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Even in the Bundesliga...


Canuck Oranje

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Excerpted from an online Soccernet story.. Just very funny...

.... Consider this scene. It's Saturday, December 13, and Bochum are leading Frankfurt 1-0 at home with some 20 minutes left to go. The lead looks brittle, as Frankfurt are getting the upper hand, and so Bochum's coach Peter Neuruer decides to bring on a pair of fresh legs. The legs of Eduardo Goncalves, known as Edu, to be precise.

If the name has you presume this man wasn't born in Bochum, you're right. He's a Brazilian, 22 years of age, and with the club since September. They say he's pretty talented and can do a lot of things. One thing he cannot do is speak German. Normally, that shouldn't be much of a problem at a Bundesliga club, because you either ask one of the other four Brazilians on your roster to translate, or you simply use an interpreter.

That's where it gets interesting, as Bochum are one of the few clubs who do not have any other Brazilians. And there was no-one around who speaks Portugese with any degree of authority, as Peter Neururer was trying to explain to Edu that he would replace the Nigerian Sunday Oliseh in defensive midfield and that his main job was to contain Frankfurt's Sven Guenther. Neururer solved the problem with a good, old-fashioned piece of paper, on which he scribbled the number '2', to be found on the back of Sven Guenther's shirt.

That's bad enough to begin with, as it sounds like a story from way before anyone had ever heard of zonal defending ­- but we've only started. Because just as Neururer was sending Edu into the fray, in the 74th minute, his opposite number Willi Reimann was also making a substitution.

Frankfurt's coach brought on Stefan Lexa, number '8', to put even more pressure on Bochum's defence. The punchline is clear, isn't it? While Edu was entering the pitch, Sven Guenther was leaving it.

What followed is difficult to describe. If I told you that Edu was running all over midfield trying to find number '2', would you believe it? If I told you that the whole Bochum staff was jumping up and down and gesticulating at the sideline and that Oliseh was sinking to his knees with desperation, would you believe it?

If I told you that the Bochum players on the pitch were trying to signal to Edu that it was now '8' instead of '2', without getting through to the Brazilian, would you believe it?

Peter Neururer couldn't believe it either. Only nine minutes after bringing Edu on, he took him off again. 'We had to act,' he said, 'and we lacked the time for a language course.' .....

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  • 8 months later...

Fuchs wants Kuntz talks

by Chris Ives - Last Updated 9 Sep 2004

Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg are reportedly talking to former German international striker Stefan Kuntz about the vacant post of sport director.

The Wolfsburger Nachrichten reports that Wolves executive Klaus Fuchs is planning to meet Kuntz to discuss the position left vacant after Peter Pander's recent resignation.

Kuntz is currently out of football after unsuccessful management stints at Karlsruhe, Mannheim and Ahlen.

He could stand a good chance as he knows Fuchs from their time together at Kaiserslautern in the early 1990s.

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/list.asp?hlid=224289&lid=2&cpid=22

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