Finally, finally the Bundesliga is back ! I already wrote my preview about the whole season and now I want to have a closer look at this week's top game, Hoffenheim vs Bayern. (although there is also Wolfsburg vs Stuttgart on Friday)
The Bayern line up seems to be clear before the game and there should be no more surprises. I expect the Starting 11 to be the same as against Neckarelz. Meaning Rensing in goal, Lahm – van Buyten – Demichelis – Pranjic in defense, van Bommel – Schweinsteiger - Hamit Altintop – Mueller in midfield and for sure Gomez and Klose in attack.
Hoffenheim's starting 11 is also pretty clear: Hildebrand in goal, Beck – Simunic – Compper – Ibertsberger – Carlos Eduardo – Vorsah - Salihovic – Obasi – Ibisevic – Maicosuel .
Hoffenheim seems to be stronger this year in defense with Simunic. In their attack, Ibisevic is finally back after he missed the entire second half of the season.
There was a lot bad blood between Bayern and Hoffenheim in the first half of the 2008/9 season. Bayern had their huge internal problems with Juergen Klinsmann and Hiffenheim was THE Cinderella story. Few were interested in the fact that Hoffenheim is backed by one of the founders of SAP, a billionaire who poured money into the provincial club. The journalists loved the story that David is beating Goliath.
In the second part of the season, Hoffenheim, a newcomer to the league could not hold the pace and lost in Ibisevic the top scorer of the league. At the end the team ended up 7th place and Wolfsburg was the real Cinderella at the end.
I doubt that Hoffenheim will have a similar start this season. By now they are not the nobody anymore and the other teams take them very seriously. Bayern needs a good start, it seems the club is very nervous after a catastrophic last season.
My tip is that we will win 2:1 against Hoffenheim in a very tight game.
Here are the rest of my predictions for this round: