BVB quest for a Europa League spot continues against KSC

After BVB's six consecutive victory against Frankfurt last week a packed Westfalenstadion will welcome KSC on Saturday. On three points behind Hamburg and Stuttgart Jürgen Klopp's side is poised to make a move into a Europa League spot should either side fail.

Die Schwarzgelben face a difficult day against Ede Becker's side as they are known for tough physical play and not afraid of grinding out a scoreless draw. Speaking respectfully of his former team, "his KSC", Tamás Hajnal said, "I promise to all Karlsruher that we will do everything to beat them as well. And who knows, maybe KSC avoid the drop after all."

Jürgen Klopp should have few changes to his lineup but expressed caution with the opposition:

"KSC have, for a team on this position, very few weaknesses. That´s unusual. It´s not going to be an easy game. We treat it with a lot of respect. We have to take advantage of our own strengths."

KSC hands Werder tough loss

Riding the wave of optimism after soundly defeating Eintracht Frankfurt, the Green Whites were dealt a 1-0 defeat at the hands of a tough Karlsruhe SC squad. To some the end result is a surprise but this should be expected from KSC as they have shown in successive weeks against Bayer Leverkusen, Energie Cottbus, BVB, Hannover and now Werder that they are not a side that will accept relegation with ease. In their typical manner, with their vocal fans behind them they taught Werder what playing with heart means.

The match started fast for Werder with Claudio Pizarro clanging the post with a shot less than thirty seconds in but following that foray the hosts settled in to strong defensive display. On the opposite end of the pitch up and comer Sebastian Freis, who Joachim Löw should be giving more of a look, was a constant problem, missing with a subtle chip over Tim Wiese and another saved only by the efforts of Naldo. With the match appearing like it was headed for Edmund Becker made a key move bringing in Australian national Joshua Kennedy for Edmond Kapllani, a signal that KSC was not satisfied with the draw. With seven minutes remaining Wildparkstadion rose to its feet as Timo Staffeldt effort was redirected on by Stefan Buck. To add embarrassment to the result, in the final moments of the match Claudio Pizarro was shown a straight red for violent conduct.

build upon Frankfurt

As the Green Whites face Karlsruhe SC the test will be of-course to build upon the 5-0 victory over Frankfurt and hopefully put the October slump behind them.

Thomas Schaaf said of todays match:

“It’s important that we put on another strong performance following the game against Frankfurt. We can’t afford to let up now, we must continue working on things and stabilising our game.”

Of KSC he said:

“They haven’t returned to strength yet. They are still lacking the drive and stability that they displayed last season. In addition, they have had to deal with a number of departures and at the moment they have quite a long injury list. Karlsruhe will get stuck in and work their way into the game. We are going to be facing a team willing to fight for their success. We’ll have to stand up to that.”

KSC is a tough side that will show well with their fans behind them. However thwarted by injuries they find themselves at the bottom of the table and in desperate need of points.

Werder receives Mesut Özil back from suspension and Thomas Schaaf will likely want him involved after a lengthy break. KSC will miss Tim Sebastian, Maik Franz along with Michael Mutzel who is suspended.

For those who enjoy a good defensive match (me), KSC has the ability to throw a net over a match with great defending, so try not to miss the match.

Green Whites injury report

Looking ahead to the Green Whites match against Karlsruhe SC this Saturday, the club will likely welcome back a trio of Germany internationals Torsten Frings, Tim Wiese and Per Mertesacker. While Mertesacker is still listed as "questionable" although he is confident he will be available stating:

“I will train with the rest of the team again for the final pre-match session and hope then to get the all clear to play against KSC. It’s certainly looking good.”

a beautiful victory by BVB

With an extremely clinical display of balanced Football and good defending die Schwarzgelben defeated Karlsruher SC 1-0. As expected KSC put up a great fight and narrowly missed defeating Jürgen Klopp's side but Mohamed Zidan's goal twenty minutes into the match proved to be the deciding strike. The victory puts BVB in fourth place of the Bundesliga table, awaiting todays results.

The match was definitely not free of controversy as KSC had a Edmond Kapllani goal called back with a late offside call and a further goal oddly called back that looked to be cleared-out from behind the line. However BVB took the lead twenty minutes after the start when Hungarian international Tamás Hajnal swung in a pin-point cross in-close that Mohamed Zidan flicked past KSC 'keeper Markus Miller who otherwise played a perfect match. Following the break, with the loyal support of the Wildparkstadion behind then, KSC was clearly the aggressor but they couldn't breakthrough a great back line performance, most notably by Mats Hummels and Neven Subotić. Jakub Blaszczykowski's pace was a tactical weapon as always and as KSC through forward, his runs threatened to extend the lead and kept the home side honest. However in the end Roman Weidenfeller's work between the pipes in keeping his second consecutive clean sheet gave BVB the victory and three points.

“everything points to this match being a real battle”

“Everything points to this match being a real battle.” said Die Schwarzgelben boss Jürgen Klopp of todays match against Karlsruher SC at the Wildparkstadion. Without a win in seven matches Karlsruher coach Edmund Becker needs to turn his clubs season around as they are mired near the bottom of the table with only ten points to show for thirteen matches. He certainly has issued a rallying cry for his forces and less the burning torches and war-drums, BVB is expecting a passionate performance.

Karlsruher will be missing Maik Franz and Massimilian Porcello with injuries while BVB has a peculiar issue of a grouping of five internationals (Jakub Błaszczykowski, Alexander Frei, Young-Pyo Lee, Nuri Şahin and Antonio Rukavina) returning from their respective countries matches and unlikely to be one-hundred per-cent recovered. The background story of the match is Tamás Hajnal, who spent last season at KSC at expecting to see a great deal of interest from their vocal fans. He has apparently fully recovered from injury but Nelson Valdez is definitely out and Sebastian Kehl will undergo a pre-match fitness test to see if he can be called upon.

Finally to add to the background, snow is expected tomorrow.

Schalke 04 dominates KSC

Die Königsblauen answered Fred Rutten's call to arms with a definitive 3-0 defeat of Karlsruher SC. The victory ends a twelve year winless streak at Wildparkstadion keeps Schalke four points behind Bayer Leverkusen (who coincidently maintained the Werder Bremen "new blogger curse").

Schalke came out looking like a completely different squad from the weekend and were motivated to impress from the start. Kevin Kurányi and Halil Altintop nearly scored within the first few minutes minute with KSC 'keeper Markus Miller doing everything he could to keep the net free of goals. However die Königsblauen broke through with Levan Kobiashvili's cross re-directed by Kevin Kurányi to Marcelo Bordon and into the goal fifteen minutes after the start. Four minutes later Kevin Kurányi re-directed Mladen Krstajić's perfect cross to make in 2-0. KSC didn't lay down and started to affirm better defending although they were not able to launch a significant attack. The match took at turn for the worse after the break when a altercation with Maik Franz got him an early shower and KSC was playing a man-down. With twenty-two minutes remaining Kevin Kurányi's to Jefferson Farfán was headed home for the third and final goal.

With the short week of preparation Schalke faces Energie Cottbus on Saturday.

Wolfsburg - Karlsruhe SC match preview

On the heels of Wolfsburg's 7-0 laugher against third division side FC Oberneuland in the DFB Cup Felix Magath leads Wolfsburg to face Karlsruhe at the Wildparkstadion on Sunday.

It has been a difficult start to the campaign for Edmund Becker's club as they have lost their last three matches after an opening week triumph over VfL Bochum. They have shown only modest attacking flourish and seem to be lacking of confidence, concerned more about being scored upon than attacking. All too often they seem to be on their heels with the attacking primarily in the hands of Antônio da Silva, Aussie international Joshua Kennedy and Sebastian Freis. Josh Kennedy is a very capable striker, who can change a match but they have shown little ability to regularly get him the ball in opportune situations. Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo, if he is ever used properly, will need to keep a careful watch on this group. Should Karlsruhe score and take the lead they will look to pad-lock this match down.

Wolfsburg approach is a straight forward attacking back. KSC appears susceptible in defensively, particularly in crossing and flanking attacks. They will sit back in-fear of the counter or long clearing passes and will also be patient. Zvjezdan Misimović will have space to work in the match and must use it wisely given the home clubs defensive mindset. Mahir Sağlık, Grafite and Bosnia and Herzegovina international Edin Džeko, who is looks on the verge to breaking-out into stardom should push forward with constant movement against the KSC back-line of Tim Sebastian, Christian Eichner, Stefano Celozzi and Maik Franz.