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What now for wondrous Wolfsburg?
Wolfsburg are only 90 minutes away from winning their first German championship and they have equalled or broken several records in achieving that.
No other team have ever had two strikers score 20 goals or more in a Bundesliga season. Grafite has 26, Edin Dzeko 25.
Wolfsburg equalled the longest winning streak in one season in the Bundesliga with 10 consecutive victories after the winter break. They have a near perfect home record, dropping only two points in 16 matches this term.
What can they improve on after such a season?
Coach Felix Magath will not be there next term, having signed with Schalke 04. Grafite has said he will stay on but Dzeko looks unlikely to partner him up front next season with big European clubs including Arsenal rumoured to be eyeing the Bosnian and team mates.
But don’t expect Volkswagen-backed Wolfsburg to be a one-off thing.
Can Magath wake Germany’s sleeping giant?
It was clear from the start that Felix Magath’s move to VfL Wolfsburg in 2007, after winning consecutive league and cup doubles with Bayern Munich, was a step backwards before another big step forward.
No one really expected them to be top of the table with three matches left this season. Magath himself said the team had met their targets earlier than expected.
His next big step now turns out to be Schalke 04, one of the most fervently supported clubs in the country — as opposed to Volkswagen-sponsored Wolfsburg — but also a club that has long failed to live up to its potential.
Without a championship for 51 years, Schalke have come agonisingly close many times. Magath must change that. He has to reorganise a team that includes several key players on their way out, like formidable central defenders Mladen Krstajic and Marcelo Bordon, expensive signings that have failed to deliver like Orlando Engelaar and Jefferson Farfan and volatile striker Kevin Kuranyi, who is still undecided about his future.
Magath, who will have complete control over the team, has to change all that without playing in any European competition next season.
It’s a much bigger job than he’s done at Wolfsburg. Everyone in Gelsenkirchen expects to get what they have been missing out for the past half century. All the second-place finishes, all the last-gasp failures have left fans hungry for lots of silverware and they will want to taste success under Magath sooner rather than later.
PHOTO: VfL Wolfsburg’s coach Felix Magath gestures during their Bundesliga game at VfB Stuttgart, May 9, 2009. REUTERS/Thomas Bohlen
One thing which struck me is according to what I read, it is a four-year contract Felix Magath is having at Schalke.
Schalke chairman Clemens Toennies had said something about Magath will be given that time frame to develop the team. If Magath does not produce anything during that time frame, I don’t think the fans will appreciate him. Much less about coming in second in the league, again.
Bearing in mind Schalke’s title ambitions will always be faced with competition from Bayern Munich. And the coaching search at Bayern seemed to be hitting a roadblock at the moment. Louis van Gaal being not sure whether will he go to Germany after all, despite what was also quoted with him saying that Bayern is a ‘dream club’ for him.
Grafite’s stunning goal hailed throughout Germany
German media have already decided that Grafite’s brilliant 77th-minute solo goal in Wolfsburg’s 5-1 win over Bayern Munich on Saturday is the goal of the year.
He somehow managed to elude five Bayern players before scoring with a cheeky backheel.
It may seem a bit early to be choosing the “Tor des Jahres” with nine months left in 2009 but even the normally reserved public TV broadcast “Das Aktuelle Sportstudio” proclaimed it “the most spectacular goal in Bundesliga history”.
The electrifying goal has featured in German newscasts all weekend.
Grafite’s goal, coming two days after his 30th birthday, also served as a fitting metaphor for the season as it helped Wolfsburg jump to the top of the Bundesliga in front of Hamburg SV, Hertha Berlin and Bayern.
The small club from the northern town made famous by the Volkswagen factories have now won eight of their nine matches since the winter break (the only blemish a draw at Cologne) after ending the first half of the season back in ninth place and nine points behind Bayern.
Wow, getting spanked 5-1 AND the whole world gets to be reminded all year.
have fun in the champions league now.
Is Wolfsburg’s Magath living in denial?
Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath was asked two weeks ago, after his team won their fifth consecutive league match, whether they could become German champions
“If we win all our 11 remaining fixtures then we can be champions,” he told the reporter with a hint of sarcasm. “But we are not title contenders, let’s make this clear,” he quickly added.
Two weeks later Wolfsburg have extended their winning streak to seven matches, sitting comfortably a point behind league leaders Hertha Berlin.
But even after this weekend’s 3-0 win against Arminia Bielefeld, Magath is still not satisfied.
“This result does not reflect the match,” he said. “We allowed Arminia far too many chances. We did not play well and were lucky to get away with a win.”
It has become a running joke in Germany that even if Wolfsburg win the Bundesliga, Magath will still be complaining afterwards.
I think anyone outside Bavaria would agree with the last post.