vendredi 12 août 2011

Soccer-Bundesliga roundup-Dortmund coach stays grounded

BERLIN, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Brief news from the Bundesliga before this weekend's matches:
* The coach of champions Borussia Dortmund Juergen Klopp has played down his team's 3-1 season-opening win over Hamburg SV last week, saying some of the praise was "nonsense".
"This will be a challenging season because we will have to learn how to handle all this praise," he told reporters.
"What some say that Bayern can't do anything and we can do everything is nonsense. We were not as good as people said we were (against Hamburg)," Klopp said ahead of their visit to Hoffenheim on Saturday.
"I am convinced that Hoffenheim will be more stable than Hamburg last week."
* VfB Stuttgart's Martin Harnik and Shinji Okazaki are doubtful for Saturday's game at Borussia Moenchengladbach after the Austrian and Japanese picked up injuries on international duty.
Coach Bruno Labbadia said he was still "optimistic" the pair could be fit.
Harnik injured his shoulder in a match against Slovakia while Okazaki picked up a knock on his calf against South Korea.
* Borussia Moenchengladbach coach Lucien Favre has urged his players to keep their feet on the ground ahead of their Bundesliga match against Stuttgart after their stunning 1-0 win at Bayern Munich last week.
"We should not forget that we ended the season in 16th place", said the Swiss coach, who joined midway through last season and managed to save them from the drop in a relegation playoff against second division VfL Bochum.
"So every game for us will be as hard as the first one (against Bayern)," he told reporters. "We will have to fight for every single point again this season.
Favre will again be without Austrian central defender Martin Stranzl who is still feeling the effects of a calf muscle injury.

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