VfL Wolfsburg 1-3 Arminia Bielefeld
Saturday, 11 August 07, 12:37 PM · Comments(2)
As everyone across the OleOle community leaps with delight with the beginning of the season across Europe, I too am caught up in the excitement. Arsenal may or may not challenge for the title, I just finished my fantasy draft for my UEFA Fantasy League (more on that in another post), but most importantly Arminia Bielefeld's campaign opened up today against fellow wallflower VfL Wolfsburg.
It's rather lonely to be a Bielefeld supporter, as a recent poll among Bundesliga supporters showed only 12% of Germans support the club (Link auf Deutsch) , and in all likelihood few if any folks outside of Germany have even heard of them. But that's OK, as the Internet has shown through the prevalence of numpties on fan message boards everywhere, it may be better off being a fan by yourself. But this season offers some sort of promise. Despite not winning a match for half of the season and going through three coaches, Bielefeld won 4 of their last 5, and in the processed finished 12th, the highest they've finished in the top flight since 1983-84. With the squad mostly intact, there's even talk of a UEFA Cup spot from some supporters, which would have been theirs if they would have bothered to win a game or two between November and March, but that's last year. But others see the club as relegation fodder , so the law of averages say a midtable finish.
VfL Wolfsburg, the sporting arm of automaker Volkswagen is a fellow anonymous member of the Bundesliga, but splashed the cash this season for new coach/sporting director Felix Magath in a bid to make the side a Champions League contender. For Magath, the opener against Bielefeld was all-important. So important, in fact, that he sent a spy to watch Bielefeld practice. In a scene that wouldn't look out of place from a Pink Panther movie, Bielefeld manager Ernst Middendrop "noticed someone with an umbrella, a camera and a football magazine" at the practice facility. Obviously bemused, Middendrop "gave him the line-ups and sent [his] best wishes to Felix." Oh so clever of the Bug builders.
Evidently the spying and Middendrop's gift still couldn't help them, as Bielefeld crushed Wolfsburg 1-3, with goals by Artur Wichniarek, Christian Eigler, both set up by Jorg Bohme, and subsitute Oliver Kirch made the lead unreachable before Wolfsburg put one in in the 84th minute to finish up the score line. Bielefeld controlled play from almost the beginning, and repeatedly threatened the Wolfsburg defence, who didn't bother to show up until they were down 3 goals.
All in all a great start for die Blauen. Here's to them keeping it up next week in their home opener against Eintracht Frankfurt.
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Arminia Bielefeld news and notes, with a little fantasy football thrown in for decoration
2 Comments · Add yours
Perhaps more people outside Germany know who Arminia Bielefeld are, than you think. Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger writes about them often, and the issue of the "Bielefeld Conspiracy"
LINK comes up from time to time. I'm a bit surprised that they managed to thump Wolfsburg so convincingly but I they shouldn't have too much trouble
staying up this year.
Nope, never heard of them. But excellent write-up and I'll be sure to keep an eye out, now! I luv an underdog.