Yesterday at the Euros #6

This tournament just keeps churning out really good games and day six was no exception.

First up, Portugal and Denmark served up a bit of a classic. It didn't look like being that for the first 40 minutes as Portugal twice carved the Danish defence open for Pepe and Helder Postiga helped themselves. The Danish goose looked well and truly cooked by then, but Nicklas Bendtner has a habit of not looking total crap in the colours of his nation. Michael Krohn-Dehli teed him up four minutes before the break to give Denmark a lifeline. Portugal should have wrapped it up, but good old Ronnie Cristialdo fluffed a couple of efforts that he really should have buried. One in particular stood out - one-on-one with Stephan Andersen, he waited for the goalkeeper to commit and still screwed it wide of the post. And it looked like Bendtner had made them pay for that as he headed in a second from a delicious cross from Lars Jacobsen. With time running down, Portugal launched forwards. A cross found it's way across the box to Silvestre Varela who swung a lazy left peg at it and missed completely. Reacting quickly, he gathered himself and swung a less lazy right peg at it and it rocketed past Andersen into the bottom corner. Could Simon Poulsen have done better? Possibly, but it was quite a strike. Lasse Schøne had one late opportunity, but blazed over the bar.

The fear was that the Germany v Netherlands game would be a disappointment in comparison, but not a bit of it. The Dutch came flying out of the blocks, but Robin van Persie couldn't convert the best early chance, when the otherwise magnificent Mats Hummels switched off momentarily to allow van Persie to reach a long ball over the top. Manuel Neuer to the rescue. Germany came roaring back, aided by the Dutch midfield allowing Bastian Schweinsteiger the run of Kharkiv, which is odd given the two holding midfielders so beloved of Bert van Marwijk. It was Schweinsteiger who sent a ball between the Oranje defence for Mario Gomez. He turned brilliantly and though Maarten Stekelenburg got hands to the shot, it wasn't enough to keep it out. Quarter of an hour later, the same two combined and Gomez gave Stekelenburg no chance with this finish, high and across him into the far corner from a relatively tight angle. Holland were in utter disarray. Van Marwijk responded by bringing on Rafael van der Vaart and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, but they didn't get the latter involved anywhere near enough and Germany looked comfortable with 2-0. Van Persie had one chance with a snap shot from 20 yards which Neuer did very well to turn away, but van Persie did get on the scoresheet with that collectors item - a goal with his right foot. Germany were content to run it into the corners for the remainder and closed out the game with what someone who likes a cliche may term ruthless efficiency. In the build-up, Ralf Rangnick said that, like Bayern under Louis van Gaal, Holland under van Marwijk are too predictable. He was right. Highlight of the game: Joachim Loew mugging off a ballboy.

The game can be summed up in one picture:

Gawd, but Mats Hummels is amazing....

Something did happen in both games, at least for UK viewers. Ronaldo missing the one-on-one chance was followed by 'expert' summariser Andy Townsend saying "in a Real Madrid shirt, that's a goal". After van Persie's early miss following the Hummels brain fade, 'expert' summariser Mark Lawrenson reckoned "in the Premier League, that's nestling in the back of the net". How does that work? They are both dreadful characters, obviously, but what process of thought has to go on to even think that that line of argument is even vaguely coherent? We've not heard anyone covering Premier League games laughing at yet another comedy miss from Bendtner saying "put him in a Denmark shirt and he scores that".

Anyway, the Dutch aren't quite out yet. They need to beat Portugal in the last game by at least two goals and hope that Germany beat Denmark. Anything else and they're out. Portugal need to match or better Denmark's result, Denmark need a better result than Portugal.

Today, Italy take on Croatia and it's Spain against Ireland.

The joys of Lego and TSG Hoffenheim

Lego* is brilliant. The toy of choice for generations. Hours, days even, could be spent building elborate constructions, alone or with siblings. From simple moon bases to complex cities and civilisations were not beyond the ken provided you had imaginations, enough bricks and a mother who didn't insist on 'tidying all this mess up before your father gets home'.

Over time, the original kits to build a specific items were merged with others into a generic pile of bricks. Where one kit started and ended wasn't important as the pile of bricks grew and grew, enabling you to break free from the shackles imposed by the creators and build something previously unimagined in scale and practicality. But no matter how complex and impressive your creations were, they did have to be dismantled, whether it was before your dad got home or otherwise, and often the destruction process was more enjoyable than the initial planning, design and build phases. And that's like Hoffenheim.

The Sinsheim club are the Lego creation of SAP founder Dietmar Hopp. Having seen his approaches rebuffed by a number of clubs, instead he took the side he once played for, in the suburbs of Sinsheim, and took them rapidly upwards to the Bundesliga under the stewardship of Ralf Rangnick. He spent on infrastructure too, building a stadium into which the population of Hoffenheim could fit ten times over. But now he's in the process of taking the whole project apart.

Whether he's bored or not, you'd have to ask him, but the rot set in when he sold Luiz Gustavo out from beneath Rangnick against the master-coach's expressed wishes. Rangnick left. Holger Stanislawski was persistently undermined in his short tenure and, frankly, he's best off out of it. Having spent 19 years with St Pauli as player and coach, the likeable Stanislawski has seen his shot at the big time blow up below him. He deserves another chance. His successor is Markus Babbel. Fine player though he was, he's not made a great fist of jobs at Stuttgart - where the requirement to attend courses in Koln to do his badges having been given dispensation by the DFB didn't help - and Hertha BSC who offed him during the winter break after a complete breakdown of relations. This smacks of self-sabotage by Hopp.

What does Hopp want? If he is bored, then he needs to have a sustainable model that someone else can take on. That does not exist - the club is entirely reliant on regular injections of cash from Hopp to keep operating as it does currently. If he's winding it down, the club will end up back where he picked them up from - the regional leagues - but with a 30,000-seater reminder to ambition mixed with hubris.

The house that Dietmar built is falling down. The question now is whether he has the will to build it back up again.



* - other building blocks are available

Goal of the week: Benedikt Höwedes

The damage had, of course, been done at the Giuseppe Meazza, but Schalke were also very good in the return leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Inter. Everyone expected Inter to come flying out and Schalke set up as if expecting that, but the onslaught never came and the Germans took a while to realise what was happening. They adjusted slowly and took the lead through Raúl late in the first half, again exposing the statuesque Inter defence.

Revitalised, Schalke were much better after the break despite conceding to Thiago Motta's scrambled effort and Höwedes had the ball in the net from a corner, but had half his left foot beyond the last defender and was flagged offside. Late in the game came the moment. Höwedes started the move by putting Raúl in space and immediately signalled where he wanted the ball, in between the full-back and centre-half. The ball was perfect, chipped into the space, and Höwedes continued his run and lashed in a thunderous shot low to Julio César's left.

It was a cracking goal all round. The vision of Höwedes, the through-ball from Raúl and the emphatic finish were all pretty much perfect, but it's what it represents that is more important. The tie was over at that stage - Inter weren't about to get five in ten minutes - and any other side, certainly the Schalke of the early part of the season, would have been content to knock it about at the back and play out time. Moreover, under Felix Magath, the likelihood is that Höwedes would never have thought about that gallop forwards. Had it not worked out, perhaps even if it had, the likely first comment from his manager would have been a reading of the riot act. The fear of the bollocking would have seen Höwedes give the ball to Raúl and immediately return to his station in the back four. Ralf Rangnick is a different type of manager who places a great deal of trust in his players to make the right decisions. With this backing from the bench, Höwedes saw the opportunity to create something and went for it. That it worked so spectacularly is almost a side issue.

The Bundesliga table may lull Manchester United fans into a sense that they're halfway there already. This new Schalke who beat Inter home and away without one of their main strikers are a different beast to the one that began the season with three straight defeats. Benedikt Höwedes slammed that point home emphatically at the Veltins Arena and S04 are live contenders in the semi-finals.

Bundesliga still on a break

The Germans are still on a break and will be for another week yet. With an 18-team league, proper breaks in summer and winter, is it any wonder that they (with very few exceptions) always turn up to the major international championships?
It's been a tight competition this season. Inevitably, Bayern have been among the front runners, but it's in danger of imploding down in Bavaria. Lukas Podolski, frustrated by a lack of opportunities, especially with Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni both misfiring badly, will be going back to his former club Cologne at the end of the season and the announcement was made along with a broadside fired at Jurgen Klinsmann. Willy Sagnol, so long a regular in the back four will shortly announce his retirement as he has failed to recover from an Achilles injury and ructions are afoot with Mark van Bommel reportedly told to "take or leave" a new contract offer.
While Bayern have been tripping over themselves, it's league new boys Hoffenheim that have made hay. Bankrolled by Dietmar Hopp, the chap who set up and subsequently sold software giants SAP, their progress is remarkable. And it's not just the money. At each stage that they've gone up, they've added to the side players that can take them to the next level. And it's worked. The man in charge is Ralf Rangnick who left Ruhr giants Schalke to take over at the tiny village side when they were way down in the regional leagues. Like the more successful owners in other leagues (think Randy Lerner at the Villa), Hopp is a hands-off chairman who leaves footballing matters solely to Rangnick, nicknamed "The Professor", a soubriquet in football that normally means 'he wears glasses and once read a broadsheet paper', and Rangnick has responded. He's got so far up the noses of the more established, old-school coaches to the point at which Uli Hoeness referred to him as a "smart alec". The second half of the season could be tough without leading goalscorer - for the club and in the league as a whole - Vedad Ibsevic who tore ligaments in his knee and is out for the season. Finding a replacement for those goals is key to their fortunes.

Bayer Leverkusen started brightly, but have begun to fall away. They're not out of it, for sure, but they need to turn current form around to maintain a push. Patrick Helmes is the bright young thing of German football - Germany's Benzema if you like - and his goals are keeping Bayer up there. Hertha and Hamburg too are well in the mix. Hertha are built on sold defensive foundations while Hamburg are winning games by the odd goal. Nigel de Jong (the club wangled £17m out of Man City for him when he had a £2.3m release clause in his contract) has gone and Ivica Olic could be on his way to Bayern, but they've a good manager in Martin Jol and should provide a stern challenge all season long. Ruhr rivals Schalke and Dortmund are locked together in mid-table. Both are tight in defence, but aren't scoring enough goals to the point at which Schalke boss Fred Rutten is considered under pressure. The derby game early in the season was a cause of controversy with Schalke 3-0 up. After Dortmund came back to 3-2, Schalke duo Christian Pander and Fabian Ernst were both dismissed, and a dodgy penalty awarded a minute from time was put away by Alexander Frei to level things. And just before the board went up to indicate the amount of added time to be played, the referee blew for full time. An investigation is underway as the spectre of match fixing rears it's head once more.

Bremen, Wolfsburg and Stuttgart are all drifting, neither pushing on to Europe nor being in danger of the drop. Bremen can't stop scoring, hitting five on four occasions, but they concede far too many. The goals of Grafite are keeping Wolfsburg out of danger while Mario Gomez is doing likewise for Stuttgart. Premiership watchers will be pleased to know that Jens Lehmann's penchant for yellow cards goes unabated. He's picked up three already.
Everyone from Cologne down is in bother. Cologne simply do not draw, but have won enough to be ahead of immediate danger. The rest don't. The bottom six clubs have won just 22 matches between them with Bochum just one. And yet Monchengladbach's incompetence is keeping them off the bottom. Energie don't score enough - 12 in 17 games is woeful - and Karlsruhe and Arminia aren't much better. Eintracht aren't doing too badly, but have copped for a few hidings and Hannover are just going nowhere. One thing all these sides have in common is a lack of any sort of quality. In this league, the haves and have-nots are a thrupenny bus ride apart.

The league resumes on 31st of January and it promises to be a tight race at both ends.