Oh. My. Goodness.

What else is there to say?

Well, there is a lot to say, to be honest. When die Blauen Blog went into its own Winter Break I was chewing on the idea of the hiring of Michael Frontzeck as manager, as the last time we saw him in the Bundesliga his Allemania Aachen were packing their bags for the 2. Bundesliga after a memorable collapse saw them lose seven of their final eight matches to end the season. Despite this I was bullish on Arminia's chances as I would expect Frontzeck to splash some cash in the Transfer Window to repair the, er, nonexistant back line. Unfortunately, Arminia's transfers went as follows:

In: None

Out: Abdelaziz Ahanfouf (F) to SV Wehen

Granted, Ahanfouf was surplus to demands, but come on, it never came to Frontzeck's mind that perhaps a defender or twenty may help the worst defence in the Bundesliga?

Before I blow a gasket over that, let's move right along. Right before the Winter Break ended Arminia went to Jena to take on 2. Bundesliga Carl Zeiss Jena in a DFB-Pokal clash. The result was of course a 2-1 victory for the little guys in extra time, mainly because the defence coughed up a late goal (ugh) and a goal in extra time. Where have we seen that before? The league returned as Arminia lost 1-0 to Wolfsburg through a display of anemic offence and lost points because of a defencive lapse (Schuler). The same was in store as the Martin Fenin Show showed up and his carving up of the back line enabled the first goal, and he was unmarked for his second goal. At least Artur Wichniarek showed some bottle by putting away a chance to make it 2-1, albeit from an offside position. I'll be fair and state that the second half in the Frankfurt match Arminia came out looking to score, but were unlucky when Sibusiso Zuma's chance went just wide.

And this brings us to today, where Arminia went to eternally-middling Hertha Berlin, which, according to Wichniarek, middles because of their manager Dieter Hoeness. What can I say? I'll take Koenig Artur's word over almost anyone. After all, he was there and rotted for almost four years and not me. Apparently some other blogs digress, but given Hertha Berlin's history, who wouldn't complain about them?

Anyway, the match today started out as boring as Herr Frontzeck wanted, as both sides wandered about the pitch for the first half without much in the way of action. The second half was the same until Raffael put a shot on goal only to be saved by Mathias Hain. The pressure began to build, but the line held and the score remained at 0-0. In the 88th minute, Sibusiso Zuma came off for Tobias Rau in an obvious attempt to hold onto the precious point. I scribbled a note on my notepad "A Striker off for a Defender this late in the match? Why? Unless he wants to lose the game..."

Me and my mouth almost got away with it as in the dying seconds of the match Berlin had a throw-in deep in Arminia territory. The throw went into the box, above all Arminia defenders, and right to Raffael who won the game at the death to take all three points. I'm never one to shout or anything at the TV or computer (Complain? Definitely), but this instance got a "GOTT IN HIMMEL! YOU'RE A BLOODY IDIOT FRONTZECK!" out of me. About the only positive out of the match was that the three in the drop zone below Arminia are equally putrid, so Arminia remain two points clear, but it's far too close for my sake.

Going back to the sacking of Ernst Middendorp, the Germanocentric part of the Soccer-writing Anglosphere (How's that for some fancy wording?) did some writing to say the least. The best was the (always good) The Offside's take on the firing with the requisite comment about the club's love affair with Herr Middendorp (In their league table summary for last weekend, their comment about Bielefeld went to the tune of "At this point, I am starting to believe they only fired Ernst Middendorp so that they could rehire him for the umpteenth time to save them".) The best was from Ernst's old stomping grounds in South Africa where Johannesburg's Business Day tore Middendorp apart in a laughably-sad-but-true piece about the state of the club.

Finally,  World Soccer Daily interviewed Arminia Bielefeld's most famous support, journalist Johannes Berendt in the first hour of Thursday's show. When asked about Bielefeld, his response was that perhaps all of this was a bid to break the record for managers for a club in a single season in the Bundesliga (They've matched last year's total of three already) and finished the discussion with a quite funny comment of "So if you ever lose, you'll have a job in Bielefeld!" and guaranteed a loss against Berlin, leading up to a do-or-die match against Duisburg. Yikes. You can download the podcast off of iTunes by following this link.

I should be back into the swing of blogging things now, but I'm not sure about what. Fun times via Arminia aren't that plentiful here at die Blauen Blog HQ, as I'm having to resort to my PSV fandom to tide me over, which is helpful, though not a true fix. Here's to three points against Duisburg next Saturday!

I believe we will win 2-1... We did not play well there last season and they have had a good start this year but we are on a good way to integrate the new players and implement the coach's philosophy on the pitch. --Malik Fathi, on Hertha Berlin's chances against Bielefeld.

Suckers.

Die Blauen now sit in a tie for second in the Bundesliga after their 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin, though from the looks of the first half, the match had 0-0 written all over it. Hertha thought they could score by hoofing the ball from 30 yards out and Bielefeld didn't really bother to shoot all that much. What made matters worse was that in the 34th minute, new midfielder Siyabonga Nkosi got pulled off for his out of form play, and replaced by Ioannis Masmanidis, who didn't do much for the remainder of the half either.

Evidently various items were tossed about the locker rooms during half time, as both sides came out guns a-blazing, and Hertha nearly got onto the board when Carlos Lucio took advantage of poor defending on a corner kick to rattle the crossbar in the 47th minute. From the clearance Bielefeld began their first sustained attack of the match where in succession Radim Kucera took a free kick, Artur Wichniarek had a shot blocked, Andre Mijatovic had a header blocked, and finally a free kick in one of the strangest places imaginable-- inside the penalty box.

After Mijatovic's header, Hertha attempted to clear, but as Bielefeld continued to pressure Josip Simunic pack passed back to goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny, who promptly fell on the ball. Of course, that's illegal, and the referee gave a free kick to Bielefeld about 6 yards into the box. Kucera took the free kick, and promptly chipped the ball to Masmanidis, who slotted the ball past Drobny to give the home side the lead.

From there it was back and forth with both sides squandering chances, most noticeably by Hertha Berlin forward Solomon Okoronkwo, who was denied a goal by a superb save by Mattias Hain from 16 yards out, and then denied in a one-on-one opportunity. Berlin continued to press, but after Patrick Ebert's free kick bounced off the crossbar, they produced no other serious threat.

In the 90th minute, after Christian Eigler and Drobny received  Yellow Cards, Wichniarek sealed the three points after he intercepted a header by Malik Fathi (Yes, that Malik Fathi), and buried the shot in the back of the net to give them the 2-0 lead. Shortly thereafter, the referee blew his whistle, giving Bielefeld the three points.

With the win, Bielefeld sit in a tie for second in the Bundesliga with VfB Bochum, but ahead on goal difference. It is beginning to look like last season's start, but I hope with Middendrop at the helm, we won't have a midseason swan dive like last time.

But for now, we'll enjoy 2nd in the Bundesliga. We earned it.

Next Week: at MSV Duisburg

Picture of the match:

Artur Wichniarek leads on Bielefeld supporters as they do their traditional post-game singing.