Borussia Mönchengladbach

rwo, you need a hug.

RWO the touch of Favre's magic is still nowhere to be seen!

Believe! Next chance to turn things around is Wednesday against Augsburg!

Favre resigns! Understandable but still

It's a very shocking development - Gladbach published that they tried hard the whole day long to convince Lucien Favre to stay, but he was adamant and even published his media statement that he'd resign when Gladbach refused to accept his resignation. o_O

Tribute to Lucien Favre:

Spoiler:

rwo power wrote:It's a very shocking development - Gladbach published that they tried hard the whole day long to convince Lucien Favre to stay, but he was adamant and even published his media statement that he'd resign when Gladbach refused to accept his resignation. o_O

Tribute to Lucien Favre:

Spoiler:

Come on Rodgers, see how it's done

For now, Gladbach's U23 coach Andre Schubert will take over as interim coach until Max Eberl and the Gladbach board have found a fitting coach to replace Lucien Favre in the longterm.


André Schubert's first press conference


André Schubert during the first training session with the senior team

Bundesliga Matchday 6 - 23 Sep 2015

Borussia M'gladbach vs FC Augsburg

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Korb, A.Christensen, Dominguez, Wendt - G.Xhaka (76. Nordtveit), Dahoud - P.Herrmann (56. Hahn), F.Johnson (59. I.Traoré) - Stindl, Raffael

FC Augsburg: Hitz - Verhaegh, Hong, Klavan, Stafylidis - Baier - Esswein (71. Max), Kohr (80. Moelders), Koo, Ji - Matavz

Goals:
05.) 1:0 - Fabian Johnson
17.) 2:0 - Granit Xhaka (assist by Raffael)
19.) 3:0 - Lars Stindl (assist by Raffael)
21.) 4:0 - Mo Dahoud (assist by Raffael)
51.) 4:1 - Verhaegh (PK)
75.) 4:2 - Verhaegh (PK)

FT - Borussia M'gladbach 4:2 FC Augsburg

Today Gladbach got PKs Nr.6 and 7 in this season against them. Really great job by the referee, who made a couple of weird decisions, including booking a wrong player in the end. Maybe he should visit an optician to get his eyes checked before he refs the next match.

rwo is back

Hm. I really wonder whether the referees hate on BMG. By now they already gave 8 (in words: eight!) penalties against them in this season:

1. Werder (Johannsson scores)
2. Werder (Kroos misses)
3. Sevilla (Gameiro scores)
4. Sevilla (Gameiro misses)
5. Sevilla (Banega scores)
6. Augsburg (Verhaegh scores)
7. Augsburg (Verhaegh scores)
8. Stuttgart (Ginczek scores)

This can't be normal...

Bundesliga Matchday 7 - 26 Sep 2015

VfB Stuttgart vs Borussia M'gladbach

VfB Stuttgart: Tyton - F.Klein, Sunjic, Baumgartl, Insua - Serey Dié, Gentner (82. Kliment)- Didavi (63. Maxim), Kostic - Ti.Werner, Ginczek

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Korb (67. Hahn), A.Christensen, Nordtveit, Wendt - G.Xhaka, Dahoud (67. Dominguez) - P.Herrmann (80. T.Hazard), F.Johnson - Stindl, Raffael

Goals:
17.) 0:1 - Granit Xhaka (assist by Raffael)
20.) 0:2 - Christian Gentner (own goal)
40.) 1:2 - Daniel Ginczek (PK)
90.) 1:3 - Raffael

FT - VfB Stuttgart 1:3 Borussia M'gladbach

Christensen is getting lots of game time, how is he playing?

Just like one would expect from a young player with great talent - spells where he is looking really fine, but with one or the other big mistake in between. But he's definitely showing great promise so far, even though he caused one or the other goal so far.

Overall, that is good to hear.

It is very rare for a young defender to be near perfect, so I don't expect much more from him.

Champions League Matchday 2 - 30 Sep 2015

Borussia M'gladbach vs Manchester City

Gladbach's CL choreo (first home match in the CL after 37 years):

(click to enlarge)

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Korb (78. I.Traoré), A.Christensen, Dominguez, Wendt - G.Xhaka, Dahoud (84. Nordtveit) - P.Herrmann (72. A.Hahn), F.Johnson - Stindl, Raffael
Unused subs: Heimeroth (GK),  Drmić, T.Hazard, M.Schulz

Manchester City: Hart - Sagna, Otamendi, Demichelis, Kolarov - Yaya Touré (46. Fernando), Fernandinho - Silva (64. Jesus Navas), De Bruyne - Sterling - Aguero
Unused subs: Caballero (GK), Zabaleta, Maffeo, Evans, Barker

Goals:
56.) 1:0 - Lars Stindl (assist by Julian Korb)
65.) 1:1 - Andreas Christensen (own goal)
90.) 1:2 - Sergio Aguero (PK)

FT - Borussia M'gladbach 1:2 Manchester City

This was a wonderful match for neutral spectators as both teams attacked with gusto, and both defense lines were rather doubtful. Only the class of both goalkeepers and the inability of the attackers to hit the target kept the match goalless until half-time.


"Referee, we know where you parked your car..." (popular fan chant in Germany)

The flops of the match were the french referee Clement Turpin and his goal refs Stevie Wonder and Doc Watson*. First the ref gave a penalty for an obvious dive by Raffael. When Lars Stindl was actually fouled right in front of one of the goal refs, Gladbach got no penalty and Stindl even got a booking. Then the goal ref didn't see that City's first shot attempt in the 65th minute was already half a meter over the line (a clear case that goal-line technology should be used in the CL, too), and finally a clear hand penalty for Gladbach wasn't given either. I think that ref team needs some serious extra training in a make-up class. ^^
*) joke stolen from some guy in the City forum, but the author was so right...

And as if that wasn't enough, Yann Sommer collided badly with Oscar Wendt and got Wendt's knee into his face in the last seconds of injury time (hence it's "injury time", I guess). He suffered a fracture of the bridge of nose and will get surgery on Thursday. Poor Yann

http://www.blick.ch/sport/fussball/nati/operation-ist-noetig-yann-sommer-faellt-mit-nasenbeinbruch-aus-id4219469.html

Another pic of Gladbach's CL choreo:

(click to enlarge)

Oh, and by the way - penalty count: 9 penalties against Gladbach in 10 competitive matches now

Site with a fantastic panorama view of the Gladbach choreo:
http://pix.panokreativ.de/2015/BMG/CL_01/index.html

Bundesliga Matchday 8 - 3 Oct 2015

Borussia M'gladbach vs VfL Wolfsburg

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sippel - Korb, A.Christensen, Dominguez, Wendt - Dahoud (68. Nordtveit), G.Xhaka - I.Traoré, F.Johnson (68. P.Herrmann) - Stindl, Raffael (88. T.Hazard)

VfL Wolfsburg: Benaglio - S.Jung, Naldo, T.Klose, R.Rodriguez - Guilavogui, M.Arnold (81. Bendtner) - Caligiuri, M.Schäfer (68. Dost) - M.Kruse, Schürrle

Goals:
76.) 1:0 - Håvard Nordtveit (assist by Raffael)
79.) 2:0 - Ibrahima Traoré (assist by Lars Stindl)

FT - Borussia M'gladbach 2:0 VfL Wolfsburg


Tobias Sippel had a mostly quiet afternoon in goal

Third win in a RWO , seems like Lucien Favre was the problem

From what one can read between the lines, the players said that now they can play more freely again and have less fear to make errors.

It appears as if Lucien Favre had a "perfect" gameplan in his mind and wanted his players to play exactly as he envisioned it, but it was probably a bit too difficult for them to follow exactly what he wanted. You could say they tried more to follow the plan than play to win, and now they are told to simply try to win, no matter if they displace a pass or too or even use long balls more.


By the way, Yann Sommer was in the SRF sportpanorama 04.10.2015:

Still looking majorly cute

Bundesliga Matchday 9 - 17 Oct 2015

Eintracht Frankfurt vs Borussia M'gladbach

Eintracht Frankfurt: Hradecky - Ignjovski, Abraham, Russ, Oczipka - Reinartz - Flum, Stendera - A.Meier (c) - Castaignos, Seferovic

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Korb, A.Christensen, Alvaro Dominguez, Wendt - Dahoud, G.Xhaka (c) - I.Traoré, F.Johnson - Stindl, Raffael

Goals:

Am watching this game instead of Arsenal. This better be good RWO

16.) 0:1 - Raffael (assist by Lars Stindl)
29.) 1:1 - Alex Meier (PK - what else?)

Gladbach penalty count right now:
1. Werder (Johannsson scores)
2. Werder (Kroos misses)
3. Sevilla (Gameiro scores)
4. Sevilla (Gameiro misses)
5. Sevilla (Banega scores)
6. Augsburg (Verhaegh scores)
7. Augsburg (Verhaegh scores)
8. Stuttgart (Ginczek scores)
9. ManCity (Aguero scores)
10. Frankfurt (Alex Meier scores)

51.) 1:2 - Mo Dahoud (assist by Ocar Wendt)
57.) 1:3 - Raffael (assist by Mo Dahoud)
82.) 1:4 - André Hahn (PK)
90.) 1:5 - André Hahn (assist by Havard Nordtveit)

FT - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:5 Borussia M'gladbach  

Christensen still playing

Andreas Christensen playing very well even. I guess Gladbach will attempt to lure him away from Chelsea if possible

Aside from Zouma, Christensen is our great hope at CB, I doubt we'll let him go like we did with Thorgan.

but it's good to hear that he is playing well.

Well, one can but try

But he's doing really well. By the way, Gladbach finally found the proper replacements for Max Kruse and Christoph Kramer:

It turned out that Lars Stindl is the perfect Kruse replacement and not the one for Kramer as it was originally thought, while 19-year old kid Mo Dahoud of Gladbach's youth academy is perfect at Kramer's job.

Good to hear, RWO!