Week 7: Main Report – the Bundesliga 2009/10

This week's main report looks at the Bundesliga with Hans guiding us through the German league. The transcript of the report is below and includes vocabulary in bold which is explained at the foot of the post. Listen to the report here Transcript Hans: Hello and welcome to the Bundesliga. My name is Hans and I'm delighted this season because my team SC Freiburg are back in the top flight after several seasons in the second league. However, as always with the Bundesliga, everybody is talking about Bayern München. Other leagues in Europe have two or three contenders for the title but it seems in the Bundesliga there is only one team at the beginning of the year. And who can argue, Bayern München have loads of money, they've bought great players: Mario Gomes, Robben, they have Franck Ribery, a new coach Van Gaal and they seem to be finding their stride; after six games they're sitting in third and slowly coming to grips with each other's play. So what makes the Bundesliga so exciting? It's when Bayern München don't win. When they fall other teams have a chance to pick up the scraps. Last year it was Wolfsburg, a few years ago Stuttgart and this year, Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen are the two teams tipped to be right on their heels at the end of the season. At the moment Hamburg is playing beautifully and sit on top of the table. Bayer Leverkusen are sitting in second. But there are many other teams in the league that people don't talk about. Hoffenheim, last year's dream team, are sitting in fourth and are playing extraordinarily well. Mainz, just promoted, have already performed above what people expected of them. And my team Freiburg sit in 11th having beaten Schalke away from home and that's right, in the Bundesliga the big teams are finding it hard at the moment: Schalke, Moenchengladbach, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Köln have all started very slowly. Of course, Bayern München will be there at the end but all the neutrals, myself included, will hope they fall so that we see another champion of the Bundesliga come July 2010. Vocabulary top flight : the top division to be finding their stride: To get into a rhythm; to start playing well they're sitting in third: They are in 3rd position in the league coming to grips with: getting used to scraps: pieces to be right on their heels: To be chasing them; to push them all the way