Dream Team of the German Bundesliga
The first round of the season is over. Before the year 2008 comes to an end we want to use the opportunity and nominate the best 11 players of the first round of the German Bundesliga! As even international fans may know, a team called TSG Hoffenheim, which three years ago played in the amateur league, made it to the 1.Bundesliga (with a lot of sponsoring by Dietmar Hopp, founder of the software company SAP) and caused some irritations in Germany… mainly by playing very fast, modern and offensive football, that was way above the typical Bundesliga standard. The match Bayern Munich vs Hoffenheim was to see on TV in over 100 countries and rather fulfilled the standards of a Champions League game than of a normal Bundesliga match!
The Dream Team played 4-4-2. On every tactical position we nominated two substitutes:
Goalkeeper:
1. Jaroslav Drobny (Hertha BSC Berlin) – Czech Republic
Defense:
1. Josip Simunic (Hertha BSC Berlin) – Croatia
2. Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich) – Germany
3. Pedro Geromel (1.FC Cologne)
4. Heiko Westermann (Schalke 04) – Germany
Midfield:
1. Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) – France
2. Mesut Özil (Werder Bremen) - Turkey/Germany
3. Renato Augusto (Bayer Leverkusen) - Brazil
4. Sejad Salihovic (TSG Hoffenheim) – Bosnia
Attack:
1. Vedad Ibisevic (TSG Hoffenheim) - Bosnia
2. Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen) – Peru
Coach:
Ralf Rangnick (TSG Hoffenheim) – Germany
Substitutes:
Goal: Dennis Eilhoff (Arminia Bielefeld), Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen) - both Germany
Defense: Michal Kadlec (Bayer Leverkusen) – Czech Republic, Neven Subotic (Borussia Dortmund) – USA
Diego (Werder Bremen) – Brazil, Marko Marin (Borussia M’gladbach) - Germany
Ivica Olic (Hamburger SV) – Croatia, Grafite (VfL Wolfsburg) – Brazil
The dream consists of two players from Hertha Berlin, Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, and TSG Hoffenheim. Furthermore there is one player from 1.FC Cologne, Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen.
Adding the subsitutes it surprises that no player from VfB Stuttgart is in the team. Stuttgart won the German Championship two years ago and just bought Jens Lehmann, former goalkeeper of Premier League team Arsenal London, as well as former German National Goalkeeper. Stuttgart’s striker Mario Gomez who had an offer from Real Madrid last year could not convince neither the Stuttgart fans nor any one else of his qualities. The best striker was young Vedad Ibisevic of TSG Hoffenheim, who used to play for 2.Bundesliga teams such as Alemannia Aachen. In Germany he is talked of as the new Gerd Müller (who still is Germany’s best striker ever).
The coach is Ralf Rangnick, who used to coach the Bundesliga team Schalke 04, but then got kicked out a couple of years ago, because he didn’t suceed in winning the championship (as Schalke hasn’t in more than 50 years!). He started with Hoffenheim in the third league and immediately worked his way up the secound, and then first Bundesliga. His team, TSG Hoffenheim, is now the leading team in German Bundesliga.