August
We started by wrecking semi-professional Lunen. I only fielded my youngsters and they did not disappoint. I was happy Schalle kept a clean sheet but more than that, Prakash scored a brace! The next game against Hannover was not much of a competition either. Reus opened his account for the year as did the magnificent Ghazaryan. His aerial reminds me of Vidic (congratulations to my favorite team’s captain on being included in the FIFA World XI). The goal Hannover scored was an own goal by Obih. Sadly, we need to add Ghazaryan to our injury list after he was mauled by an opponent. I cannot explain our next game against Stuttgart. Most of the time last season whenever we lost it was a close defeat but Stuttgart completely dominated us. Our defense looked lost without Ghazaryan, and the midfield was completely outplayed without Abdulrahman, while our attack lacked any sort of bite without Allagui (we didn’t have Benitez yet). I hope I don’t ever have to see the team play like that again. It seems my harsh team-talk after the game helped and we soared once more against Hoffenheim. Abdulrahman was back and made an immediate impact. He might be our most important player, over Reus. Horn, the promoted player last season and part of the Boris/Stevanovic class, scored his first goal for the club after coming on as a substitute. I would like to hope that he will develop aerial dominance, similar to Ghazaryan. The last game of the month was our season’s first derby. Reus scored a brace and Soylemez proved that he can play just as well as Abdulrahma, and he got on the score-sheet in the process. Reus’ second goal during the game is indescribable. He essential decided that he felt like scoring and just barreled through opposing defenders, odd considering his light build, and fired into the bottom corner. It was such a brute-force goal; I hope he scores more like that! Also, hats off to Mphela for scoring a bicycle kick on us during that game.
September
The first game of the month was another tense one for me, especially because this time we were beaten at home. Wolfsburg employed a very frustrating tactic of peppering my goal with shots and naturally some slipped by. They had 24 shots, 11 on target. That is insane! We held a little more position, but any time they would get the ball, they would fire off a shot; didn’t matter from where. Just like last time, we had a complete score reversal and against the mighty Benfica as well! I was shocked by absolutely ecstatic to kick our first Champions League campaign off with a win. It was Allagui’s first game back and he scored a goal, as did Benitez. Soylemez added to the tally as well. The next game was very even, with Bamba scoring both goals :( We were the better team in the game versus Nurnberg, but we needed an own goal from them to win. Reus drove us to victory in our second Champions League game with a brace. We are sitting at the top of our group now!
October
Allagui hurt himself during training before the match, but Benitez and Reus both scored. I was pleased to win the game even though Boris got sent off. Reus continued his incredible form with his first hat-trick of the season against Bremen. The next match was against defending Champions League winners, OM. This was a scrappy game, with OM receiving 7 yellow cards after 15 fouls. It was a little frustrating and the ter Stegen scored an own goal which caused OM to tie up the game after their dirty performance. It’s good to know, though, that we almost beat the best team in Europe (and probably the World). The draw against Bayern proves we are legitimate. They scored within 5 minutes because we were still warming up to the game but the rest of the match consisted of Bayern being on the back foot. We had 60% possession, but Bayern is still Bayern, so we had to settle with a draw from Ghazaryan’s header from a corner. We ended the month with solid wins againt Nurnberg in the cup, during which Benitez and Soylemez made it to the score-sheet, and Leverkusen in the league.
November
So our first month of November was our Champions League game against Champions League holders OM. We couldn’t find a win but the game was absolutely fantastic to watch from a neutral’s perspective. Reus and Benitez scored while OM benefited from the unreal ability of Loic Remy. Cue 3 easy wins against Freiburg, Schalke, and Benfica. Reus and Benitez scored in each of those 3 games and after the Champions League win, we qualified for the knockout stage with a game in hand! I was also very proud of the win against Schalke because they were league leaders at the time. Our next game showed us that we can’t get complacent as Frankfurt won a game that we clearly dominated. We gave away 2 penalties that allowed them to take all 3 points.
December
So the last game of the Champions League group stage was a joke. Since us and Marseille already qualified, both PSV and I fielded weakened teams. I was quite pleased with how my youngsters played given the average team age was a little under 19.
I can hardly believe it! We made it to knock-out stages on the first try and we supplanted the current holders along the way! I was expecting this to be a group of death given the pedigree of the other three teams, but we were just too much to handle.
We followed that up with 2 more dominant displays and then an absolutely shock defeat at Kaiserslautern. We had the far better stats of the two teams but we conceded a late goal on the counter because I was too aggressive. We ended the first half of the season with a great repeat win over Schalke, which sees us go to the quarter-finals of the German Cup! The friendlies were quite simple and were to mostly keep up our fitness.
As you can see, we knocked Schalke off their perch and we are holding onto the top spot going into the break thanks to Reus and Benitez’s crazy form. Reus has scored 15 goals while Benitez has scored 9. Reus is also the top scorer in the Bundesliga with 10 goals. Bayern seem to be struggling a bit but as seen from my previous two seasons, Bayern seem to have starting trouble before they start dominating everyone. I was also quite shocked to see how poorly Bochum and especially Diusberg are doing on the other side of the table.
Transfers:
So like I stated, Ghazaryan left during the January window after Barca tabled a £12mil bid for him. Evian actually put up £10mil for him but I had to reject it in favor of Barca’s larger offer. I also let Juhasz go because he was whining about first-team football. I wasn’t too bummed out because he didn’t unlock his potential like other high-profile youngsters, like Soylemez and the now gone Carpentieri (full-back from Argentina), Ciciretti (Italian midfielder) and Franzino. In their places I broke Gladbach’s transfer fee by bringing awesome youngster Dennis Wiesner, who can actually play across the whole back, and Nikki Lewis on loan from Manchester City. I am surprised I was able to get him because he is such a great youngster. I will definitely look into keeping him permanently because he could challenge for a first team role right now!
I think this is also a decent spot to discuss how Gladbach are doing in real life. In the Bundesliga, the team in 16th place faces off the team that came in 3rd in the 2. Bundesliga. Gladbach were that team and they just managed to best Bochum. This season, however, Gladbach find themselves in 4th place, one spot outside the automatic Champions League places, and only 4 points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich. Currently it’s the winter break but hopefully they can keep up their form. If they do make the Champions League, however, they will be without Reus because he has agreed to go back to his childhood club and Gladbach’s rival, Dortmund, on the first of July after Dortmund activated a €18mil release clause in his contract.
Go to the next page to check out the second half of our season!
Laxeyman
14 января, 2012 at 11:56
Great season Bhargav, congrats on the league win! You also did well to get as far as you did in Europe, and I don’t think it’ll be too long before you get to the final of that competition, with the amount of quality youngsters you’ve got, your team should keep getting better and better :)
Bhargav
15 января, 2012 at 10:10
Thanks Laxeyman! I’m hoping for some improvement next season.
Johnny Karp
14 января, 2012 at 11:58
Congrats on the title, the team did really well in the league! The Champions League campaign was not bad either but I expected you to go past Celtic, that was a bit of an upset. I’m sure you’ll do better next season though, good luck!
Bhargav
15 января, 2012 at 10:13
Thanks Johnny! I think my youngsters might not be mentally ready to be on that kind of stage but next year as they gain more experience I expect them to fare much better.
Sears
14 января, 2012 at 13:08
Congrats on winning the title mate, that was really impressive. Like Johnny said, losing to Celtic was an upset but playing at Celtic Park on a Champions League night is extremely difficult with the support they have. Best of luck next season pal
Bhargav
16 января, 2012 at 02:16
Thanks so much Sears! I hope next season we go farther. Hopefully the draw will work in our favor again.
Darren Smith
14 января, 2012 at 13:23
Good season there mate and the title was well deserved. I agree with Johnny, that loss to Celtic seemed like an upset to me but your inspired Winter signings look very good for sure.
Bhargav
16 января, 2012 at 02:18
Thanks Darren! It feels like a revolving door sometimes, all these players coming and going.
Kevin
14 января, 2012 at 13:44
Hi Bhargav
Well done on winning the Bundesliga! Based on your results I wasn’t sure how this would end up as I was reading through but then a brilliant April saw you home! Too bad about the Champions League but I’m sure you will come back stronger next season.
Bhargav
16 января, 2012 at 02:18
Thanks Kevin! I Schalke were with me every step of the way but after that second loss to me, they just fell apart and the title was ours.
vaibhavc
14 января, 2012 at 18:24
Great season Bhargav, your first title! Unlucky in the Champions League, Celtic are a team you should beat, but upsets happen. Our Indian friends did not play too well, Prakash only played 5 games, and Hossain did not play much either.
Bhargav
16 января, 2012 at 02:20
Thanks Vaibhav. I was surprised that we couldn’t put any dent in them. And I figured that the Indian players wouldn’t do very well during the first season because they are used to a much lower quality of game but with the training that I am providing I think they will grow into phenomenal athletes.
Woody
15 января, 2012 at 08:45
great season mate
good to see you win the league this year
next year with the right team i think you’ll be able to win the german cup and maybe the champions league
anyway good luck
Bhargav
16 января, 2012 at 02:23
Thanks Woody! The German Cup will be my top priority for the sake of progressing through the pentagon challenge.
CsAtlantis
15 января, 2012 at 09:30
Wow congratulations Bhargav, not sure what Bayern were doing, they barely qualified for the Europa League, but to win with such a healthy cushion is great
Reus is just sheer class, and Christian Benitez had a fine season too
Not sure how Celtic thumped you over two legs so neatly, didn’t know they were that good
But man, that is sure a big payoff you pocketed from winning the league, added to the Champions League money next season you should be assured of having plenty of money (and perhaps a lot of players will consider your team now that you are league champions)
Bhargav
16 января, 2012 at 02:24
Thanks CsAtlantis! You raise some great points. Benitez was totally worth the 2mil loan fee, especially since I was only paying 40% of his salary. I was surprised by the margin I won by. It seems during the second to last month all the other teams who were around me collapsed.
nielsneutron
15 января, 2012 at 18:58
You really did a coup in finding that Indian boy Prakash.
Great season overall but you might need some more experince for the high-profile games especially in the champions league.
nielsneutron
15 января, 2012 at 19:01
ups did not see that Prakash have only played five matches.
At least your loanny did you great.
Bhargav
16 января, 2012 at 02:26
Haha, yeah Prakash only got to play while the others were injured. He was unfortunate that Benitez, Allagui, and Reus were in such sparkling form.
Nik
16 января, 2012 at 07:11
Congratulations mate! Great season.
Bhargav
17 января, 2012 at 03:22
Thanks a lot Nik!
Ana Garcia
16 января, 2012 at 22:16
Well done you!
I manged in Germany once a few games ago and for some reason didnt really enjoy it that much.
However I am really enjoying this story and its great to see you claim some success in winning the league!
Best of luck on next season, are you planning on making Benitez’s loan permanent? seems he did really well for you. :)
Bhargav
17 января, 2012 at 03:25
Hey Ana, thanks for your kind words. I’m sorry your experience with the Bundesliga wasn’t fun. I am actually having a great time because of the lenient transfer rules. I doubt I will keep Benitez because he is an expensive player and at 29 he doesn’t have too many good years left in him.