Upstart soccer team takes Bundesliga by surprise

The European soccer season is barely 10 days old and already a fairy tale is taking shape in Germany.

There, in the village of Hoffenheim, population 3,200, the locals can't quite believe their eyes when they check the sports pages.

Two weeks into the Bundesliga season, previously unheard of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is on top of the league, having followed up on its season-opening shutout victory over Energie Cottbus with a shutout of Borussia Monchengladbach.

The club is owned by 68-year-old computer software and pharmaceuticals billionaire Dietmar Hopp, who in his youth played for the then-amateur Hoffenheim village team. In 1990, he began investing in his old club and saw it gradually rise from the equivalent of the eighth division to gain a place in Germany's top flight.

Now, two games into the season, it leads the pack, ahead of such storied teams as Bayern Munich, Hamburg, Werder Bremen and all the rest.

"It's not really a huge surprise for me because we are just building on the success we had at the end of last season," when Hoffenheim was promoted from the second division, Coach Ralph Rangnick said. "Obviously, as a newly promoted side, anything more than just staying up this season would be good."

In January, Hoffenheim moves into the $50-million, 30,000-seat Rhein-Neckar Arena that Hopp is building for the team and it will then have truly arrived.

By January, too, Juergen Klinsmann ought to have figured out what ails Bayern Munich. The defending Bundesliga champion still is seeking its first victory under its new coach Klinsmann after being held to ties by Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund.

The results have brought about the predictable rant from Franz Beckenbauer, the club's never-silent-for-a-moment chairman.

"He has to get the team to play successful, good football, as we are used to," Beckenbauer said. "The club has done everything to make his job comfortable. Juergen has turned many things upside down, now we need the results. Otherwise the changes and the investment are useless."

Meanwhile, the sound of cash registers is ringing loudly throughout England, Spain and Italy.

Chelsea has jumped out to a fast start in the English Premier League, with shutout victories in its first two games to give new Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari the best possible beginning to his reign at Stamford Bridge.