Eintracht Braunschweig - Alles Oder Nichts

Eintracht Braunschweig have officially announced the signing of Borussia Dortmund's Australian goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak - for a club record fee of €1m. This deal beats Braunschweig's previous record of €800k, back in 1977 for the transfer of Paul Breitner from Real Madrid.

The goalkeeper Langerak joins on a €1m deal, earning €22k every week on his new Braunschweig contract. The Australian was on only €8k every week at Dortmund and, having sat on the bench for much of his 4 year stint at Dortmund, will now be getting regular first team football.

The 25 year old Langerak was once a great teenage prodigy back in Australia, gaining 5 Under 21 caps for the Socceroos and tipped for greatness. Langerak began playing in the Australian Institute of Sport, alongside Bayer Leverkusen's Robbie Kruse, former AEK Athens midfielder Nathan Burns, and Western Sydney Wanderers defender Matthew Spiranovic. He played a season for South Melbourne FC, before joining Hyundai A League club Melbourne Victory. He made 21 appearances for Victory during his 3 year spell there, until, at the age of 21, he joined Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund, for €475k, after Der BVB's first two offers were turned down. His debut came in a 3-1 win over title rivals Bayern Munchen, and he kept his first clean sheet in front of 80,00 ecstatic Dortmund fans in a DFB-Pokal tie with Dresden. Two years to the day after his signing, he came on as a substitute to replace the injured Roman Weidenfeller in the final of the cup as Dortmund won their 3rd trophy in Langerak's two year spell with Die Schwarzgelben after a 5-2 triumph. He made just 1 appearance for Dortmund last year in the league, though also knocked out numerous teeth after colliding with the post in a European game.

Braunschweig's previous record signing may have been a lot higher profile, but Langerak both insist that the Australian will do a great job in helping Braunschweig to a mid table finish for the second time in a row. Langerak said at his unveiling:

Germany is a great footballing nation, a lot better than Australia, so at first I didn't want to leave Dortmund, but then I found out that the team who had offered for me were Braunschweig, in Germany, in the Bundesliga. I knew them that I would be leaving Dortmund. I loved the club but honestly I do think that no matter where I was going sooner or later I would have to go. Fortunately, I've not just found somewhere to go but a great place to go."

As boss Mohlmann was asked if Langerak would face pressure as the new transfer record, he stated that he thought the opposite, telling Sky Deutschland's Uli Kirsch that he knew that any effects the fee had on the player would be positive for his morale and his performance

"OK, he is our new record transfer. To be honest, it's not difficult. We've got a bargain and our last record for transfers was all the way back in the 70's for €800k. That's like €10m today so although he's only gone for one million I think he's worth just as much."

Congratulations on the win, and on the Langerak transfer, quality keeper imo

At Mitchell Langerak's official unveiling, the new kits that Braunschweig, Langerak included, would be wearing was revealed. The new shirts will be available on www.eintracht.com for a mere €45 and just €20 for juniors. Here they are below:




The goalkeeper home kit is an all green effort, the same that was used last season. However, the goalkeeper change strip is grey and red, as shown by Langerak.


Other products available from shop.eintracht.com include Braunschweig Match Attax for €1, and oddly enough, despite it being July 2014, you can still get official club calendars for €10.

Some lovely kits, was there any doubt they'd be good though? Great signing in Langerak:)

Eintracht Braunschweig have announced the sales of 3 players,two of which being star performers last season, for a combined €10m. Swiss forward Orhan Ademi leaves for Bayer 04 Leverkusen in a €2m deal, Domi Kumbela completes a dream transfer to Borussia Dortmund for €1m and Omar Elabdellaoui makes a move to the other club in the Ruhr, agreeing a €6.75m deal with Schalke 04.

Each deal went one better than the other, as Kumbela's move to Dortmund came first and netted the club it's new biggest sale, until Ademi broke that record with his €2m deal to Bayer Leverkusen. On the 8th of July, one day after Ademi's departure, midfielder Elabdellaoui transferred to Schalke, in a massive deal worth nearly €7m which didn't just smash Ademi's record but destroyed it completely.

The first move to be completed was Congolese striker Kumbela's transfer to Dortmund. Kumbela has played for big clubs before, but has usually failed to impress or left for other reasons. Born in what was then Zaire, Kumbela moved to Germany to play for FC Rodalben and later FK Pirmasens. From there he joined 2.FC Kaiserslautern (1.FC Kaiserslautern's reserves) and played 43 times for FCK before being sacked by the club and warned by Police for cannabis use. Rot-Weiss Erfurt gave him a second chance and he was successful on the playing field here, scoring 17 times in 56 games, but even worse than before off it, having been banned for a betting and match fixing scandal and later sacked for assault of a nightclub bouncer and his pregnant girlfriend. He moved to Eintracht Braunschweig but only scored twice, then joined SC Paderborn where he failed to establish himself again despite 8 goals in 30 games, and found himself at cash strapped divisional rivals Rot-Weiss Ahlen where he failed to score in 6 appearances. He played 123 games during his next stint with Eintracht Braunschweig under Torsten Lieberknecht and scored 56 goals. Last season under Benno Mohlmann he managed just 3 league appearances, despite cup heroics against Stuttgart.

Kumbela's signing has raised some eyebrows from journalists and fans though some people have suggested his transfer is to replace Pole Robert Lewandowski who has left on a free transfer to join Manchester City. Jurgen Klopp has not yet commented on the transfer, though former Dortmund player Matthias Sammer has publicly criticised the signing.

"I can't understand for the life of me what exactly the thinking behind the deal is. Obviously we would be looking for a striker but if we want someone to replace Lewandowski we have to have someone up to the Bundesliga standards and Kumbela played only 3 times last year for a team in relegation trouble. He'll seriously harm the club's results if he plays and the deal has already damaged the club's image of a loose, fun and respectable club. He is not a respectable person by any stretch of the imagination."

The second transfer was Swiss Orhan Ademi's €2m deal to join Bayer 04 Leverkusen. He moved to Braunschweig first in 2012, meaning he spent just 2 years at the Eintracht Stadion. Despite being born in St.Gallen in Switzerland and playing for FC Auer Berneck, his first professional career steps were taken with Austrians SC Rheindorf Altach. He played 39 times for Altach's reserves getting an astonishing 24 goals and was promptly moved to the first team. He scored 30 times across 4 years at the Cashpoint-Arena in 96 games, and then moved to Braunschweig. His first season, in Braunschweig's promotion year and Torsten Lieberknecht's last. He got only 4 goals in the 30 games he played, but next year he scored 7 in 22 appearances, missing just 12 games despite the forward-less formation new coach Benno Mohlmann played towards the end of the season.

Ademi joins Leverkusen for €2m. He commented on his arrival:

"I'm looking forward to playing for Leverkusen, definitely. Last season Leverkusen finished, what, 8th, so there'll be no European football yet but I think that next year there will be Champions League football. Bayer have Stefan Kiessling, one of the best German strikers in the world right now, there is Simon Rolfes, they have Sven Bender. Eren Derdiyok's back too, so there is competition but I'm confident I will play."

The final transfer out is Omar Elabdellaoui who moved to Schalke 04 for €6.75m. Elabdellaoui started his career at Skeid in Norway, before he was picked up by big spending Manchester City after showing potential in numerous youth team games. He was tipped to be a great youngster with bags of potential but never managed an appearance at City. He had numerous loan spells away from the club though. His first was at Stromsgodset back in Norway where he played 13 times alongside other City loanees Mohamed Abu and Razak Nuhu. Stromsgodset tried to renew his loan but he refused, citing the club's artificial turf as the reason why, having already fractured his foot. He then played 5 times for Kostas Lamprou's club Feyenoord, leaving halfway through his loan after struggling to play first team football. His final loan was at Eintracht Braunschweig, where he became a regular, playing 14 games, and then he signed permanently after being released by Manchester City. He scored 6 goals last season in 30 games, impressing enough for Schalke to swoop and sign him, during the World Cup which Norway, whom Elabdellaoui has played twice for, failed to qualify for.

Schalke boss Jens Keller has announced his intentions for the coming season - and they heavily feature Elabdellaoui. He took the club to a 3rd place finish last season despite media pressure and he was featured highly on many 'sack races' from football magazines. However, the club has turned things round and Elabdellaoui seems to be a signing of their progress as they look forward to the future.

"We came 3rd last year and I expect us to be challenging at the top again. We have the ability and especially with the signing of Elabdelllaoui and he's only 22. I think we'll be up there with Bayern soon and we will stay"

Looking forward to see who you replace these players with

GREAT Cup win!

After a successful first season in charge of Eintracht Braunschweig, Benno Mohlmann is going to have his work cut out to match it, but if there was one thing that needed improving last year it was the pre season. With only 3 games, did they improve?


The first game began the pre season brightly for Braunschweig against Schwarz-Weiss Essen as they got off to a flyer with a 4-1 win. Mirko Boland opened the scoring half an hour in after taking a Torsten Oerhl cross on the half volley, and Omar Elabdellaoui, playing in his last Braunschweig game, made it two nil 4 minutes later with a powerful finish. Braunschweig went in at the break 2-0 up and soon it was 3-0 as Elabdellaoui popped up again to lob the keeper with a header. Schwarz-Weiss Essen's Patrick Baumjohann pulled a goal back with a penalty but Ermin Bicakcic volleyed in from Mirko Boland's free kick for the 4th.


If the first game was good for Braunschweig then this was simply wonderful. A 6-0 win over Nottingen began after 3 minutes through Gianluca Korte heading in a very early cross from Jan Hochsheidt, and the man from Speyer bagged his second as Hochsheidt again laid it off to him to provide an easy tap in. The next goal came from Langerak's goal kick that was headed down by Kruppke and passed on back to Kruppke by Torsten Oerhl leaving Kruppke with an easy chance to score. Hochsheidt got his 3rd assist of the game by crossing a free kick to Correia which was headed in. Seconds later Korte got his hat trick by dribbling through the defence and the Nottingen keeper. After half time Braunschweig failed to keep up their performance, only managing one goal through a Mirko Boland effort late on.


Eintracht Braunschweig couldn't quite hit the heights in their final pre season game against affiliates Magdeburg. Gianluca Korte got Braunschweig off to a superb start again, bagging a header in the almost empty MDCC Arena. Youngster signed from Dortmund Said Benkarit added a second, passing it into the net, but after a long spell of dominance Braunschweig failed to score, and after the break Magdeburg's Vitteritti smashed it in to make it 2-1. Dennis Krppke fired in a free kick for 3-1 only for Magdeburg's Christopher Reinard to try the same, fail, but get the rebound. Braunschweig still attacked but couldn't get the one more they wanted.

Good pre season

A solid preseason, hopefully you can build on it.

Union Berlin winger Christopher Quiring has signed for Eintracht Braunscheig ahead of the 2-14/15 season. Quiring, 23, has played a key part in last season's promotion campaign for his former side.

The deal is reportedly a €2.5m with Berlin receiving no special fees in the deal. Braunschweig will pay Quiring €30k per week, a €23k improvement on his contract at Union Berlin worth
just €7k per week.

Eintracht Braunschweig have got of to a good start to Benno Möhlmann's 3rd spell at the club. He took over and seemed to have been the wrong choice after a very bad start to the season and, with the club in last, they looked certain to be heading back down. However, Die Löwen bounced back with wins over 1.FC Nurnberg, former coach Torsten Lieberknecht's Stuttgart, SC Freiburg and rivals VfL Wolfsburg to win the cup, whilst also winning 4 of their last 6 games to finish 12th.

Quiring is a fervent fan of Union Berlin, his previous club. He began his career aged 5 as a junior midfielder at BSC Marzahn before joining his favourite side, Die Eisern Union, at the age of 12. In 2008 he was finally old enough to play for the senior sides, but only got into Union's amateurs. He spent two years in this reserve team, though no details of his appearances for this side exist but for his final year. In 2010, he played for Union II, in the Regionalliga Nordost Nord. Later that year he moved up for the first but last time to the full side where he made 11 appearances and earned the amateur footballer of the year award. The next year he played 23 times and in the 2012/13 season 26 more times though he started the season in the reserves. In the promotion year he played 31 times and despite scoring just once gained two man of the match awards.

Braunschweig’s first choice wingers, Karim Bellarabi and Omar Elabdellaoui, both left the club this summer. Bellarabi's loan from Bayer Leverkusen ran out and was not renewed, and he later turned down a new contract at Leverkusen before making a €4m switch to Borussia Dortmund, the title holders. Elabdellaoui joined Dortmund's rivals FC Schalke 04 from Braunschweig for €7m, with Die Konigsblauen's coach Jens Keller proclaiming that the club will 'be up there with Bayern' after his signing.

Quring himself has been pleased to see the transfer to Eintracht Braunschweig go through, saying at his official unveiling how happy he is. He is expected to make his debut on Saturday, in the DFL-Supercup game against Dortmund.

”Of course I am thrilled to be joining Eintracht because I know that the Bundesliga is the best league in the world and the club came 12th last year which is no mean feat. The side won the cup and maybe we'll win the Super Cup too! I want to have an impact here at the Eintracht-Stadion.

I'm obviously sad to leave Union but I couldn't have left them in a better place. I look forward to playing them this year, both at Braunschweig and Berlin. It's been a good few years but at 23 maybe I can press on as I know Braunschweig will and improve as a player, and as a person."

I love the banner. I like the update.

Hello and welcome to the DFL-Supercup match up between Eintracht Braunschweig vs Borussia Dortmund. The two sides will face each other once today and once on the first day of the Bundesliga season, in a game that will be held at Braunschweig. The two sides played each other at Eintracht Stadion on the opening day last year too, let's look at that result and the other league game between the two last season, from Braunschweig's archives.


'Eintracht Braunschweig first game was an eagerly awaited face off against UEFA Champions League runners up Borussia Dortmund. Unfortunately the mood turned sour after 15 minutes as Robert Lewandowski tucked in a rebound to put Der BVB in the lead and Jakub Blaszczykowski added a second that Daniel Davari should have stopped. 3 minutes the defence was asleep and allowed Lewandowski a second goal, though there was little that the defence could have done after Blaszczykowski got his second on half an hour. The second half saw only one goal for Dortmund. It came from Marco Reus as his shot that should have been stopped trickled past Davari, but on 86 minutes the home side almost scored through Orhan Ademi who supplied a great cross for Jan Hochsheidt to head past Roman Weidenfeller minutes later. A resounding win for Dortmund.'


'What was quite optimism for Braunschweig fans turned into disgust as another poor performance against league leaders Dortmund put Die Lowen down in last place for the first time this year. Dortmund took a while to get into the lead, as Robert Lewandowski got the opener on 45 minutes having been played in by Henrikh Mkhitaryan. After an hour Dortmund got another as Marco Reus was pushed inside the box by Dennis Kruppke and Lewandowski tucked home the resulting penalty. Dortmund went 3-0 up through Marco Reus who got the ball inside the box with his back to goal and turned before beating two men and firing home. The best goal was yet to come though, and it was Karim Bellarabi who scored it after 73 minutes. He got the ball on the halfway line on the right wing, beat Schmelzer, beat Bender, beat Sokratis and beat Piszczek before going past Schmelzer again and into the box, where he fired past Roman Weidenfeller to get a surefire goal of the season contender.'

So who's the favourites? Braunschweig are not, I'll tell you. They seemed to get a little lucky during last season's DFB-Pokal, whereas Dortmund did not during their league triumph over then champions Bayern Munich.

Let's look at the lineups.


Now here's an interesting line up for Braunschweig. They play their usual yet odd 4-2-4 possession based formation with no strikers or outright wingers, but new signing from Union Berlin Christopher Quiring starts and Zambian midfielder Rainford Kalaba starts, whilst only on trial. He'll be looking to impress. On the other hand, Dortmund seem to be taking it seriously with their usual first team players - including new boy Karim Bellarabi, who of course, spent last year on loan from Leverkusen at Braunschweig. Let's get on with the game.

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1 - Kick Off
Dortmund kick off here, at the Eintracht Stadion.

6 - GOAL! Eintracht Braunschweig 1-0 Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund on top in the early stages here but Braunschweig attack, Perthel has the ball, tackled, corner. Der BVB's players get back for the corner and Kratz will take it. The corner comes in and there's 5 men around Bicakcic BUT HE'S NOT CHALLENGED AND HE HEADS IT IN!BRAUNSCHWEIG ARE THE WORST TEAM IN THE WORLD AND LOUIS IS TERRIBLE AT FM. BRAUNSCHWEIG TAKE THE LEAD AGAINST DORTMUND! Langerak can't help but smile as his former colleague Weidenfeller failed to keep that one out.


28 - Booking
Mkhitaryan loses possession, Braunschweig can break... no, it's intercepted by Hummels who gives it to Reus - he runs at Kessel, he's into the box, Kessel dives in, Reus goes down... and the referee blows his whistle! Is it a penalty? NO! Kessel won the ball, poor decision from the referee, oh! No, it's not a penalty, it's a free kick to Braunschweig, and yep, the referee, Sommer, books Reus for a dive! It's gone the other way!

43 - Chance
It's been a poor half so far for Dortmund, 1-0 down, and in fact it's been a poor game in general, no one's been doing well, maybe a chance for one last go now. Mkhitaryan, to Sebastian Rode, he gives it back to Gundogan... Rode again with a great ball to HENRIKH MKHITARYAN! NO WAY! HE BLAZES THE BALL OVER FROM JUST 6 YARDS OUT! NO! OHHHHH, NO! Terrible miss from the Armenian. Unbelievable.

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Half Time
Well who saw that coming? Braunschweig lead, terrible game so far if I'm honest. No chances save for Mkhitaryan's at the end, this should be, if the sides improve, a great game.

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45 - Kick Off
Braunschweig begin the next half. It's the trialist Kalaba who gets the ball rolling.

47 - GOAL! Eintracht Braunschweig 2-0 Borussia Dortmund
Mats Hummels on the ball, lofted pass to Mkhitaryan... too long. Langerak gets the ball, bick kick up field and Oerhl wins the header to start the attack, it's Rainford Kalaba, past Hummels, Gundogan closing in but Kalaba plays the ball to Boland who's in here, Weidenfeller advances and OH MY WORD! WHAT A LOB FROM MIRKO BOLAND! 2-0! 25 YARDS OUT AND HE PUTS IT ABOVE WEIDENFELLER, MAKES IT TWO GOALS TO DORTMUND'S NONE! INCREDIBLE!

65 - Chance
Corner for Dortmund. Played to the near post by Reus... Mkhitaryan's chance MKHITARYAN'S SHOT! HOW DID HE MISS? CENTIMETRES AWAY FROM GOAL BUT LANGERAK GATHERS EASILY! The Armenian midfielder is not having a good game.

69 - Red Card
Schmelzer's throw in for Dortmund. He gives it to Ducksch, to Reus, the dangerman inside the box, Kessel and Kratz both come in hard on him, he goes down and is that a penalty? No! The referee has blown his whistle but not pointed to the spot.. and he pulls out his red card! Reus is sent off! His second booking, both for simulation! It all falls apart now! Dortmund may be out of the game!

73 - Booking
Weidenfeller plays it short to Hummels, Hummels to Schmelzer who gives it to Grosskreutz on the halfway line, Capuano comes from behind and the referee gets his whistle straight away to book Capuano, good decision from Sommer.

90 - Full Time - Eintracht Braunschweig 2-0 Borussia Dortmund
Kratz with the free kick for Braunschweig... cleared easily, over the halfway line and Dortmund've got no one up there to attack it and there's not much time either, AND THERE'S THE FULL TIME WHISTLE! Dortmund shell shocked here at the Eintracht Stadion! Dortmund lose their second DFL-Supercup in a row!

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Journalist: We have Benno Mohlmann here, Benno, just a while ago you were celebrating your DFB-Pokal win, now there is this. How do you feel?
Benno Mohlmann: Oh, I am delighted. Dortmund are a bigger side than Wolfsburg and it's a harder game, but the club's transfers came in for some criticism this year, and we've proved everyone wrong.

J: What do you make of Marco Reus being sent off for simulation?
BM: I'm sure Jurgen Klopp will have something to say about it, but I think it's just something in the game these days. It's a skill to trick the ref, and he's failed it.

J: How do you think this sets you up for the clash on the opening day?
BM: We'll see how that one goes. I think there'll be more changes to both sides before then and the results in the DFB-Pokal will affect too. Neither of us have hard games, but slip ups could have a massive effect.

J: Are you confident about the coming season?
BM: I have no reason not to be.

Epic update, epic result

Hehehe, funny commentary there
And a really impressive win