Teufels Ecke / La Esquina Del Diablo / Devil's Corner V

Herzlich Wilkommen zu dem Betzenberg. Last weekend saw the Red Devil's first defeat of the season. Again, these gottverdammte Mainzer came back from a deficit. It just seemed that the Lautrer didn't play with the same desire that they had shown during the first two games. Especially that first goal that Mainz scored. The FCK has a tight and dependable defense, but this goal that they allowed through was just a huge brainfart. I mean, I hate it when a defense tries to play the offside trap and if the call doesn't come, everybody just stands around with their hands up wondering what happened. Really, once the pass is sent forget about the trap and play the freaking ball! If that offside call is coming, the ref will blow the whistle. No amount of whining and hand-waving will cause that whistle to go. Very disappointing. Even the second goal that Mainz scored was a result of yet more poor defending by Florian Dick but was at least a little more respectable.

Hopefully the Rote Teufel have worked on their defense this week in preparation for Saturday's match against Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim is currently the number one team in the Bundesliga, but I believe that they are beatable. One can only hope that Marco Kurz has lit a fire under the collective arsches of the Teufel and they will come out highly motivated on Saturday. I predict a 1-0 victory for Kaiserslautern at home. There are a couple of reasons for this. Kaiserslautern's defense can be highly effective, and at home when hopefully coupled with the memory of the idiotic mistakes made last weekend and therefore the resultant necessary focus against a Hoffenheim team that has not yet had to deal with an effective defense, a shut-out shouldn't be too much to ask for. Hoffenheim will not be able to score a goal. Hoffenheim's defense will most likely focus on Betzenberg's Croatians and the lone goal will come from one of the non-Croatian players. Like I've said before, Kaiserslautern has a weak mid-field and the best way to score on them is from the 'second row' outside of the box. However, Hoffenheim does not have any 'cannons' and none of their goals have really been scored from distance. I think they will be frustrated.

I tried out espn3.com this past weekend and have mixed results. The Bundesliga games seem to be low on the totem pole of quality and there seem to consistently be large chunks of the game missing. Watching the live stream, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the radio broadcast in German from bundesliga.de leads the video by only a few seconds. So, it is possible to listen to the action in German. Unfortunately, a fairly robust internet connection is required. Also unfortunate is that the Kaiserslautern-Hoffenheim match will not be broadcast:(. Whether on GOLTV nor espn3.com. Normally I would listen to the match on bundesliga.de but I will be on the road due to work and will just have to rely on the post game highlights. Hoffentlich BEBT DER BETZE!

By the way, have I mentioned how much I dislike Dish Network.