Bundesliga Round-up.

By Parkboy
July 23 2005

Ballack and Bayern back from their Alpine training camp have begun in earnest their pre-season friendlies. This will include participation in the Appetizer-Cup in Dusseldorf which kicks off today.

Bayern and Schalke 04 join the competition in the semi-finals as a sign of respect to their status. Ballack is being somewhat protected from the press after a spate of leaks a couple of weeks ago and some ill thought through comments by Michael himself - regarding the last big move of his career and his willingness to leave German football. At the time he was strongly linked to Liverpool and there were signals he would have gone there if Gerrard hadn’t re-signed after himself being the number one target of a certain West London club.

Manchester Utd have again been linked with Ballack in the German press these last few days and perhaps can be seen as a slot in - in the Scholes role.
Mehmet Scholl will miss Bayern Munchens upcoming Asian tour with muscle tissue damage. Coach Felix Magath, made some off the cuff comments about the player saying perhaps needed a rest after his ‘rest’.

Ailton has courted controversy after his move away from Schalke 04, speaking less than respectfully about former coach Rangnick who apparently tried to change the players natural game too much and being too rigid in his training routines. Ailton has made comments to the fact that he is old enough to understand his own game.
Stuttgart’s new coach ‘the trap’- Trapattoni, a legend for his touchline antics has scheduled a big television interview at the end of the aforementioned Appetizer Cup in Dusseldorf, where he will expound on his plans for his new club. It is widely anticipated in Germany that Stuttgart will become a Trapattoni style dynamo of a side.

Brazilian international Gilberto has returned three days late to the Hertha Berlin training camp, which has raised the collective eyebrow, especially as he has been linked to a handful of Serie A and La Liga sides, with Deportivo being one of the rumoured suitors for is exotic services.
Hertha coach has let it be known that he is looking forward to having ‘a long talk’ with the Brazilian.

Last but not least, the most talked about player in Germany after Ballack: Van der Vaart commenting on his first game in the 52,000 capacity AOL arena has said, “I am looking forward to my first game there like a little child”. Coach Doll has been fielding questions in the German media with regard to Raphael being a marked man in the Bundesliga. Due to the celebrity and media coverage surrounding the move from Ajax there has been talk that opposing defensive midfielders ‘would go in hard’ in early encounters. Doll apparently is not worried and is happy that creative players these days have a lot more protection and two footed tackling were rare and was a straight yellow card and sometimes red. Van der Vaart’s eagerly anticipated early encounters in the German league will obviously be analysed in detail, producing many pages of print. One manager looking on in interest will no doubt be Rijkaard at Barcelona, but that is a story for 2007.