Handsome Jrgen Klopp pulls ugly face as Dortmund draw at Frankfurt
Norman Mailer once observed that all dictators were ugly, but the opposite seems to hold true for successful football managers. Jos Mourinho, Roberto Mancini, Jrgen Klopp, the pre-Bordeaux-collecting Alex Ferguson and Joachim L?w (if you are that way inclined) owe sizable parts of their careers to their good looks – that boyish charm lets them get away with the sort of stuff (obsessive training ground nerdiness, wholesale bullying of press/players/opponents, arrogance) plainer Ron Managers couldn’t.
Tuesday night at the Commerzbank-Arena showed, however, that even the darling of German football and wallpaper-glue afficionados everywhere can look pretty bad sometimes. Jrgen Klopp admitted as much after being sent Agatha Ruiz Dela Prada Online Store to the stand for the kind of tte-a-tte you’d expect in the Vampire Diaries, not Bundesliga matchday 5.
“It’s not a good face,” he said, “it’s a difficult face. There was no insult. If you can apologise for your face, I do that” Borussia Dortmund’s manager insisted he’d only complained to the fourth official about a foul but referee Florian Meier, Amazon Uk Prada Bags fearing a mauling, was well within his rights to order him to the posh seats shortly before the end of an evening with real bite. A touchline ban now looms for Count Kloppula, who’s been there before, of course. Privately, the German FA might feel that a wooden stake through the heart would be a better punishment next time.
The result replica prada calfskin handbags, you ask? 3-3 said the electronic cube above the Agatha Ruiz Dela Prada Messenger Bag pitch after a truly sensational game, that left the crowd gasping for more. Dortmund were 2-0 up, then pegged back by a Frankfurt side attacking with unbelievable gusto. Substitute Mario G?tze seemed to have won it for the champions but Bamba Anderson, possibly the only Brazilian defender named after an Israeli peanut-based snack, popped up with an equaliser that turned Klopp into a bloodthirsty madman.
While the coach’s painfully contorted face dominated the headlines, the real damage was done Authentic Prada Bag For Sale Philippines at the other end of the anatomical spectrum. For the second game running, Dortmund’s defence, rightly celebrated as an impenetrable vault of ten foot, double-locked steel doors since their 2010-11 title, appeared to open like a diarrhetic humpback’s backside – borrowing a phrase first coined in a blog not a million miles away.
“We didn’t do it well at the back,” said sporting director Michael Zorc. “The spaces are too big, the mechanisms don’t work,” added skipper Sebastian Kehl. “Six goals conceded in two games is fatal, a terrible number.”
“It’s a shit-stat,” Klopp commented, with typical directness. “We are putting the emphasis on the wrong things. Often, we’re half a metre short. Our offensive potential is so great that it’s coming out of our ears but we neglect to safeguard our attacks.”
On the day after the frustrating draw, the manager insisted that “only little things” needed work, like the exact positioning of the full-backs but the deeper worry must be that Black Authentic Prada Bags For Sale Philippines and Yellows haven’t learned from the history of the two previous campaigns. Dortmund are still not good at winning games without 100% effort and are suffering just as they did in the autumn before, when the slightest drop in concentration and fitness saw them forced into errors.
History also suggests that they’ll be quick to recover from this blip but while they still have an interest in the Champions League, something might continue to give. No wonder the mood is “explosive” as Neue Ruhr Zeitung wrote on Thursday. A tricky home game against the Borussia from M?nchengladbach and Tuesday’s away trip to Manchester City have the potential to turn a slow start into a minor crisis. They’re already seven points behind 5-from-5-Bayern, who turned in another 3-0 regulation win against sorry Wolfsburg without breaking sweat.
Frankfurt, on the other hand, couldn’t be sitting more prettily if the Commerzbank-Arena seats were lined with hand-painted Goyard leather: second in the table, unbeaten and entertaining in the extreme. “It was the best transition football I’ve ever seen from Frankfurt,” said Klopp. The “from Frankfurt” bit could have well been left out. “It’s been a long time since a team played this outstandingly well against us from deep positions,” said Mats Hummels.
The Eagles showcased counter-attacking of the highest order, with pinpoint diagonal passes to the wide players, a simply superb performance by Japanese attacking midfielder Takashi “The new, new Kagawa” Inui and lynchpin Pirmin Schwegler as a world-class midfield maestro pulling all sorts of strings. Armin Veh will do well to curb the enthusiasm in Germany’s banking capital in the wake of this gala performance. “Eintracht fans are daring to dream,” wrote Frankfurter Rundschau.
A season in the second Authentic Prada Wallet For Sale Philippines division certainly seems to have done the club and its players a ton of good. A safe place in the top half would be a tremendous success, but if anyone knows how to ride a wave of good vibes and confidence even further then it’s Veh, the surprise Authentic Prada Wallet For Sale Philippines winner of the 2007 championship with Stuttgart. And he’s a handsome devil, too, truth be told.
Talking points
? There were enthralling wins from Hannover and Leverkusen, but Fortuna Dsseldorf’s three-pointer at fellow promoted club Frth was perhaps the most impressive result of Agata Ruiz De La Prada Shop On Line all. For the fifth game running, Norbert Meier’s nil-by-goalmouth policy was adhered to perfectly. The manager and his players were obviously happy with another clean sheet at the Trolli Arena, even if the result will only feed into catenaccio tag that Fortuna have been labelled with this season. “I don’t want to say that these accusations really hurt me,” said striker Dani Schahin, “but they annoyed me. They did my balls in.” Meier was a little more tactful but equally contradictory. “I don’t care about these criticisms but they don’t do my players justice,” he said. “This a matter of pride for me. I don’t know what people expect from us: 90% possession, Agatha Ruiz Prada Online Shop a chance every 5 minutes and a goal after every 30?”. But honestly, Meier shouldn’t be too perturbed. In a league where good defending comes at a premium, keeping it tight is hardly a crime.
? How Stuttgart would love to be called defensive and boring. The Swabians were booed by pretty Authentic Prada Wallet For Sale Philippines much the whole stadium at the end of a drab 3-0 defeat by Hoffenheim, who have unhelpfully passed on the “club in crisis” baton to Bruno Labbadia’s men. “A catastrophe – we played so much rubbish that it was sad,” said defender Serdar Tasci. Labbadia isn’t in the direct line of fire yet, but in the even of another twenty thousand leagues under the sea performance at Nrnberg will make VfB a prime candidate to be this season’s surprise strugglers – or worse.
? Finally, there was controversy aplenty in Hamburg’s fascinating 2-2 away draw at Gladbach. The game had everything, including a Rafael van der Vaart half-volley stonker, a penalty miss (again van der Vaart), a dubious goal (“I was leaning on my opponent before the 1-1, ” admitted Borussia-defender Martin Stranzl) and a harsh sending off. Stranzl stuck out a leg when Ivo Ilicevic was through on goal. “I don’t touch him and he’s taking off,” the Austrian said, fairly accurately. But his dangerous tackle certainly impeded the Hamburg man, so referee Deniz Ayetkin, of Huszti double-yelllow fame, was within his rights to point to the spot and dish out a red card. In the end, both sides could be happy with a hard-fought point, but the frustrations weighed heavier. Gladbach are yet to rediscover last season’s slickness. And the rejuvenated Hamburg bemoaned a needless draw after conceding the equaliser in the final minute. Goalkeeper Adler (“kindergarden”), Marcell Jansen (“amateur-like”) and Heiko Westermann (“not worthy of the Bundesliga”) all blamed poor execution of numerous counter-attacksfor the result. Still, Thorsten Fink will feel it’s a massive step up from the fruitless search for explanationsfollowing all those earlier defeats.
Results: Bayern 3-0 Wolfsburg, Frankfurt 3-3 Dortmund, Greuther Frth 0-2 Dsseldorf, M?nchengladbach 2-2 Hamburg, Hannover 4-1 Nrnberg, Freiburg 1-2 Werder Bremen 1-2, Leverkusen 1-3 Augsburg, Stuttgart 0-3 Hoffenheim.
Deja un comentario