It Begins

By: Abby | August 7th, 2009

It seems like only yesterday I was trying to forget the result of that Karlsruhe game. But tomorrow is August 8, which means that tomorrow is the very first game of the 2009-2010 Bundesliga season.

Our opponent is Hannover 96, who have been in a bit of a turmoil lately. They got knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by lowly Eintracht Trier, and are struggling with injuries even this early on. (They also managed to lose a friendly to a 6th-division team.) So it’s not an ideal time to be Hannover.

Arne Friedrich says that they’re like a wounded boxer, and that’s certainly a good way to approach it. A team in Hannover’s position are going to either be completely low on confidence or angry and wanting to prove themselves. Let’s hope it’s the former, although I’m going to be expecting the latter. (Oh, pre-game pessimism, I’ve missed you.)

We’ve got the full team ready, minus the injured Fabian Lustenberger, and possibly Piszczek and Stein, who may be facing a fitness test. Wichniarek will probably get the start, with von Bergen partnering Arne in defense. Shaky at the end of last season, and with two young defenders recently signed, von Bergen has a lot to prove tomorrow if he wants to keep that place.

It’s always good to start win a win. It’s particularly important tomorrow as we’ve got two away games right after. A good start would drive us forwards in them. We have a decent starting draw, one that it’s fully possible for us to get three points from, so cross your fingers and hope we do.

One place were we didn’t get a kind draw is in this season’s Europa Cup. The draw was done today, and while all the Bundesliga clubs that finished below us got pretty easy draws (Werder Bremen with FK Aktobe of Kazakhstan and Hamburg with second-division French side EA Guingamp), we’re drawn against Brøndby IF of the Danish league. They were definitely one of the tougher teams in the draw, and it’s just our luck that we got them. Hell, last year we snuck into Europe through the Fair Play League and got a kinder selection. In his way, though, Lulu seems almost pleased with the tough draw- he says that it means the team will actually pay attention to the games. And the silver lining is that we’ve got the second leg at home.

But we can think about that later. Tomorrow, it’s all about the league.