A Tale Of Two Strikes

It was Zvjezdan Misimović’s day in the sun playing against his old team and, as you can see above, scoring a gorgeous ball off the bounce just before the stroke of halftime. That is until Lukas Podolski got into the act in the 80th minute, having come on for Miroslav Klose at half time, and snatching a sister smooching from the jaws of defeat.

Podolski’s goal didn’t match up to the class of Misimovic’s, even with a cheeky ball to put him through from Franck Ribery. But the talk after the game was all about Podolski, because it was his first Bundesliga goal of the season. Something which I had to check and recheck and then recheck some more.

There’s been a lot of coming from both sides on the Podolski issue in the German presses recently, with Podolski saying he’s sick of the bench and the reports that Jurgen Klinsmann has refused to give the thumbs up to his departure. Both sides being very understandable, especially the latter, given how successful Podolski was under Klinsmann in the summer of ‘06.

It was his second goal of the week, after bagging another for his ever-growing collection of international skins. I touched on this awhile back, but it’s still the same unless Klinsmann is really, really adamant about getting Podolski some serious starting minutes: time for Podolski to go. A player of his caliber only starting two Bundesliga games through March in a season just isn’t good enough.

Some Related Stories:

Category: Bundesliga, World Football