So there you go: the last match day of the 2010-2011 season has been played, and the 18 Bundesliga teams is divided into two camps – the winners and the losers. Nevertheless, deciding which teams belong to which category is a matter of personal interpretation – and here’s mine.

After having recently spent most a blog post cracking jokes at the (considerable) expense of vulgar nouveau riche football clubs, I thought I should even things out a bit by admitting something: tradition, as nice as it is to have, is no better at buying success than good, hard cash. A team that has been demonstrating this over and over again in the last couple of weeks is the Hamburger Sportverein, or HSV. This Hamburg team, with their long and great history, lost by a very poor 0:3 to VfB Stuttgart on the weekend; the week before, they only just limped to a disappointing 0:0 draw against Hannover Sportverein 1896, despite the fact that they were playing at home and that Hannover are supposed to be the smaller and less important HSV from the North German plain.

Christoph Daum’s return to Bundesliga football has grabbed the headlines and suddenly, the full heat of the media microscope is bearing down on him and his new employers, Eintracht Frankfurt.

So how will this famous motor-mouth do? He is known across Germany as a talented coach, beginning his meteoric career in Cologne, then progressing onto a head coaching job at Stuttgart. He was soon back on the Rhine, helping Leverkusen become a fixture as runner-up champions. At these dizzy heights, he almost made it to the top spot as national coach, but lost it all following a sleazy cocaine scandal, fleeing to Turkey and dropping off the radar here.

Last week, Germany and Italy lined up against each other for a friendly, but the atmosphere was everything but. The reason is that, apart from Brazil, there is no one country against whom Germany has a worse record than Italy: over the last 30 games, they have only booked seven wins against the Italians, whilst drawing nine and losing a disastrous fourteen games. To make matters worse, their last win was 16 years ago, and one of the many defeats they have suffered fell at just the wrong time and in just the wrong competition.

That’s it: the first leg of the season is over. 17 match days since August, and that is more than enough to see who the winners and losers are this season. I thought I’d compile a magic 11 to show you who I think has really come off well.

As goalie, I’d take Manuel Neuer from Schalke 04. Despite the fact that his team had some serious starting splutters this season, he is in no way to blame, and showed himself to be Germany’s best goalie in the Champions’ League and international games. Others like Adler, Wiese or Weidenfeller aren’t fit to lick his goalkeeper’s gloves.

Last week must have been difficult for all of you Bundesliga junkies: the season had just got going, and suddenly there was a pause for international games; and they weren’t even high-adrenaline games, either. We were forced into watching teams like Denmark, Belgium and Azerbaijan. That’s all over now, though: play started again on the weekend – and if you’re anything like me, you couldn’t wait!

As seen at the MTN Fan Zone in Montecasino, Johannesburg. Photo (cc) flickr user Axel Bührmann

The world’s most spectacular football bonanza; the World Cup, has finally come to an end. Looking back at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, it will be remembered by many with nostalgia.

Both on and off the pitch, the tournament was never short of drama.  There were lots of surprises on the pitch. Spain, the reigning champions, lost their first match to Suisse. England and Argentina were crashed out by Germany in convincing victories as Holland cut Brazil`s dream for their sixth win of the coveted trophy. The Black Stars of Ghana wrote their own history by reaching the quarter finals. All the other African teams crashed out in the first round.