When Wolfgang Wolf coached Wolfsburg, copy writers everywhere rejoiced. When he was sacked, they, er, howled. But as the Wolves found out in November 2004, the first bite is the deepest…
Brian O’Driscoll, our man in Berlin, finds fairytales come true in the Bundesliga after a weekend that saw the big bad Wolf in savage form, the awakening of a sleeping giant, and most unbelievable of all, a referee changing his mind.
It was a weekend of vindication in the Bundesliga. Firstly, Nuernberg coach Wolfgang Wolf sank his teeth into former club VfL Wolfsburg. Having been discarded for failing to make the club European contenders, Wolf, who did an estimable job in the Auto Stadt, must have howled with delight on Saturday, his blood-lust quenched by a 4-0 mauling of the table-toppers.
Another man enjoying the company of old acquanitances was Vratislav Lokvenc, the giant Czech forward now plying his trade at Bochum. His second-half equaliser was enough to deny former club Kaiserslautern the points at the Ruhrstadion. Still, the draw will be enough to ensure another bite at the cherry for FCK coach Kurt Jara, a man rapidly assuming a feline form, given the number of lives he seems to possess.
Ralf Rangnick seems to be to the liking of the notoriously difficult Schalke dressing-room, with Sunday’s 2-1 win at HSV the sixth league win on the trot for the Gelsenkirchen club. Jupp Heynckes was famously ejected for treating the squad in a manner befitting players from his own 70s generation, and Rangnick is no doubt well aware of the power wielded by his playing staff. General-Manager Rudi Assauer’s willingness to listen more to his players than to Heynckes will play on Rangnick’s mind, but the former Stuttgart coach seems to have worked the oracle in taking the underachievers back towards the head of the table. The pressure will start now, however, with expectation likely to grow to ridiculous levels in Gelsenkirchen.
The most bizarre incident of the weekend happened in Munich, where the referee dismissed Michael Ballack of Bayern for a second-bookable offence. The only problem was Ballack did not make the foul. Bastian Schweinsteiger did. After witnessing Ballack’s apoplectic reaction to the mistaken identity, the referee rescinded the card and awarded it instead to Schweinsteiger who had not been previously booked. Bayern won 3-0, and disproved the old adage that referees never change their minds. After this Bundesliga weekend, Wolfsburg and Kurt Jara may have reason to, if not change their viewpoints, have a period of quiet contemplative reflection. Wolves bite, and giants are best left sleeping.
Brian A. O’Driscoll
Originally posted at Goal.com: 07/11/2004 22:59
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