After patting myself on the back for a Blog well done, I was surfing around on the kicker.de site, and on the Arminia Bielefeld page, there is the following story (If you're a native German speaker, forgive any translation errors. My German is, well, nonexistent):

The Big World Tour

The Bundesliga has started a new offencive: During the week of Christmas more Bundesliga clubs will travel to the Far East, where there they will try to start marketing the league in Asian markets again. Currently Borussia Dortmund will travel to Indonesia, Arminia Bielefeld and Energie Cottbus to China, and a trip to Vietnam for Eintracht Frankfurt is also planned.

You can read the rest of the article here (link auf Deutsch)

The article goes from there to discuss the Bundesliga's thinking behind sending clubs to football-mad Asia during the Winter Break, as well as trips to the US to play MLS sides during the MLS offseason. Frankly, the prospect of 1 billion-plus Chinese folks becoming Arminia supporters via the charm of Ernst Middendrop and Artur Wichniarek is tempting, but I'd prefer them to come Stateside to play the Houston Dynamo. That way I could go see them and cheer them on by myself in the visitors' section. At the very least, it would be a great chance to improve Arminia's record in the US...

I'm getting a bit tired of moral victories, to tell you the truth.

Today's 1-1 draw with bottom-feeders Energie Cottbus was a rather large moral victory, to tell you the truth. They were mere seconds from getting the three points that would put to end the panic that's swept East Westphalia this past month, but it wasn't to be. It's not as though Arminia didn't deserve the three points--they sure earned them--but a second of inattention cost them the win.

Arminia came out flying from the gate as Robert Tesche took a pass from Matthias Langkamp only two minutes in, but the shot went right in the chest of Cottbus goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel, who replaced Tomas Piplica, who was finally yanked after a series of Paul Robinson-esque performances. Arminia continued to pile on the pressure for the remainder of the first half, but the theme was definitely one of missed chances. In the 12th minute, Artur Wichniarek rifled a shot to Tremmel's chest, and three minutes later Wichniarek again put a shot on Tremmel, who then let loose a tasty rebound at the foot of Christian Eigler. Eigler took the golden chance, but Vragel Da Silva deflected it safely away. Tesche wasted another chance in the 28th minute, and by halftime, the chances looked like this:

Image Courtesy of ESPNsoccernet Gamecast

The pitch was definitely slanted in Arminia's favour at halftime, and the second half continued that theme. Tesche missed yet another chance from Eigler, who was subsituted for Leonidas Kampantais in the 69th minute, and fresh subsitute Jonas Kamper (in for Ioannis Masmanidis in the 59th minute) sent a Wichniarek cross over the crossbar in the 63rd minute, The pitch finally leveled in the 71st minute when Stanislav Angelov let loose a shot from 30 yards. Der Spiegel's comment on the shot? "The first real scoring chance of the match. The shot did not miss by much, but it was Cottbus' signal of intent that they were going to try to make a game of it. After Dennis Sörensen's pass to Dimiatar Rangelov was deemed offsides, the ensuing free kick to Jonas Kamper proved to be a smart move, as he charged down the pitch, and let loose a shot from 25 yards that sent the Alm into a frenzy. The goal had been a long time coming, and was well-earned.

Arminia tried to keep the pressure up, but Cottbus stepped up the attack, bringing on Francis Kioyo and Efstathios Aloneftis in the final 10 minutes to get an equalizer. 3 minutes of stoppage time was given, and with less than a minute left, Ervin Skela's free kick met Sörensen's head, who guided it past Mathias Hain, and gave Cottbus their 5th point of the season.

Frankly, the points were stolen out from under the noses of Arminia. Once again Arminia controlled a match, got a lead, and lost it through an off moment. But I guess that's how football is. Middendorp was of course frustrated by the result, but rightly pointed out that this match was the best match they've played in a while, and the frustration of this match must be tossed aside immediately, as the club must travel on Halloween night to the Palatinate to take on TuS Koblenz in the 2nd round of the DFB Pokal (German FA Cup for the uninitiated). A win there would do much to lift the squad going into Saturday's match at Bayer Leverkusen. It's imperative that the club keep their game up in light of their last three run-ins with the traditional Bundesliga Big Boys. 6 points in the seven days would make me ecstatic.

One last thing for this week: Though Arminia is near and dear to my heart, on this side of the Atlantic the MLS Playoffs have begun, and yours truly's Houston Dynamo begin their MLS Cup defence this evening in Dallas against FC Dallas. A lot of the more vocal MLS pundits have DC United, New York Red Bulls, or even Chivas USA penciled in as this year's winners, but they're forgetting the fact that Houston won the title this past season and set the record this season for fewest goals allowed (23 in 30 matches). They're a well-organized side with a punch up front, and methinks the media is ignoring them at their peril. I'm wearing my Brian Ching shirt and wearing my Dynamo cap as I write this blog waiting to the match this evening. Vamos Naranja! and all that (We're a multilingual outfit 'round these parts.)

Expect the Inaugural Edition of the die Blauen Mailbag and a comment on the Pokal match in the next week. See you then.