Liga Pokal 2007

While most countries are preparing for the upcoming season with friendlies, the Bundesliga has made a major tournament out of the preseason. The Premier League Cup, or Ligapokal, is a small knock-out tournament that precedes the start of the Bundesliga by incorporating the top four finishers from the previous season, the winner of the German FA Cup and the winner of the Bundesliga Zwei. The winner is rewarded €2 million, which is a considerable sum for a European summer tournament. Rather than the Charity Shield (which was the format the Ligapokal followed from 1972 to 1996), think of a series of games between United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Sunderland.

While teams from the rest of Europe's top leagues travel the world hoping to market their brand and exhausting their players before the season even start or playing friendlies against weak competition on the continent to get their players match fit, Germany's top sides are playing a real competition against equal sides. Bayern and Schalke's runs to the final included three games for each side which puts them in September condition for their first games next week. It also gave them time to assess new signings and tactics under premium conditions. England, Spain, France and Italy would serve themselves well to follow Germany, who is now looking to grow the tournament from six to 32 teams in the coming years.

Let's take a look at this year iteration.

The first round started with Bayern Munich v. Werder Bremen and Karlsruhe v. Schalke 04. The winners would face the champions Stuttgart and FC Nurnberg respectively.

The results:

Bremen 1 – 4 Bayern Munich

A retooled Bayern needed little time to showcase their new signings, as Zé Roberto, Hamit Altintop, Miroslav Klose and Franck Ribéry were all involved in the braces that led to a 4-1 dismantling of Werder Bremen, after falling behind early in a very tense affair. Bremen can look to the return of Diego, Nadal and Aaron Hunt as well as the new addition of Carlos Alberto to give them solace for a poor performance all around. Meanwhile, Bayern looks to be an absolutely enthralling team to follow this year, as their midfield is extremely fluid allowing all their central depth to move forward, providing chances from in and outside the box. All of their goals came from the midfield. Their major concern could be finding roles for everyone as they also have depth at striker that wasn't addressed due to injuries to Luca Toni and Lucas Podolski.

Karlsruhe 0 – 1 Schalke

Last year's stingiest defense in the Bundesliga faced off with last year's top scoring team from the Bundesliga Zwei. While a seeming ridiculous stat, the game played out along those lines with Schalke playing deep and creating little while Karlsruhe attacked in waves. The turning point of this game, in retrospect, came very early when Schalke's captain Bordon took down Edmond Kapllani in the 5th. A weak penalty shot by Tamás Hajnal, combined with an excellent read by Manuel Neuer, saw the end to Karlsruhe's best chance. The rest of the game was played in the middle of the field with Schalke, missing star Kevin Kuranyi, showing a lack of creativity. Karlsruhe who had relied on the wings for the first 20 minutes found those channels closed with sticky going in the middle. The game was decided on the only mistake tiny Karlsruhe made during the game when their center-halves Mario Eggiman and Maik Franz were caught flatfooted by a back pass and Halil Altintop finished his chance.

Nürnberg 2 -4 Schalke

This was a score that flattered to deceive both the whole Nurnberg squad and 10 of Schalke's squad. A game that took place for the first 35 minutes between the two boxes, other than Nürnberg's early goal, exploded with life if the last few minutes of the first half with goals by Levan Kobiaschvili, Fabian Ernst and Peter Lovenkrands. A 4th was added in the 58th minute by Heiko Westermann. All four goals had one thing in common, Kevin Kuranyi. The German international was instrumental in taking charge of the game and setting up all of the goals. Passes to free Kobiaschvili and Ernst were followed by a pass that freed Kobiaschvili down the right who crossed for Lovenkrands and the third goal. Kuranyi's work in the box earned the corner that led to the final goal and it was Nürnberg's collapse on him that left Westermann free to score. The entire Schalke attacking mentality was down to getting the ball to Kuranyi and it was easy to see the difference in the sluggish side that barely escaped Karlsruhe and this side that dissected Nürnberg's typically stern defense so effectively. One was left to wonder why a double teaming of Kuranyi wasn't employed by manager Hans Meyer.

Stuttgart 0 –2 Bayern Munich

Stuttgart played a very conservative counter-attacking tactic against Bayern Munich and provided no better a clue how to diffuse the behemoth from Bavaria. In the first game, the free-flowing Bremen had folded under Bayern's fluid attack and Stuttgart fared no better with a more stoic approach. Altintop continued to impress down the right flank. Zé Roberto provided flawless cleanup. Van Bommel did the dirty work, including an offense to an opposing groin that would get him suspended for the final. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Ribéry provided the service and youngster Sandro Wagner was given the chance up front due to 3 injured forwards at Munich. The final score could have been greater as Munich was off on a few chances that could have left it at 5-0, but a Ribéry blast off a Wagner back-heel and Wagner's finish off Ribéry's cross secured the final for Bayern.

Bayern Munich 1 – 0 Schalke 04

The final hinged on two factors. First, there was the experience of Bayern's Oliver Kahn compared to Schalke's Neuer. While both played solidly, Kahn dealt with Schalke's best chances cleanly, while Neuer came off his line and played the oncoming Bordon and Klose rather than the ball in one of Bayern's better attacks. The resulting goal was all that Bayern would need to secure the cup. The second factor was the combination of an injury to Ribéry, the suspension of Van Bommel and the resting of Schweinsteiger. The new look midfield was less fluid and more defensive in structure and resulted in Bayern making less penetration into Schalke's final third. Schalke's counter-attack was stymied by this and Kuranyi was left with less room to operate. Since Schalke move into their opponent's final 3rd predominately through Kuranyi, they made few chances even when chasing the game.

Moving into next week, let's take a look at what might be expected from viewing this tournament. A late season comparison will follow.

It was thought that Ribéry might be a replacement for Schweinsteiger after the latter caught Lyme's disease. But with both in the midfield and capable of switching from the middle to both the left and right flank, the stretch the defense, disrupt tactics and allow the deep-lying midfielders space for surges, especially Altintop who has a dangerous long range shot. They also seem to work well with one another and already show signs of excellent attacking partnership. Expect to Bayern to start hot and never look back.

Schalke 04 will make the semi-finals of the Champion's League. They are an excellent counter-attacking side with a bona fide superstar in Kevin Kuranyi. They are solid in the back ad are a difficult side to beat. They can afford to play for a dray because if they can make it to penalties they have Neuer between the sticks and he has a thoroughly impressive penalty record to rely on. What they lack is the link between their defense and Kuranyi that Lincoln provided last year, but they are looking towards Steven Appiah to fix that. If they get Appiah, who knows how far they could go in the Bundesliga and the Champion's League.

Stuttgart's loss of Timo Hildebrand will cost them at least 10 points this year. A team that relies on defense the way Stuttgart does can ill afford to lose one of the best keepers in the game and expect a shaky new keeper like Raphael Schäfer to give them the same service. Given time Schäfer will be a serviceable keeper, but can he ever give them the comfort of Hildebrand?

Werder Bremen has to hope Markus Rosenborg can replace Klose. They gave him time last year to learn the system, but Werder faded when Klose had a poor 2nd half last year and they won't have him to carry them like he did early last season. While the addition of Carlos Alberto and return of Diego will help, they need a clinical finisher to stand in front of their creative midfield.

Karlsruhe should escape the drop as they have enough at the back and going forward to keep them up for the year.

Nurnberg should be a much more attacking-minded side this year. Russian Ivan Saenko seems to have overcome his prima donna phase after becoming a regular with the Russian national team and should be turning heads as Marek Mintál returns to provide options going forward for last year's Cup winners.

Final Standing Predictions in the Bundesliga: 1) Bayern 2) Hamburg 3) Schalke 04