When it comes to sports, we all know ‘that guy’. Especially in football – the guy that scoffs at the suggestion he should watch the A-League, only turns up in Socceroos gear when it’s time for a World Cup and of course, only watches the English Premier League.
(Perhaps, at a stretch, he will tune in to the La Liga to watch Barcelona and Real Madrid.)
Sadly, most of my friends are those guys. And throughout this last European season, I’ve been pushing the idea that there is a life outside of England – and indeed, that it is not the most exciting league in Europe. Or at the very least, certainly not the most competitive. That honour surely belongs to the Bundesliga.
Now I’m not saying that I wasn’t caught up in all of the last day drama of the Premiership; anybody that followed my blog on The Roar or my twitter will know that I was as bewildered as anyone after Aguero knocked in that winner. I was in the FOX office with a few other guys and we were all as stunned as each other.
And predictably, I received a Facebook post a few minutes later from one of my EPL zealot friends “Bungard thinks the German league is more exciting … bulls—!”
Eloquent? No. But it got the point across. But as we saw Fergie’s men on the pitch at Sunderland already starting to celebrate, in perfect cohesion with Aguero’s goal and the complete reversal of emotions, I couldn’t help but feel like this had happened before.
Because it did. About ten years ago – while that year in England, Manchester United were winning the Premiership in a canter, the most amazing finish (before Sunday) to a major European league season was occurring. The only difference being that the superpower (Bayern) won the league, while the young upstarts in Blue (Schalke) DIDN’T break their 50 year drought, like Manchester City did.
I’m not trying to degrade the Premier League in any way. It’s obviously a league of the highest quality, demands the most television money and is the most talked about. Best players? Maybe. But most competitive and exciting? That’s where you lose me.
Before Sunday, the closest finish to a league season ever was a couple of years ago when Chelsea, knowing they needed a win to clinch on the final day, narrowly eked out an 8-0 win over Wigan Athletic.
But let’s move a bit further down the table, because this is where the competitiveness of the German league really leaves the English in its wake.
Next season, Borussia Mönchengladbach (and hopefully Matthew Leckie) will play in the Champions League. A season ago, they won a two-legged playoff to remain in the top flight. This would be akin to QPR or Wigan gracing the top four with their presence in the 2012-13 season. Simply put, an outrageously unrealistic scenario.
And, speaking of play-offs to stay in the first division, this brings me to the events I witnessed yesterday morning, which inspired me more than anything to write this article.
Nikita Rukavytsya’s Hertha Berlin travelled to Robbie Kruse’s second division Fortuna Düsseldorf for the second leg of a winner-take-all match-up. After the team’s traded first half goals, a red card against Hertha followed by a second goal to Fortuna saw flares and other objects being hurled onto the pitch with about 20 minutes to go. Down 3-1 on aggregate at this point, it appeared like it was curtains for the visitors.
That disturbance took well over five minutes to deal with, and was evidenced in the large number seven that was held up on the fourth official’s board when we reached 90 minutes. True to the Bundesliga’s exciting reputation, ten man Hertha did score with five minutes of normal time to go, which made it 2-2 on the night and would mean another goal would see them win the tie on away goals: a very nervous last 12 or so minutes for Dusseldorf. Oh, and this second goal was met with more objects being chucked on the pitch by the away fans. I’ve no idea why.
But that 12 minutes turned out to be about 33 when, with about a minute left of the added time, thousands of delirious Dusseldorf fans poured onto the pitch after their striker Ranisav Jovanovic had shot wide and out for a goal kick.
Referee Wolfgang Stark (one of the most experienced refs in the world) immediately pulled the players off the pitch. More flares were thrown, chunks of turf were torn up by fans hoping to get a souvenir and eventually the game was restarted when the fans were all cleared away.
By this time, the clock on my television read the ridiculous time of 90 +28:30. Certainly not something I’d ever seen before. All of this was done to play out a mere 60 seconds more, which mercifully passed without incident.
And now, Fortuna is in the top flight – their story is a great one. A former institution of the top division, they dropped out in 1997 and fell as far as the now non-existent Oberliga Nordrhein, where they played against some of the reserve teams of their 2012-13 Bundesliga rivals, as well as powerhouses such as GFC Düren 09 and SV Adler Osterfeld. Again, such a meteoric rise would almost be impossible in England.
I guess the point I’m trying to make without sounding like a pretentious snob is that there is football outside of England (and this anomaly of a league finish aside, it’s not normally so pulsating) and it doesn’t begin and end in Spain – which is a glorified SPL, but that’s an argument for another day.
The moral of the story; I’m happy to shell out the extra few dollars a month to get Setanta. I can understand why other people might be hesitant but, when you have the potential for 118th minute winners in normal time, why would you?
Follow Matt on Twitter: @TheMattBungard
HardcorePrawn
Guest
We in the UK would get one live match each week, one that usually involved one of the Italian-based British players (Paul Gascoigne, David Platt... Mark Hateley...), and highlights of the other matches of that weekend. You could almost guarantee that we'd end up watching a 0-0 bore draw or a 1-0 catenaccio-fest whilst the highlights would show that at least one of the other games was all end-to-end action with shots peppering each goal.
Evan Askew
Guest
Yep it was from about 1989 to 1995 every sunday morning. However in Oz we didn't have a channel that showed the whole game. It was a 1 hour programme with an edited highlights game and all the goals and near misses from other games of that round so we didn't get to see any of the more defensice aspects of Italian football.
David Heidelberg
Guest
If Matthew LeTissier comes out of retirement it is certain to happen.
graham
Guest
Ive actually become an a league snob. The premier league seems boring to me by comparison. Of the European leagues the eredivisie and the bundesliga are indeed the most entertaining. Espn3 has games for both
The Cattery
Roar Guru
We'll never forget Ozzie and Daryl. Daryl's a good Geelong boy.
Midfielder
Guest
TC Not sure Victorians are capable of memory .... !!!!!!!
The Cattery
Roar Guru
apaway don't worry - we Victorians know all about Ossie and Daryl!!
Matt Bungard
Roar Guru
I think my point was that the Premiership, aside from this year, has never been interesting in the last few weeks where the German league usually is. Swansea and Norwich are great stories yes, but I'm not sure what that has to do with my point. They aren't in Europe or winning anything. And Mönchengladbach won the Cup once fifteen years ago. Before then, their last success was in the 70s. Hardly a mega power. I'm interested to see how they get on without Reus though.
HardcorePrawn
Guest
I have to disagree with you regarding Serie A; I take it you were watching in the early 90s, given the names you've mentioned? In those days I would watch it in the UK on Channel 4, and I admit that there was a novelty to watching the likes of Gullit and the rest, and the technical skills on display were always far better than that on offer in the Premier League/Division One, the pace of the game made for pretty unentertaining viewing for neutrals. And as for watching a team going into full Catenaccio mode, as so many did, usually early in the 2nd half, it just wasn't for me. Great opening theme and credits though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHXfHFNlJ_w
Evan Askew
Guest
Serie A thanks to sbs is the overseas league for me. The days of Maradona, Van Basten, Gullit, Matheus, Francescoli, Aldair, Shalimov, Stoickovic and our own Frank Farina (for a brief period) were the salad days of Serie A and far eclipsed anything in the EPL. I also watched the NSL on tv as well and because I was a kid there didn't seem like any issues of quality for me save that the players were part time so they weren't as fit. And they didn't keep the ball on the ground as much as the Serie A players. The fact is that England is not the be all and end all of football. Germany, Italy, Spain and France offer just as good an experience for watching football and there are about ten other countries in Europe where anywhere from 2 to 5 teams in the league are good to watch and have a history and prestige the equal of anything in England. Then there is the football in South AMerica where it is maybe at a slower speed but the shear inventiveness of the players on display is spellbinding. Santos at the moment are like the Barcelona of South America. And Japan is crafting itself a reputation as a great football league and for many players it represents a better destination than a lot of European countries. Bottome line is that if you love the sport theren are a number of countries where you can watch it.
ItsCalled AussieRules
Roar Rookie
That's right, you can't categorically say that if you watch a Bundesliga game you will see a better game than the EPL or A-League. Sometimes its pot luck. The real Eurosnob is the one that watches Euro leagues 20,000 miles away, calls himself a football follower but then says "A-League rubbish league", even though they have never been to a game to experience it. They'd rather sit at home in front of Foxtel than get out and about with their friends and family and support a local team and watch a football game live, even if it isn't the A-League.
apaway
Guest
I had to compete with my brother, Cattery, who was hooked on Hey Hey It's Saturday (yes, THAT show with the pink ostrich and Darryl Somers used to be on from 7am till 10am on a Saturday morning. The German soccer was on from 7am till 8.30.
ItsCalled AussieRules
Roar Rookie
Good point, but you've only listed the A-League Championship winners. To compare to EPL you need the A-League Premiership winners (first past the post) which were 5 in 7 years - Adelaide, Sydney, Central Coast(2), Brisbane and Melbourne(2). We have a salary cap, which also cloudies the comparison. We don't need to choose a whole competition as better than another, I have seen some excellent football games over the years in EPL, Bundesliga and A-League, but the most memorable of all was the Socceroos when they beat Uruguay.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
The Brazil Serie C? Is that where the seal used to play? Roger Rational is right of course about earning some cachet. I thought declaring my love of the Eerstedivisie, and following Helmond Sport for 32 years would do it for me. I can even spell the name of their province correctly: Noord Brabant, and I have walked the road from the castle to the much hated home of PSV (5 or 6 kilometres down the road) - but still no cachet!! All to no avail - no further correspondence! I snookered myself!! Dus vind ik geen succes!! Doch en goede ambassadeur van m'n stad blijf ik.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
That's right apaway, I recall watching German soccer as a kid on TV in the mid to late 70s.
apaway
Guest
Both leagues are great and the Bundesliga has a longer history on Australian TV than a lot of people realise. It used to be shown on Saturday mornings on Channel 10 in the mid 1970s and introduced me to the seemingly exotic world of Bayern Munich, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Hamburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Cologne and commentator Toby Charles. All the teams wore adidas strips and I became attached to Bayern Munich as a result. However, I doubt that any of the European leagues can boast the amazing run like the one achieved by Nottingham Forest, who in successive seasons in the late 70s/early 80s went from Division 2 champions to Division 1 champions to back-to-back European Cup winners. By today's comparison, that would be like Southampton winning next season's Premiership and then completing back-to-back Champion's League wins in 2014 and 2015.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Futbanous---just saying if you are an avid fan of SBS there is no distinction---you are enticed into a plethora of football leagues from around the world that overlap and intertwine in each other.. No one does it best than SBS.. FOX has this nasty habit of segregating the leagues and pitting one against the other. TWG just flows from the A-League to the EPL, to La liga, Bundesliga and etc. that turns you into a lover of all football. We have no snobs at SBS..
Futbanous
Guest
That was the easy bit writing your piece(quite a good description BTW),now the hard bit convincing the majority of football fans that all the real action on the park is not exclusive to the saying good morning to the milkman timeslot.
King Robbo
Guest
It is very rare the league is won in injury time on the very last day, particularly two late goals. People forget la liga 93-94 as well when that poor bugger for Deportivo La Coruna missed a penalty right at the end of the game which at the time would of won them their first ever title.
MelbCro
Guest
Listen here Mr Stam, I did indeed read the article.I suggest it is you who have not read it my good sir.