Are Your Ready for the German Champions League Final?

Millions of people will watch Bayern Munich (Munich) play Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final tonight, will you be one of them? After 124 games with 365 goals scored, we're down to this game (figures from Wikipedia). This is a unique match up and the first time that it has been an all German Champions League final. Bayern and Dortmund are two of the top teams in the German Bundesliga, hard core and casual fans alike will be ready for these two rivals to play in this huge game.

Bayern has one of the biggest and best known soccer clubs in the world. They're the biggest and best known sports club in Germany, and 4th biggest soccer club in the world generating 368.4 million Euros in 2012 (Wikipedia). To me they're like the New York Yankees of soccer, having won 23 national tittles, winning the Champions League in 1974, 1975, 1976, and 2001; while being the runner up in 1982, 1987, 1999, 2010, 2012. They might not always win but you can't afford to overlook them.

Dortmund has developed into quite a rival for Bayern.  They won the Champions League in 1997.  Dortmund has had their ups and down and even almost went bankrupt.  Jürgen Klopp has lifted Dortmund out one of their low periods winning the Bundesliga in the 2010-11 and 2011-2012 seasons. 


Living in the Rhein-Main Area, I started following Jürgen Kloppwhen he was the coach at Mainz 05 and was impressed that he was able to led that club from the second Bundesliga to the first. I also liked watching him when he was part of the soccer coverage on German television.  It was lot of fun seeing him lead Dortmund to their two recent Bundesliga tittles.

I've seen that Jürgen Klopp has given some interesting interviews lately and I decided that I wanted to find out what was said. Since the game tonight is being held in Wembley Stadium in London, there are interviews that are done in English and non-native English speakers this provides the opportunity for lots of lost in translation  moments or translations problems.  In fact there was a Jame Bond quote that really piqued my interest.  Jurgen Klopp said in an interview at the Guardian in response to the possiblity of Robert Lewandowski will likely be leaving Dortmund (with a good possiblity of ending up at Bayern), "What can I say? If that's what Bayern wants … It's like James Bond – except they are the other guy [the villain]." 

Jürgen Klopp told the Guardian about the deep pockets of Bayern and their ability to spend large amounts of money on players that   "Bayern want a decade of success like Barça. That's OK if you have the money because it increases the possibility of success. But it's not guaranteed. We are not a supermarket but they want our players because they know we cannot pay them the same money. It could not be our way to do things like Real and Bayern and not think about taxes – and let the next generation pick up our problems. We need to work seriously and sensibly. We have this amount of money so we can pay that amount. But we lose players. Last year it was Shinji Kagawa." While he probably didn't mean that teams that don't have an endless supply of money to spend on players might not be woried about taxes but that most teams don't have the financail resources to complete with Bayern, Mancherster United, Real Madrid, and so on.  This is certainly a challenges for many teams in many diferent sports.

I can't really say that I was surprised, but I learned that Jürgen Klopp was recruited by both Bayern and Hamburg while he was at Mainz 05, before he ended up going to Dortmund. He said of the experience of being consided for the job at Bayern that "It wasn't too disappointing --for a second division manager to be called by Bayern is not the worst thing in the world"  I'm sure that Dortmund fans are glad that he ended up where he did.

Over the years I've liked it when cross town rivals met in various championship games, this makes the event special and stand out more.  In baseball I remember when the New York Mets played the New York Yankees and when the Oakland A's played the San Francisco Giants in the World Series, so it is exciting to see two German teams playing in the Champions League final.  

 Jürgen Klopp said "We are a club, not a company..but it depends on which kind of story the neutral fan wants to hear. If he respects the story of Bayern, and how much they have won since the 1970s, he can support them. But if he wants the new story, the special story, it must be Dortmund. I think, in this moment in the football world, you have to be on our side." I'll be pulling for Dortmund, how about you?

Here is a infographic that you might find interesting....

Photo credits: I combined the logos from the clubs based on logos at Wikipedia (Bayern and Dortmund).  The infographic comes from here.

For The Love of the Game

As we approach the Super Bowl, I've been thinking alot about a girls high school basketball game played in Texas that some of you might have heard about and sport being played for the love of the game.


You might have seen a couple of news items about a girls high school basketball team in Dallas, Texas that beat another school 100-0. The winning school sought to forfeit the game at one point, in a statement made in the wake of all the publicity that was generated by the huge discrepancy in the game's score, Kyle Queal, the head of the Covenant School, said "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened," he also said that the forfeit was requested because "a victory without honor is a great loss." Dallas Academy, the "losing" school, only has 20 students in total, so class sizes are small and the specialize in teaching students with "learning differences," like short attention spans or dyslexia. Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools said "On a personal note, I told the coach of the losing team how much I admire their girls for continuing to compete against all odds,"."They showed much more character than the coach that allowed that score to get out of hand. It's up to the coach to control the outcome." I was really amazed to see some of the comments posted after the stories.


Sports can be such a positive influence in life. Playing on a team can teach us so much about teamwork, while the sports that focus more on the individual can teach us a lot about striving for our goals in life. The team sports can teach us about leadership. The successful teams have a wide variety of leaders, coaches, managers, trainers, and so on. They go to show that there is more than one leadership style that leads to success. If you're lucky you might have been influenced by one of those such coaches. Maybe you were just influenced by a coach that didn't even win the big games but that taught you character traits that you wanted to emulate and incorporate into your own life.


There are those coaches and teams that live by the creed of winning at any cost and those coaches that have been hot heads acting like spoiled children that didn't get their ways, forgetting that thousands, maybe millions of people were watching them. I have to believe that those coaches and teams might prevail in the short term for a season, a year, maybe a few years but it is solid teams with good leadership and inspire true teamwork motivating players to often give more of themselves than they thought possible, that stay successful and will be thought of as dynasties in the annals of sports history and fans memories long after they've left the field.


It is exciting to see kids playing sports because the want to. How great it is to see a kid discover that they're good at something (maybe for the first time in their young lives). Your heart warms to see a kid's pride in a great play. On the other end, how your stomach can sour watching parents trying to force their athletic dreams on their kids and the bad sportsmanship that some of them show in little league baseball or soccer games.


Many professional athletes have felt that they weren't role models and it didn't matter what they did off the field, they were only paid to play the sport. Kids are very impressionable and they do emulate what their favorite athletes do, often wanting to be just like them, so while we're all human and it can be very hard living in the fishbowl that is professional sports today, the athletes need to remember that those stupid things they do will be watched by many kids the world over. Without fans and their dreams there wouldn't be a paycheck to be earned by the professional athletes. So at the very least they could think twice (or maybe even just once) before they open their mouths or do that crazy thing that they'll regret in the morning.


College sports has become too much of a business, often a farm system for the pros. It used to be that athletes went to college to play sports and get an education. While it would be naive to think that everyone got a good education (because some clearly were only passed because they were needed by their athletic programs because they were so good at their sport and were so critical to the success of the program), at least players got degrees and had something to fall back on if their dreams of playing in the pros didn't happen or was cut short by career-ending injuries. Then it seemed to start with basketball, that players went pro before graduating, first some went back later and then it got to the point that most didn't go back to finish their degrees. Later going pro early moved into football. There has certainly been a lot of scanal over the years about various schools breaking the rules about recruiting, out of control alumni recruiting kids to play at their former schools with cars, money, and other favors that are against the rules of college sports. From time to time there are calls to pay players because of the time and effort that they put into playing sports, that this is time that they can't study or hold a "real" job to pay for their expenses. There are the debate between the academics and the athletic departments about the influence of the sports programs on the schools and the credibility the school. There is little doubt that a winning sports program draws money to colleges and universities and can have a hallow effect on the school.


How many of us have suffered the embarassment of being the last one selected to play dodgeball, with neither of the selecting captains wanting to select you. It is probably this memory that sparks our love for the underdog. We love to see the group of misfits come together and beat the Goliathic. We love to see a team organize a comeback when they're down and out, that effort to score in the last moments of the game, winning as the buzzer sounds. How many of us have dreamed of hitting the game winning homerun in the seventh game of the world series or being the winning quarterback in the Super Bow? Somehow our sense of just is vilified, when we see a level playing field where anything is possible and anyone can win.


I don't remember the first that I heard of the Special Olympics but they recently celebrate their 4oth anniversary. Over the years they've had a vision "to bring sports training and competition to people with intellectual disabilities, so that they might break free of society’s expectations and have fun, earn respect and be accepted in their communities". They've been able to bring pride and a sense of accomplishment to so many deserving people over the years. You can see the sense of pride of these athletes when they're competing and win they finish their event, regardless of is they cross that finish line first or last.


Competition is a hallmark of sports. The competition elevates us to another level. The better the people or team that we're competing against the better we perform and we can do things that would not have been possible if we didn't have competition. The competition also causes us to think of strategies, game plans, and opens up our minds to the forces of creativity. Some legends of the sports world have been fuled by famous competitions with rivals. Some of the rivalries have been heated and mean-spirited while others have been more respectful with the rivals on the field becoming best of friends off the field.


I have a lot of respect for the various coaches that doing it because the love the sport and want to help others. So many of the coaches of kids sports and in the various recreational leagues aren't paid or aren't anywhere near what their time is worth. These coaches take pride in watching kids and adults learn to play their sport and in watching the develope as athletes and as people. Many of our high school coaches might have been paid a little more to coach, but most certainly didn't get rich and did for many reasons other than the paycheck.


As long as I can remember I've been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. This probably stems from my love for my grandfather, who in turn loved his Cowboys coached by Tom Landry. Landry was one of the most successful coaches in professional football and won 2 Super Bowls. He coached a ton of players over the years and some of his assistants (i.e. Mike Ditka and Dan Reeves) give him credit for their
success as coaches. Mike Ditka has said "Everything I believe in as a head coach, I learned from Coach Landry". Bob Lilly was quoted talking about a lowpoint for Landry and the Cowboys coming after a loss to Pittsburgh in October 1965, Lilly said. "He really felt low after we lost at Pittsburgh (22-13). It had been predicted we would be pretty good for the first time that season, but that was our fifth straight loss after winning the first two...He cleared the locker room of everybody except the players, then told us how proud he was of our effort. But he was disappointed with the results (the Cowboys were 20-51-4 after 5 1/2 years under Landry). 'I may not be here next year,' he said, 'but I want you guys to know I think the world of you.' Then, he broke down and started crying. That really touched all of us. We knew we had to play harder...That day at Pittsburgh was the turning point for the Cowboys...That made us start playing like winners. We still had doubters, though, until we won that Super Bowl in New Orleans (beating Miami, 24-3). "Anybody who ever coached against him understands that you don't win as much as he did by accident," Forrest Gregg said. "He worked and lived an example." When George Allen met with the players on his first day as the Washington Redskins' coach in '71, he boldly said "'We're going to beat Dallas.' I knew that if we couldn't beat Dallas, there wasn't any sense in issuing new equipment." Dick Vermeil, a former coach of the Philadelphia Eagles said, "We based our whole program on beating Tom Landry... It was respect for him that motivated us. I always felt that the Cowboys were the best-disciplined team on game day, especially on defense."


Many sports fans really appreciate those players that do it for the love of the game. Those athletes that would do what they do even if they didn't get paid and there were no fans in the stands. There is a certain purity in those that play for the love of the game. Back in December I watched Leatherheads, where George Clooney played a professional football player back when playing professonal football was more of a hobby as the players didn't make enough money to live off of their football salaries and they definately did it more for the love of the game than for the financial reward.


So heres to all the kids playing baseball in the sand lots, playing hoops in the school yards and playgrounds, and playing soccer everywhere and to those coaches inspiring and teaching the kids. I hope that your interest in sports doesn't get corrupted and jaded and that you can always play for the love of the game. Did you have a memorable coach? Did you have a dream season? Do you have any other comments our questions, feel free to make your voice heard in the comments.


For more information about Tom Landry you might want check out...

• Answers.com
• Sporting News tribute
• The Dallas Morning News tribute- this is a great collection of stories about Tom Landry with input from players, former assistants, coaches that competed against him, sports writers that covered him, and more

Photo Credit: Buffalo Bills football 5 courtesy of nick12

To The Deutschland Mannshaft, Vielen Dank!

"Football-Fever" courtesy of konr4d

Sunday, June 29^th, Germany lost in the Euro 2008 to Spain. While I was hoping to be celebrating a German victory, I wanted to thank the team for what they brought to their fans and to Germany. So to the German Team (Deutschland Mannschaft), Vielen Dank (Thank you very much)! Thank you also to Austria and Switzerland for hosting the Euro 2008.

Germany loves its soccer (fussball) but the country comes together when there is a World Cup or Euro competition and their team is in the thick of things. Not being a native German I can look outside in. It is nice to see all the German flags on the cars and to see the mood change of your every day people. I’m certainly not the biggest soccer fan, but I really enjoy watching these international tournaments.

Prior to the game I was watching the pre-game coverage and saw a story about the Michael Ballak, the German captain. It seems that the big victory has eluded him for much of his career. He and Chelsea lost a penalty-kick shootout to Manchester United in the Champions League this year in Moscow, after also being beaten by Manchester United in the English Premier League title. His Bayer Leverkusen lost to Real Madrid in the 2002 Champions League finals. His 2000 and 2004 German national teams were knocked out in the first round of the Euro tournament. He was suspended in the semi-finals and forced to watch the German team lose to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup finals. His German team finished third in the 1996 World Cup hosted by Germany. To be so close to the big prise has to be very frustrating. While he is 31, and can probably play for some time to come, you have to wonder how many more chances he’ll get to really grasp the big prize? I ran across a nice story about The Burden of Michael Ballack if you want to check it out.

It was exciting watching the tournament this year, there was certainly no shortage of highs and lows. The semi-final against Turkey was very memorable, there were power outages, attempts at having audio only coverage on television, and finally coverage from Swiss television because a storm had disrupted coverage from Austria. Oh, and yes, Germany scored a goal in the closing moments to go to the final. Earlier the German team looked very good against Portugal and looked like they were really in the race after a disappointing game against Austria that they somehow managed to win, they seemed to be a different team.

After the 2002 World Cup Finals, where they lost to Brazil, the German team received a huge welcome in Frankfurt. I was so surprised to see all the fanfair. I’m used to people forgetting who was the losing team in the Super Bowl or the World Series or other major sporting events in the U.S., so it came as a shock to see the country celebrating that their team finished second in the World Cup. I thought at the time, if they celebrated this strongly for finishing second, imagine what it would be like if they had won? After the 2006 third place finish in the World Cup, there was a huge celebration in Berlin. Well, lets see about the 2010 World Cup. Congratulations to Spain on their victory and Danke to the German Team. Did you have any favorite moments of the Euro2008? If you like the blog, feel free to add us to your rss feed or subscribe via email. We welcome your comments.

Sarah Rides Her Bike And Hobbit Takes A Bath

Sarah and her bike June 2007 (with training wheels)

I had thought until yesterday that the biggest thing that I would talk about in the blog this time around was that Hobbit had his first bath, but then Sarah went and changed that yesterday when she decided to ride her bike without training wheels!


Saturday I did a lot of things with the girls’ bikes, including taking the training wheels off Sarah’s bike. I worked with Sarah for a couple of hours, holding onto her shoulders while she peddled. It got to the point that as soon as I would take my hands away that she would get excited and immediately fall over. Sarah can sometimes be a little stubborn (well, can’t we all) and she decided that she wanted to ride her bike on the trail near our house. I continued holding onto her shoulders for a good part of the trail and then when we got to a paved clearing I started to try to take my hands away at various intervals with similar results. After awhile, my back was getting sore from the bending that I had been doing and I wanted a break, I suggested going back home to take a break before we continued. She didn’t like the idea of taking a break and was very vocal about it. Christine and I talked about the situation and thought that maybe the bike was too heavy for Sarah to really learn to get her balance without the training wheels, because it was heavier than Anna’s bike (which was way bigger!). We decided that we might look for another lighter and bigger bike for her on eBay, as we had done to buy Anna’s bike.

Before going to church on Sunday, Sarah had said that she wanted to ride her bike to there. The idea of having to hold onto her shoulders the entire way there was something that I didn’t feel up to and part of the way would have been by too much traffic to worry about her riding her bike. We suggested that she could ride her Like A Bike but she of course wasn’t too keen on this idea! When she finally decided that she would do that, it was too late to ride to church, so I drove them there (over Sarah’s protest, I must admit).

Yesterday I was installing a cargo net in Christine’s car so that Hobbit can ride in the back of the car and got the girls’ bikes out so that they could play outside with them. Anna and Sarah had planned that Anna would try to help her get started with the bike. I heard Anna say something about helping her get started and explained that this was really too difficult for Anna to do and that I would be glad to work with Sarah again after finishing installing the net. I spent some time trying to figure out how to install the net and I looked up to see Sarah speeding by on her bike! I did a double take before realizing that she was riding by herself and without training wheels. In fact, she was riding as though she had been riding for months, if not years! I was so shocked, that she had managed this without Christine or I helping her. Christine later returned and I showed her Hobbit’s net, all the while wondering when Sarah would come back around on her bike and what Christine’s reaction would be. Christine walked to the nearby playground to retrieve the girls and I could hear her surprised voice shout when she noticed Sarah riding by herself. Christine immediately called Oma to give her the good news and I called Grandpa after the girls had gone to bed.

Christine took Hobbit to his weekly puppy meeting on Saturday. Hobbit spent much of the time playing with his sister. From the way that Christine talked, I think that he might have now realized that this was his sister. One of the instructors told Christine that the breeder had done a good job with the litter and Hobbit and his sister seemed ready for the puppy class and appeared to have a “here I am look at me” attitude as they tried various equipment at the facility (i.e. a see saw, tunnel, and etc.) while the other Beardie was more reluctant to try the equipment.

Later Saturday, the girls played in these plastic seashells fill with water. Anna was very keen on Hobbit joining them. She tried to bribe him with some doggy treats. He did end up putting his front paws in the pool to get the treats. I video tapped this. Before I can post the clip, I need to figure out how to get the video from our mini dvd camcorder to the computer, as my editing program doesn’t recognize the format of the video on the mini dvd.

A wet Hobbit after his first bath!

Sunday Christine and I gave Hobbit his first bath. We thought that it was encouraging that he had put his front paws in the kiddie pool the day before. He was very good in the tub. Christine gave him some liverwurst after he came out of the tub, so maybe we can train him to think that he gets liverwurst when he has a bath.

The picture of Sarah and her bike is from last Summer. I didn't have my camera out to take pictures of her and the bike without training wheels yet. In the picture of Hobbit you can see that he is still a little wet from his bath. The pictures of the girls and Hobbit was taken shortly after the girls had woken up on Sunday, so they're still in their pajamas. If you like the blog, feel free to add us to your rss feed or subscribe via email. We welcome your comments.

Here are some other posts that you might like to read...
• Anna Rides Her Bike
• Carnival
• How We Met
• Our Wedding

Germany Wins the Women's World Cup

On Sunday the German women's team beat Brazil in China to win the FIFA 2007 Women's World Cup. The German team won the title in 2003 as well. The German team is the first to go through a major competition without giving up a single goal, this hasn't been done by any of the World Cup men's team, quite an accomplishment! They have not given up a goal in 619 minutes of World Cup play, the last goal scored against them was in the finals against Sweden in 2003. Germany is currently bidding to host the 2011 games. The are top four finishers are Brazil in second, the U.S. in third, and Norway in forth.

Last year Italy won the FIFA 2006 Men's World Cup hosted by Germany. The final was one of the most watched events in sporting history. It was fun to be in living in the country hosting the World Cup last year. While women's soccer isn't as popular as men's soccer, and the names of star players aren't as recognizable as Ronaldinho and David Beckham, there were an estimated 20,000 plus people to greet the team at their arrival in Frankfurt, Germany on October 1st. I wonder how much exposure the 2007 Women's World Cup and this German team will bring to the women's sport and how many girls will influenced to play soccer as a result or will be inspired in other areas to excel.

Here is a story on the history of the FIFA Women's World Cup. Here is another account of the game from yahoo sports. The picture is on Anna painted up in honor of the 2006 World Cup hosted in Germany. Let's hear it for the 2007 German women's team.

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Pistons Lose Eastern Conference Finals

Well I was really hoping that the Pistons would win the NBA Finals this year and was disappointed to see them get beat by the Cleveland Cavailers.

In the news with the Pistons...

It looks like Grant Hill is going to Pheonix

Pistons Homepage

Detroit News

Detroit Free Press

Sports Illustrated

The past, the good, the bad, and the ugly...

Here is a nice page about the history of the Pistons. This link is some more history including the "Bad Boys" days, the link should start with the tittles of that time. CBS sports shows the results of the various seasons including tittles and how they did in the playoffs (or if they played).

Bye for now...

Red Wings lose Western Conference Finals

Well this isn't exactly brand new news but the Detroit Red Wings lost the Western Conference series to the Mighty Ducks 4-2 (the eventual winner of the Stanley Cup this year and the first team from California to do so!). Here is the Red Wings Home Page

In other Red Wing news...

Chris Chelious has signed on for another year.

It seems that Dominik Hasek is leaning to coming back next year.

It seems hard to believe that it has been 10 years since Vladimir Konstantinov's accident.

Here's hoping that the Wings can hoost the Cup again next year. Thanks for another good run.

Darryl