Ze Bundesliga

I have become addicted to Bundesliga soccer lately. One might wonder how a league almost completely dominated by one team (Bayern Munich) year-in and year-out could provide entertaining football. Well, it does. And if you're a soccer junkie you need to start watching it. Why?

1.) It's more exciting than the EPL

The talent is not at the same level as the EPL, true. But on a game-by-game basis, the football is far more exciting in the Bundesliga. The play is fast and loose, the players are (in the main) young and scrappy, and these guys work. So far I have yet to see a mailed-in performance in a Bundesliga match, but I see them all the time in the EPL. This is football as it was meant to be played. None of the cerebral, steel-trap, "death before conceding a goal" of the Italians, or the tiki-taka, 10,000 passes per minute of the Spanish, or the wide, slow, "it's so hot we can barely stand up so let's fall on the ground and pretend we're hurt" that you see in Latin America. No, this is fast, hungry "let's chase that f**king ball around for 90 minutes and score even if it kills us" soccer. 

2.) The games are broadcast midweek

Sure they're not "live" all the time but on Root Sports and FS1/2 you can watch soccer until your eyeballs fall out, all week! If you haven't seen it before and don't know who won...it's live.

3.) No one knows anything about it

Whereas you have all sorts of people in the U.S. who are experts on the EPL and can bury you and your ill-conceived, factless opinions...how many times have you ever heard two people arguing about the Bundesliga? Thus, by watching the Bundesliga you get to be an expert on something no one knows about. Isn't that exactly what every hipster wants??

4.) It's German!

And anything German is always kooky and fun. I give you for example: Schprockets, Uter Zorker, Kraftwerk, weiner schnitzel, German accents, and just about every German word. Trust me, after a week or two of Bundesliga fandom, you will find yourself walking around the house saying "FC Schalke!" or "Hoffenheim!" or "Gotze!!" in a German accent for hours on end. It's better than anti-depressants.

5.) It could very well be the next EPL

I actually can't back that up and I don't see how the Bundesliga could actually supplant the EPL as the most followed professional football league in the world.