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SLAM! Sports SLAM! Soccer World Cup COLUMNS THE WORLD
INTERACTIVE ALSO ON SLAM!  |
Wednesday, August 9, 2000Bundesliga hopes to improve image of German soccerFRANKFURT (AP-CP) -- When the Bundesliga season kicks off Friday, players, coaches and clubs will have an extra task, as difficult or possibly more than trying to win the league title -- polishing the rapidly sinking image of German soccer.After Germany's dismal display at Euro 2000, where the defending champion failed to win a game and was outscored 5-1 in three games, the Bundesliga is in a desperate search for fresh domestic talent to pull German soccer out of its doldrums. Despite the battering the Germans have been getting internationally, the domestic league is thriving. But it is thriving because of foreigners, who have swamped Bundesliga teams. Although there are few internationally acclaimed superstars, many of them are among the league's top performers and some teams have used 11 foreigners in their starting lineups, although relatively rarely. Foreigners have not only filled the rosters of first- and second-division clubs, they also are swarming to third- and fourth-division sides. "Amateur clubs were always the source of players for the top divisions, now this source threatens to dry up," said Christoph Daum, the Bayer Leverkusen coach who is to take over the national team at the end of the season. Leverkusen, of course, is no exception to the trend. Of 29 players listed on its roster for the season, 16 are foreigners, from 10 different countries. Having lost the Bundesliga title in the last round of the season, when it was beaten by lightly regarded Unterhaching, Leverkusen also lost its best player in the off-season when Brazilian midfielder Emerson moved to Roma. Emerson was considered by many peers to have been the best player in the German first division. Leverkusen also lost midfielder Stefan Beinlich to free agency when he moved to Hertha Berlin. It still has another Brazilian star, Ze Roberto. If Leverkusen couldn't beat Bayern Munich for the title with Emerson, it remains to be seen how Daum's team could do it without the mercurial Brazilian. Daum himself had no illusions about trying to unseat Bayern, which has won the title the last two years and three of the last four. "We'll try again to defy the law of gravity. Our job is to plant salad in the Sahara," he said. Trying to dethrone Bayern may really be just as futile. The Bavarians already have captured a trophy, before the season really began. They took the League Cup, not a glamorous competition, but they trashed Kaiserslautern 4-1 and Hertha Berlin 5-1 en route. Bayern also won its centenary tournament by beating UEFA Cup champion Galatasaray of Turkey 3-1 and two-time defending English champion Manchester United 3-1, and that was enough to instil fear into other Bundesliga teams. Last year, Bayern also won the German Cup, giving coach Ottmar Hitzfeld a sweep of the two most important domestic titles. The opposition's only chance may be in the fact that Bayern's real ambition is to win the European Champions League. "The enemy is in Europe, not in Germany," Bayern's business manager Uli Hoeness said. Bayern chairman Franz Beckenbauer was just as clear: "Two years ago we won one title, last year we won two. In 2001, we are aiming to win all three." The Bavarians reached in the European Champions Cup final two years ago and advanced to the semifinals last season. The Bundesliga clubs have spent 125 million marks ($88.1 million Cdn) on new player acquisitions -- a little more than Real Madrid paid for Luis Figo alone. Although it is by far the richest German club, Bayern officials have stuck to their policy of spending relatively little on new players. Bayern's most expensive new player is little-known Willy Sagnol, acquired for 15 million marks ($10.5 million Cdn) from Monaco to join French World Cup star Bixente Lizarazu as a wide defender. In early rounds, Bayern may be without its injured Brazilian stars Giovane Elber and Paulo Sergio, and midfielder Stefan Effenberg. That may open the door to 19-year-old Canadian Owen Hargreaves. The Calgary midfielder saw action as a substitute last weekend in exhibition games against Galatasaray and Manchester United. Another team from eastern Germany has been promoted to the first division, Energie Cottbus, joining Hansa Rostock. FC Cologne and Bochum are also back. Cottbus feature Canadian international defender Kevin McKenna. With pay TV pouring money into broadcasting rights, one novelty of the new season will a late Saturday game. Another Canadian international who could see action in the top German level is Toronto midfielder Paul Stalteri, with Werder Bremen. 
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