Verbandsliga: Let’s go f*ckin’ mental, Fortuna wins again!

Usually when sporting events are pretty close calls german media tends to label those games “directed by Hitchcock”. And one could not describe it better when it comes to Fortuna Cologne’s last home game this season. The situation before the game was clear: Fortuna was in 2nd place with 4 points behind leaders VfL Leverkusen. Leverkusen was playing in Alfter who had only lost two home games. So all we needed was a win against Borussia Freialdenhoven and a loss to Leverkusen at Alfter. When the game started the atmosphere was almost like 10 years ago, when Fortuna was still playing in the 2nd division.

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Champions League Final: United have done it again

The fourth final since 2001 which was decided in a penalty shootout and the funnny thing for the Germans is that those were two english clubs going at it after extra time. England always has the image of failing in a penalty shootout as they had done so very often in the past, especially on the national team level. But let’s start from the beginning.

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German Bundesliga: The Season Recap

So this season is finally over and Bayern are champions again. Who would have thought…
There weren’t any really big surprises apart from Nürnberg going straight down to the 2nd division after they had won the german cup a year ago. The almost did the same thing 40 years ago, when they were relegated after winning the championship, the only club to do so in the history of the Bundesliga. Having said that Bielefeld is staying in the Bundesliga which, I think, will be of some relief for other teams because I don’t see Bielefeld strong enough to stay on top.

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KölnCampus: College radio in Cologne

There had been an urgent need for an independent radio station in Cologne for ages and since the local college radio station “KölnCampus” went on air a few years ago it’s fun to listen to the radio again. Although the program is far from perfect the main difference to the established corporate and public radio stations is the choice of music they play. And that’s where it really gets interesting.

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Home sweet home

It was always rather funny to listen to those rap songs in which the lyrics describe the surroundings of the rapper, how he grew up, how hard and tough his life was roaming the streets of his hometown district. And maybe it was always funny because the cities and their disctricts were always somewhere else. There are songs about my hometown Cologne, but those were either pretty weird and bad (as in wanna-be gangsters singing about their oh-so-tough part of the town) or they were referring to other parts of the city I never lived in.

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There can be only 23: Germany’s national coach chooses his team for the Euro 2008

(1:55 pm)
The press conferences continues and I will drop out for now. They just have the usual questions which won’t be very interesting or productive in any way. Thanks for tuning in, have a nice day.

(1:49 pm)
There’s the question about who was the player who wasn’t reached via phone, but Löw doesn’t want to answer. Why?

(1:47 pm)
Those are 26 names so three players will have to pack their stuff before the tournament starts. I personally think that one of them will be Trochowski since he wasn’t convincing in any of his appearances with the national team.
The press now ask about the Hildebrandt affair. Although this isn’t nearly as huge as the stand off between Kahn and Lehmann before the World Cup it is quite a blow. One will have to see how he copes with this decision.

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Fan friendly sports action

In a time when football players in Germany get booked for climbing on fences to celebrate a goal with their fans (which is one the most ridiculous rules in the whole of football) it is always nice to see that some sports still take pride in close contact to their supporters in the bleachers. Here’s the footage of a nice play by Manny Ramirez against the Orioles.

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Bundesliga – Day 33: Two decisions on the last day of play

VfL Wolfsburg – VfB Stuttgart 4:0
MSV Duisburg – Bayern München 2:3
Hansa Rostock – Bayer Leverkusen 1:2
Hertha BSC – 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0
Energie Cottbus – Hamburger SV 2:0
Karlsruher SC – VfL Bochum 1:3
Arminia Bielefeld – Borussia Dortmund 2:2
Werder Bremen – Hannover 96 6:1
FC Schalke 04 – Eintracht Frankfurt 1:0

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Fortuna vs Wesseling 6-0: Oh, what a night!

It was one of those special evenings when everything just seems to fall into place. Just a perfect night at the Südstadion. The weather was brilliant, the crowd who showed up was huge (at least for 5th divison football standards) and the atmosphere was great. And what better way to start off the game than with a goal for your favourite team after only 2 minutes (Daniel Blankenheim scoring on a header from Marco Stasiulweski). To be honest, I was rather afraid going to the match.

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