Manuel Neuer

Goal­keeper Jaroslav Drobny (Hertha Berlin) Make no mis­take about it, Berlin’s rise from bot­tom half side to title con­tenders was based on defense. They were a hard side to break down and on the off-chance that a team did, there was Drobny to get by. His per­for­mance against Bay­ern was the stuff of leg­ends. Defenders […]

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Jaroslav Drobny (HBS) 13 saves! This is what it takes to stop Bayer. Fan­tas­tic effort by the Czech puts him above Lehmann and Rost, who were both impres­sive as well. Pedro Geromel (Köln) This is the sec­ond straight week for Brazil­ian. He had a fan­tas­tic game neu­tral­iz­ing Rob Fre­und and he had a goal-line clear­ance that […]

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Schalke, cur­rently sit­ting at the top of the Bun­desliga, have surged ahead to the peak of another, less pres­ti­gious table — the goal­keeper injury table. First choice keeper Manuel Neuer has yet to make an appear­ance this sea­son, hav­ing bro­ken his fifth metatarsal dur­ing a pre-season friendly against SpVgg Erken­schwick (cur­rently play­ing in the equivalent […]

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1st Schalke What You Know: If baseball’s Chicago Cubs had a baby with the Red Sox prior to 2004, Schalke would be the off­spring. What You Don’t: All things both good and bad must end. What to Expect: Yes, Campe­ones! I say that, buck­ing all trends, and know­ing full well that Schalke could be lead­ing the […]

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The new Bun­desliga sea­son is just days away, so Bun­desliga Talk writ­ers Mark Moll and Dou­ble Pivot decided to inter­view one of the pre­em­i­nent writ­ers and authors on the topic of Ger­man soc­cer, Raphael Honig­stein. Many read­ers may know Honig­stein best from his appear­ances on the Foot­ball Weekly Pod­cast by The Guardian. Here’s the transcript […]

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This week we make the short trip west on the A40 from Dort­mund past Bochum to Gelsenkirchen, home to Schalke 04 and their new coach, Fred Rut­ten. Much like his new Ruhr rival, Jür­gen Klopp, Rut­ten has been a one club man for almost his entire 30-year play­ing and coach­ing career, all with FC Twente […]

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