Borussia Mönchengladbach

As there are always numerous accounts looking like player accounts at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, BMG decided to make a definite list of the official accounts of their players: http://t.co/ATg4uk7W61

I'm not amused at all.

Today was a test match between Twente Enschede and Borussia M'gladbach in Enschede, where the mayor of the city decided that no BMG fans were allowed into the stadium as he feared riots. No one exactly knew what riots he was talking about and both the BMG club officials and the German police (!) tried to convince him that the Gladbach fans were up to no evil, but the mayor stayed adamant.

Additionally it was only allowed for the Twente fans to obtain a card if they owned a season card - and it was 1 card only per season card, which also riled up the Twente fans big time. (One father wanted to bring his kids along, but he wasn't allowed to buy tickets for them as they didn't own a season ticket each...)

And to add insult to injury, the match wasn't even broadcast anywhere, nor was there any stream available.

And so Yann Sommer had his very first match for Borussia M'gladbach, and all one could see of it was a live-ticker at twitter

Well, BMG won 4:1 against Twente, but I really would have loved to see at least a little bit of the match

Do Twente and BMG supporters have some sort of bad blood between them or something? Why on earth would the city mayor have any reasons to think there could be riots?

Well, exactly that is the question everybody is asking themselves. Only the mayor seems to know. Neither the Twente fans nor the BMG fans are in any way hostile towards each other.

It is even made worse as the BMG fans collected money and helped the victims of the big accident in a fireworks company in Enschede some years ago, a fact that the Twente fans in the stadium reminded the viewers with two huge banners:



They say "They collected money for the fireworks accident victims and now they are banned from the town" and "Shame on you, municipality Enschede!"

It seems that the mayor wanted to show off that he has the power or something like that as the next elections are due - and of course football fans seem to be practical victims in that respect.

1. Can he actually do that. I doubt that. As mayor he could have barred the match from taking place citing security reasons but he can't rule on which fans can come and how many can attend.

2. I guess rwo was right in saying that he was showing-off. But, barring fans for a match in Germany isn't going to earn any points. That bugger is screwed.

So Bosnian club FK Sarajevo is the opponent of BMG for the EL play-offs on 21./28.08.2014 and need to be defeated to get to the group stage. Frankly, I have no idea about the strengths and weaknesses of the team, so I shall wait and see.

@iftikhar

It was a match in the Netherlands (in Enschede), not in Germany. I have no ideas what a Dutch mayor can or cannot do - AFAIK he was definitely able to forbid Twente to sell tickets to German fans.

The two EL play-off matches
Th 21.08.2014, 20:45 GMT+2: FK Sarajevo vs Borussia M'gladbach
Th 28.08.2014, 20:45 GMT+2: Borussia M'gladbach vs FK Sarajevo
will be streamed for free at ran.de if you live in Germany or use a German Proxy.

Europa League Playoff Leg 1:

FK Sarajevo vs Borussia M'gladbach





Gladbach will likely get into trouble due to their fans:

Spoiler:

Goals:
0:1 - Hahn (10., assist by Raffael)
1:1 - Puzigaca (26., assist by K. Velkoski)
1:2 - Hrgota (41., assist by Hahn)
2:2 - Duljevic (59., assist by K. Velkoski)
2:3 - Hrgota (73., assist by F. Johnson)

FT - FK Sarajevo 2:3 Borussia Mönchengladbach


Sadly, my favourite Swiss goalie was at fault for the first goal against, but he was fine otherwise. I hope next match he'll be back to his perfect self!

Oh, I totally forgot to post the result of BMG's first BL match of the season.

Bundesliga Matchday 1 - Sunday 24 Aug 2014

Borussia M'gladbach vs VfB Stuttgart

BMG: Sommer - Korb, Stranzl, Jantschke, Alvaro Dominguez - Nordtveit (73. Kramer), G.Xhaka - Hahn (F.Johnson), Traoré - Raffael - Hrgota (68. Hazard)

Stuttgart: Ulreich - Klein, Schwaab, Rüdiger, G.Sakai - Oriol Romeu, Gentner - Harnik (90. Leitner), Didavi (71. Gruezo), Maxim (79. Kostic) - Ibisevic

Goals:
51.) 0:1 - Alexandru Maxim (assist by Christian Gentner)
90.) 1:1 - Christoph Kramer (assist by Alvaro Dominguez)

FT - Borussia M'gladbach 1:1 VfB Stuttgart


Solid performance in his first Bundesliga game and no chance to save Maxim's goal.

So are they going to deploy Fabian Johnson as a winger? Just seems odd to waste an elite wing back in a position which is easily filled by another player.

Well, if they succeed in the EL play-off against Sarajevo, BMG are playing three competitions, so they will need to rotate players. I'm sure Lucien Favre will deploy Fabian Johnson in a way that he will be able to make the best out of his talent.

Europa League Playoff Leg 2:

Borussia M'gladbach vs FK Sarajevo





Goals:
1:0 - André Hahn (20., assist by Raffael)
2:0 - Granit.Xhaka (24., assist bx Hahn)
3:0 - Branimir Hrgota (34., assist by F.Johnson)
4:0 - Branimir Hrgota (67., assist by Raffael)
5:0 - Thorgan Hazard (74., PK)
6:0 - Branimir Hrgota (82., assist by G.Xhaka)
7:0 - Thorgan Hazard (90.+2, FK)

FT - Borussia Mönchengladbach 7:0 FK Sarajevo


First clean sheet with BMG

The goals:

Spoiler:

Monchenglabach or Basel?
What team do you like more?

Well, the team where Yann Sommer plays

(You know, my real team is RWO / Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, but as they are in the 4th division, I'm free to choose whatever team I like in the Europa League or Champions League. And I love to watch good goalies, so I can appreciate a lot of teams. ^^)

Europa League Group A:
- FC Zürich
- VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach
- Villarreal CF
- Apollon Limassol FC

Group Stage Fixtures:
Th 18.09.2014, 19:00 - Borussia Mönchengladbach vs Villarreal CF
Th 02.10.2014, 21:05 - FC Zürich vs Borussia Mönchengladbach
Th 23.10.2014, 21:05 - Borussia Mönchengladbach vs Apollon Limassol
Th 06.11.2014, 19:00 - Apollon Limassol vs Borussia Mönchengladbach
Th 27.11.2014, 21:05 - Villarreal CF vs Borussia Mönchengladbach
Th 11.12.2014, 19:00 - Borussia Mönchengladbach vs FC Zürich

Source: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2015/matches/index.html

Bundesliga Matchday 2 - Sunday 31 Aug 2014

SC Freiburg vs Borussia M'gladbach

Freiburg: Bürki - Sorg, Krmas, Kempf, C.Günter - Schuster, Darida - Schmid, Klaus (83. Frantz) - Mehmedi (87. Kerk), Schahin (58. Philipp)

BMG: Sommer - Korb, Stranzl, Jantschke, Wendt - Kramer (78. Nordtveit), G.Xhaka - Hahn, Traoré (75. F.Johnson) - Raffael - Hrgota (67. T.Hazard)

Goals:
Which goals?

FT - SC Freiburg 0:0 Borussia M'gladbach


Yann Sommer faced Admir Mehmedi who tried to score a penalty against him. Obviously, the striker and colleague in the Swiss NT was intimidated by Sommer's reputation as penalty killer and so he skied the penalty. ^^


Switzerland's Nr.1 and Nr.2. Now that Roman Bürki plays for Freiburg, he will likely thank his good fortune that he doesn't have to run around in a piggy pink kit anymore.

How has Hazard been playing?

I imagine he is still adjusting.

So far Lucien Favre uses him only sparingly (that is, no full matches), but when he plays, he really looks good. Pity that he is only at BMG on loan.

I've seen that. I think he'll have to work his way into the team but I think he will do it.

Well, as BMG have to play Bundesliga, Europa League and DFB-Pokal, there will be ample playing time for all players in the squad. I don't think he will have too little playing time this season.

Bundesliga Matchday 3 - Saturday 13 Sep 2014

Borussia M'gladbach vs Schalke 04

BMG: Sommer - Jantschke (46. Herrmann), Stranzl, Alvaro Dominguez, Wendt - G.Xhaka, Kramer - Hahn, F.Johnson - Raffael (83. Hazard), M.Kruse (78. Hrgota)

Freiburg: Fährmann -  Clemens, Ayhan, Höwedes, Aogo (71. Friedrich) - Höger (63. Huntelaar, Neustädter - Sam, K.-P.Boateng, Fuchs (46. Draxler) - Choupo-Moting

Goals:
1:0 - André Hahn (17., assist by Max Kruse)
2:0 - André Hahn (50., assist by Max Kruse)
2:1 - Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting (52., PK)
3:1 - Max Kruse (56., assist by Raffael)
4:1 - Raffael (79.)

FT - Borussia M'gladbach 4:1 Schalke 04



And really great performance by Yann Sommer, too.


Celebrating after the match

Raffael's assist at Kruse goal was amazing. Finally Brazilian played at his normal level. The best Gladbach game in this season by far.

Europa League Group Stage Matchday 1:

Borussia M'gladbach vs FC Villarreal





The refs:

The originally designated Croatian ref team had to be replaced with this Slovakian ref team who were on stand by as the Croatians had to ref vesterday's CL match between Chelsea and Schalke, for which the originally appointed Serbian team couldn't travel as they didn't have valid visa  for the UK

Goals:
1:0 - Patrick Herrmann (21.)
1:1 - Ikechukwu Uche (68., assist by Manu Trigueros)

FT - Borussia Mönchengladbach 1:1 FC Villarreal

The goal of Villarreal was scored by Ikechukwu Uche with his first (and only) touch. He then collided with Yann Sommer and got injured so badly that he had to be stretchered off and subbed off again. So the goal was Uche's only touch of the ball in a 5 minute cameo.  o_O

Nice choreo of BMG fans before the match:


The match was played in torrential rain:


Full time stats:

Bundesliga Matchday 4 - Sunday 21 Sep 2014

1. FC Köln vs Borussia M'gladbach

1.FC Köln: Horn - Brecko (c), Maroh, Wimmer, Hector - M.Lehmann, Vogt - Olkowski, Osako, Risse - Ujah

Spoiler:

BMG: Sommer - Korb, Jantschke, Stranzl (c), Wendt - G.Xhaka, Kramer - Hahn, F.Johnson - Raffael - M.Kruse  

Spoiler:

Goals:
What goals?

FT - 1.FC Köln 0:0 Borussia M'gladbach

Boring match. Yann Sommer was the best Gladbach player despite one badly misplaced pass.

Bundesliga Matchday 5 - Wednesday 24 Sep 2014

Borussia M'gladbach vs Hamburger SV

BMG: Sommer - Korb, Jantschke, Stranzl, Alvaro Dominguez - Kramer, G.Xhaka
- Hahn (80. Herrmann), T.Hazard (71. F.Johnson) - Raffael (74. Hrgota) - M.Kruse

Spoiler:

HSV: Drobny - Diekmeier (90. Götz), Djourou, Westermann, Ostrzolek -
Behrami, Arslan (79. Rudnevs) - N.Müller, Holtby, Stieber (73. Cigerci) - Lasogga

Spoiler:

Determinded to get the home win:


Goal:
25.) Max Kruse (assist by André Hahn)

FT - Borussia M'gladbach 1:0 Hamburger SV

Gladbach should have won 5:0 or more, if not for some truly woeful finishing.

Yann Sommer's heatmap - he loves to run around a bit, too ^^

Bundesliga Matchday 6 - Saturday 28 Sep 2014

SC Paderborn 07 vs Borussia M'gladbach

Paderborn: L.Kruse - Wemmer, Ziegler, Hünemeier, Brückner - Rupp (78. Meha), Vrancic (85. Strohdiek) - Koc, Stoppelkamp - Kutschke, Kachunga

BMG: Sommer - Jantschke, Stranzl, Alvaro Dominguez, Wendt - Kramer, G.Xhaka - Herrmann (69. Hahn), Traoré - Raffael (60. M.Kruse) - Hrgota (85. Nordtveit)

Goals:
08.) 0:1 - Patrick Herrmann (assist y Branimir Hrgota)
14.) 0:2 - Raffael
70.) 1:2 - Jens Wemmer (assist by Moritz Stoppelkamp)

FT - SC Paderborn 07 1:2 Borussia M'gladbach


Yann Sommer got his first yellow today as he took a little long to kick the ball ^^