Berlin (dpa) - Runaway leaders Bayern Munich have the longest holiday
while ailing VfB Stuttgart will be the first Bundesliga team to
resume training for the second half of the season.
Stuttgart coach Huub Stevens will gather his players on January 3 while Pep Guardiola's Munich don't start until four days later with their preparation for the January 30 restart.
However, all 18 clubs have in common that they will leave the German winter for training camps in sunnier and warmer areas, ranging from the popular Turkish seaside town of Belek to South Africa's Cape Town.
The first league match on January 30 is a table topper between second-placed Wolfsburg and unbeaten Munich, who are 11 points ahead of them.
Guardiola has not given his star-studded team any special tasks for the time off over the festive season, but is also taking nothing for granted once the action starts again.
"Just because we've had a good first half of the season doesn't mean the second will be the same. Every match starts nil-nil. We might lose every game. We can't just sit on our lead," the Catalan perfectionist Guardiola said.
Apart from training in Munich, the team will also go to Qatar a fifth time between January 9 and 17 for fine-tuning in warm conditions at the Aspire Academy.
The 2009 champions Wolfsburg resume training along with 11 others on January 5 before facing the longest trip of all clubs to their camp in Cape Town.
Like Guardiola, Wolfsburg's coach Dieter Hecking knows that it is too early to rejoice, as he said: "Whether or not it was a great season is something we can say in May."
Hecking said the conditions in Cape Town will allow a "perfect preparation" but the trip also serves club owners Volkswagen, the German carmakers, and will include a team visit to the VW factory in Port Elizabeth.
"We are looking forward to travelling to South Africa and present ourselves as the ambassadors of the Bundesliga and Volkswagen," said general manager Klaus Allofs.
The German football league DFL also encourages trips abroad to boost the presence of the Bundesliga outside Germany.
Of the locations, Belek remains the most popular, with six clubs travelling to Turkey: Augsburg, Bremen, Hanover, Hertha Berlin, Paderborn and Moenchengladbach.
Hertha are the last club to leave Germany, on January 18, as they aim to regroup from a 5-0 home humiliation against Hoffenheim which leaves them just one point above the danger zone in 13th place.
A dogfight for survival is expected in the remaining 17 games, with 10th-placed Paderborn only four points ahead of bottom club Freiburg.
"No one can rest ... You can not afford any weakness," Hertha sports director Michael Preetz said.
That also applies to the 2011 and 2012 champions Borussia Dortmund, who instead of fighting Munich for the title again find themselves second last after a league-worst 10 defeats.
Coach Juergen Klopp is happy that Marco Reus, Sokratis and Henrikh Mkhitaryan return from injury which will allow him to start the turnaround mission with an almost full squad to chose from, in Germany and their traditional winter break camp in La Manga, Spain.
"It will only work if we return to our roots, if we have extremely fit and committed players again to play the kind of successful football we played for years," general manager Hans-Joachim Watzke told Sky TV.
However, like in the pre-season, Dortmund (and other clubs as well) will not be at full strength because Gabun's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be at the Africa Cup of Nations, and Japan's Shinji Kagawa and Mitchell langerak of Australia at the Asian Cup.
Stuttgart coach Huub Stevens will gather his players on January 3 while Pep Guardiola's Munich don't start until four days later with their preparation for the January 30 restart.
However, all 18 clubs have in common that they will leave the German winter for training camps in sunnier and warmer areas, ranging from the popular Turkish seaside town of Belek to South Africa's Cape Town.
The first league match on January 30 is a table topper between second-placed Wolfsburg and unbeaten Munich, who are 11 points ahead of them.
Guardiola has not given his star-studded team any special tasks for the time off over the festive season, but is also taking nothing for granted once the action starts again.
"Just because we've had a good first half of the season doesn't mean the second will be the same. Every match starts nil-nil. We might lose every game. We can't just sit on our lead," the Catalan perfectionist Guardiola said.
Apart from training in Munich, the team will also go to Qatar a fifth time between January 9 and 17 for fine-tuning in warm conditions at the Aspire Academy.
The 2009 champions Wolfsburg resume training along with 11 others on January 5 before facing the longest trip of all clubs to their camp in Cape Town.
Like Guardiola, Wolfsburg's coach Dieter Hecking knows that it is too early to rejoice, as he said: "Whether or not it was a great season is something we can say in May."
Hecking said the conditions in Cape Town will allow a "perfect preparation" but the trip also serves club owners Volkswagen, the German carmakers, and will include a team visit to the VW factory in Port Elizabeth.
"We are looking forward to travelling to South Africa and present ourselves as the ambassadors of the Bundesliga and Volkswagen," said general manager Klaus Allofs.
The German football league DFL also encourages trips abroad to boost the presence of the Bundesliga outside Germany.
Of the locations, Belek remains the most popular, with six clubs travelling to Turkey: Augsburg, Bremen, Hanover, Hertha Berlin, Paderborn and Moenchengladbach.
Hertha are the last club to leave Germany, on January 18, as they aim to regroup from a 5-0 home humiliation against Hoffenheim which leaves them just one point above the danger zone in 13th place.
A dogfight for survival is expected in the remaining 17 games, with 10th-placed Paderborn only four points ahead of bottom club Freiburg.
"No one can rest ... You can not afford any weakness," Hertha sports director Michael Preetz said.
That also applies to the 2011 and 2012 champions Borussia Dortmund, who instead of fighting Munich for the title again find themselves second last after a league-worst 10 defeats.
Coach Juergen Klopp is happy that Marco Reus, Sokratis and Henrikh Mkhitaryan return from injury which will allow him to start the turnaround mission with an almost full squad to chose from, in Germany and their traditional winter break camp in La Manga, Spain.
"It will only work if we return to our roots, if we have extremely fit and committed players again to play the kind of successful football we played for years," general manager Hans-Joachim Watzke told Sky TV.
However, like in the pre-season, Dortmund (and other clubs as well) will not be at full strength because Gabun's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be at the Africa Cup of Nations, and Japan's Shinji Kagawa and Mitchell langerak of Australia at the Asian Cup.
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