the team 7th in the Premier League. The favourite to replace him? None other than Roberto Mancini. Good ol' Liverpool, always brightening my days...

Dalbeider · January 24, 2011

March 10th, 2012

Bayern FC München (2nd) vs. TSV 1860 München (13th) (Bundesliga, 26/34)

The best thing about sharing our stadium with Bayern was that we always played those derbies at home. Otherwise, Bayern had the best team and were in the best form, so we could only hope for the usual push players get from this kind of games to carry us through the fixture, hopefully towards stealing at least a point, like we did in our first meeting of the season.

***

FC BAYERN (4-2-3-1): Samir Handanovic (GK); Philipp Lahm (DR), Edson Braafheid (DL), Martín Demichelis (DCr), Holger Badstuber (DCl); Bastian Schweinsteiger (MCr), Christian Romaric (MCl); Arjen Robben (AMR), Toni Kroos (AMC), Frank Ribéry (AML); Mario Gómez (ST)

***

1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sylvain Monsoreau (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Florin Lovin (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl)

***

Zero germans in our starting eleven, which wasn't a common sight at all. As one would expect, Bayern started the game in a dominating fashion, attacking from the get go, but the first chance was for us thanks to a great ball by Ignjovski that Malonga failed to put past Handanovic from the penalty spot eight minutes after kick off. Bayern responded through their right wing, with Robben sendind wide a dangerous-looking shot from his side of the box.

Another great pass towards Malonga, this time by Moralez, allowed the French to test Handanovic again, but the keeper dived well to save his placed shot and we wasted another great chance to take an early lead. "Mighty Mouse" was making our midfield work like clockwork, and he even tried luck from distance with a weak shot that Handanovic held without trouble.

But when you have players of Schweinsteiger's level you don't even need to play well to win games. The midfielder scored the 1-0 thanks to a direct free kick from 25 yards away, and Bayern took the leed thirteen minutes into the game. Our confidence took a hit, and soon Mario Gomez was trying a turnaround shot from the edge of the box that fled way over the bar. Robben cut in from the right and shot with his left, but Bolat responded with a good save, while we struggled to contain Bayern's constant attacks.

Ribéry almost got the second after a great pass by Kroos, but hit the post with his shot after dribbling past Bolat, and Béda knocked the ball behind before Gomez could finish the job. Bolat earned his wage for this week with a fantastic double save, first to Gomez's close finish and then to Schweinsteiger's shot on the rebound. In the very last minute of the first half Ribéry ran down the left flank and crossed low towards Kroos, who got ahead of Monsoreau to push it in and score the 2-0. And with that, the first half ended.

HALF TIME - 2-0

The second half started looking like more of the same, with Ribéry testing Bolat from distance in the 54th minute as Bayern's first approach, and Gomez kicking the ball over the bar after a fantastic run by Robben through the middle. Ribéry tried again after breaking in from the left side, but Bolat answered with a good save. Soon Lauth, Ludwig and Uzoma entered the game, replacing Malonga, Moralez and Lovin.

Schweinsteiger tried one of his trademark shots from distance in the 62nd, and Bolat answered with a great flying save, tipping the ball over the bar for a corner kick. We finally started chaining a few passes together and looking good on the pitch, but Battaglia's injury in the 70th left us with ten men and little hope of pulling out a miracle. We still tried, though, mostly thanks to Ludwig and Lauth, and the latter had a great chance saved by Handanovic after a good pass by the former.

But in the 79th Kroos pulled off a great through ball towards Gómez, Bolat hesitated and the striker punished him with a good finish to score the 3-0, sealing the game for good. A wide header by Klose was the last chance of a pretty one-sided derby.

***

Bayern FC München 3 (Bastian Schweinsteiger 13, Toni Kroos 45, Mario Gómez 79)

TSV 1860 München 0

---

Not much to say, I'm afraid. We simply were no match for them, even though our first minutes looked promising. Our real league started then.

Battaglia had a pulled hamstring that would keep him out of the pitch for 2-3 weeks.

Dalbeider · January 24, 2011

[font=Courier New]=========================
BUNDESLIGA AFTER 26 GAMES
=========================

| Pos   | Inf   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Leverkusen     |       | 26    | 16    | 7     | 3     | 54    | 27    | +27   | 55    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | FC Bayern      |       | 26    | 15    | 6     | 5     | 45    | 24    | +21   | 51    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Dortmund       |       | 26    | 15    | 5     | 6     | 38    | 22    | +16   | 50    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Gladbach       |       | 26    | 11    | 11    | 4     | 26    | 18    | +8    | 44    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Hoffenheim     |       | 26    | 11    | 10    | 5     | 42    | 25    | +17   | 43    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Wolfsburg      |       | 26    | 11    | 9     | 6     | 35    | 25    | +10   | 42    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Stuttgart      |       | 26    | 10    | 10    | 6     | 28    | 25    | +3    | 40    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Kaiserslautern |       | 26    | 11    | 5     | 10    | 32    | 39    | -7    | 38    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Köln           |       | 26    | 10    | 6     | 10    | 38    | 35    | +3    | 36    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | HSV            |       | 26    | 11    | 3     | 12    | 33    | 43    | -10   | 36    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Hannover       |       | 26    | 9     | 7     | 10    | 30    | 31    | -1    | 34    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Werder Bremen  |       | 26    | 8     | 9     | 9     | 30    | 33    | -3    | 33    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[color=mediumturquoise][b]| 13th  |       | 1860 München   |       | 26    | 8     | 7     | 11    | 28    | 31    | -3    | 31    | [/b][/color]
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Freiburg       |       | 26    | 7     | 7     | 12    | 28    | 37    | -9    | 28    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Schalke        |       | 26    | 6     | 8     | 12    | 30    | 33    | -3    | 26    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Frankfurt      |       | 26    | 3     | 12    | 11    | 24    | 38    | -14   | 21    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Mainz          |       | 26    | 3     | 6     | 17    | 23    | 52    | -29   | 15    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Hertha BSC     |       | 26    | 1     | 8     | 17    | 22    | 48    | -26   | 11    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font]

What a terrible winter. Good news: the relegation battle was still nine points away, and looking unlikely to pull much closer, given Eintracht's form. Bad news: everything else. Two or three wins in the remaining games should be enough to secure our survival without many hiccups, but considering we had managed a grand total of five points in our last nine games... Eh.

The title fight was looking much tighter now, with Bayern in good form and closing up on the tettering leaders, with Dortmund close by and waiting for any slip-up to climb to the top. Europe was still wide open, although we were too far away now to even dream of getting there. At the bottom, Hertha and Mainz looked done for, and Frankfurt's only hope was winning at least four or five games and hoping that Schalke or Freiburg (or us!) would fall like rocks towards the bottom.

[font=Courier New]===========================
PLAYER STATS AFTER 26 GAMES
===========================

[u]Average rating (minimum 9 games played, league only)[/u]

Maximiliano Moralez       [b]7.01[/b]
Benjamin Lauth            [b]6.98[/b]
Mathieu Béda              [b]6.93[/b]
Mate Ghvinianidze         [b]6.91[/b]
Eke Uzoma                 [b]6.91[/b]

[u]Goals (league only)[/u]

Rafa Jordá                [b]7[/b]
Benjamin Lauth            [b]7[/b]
Maximiliano Moralez       [b]4[/b]
Dominique Malonga         [b]2[/b]
Alexander Ludwig          [b]2[/b]

[u]Assists (league only)[/u]

Maximiliano Moralez       [b]6[/b]
Dominique Malonga         [b]5[/b]
Florin Lovin              [b]3[/b]
Mourad Meghni             [b]3[/b]
Eke Uzoma                 [b]2[/b]
Benjamin Lauth            [b]2[/b]

[u]Man of the Match awards (league only)[/u]

Maximiliano Moralez       [b]2[/b]
Benjamin Lauth            [b]2[/b]
5 other players           [b]1[/b][/font]

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