Dietmar Hopp files insult charge against football fan

After TSG Hoffenheim beating Borussia Dortmund 4-1 last Sunday, a Dortmund fan was arrested by the police for insulting Hoffenheim's "sponsor" Dietmar Hopp. Hopp filed an insult charge against the 19 year old boy. Strangely, Borussia's president apologized for this.

Perhaps, Mr Hopp should reconsider sponsoring a ballett group instead of a football team?

German village with 3.000 residents to host Bundesliga team

Ralf Rangnick thinks Germany needed more Hoffenheims. I don't need even one of those...

Going up with Jimmy and Willy...

Microsoft gave away 20 tickets for the BlueSquare Premier League's Playoff Finals at Wembley next Sunday. I didn't win, but a fellow intern is so kind to take me with him. I'm really starting to get excited about seeing the stadium as well as Cambridge United playing Exeter City in the struggle for a place in the 4th League.

Cool thing: United already sold out its 21.000 tickets for the match - I wouldn't expect that in German 5th league...

The song for the game is another good example, why you should not record football anthems with 20 people, because they only sound cool if sung by thousands.

Cup finals

Although my favourite team already had been kicked out in round one, I was keen to watch yesterday's cup finals between Stuttgart and Nurnberg. The two most impressing teams of the recent league season faced each other for the third time.

Stuttgart has impressed me by becoming German champions against all odds and by playing intelligent and beautiful football throughout the year. I'm happy for their win, because I count this as an advantage of German football in comparison to the big European Leagues where you only have two or three teams to win at all.

Nurnberg was mainly of interest for me because they bought Dynamo's top striker Joshua Kennedy last summer. Unfortunately, after playing some minutes for Australias national team in the World Cup, Kennedy got injured in the training camp and never played for his team this season. However, Nurnberg suprised everyone by reaching a place qualifying them for next year's UEFA cup. One of the impressing facts about them was their ability to beat German champions Stuttgart in both of their matches.

So yesterday both teams faced each other for the third time. Like many others I watched the game on TV and agree with people who found it one of the most entertaining football matches of the last years. Both teams did a great job and even though Nurnberg won it by 3-2 in the extra time, Stuttgart also would have deserved it. After Cacau was sent off in minute 30, they played 90 minutes with only 10 players. Even reaching extra time was a great accomplishment for them.