Going, going, gong

Both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich can still swell their trophy cabinets this season with bona fide silverware, but only the champions are carrying off some prized swag as the season-ending, never-imitated frequently-bettered Never Mind the Ballacks end-of-term trinkets are dished out with gay abandon.

Robert Lewandowksi and Dortmund have battered the woodwork this season, and created something beautiful

Given they boast the best-ever points total for a Bundesliga season and set a swathe of league and club records in the campaign, you could accuse Jürgen Klopp’s men of being plain greedy. That accusation certainly can be levelled at Lucas Barrios, who must already have a team of accountants working round-the-clock to calculate just how many pots of noodles €6.7m a year will buy in Guangzhou, but there is little doubt Dortmund deserve our first accolade, the Jermaine Jones Gilded Shinpad. The Schalke enforcer, who racked up an impressive BL-high 14 yellow cards this season, is an ‘artist’ who enjoys carving up the opposition in an almost literal sense. Dortmund, of course, are more subtle, and have chipped away at the woodwork a league-high 25 times this season in a cleverly-concealed attempt to write ‘Nuri who?’ into goalposts across the nation.

While facemask manufacturers have enjoyed a bumper season – Danke Messrs Kadlec, Pezzoni et al – so have Bundesliga clubs courtesy of their remarkable fans, who are deserving recipients of a cheque equal in size to Marko Arnautovic’s habitual contribution to Werder Bremen games this season. OK, that’s more than a little unfair on the fans, who – unlike the wilful Austrian – have actually been active inside stadiums on a regular basis, giving the German top flight an average of 45,116 per match, a league record. One man who has put in a shift, albeit a not particularly effective one of late, is Levan Kobiashvilli. The indefatigable Georgian made his 336^th Bundesliga appearance on the final day of the season to draw level with Ze Roberto as the BL’s leading foreign appearance maker, and earn himself a sought-after, very limited edition copy of the Michael Skibbe Guide to Keeping Your Job.

Streich has not lived up to his name, and has been unrelenting in his work to keep Freiburg up

One man who has clearly ignored everything the ephemeral Hertha Berlin coach has yet to put into print is Christian Streich, whose surname sounds as though he should be manning the barricades. Instead, Streich has been hard at work, somehow keeping Freiburg in the top flight despite losing his most potent striker in the January transfer window. With his team the seventh-best in the second half of the season, Streich is the unanimous winner of the Lucien Favre Phoenix from the Ashes Phoenix, only just pipping the man himself following the revival of both his reputation and his team at Mönchengladbach.

Patrick Helmes has undergone a similar resurrection at Wolfsburg. Unloved, unwanted, and unfit – according to Felix Magath – at the start of the season, the former German international pushed himself to the brink of his nation’s EURO 2012 squad with 12 goals in 16 league matches after being brought in from the cold, which – in Wolfsburg – is a very chilly place indeed. For his efforts, Helmes is the proud new owner of  a cross sculpted lovingly from a Signal Iduna Park goal by Robert Lewandowski himself, an award which will also come in handy for Magath when he needs to tie Helmes down and whip him into shape in pre-season.

While Cologne’s opponents can comfortably cover the floors of their boardrooms with the red carpet the Bundesliga’s most generous side – 75 goals conceded – rolled out for them, the two-week all-expenses paid trip to the Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Finishing School goes to Kaiserslautern. The Dutchman scored five more goals than the entire FCK squad between them, though Olcay Sahan can console himself in 2. Bundesliga with the fact his plum strike against Dortmund in Week 16 may well just be the best the season saw.

Ian Holyman

Eurosport 2 Bundesliga commentator

Thanks for joining us for the Bundesliga season 2011-2012. The good news is that we’ll be back in August with more live matches and more blogs. See you then!

Headline moves abroad bad for Bundesliga

If you predicted Marko Marin’s exit to Chelsea this week, then you should perhaps head off to the local casino and make some big money. But the man amusingly christened ‘the German Messi’ by the British press is hardly the biggest name to be bidding Auf Wiedersehen this summer and taking some of the shine off the Bundesliga.

Marko Marin’s not the only one left gobsmacked by his move to Chelsea

The most significant of those – so far – to be confirmed as heading for the exit is Raul. One of THE transfer coups of the decade when he was brought to Schalke by Felix Magath, the Spaniard has not only performed on the pitch – 28 goals and ten assists in 68 Bundesliga games to date – but also raised standards and expectations in Gelsenkirchen. His arrival helped convince Klaas-Jan Huntelaar he could prosper at Schalke, a club he surely would not have considered but for the presence of his former Real Madrid team-mate. By the same token, Raul’s departure means the Dutchman is asking himself some questions as he mulls over a contract extension that would make him Schalke’s highest-paid player ever. Schalke need to do as much as possible to encourage ‘The Hunter’ to stay as the loss of both players would not only be a major blow to the club, but also to the credibility of the league, which has only recently taken Serie A’s place at the top table of European football alongside La Liga and the Premier League.

While Raul’s successful two-year sojourn in Germany may well convince other ageing stars the Bundesliga is the ideal staging post for a swansong before a final big pay-day – just as the Premier League was in its infancy – Lucas Barrios and, most likely, Shinji Kagawa are showing it is also an excellent shop window.

Barrios, who was unfortunate to lose his place in the Dortmund starting XI through injury and then kept out of it by Robert Lewandowski’s excellent form, is heading for Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande. To paraphrase Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “Apart from the €6.7m a year salary over four years, what are Guangzhou Evergrande gonna do for Lucas?” At 27, it is a bizarre move from a striker who could comfortably play for a number of top sides in Europe and smacks of an astounding lack of sporting – if not financial – ambition on the Paraguayan international’s part. It also leaves Dortmund worryingly short of cover for Lewandowski, whose future is also somewhat up in the air, despite Michael Zorc’s insistence that the Pole will be with the champions next season.

Shinji Kagawa has Dortmund in his heart – but Manchester United in his head?

In a way, Barrios’ move can be written off as a) good business for Dortmund if the circa €12m transfer fee for a player purchased for three times less is correct; and b) as being simply motivated by avarice. In a similar vein, the likely switch of Kagawa to Manchester United is equally understandable given the reigning English champions are one of the few steps up from Dortmund the Japanese international can make. Brought in for €350,000 and likely sold for €15m with a year left on his contract, it makes sound financial sense in anyone’s book, and the arrival of Marco Reus cushions the blow considerably. His €17m arrival suggests Dortmund may be able to join Bayern and Schalke, who are offering an enticing €8m a year to Huntelaar, in being able to compete with some of Europe’s bigger – if not biggest – boys in the transfer market.

Worryingly, though, should Kagawa go it does reinforce the impression of the Bundesliga, as did the moves of Edin Dzeko, Nuri Sahin and – certainly now – Papiss Demba Cissé, as a ‘selling league’, whose prize talents can be easily tempted elsewhere. Lukas Podolski’s transfer to Arsenal is another which could be cited to back up that accusation, though the Cologne star’s case is far from open-and-shut. Prinz Poldi’s not wholly unsuccessful stint at Bayern and his subsequent move back to 1.FC showed he genuinely finds it tough settling outside of the Domstadt. With a move inside Germany all but impossible – where would he go? – and with Jogi Löw pushing him to go abroad for the sake of his career, Arsenal seems like a good fit, especially – as Podolski says – “they wear the same colours” as Cologne.

In addition to sharing tales of Deutschland with Per Mertesacker, Podolski can always pop round to Marin’s if he’s feeling homesick. It is fair to say no-one even hallucinated a move to Chelsea was on the cards, though with Bremen likely to recoup nearly all the €8m they paid Mönchengladbach for a player who has failed to meet expectations in the last two seasons, nobody will be worrying too much about how it reflects on the Bundesliga.

Ian Holyman

Eurosport 2 Bundesliga commentator

Our live coverage of the final day of the Bundesliga season starts on Saturday from 15:30CET with champions Dortmund in party mood against Freiburg as our main match. We’ll be keeping an eye on developments elsewhere thoughout the afternoon. After the full-time whistle, we will take an hour-long look back at what has been a memorable 2011/12 Bundesliga campaign.

Hoeness wants to make Chelsea pay

Neuer Saves Bayern Munich

”Meine Herren,” exclaimed Uli Hoeness at Bayern Munich’s General Assembly on 1 December 2010.   ”The 2012 Champions League final will be at the Allianz Arena and we must be there at all costs.”

Costs there certainly were, but the Bavarians are now just 90 minutes away from being the first club to be crowned European Champions on their home ground since Inter Milan in 1965.

Reaching the Champions League final is a triumph for the club and a personal victory for Hoeness, the man who spent 30 years as General Manager and is now club president.

                  “I thought I was going to die,” Hoeness said after the semi-final win against Real Madrid. ”This was a match that you get to see only a few times in your life. The biggest thing in football is a World Cup final or a Champions League final on home soil and we have done that.”

Talented player, outspoken administrator, plane crash survivor, sausage mogul – Hoeness really is one of the great characters of European football. 

And it was fitting that the hero in the Bavarians’ penalty shootout win against Real was keeper Manuel Neuer, who saved superbly from Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka.

                   ”Ronaldo got me once,” said Neuer after the game, referring to the Portuguese player’s penalty in the first half, “so I had to get him back.”

Neuer’s summer move to Munich was enormously controversial. Hoeness was told that the idea of buying the Gelsenkirchen-born keeper, Schalke through and through, was sheer folly.

In the months leading up to the transfer, hundreds of Bayern fans wielded banners at matches with slogans like ”No to Neuer” and ”Neuer is, and will always be, a visitor.”

Home comforts for Hoeness

                   Hoeness insisted that Neuer was the best in Europe and spent 22 million euros to make made him the second most expensive keeper in history.

Not that the 60-year-old likes to waste Bayern’s resources. Hoeness, brought up to balance the books running his parents’ grocery in Ulm, treats the club’s money more carefully than his own.

A wonderfully gifted attacking midfielder, Hoeness never recovered from a horror tackle from Leeds United’s Frank Gray in the 1975 European Cup final. Forced to retire, he took over a club that had debts of 11 million marks (around 6m euros), a staggering sum at the time.

 Life was put into perspective in 1982, when Hoeness was the only survivor of a plane crash. After the incident, Hoeness threw himself into his work, turning the club he loves into arguably the biggest financial success story in Europe: what other club can say it was in profit for 29 out of 30 seasons?

So it’s appropriate that the profligate spenders of Chelsea (who lost £68 million last year alone) will be the visitors in May.

Fiercely loyal (14 former Bayern players work full-time for the club), Hoeness has never hid his dislike for the nouveau riche of football, whose wasteful spending he believes risks the future of football. Hoeness and Chief Executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge could barely disguise their satisfaction when Manchester City were dispatched earlier this season: the sooner financial fair play comes, the better for Bayern.

For many Germans though, he is best known for sausages. Created in the early 80s, Hoeness’ food empire employs more than 200 people. McDonald’s even sells an ”Uli Sausage” to German foodies (those early experiences in his parents’ shop were put to good use).

All thoughts are on that 19 May showpiece. Bayern’s obsession with reaching the final has arguably cost them the Bundesliga title – for the first time this century, they will go back to back seasons without being crowned German champions.

Now, Bayern will pull out all the stops to win their first European crown since 2001.

                   “Ever since it was announced that the final would be in Munich, we’ve all had only one target: to get there. Now we have one more match at home, and we want to win it,” said Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Bayern have received a staggering one million applications for tickets, even before the club’s remarkable victory in the Spanish capital.

Only 17,500 lucky souls will get tickets, but up in the VIP box, Hoeness will be in his usual seat, wrapped in his trademark red and white scarf.

For a year and a half, the match has been an obsession. Defeat now would be unthinkable.

Andreas Evagora

Deputy Head

Eurosport2

For more Bundesliga blogs log on to http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/the-ballacks/

This weekend’s Bundesliga matches will all be played at 15:30 CET Saturday. We’ll bring you live action of the vital clash between Schalke and Hertha Berlin, and a roundup of all the other matches right after the match in Gelsenkirchen. Coverage in North and East Europe.

Freiburg Streich back

Bundesliga relegation candidates in the 2012-13 campaign may be falling over themselves to ensure they’re bottom of the table come next Christmas after what Christian Streich’s Freiburg have done this season.

Freiburg have flourished under Christian Streich

It’s getting to be a familiar scenario – the team rock-bottom and all but down-and-out in Germany’s top flight at the halfway stage produces a miraculous recovery to preserve their place at the top table. Mönchengladbach did it last season under Lucien Favre, Freiburg are doing it this season under Streich.

The south-westerners had just three points more than ‘Gladbach did at the halfway stage last season, were five points adrift of safety and were selling their star striker, Papiss Demba Cissé, to Newcastle when Santa came calling. Out went Marcus Sorg, Streich was promoted upwards from the assistant’s role, despite never having previously coached a senior side, and they are now seven points clear of the bottom three and virtually safe. Only Dortmund, Bayern and Stuttgart have picked up more than the 23 points Freiburg have mustered in the Rückrunde – the second half of the season – while points have been taken off ‘Gladbach, Bayern, Leverkusen and Schalke. How has Streich turned around the seemingly un-turnaroundable?

• The move to promote Streich looked like one more unimaginative switch from a club flailing for any solution in a storm. Streich, though, did not come to Freiburg in the baggage of Sorg – himself internally promoted – nor even Robin Dutt, his predecessor. Locally born and a former Freiburg player, Streich has been at the club as Under-19 coach since 1995, meaning many of the home-grown talents in the current side, like Johannes Flum and Oliver Baumann, were nurtured by him while he was also a very familiar face to influential first-teamers, such as Cédric Makiadi. Streich has used that authority to galvanise the team and also improve it by using his unique insight into the club’s up-and-coming talents, such as Oliver Sorg and Matthias Ginter.
• Markus Babbel, the coach of last weekend’s opponents Hoffenheim, said his team would require “energy and aggression” to counter Freiburg, and there is no doubt the effervescent Streich has infused some of his own verve into his team. A veritable hive of activity in his technical area, Streich exudes an enthusiasm and confidence that rubs off on his team. “We believe more in ourselves,” was how Flum recently explained Freiburg’s reversal of fortunes, adding Streich is “unbelievably happy with our commitment.”
• Many thought the departure of Cissé, who scored 22 of the club’s 41 Bundesliga goals last season, would be the death knell of the team rather than the wake-up call they needed. “Teams knew our system was set up for Papiss Cissé, that he was the key man – keep him quiet, and Freiburg have no chance,” said captain Cédric Makiadi. “Now, others are coming forward and scoring goals like Daniel Caligiuri, who’s doing sensationally. That makes us more unpredictable.”Caligiuri is an excellent example. Without a goal in his first 50 Bundesliga appearances, the midfielder now has five in his last 11. The fact no team has had more different scorers in the league than Freiburg – 16 – tells the story of how the squad has pulled together to share the goalscoring burden.
  

  Freiburg are more unpredictable now Papiss Cissé has left

• That unity, which has been fostered and flourished under Streich, has helped fill the gaps produced by Freiburg’s misfortune with injury. The excellent Jonathan Schmid has filled in in defence despite being an attacking midfielder, while January signing, Karim Guédé, has played in three different positions in his first seven Bundesliga games. “It’s impressive how people have jumped into the breach when others have been injured and performances haven’t suffered, even though we’ve had to play virtually every week with a different line-up,” noted sporting director Dirk Dufner, whose club have used 30 players this season, more than any side bar Wolfsburg and Kaiserslautern.

A point at Hannover this weekend will almost certainly ensure Freiburg will be in the Bundesliga next season with games against Cologne and Dortmund to come. Under Streich - branded “the best football educator in Germany” by Thomas Tuchel no less – the club’s short and long-term future looks rosy. “We’re taking a new direction with these young players,” said Freiburg full-back Andreas Hinkel, one of Stuttgart’s former Junge Wilde, who – ironically – sees himself pushed towards the exit by the emergence of Streich’s own fledglings. The intensity which Streich puts into his work suggests the man must find it hard to wind down. “I do that best at home,” says the 46-year-old. “When I can sleep peacefully.” He should be having no problems doing that now.

Ian Holyman

Eurosport 2 Bundesliga commentator

Follow Week 32 of the Bundesliga on Eurosport 2 with Mainz v Wolfsburg our first live game on Friday from 20:30CET. Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich should provide goals at 15:30CET, and after a round-up of all Saturday’s games in our Half Time programme, Dortmund can wrap up the title against Borussia Mönchengladbach at 18:30CET. Augsburg and Schalke kick-off Sunday’s live action from 15:30CET with Hannover against Freiburg (17:30CET) and our Highlights show (19:30CET) rounding things off.

The rise and rise of Robert Lewandowski

Mario Gomez and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar both have more goals and bigger reputations, but Robert Lewandowski showed against Bayern Munich on Wednesday  - and will likely show at EURO 2012 – he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Europe’s best strikers.

Robert Lewandowski has developed into one of Europe's premier goal-getters at Dortmund this season

Few outside of Poland had heard of Lewandowski when he joined Dortmund from Lech Poznan for what looks now like a ridiculously cheap €4.5m in 2010. It comes second only as ‘a bargain’ to the laughable €350,000 Dortmund paid for Shinji Kagawa, and while the Japanese international has already attracted Europe-wide interest from some of the continent’s biggest fish, it won’t be long before Lewandowski is on the ‘wanted’ lists of quality purveyors of coaching everywhere, if he isn’t already.

“Pace, two-footedness, a strong header of the ball, and exceptional technique,” are the qualities Jürgen Klopp has highlighted in his leading goalscorer, and were it not for Gomez’s four penalties this season and Huntelaar’s six, Lewandowski would be even closer to picking up the Bundesliga’s top scorer crown. His polished display against Bayern was in stark contrast to the anonymous performance of Gomez, and shows why the Pole should be considered alongside – if not above – the likes of the top-flight’s current leading scorer as he brings so much to Dortmund’s game.

• GOALS - Lewandowski clearly ‘knows where the goal is’. Already top scorer in the Polish top flight in helping Lech to the title in 2010, eight goals in 15 starts last season was a reasonable return, but 20 in 30 this season is remarkable. The first Dortmund player to reach the 20-goal mark in a Bundesliga season since Stéphane Chapuisat in 1991/92, Lewandowski scored and struck the woodwork twice in just four shots against Bayern, while his goals this season have come from 52 strikes on goal – Gomez’s, by comparison, from 47, Huntelaar’s 48.
• MOVEMENT AND TOUCH - Gomez has certainly worked hard on this aspect of his game this season, drawing praise from Jupp Heynckes for doing so, but Lewandowski still remains superior in this regard and the equal of Huntelaar. His touch is often wonderfully assured, while his intelligent movement allows Kagawa, Kuba et al to look good when their through balls find him. “I was in the right place,” was Lewandowski’s humble appraisal of his improvised flick beyond Manuel Neuer, though it’s safe to say that it is unlikely Gomez, for one, would have been able to score such a goal. Eight assists – the same as Huntelaar, and far in advance of Gomez’s three – point to a selfless streak that dovetails perfectly with Jürgen Klopp’s 4-2-3-1 formation, which needs a lone striker who can hold the ball up and bring in the attacking midfielders behind him – something Lewandowski does better than Lucas Barrios, who got six assists with his 16 goals last season. Klopp’s decision to play Lewandowski as a second striker last season, and not to use Barrios in that role, speaks volumes.
• INDUSTRY - More than the backheels to tee up shooting opportunities for others, and the lay-offs to team-mates to retain possession, Lewandowski works incredibly hard for the team. Even in stoppage time against Bayern, the Pole was chasing back to dispossess Arjen Robben, epitomising the bust-a-gut spirit that has taken Dortmund to one – and almost two – Bundesliga titles.
  

  EURO 2012 co-hosts Poland will reap the benefits of Lewandowski's progress this summer

His exploits are all the more remarkable given that this is only Lewandowski’s second season in the Bundesliga, and that he would not have even been first-choice for Klopp but for Lucas Barrios’ injury at last summer’s Copa America. Aged just 23, Lewandowski is three years Gomez’s junior and five years younger than Huntelaar, and so still has a lot of time to improve. It will be interesting, however, to see how he handles the greater expectation that will no doubt be piled onto him ahead of next season.

A further worry for Klopp and Dortmund fans is that Lewandowski has not yet been tied down to a contract beyond his current deal through to 2014. “We’re disappointed by the offer,” foolhardily announced Cezary Kucharski, Lewandowski’s agent, on Polish TV recently after Dortmund had proposed an improved deal. Kucharski received a swift public reprimand from the club for making his dissatisfaction public. His client merely declared: “I don’t know anything about an offer or the figures involved…all I’m interested in for the moment is the Bundesliga and EURO 2012.” Bayern are already counting the cost of that single-mindedness; some of the continent’s footballing heavyweights may be doing likewise come June.

Ian Holyman

Eurosport 2 Bundesliga commentator

The live action starts on Friday with Stuttgart at home to Werder Bremen from 20:30CET before the Ruhr Valley derby on Saturday – Schalke v Dortmund at 15:30CET. Our Half Time programme will round up all of Saturday’s games at 17:30CET before Bayern Munich play host to Mainz from 18:30CET. Another derby, Mönchengladbach v Cologne, is the first live encounter of Sunday at 15:30CET before Freiburg take on Hoffenheim at 17:30CET and we round up all the Week 31 action from 19:30CET on Sunday.

Dortmund lick wounds after ”mad” match

When is a draw a defeat? That’s a conundrum for Juergen Klopp, who saw his Borussia Dortmund team draw 4-4 with Stuttgart in the Bundesliga match of the season on Friday.

The end-to-end thriller was significant not only for the staggering incompetence of the champions’ defence but the fact that it allowed Bayern Munich to cut the lead at the top to just three points.

Another Dortmund win seemed inevitable when they led 2-0 late in the game. Then, 20 minutes of sheer folly:

• 71st min.: Mats Hummels is left on his backside by a touch from beanpole defender Georg Niedermeier and Vedad Ibisevic strokes in. 2-1.
• 77th min.: Hummels and Neven Subotic jump for the same header, allowing Julian Schieber to skip round a static Lukasz Piszczek, beat Hummels for a second time and poke in a remarkable solo effort. 2-2.
• 79th min.: Schieber is too quick for the lunging dive of Subotic and scores from distance. 2-3.
• 81st min.: Hummels shows why he was a centre forward in his youth by scoring from the edge of the box. 3-3. (Klopp says that at this stage the draw ”felt like a victory”).
• 87th min.: Ivan Perisic slams in from a corner. 4-3. “I was depressed for five seconds, and then I started believing we could make it 4-4,” said Stuttgart coach Bruno Labbadia.
• 90th min.: Labbadia’s belief is proved justified. Subotic misjudges a hopeful cross, confusing the hapless Marcel Schmelzer who plays the ball to Stuttgart’s Christian Gentner. 4-4.
  

  Bundesliga: Crestfallen Kehl

An unforgettable night for neutrals but Klopp (“that’s football, that’s life, that’s totally mad”) would have perhaps preferred a drab 0-0 to the enduring the sight of seven Dortmund players lying on their backs in disbelief as Gentner equalised.

As Arsenal found out last season, a 4-4 draw can have a destabilising effect on a title challenge and the question now is how Dortmund will respond at improving Wolfsburg on Saturday

Suddenly, assumptions are being questioned, notably about Dortmund’s defence.

Last season they conceded a stingy 22 goals in 34 games. Until April, the Fab Four of Piszczek, Schmelzer, Subotic and Hummels looked like breaking the record for the best defence in Bundesliga history.

Only twice did they concede more than one goal in a match – once on the first day of the season and once after the title had been wrapped up.

This season Dortmund conceded 17 goals in their first 27 games, last shipping twice at Hannover on 18 September. Then, Stuttgart.

If Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes is right when he says defences win titles, then prior to Friday Bayern should have given up the ghost. Suddenly that’s all changed.

After Dortmund dropped two points, Bayern were crowing. Mario Gomez even sent a video message to his former teammates, featuring a group of Bayern players thanking Stuttgart for their comeback.

“It’s in our hands now,” pointed out Holger Badstuber after Bayern beat Nuremberg the next day to cut Dortmund’s lead to three points.

Bundesliga: Stuttgart stun Dortmund

The irony here is that Dortmund were the more impressive of the two title contenders at the weekend.

Bayern were awful in the Bavarian derby. Outfought by Nuremberg, they won the match thanks to a late piece of magic from Arjen Robben and a huge slice of luck when Manuel Neuer spilled a 35 meter shot from Almog Cohen onto his crossbar.

The message from Dortmund: don’t panic.

“I’ve been more nervous than I am now,” insisted former Bayern man Hummels. ”Our situation is – as it was before – optimal. We’re leaders with a three-point cushion. There are worse positions to be in with six games to go in the season.”

Though it felt like it, Dortmund didn’t actually lose to Stuttgart and actually extended their record unbeaten run to 22 matches.

“Whoever says we’re nervous is completely wrong. Now there’s fighting talk coming out of Munich. We’ll do well not to get caught up in that,” Sebastian Kehl insisted.

Apart from having his worst game of the season, Hummels last week saw his father Herman dismissed as youth coordinator at Bayern (he’ll be replaced by Franz Beckenbauer’s son, Stefan).

Perhaps that’s why he rose to the bait when Bayern president Uli Hoeness said the 11 April match between Dortmund and Munich will be the ”moment of truth.”

“The war-of-words is at a similar level to the battle for the title. It shows we have gained respect and how we are perceived by Bayern,” Hummels said.

Just weeks ago the title seemed out of reach for Bayern. In the last ten seasons, only Stuttgart have come from seven points behind with ten games left to claim the title. Their amazing comeback at Dortmund might yet mean Bayern match that impressive achievement.

Andreas Evagora

Deputy Head

Eurosport2

For more Bundesliga blogs log on to http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/the-ballacks/

There are no Friday night matches this week so Bundesliga action gets underway on Saturday with Dortmund’s trip to Wolfsburg (15:30). After extended highlights of Bayern v Augsburg, our second live match is Moenchengladbach v Hertha Berlin (18:30). Then on Sunday we have two live matches: Schalke v Hannover and Hamburg v Leverkusen.

Highlights of all matches at 19:30 on Sunday. Coverage in North and East Europe.

Raul still required at Schalke

Schalke fans may not have the fondest memories of Felix Magath’s reign in Gelsenkirchen, but they should still be thankful that the Bundesliga’s most demanding coach brought Raul to the club. With his two-year contract up this summer, the powers-that-be must now do everything they can to keep him there.

Raul: an unlikely Schalke success story

There were more eyebrows raised than at a Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Nadal joint-press conference when it was announced Raul would move from Real Madrid to Schalke in summer 2010. It just didn’t seem to fit. A Real Madrid legend eschewing sun and sangria in the Spanish capital to go to gritty, unglamourous Gelsenkirchen? “I saw his future anywhere but in the Bundesliga,” admitted Günter Netzer recently. He wasn’t the only one. The switch Michael Ballack made back to Leverkusen at the same time seemed to make much more sense. However, while the Ballack ‘experiment’ has not cured Leverkusen’s ills, the men in white coats in the Veltins Arena laboratory can confidently declare their leap into the unknown an unqualified success given what Raul has brought the club.

- There are the raw stats: 25 strikes and 9 assists in 60 league games, but there is much more than that. “You see his calmness, how he plays. You feel confident when you have him in the side,” Lewis Holtby, one of a number of talented, young Schalke players, told me earlier this season. “You know you can pass the ball to him and he won’t lose it and he’ll score. It’s an absolute dream to play with these kinds of players.”

- Raul’s performances would be given more exposure were it not for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s remarkable exploits in front of goal. But Schalke fans should not kid themselves – the Dutchman did not come to Gelsenkirchen from Milan to avail himself of the delights of the Ruhr Valley. ‘No Magath=No Raul=No Huntelaar’ is the simple equation those who flock to the Veltins Arena should bear in mind. Raul’s continued presence keeps the club’s profile high, and ensures they can attract other top-class players.

Lewis Holtby can thank the heavens - and Felix Magath - that he's playing alongside Raul

- Perhaps more than anything, Raul has brought his attitude to Schalke. “I thought he was past his best,” said Netzer. “But he has emphatically proved the contrary with not only impressive performances, but also by staying true to himself. He still only sees himself as part of the team.” Can you imagine Magath would have signed him if he wasn’t convinced Raul was not ‘a diva’? In French, they talk of the culture de la gagne – a culture of winning – at a successful club. Raul was steeped in that environment at Real Madrid, and that approach to the game as well as his ultra-professionalism can only have a beneficial effect on a squad which possesses genuine, youthful talent in Holtby, Julian Draxler, Joël Matip, Lars Unnerstall and Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

But now comes the thorny issue of his age. At 34, the best years of his career are most likely behind him. “We’d desperately like to keep him – for a year,” said sporting director Horst Heldt recently on the club’s offer of a contract extension this summer. “But he wants two years. It’s up to him to decide.” There are financial constraints, of course. Raul has earned €7m a year since coming to Schalke, €2m of which was paid by Madrid. Schalke are ‘only’ offering €4m for a further year.

Horst Heldt needs to convince Raul to stay at Schalke

Given Raul’s character and what he must have been able to put into the bank already, you would suspect money is not the major determining factor. “A gut-feeling decision,” is how Raul’s agent, Gines Cavajal, described how the player would make his choice. Having pushed the boat out for Huntelaar, Schalke perhaps cannot afford to do the same in financial terms for Raul. But if he wants two years, give him two years! Yes, he’s old in footballing terms, but he has not missed a Bundesliga game since coming to Schalke, which suggests his fitness is not a problem either.

The club are at a crucial stage right now. Clearly, there is not much more needed to make them genuine title challengers, and given the “good mix” (Holtby) in the squad, the younger players can ensure they remain so for years to come. Right now, though, they still need support and guidance, and that’s where Raul comes in. Schalke – and Heldt in particular – should see that. The money and faith invested in Raul now will pale into insignificance if his influence – whether it be in the dressing-room or on the pitch – helps them win the Bundesliga title.

Ian Holyman

Eurosport 2 Bundesliga commentator

Our live coverage kicks off on Friday in the second division with promotion-chasing Eintracht Frankfurt at home to Bochum at 18:00CET before Dortmund and Stuttgart meet at 20:30CET. A Bavarian derby between Nuremberg and Bayern Munich is the afternoon fare on Saturday (15:30CET) with extended highlights of Werder Bremen v Mainz (17:30CET) before Hertha Berlin and Wolfsburg meet at the Olympic Stadium from 18:30CET. Sunday sees Hannover and Mönchengladbach go head-to-head (15:30CET) before Hoffenheim try and stop Raul, Huntelaar and Co. at 17:30CET. Catch all the Week 28 highlights from 19:30CET. Two second division promotion hopefuls, Fortuna Düsseldorf and St Pauli, meet in Monday night’s live match from 20:15CET.