#did you know he scored his first goal for wolfsburg three days ago

[etruski]

sometimes im talking to my brother about football and realise what a massive nerd i am. he mentions a random player or team and i start dropping trivia about them, when they last scored etc

[kevkesblog]

Translation: Julian Brandt Interview at Brinkhoff’s Ballgeflüster  (August 20, 2019)

Borussia Dortmund is probably uploading a YouTube video with a much more decent translation than I can ever offer. But since I couldn’t sleep at night I decided to translate the Julian parts of the show. I was difficult as hell, but I think I have never seen Julian this relaxed and open before. The entire show is 45 minutes long.

My personal highlight: how Julian opens two beers (minute 41:40)

Source: BVB-TV Video 

6:20min   Julian, you arrived in Dortmund a little more than a month ago. And our fans probably want to know: How did you get to know the city, the fans and all over those last six, seven weeks? What’s your impression?

Ju:    Do I have to give a serious answer? (smiles)

We put the unserios part at the end…

Ju:    Very well. You get the impression immediately that Dortmund is a football crazy city. I knew the stadium already after all these years. But I always felt like Augsburg did last Saturday.

[laughter]

It’s isn’t nice, is it?

Ju:    No it is not nice (laughs). But sure its crazy. The experience you get here. The team you are playing with here. And yeah, it was a highlight for me personally scoring in front of the „yellow wall“. Once you get in. Sure, I had some problems at the beginning, because of my injury.

Well, we talked about it, did we?

Ju:    Yeah, you said to me once „if you score in front of the yellow wall, it like an addiction“.

[laughter]

And I….

…I made him addictive! Next time he scores again. [laughter]

Ju:    So it was a fantastic day overall. And a fantastic month.

Well of course you are here on the big stage today, because we want to get to know you better. So lets start doing that and let’s hear from someone who knows more about you. Our captain Marco Reus:

 Marco: 

Well, Julian Brandt… Tough one. The guy has a playstation of course. He plays „Fortnite“ almost every day I think. I’m not sure whether he already saw the lights outside in Dortmund. But he is a fantastic guy. I know him a bit from the national team. And we played against each other for many years. I’m really happy he is here. He is a funny guy. An open guy. I think we will have alot of fun with him in the future. Sometimes I wish he would be a little more taned once he gets back home from vacation. Because… I mean I don’t know whether he actually goes outside. Or if he takes suncream with a factor of 100!? I don’t know…but yeah that’s something he has to work on.“

 [everybody laughs]

Well, we of course would like to know what you have to say about that [laughs]…

Ju:    It’s something I have to let sink in for a moment…

 [laughter]

Ju:    Because it’s something that goes close to me.

He talked about suncreen factor 500…

Ju:    (laughs)…well, okay he won’t have any fun with me now for the rest of the season. I sit right next to him in the locker room. I will come up with something for him…

[laughter]

But nice of him finding two or three nice words about me between his sentences. (laughs)

The football stuff was okay… (laughs)

Ju:    (laughs)…

Thats more important than pale legs…

Ju:    But you know what the bad thing about this whole story is? He isn’t more tanned than I am! That’s the worst.

[laughter]

I mean you just noticed it. How are like the jokers within the team? Except Marco and You.

Ju:    (smiles) That’s a good question.

Who among them is also joking all the time?

Ju:    Guerrero. Alot. He is just talking all the time. Like „here, everything is funny“. He loves to be the jumping jack. But a great guy.

And a great football player…

Ju:    A fantastic football player! I love how he plays football…

What about Mo? [Dahoud]

Ju:    Yeah… but, Mo is the category: very funny, but you want to stroke him because he looks so cute.

[laughter]

He is like… he would never hurt a fly. Everything is always fine with him. Like he is almost to polite and you think „oh you poor little chick“. (laughs) But no, I think generally speaking we have a very good mood within the team. Everybody adds something special.

It’s always nice to do fun stuff within the team…

Ju:    Yeah, as long as you win…

[laughter]

How would you charaterize yourself?

Ju:    I would say I’m a more quiet and calm person.

[laughs]

Ju:    (laughs) I’m actually not the guy who entertains people. Yeah, well I’m a feel-good person. And when I feel comftable and good I open up.

But you do feel comftable here…

Ju:    Yes.

Nice. Thats nice and important. I don’t think we have to talk about you in football terms… but if you feel good and like your teammates you always play better.

[…]

13:45min        

Otto Addo: I got to know Julian as a U-19 coach in Hamburg. We used to play against him when he was still in Wolfsburg. Yeah he scored against us many times. He won like 6-0 or 5-1…

Ju:    We won 6-0 once, right?

[laughter]

And as always goals scored by Julian. I looked that up once: you also used to play for Oberneuland…

Ju:    The story between myself and Hamburger SV is… well I’m a native Bremer. And the same like Dortmund fans feel about…. [Schalke]…this rivalry… that the same when you were born in Bremen towards Hamburger SV. Which is why I was always motivated. Sorry.

[…]

16:35min 

Now you have to explain to us: you do have a nickname, right? Skipper?

Ju:    (smiles) This how I call myself on WhatsApp yeah… Thats not now people call me on the street. Or how my friends call me.

And how do you get that name?

Ju:    (smiles) I…

It just stays here with us…

Ju:    (smiles)… I think penguins are cool (laughs). And there are the penguins of madagascar. I have two brothers. My father was sitting in the livingroom and I saw them once and I said: „let’s call us like the penguins of madagascar!“ And so we gave us all names.

And you gave yourself the name „Skipper“…

Ju:    Well yeah, I was the leader of course. Actually nothing really spectacular. But perhaps the name establishes itself?

But one can say about you without hesitation: you are a guy that wears his heart on his tongue. I mean thats a trait I really like about you.

Ju:    Yeah. But I have to say I got the most characteristics from my parents – things I learned and inherited from them. And they really look out for me and take care so I stay a very down-to-earth kind of guy. To keep your manners of course. Regardless of the job you do. And yeah it was very important to them, to walk happily through your life. They helped alot – especially in football. Made many things possible. I think I would have never made it without them. So I owe them alot.

 [….]

25:00min

Julian, you’re not 18 anymore, but: Youth coordinator is something that becomes more and more important within a club, right?

Ju:    Sure. Because youth development in football becomes more important. Ok, we don’t have to talk about net worth of players these days. Especially Germany has a league, where young players can have a great development. I think it great for BVB, if young players are being slowly guided to the first professional team. And in the end will be on the pitch in the stadium. Because it’s about identification on one hand. And on the other hand it’s cheaper fort he club (laughs). Yeah because you dont pay 35 or 40 million for a 17 or 18 year old player. It’s a important reason at the end.

[365footballorg-blog]

Wiebe: Three Thoughts from the US national team loss to Brazil

div.video-js { width: 100% !important; height: 0 !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative; padding-top: 56.2%; }

September 7, 201811:39PM EDT

Go enjoy your weekend. The United States lost to Brazil, and it doesn’t matter.

Douglas Costa is faster with the ball than Antonee Robinson is without it. All the swan dive GIFs on the internet aren’t going to shame Fabinho into staying on his feet. Your tactical hot takes are moot until Earnie Stewart makes his much-awaited coaching hire.

History and common sense told us Brazil were going to win this game, and they did. For all the handwringing on Twitter – one soccer attribute Americans can rightfully claim is world class – the US played just fine under the circumstances.

Dave Sarachan – rightly so, in my opinion – called in a squad with an average age a tad more than 23 years old. They’re only just getting to know each other, and if you thought Friday night was about the result, you were barking up the wrong tree. Eight years ago, the US and Brazil played in the same New Jersey swamp to the same result. Just six of the players who saw the field that day were on the 2014 World Cup roster.

So fire up the grill and enjoy the waning days of summer. Buy a bottle of wine, if you’re of age, some cheese and crackers and go lay on a blanket at the park. Support local soccer in person, or kick the ball around yourself. Tuesday is another day.

That is, quite simply, the most recent soccer game you have ever seen #USMNT #USAvBRA

— Roehl Sybing (@roehlteacher) September 8, 2018

Here are three things I liked, in brief. Matt Doyle will have more for you tomorrow.

Matt Miazga and John Brooks

Doyle stanned hard for this center back partnership on ExtraTime Radio for good reason.

Both guys are calm and confident on the ball, both are better than average 1v1 defenders – see Miazga vs. Neymar in the second minute – and, while neither was perfect, there were no serious gaffes to speak of against an opponent that boasted 11 starters from UEFA Champions League clubs.

Now, it helps that Brazil looked content to play the match in second gear, but it appears the US have a first-choice center back pairing. That could change in the coming months and it certainly will against Mexico – Brooks is headed back to Wolfsburg – but it’s an encouraging sign to start the World Cup cycle. For what it’s worth, Brooks will be 29 and Miazga 27 when 2022 rolls around.

Set Pieces, Set Pieces, Set Pieces

We knew the US weren’t going to have the ball, and sure enough Brazil won the possession battle 65-35. Attacking cohesion will come, we hope, with continuity and a more defined style of play. In the meantime, you’ve still got to create goal-scoring chances, and the Americans did it via dead balls.

Wil Trapp whipped in some good corner kicks, the US got their runs right but couldn’t muster the final touch. We knew Miazga and Brooks (cue Ghana flashbacks) were dangerous in the air, but it was nice to see Weston McKennie get on the end of things. Almost doesn’t count, but it’s something to build on.

Roast me once, shame on me. Roast me twice…

No point in sugar-coating it: Robinson got smoked by Costa. He won’t be the first defender or the last to get that treatment. But he didn’t put his head down and that, more than anything, was what this game was about for the young Americans.

Brazil was going to land a punch or two or five. The question was how would the US respond. They may not have had the technical quality to score or the tactical nous to out-strategize one of the world’s best teams, but they certainly had the heart to avoid embarrassment and land a jab or two of their own.

That’s something, and while it’s not a result, it’s certainly something to build on as another cycle begins.

Series: 

<!–

Stay connected: Get access to breaking news, videos, and analysis from North America’s best soccer reporters via “This Week in MLS” newsletter or using our FREE mobile app.

–>

Stay connected: The all-new, completely redesigned, FREE official MLS app is your best mobile source for scores, news, analysis and highlights. Download:  App Store  |  Google Play

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

Wiebe: Three Thoughts from the US national team loss to Brazil was originally published on 365 Football

[ultrasfcb-blog]

Robert Lewandowski: Meet the Bayern Munich striker looking to knock out Real Madrid

Robert Lewandowski: Meet the Bayern Munich striker looking to knock out Real Madrid

Robert Lewandowski: Meet the Bayern Munich striker looking to knock out Real Madrid

Robert Lewandowski has scored twice as many Bundesliga goals – 28 – as anyone else this season

Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of when Robert Lewandowski returned home from a particularly successful day at work.

Greeted by his wife Anna, along with 15 others who had come round for a late barbecue at the Lewandowskis’, a cry of “Bravo!” went up for the Polish striker as he came through the door.

He had after all just scored all four of Borussia Dortmund’s goals in their 4-1 Champions League semi-final win against Real Madrid.

Yet as he arrived home, Lewandowski just went and parked himself down on the sofa. “I’m tired,” he said. His wife responded: “Robert, four goals! Everyone’s delighted.”

“It hasn’t quite hit me but… I guess I like it that I scored four goals,” replied Lewandowski. “Right now, I’m just hungry and I’d like something to eat.”

For Anna, a karate champion herself, it was further proof that he was just “a normal guy”.

“He showed the same reaction after four goals against Real Madrid as he would when his mother bakes him a cake,” as she put it in his autobiography.

Normal doesn’t quite fit Lewandowski as a footballer off the pitch – whether it’s the fact that he famously has his dessert before his main course to try to burn fat quicker or that earlier this season he completed a bachelor’s degree in physical education in Warsaw.

Nor does being normal fit what he did on that night in April. No player before in the Champions League era had even scored a hat-trick against Real, nor had any player ever scored four in a Champions League semi-final.

That performance alone catapulted Lewandowski’s status to being one of the world’s best number nines, a status that he would cement after moving to rivals Bayern Munich on a free transfer just over a year later in 2014.

Yet going into another Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, there has been increased speculation around Lewandowski’s future, with a move even mooted to his opponents.

Could he leave Bayern?

This February, Lewandowski broke off on good terms with Cezary Kucharski, the Polish agent that plucked him from obscurity in the third division of Polish football. Taking over from Kucharski was Pini Zahavi, a super-agent responsible for brokering numerous key deals, most recently Neymar’s £200m world-record move to Paris St-Germain last summer.

Zahavi’s co-operation with Lewandowski will last until 31 August 2018 – the final day of the summer transfer window in each of Europe’s big five leagues apart from the Premier League. That has led to increased speculation in Germany of a possible move and that Lewandowski was critical of the club’s transfer policy in September helped stoke that fire.

“Bayern will have to come up with something and be creative if the club wants to keep bringing world-class players to Munich,” said Lewandowski to German news magazine Der Spiegel.

“If you want to compete at the highest level, you have to have those kinds of quality players. To this day, Bayern Munich have never spent more than about 40m euros (£35m) for a player. In international football that has long since been more of an average than a peak price.”

That earned him a rebuke from club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who said: “Obviously Robert was irritated by PSG’s transfers. He is employed with us as a football player and earns a lot of money. I regret what he said.”

Bayern had not consented to the interview.

In the past few weeks, Rummenigge has reiterated too that Lewandowski is “100% staying this summer” which is likely. As the richest club in Germany, Bayern are under no financial pressure to sell while Lewandowski’s contract runs until 2021, with no exit clause.

When Bayern Munich don’t want to sell, they don’t. But unlike Thomas Muller for instance, when Manchester United came after him, Lewandowski doesn’t have that same connection to Bayern which has helped to them to keep homegrown superstars.

While they have a vice-like grip on the Bundesliga title, Bayern haven’t reached a Champions League final since beating Dortmund and Lewandowski in 2013. Real meanwhile have won the trophy in three of the past four seasons.

Perhaps Lewandowski and Bayern advancing to the final could help convince Poland’s record international goalscorer that Munich is the right place for him.

Lewandowski, though, knows that he’s admired in the Spanish capital, going back to that semi-final in 2013. Dortmund lost the second leg 2-0 at the Bernabeu but after going through on aggregate, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez cornered Lewandowski in a small room next to the changing rooms.

According to the Pole, the conversation only lasted five minutes with Perez joking about the game before telling the striker he wanted to have him in Madrid.

Not that that conversation will cross Lewandowski’s mind on Wednesday evening. “I’ve been used to the situation that there’s speculation about me for 10 years,” he said in a September interview with German magazine 11Freunde.

“At the start, I have to say it was more difficult for me to shut out these factors completely. With time you get used to it. I’ve learned that I can’t do anything about it.”

‘Klopp made me the footballer I am’

Robert Lewandowski was the first Dortmund striker to outright win the Bundesliga golden boot since 1965-66

That sort of focus has drawn praise from Lewandowski’s previous employers, including Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, who called him “the most professional player I’ve worked with” when he was at Bayern. That was probably best showcased though when he was with Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund.

Midway through what was his final season at the club in 2013, his move to Bayern on a free transfer was announced. Yet Lewandowski’s levels did not drop on the pitch.

So much so, he finished as the Bundesliga’s top scorer for the first time. Most poignantly, in his final home game for the club, Lewandowski received his own ovation from the fans.

Lewandowski teared up then and no wonder. “Klopp made me the footballer I am,” as he put it in 2015.

The Polish striker was signed from Lech Poznan in the Ekstraklasa in 2010 for just 4.25m euros (£3.55m) with Dortmund beating Blackburn Rovers and Sam Allardyce, among others, to his signature.

Together, they won the Bundesliga in their first season but it was in Lewandowski’s second season he became Klopp’s star striker. After an injury to Paraguayan Lucas Barrios, Lewandowski stepped in and never looked back.

He went on to be the club’s top scorer in his remaining three seasons at Dortmund, winning another Bundesliga title and scoring twice in the German Cup final win over Bayern in 2012.

His overall goal ratio of one every 111 minutes is the second best in Bundesliga history, behind only Bayern legend Gerd Muller on 105. When you take Lewandowski’s four seasons since moving to Bavaria, that ratio improves to one every 94 minutes.

His most efficient performance off the bench saw Guardiola clasp his hands over his head in disbelief, as Lewandowski scored five in nine second-half minutes against Wolfsburg in 2015.

Saturday wasn’t quite that impressive but the division’s top scorer came off the bench with just over 20 minutes to play on Saturday at Hannover, enough time for him to score his 28th of the league season. It’ll be a surprise if he doesn’t break the 30-goal barrier for the third Bundesliga campaign running.

For the fourth season running, Lewandowski has been crowned as a German champion with Bayern too, the club’s sixth consecutive title.

That was despite a poor start which saw Carlo Ancelotti shown the door, but even for long periods since Jupp Heynckes returned, Bayern were winning without performances matching the impressive results.

In the last month that has changed with Bayern beginning to blow their opponents away, hitting four goals or more on six occasions.

Time for Real revenge

A man for the big occasion

Robert Lewandowski is the second top scorer in Champions League semi-finals ever – with six goals. Cristiano Ronaldo has 13

That didn’t include the Champions League quarter-final against Sevilla which, particularly in the first half of the away leg, was not an altogether smooth passage to the final four. It’s unlikely to be any easier for Bayern and Lewandowski against Real Madrid – a side that Bayern have lost to in each of their last four games.

Lewandowski has missed two of a possible four games himself against Real since knocking them out with Dortmund in 2013.

Last season, he missed Bayern’s quarter-final first-leg defeat by Real with a shoulder injury while he has also admitted that he wasn’t fully fit for the second leg, even if he scored. In 2014, meanwhile, he missed Dortmund’s 3-0 first-leg reverse at the same stage through suspension.

This time, he’s fit and has the chance to make sure that his team aren’t playing catch-up come the second leg.

Repeating his four-goal heroics of five years ago is of no concern to Lewandowski as he told German magazine kicker on Monday: “It doesn’t matter how many goals I score. The main thing is that we go through.”

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

ultras FC Barcelona - https://ultrasfcb.com/football/2816/

#Barcelona