Merry Christmas From The Bundesliga - 19 Goals in 180 Minutes

The first-half of the Bundesliga season came to a stunning end on Sunday evening with an 8-goal thriller at the Mercedes-Benz Arena infront of sell-out 41,000 crowd.

The best German striker in the Bundesliga, Mario Gomez, netted a hat-trick for FC Bayern to send them into a 5-1 lead with Thomas Muller and Franck Ribery on the scoresheet also. Bruno Labbadia's Stuttgart side managed to restore some pride with 2 goals in 5 minutes from substitutes Harnik and Gentner.



A comedy of errors from Stuttgart's brittle defence gave the Bavarians a 3-0 lead at half-time. Young defender Bicakcic was caught in possession by Muller and he assisted Gomez who emphatically fired home. Just four minutes later, Delpierre's slip allowed Gomez to take advantage and he returned the favour to Muller who had the simplest of finishes.

Despite the late brace from Stuttgart, they are still in the relegation positions and are 3 points away from safety. New coach Bruno Labbadia will be hoping to add to a limited squad during the January transfer window ahead of a crucial last-half of the season with eyes on a mid-table finish and a final assault on the Europa League.



On Wednesday night infront of another sell-out crowd in Stuttgart, we were treated to another football feast with 9 goals this time in Round two of Stuttgart and Bayern. The erratic defending from Stuttgart in the second-half allowed Bayern to steam clear and score 4 goals, including 2 from Miroslav Klose. Khalid Boulahrouz and Mathieu Delpierre were both sent-off in the second-half and the home side also missed a second-half penalty which could have made it 3-3.

Already, the Bundesliga has given us some classic moments this season with 481 in 153 matches in the first-half of the season. Attendances are peaking and up to 14,000,000 supporters could enter through the gates by the end of the season compared with 12,790,000 last season. The packed stadiums, all-out attacking football and a truckload of goals make the Bundesliga quite comfortably the best league in the world.

8 Years In Waiting For Borussia ...

The severe unpredictability of the German Bundesliga has seen League triumphs for Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg, Stuttgart and Werder Bremen in the last 6 years but the success of others has caused others to be starved of trophies. It's the nature of the beast and the Bundesliga has whipped another fascinating title race for the coming year.

At the summit is one of Germany's biggest clubs who have not won the Bundesliga since 2002.

Borussia Dortmund have had a roller coaster time since the memorable season of 2001-2002 in which BVB won the Bundesliga and reached the UEFA Cup Final, losing out 3-2 to Feyenoord. It has been a hell of a time for Dortmund financially which saw the German giants on the verge of bankruptcy in 2005. Their debt peaked at over £150m and it required selling the naming rights to the Westfalenstadion and taking a £75m loan in 2006 to steer them in the right direction.



With the massive changes that have taken place in German football over the last 10 years, debt figures for football clubs has dropped dramatically with a huge rising in income through TV and supporter revenue. The days of German clubs spending ridiculous sums of money on players they cannot afford are long gone thanks to the new Bundesliga legislation's and a determined focus on youth development and scouting.

Charismatic head coach Jurgen Klopp has helped Dortmund rise above the number of title challengers to currently sit at the top of the table with a comfortable 7-point lead over Mainz. It would take a massive capitulation, something similar to Hoffenheim two years ago, for Dortmund to lose out on their first Bundesliga trophy in 8 years.



Klopp has found the perfect mix in talented youngsters and an experienced spine but more importantly has not over-stretched the budget in his pursuit for success. Dortmund spent just £300,000 to bring exciting Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa to Germany and the youngster has taken the Bundesliga by storm this season. Klopp also has 21-year-old Serbian Neven Subotic, 22-year-old Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, 22-year-old Turk Nuri Sahin and another 21-year-old in Sven Bender who have all shone in the yellow and black of BVB this season. These youngsters are commanded by a strong, experienced spine in 30-year-old goalkeeper Roman Wiedenfeller, 30-year-old captain Sebastien Kehl, 32-year-old Dede and the relatively experienced guys like Lucas Barrios and Jakub Blasczykowski who are both established internationals for Paraguay and Poland respectively.

BVB have not finished in the top three since the year after their title success in 2002 and narrowly missed out on Champions League football last season. Klopp's new breed of talent will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of previous title winners at Dortmund like Jan Koller, Christian Worns, Stefan Reuter, Lars Ricken & Tomas Rosicky in bringing silverware to the Signa Idura Park.