Bundesliga 2013-2014, Team Previews

Last season was another great one for Leverkusen finishing in third place and qualifying for the Champions League once again. Since taking over the side after the failed Robin Dutt experiment, Sami Hyypiä and Sasha Lewandowski have turned the side completely around and has them playing great football once again. Plus, they have a lot going for them including being the only team to beat Bayern Munich last season in the Bundesliga.

A lot of their success this season will once again hinge on the goalscoring prowess of Stefan Kießling. The occasional Germany international (WHY IS HE NOT PLAYING MORE?) scored 25 goals last season to put his two year total at 41. Will the 29 year old repeat the scoring over the next season? Maybe. Maybe not. Leverkusen will certainly hope that he does. Aside from Kießling, there aren’t many proven goalscorers on the team, so if something were to happen to him, it could get ugly for Leverkusen.

The dinosaur finished just outside of the Europa League places after struggling for much of last season. There was nothing about that Hamburg side that really stood out to impress you.

We still don’t know if Thorsten Fink can cut it at a club like Hamburg, but I don’t think he’ll be in charge after this season if the club fails to qualify for Europa once again. There’s not enough depth in the squad to qualify for Europe.

Borussia Dortmund saw their two year reign as Bundesliga champions come to a crashing halt last season as Bayern Munich swept away the competition and clinched the title in record time. The season wasn’t a loss, however. It was far from it. They were minutes away from finding themselves in extra time at Wembley Stadium in the Champions League Final, but a late Arjen Robben goal robbed them of any European glory. But, hey, for a club that was basically bankrupt a decade ago, second place isn’t that bad.

The biggest story for BVB this summer has been the Robert Lewandowski saga. Throughout the second half of last season and all summer longer, Lewandowski and his agent made it clear that the Polish striker was interested in leaving the club sooner rather than later. Unfortunately for Lewandowski, BVB stood firm and refused to discuss selling him. The back and forth hasn’t been pretty, but Lewandowski will remain with Dortmund this season.

Götze is indisputably one of the most talented young players in the world. At just 21 years old, the future is insanely bright for him. It was revealed this summer that Guardiola actually had to be talked into the Götze signing. Who did Pep prefer? Pep’s first choice was Neymar. While Neymar has shown on numerous occasions that he is a great player in his own right, Götze is already accustomed to the Bundesliga and will be a great addition.

Kirchhoff joined on a free transfer from Mainz this summer, and while his regular place will be in the center of the defense, Guardiola has shown no fear in deploying him as a defensive midfielder late in matches. At only 22 years old and years of improvement ahead of him, Kirchhoff was more of a buy for the future, so it will be interesting to see what kind of playing time comes his way this season.

Braunschweig claimed second in the 2.Bundesliga last season by a full nine points over third place Kaiserslautern. This will be Braunschweig’s first in the top flight since the 1984-1985 season when they were a regular presence in the Bundesliga.

They’ve been active in the transfer window to date. Marco Caligiuri, Simeon Jackson, and Omar Elabdellaoui have been added to the squad to help bolster the squad. Manager Torsten Lieberknecht will be hoping that Jackson and Caligiuri can bring the experience that they’ve received in recent seasons in the top flight.

Schalke waited until the final day of the 2012-2013 season to qualify for the Champions League, narrowly edging out Freiburg for the final spot. The campaign was a roller coaster ride for Die Königsblauen. They went on a stretch where they only won two out of 13 games (boo), made the knockout round of the Champions League (yay), sold Lewis Holtby to Tottenham Hotspur (boo), extended Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s contract (yay), were knocked out of the Champions League by Galatasaray when the second leg was in Gelsenkirchen (boo).

The club decided that they would continue with Jens Keller in charge this year after the end of last season when his position of interim manager was completed. There was a lot of speculation that Schalke would pursue other, more experienced head coaching candidates including Chelsea’s Champions League winning manager Roberto di Matteo and former Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach player Stefan Effenberg. Keller has a lot of pressure on him this season, and he will have to pull the right strings to meet the standards that the supporters are craving.