Bundesliga Begins
August 10, 2007
Legendary German national team coach Sepp Herberger's adage that people go to stadiums to see soccer games because they don't know which team will win rings rather hollow in the Bundesliga this season.
The German top flight has seldom had such as clear favorite as Bayern Munich. The 70 million euros ($95.7 million) the team is rumored to have paid to pull in international stars paid an initial dividend when Bayern won Germany's pre-season League Cup. By comparison, the league's 17 other teams are reported to have paid a total of 100 million euros for new players.
Bayern's stars left the Bundesliga's other teams watching in wonder as Franck Ribery, Hamit Altintop and Ze Roberto passed the ball through the midfield and 19-year-old striker Sandro Wagner, who had four regional league goals to his name, kept ahead of the league's top defenders.
Can success be bought?
What the Bavarians will be able to do when Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski are back in the line-up convinced 16 Bundesliga coaches to name Bayern favorites for the league title. Bayer Leverkusen's Michael Skibbe said he thought Bremen would win and the league's final trainer Dieter Hecking of Hanover placed his bet on perennial runners-up Schalke finally winning their first title in 50 years.
But money doesn't guarantee success, which Munich painfully learnt on Monday when they needed penalty shootout heroics from their 38-year-old captain Oliver Kahn to beat third division Burghausen in the German Cup.
Bookies bet on Bayern
Though loyal fans will be glad to see the league trophy return to Munich, if they put their money behind their team there won't be a new car or trip to Disney World at the end of the season.
Bookmakers are paying just 1.50 to one. Bremen fans have odds of 6.50 to one, Schalke's are nine-to-one. Stuttgart's chances of repeating their win last season will pay punters 10-to-one, but the team can't be written off until the end of the season after grabbing last year's title from Schalke in the final two weeks.
But diehard Cottbus, Rostock or Duisburg fans would earn 1,000 euros for putting one down on their team. Yes, it sounds outlandish now, but it was just 10 years ago that Kaiserslautern were promoted to the first division and won the league in the same year.
Still, experts agree it's more likely this season's promoted sides, Karlsruhe, Duisburg and Rostock, will be playing to avoid relegation along with Bielefeld, Bochum and Cottbus.
New names to learn
Even if the final outcome is clear, there are enough new faces coming into the Bundesliga to make the 2007-08 season worth watching, like Munich wunderkind Wagner.
The 120 players getting their introduction with new teams in the German first division, including half the league's starting goalkeepers, are hoping to surprise Germany's soccer experts and give fans the spectacle they're hoping for.
"After such a long pre-season, you're just delighted it is starting again for real," said Bayern and Germany defender Philipp Lahm, summing up German soccer fans' excitement about the season that kicks off this weekend.