Bundesliga, Round 34
STUTTGART CHAMPIONS
Team of the Week: Stuttgart
Turd of the Weak: none really, maybe Hannover for listless performance
Attendance: 445,483 (49,498 avg), 30 goals
VfL Wolfsburg - Werder Bremen 0:2 (0:0) 30,000 (Rosenberg 2) Eintracht Frankfurt - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:2 (0:0) 50,500 (Streit - Boateng, Pantelic) Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia Dortmund 2:1 (1:0) 22.500 (Kiessling, Rolfes - Smolarek) Hannover 96 - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:3 (0:0) 49,000 (Mintal, Engelhardt, Banovic) Bayern München - 1. FSV Mainz 05 5:2 (3:0) 69,000 (Santa Cruz, Scholl, van Bommel, Karimi, Pizarro - Amri, Feulner) FC Schalke 04 - Arminia Bielefeld 2:1 (2:0) 61,482 (Lincoln, Halil Altintop - Kucera) Borussia M'gladbach - VfL Bochum 0:2 (0:1) 50,001 (Dabrowski, Wosz) Hamburger SV - Alemannia Aachen 4:0 (2:0) 57,000 (Olic 2, Sorin 2) VfB Stuttgart - Energie Cottbus 2:1 (1:1) 56,000 (Hitzlsperger, Khedira - Radu) 1 VfB Stuttgart 34 21 7 6 61:37 +24 70 Champions League 2 FC Schalke 04 34 21 5 8 53:32 +21 68 Champions League 3 Werder Bremen 34 20 6 8 76:40 +36 66 Champions League ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 34 18 6 10 55:40 +15 60 UEFA Cup 5 Bayer Leverkusen 34 15 6 13 54:49 +5 51 UEFA Cup ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 1. FC Nürnberg 34 11 15 8 43:32 +11 48 UEFA Cup 7 Hamburger SV 34 10 15 9 43:37 +6 45 UI Cup 8 VfL Bochum 34 13 6 15 49:50 -1 45 9 Borussia Dortmund 34 12 8 14 41:43 -2 44 10 Hertha BSC Berlin 34 12 8 14 50:55 -5 44 11 Hannover 96 34 12 8 14 41:50 -9 44 12 Arminia Bielefeld 34 11 9 14 47:49 -2 42 13 Energie Cottbus 34 11 8 15 38:49 -11 41 14 Eintracht Frankfurt 34 9 13 12 46:58 -12 40 15 VfL Wolfsburg 34 8 13 13 37:45 -8 37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 1. FSV Mainz 05 34 8 10 16 34:57 -23 34 relegated 17 Alemannia Aachen 34 9 7 18 46:70 -24 34 relegated 18 Borussia M'gladbach 34 6 8 20 23:44 -21 26 relegated
2.Liga, Round 34
Attendance: 205,217 (22,802 avg), 32 goals
1. FC Kaiserslautern - 1. FC Köln 2:2 (0:1) 48,000 (Hajnal 2 - Novakovic, Helmes) Greuther Fürth - Karlsruher SC 1:3 (0:0) 14,000 (Cidmar - Federico 3) Wacker Burghausen - SC Paderborn 07 5:1 (2:0) 3,900 (Aigner 2, Bogavac 2, Toleski - Röttger) Kickers Offenbach - Eintr. Braunschweig 1:1 (0:0) 16,267 (Mokhtari - Atem) Erzgebirge Aue - TSV 1860 München 2:2 (1:2) 14,000 (Heller, Juskowiak - Göktan) Hansa Rostock - SpVgg Unterhaching 3:1 (2:1) 29,000 (Yelen, Cetkovic, Rahn - Feldhahn) FC Augsburg - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1:2 (0:1) 24,050 (Lawarée - Fröhlich, Tapalovic) MSV Duisburg - Rot-Weiss Essen 3:0 (0:0) 31,500 (Tararache, Daun, Grlic) SC Freiburg - TuS Koblenz 2:0 (1:0) 24,500 (Riether, Matmour) 1 Karlsruher SC 34 21 7 6 69:41 +28 70 promoted 2 Hansa Rostock 34 16 14 4 49:30 +19 62 promoted 3 MSV Duisburg 34 16 12 6 66:40 +26 60 promoted ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 SC Freiburg 34 17 9 8 55:39 +16 60 5 Greuther Fürth 34 16 6 12 53:40 +13 54 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 34 13 14 7 48:34 +14 53 7 FC Augsburg 34 14 10 10 43:32 +11 52 8 TSV 1860 München 34 14 6 14 47:49 -2 48 9 1. FC Köln 34 12 10 12 49:50 -1 46 10 Erzgebirge Aue 34 13 6 15 46:48 -2 45 11 SC Paderborn 07 34 11 9 14 32:41 -9 42 12 TuS Koblenz 34 11 8 15 36:45 -9 41 13 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 34 9 11 14 40:56 -16 38 14 Kickers Offenbach 34 9 9 16 42:59 -17 36 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 Rot-Weiss Essen 34 8 11 15 34:40 -6 35 relegated 16 SpVgg Unterhaching 34 9 8 17 33:49 -16 35 relegated 17 Wacker Burghausen 34 7 11 16 42:63 -21 32 relegated 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 34 4 11 19 20:48 -28 23 relegated
Bundesliga, Round 33
The decisive round, and as expected, Schalke choked, proving once again that maybe Bayern's Uli Hoeness may have knew what he was talking about when he said "The other clubs are too dumb to win the title." Well, certainly that can be applied to Schalke. And Bremen can add themselves to that list, as by stunningly sucking at home to Frankfurt, they are officially eliminated. The final week sees Stuttgart hosting Cottbus, and Schalke hosting Bielefeld. Neither of the visitors have anything to play for, and it is hard to see Stuttgart not winning, so VfB should be crowned "Meister" next week. Stuttgart faced a determined Bochum squad, which had hauled themselves out of dire relegation fears to the verge of UI-Cup qualification. Bochum wanted the points, and league leading goal scorer Theofanis Gekas, whose exploits we've been following recently, once again was crucial. He didn't score, but his nifty back-heel set up Schröder's opener. Stuttgart had to storm back in the 2nd, with the return of striker Mario Gomez a key figure.
Meanwhile, the famed "Revier-Debry", some 81,000 fans watched Dortmund stump arch-rival Schalke. The Blues needed a win to almost sew up their first title since 1958, but instead surprised nobody by playing crap. Instead, Dortmund was pretty much in control and their late spurt looks to sneak them into the UI-Cup.
The relegation struggle is also over. Aachen needed to win at home against Wolfsburg, but they were unable to do it, so now there is virtually zero chance of them staying up - Alemannia or Mainz need to make up 14 goals to catch the Volkswagens. Aachen looked like they had the points in the bag, but then Diego Klimowicz popped up and scored the equalizer at the death. Mainz had an impressive win over crap Gladbach, but it didn't really matter either.
Team of the Week: Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Wolfsburg
Turd of the Weak: Schalke, Bremen, Aachen
Another good attendance week, as only Berlin and Nürnberg weren't completely sold out.
Attendance: 339,287 (37,699 avg), 31 goals
Energie Cottbus - Bayern München 0:3 (0:2) 22,450 (Makaay, van Buyten, Santa Cruz) 1. FC Nürnberg - Hamburger SV 0:2 (0:2) 45,000 (van der Vaart, Jarolim) Borussia Dortmund - FC Schalke 04 2:0 (1:0) 80,708 (Frei, Smolarek) Hertha BSC Berlin - Bayer Leverkusen 2:3 (1:2) 50,000 (Pantelic, Gimenez - Callsen-Bracker, Voronin, Schneider) VfL Bochum - VfB Stuttgart 2:3 (2:1) 31,328 (O. Schröder, Maltritz - Hitzlsperbger, Gomez, Cacau) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Borussia M'gladbach 3:0 (2:0) 20,300 (Zidan, Ruman, Feulner) Arminia Bielefeld - Hannover 96 3:1 (2:1) 26,601 (Wichniarek, Böhme, Vata - Rosenthal) Werder Bremen - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:2 (1:1) 42,100 (Hunt - Amanatidis, Naldo o.g.) Alemannia Aachen - VfL Wolfsburg 2:2 (0:0) 20,800 (Lehmann, Nemeth - Lamprecht, Klimowicz) 1 VfB Stuttgart 33 20 7 6 59:36 +23 67 Champions League 2 FC Schalke 04 33 20 5 8 51:31 +20 65 Champions League 3 Werder Bremen 33 19 6 8 74:40 +34 63 Champions League ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 33 17 6 10 50:38 +12 57 UEFA 5 Bayer Leverkusen 33 14 6 13 52:48 +4 48 UEFA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 1. FC Nürnberg 33 10 15 8 40:32 +8 45 (UEFA via DFB Cup) 7 Borussia Dortmund 33 12 8 13 40:41 -1 44 8 Hannover 96 33 12 8 13 41:47 -6 44 9 Hamburger SV 33 9 15 9 39:37 +2 42 10 Arminia Bielefeld 33 11 9 13 46:47 -1 42 11 VfL Bochum 33 12 6 15 47:50 -3 42 12 Hertha BSC Berlin 33 11 8 14 48:54 -6 41 13 Energie Cottbus 33 11 8 14 37:47 -10 41 14 Eintracht Frankfurt 33 9 13 11 45:56 -11 40 15 VfL Wolfsburg 33 8 13 12 37:43 -6 37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Alemannia Aachen 33 9 7 17 46:66 -20 34 relegated 17 1. FSV Mainz 05 33 8 10 15 32:52 -20 34 relegated 18 Borussia M'gladbach 33 6 8 19 23:42 -19 26 relegated
2. Liga, Round 33
Critical wins on the road has means that the aspiring promotion candidates will decide their future in front of their home crowds. Rostock held on for dear life against an 1860 onsluaght, but got a crucial win. Duisburg dominated in Paderborn and came away with an easy win. Leaders Karlsruhe blew a few scoring chances, but in general took things easy, assured of promotion. Their guest from Freiburg desperately needed the points, and played like it. Fürth probably blew their chance. They lost sensationally at Unterhaching, despite a man advantage for most of the 2nd half. (Frühbeis got his ass tossed for the hosts). Unterhaching picked up critical points by defending fiercely and then snatching the win at the end.
Essen blew their chance for some cushion, as they let a win slip away in injury time against an already relegated Burghausen. This could be huge in the finale next week. Koblenz win over Aue ensures their 2.Liga status, which is a nice accomplishment, since most pundits had predicted the newly promoted side to go down. Jena fought Kaiserslautern to a standstill, keeping their hopes of staying alive, while at the same time ending any hopes of promotion for the Red Devils. Offenbach might have been the biggest "winner": they grabbed a point in Köln. and face hapless Braunschweig at home in the finale.
So the final week sets up some interesting battles. On the promotion side, Rostock hosts Unterhaching and Duisburg has a derby against Essen. For the favorites, a win means promotion. However, the underdogs by losing probabaly go down - Offenbach is likely to beat Braunschweig. Meanwhile, Freiburg hosts Koblenz, and they will hope to run up the score: they could conceivable catch Rostock in goal difference if Hansa drops a point. Duisburg probably has the most difficult task, since the derby atmosphere should help RWE. Due to superior goal difference, Essen could still stay up with a loss, depending what Jena does. In the final relegation struggle, Jena has a difficult task, as they travel to Augsburg. Their main hope is that their hosts have nothing to play for. If Jena can grab a point, that may be enough to stay up.
FC Carl Zeiss Jena - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 1:1 (0:1) 12,500 (Ashvestia - Simpson) SC Paderborn 07 - MSV Duisburg 0:3 (0:2) 9,200 (Lavric, Grlic, Idrissou) Karlsruher SC - SC Freiburg 0:3 (0:1) 29,984 (Matmour, Iashvili, Hansen) SpVgg Unterhaching - Greuther Fürth 2:1 (1:1) 7,500 (Rathgeber, Gülselam - Reisinger) TuS Koblenz - Erzgebirge Aue 2:1 (2:0) 13,591 (Dzaka, Babatz - Emmerich) Rot-Weiss Essen - Wacker Burghausen 1:1 (1:0) 16,037 (Boskovic - Ledgerwood) TSV 1860 München - Hansa Rostock 1:2 (0:2) 36,100 (Göktan - Rahn, Kern) 1. FC Köln - Kickers Offenbach 2:2 (0:1) 40,000 (Helmes, Novakovic - Türker, Agritis) Eintr. Braunschweig - FC Augsburg 0:1 (0:0) 12,600 (da Costa)1 Karlsruher SC 33 20 7 6 66:40 +26 67 promoted 2 Hansa Rostock 33 15 14 4 46:29 +17 59 3 MSV Duisburg 33 15 12 6 63:40 +23 57 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 SC Freiburg 33 16 9 8 53:39 +14 57 5 Greuther Fürth 33 16 6 11 52:37 +15 54 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 33 13 13 7 46:32 +14 52 7 FC Augsburg 33 14 10 9 42:30 +12 52 8 TSV 1860 München 33 14 5 14 45:47 -2 47 9 1. FC Köln 33 12 9 12 47:48 -1 45 10 Erzgebirge Aue 33 13 5 15 44:46 -2 44 11 SC Paderborn 07 33 11 9 13 31:36 -5 42 12 TuS Koblenz 33 11 8 14 36:43 -7 41 13 Rot-Weiss Essen 33 8 11 14 34:37 -3 35 14 SpVgg Unterhaching 33 9 8 16 32:46 -14 35 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 Kickers Offenbach 33 9 8 16 41:58 -17 35 16 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 33 8 11 14 38:55 -17 35 17 Wacker Burghausen 33 6 11 16 37:62 -25 29 relegated 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 33 4 10 19 19:47 -28 22 relegated
Bundesliga, Round 32
Nothing was settled at the top, as all the contenders won. Schalke struggled, but red hot Kevin Kuranyi's forehead once again came to the rescure. Stuttgart had some trouble beating down a desperate Mainz squad, which is now good as gone. Still, an amazing run by Mainz: "Thank you for playing, you've been eliminated. Goodbye." Bremen recovered from their UEFA fiasco and bitchslapped a hapless Hertha squad.
Bayern's season peters out disgracefully, as they were unable to withstand a 2nd half revival by relegated Gladbach. In fact, the Bayern fans were so angry that they were yelling "We want more amateurs!", referring to the fact that Hitzfeld had included a few players from the Regionalliga "II" squad on the bench. "Scheiss Millonaere!!" was the other cry - I'll let you figure that one out. Meanwhile, one of those millionares, GK Olli Kahn was lounging at the Cote d'Azur, as he was given the week off.
Dortmund got a significant away win at Volkswagen, finally doing away with any relegation worries. Meanwhile the V-dubs have reason to be worried. Next week is a critical clash at Aachen. Bochum's Theofanis notched his 20th, and Bochum stunned Hamburg. Both are essentially safe, although perhaps Bochum might be able to sneak a UI-Cup spot, which would be a pretty amazing turnaround. However, the biggest relegation result was in Frankfurt, where eintracht overran a crap Aachen squad. Nothing is decided yet, but a huge win for the hosts.
Finally, Hannover dispatched an anti-football "playing" Cottbus side, which riases their hopes for some type of Euro competition.
Team of the Week: Bochum, Dortmund - avoiding relegation, Frankfurt - critical match
Turd of the Weak: Aachen, Hertha
Another good attendance week: the only game that wasn't sold out was in Hannover.
Attendance: 448,230 (49,803 avg), 24 goals
Hannover 96 - Energie Cottbus 2:0 (1:0) 43,509 (Vinicius, Bruggink) Borussia M'gladbach - Bayern München 1:1 (0:1) 54,019 (Kluge - Makaay) VfL Wolfsburg - Borussia Dortmund 0:2 (0:1) 30,000 (Smolarek, Valdez) FC Schalke 04 - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0 (0:0) 61,482 (Kuranyi) VfB Stuttgart - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:0 (1:0) 56,000 (Fernando Meira, Hilbert) Hamburger SV - VfL Bochum 0:3 (0:0) 57,000 (Gekas, Grote, Misimovic) Eintracht Frankfurt - Alemannia Aachen 4:0 (2:0) 51,500 (Huggel, Vasoski, Takahara, Köhler) Hertha BSC Berlin - Werder Bremen 1:4 (0:1) 74,220 (Gilberto - Rosenberg 3, Diego) Bayer Leverkusen - Arminia Bielefeld 1:2 (1:1) 22,500 (Barbarez - Wichniarek, Kamper) 1 FC Schalke 04 32 20 5 7 51:29 +22 65 Champions League 2 VfB Stuttgart 32 19 7 6 56:34 +22 64 Champions League 3 Werder Bremen 32 19 6 7 73:38 +35 63 Champions League ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 32 16 6 10 47:38 +9 54 UEFA Cup 5 1. FC Nürnberg 32 10 15 7 40:30 +10 45 (UEFA Cup) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 32 13 6 13 49:46 +3 45 7 Hannover 96 32 12 8 12 40:44 -4 44 8 VfL Bochum 32 12 6 14 45:47 -2 42 9 Borussia Dortmund 32 11 8 13 38:41 -3 41 10 Hertha BSC Berlin 32 11 8 13 46:51 -5 41 11 Energie Cottbus 32 11 8 13 37:44 -7 41 12 Hamburger SV 32 8 15 9 37:37 0 39 13 Arminia Bielefeld 32 10 9 13 43:46 -3 39 14 Eintracht Frankfurt 32 8 13 11 43:55 -12 37 15 VfL Wolfsburg 32 8 12 12 35:41 -6 36 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Alemannia Aachen 32 9 6 17 44:64 -20 33 17 1. FSV Mainz 05 32 7 10 15 29:52 -23 31 18 Borussia M'gladbach 32 6 8 18 23:39 -16 26 relegated
2. Liga, Round 32
The "winners" this week were teams battling relegation - the favorites all took dumps. Fürth, Freiburg and Rostock were all shocked at home in games they figured to win easily. Duisburg also took it on the chin, although you can never tell which Köln team will show up.
Jena gave up 2 vital points at Burghausen, when they conceded an injury time goal. Given Offenbach's surpirse draw at Kaiserslautern, they remain in a relegation spot. For Wacker, they are now all but mathematically relegated.
Attendance: 173,319 (19,258 avg), 21 goals
Erzgebirge Aue - Karlsruher SC 2:2 (2:0) 9,800 (Rangelov 2 - Kaufmann 2) SC Freiburg - SC Paderborn 07 0:1 (0:0) 18,700 (Röttger) FC Augsburg - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (1:0) 22,200 (Müller - Agritis) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Eintr. Braunschweig 1:1 (0:0) 26,569 (Meißner - Rodrigues) TSV 1860 München - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:0 (1:0) 41,700 (Gülselam o.g.) Wacker Burghausen - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1:1 (0:1) 4,750 (Hertl - Werner) Greuther Fürth - Rot-Weiss Essen 0:2 (0:1) 11,600 (Lorenz, Özbek) Hansa Rostock - TuS Koblenz 0:3 (0:1) 16,000 (Mavric, Rahn, Dzaka) MSV Duisburg - 1. FC Köln 1:3 (0:1) 22,000 (Grlic - Novakovic 2, Helmes) 1 Karlsruher SC 32 20 7 5 66:37 +29 67 promoted 2 Hansa Rostock 32 14 14 4 44:28 +16 56 3 MSV Duisburg 32 14 12 6 60:40 +20 54 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Greuther Fürth 32 16 6 10 51:35 +16 54 5 SC Freiburg 32 15 9 8 50:39 +11 54 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 32 13 12 7 45:31 +14 51 7 FC Augsburg 32 13 10 9 41:30 +11 49 8 TSV 1860 München 32 14 5 13 44:45 -1 47 9 1. FC Köln 32 12 8 12 45:46 -1 44 10 Erzgebirge Aue 32 13 5 14 43:44 -1 44 11 SC Paderborn 07 32 11 9 12 31:33 -2 42 12 TuS Koblenz 32 10 8 14 34:42 -8 38 13 Rot-Weiss Essen 32 8 10 14 33:36 -3 34 14 Kickers Offenbach 32 9 7 16 39:56 -17 34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 32 8 10 14 37:54 -17 34 16 SpVgg Unterhaching 32 8 8 16 30:45 -15 32 17 Wacker Burghausen 32 6 10 16 36:61 -25 28 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 32 4 10 18 19:46 -27 22 relegated
Bundesliga, Round 31
The uprising of the lower club continues, as the relegation battle trumps the Title struggle once again. Things started Friday night, as Bochum stunned leaders Schalke. And the finale was Sunday, as Bielfeld incredibly upended Bremen, who had expected to take over the lead. Stuttgart took advantage, winning at Gladbach, who are now all but officially relegated. bayern continued their tailspin, as they were outplayed at home by Hamburg. Cottbus win over the Aspirins allows them to breathe easy, as they are all but mathematically safe.
Team of the Week: Everybody that won
Turd of the Weak: Everybody that lost
Attendance: 361,855 (40,206 avg), 26 goals
VfL Bochum - FC Schalke 04 2:1 (2:1) 31,328 (Misimovic, Gekas - Kuranyi) Bayern München - Hamburger SV 1:2 (1:0) 69,000 (Pizarro - van der Vaart, Guerrero) Alemannia Aachen - Hertha BSC Berlin 0:4 (0:1) 20,800 (Gilberto, Gimenez, Pantelic, Bastürk) Borussia M'gladbach - VfB Stuttgart 0:1 (0:0) 48,014 (Hilbert) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Hannover 96 1:2 (0:1) 20,300 (Zidan - Bruggink, Yankov) Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:0 (1:0) 80,708 (Frei 2) 1. FC Nürnberg - VfL Wolfsburg 1:1 (1:1) 46,200 (Wolf - Krzynowek) Arminia Bielefeld - Werder Bremen 3:2 (1:0) 26,601 (Westermann, Kamper, Eigler - Klose, Almeida) Energie Cottbus - Bayer Leverkusen 2:1 (1:1) 18,904 (Radu, Gunkel - Kiessling) 1 FC Schalke 04 31 19 5 7 50:29 +21 62 2 VfB Stuttgart 31 18 7 6 54:34 +20 61 3 Werder Bremen 31 18 6 7 69:37 +32 60 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 31 16 5 10 46:37 +9 53 5 1. FC Nürnberg 31 10 15 6 40:29 +11 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 31 13 6 12 48:44 +4 45 7 Hertha BSC Berlin 31 11 8 12 45:47 -2 41 8 Energie Cottbus 31 11 8 12 37:42 -5 41 9 Hannover 96 31 11 8 12 38:44 -6 41 10 Hamburger SV 31 8 15 8 37:34 +3 39 11 VfL Bochum 31 11 6 14 42:47 -5 39 12 Borussia Dortmund 31 10 8 13 36:41 -5 38 13 Arminia Bielefeld 31 9 9 13 41:45 -4 36 14 VfL Wolfsburg 31 8 12 11 35:39 -4 36 15 Eintracht Frankfurt 31 7 13 11 39:55 -16 34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Alemannia Aachen 31 9 6 16 44:60 -16 33 17 1. FSV Mainz 05 31 7 10 14 29:50 -21 31 18 Borussia M'gladbach 31 6 7 18 22:38 -16 25
2. Liga, Round 31
Karlsruhe celebrated their official return to the Bundesliga in front of a sold-out crowd. And as Rostock only drew at Essen on Monday, the win over unterhaching meant that KSC wins the 2.Liga title as well. However, the race for the final promotion spots remains red-hot. Freiburg had a tough win in Offenbach, whereas Fürth upended Köln away, a very impressive win. Duisburg managed to hold on to their slim lead as they roared back from a stunning 0-3 deficit in Jena to salvage a point. Meanwhile, Kaiserslautern will be desperate for a win next week, as their loss in Augsburg puts them on the verge of elimination.
At the bottom, Burghausen probably blew their last chance, as they went down in flames to already relegated Braunschweig. I guess they can take some consolation that they will be replaced by another village squad - SV Wehen has already qualified from the Regionalliga Süd. Koblenz got a huge win against 1860. Paderborn's win over Aue has pretty much assured them another year of 2nd division football.
Attendance: 159,835 (17,759 avg), 27 goals
FC Carl Zeiss Jena - MSV Duisburg 3:3 (3:0) 10,481 (Sykora 2, Fröhlich - Grlic 2, Lavric) SC Paderborn 07 - Erzgebirge Aue 1:0 (0:0) 5,814 (Brouwers) Eintr. Braunschweig - Wacker Burghausen 3:1 (1:0) 11,300 (Brinkmann, Leozinho 2 - Toleski) FC Augsburg - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 3:2 (1:1) 23,250 (Lawarée 2, da Costa - Opara, Meissner) Kickers Offenbach - SC Freiburg 2:3 (0:2) 12,016 (Oehrl 2 - Sanou 2, Antar) 1. FC Köln - Greuther Fürth 0:2 (0:1) 37,000 (Andreasen, Cidimar) TuS Koblenz - TSV 1860 München 2:1 (1:1) 14,274 (Ziehl, Dzaka - Göktan) Karlsruher SC - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:0 (0:0) 29,500 (Kapllani) Rot-Weiss Essen - Hansa Rostock 0:0 (0:0) 16,200 1 Karlsruher SC 31 20 6 5 64:35 +29 66 promoted 2 Hansa Rostock 31 14 14 3 44:25 +19 56 3 MSV Duisburg 31 14 12 5 59:37 +22 54 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Greuther Fürth 31 16 6 9 51:33 +18 54 5 SC Freiburg 31 15 9 7 50:38 +12 54 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 31 13 11 7 44:30 +14 50 7 FC Augsburg 31 13 9 9 40:29 +11 48 8 TSV 1860 München 31 13 5 13 43:45 -2 44 9 Erzgebirge Aue 31 13 4 14 41:42 -1 43 10 1. FC Köln 31 11 8 12 42:45 -3 41 11 SC Paderborn 07 31 10 9 12 30:33 -3 39 12 TuS Koblenz 31 9 8 14 31:42 -11 35 13 Kickers Offenbach 31 9 6 16 38:55 -17 33 14 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 31 8 9 14 36:53 -17 33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 SpVgg Unterhaching 31 8 8 15 30:44 -14 32 16 Rot-Weiss Essen 31 7 10 14 31:36 -5 31 17 Wacker Burghausen 31 6 9 16 35:60 -25 27 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 31 4 9 18 18:45 -27 21 relegated
Bundesliga, Round 30
Important results, none more than in Stuttgart: The Emperor is dead! A double-strike by Cacau sinks Bayern and ensures that The Evil Empire :) will not defend their title. Bayern looked lame and fully deserved their defeat, causing Club President, the legendary Franz Beckenbauer, to basically state that the team was crap ... and expect changes. Among other things, he mentioned "we don't have a playmaker like Diego or Lincoln", "one of the forwards will be going" and "now that we're in UEFA Cup only, if Barcelona want Klose, all we can do is make a token offer." This loss means that Bayern is unlikely to play in the Champions League next season, so it's a double blow. Meanwhile, both Bremen and Schalke ran their heads against solid defensive walls, but eventually broke through to dump Aachen and Cottbus respectively. Werder's playmaker Diego scored from inside his half in injury time.
The relagtion battle remains insane. Several clubs had huge wins, and the first casualty can now be identified. Borussia Mönchengladbach looks like they're done. They're pretty popular outside of Germany because of what they did in the 1970s and their "oh-so-German" name. But they've sucked in recent years and never really hit stride this season. Their relegation is deserved, but the bright side is that arch-rival 1.FC Köln is staying down, so there should be some massive attendance feats in next year's 2.Liga. Meanwhile, Hannover's win probably means they're safe. Mainz got a good point in Hamburg, but they're also on the verge of falling out. They need a win next week, or it could be over. Hamburg isn't out of the woods yet, but their decent goal differential is worth an extra point. Meanwhile, 3 troubled clubs got massive away wins. Bielefeld won a wild shootout at Wolfsburg. The VWs got another goal from Marcelinho, who has turned out to be an excellent midseason signing, but otherwise were probably feeling the effects of their midweek Cup struggle. Arminia did a little too much post-match celebrating; head coach Ernst Middendorp was apparently arrested for drunk driving. However, if Bielefeld stays up, all will be forgiven: the club president (a lawyer) announced that he will personally defend Middendorp in court. Dortmund stunned Hertha in Berlin, a huge result for the embattled Neons. Bochum was perhaps the most impressive: they ripped Frankfurt away. Yet another strike for league leader Theofanis Gekas. This is like Bochum's last decent Bundesliga campaign, when Thomas Christensen scored a bunch of goals. Then he transferred (and has sucked since) and Bochum went down. It will probably be repeated, so perhaps the Bochumers should save some effort and give up instead :)
At this time, truly every match is huge, so even the remaining one was important: Bayer Aspirin dumped Nürnberg, clearly tired after their midweek Cup success. This enables the Alka-Seltzers to leapfrog "der Club" into the final UEFA spot. Both will continue to battle it out, but "der Club" will probably make the UEFA anyway: even if they lose the Cup final to Stuttgart, VfB is going to the Champions League, so they'd inherit the spot.
Team of the Week: VfB Stuttgart
Turd of the Weak: Bayern München
Attendance: 412,143 (45,794 avg), 24 goals
Werder Bremen - Alemannia Aachen 3:1 (0:1) 40,300 (Jensen, Rosenberg, Diego - Pinto) VfB Stuttgart - Bayern München 2:0 (2:0) 56,000 (Cacau 2) Hertha BSC Berlin - Borussia Dortmund 0:1 (0:0) 64,382 (Brzenska) Bayer Leverkusen - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:0 (1:0) 22,500 (Schneider) VfL Wolfsburg - Arminia Bielefeld 2:3 (1:1) 20,941 (Marcelinho, Boakye - Westermann, Eigler, Wichniarek) Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Bochum 0:3 (0:1) 47,962 (Gekas, Epalle 2) FC Schalke 04 - Energie Cottbus 2:0 (0:0) 61,058 (Rost o.g., Bordon) Hannover 96 - Borussia M'gladbach 1:0 (1:0) 42,000 (Bruggink) Hamburger SV - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:2 (1:1) 57,000 (Sorin, Guerrero - Zidan, Gerber) 1 FC Schalke 04 30 19 5 6 49:27 +22 62 2 Werder Bremen 30 18 6 6 67:34 +33 60 3 VfB Stuttgart 30 17 7 6 53:34 +19 58 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 30 16 5 9 45:35 +10 53 5 Bayer Leverkusen 30 13 6 11 47:42 +5 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 1. FC Nürnberg 30 10 14 6 39:28 +11 44 7 Hertha BSC Berlin 30 10 8 12 41:47 -6 38 8 Energie Cottbus 30 10 8 12 35:41 -6 38 9 Hannover 96 30 10 8 12 36:43 -7 38 10 Hamburger SV 30 7 15 8 35:33 +2 36 11 VfL Bochum 30 10 6 14 40:46 -6 36 12 VfL Wolfsburg 30 8 11 11 34:38 -4 35 13 Borussia Dortmund 30 9 8 13 34:41 -7 35 14 Eintracht Frankfurt 30 7 13 10 39:53 -14 34 15 Arminia Bielefeld 30 8 9 13 38:43 -5 33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Alemannia Aachen 30 9 6 15 44:56 -12 33 17 1. FSV Mainz 05 30 7 10 13 28:48 -20 31 18 Borussia M'gladbach 30 6 7 17 22:37 -15 25
2. Liga, Round 30
A shockig result in Freiburg, as SCF suffered their first home loss in the 2nd half of the season. The turning point was when Jena's GK Lomaia stopped Iashvili's penalty in a 1-1 game. A few minutes later Voigt scored, and Jena made sure of the upset with another goal in injury time. This is a bitter blow for Freiburg's promotion hopes, as they surely counted on the 3 points. Both Fürth and K'lautern had thumping wins to remain in the promotion race - which would have sent them over, as Duisburg stunk at home against relegated Braunschweig. It's a bit sad that Barunschweig is going down. It's no surprise, since they clearly sucked and deserve the drop. But their fans have been loyal, and they've drawn well, despite being dead-last almost all season.
The clash at the top between Rostock and Karlsruhe served to define what everybody already knew: KSC is returning to the Bundesliga. They are now essentially mathematically qualified, so if they really wanted to, they could just phone in the remaining matches. Hansa is in the driver seat, but still have some work to do.
Unterhaching had a crucial win against relegation rival Koblenz. Burghausen is just about finished, their home loss to Augsburg the death-knell. However, 5 clubs are still trying to avoid the 3rd-4th "lottery winner" spots that includes a nice weekend in places like Erfurt or Reutlingen and lots of crowd favorite fun matches against "II" teams :) Paderborn is also not out of the danger zone, so they need a couple more points before they can party.
The 1860-Köln match would have drawn another 30,000 if the clubs had lived up to preseason expectations. Instead it was a ho-hum match of two clubs mired in mediocrity and going nowhere this season.
Attendance: 151,821 (16,869 avg), 21 goals
TSV 1860 München - 1. FC Köln 3:1 (1:1) 36,100 (Göktan 2, Ghvinianidze - Broich) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Kickers Offenbach 4:0 (2:0) 26,450 (Müller, Ziemer, Simpson, Bohl) Erzgebirge Aue - Rot-Weiss Essen 0:0 (0:0) 8,700 Greuther Fürth - SC Paderborn 07 3:0 (0:0) 9,100 (Cidmar, Kleine, Reisinger) MSV Duisburg - Eintr. Braunschweig 0:0 (0:0) 16,371 SC Freiburg - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1:3 (0:1) 19,500 (Mohamad - Voigt 2, Werner) SpVgg Unterhaching - TuS Koblenz 1:0 (0:0) 5,500 (Lechleiter) Wacker Burghausen - FC Augsburg 0:2 (0:1) 8,100 (Lawarée 2) Hansa Rostock - Karlsruher SC 1:2 (0:1) 22,000 (Yelen - Kapllani, Eggimmann) 1 Karlsruher SC 30 19 6 5 63:35 +28 63 2 Hansa Rostock 30 14 13 3 44:25 +19 55 3 MSV Duisburg 30 14 11 5 56:34 +22 53 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Greuther Fürth 30 15 6 9 49:33 +16 51 5 SC Freiburg 30 14 9 7 47:36 +11 51 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 30 13 11 6 42:27 +15 50 7 FC Augsburg 30 12 9 9 37:27 +10 45 8 TSV 1860 München 30 13 5 12 42:43 -1 44 9 Erzgebirge Aue 30 13 4 13 41:41 0 43 10 1. FC Köln 30 11 8 11 42:43 -1 41 11 SC Paderborn 07 30 9 9 12 29:33 -4 36 12 Kickers Offenbach 30 9 6 15 36:52 -16 33 13 TuS Koblenz 30 8 8 14 29:41 -12 32 14 SpVgg Unterhaching 30 8 8 14 30:43 -13 32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 30 8 8 14 33:50 -17 32 16 Rot-Weiss Essen 30 7 9 14 31:36 -5 30 17 Wacker Burghausen 30 6 9 15 34:57 -23 27 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 30 3 9 18 15:44 -29 18 relegated
Bundesliga, Round 29
At the top, wins for all the contenders. Schalke was solid in beating Mainz, in what might have been expected to be a tough battle - given that the home side is in a desperate relegation struggle. Instead, Kevin Kuranyi continued his excellent recent form revival, involved in all 3 Schalke strikes, and the Blues coasted home. Dortmund might have set a regular season Bundesliga attendance record with an 81,000 sell-out, but Bremen controlled the match and easily brought home the points. A lucky win for Stuttgart, as they failed to impress in a lackluster effort against Hannover. Bayern relied on their Dutch connection to beat the Aspirins. So no movement among the title contenders as we go into the home stretch.
Several critical relegation battles took place, and clubs missed chances to gain valuable points in matches where they might have expected to reel them in. A last second strike by Guerrero (who is this year's "Benny Lauth Miss-a-mile Award" winner for HSV) may be the goal that sends Gladbach down. They needed a win, but instead get slapped in the face. Despite controlling early, they never really looked like winning, especially since HSV neutralized their attack in the 2nd half. For Hamburg, this just about assures that their sensationally crap season won't send them down. They expected to challenge for the tile or at least Chanpions League, but are now just happy they don't have to visit Aue and Paderborn next season.
Bochum was surely feeling good: they've been playing well recently, and after only 1 minute, league leading scorer Theofanis Gekas notched yet another. But oddly the wheels fell off and a heretofore crap Hertha squad came back and dumped them. Hertha appears to have removed any relegation doubts, while Bochum remains mired in the struggle. On the other hand, there is joy in Cottbus, as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead against Volkswagen, and then grimly held on to get the points. This pretty much guarantees that Energie stays up. Frankfurt had a massive win in Bielefeld, which makes things even more difficult for Arminia. The visitors looked technically superior, and Arminia's fighting spirit was not enough. Nürnberg prevailed in a rather lackluster match that saw Aachen go beserk and commit lots of fouls. But their reward was a loss that sends them closer to the relegation that was unanimously predicted by everybody. But they've probably still got some surprises up ther sleeve, so they'll battle till the end. For "der Club", this pushes them ever closer to European qualification.
Team of the Week: Cottbus, Frankfurt
Turd of the Weak: Bielefeld, Gladbach
Attendance: 388,291 (43,213 avg), 28 goals
Borussia M'gladbach - Hamburger SV 0:1 (0:0) 53,500 (Guerrero) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - FC Schalke 04 0:3 (0:2) 20,300 (Kuranyi, Asamoah, Lincoln) VfL Bochum - Hertha BSC 1:3 (1:0) 27,181 (Gekas - Gimenez, Gilberto, Ede) VfB Stuttgart - Hannover 96 2:1 (1:0) 53,000 (Hilbert, Zuraw o.g. - Cherundolo) Arminia Bielefeld - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:4 (1:2) 24,349 (Kucera, Eigler - Amanatidis 2, Vasoski, Heller) Energie Cottbus - VfL Wolfsburg 3:2 (1:0) 16,293 (Radu, Munteanu, Kioyo - Boakye, Makiadi) 1. FC Nürnberg - Alemannia Aachen 1:0 (1:0) 44,298 (Pagenburg) Borussia Dortmund - Werder Bremen 0:2 (0:2) 81,000 (Diego, Klose) Bayern München - Bayer Leverkusen 2:1 (1:0) 69,000 (van Bommel, Makaay - Voronin) 1 FC Schalke 04 29 18 5 6 47:27 +20 59 2 Werder Bremen 29 17 6 6 64:33 +31 57 3 VfB Stuttgart 29 16 7 6 51:34 +17 55 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 29 16 5 8 45:33 +12 53 5 1. FC Nürnberg 29 10 14 5 39:26 +13 44 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 29 12 6 11 45:42 +3 42 7 Energie Cottbus 29 10 8 11 35:39 -4 38 8 Hertha BSC Berlin 29 10 8 11 41:46 -5 38 9 Hamburger SV 29 7 14 8 33:31 +2 35 10 VfL Wolfsburg 29 8 11 10 32:35 -3 35 11 Hannover 96 29 9 8 12 35:43 -8 35 12 Eintracht Frankfurt 29 7 13 9 39:50 -11 34 13 VfL Bochum 29 9 6 14 37:46 -9 33 14 Alemannia Aachen 29 9 6 14 43:53 -10 33 15 Borussia Dortmund 29 8 8 13 33:41 -8 32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Arminia Bielefeld 29 7 9 13 35:41 -6 30 17 1. FSV Mainz 05 29 7 9 13 26:46 -20 30 18 Borussia M'gladbach 29 6 7 16 22:36 -14 25
2. Lliga, Round 29
Leaders Karlsruhe needed a strong effort to come up winners against a battling Koblenz side. The class of KSC was ultimately too much, and the newcomer had to concede defeat. For KSC, 9 point lead with 5 to play seems to just about guarantee one coveted promotion spot. Rostock figured they just needed to show up against luckless Braunschweig, but needed a late lucky strike to save their ass from an embarassing defeat. But that's what it takes to rise out of the grim 2.Liga existance into the sunlight of the Bundesliga. The 3rd lucky sweepstakes holder is Duisburg, which got a huge win against tough Augsburg, which is now eliminated for good. But with Freiburg, Fürth and Kaiserslautern breathing down their neck, the Zebras are still a long way from home.
There was some serious bitchslapping going on this week. First, Kaiserslautern might have played their best match of the season as they nailed in-form Fürth. This was the first match after the Reds fired coach Wolfgang Wolf (who to this writer will always remain a legend when he coached Wolfsburg). This was a must win for K-town, and keeps their promotion hopes alive. Meanwhile, two venerable and vulnerable ex-giants, 1860 and Köln got their asses whupped silly. Freiburg has been coming on strong since a poor start, so perhaps Köln's hiding isn't too shocking, but 1860 was man-handled by a crappy Paderborn squad.
At the bottom, Essen missed a golden chance in a match with a direct rival, but Unterhaching deserved it's point. Offenbach did take advantage in their direct clash, as they dumped Burghausen. On the Montagnachtfussball :) match, Jena got a crucial win in the eastern derby with Aue. For CZ, this at least keeps them in touch with the no-drop zone - although their crap goal differential essentially costs them a point. But there still is everything to play for. For Erzgebirge, the season appears to be petering out, but they did themselves proud as they were in promotion contention for a while.
Attendance: 174,270 (19,336 avg), 28 goals
FC Augsburg - MSV Duisburg 1:2 (1:0) 20,600 (Benschneider - Mokhtari, Daun) Eintr. Braunschweig - Hansa Rostock 1:1 (0:1) 14,400 (Otacilio - Cetkovic) SC Paderborn 07 - 1860 München 3:0 (1:0) 6,804 (Müller, Brouwers, Röttger) 1. FC Köln - SC Freiburg 0:3 (0:1) 44,000 (Pitroipa, Iashvili, Matmour) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Greuther Fürth 3:0 (1:0) 25,230 (Opara, Riihilathi, Simpson) Kickers Offenbach - Wacker Burghausen 2:1 (1:0) 9,804 (Türker 2 - Wörle o.g.) Rot-Weiss Essen - SpVgg Unterhaching 1:1 (1:0) 15,399 (Bucher - Lechleiter) Karlsruher SC - TuS Koblenz 3:1 (1:1) 27,700 (Kapllani, Porcello, Federico - Langen) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Erzgebirge Aue 2:1 (2:0) 10,000 (Zimmermann, Schlitte - Sykora o.g.) 1 Karlsruher SC 29 18 6 5 61:34 +27 60 2 Hansa Rostock 29 14 13 2 43:23 +20 55 3 MSV Duisburg 29 14 10 5 56:34 +22 52 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 SC Freiburg 29 14 9 6 46:33 +13 51 5 Greuther Fürth 29 14 6 9 46:33 +13 48 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 29 12 11 6 38:27 +11 47 7 FC Augsburg 29 11 9 9 35:27 +8 42 8 Erzgebirge Aue 29 13 3 13 41:41 0 42 9 1. FC Köln 29 11 8 10 41:40 +1 41 10 TSV 1860 München 29 12 5 12 39:42 -3 41 11 SC Paderborn 07 29 9 9 11 29:30 -1 36 12 Kickers Offenbach 29 9 6 14 36:48 -12 33 13 TuS Koblenz 29 8 8 13 29:40 -11 32 14 Rot-Weiss Essen 29 7 8 14 31:36 -5 29 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 SpVgg Unterhaching 29 7 8 14 29:43 -14 29 16 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 29 7 8 14 30:49 -19 29 17 Wacker Burghausen 29 6 9 14 34:55 -21 27 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 29 3 8 18 15:44 -29 17
Bundesliga, Round 28
The contenders all win at the top, and the relegation battle gets turned up another notch.
Schalke was pretty much in control in the derby with Gladbach, and eventually won with strikes by Asamoah and Kuranyi. Asamoah seems like he's always injured, at least when he's not misssing sitters on the field - then you WISH he was injured :) But perhaps if he's finally back, it will be a critical boost to the Blues title hopes. Meanwhile, Gladbach must be concerned, as they prop up the table and are in danger of losing contact with the safety zone. Bremen was in control the whole match, but waited until a late sub to finally put down Nürnberg. Stuttgart was brilliant in the 1st half, and then coasted to an excellent win in Hamburg. HSV had been playing well recently, but they were brought back to earth in shattering fashion, as their defensive weakness was laid bare. Bayern looked weak at Hannover, but managed to pull out an undeserved victory thanks to Bastian Schweinsteiger's blast. Hannover looked good to win at times, but instead get stuck with a tough loss. So everything stays the same at the top
The relegation battle is nuts - 12 teams are in "contention" for the "Shirley Jackson Lottery". If you haven't read the short story, let's just say that's one lottery you don't want to win. There will be 3 "winners", but it's wide open - every point counts now.
Dortmund was unrecognizable! After looking crap for weeks, and the chaos from midweek, one would would have expected the Neons to just roll over and suck against their color twins in Aachen. Perhaps the plain white jersey was just what the doctor order. In any case, Dortmund dominated the match and won easily. And as predicted, Florian Kringe, who had been "banned" by coach Thomas Doll earlier in the week, was in the starting lineup. Also getting a great result was Cottbus, unexpected winners in Frankfurt. The hosts were the stronger team, but Energie held on bitterly and was rewarded when Christoph Preuss injured himself and made an own goal to boot, which ended up gifting the vistors the crucial points. Also on the rampage was Bochum, with league leader Theofanis Gekas notching another two strikes. The Aspirins continued their inspid UEFA appearance against Osasuna, and looked totally crap.
Bielefeld outplayed a crap Hertha squad, and really should have taken all 3 points. They probably expected a struggle for a single point, but given the log-jam at the bottom, they may rue this gift. For Hertha, their 9th consecutive match without a win. The end result was that head coach Falko Götz was fired on Monday. Apparently, the club planned to can his ass last year, but couldn't afford the payoff. I guess things are a bit better financially in Berlin, so GM Dieter Hoeness shelled out the 1 million euro "early termination fee". Of course, if he is really serious about improving Hertha's fortunes, his next move should be to fire himself.
Team of the Week: lots of candidates -> Dortmund, Cottbus, Bochum
Turd of the Weak: Leverkusen
Attendance: 357,368 (39,707 avg), 33 goals
Hannover 96 - Bayern München 1:2 (1:0) 49,000 (Bruggink - Demichelis, Schweinsteiger) Alemannia Aachen - Borussia Dortmund 1:4 (0:1) 20,800 (Ibisevic - Wörns, Frei 2, Tinga) Hamburger SV - VfB Stuttgart 2:4 (0:3) 57,000 (Jarolim, Olic - Cacau, Khedira, Hilbert, Meira) FC Schalke 04 - Borussia M'gladbach 2:0 (0:0) 61,482 (Asamoah, Kuranyi) VfL Wolfsburg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 3:2 (1:1) 20,000 (Klimowicz, Marcelinho 2 - Zidan 2) Hertha BSC Berlin - Arminia Bielefeld 1:1 (0:1) 41,512 (Ebert - Kucera) Eintracht Frankfurt - Energie Cottbus 1:3 (0:0) 45,074 (Meier - Radu, Preuss o.g., Munteanu) Werder Bremen - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0 (0:0) 40,000 (Rosenberg) Bayer Leverkusen - VfL Bochum 1:4 (0:3) 22,500 (Kiessling - Haggui, Yahia, Gekas 2) 1 FC Schalke 04 28 17 5 6 44:27 +17 56 2 Werder Bremen 28 16 6 6 62:33 +29 54 3 VfB Stuttgart 28 15 7 6 49:33 +16 52 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 28 15 5 8 43:32 +11 50 5 Bayer Leverkusen 28 12 6 10 44:40 +4 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 1. FC Nürnberg 28 9 14 5 38:26 +12 41 7 VfL Wolfsburg 28 8 11 9 30:32 -2 35 8 Energie Cottbus 28 9 8 11 32:37 -5 35 9 Hertha BSC Berlin 28 9 8 11 38:45 -7 35 10 Hannover 96 28 9 8 11 34:41 -7 35 11 VfL Bochum 28 9 6 13 36:43 -7 33 12 Alemannia Aachen 28 9 6 13 43:52 -9 33 13 Hamburger SV 28 6 14 8 32:31 +1 32 14 Borussia Dortmund 28 8 8 12 33:39 -6 32 15 Eintracht Frankfurt 28 6 13 9 35:48 -13 31 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Arminia Bielefeld 28 7 9 12 33:37 -4 30 17 1. FSV Mainz 05 28 7 9 12 26:43 -17 30 18 Borussia M'gladbach 28 6 7 15 22:35 -13 25
2. Liga, Round 28
A thumping win for the Zebras as Duisburg rolled over hapless Offenbach, and Rostock grind out a victory to strengthen their position as well. And the victories were needed, as Freiburg and Fürth kept their promotion hopes alive with shutout wins. 1860 played one of their best matches of the year and knocked off leaders Karlsruhe, but it's too late for the Lions, and KSC is still sitting pretty nicely at the top of the table. Augsburg's loss in Freiburg probably drops them out of contention, and Aue had a large home crowd witness their demise to Köln. Both are now 7 points off the pace, with only 6 matches left, too tall an order. Burghausen had their largest crowd in ages as they held off Kaiserslautern, putting the Red Devils on the verge of elimination in the playoff race as well. For Wacker however, a somewhat unexpected point, and they're in the desperation of a relgation battle.
The relegation struggle has heated up again. Aside from Burghausen's draw, Unterhaching got full points against hapless Braunschweig, and Essen had a critical win at Koblenz. Things have tightened up at the bottom, and Paderborn isn't out of the woods yet. Giants 1860 and Köln however have pretty much ended any relegation possibilities, sending joy to 2.Liga treasurers anticipating another big gate for next season.
Attendance: 155,141 (17,238 avg), 19 goals
Erzgebirge Aue - 1. FC Köln 0:1 (0:0) 16,000 (Chihi) Hansa Rostock - SC Paderborn 07 2:0 (1:0) 18,500 (Cetkovic, Dorn) TuS Koblenz - Rot-Weiss Essen 0:1 (0:0) 10,792 (Boskovic) MSV Duisburg - Kickers Offenbach 4:0 (2:0) 15,049 (Kurth 3, Grlic) SpVgg Unterhaching - Eintr. Braunschweig 3:2 (3:2) 4,800 (Feldhahn, Spizak, Lechleiter - Brinkmann, Atem) Greuther Fürth - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 2:0 (0:0) 11,000 (Cidimar, Timm) SC Freiburg - FC Augsburg 2:0 (2:0) 20,000 (Mohammad, Hidiouad) Wacker Burghausen - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:0 (0:0) 11,000 TSV 1860 München - Karlsruher SC 2:0 (0:0) 48,000 (Göktan, Berhalter) 1 Karlsruher SC 28 17 6 5 58:33 +25 57 2 Hansa Rostock 28 14 12 2 42:22 +20 54 3 MSV Duisburg 28 13 10 5 54:33 +21 49 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Greuther Fürth 28 14 6 8 46:30 +16 48 5 SC Freiburg 28 13 9 6 43:33 +10 48 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 28 11 11 6 35:27 +8 44 7 FC Augsburg 28 11 9 8 34:25 +9 42 8 Erzgebirge Aue 28 13 3 12 40:39 +1 42 9 1. FC Köln 28 11 8 9 41:37 +4 41 10 TSV 1860 München 28 12 5 11 39:39 0 41 11 SC Paderborn 07 28 8 9 11 26:30 -4 33 12 TuS Koblenz 28 8 8 12 28:37 -9 32 13 Kickers Offenbach 28 8 6 14 34:47 -13 30 14 Rot-Weiss Essen 28 7 7 14 30:35 -5 28 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 SpVgg Unterhaching 28 7 7 14 28:42 -14 28 16 Wacker Burghausen 28 6 9 13 33:53 -20 27 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 28 6 8 14 28:48 -20 26 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 28 3 7 18 14:43 -29 16
Fun in Dortmund
Things are really heating up in Dortmund, especially now that they're staring relegation square in the face. Sports-director Michael Zorc described the "horrible" performance in Bielefeld as "wishy-washy football" due to "shitty mentality". "if we don't get our act together, we most certainly will be relegated." Meanwhile, desperate head coach Thomas Doll, brought in to try and save the Neons, is obviously at wits end. He's order "professional" help, along with blood tests to see why the team is screwing up. Perhaps they're suffering from iron poor blood, they should take Geritol - that would explain their lame performances. Meanwhile, Lars Ricken and Florian Kringe have been sent down to the Regionalliga squad for "attitude adjustment". Ricken has been playing crap, and apparently Kringe is being punished for "disciplinary reasons". He refused to elaborate, stating that "the coach is the boss and that's that." Ricken has been in early retirement since his glory days as a 19 year old Champions League winner, but Kringe has been one of the few hard-nosed fighters, so expect him back in the lineup.
The fun continues as defender Christoph Metzelder was whining on national ZDF-TV about how he's being "unfairly criticized" because he apparently intends to leave the club. So his colleague, veteran Christian Wörns, advised him to "stop crying and shut his asshole." Always the diplomat, Wörns described their loss to Arminia as a "ringing ear-boxing".
Bundesliga, Round 27
Bayern has thrown the race for the title wide open again. They thoroughly dominated against a crap Schalke squad that looks lost without Lincoln. Roy Makaay scored his 100th goal for Bayern after only 90 seconds with a lob, and Bayern continually forced Schalke GK Neuer into making good saves. The leaders were bereft of ideas for the most part, and made Bayern look better than they really are. Bremen was unable to take full advantage of Schalke's continued lame form. They had to settle for a point, as Cottbus threw up a concrete wall and defended for 90 minutes. Stuttgart did take advantage, although they had a tough time with with Aachen. Benny Lauth amazingly scored a goal, so it must have been an extra wide side-of-a-barn :) With that shocking result, it's no wonder that Alemannia was too stunned, and Cacau wrapped up the points for VfB.
While the title race is very exciting, the relegation battle is simply insane. It's pretty safe to say that unless you're contending for Europe, you're worried about getting relegated. No middle ground here. Hamburg was one of the big winners, a tense northern derby against Wolfsburg moving them further from the drop zone. Mainz has fallen back to earth, and losing an even match against Levekusen looks to undo much of their post winterbreak recovery.
Gekas. Need you say more? Bochum's league leading Greek striker put Bochum in the lead, and VfL coasted the rest of the way to the points, moving them out of the relegation zone. Bielefeld got a crucial win against Dortmund, sending Borussia into despair. The possibility of relegation looms large, stunning for a club that only 10 years ago crushed Juventus to win the Champions League. Arminia deserved the points, as they pressed hard in the 2nd half. Ironically, Dortmund GK Roman Weidenfeller, who had been brilliant, looked fallible as a long range shot took a bounce and he missed. But the Neons showed very little, and the stunning prospect of 80,000 fans watching a Dortmund-Köln clash in the 2.Liga is a distinct possibility. Gladbach was crap, and looked to be headed to a disaster defeat, but Kyrgiakos got his ass red carded, and Federico Insua saved a point with a last second header.
Team of the Week: Lots (Bayern, Bielfeld, Bochum)
Turd of the Weak: Schalke, Dortmund
Attendance: 358,248 (39,805 avg), 19 goals
Arminia Bielefeld - Borussia Dortmund 1:0 (0:0) 26,601 (Kamper) Energie Cottbus - Werder Bremen 0:0 (0:0) 20,344 Bayern München - FC Schalke 04 2:0 (1:0) 69,000 (Makaay, Salihamidzic) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Bayer Leverkusen 1:3 (0:2) 20,300 (Zidan - Barbarez 2, Schneider) 1. FC Nürnberg - Hertha BSC 2:1 (1:0) 45,649 (Galasek, Engelhardt - Gimenez) Borussia M'gladbach - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:1 (0:1) 52,177 (Insua - Kyrgiakos) VfB Stuttgart - Alemannia Aachen 3:1 (1:0) 43,000 (Streller, Lauth, Cacau - Sichone) VfL Bochum - Hannover 96 2:0 (2:0) 24,177 (Gekas, Epalle) Hamburger SV - VfL Wolfsburg 1:0 (0:0) 57,000 (Mahdavikia) 1 FC Schalke 04 27 16 5 6 42:27 +15 53 2 Werder Bremen 27 15 6 6 61:33 +28 51 3 VfB Stuttgart 27 14 7 6 45:31 +14 49 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 27 14 5 8 41:31 +10 47 5 Bayer Leverkusen 27 12 6 9 43:36 +7 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 1. FC Nürnberg 27 9 14 4 38:25 +13 41 7 Hannover 96 27 9 8 10 33:39 -6 35 8 Hertha BSC Berlin 27 9 7 11 37:44 -7 34 9 Alemannia Aachen 27 9 6 12 42:48 -6 33 10 Hamburger SV 27 6 14 7 30:27 +3 32 11 VfL Wolfsburg 27 7 11 9 27:30 -3 32 12 Energie Cottbus 27 8 8 11 29:36 -7 32 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 27 6 13 8 34:45 -11 31 14 VfL Bochum 27 8 6 13 32:42 -10 30 15 1. FSV Mainz 05 27 7 9 11 24:40 -16 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Arminia Bielefeld 27 7 8 12 32:36 -4 29 17 Borussia Dortmund 27 7 8 12 29:38 -9 29 18 Borussia M'gladbach 27 6 7 14 22:33 -11 25
2. Liga, Round 27
Jena drew a sell-out crowd for an eastern clash, but was unable to get the critical result. Instead Hansa solidified their hold on a promotion spot. Leaders Karlsruhe were also made to work, but they bring home the bacon as well. Meanwhile, Greuther Fürth has silently (because nobody watches their matches) snuck up the table and are firmly entrenched the the promotion battle.
The big battle was the Monday night clash in Kaiserslautern - which ended up as a disaster for the Reds. Things started off badly, as after only 15 minutes, defender Homer Simpson was red carded for handling the ball of the goal line. Duisburg scored and really never looked back. A great win for the Zebras, but everything is still tightly packed. Augsburg has clearly moved into contention, as they crunched the appropriately named Aue ("Aue" is how Germans pronounce "Ouch").
No real change in the relegation zone, as most of them got clubbed. Former 1860 dictator-in-a-tin-pot Werner Lorant took over in Unterhaching, and promptly led them to a lackluster defeat. I'm sure the locker room wasn't a happy place afterwards.
The two "attendance giants", Köln and 1860 both won. They're going nowhere, but it assures that there should be massive crowds in some 2.Liga matches next year, especially if they get joined by the likes of Gladbach and Dortmund!
Oops, the K-lautern defender was Canadian Josh Simpson, not Homer. Sorry about that :)
Attendance: 173,273 (19,253 avg), 28 goals
SC Paderborn 07 - Karlsruher SC 1:2 (0:1) 6,667 (Krupnikovic - Mutzel, Männer) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Hansa Rostock 1:2 (0:1) 12,500 (Ashevtia - Gledson, Cetkovic) Wacker Burghausen - SpVgg Unterhaching 4:1 (1:1) 7,200 (Bogovac, Aigner, Toleski, Burkhardt - Kolomanzik) Eintr. Braunschweig - SC Freiburg 0:2 (0:0) 12,500 (Olajengbesi, Iashvili) Kickers Offenbach - Greuther Fürth 1:2 (1:1) 9,917 (Bungert - Kleine, Lanig) FC Augsburg - Erzgebirge Aue 3:0 (1:0) 21,000 (Haas 2, Luz) Rot-Weiss Essen - TSV 1860 München 0:2 (0:0) 16,457 (Wolff, Göktan) 1. FC Köln - TuS Koblenz 3:1 (0:1) 48,000 (Cabanas, Helmes, Novakovic - Maierhofer) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - MSV Duisburg 0:3 (0:1) 39,032 (Tararache, Mokhtari, Lavric) 1 Karlsruher SC 27 17 6 4 58:31 +27 57 2 Hansa Rostock 27 13 12 2 40:22 +18 51 3 MSV Duisburg 27 12 10 5 50:33 +17 46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Greuther Fürth 27 13 6 8 44:30 +14 45 5 SC Freiburg 27 12 9 6 41:33 +8 45 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 27 11 10 6 35:27 +8 43 7 FC Augsburg 27 11 9 7 34:23 +11 42 8 Erzgebirge Aue 27 13 3 11 40:38 +2 42 9 1. FC Köln 27 10 8 9 40:37 +3 38 10 TSV 1860 München 27 11 5 11 37:39 -2 38 11 SC Paderborn 07 27 8 9 10 26:28 -2 33 12 TuS Koblenz 27 8 8 11 28:36 -8 32 13 Kickers Offenbach 27 8 6 13 34:43 -9 30 14 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 27 6 8 13 28:46 -18 26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 Wacker Burghausen 27 6 8 13 33:53 -20 26 16 Rot-Weiss Essen 27 6 7 14 29:35 -6 25 17 SpVgg Unterhaching 27 6 7 14 25:40 -15 25 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 27 3 7 17 12:40 -28 16
Euro Qualifier: Good Germany performance
Joachim Löw's German squad had a good result in winning 2-1 at the Czech Republic. Two headers by Kevin Kuranyi gave Germany the win in a match they clearly had the upper hand. The defense was rock-solid; especially strong was defender Per Mertesacker, who completely shut down ex-Dortmund giant Jan Koller. Torsten Frings and Michael Ballack worked well in midfield and dominated the Czechs, for whom only Milan Baros had a decent outing. Kuranyi's return was certainly promising, as the absence of Miroslav Klose was expected by many to way heavily on the attack, but he had a good match. Probably the only negatives were the relatively lame performances of midfielders Bernd Schneider and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Regionalliga results
Since there was no 1st or 2nd division action, maybe it's a good time to peak at the 3rd division. Attendance is poor, with the high number of "B" squads usually drawing sub 1,000 gates at home. On the other hand, some of the more popular clubs draw large numbers, e.g. St.Pauli, which often has 19,000+.
The northern division is in chaos, where every team not fighting relegation is in the hunt for promotion. Eliminating HSV and Bremen, that leaves 11 clubs with a reasonable chance of going up.
Meanwhile, in the South, the promotion race is already over. Wehen and Hoffenheim are going up. Two small time teams that are undoubtedly making 2.Liga treasurers unhappy for next season. But Wehen had a great season, and Hoffenheim has sugar daddy money, so there you have it.
Perhaps the most promising trend is that the B squads of the Bundesliga teams are not dominating the rankings. Indeed, 4 of 5 relegation spots in the North are B squads, and chances are good that another 2-3 may drop in the South. The sooner these blights are removed, attendance will undoubtedly rise from the current pitiful levels.
Regionalliga Nord SV Wilhelmshaven - Hamburger SV II 3:3 (2:1) Werder Bremen II - Rot-Weiss Ahlen 0:2 (0:1) Bayer Leverkusen II - FC St. Pauli 2:1 (1:1) Wuppertaler SV Bor. - Rot-Weiß Erfurt 3:1 (1:0) Bor. Dortmund II - Fortuna Düsseldorf 1:0 (0:0) VfB Lübeck - VfL Osnabrück 2:0 (0:0) 1. FC Magdeburg - Dynamo Dresden 1:0 (0:0) Hertha BSC Berlin II - Borussia M'gladbach II 0:2 (0:1) 1 VfB Lübeck 26 13 4 9 39:29 +10 43 2 Wuppertaler SV Bor. 26 12 7 7 40:33 +7 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 VfL Osnabrück 25 12 6 7 40:30 +10 42 4 Hamburger SV II 26 11 9 6 39:32 +7 42 5 Kickers Emden 24 11 6 7 33:27 +6 39 6 Rot-Weiss Ahlen 26 11 6 9 40:37 +3 39 7 1. FC Magdeburg 26 10 9 7 33:31 +2 39 8 FC St. Pauli 25 10 8 7 30:28 +2 38 9 Werder Bremen II 25 11 4 10 42:36 +6 37 10 Fortuna Düsseldorf 25 9 10 6 36:31 +5 37 11 Dynamo Dresden 25 11 4 10 32:29 +3 37 12 1. FC Union Berlin 23 10 6 7 32:20 +12 36 13 Rot-Weiß Erfurt 25 9 8 8 28:31 -3 35 14 Holstein Kiel 25 7 8 10 28:35 -7 29 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 SV Wilhelmshaven 25 6 8 11 30:39 -9 26 16 Bayer Leverkusen II 25 6 7 12 24:35 -11 25 17 Bor. Dortmund II 26 7 4 15 24:40 -16 25 18 Hertha BSC Berlin II 26 6 6 14 23:37 -14 24 19 Borussia M'gladbach II 26 5 6 15 28:41 -13 21 Regionalliga Süd FC Ingolstadt 04 - Hessen Kassel 2:0 (1:0) Sportfr. Siegen - FK Pirmasens 1:1 (0:1) SV Darmstadt 98 - 1860 München II 1:0 (1:0) FC Bayern München II - SSV Reutlingen 05 3:0 (2:0) 1. FC K'lautern II - SV Elversberg 1:4 (1:0) VfB Stuttgart II - TSG Hoffenheim 0:3 (0:1) 1. FC Saarbrücken - Stuttgarter Kickers 3:3 (2:2) 1 SV Wehen 24 15 7 2 45:18 +27 52 2 TSG Hoffenheim 25 14 7 4 45:22 +23 49 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 VfB Stuttgart II 25 12 6 7 34:29 +5 42 4 Stuttgarter Kickers 25 10 8 7 43:33 +10 38 5 SSV Reutlingen 05 25 9 10 6 24:26 -2 37 6 Sportfr. Siegen 25 10 6 9 40:30 +10 36 7 FC Ingolstadt 04 25 10 6 9 35:33 +2 36 8 FC Bayern II 25 8 11 6 32:25 +7 35 9 SV Elversberg 25 9 7 9 40:44 -4 34 10 VfR Aalen 24 7 12 5 34:33 +1 33 11 Hessen Kassel 25 9 6 10 32:38 -6 33 12 1. FC Saarbrücken 25 7 10 8 39:36 +3 31 13 Karlsruher SC II 24 8 6 10 33:33 0 30 14 SC Pfullendorf 24 8 6 10 32:36 -4 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 TSV 1860 München II 25 5 13 7 31:33 -2 28 16 SV Darmstadt 98 25 7 5 13 32:48 -16 26 17 FK Pirmasens 25 5 5 15 22:47 -25 20 18 1. FC K'lautern II 25 0 9 16 14:43 -29 9
Bundesliga, Round 26
The huge winner of the round was Schalke, which won the critical top-of-table clash with Stuttgart, and also saw Bayern go down in flames. That probably shoots down any hope of Bayern defending their title, and probably eliminates Stuttgart from any title pretensions as well. Schalke always looked good for the win, although watching them play, you always wonder when their nerves will get the better of them and they'll choke. (In their case, it's never a question of "if", but rather "when".) Werder Bremen remains hot on the trail, as they cracked a tough nut against Mainz, who have been the surprise squad of the post-Winterbreak. While Werder seems to have regained their earlier form, Mainz needs to be careful that their hard work isn't wasted - they're only 3 points above the drop zone, combined with the worst goal difference.
Bayern had a lame effort in Frankfurt, but the boring match was decided with a clever bicycle-kick by Christoph Preuss. This was a huge match for both teams. Obviously, Bundesliga survival is at stake for Eintracht, who have been terrible in the 2nd half of the season. This win gives critical points in the fierce relegation struggle. For Bayern, the struggle must now be qualification for the Champions League. Unless they intend to win this year's competition.
Hannover was the better team throughout most of the match, but needed some fine saves by GK Robert Enke to salvage a point in a northern derby with the revived Hamburg club. The 96ers were denied a goal by the crap ref, but at the end, Enke pulled off a triple play save against Sanogo, Mahdavikia und Trochowski.
Another huge crowd in Dortmund, for Thomas Doll's first game in charge. The guests from Nürnberg controlled most of the 1st period, but Borussia got stronger as the game went on, and dominated the 2nd half. They were close to a win, but probably in the end, a draw was the fair result. Nürnberg continues their decent season, but it's hard to imagine a UEFA Cup spot except via the backdoor.
Gladbach had another disaster. They had withstood constand pressure by the Bayer Aspirins, and launched some dangerous counter-attacks of their own. They had a point in the pocket, only to give up an unlucky goal in injury time. Things are beginning to look grim for "die Fohlen", as they are in danger of losing contact with the safety zone, with only 8 matches left to play.
Cottbus got a strike from Romanian Radu to get valuable points and some eastern bragging rights. Hertha contiue to stumble along - this is a match they needed to win. As a result, they're pretty much out of the UEFA Cup sweepstakes, and are staring at yet another "going nowhere" season. A huge match in the tiny Tivoli stadium saw Alemannia upened Arminia. Aachen are almost safe, which would be quite an achievement, given preseason relegation predictions by almost everybody. Bielefeld meanwhile must be wondering what has gone wrong. They were playing quite brightly up through middle of the season, but the wheels have fallen off.
Team of the Week: Schalke
Turd of the Weak: Bayern München
Attendance: 392,406 (43,601 avg), 12 goals
Hertha BSC Berlin - Energie Cottbus 0:1 (0:0) 51,831 (Radu) Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayern München 1:0 (0:0) 51,500 (Preuss) Hannover 96 - Hamburger SV 0:0 (0:0) 49,000 Borussia Dortmund - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:0 (0:0) 80,100 FC Schalke 04 - VfB Stuttgart 1:0 (0:0) 61,482 (Krstajic) Alemannia Aachen - Arminia Bielefeld 2:0 (0:0) 20,800 (Schlaudraff, Reghecampf) VfL Wolfsburg - VfL Bochum 3:1 (2:0) 15,743 (Boakye, Madlung, Marcelinho - Gekas) Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia M'gladbach 1:0 (0:0) 22,500 (Voronin) Werder Bremen - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:0 (0:0) 39,450 (Vranjes, Diego) 1 FC Schalke 04 26 16 5 5 42:25 +17 53 2 Werder Bremen 26 15 5 6 61:33 +28 50 3 VfB Stuttgart 26 13 7 6 42:30 +12 46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 26 13 5 8 39:31 +8 44 5 Bayer Leverkusen 26 11 6 9 40:35 +5 39 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 1. FC Nürnberg 26 8 14 4 36:24 +12 38 7 Hannover 96 26 9 8 9 33:37 -4 35 8 Hertha BSC Berlin 26 9 7 10 36:42 -6 34 9 Alemannia Aachen 26 9 6 11 41:45 -4 33 10 VfL Wolfsburg 26 7 11 8 27:29 -2 32 11 Energie Cottbus 26 8 7 11 29:36 -7 31 12 Eintracht Frankfurt 26 6 12 8 33:44 -11 30 13 1. FSV Mainz 05 26 7 9 10 23:37 -14 30 14 Hamburger SV 26 5 14 7 29:27 +2 29 15 Borussia Dortmund 26 7 8 11 29:37 -8 29 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 VfL Bochum 26 7 6 13 30:42 -12 27 17 Arminia Bielefeld 26 6 8 12 31:36 -5 26 18 Borussia M'gladbach 26 6 6 14 21:32 -11 24
2. Liga, Round 26
This week saw the race for the final promotion spot heat up. Karlsruhe coud afford a stunning defeat against Essen, in a surprisingly lame performance. But with an 11 point bulge, KSC is sitting pretty and should coast home. Rostock is looking reasonably solid for the 2nd spot, although they struggled to a home draw against inconsistent Köln. So while Hansa fans are happy, the Köln faithful must be fully resigned to another season in the 2nd division. While new boss Christoph Daum has gotten enough out of his squad to prevent relegation, they're going nowhere. Fürth, Freiburg and Aue have all moved to within a point of the coveted 3rd spot. Freiburg was most impressive as they waxed K'lautern, and since Duisburg was stunned at home by soon-to-be-3rd division Burghausen, the race for promotion now involves a full 5 teams seperated by only 1 point. And the last contender announced themselves... A sold-out Allianz-Arena in München saw 1860 go down in flames in the regional derby with Augsburg. Yet another crap result for 1860, but for FCA, they've taken their albeit outside chance for promotion.
TuS Koblenz - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 0:0 (0:0) 9,348 Karlsruher SC - Rot-Weiss Essen 1:3 (0:1) 26,700 (Federico - Okoronkwo, Lorenzón, Boskovic) TSV 1860 München - FC Augsburg 0:3 (0:2) 69,000 (Haas, Lawarée, Mölzl) SC Freiburg - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 4:1 (2:1) 24,000 (Iashvili 2, Antar, Mohamad - Opara) MSV Duisburg - Wacker Burghausen 3:4 (1:2) 17,771 (Kurth, Mokhtari 2 - Nicu 2, Bogovac 2) SpVgg Unterhaching - SC Paderborn 07 0:3 (0:2) 3,500 (R. Müller, Brouwers, Koen) Erzgebirge Aue - Kickers Offenbach 2:1 (0:0) 10,000 (Klinke, Rangelov - Agritis) Greuther Fürth - Eintr. Braunschweig 3:0 (0:0) 6,050 (Cidimar, Achenbach, Kleine) Hansa Rostock - 1. FC Köln 1:1 (1:1) 16,300 (Gledson - Novakovic) 1 Karlsruher SC 26 16 6 4 56:30 +26 54 2 Hansa Rostock 26 12 12 2 38:21 +17 48 3 MSV Duisburg 26 11 10 5 47:33 +14 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 26 11 10 5 35:24 +11 43 5 Greuther Fürth 26 12 6 8 42:29 +13 42 6 SC Freiburg 26 11 9 6 39:33 +6 42 7 Erzgebirge Aue 26 13 3 10 40:35 +5 42 8 FC Augsburg 26 10 9 7 31:23 +8 39 9 1. FC Köln 26 9 8 9 37:36 +1 35 10 TSV 1860 München 26 10 5 11 35:39 -4 35 11 SC Paderborn 07 26 8 9 9 25:26 -1 33 12 TuS Koblenz 26 8 8 10 27:33 -6 32 13 Kickers Offenbach 26 8 6 12 33:41 -8 30 14 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 26 6 8 12 27:44 -17 26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 Rot-Weiss Essen 26 6 7 13 29:33 -4 25 16 SpVgg Unterhaching 26 6 7 13 24:36 -12 25 17 Wacker Burghausen 26 5 8 13 29:52 -23 23 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 26 3 7 16 12:38 -26 16
March 13, 2007
Röber raus!
After yet another crap performance, Dortmund head coach Jürgen Röber offered his resignation, and the board gleefully accepted. His replacement is ex-HSV manager Thomas Doll.
Röber had taken over from bert van Marwijk, but was unable to achieve anything but see Borussia go down the toilet. He has blamed the players lackadasical attitude, and singled out defender Christoph Metzelder as a lazy ass. Of course, his crap coaching probably had a lot to di with Dortmund's collapse as well.
Doll was actually only the 4th choice, although he may yet turn out to be a decent pick. Felix Magath, who had been canned by Bayern earlier, was the top choice, as he has a track record of getting things turned around. Ex-Bielefeld man Thomas van Heesen was considered the front-runner, but apparently he was acting too much like a weasel over the past few weeks, and the board finally grew tired. Ex-Dortmund legend Matthias Sammer was asked to come back for his 2nd round as coach, but he wasn't interested, preferring the thrill of a minor DFB bureaucrat. So Doll was basically the last option before the club posted an advert at the unemployment office.
Doll had seemingly been on a nice path with Hamburg, but things fell apart this season, as he was unable to get things straight after the huge player turnover. His back is against the wall in a somewhat similat situation, where Borussia and their fans believe they are "too good" for relegation. If he can marshall the resources, he can turn things around. If not, well, the club is convinced he's the right choice, as his contract is also good for the 2.Liga.
The situation is actually very similar to the 1999/2000 season. Michael Skibbe was finally booted out after 18 matches, and then Bernd Krauss took over for 11 games, and things got worse. In desperation, the club turned to Matthias Sammer and oldtimer Udo Lattek, and they were able to keep the club up over the last 5 games. At least Doll has 9 games to work with...
Bundesliga, Round 25
Schalke once again proved that they struggle with the very idea of winning the title. They struggled at Hannover to get a result, and in the end, had to be happy with a point. Lucky for them, they didn't give up any ground to their rivals though. Stuttgart put in a lame performance at home, and only managed a scoreless dud against Wolfsburg. Even worse, newly minted German international and leading Bundesliga scorer Mario Gomez went down with an injury - he could be out for 6 weeks. The highly anticipated clash between Bayern and Werder also ended up splitting the points. Bayern showed some decent initiative at times, but Bremen were always good for the draw. Nevertheless, only a few weeks ago the champions were down 12 and dead and buried. Now they're down 6 and perhaps have a chance to defend the title, simply because nobody else seems to want it.
Nürnberg dominated most of the game against Frankfurt, but found themselves trailing 0-2. But a furious assault in the last 10 minutes allowed them to rescue a point. A UEFA spot would seem to be the reward for a decent season. Berlin doesn't seem to want it, as they went down in flames to relegation threatened Gladbach. Nando Rafael was the hero, sinking his ex-club with a double-strike.
An amazing win for Aachen in a critical relegation battle at Cottbus. Alemannia certainly didn't di things the easy way. First, German international forward Jan Schlaudraff (Bayern next season) missed a penalty. Then Sascha Dum got his ass tossed out (for insulting the ref). Also, their Sportsdirector got booted out of the stands by Cottbus. Mainz continued their stunning comeback. Dead and buried by Xmas, they have been the hottest club in the league since then. They won yet another critical relegation battle, upending Bielefeld on a penalty. Hamburg has continued their late wakeup call as well, although their scoreless draw with Leverkusen was probably somewhat of a disappointment, given their return to form. Finally, Bochum dumped Dortmund in a Ruhr derby. Greek striker Theofanis Gekas was the hero once again.
Top Goal scorers: 1 Mario Gomez VfB Stuttgart 13 2 Theofanis Gekas VfL Bochum 12 3 Roy Makaay Bayern München 12 4 Alexander Frei Borussia Dortmund 11 5 Marko Pantelic Hertha BSC 11 6 Miroslav Klose Werder Bremen 11 7 Kevin Kuranyi FC Schalke 04 11 8 Naohiro Takahara Eintracht Frankfurt 10
Team of the Week: Aachen, Bochum
Turd of the Weak: Cottbus
Attendance: 368,588 (40,954 avg), 17 goals
1. FC Nürnberg - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:2 (0:1) 44,055 (Spycher og, Vittek - Kyrgiakos, Takahara) Hannover 96 - FC Schalke 04 1:1 (1:1) 49,000 (Tarnat - Halil Altintop) Borussia M'gladbach - Hertha BSC 3:1 (1:0) 40,518 (Rafael 2, Delura - Gimenez) VfL Bochum - Borussia Dortmund 2:0 (0:0) 31,278 (Gekas 2) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Arminia Bielefeld 1:0 (0:0) 20,200 (Andreasen) VfB Stuttgart - VfL Wolfsburg 0:0 (0:0) 44,000 Energie Cottbus - Alemannia Aachen 0:2 (0:1) 15,200 (Rösler, Pinto) Bayern München - Werder Bremen 1:1 (1:0) 69,000 (Podolski - Rosenberg) Hamburger SV - Bayer Leverkusen 0:0 (0:0) 55,337 1 FC Schalke 04 25 15 5 5 41:25 +16 50 2 Werder Bremen 25 14 5 6 59:33 +26 47 3 VfB Stuttgart 25 13 7 5 42:29 +13 46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 25 13 5 7 39:30 +9 44 5 1. FC Nürnberg 25 8 13 4 36:24 +12 37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 25 10 6 9 39:35 +4 36 7 Hannover 96 25 9 7 9 33:37 -4 34 8 Hertha BSC Berlin 25 9 7 9 36:41 -5 34 9 Alemannia Aachen 25 8 6 11 39:45 -6 30 10 1. FSV Mainz 05 25 7 9 9 23:35 -12 30 11 VfL Wolfsburg 25 6 11 8 24:28 -4 29 12 Hamburger SV 25 5 13 7 29:27 +2 28 13 Borussia Dortmund 25 7 7 11 29:37 -8 28 14 Energie Cottbus 25 7 7 11 28:36 -8 28 15 VfL Bochum 25 7 6 12 29:39 -10 27 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Eintracht Frankfurt 25 5 12 8 32:44 -12 27 17 Arminia Bielefeld 25 6 8 11 31:34 -3 26 18 Borussia M'gladbach 25 6 6 13 21:31 -10 24
2. Liga, Round 25
Greuther Fürth has re-entered the promotion race with an impressive win in Duisburg. They had gotten off to a poor start, but seem to have rediscovered their form and will make their annual run at promotion before choking. Meanwhile, the Zebras seem to be a bit shaky now. Since Offenbach fought off Rostock, the real winner this week is Karlsruhe, winners at relegation crisis Jena. KSC now holds a 7 point lead at the top, and more importantly, a massive 11 points (12 including Goal Difference bonus) in the promotion sweepstakes. With only 9 matches left to play, it's almost inconceivable that they won't be going up. Kaiserslautern took advantage of Duisburg stubbing their toe, as their hard-fought 2-1 win over 1860 moves them equal on points with MSV. Aue missed a chance to move closer, as they were unceremoniously dumped by last place Braunschweig.
Attendance: 141,790 (15,754 avg), 28 goals
Wacker Burghausen - SC Freiburg 2:2 (0:1) 4,250 (Bogavac, Krejci - Pitroipa, Nicu og) Eintr. Braunschweig - Erzgebirge Aue 1:0 (0:0) 12,000 (Atem) FC Augsburg - TuS Koblenz 2:0 (0:0) 11,000 (Hdiouad, Haas) MSV Duisburg - Greuther Fürth 0:2 (0:0) 16,081 (Timm, Fuchs) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Karlsruher SC 1:3 (1:2) 10,394 (Zimmermann - Federico, Kapllani, Carnell) Kickers Offenbach - Hansa Rostock 1:1 (1:0) 11,253 (Pospischil - Kern) 1. FC Köln - SpVgg Unterhaching 4:1 (2:0) 39,000 (Gambino 2, Helmes 2 - Rathgeber) SC Paderborn 07 - Rot-Weiss Essen 3:2 (1:1) 7,812 (Müller, Djurisic, Krupnikovic - Boskovic, Lorenzón) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - 1860 München 2:1 (1:1) 30,000 (Ziemer, Meissner - Göktan) 1 Karlsruher SC 25 16 6 3 55:27 +28 54 2 Hansa Rostock 25 12 11 2 37:20 +17 47 3 MSV Duisburg 25 11 10 4 44:29 +15 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 25 11 10 4 34:20 +14 43 5 Greuther Fürth 25 11 6 8 39:29 +10 39 6 Erzgebirge Aue 25 12 3 10 38:34 +4 39 7 SC Freiburg 25 10 9 6 35:32 +3 39 8 FC Augsburg 25 9 9 7 28:23 +5 36 9 TSV 1860 München 25 10 5 10 35:36 -1 35 10 1. FC Köln 25 9 7 9 36:35 +1 34 11 TuS Koblenz 25 8 7 10 27:33 -6 31 12 SC Paderborn 07 25 7 9 9 22:26 -4 30 13 Kickers Offenbach 25 8 6 11 32:39 -7 30 14 SpVgg Unterhaching 25 6 7 12 24:33 -9 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 25 6 7 12 27:44 -17 25 16 Rot-Weiss Essen 25 5 7 13 26:32 -6 22 17 Wacker Burghausen 25 4 8 13 25:49 -24 20 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 25 3 7 15 12:35 -23 16
Euro Roundup
Champions League: Bayern München - Real Madrid 2:1 (1:0) 66,000 (Makaay, Lucio - van Nistelrooy) UEFA Cup: Racing Lens - Bayer Leverkusen 2:1 (1:0) 32,000 (Monterubbio, Cousin - Haggui) Celta Vigo - Werder Bremen 0:1 (0:0) 9,236 (Almeida)The midweek saw decent results for the few remaining Bundesliga clubs in Euro competition. Bayern controlled the match against Real Madrid, and Roy Makaay scored one of the quickest goals ever, 10 seconds into the match. Since Bayern had already drawn 2-2 in the Bernabeu leg, it wasn't too much of a shock. München dominated most of the match, and it wasn't until a dodgy late penalty that Real showed any life.
In UEFA Cup, Werder won a boring match in Vigo, putting them in good position for the return. The Galicians are strangely uninterested in Euro play, as under 10,000 bothered to show up at the Balaidos. However, perhaps that is understandable, because the last time Celta had a decent Euro run (Champions League about 3 years ago, included away win at AC Milan), they managed to get relegated in the Primera. And since they're struggling mightily this year as well, maybe it's best they get eliminated.
No such worries for French side Lens, but Bayer Leverkusen still is in a decent position for the return match.
March 4, 2007
Bundesliga, Round 24
Schalke doesn't appear to have the nerves to win the title. They generally dominated the 1st half, and except for a couple of Hamburg chances on breaks, had all the ooportunities to put the game away. But the Hamburg defense held firm, helped by poor finishing. For HSV, once again it was Dutch playmaker Rafael van der Vaart who was decisive, as he again scored to give HSV the match.
Stuttgart, who have been in decent form lately, ran into a buzzsaw in Leverkusen and went down in flames. The winners this week were Werder Bremen, easy winners over Bochum thanks to a hattrick from Aaron Hunt, and Bayern, whose win in Berlin allows them to climb back into the race.
A huge away win for Cottbus, as the relegation battle remains red hot. Energie stunned Dortmund and move out of the immediate relegation zone, and drag Borussia back into trouble. Bielefeld, which had collapsed in the new year, got a crucial 3 points against Nürnberg. Bad news for Bochum and Gladbach, both lame away performances. Especially Gladbach is in danger of losing site of the salvation line, now essentially 6 points due to their poor goal difference. Frankfurt finally got back on track with a win against the recently in-form Hannover.
Team of the Week: Hamburg, Cottbus
Turd of the Weak: Schalke
Attendance: 361,093 (40,120 avg), 30 goals
FC Schalke 04 - Hamburger SV 0:2 (0:0) 61,482 (van der Vaart, Olic) Hertha BSC Berlin - Bayern München 2:3 (0:2) 72,220 (Gimenez, van Burik - Salihamidzic, Podolski, Makaay) Arminia Bielefeld - 1. FC Nürnberg 3:2 (1:1) 18,444 (Kucera, Wichniarek, Böhme - Banovic, Engelhardt) Bayer Leverkusen - VfB Stuttgart 3:1 (2:0) 22,500 (Voronin, Freier, Juan - Cacau) VfL Wolfsburg - Borussia M'gladbach 1:0 (0:0) 21,343 (Makiadi) Eintracht Frankfurt - Hannover 96 2:0 (0:0) 40,038 (Takahara, Thurk) Werder Bremen - VfL Bochum 3:0 (1:0) 40,156 (Hunt 3) Alemannia Aachen - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:1 (0:1) 20,800 (Schlaudraff, Reghecampf - Zidan) Borussia Dortmund - Energie Cottbus 2:3 (1:1) 64,100 (Frei 2 - Munteanu 2, Shao) 1 FC Schalke 04 24 15 4 5 40:24 +16 49 2 Werder Bremen 24 14 4 6 58:32 +26 46 3 VfB Stuttgart 24 13 6 5 42:29 +13 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 24 13 4 7 38:29 +9 43 5 1. FC Nürnberg 24 8 12 4 34:22 +12 36 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 24 10 5 9 39:35 +4 35 7 Hertha BSC Berlin 24 9 7 8 35:38 -3 34 8 Hannover 96 24 9 6 9 32:36 -4 33 9 VfL Wolfsburg 24 6 10 8 24:28 -4 28 10 Borussia Dortmund 24 7 7 10 29:35 -6 28 11 Energie Cottbus 24 7 7 10 28:34 -6 28 12 Hamburger SV 24 5 12 7 29:27 +2 27 13 Alemannia Aachen 24 7 6 11 37:45 -8 27 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 24 6 9 9 22:35 -13 27 15 Arminia Bielefeld 24 6 8 10 31:33 -2 26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Eintracht Frankfurt 24 5 11 8 30:42 -12 26 17 VfL Bochum 24 6 6 12 27:39 -12 24 18 Borussia M'gladbach 24 5 6 13 18:30 -12 21
2. Liga, Round 24
Big wins for Aue and Freiburg, who both picked up big wins to maintain their hopes for promotion. Losses would have just about sunk them. It's hard to take Aue seriously, but they've proven that they can stay close to the promotion spots. Freiburg was almost dead and buried after their crap season start, but have quietly moved back into promotion range. Rostock dropped some unnecessary points as they were held to a home draw by lowly Burghausen. Leaders Karlsruhe were able to take advantage, as they won against Köln in a tough match. The visitors have had quite a few lame performances this season, but pressed in the Wildparkstadion.
At the bottom, a huge relegation battle win for Unterhaching, upending Jena.
Attendance: 140,953 (15,661 avg)
Erzgebirge Aue - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 1:0 (1:0) 14,100 (Dostalek) SpVgg Unterhaching - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 2:0 (1:0) 5,100 (Lechleiter, Rathgeber) Greuther Fürth - FC Augsburg 2:1 (2:1) 6,400 (Timm, Adlung - Luz) Hansa Rostock - Wacker Burghausen 0:0 (0:0) 16,000 TuS Koblenz - SC Paderborn 07 3:1 (0:0) 8,737 (Dzaka, Maierhofer, Sukalo - Schüßler) Rot-Weiss Essen - Kickers Offenbach 2:2 (0:1) 14,416 (Boskovic, Lorenzón - Toppmöller 2) TSV 1860 München - Eintr. Braunschweig 2:0 (0:0) 27,900 (Göktan, Berhalter) SC Freiburg - MSV Duisburg 2:1 (1:0) 19,300 (Iashvilie, Bencik - Mokhtari) Karlsruher SC - 1. FC Köln 2:1 (1:1) 29,000 (Freis, Kapllani - Novavkovic) 1 Karlsruher SC 24 15 6 3 52:26 +26 51 2 Hansa Rostock 24 12 10 2 36:19 +17 46 3 MSV Duisburg 24 11 10 3 44:27 +17 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 24 10 10 4 32:19 +13 40 5 Erzgebirge Aue 24 12 3 9 38:33 +5 39 6 SC Freiburg 24 10 8 6 33:30 +3 38 7 Greuther Fürth 24 10 6 8 37:29 +8 36 8 TSV 1860 München 24 10 5 9 34:34 0 35 9 FC Augsburg 24 8 9 7 26:23 +3 33 10 1. FC Köln 24 8 7 9 32:34 -3 31 11 TuS Koblenz 24 8 7 9 27:31 -4 31 12 Kickers Offenbach 24 8 5 11 31:38 -7 29 13 SC Paderborn 07 24 6 9 9 19:24 -5 27 14 SpVgg Unterhaching 24 6 7 11 23:29 -6 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 24 6 7 11 26:41 -15 25 16 Rot-Weiss Essen 24 5 7 12 24:29 -5 22 17 Wacker Burghausen 24 4 7 13 23:47 -24 19 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 24 2 7 15 11:35 -24 13
February 28, 2007
DFB Pokal, Quarterfinals
VfB Stuttgart - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:0 (1:0) 32,000 (Cacau, Hitzlsberger) VfL Wolfsburg - Alemannia Aachen 2:0 (2:0) 14,198 (Klimowicz, Marcelinho) 1.FC Nürnberg - Hannover 96 0:0 31,500 (Nürnberg 4-2 penalties) Kickers Offenbach - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:3 (0:1) 24,000 (Fink, Takahara 2)
No real surprises, and in general, the relatively small crowds indicate that there isn't much interest in the Cup at the moment. (Of course, the midweek matchups might have something to do with it as well.)
Stuttgart was unimpressive on the weekend in the Bundesliga fixture, but this time they had Hertha's number and advance to the semis.
Wolfsburg dominated their match with Aachen, and had no problems after an early Klimowicz goal. Alemannia was lame offensively, and couldn't stop Marcelinho, who controlled the VW attack and crowned his effort with a strike.
Nürnberg defeated Hannover on penalties, as coach Hans Meyer continues his "campaign" to have a statue built of himself in town center :) Meyer, who took over "der Club" when they looked like sure relegation fodder a while back, has guided them back to respectability. Once again, he made a clever move that paid big dividends. After a scoreless 120 minutes, he subbed out GK Rafael Schäfer, who had been excellent. In came reserve GK Daniel Klewer - and he stopped two penalties, winning the match.
The Hessen derby was just what the doctor ordered for two clubs who've been in freefall the last few weeks. In front of a sold out Bieberer Berg crowd, Eintracht dominated the match and "kickered" the Kickers in the ass. The difference in class was too much, and the last non-Bundesliga club went down.
February 25, 2007
Bundesliga, Round 23
The winner this week was probably Bayern, although they only squeaked by Wolfsburg in a rather unimpressive outing. Schalke was stunned at home by Bayer Aspirin, and neither Stuttgart nor Werder could take full advantage, only making up a single point. Stuttgart had a rather listless performance against Berlin, and Werder had their hands filled with a desperately fighting Gladbach squad.
Clubs at the bottom had some dramatic results. Although Gladbach is dead last, one probably would have expected a beating at home to Werder, but they came out with a point. Hamburg showed further evidence that they may have finally woken up, sending Frankfurt into despair and into the drop zone. Once again, the key figure was Dutch playmaker Rafael van der Vaart, whose return to form and goal scoring lead the way.
Mainz got another huge victory. Once again, mid-season transfer Mohamed Zidan was the hero. Losing Nürnberg missed a chance to solidify their UEFA Cup spot. If Mainz stays up, this Winter transfer from Bremen will go down as the key maneuver by Jürgen Klopp in saving the club from what looked like certain relegation. Cottbus won a key battle that Bielefeld slip below the water line. Aachen and Bochum split the points in a hard fought battle, and it was enough for both to keep their head above water.
In the "ho-hum" section of the table, Hannover had a nice win against Dortmund.
Team of the Week: Mainz
Turd of the Weak: Frankfurt, Bielefeld
Attendance: 378,445 (42,049 avg), 26 goals
VfB Stuttgart - Hertha BSC 0:0 (0:0) 42,600 Hannover 96 - Borussia Dortmund 4:2 (0:0) 43,842 (Huszti, Stajner, Bruggink 2 - Smolarek, Kringe) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:1 (2:0) 20,300 (Zidan 2 - Saenko) Energie Cottbus - Arminia Bielefeld 2:1 (0:1) 12,227 (Kukielka, Radu - Gabriel) Hamburger SV - Eintracht Frankfurt 3:1 (1:0) 57,000 (van der Vaart, Trochowski, Olic - Takahara) Bayern München - VfL Wolfsburg 2:1 (1:0) 69,000 (Podolski, van Bommel - Makiadi) VfL Bochum - Alemannia Aachen 2:2 (1:1) 21,350 (Gekas, Epalle - Ibisevic, Lehmann) Borussia M'gladbach - Werder Bremen 2:2 (1:1) 50,644 (Delura, Rafael - Womé, Vranjes) FC Schalke 04 - Bayer Leverkusen 0:1 (0:0) 61,482 (Kiessling) 1 FC Schalke 04 23 15 4 4 40:22 +18 49 2 VfB Stuttgart 23 13 6 4 41:26 +15 45 3 Werder Bremen 23 13 4 6 55:32 +23 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 23 12 4 7 35:27 +8 40 5 1. FC Nürnberg 23 8 12 3 32:19 +13 36 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Hertha BSC Berlin 23 9 7 7 33:35 -2 34 7 Hannover 96 23 9 6 8 32:34 -2 33 8 Bayer Leverkusen 23 9 5 9 36:34 +2 32 9 Borussia Dortmund 23 7 7 9 27:32 -5 28 10 1. FSV Mainz 05 23 6 9 8 21:33 -12 27 11 VfL Wolfsburg 23 5 10 8 23:28 -5 25 12 Energie Cottbus 23 6 7 10 25:32 -7 25 13 Hamburger SV 23 4 12 7 27:27 0 24 14 Alemannia Aachen 23 6 6 11 35:44 -9 24 15 VfL Bochum 23 6 6 11 27:36 -9 24 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Arminia Bielefeld 23 5 8 10 28:31 -3 23 17 Eintracht Frankfurt 23 4 11 8 28:42 -14 23 18 Borussia M'gladbach 23 5 6 12 18:29 -11 21
2. Liga, Round 23
The usually "calm" Zweite Liga had the gunslingers in full aim this round, as goals were flying. The wild 9 goal affair in Freiburg drops Aue from keeping pace in the promotion race, but for the hosts, it was probably their last chance to stay in the race, so a critical win for them.
Leaders Karlsruhe were surprised in Augsburg. Just a blip on their way to the Bundesliga no doubt, but a nice victory for Augsburg, which is having a decent season on the field and at the gate. Kaiserslautern took advantage of their chance and blasted Unterhaching. However, the big news was that Rostock won at Duisburg and claim 2nd place. In this hot battle, MSV forward Lavric got his ass tossed for protesting too vigorously after two of his "goals" were called off for offsides.
Relegation threatened Jena came up with a huge win, as they slammed 1860. Critical away win for Essen at luckless Braunschweig as well. While RWE maintains safety in view, this was the last straw for Braunschweig, who now have to pretty much resign to the inevitable. With Burghausen losing to Fürth at home, another relegation candidate is close to being finished off as well. The Greuther still seem unlikely to make a run at promotion, as their poor season start dug them in a hole too deeply.
Another crap result for pre-season favorite Köln. Although the relegation panic has disappeared after some straightening out by new coach Daum, they still suck, not even able to beat Paderborn. A critical point for the visitors though.
The roller coaster ride continues in Offenbach, who have now lost 4 in a row. They had pulled themselves up by the bootstraps with a six game win streak, but are now in danger of falling back into the relegation mire. Nice win for Koblenz, keeping their head above water beyond expectations.
Attendance: 146,081 (16,231 avg), 39 goals
FC Carl Zeiss Jena - 1860 München 3:1 (3:0) 10,000 (Tapalovic, Ashvetia 2 - Vucicevic) Eintr. Braunschweig - Rot-Weiss Essen 0:1 (0:1) 14,000 (Lorenzón) Kickers Offenbach - TuS Koblenz 2:3 (2:3) 9,520 (Toppmöller, Türker - Sukalo 3) Wacker Burghausen - Greuther Fürth 3:4 (0:2) 5,320 (Burkhardt, Krejci, Aigner - Fuchs 2, Timm 2) FC Augsburg - Karlsruher SC 3:1 (2:0) 16,200 (Strauss, Teinert, Mölzl - Kapllani) SC Freiburg - Erzgebirge Aue 5:4 (1:2) 11,700 (Pitroipa 2, Iashvili, Bencik, Antar - Juskowiak, Klinka, Rangelov, Dostalek) 1. FC Köln - SC Paderborn 07 1:1 (1:1) 36,000 (Helmes - de Graef) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - SpVgg Unterhaching 4:0 (4:0) 24,094 (Ziemer, Bohl, Meissner 2) MSV Duisburg - Hansa Rostock 1:2 (1:1) 19,247 (Schlicke - Yelen, Shahpourzadeh) 1 Karlsruher SC 23 14 6 3 50:25 +25 48 2 Hansa Rostock 23 12 9 2 36:19 +17 45 3 MSV Duisburg 23 11 10 2 43:25 +18 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 23 10 10 3 32:18 +14 40 5 Erzgebirge Aue 23 11 3 9 37:33 +4 36 6 SC Freiburg 23 9 8 6 31:29 +2 35 7 Greuther Fürth 23 9 6 8 35:28 +7 33 8 FC Augsburg 23 8 9 6 25:21 +4 33 9 TSV 1860 München 23 9 5 9 32:34 -2 32 10 1. FC Köln 23 8 7 8 31:32 -1 31 11 TuS Koblenz 23 7 7 9 24:30 -6 28 12 Kickers Offenbach 23 8 4 11 29:36 -7 28 13 SC Paderborn 07 23 6 9 8 18:21 -3 27 14 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 23 6 7 10 26:39 -13 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 SpVgg Unterhaching 23 5 7 11 21:29 -8 22 16 Rot-Weiss Essen 23 5 6 12 22:27 -5 21 17 Wacker Burghausen 23 4 6 13 23:47 -24 18 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 23 2 7 14 11:33 -22 13
Italian style hooliganism
Outraegous Italian style hooligan behaviour made an appearance in Germany once again this weekend. It's been fairly common that frustrated fans in the southland have attacked players, vandalized their cars, threatened their girlfriends etc. But in Germany, for the most part, abusive activity has been been mostly limited to drunken rantings in the stadium. But a bunch of hooligans in the east have taken it too a whole new level. After 3rd division Dynamo Dresden lost 0-1 at home against Regionalliga Nord leaders VfL Osnabrück on Saturday, the 12,000 fans weren't too happy, to say the least. So on Sunday, some 50 hooligans matched over to the Dynamo training facility and interrupted practice, threatening the players. Of course they covered their faces with ski-masks to avoid detection, and jostled with a camera crew from MDR, the local media outlet. Although the club has promised prosecution and "stadium ban" for any of the criminals that can be identified, the players were not satisfied. Some have blamed club management for weasle-ly statements in the past, criticizing the player's effort. So apparently they have decided to boycott their next match, unless something drastic is done.
February 18, 2007
Bundesliga, Round 22
"Revenge of the bottom feeders" might be a good description for this week's action. Hamburg, Aachen, Mainz and Bochum all grabbed maximum points, and took some major scalps in the process. The biggest upset was probably Aachen's win over defending champ Bayern. Huge points for Alemannia in the relegation battle. For Bayern, the crap performances continue, and now they even have to be careful they don't fall out of a UEFA Cup spot, as the Champions League qualification is beginning to dim! Mainz got an unexpected win in Berlin, as coach Jürgen Klopp rallied his troops for a stunning comeback. HSV put in a good performance, probably their best of the season, against a disorganized Werder, which has shockingly fallen from their perch. Just a few weeks ago, it seemed Bremen was on an unstoppable march to the title
Schalke couldn't take advantage of their rivals slip up, as they let a two goal lead vanish against VW. not a terrible result, but considering they had the points in the bag, they've got be disappointed. Meanwhile, Stuttgart thoroughly thumped Frankfurt to move into 2nd.
Greek striker Theofanis Gekas was once again the hero, as Bochum got a huge win at Bielefeld, and actually move out of the relegation zone. Dortmund, Hannover and Nürnberg all squeaked by with with minimalist results.
Team of the Week: Aachen, Bochum, Mainz, all with huge wins
Turd of the Weak: Bayern, Bremen
Attendance: 329,956 (36,662 avg), 21 goals
Eintracht Frankfurt - VfB Stuttgart 0:4 (0:3) 46,000 (Hilbert, Gomez, Osorio, Hitzlsberger) Alemannia Aachen - Bayern München 1:0 (1:0) 20,832 (Klitzpera) Werder Bremen - Hamburger SV 0:2 (0:1) 42,100 (van der Vaart 2) VfL Wolfsburg - FC Schalke 04 2:2 (0:2) 29,346 (Klimowicz, Marcelinho - Kuryani 2) Borussia Dortmund - Borussia M'gladbach 1:0 (1:0) 73,600 (Frei) Hertha BSC Berlin - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:2 (1:0) 35,473 (Dardai - Zidan, Andreasen) Bayer Leverkusen - Hannover 96 0:1 (0:1) 21,000 (Rosenthal) Arminia Bielefeld - VfL Bochum 1:3 (1:2) 21,025 (Wichniarekk - Gekas 2, Dambrowski) 1. FC Nürnberg - Energie Cottbus 1:0 (0:0) 40,580 (Beauchamp) 1 FC Schalke 04 22 15 4 3 40:21 +19 49 2 VfB Stuttgart 22 13 5 4 41:26 +15 44 3 Werder Bremen 22 13 3 6 53:30 +23 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 22 11 4 7 33:26 +7 37 5 1. FC Nürnberg 22 8 12 2 31:17 +14 36 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Hertha BSC Berlin 22 9 6 7 33:35 -2 33 7 Hannover 96 22 8 6 8 28:32 -4 30 8 Bayer Leverkusen 22 8 5 9 35:34 +1 29 9 Borussia Dortmund 22 7 7 8 25:28 -3 28 10 VfL Wolfsburg 22 5 10 7 22:26 -4 25 11 1. FSV Mainz 05 22 5 9 8 19:32 -13 24 12 Arminia Bielefeld 22 5 8 9 27:29 -2 23 13 Alemannia Aachen 22 6 5 11 33:42 -9 23 14 VfL Bochum 22 6 5 11 25:34 -9 23 15 Eintracht Frankfurt 22 4 11 7 27:39 -12 23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Energie Cottbus 22 5 7 10 23:31 -8 22 17 Hamburger SV 22 3 12 7 24:26 -2 21 18 Borussia M'gladbach 22 5 5 12 16:27 -11 20
2.Liga, Round 22
One result sticks our like a sore thumb: Köln got bitch-slapped in Essen. Coach Christoph Daum hasn't been so embarassed since he volunteered a test to prove he wasn't on drugs...and failed. Probably will be the highpoint of the season for the soon to be relegated Essen squad, so at least they'll have something to remember.
A southwest derby saw upstart minnow Koblenz hold off Kaiserslautern. Leaders Karlsruhe took advantage of their rivals slip-ups by defeating luckless Braunschweig. Neither Rostock nor Duisburg could win.
Attendance: 120,213 (13,357 avg), 21 goals
TuS Koblenz - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:0 (0:0) 15,000 Erzgebirge Aue - Wacker Burghausen 3:0 (1:0) 9,300 (Rangelov, Klinka, Dostalek) SpVgg Unterhaching - Kickers Offenbach 2:0 (1:0) 3,000 (Feldhahn, Kolomaznik) Rot-Weiss Essen - 1. FC Köln 5:0 (3:0) 16,152 (Boskovic 2, Kiskanc, Calik, Barut) TSV 1860 München - MSV Duisburg 2:2 (1:2) 30,000 (Hoffmann, Vucicevic - Mokhtari, Lavric) Karlsruher SC - Eintr. Braunschweig 2:0 (1:0) 21,100 (Carnell, Kaufmann) SC Paderborn 07 - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 0:1 (0:1) 5,361 (Wachsmuth) Hansa Rostock - FC Augsburg 2:2 (1:2) 14,100 (Yelen 2 - Haas, Lawarée) Greuther Fürth - SC Freiburg 0:0 (0:0) 6,200 1 Karlsruher SC 22 14 6 2 49:22 +27 48 2 MSV Duisburg 22 11 10 1 42:23 +19 43 3 Hansa Rostock 22 11 9 2 34:18 +16 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 22 9 10 3 28:18 +10 37 5 Erzgebirge Aue 22 11 3 8 33:28 +5 36 6 SC Freiburg 22 8 8 6 26:25 +1 32 7 TSV 1860 München 22 9 5 8 31:31 0 32 8 Greuther Fürth 22 8 6 8 31:25 +6 30 9 FC Augsburg 22 7 9 6 22:20 +2 30 10 1. FC Köln 22 8 6 8 30:31 -1 30 11 Kickers Offenbach 22 8 4 10 27:33 -6 28 12 SC Paderborn 07 22 6 8 8 17:20 -3 26 13 TuS Koblenz 22 6 7 9 21:28 -7 25 14 SpVgg Unterhaching 22 5 7 10 21:25 -4 22 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 22 5 7 10 23:38 -15 22 16 Rot-Weiss Essen 22 4 6 12 21:27 -6 18 17 Wacker Burghausen 22 4 6 12 20:43 -23 18 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 22 2 7 13 11:32 -21 13
February 12, 2007
Bundesliga, Round 21
Schalke has opened up a stunning 6 point gap at the top. Most likely they'll blow it at the end, but things are pretty giddy right now in Gelsenkirchen. They controlled the match against Hertha. Both keepers, Neuer (Schalke) and Fiedler (Hertha) were in top form, but Schalke created more chances and go out deserved winner. Stuttgart stunned Bremen, although the match was closer than the final score indicated. VfB GK Timo Hildebrand was in superb form, as he denied several clear Werder chances. Meanwhile, Stuttgart, driven forward by the outstanding midfielders Hilbert and Magnin, was clinical in their finishing. Hannover and Wolfsburg had an entertaining Friday night match that was dominated by Marcelinho pulling the strings for VW. A good comeback from 0-2 allowed the 96ers to salvage a point.
The amazing turnaround of Mainz continues. New signing from Werder Mohamed Zidan got the hattrick as they pulled out of the relegation zone for the 1st time in ages. Jürgen Klopp has his players and fans believing they can escape relegation, which would be an amazing feat, considering he's doing it with mirrors. Hamburg needed lots of help from the ref, but in the end finally got a home win. Nürnberg got a lucky win in Bochum, mainly because they converted and VfL was too crappy to take their chances.
Bayern was hardly impressive, but finally got back in the win column thanks to an early goal by Roy Makaay. The circus continues as coach Ottmar Hitzfed remains adamant that he's only staying on till season's end. Among names being bandied about as a replacement are Bernd Schuster and even Lothar Matthäus
Team of the Week: Stuttgart, Mainz
Turd of the Weak: Bochum
Attendance: 390,056 (43,340 avg), 26 goals
Hannover 96 - VfL Wolfsburg 2:2 (1:2) 35,244 (Balitsch, Fahrenhhorst - Klimowicz, Krzynowek) VfB Stuttgart - Werder Bremen 4:1 (3:1) 56,500 (Hilbert, Gomez, Magnin, Streller - Diego) FC Schalke 04 - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:0 (0:0) 61,482 (Kuranyi, Lövenkrands) Hamburger SV - Borussia Dortmund 3:0 (2:0) 57,000 (van der Vaart, Benjamin, Mahdavikia) Bayer Leverkusen - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:2 (1:1) 22,500 (Jones o.g., Kiessling - Kyrgiakos, Meier) Borussia M'gladbach - Alemannia Aachen 0:0 (0:0) 50,230 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Energie Cottbus 4:1 (3:1) 20,000 (Zidan 3, Andreasen - Radu) VfL Bochum - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:2 (0:0) 18,100 (Saenko 2) Bayern München - Arminia Bielefeld 1:0 (1:0) 69,000 (Makaay) 1 FC Schalke 04 21 15 3 3 38:19 +19 48 2 Werder Bremen 21 13 3 5 53:28 +25 42 3 VfB Stuttgart 21 12 5 4 37:26 +11 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 21 11 4 6 33:25 +8 37 5 1. FC Nürnberg 21 7 12 2 30:17 +13 33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Hertha BSC Berlin 21 9 6 6 32:33 -1 33 7 Bayer Leverkusen 21 8 5 8 35:33 +2 29 8 Hannover 96 21 7 6 8 27:32 -5 27 9 Borussia Dortmund 21 6 7 8 24:28 -4 25 10 VfL Wolfsburg 21 5 9 7 20:24 -4 24 11 Arminia Bielefeld 21 5 8 8 26:26 0 23 12 Eintracht Frankfurt 21 4 11 6 27:35 -8 23 13 Energie Cottbus 21 5 7 9 23:30 -7 22 14 1. FSV Mainz 05 21 4 9 8 17:31 -14 21 15 Alemannia Aachen 21 5 5 11 32:42 -10 20 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Borussia M'gladbach 21 5 5 11 16:26 -10 20 17 VfL Bochum 21 5 5 11 22:33 -11 20 18 Hamburger SV 21 2 12 7 22:26 -4 18P> 2. Liga, Round 21
The top of table clash turned out turned out to be a good match, with Duisburg coming back and winning. The Zebras thereby move into 2nd place and prevent KSC from running away with the title. Rostock and Lautern had a fair draw, obviously a better result for Hansa. Köln won their 3rd in a row, to get out of relegation trouble. however, they continue to play like crap, and had a lucky win at luckless Braunschweig. GK Stefan Wessels played like god and even stopped a penalty to preserve the win.
Attendance: 120,245 (13,360 avg), 19 goals
Eintr. Braunschweig - 1. FC Köln 0:1 (0:1) 19,700 (Banecki o.g.) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Hansa Rostock 1:1 (0:1) 30,372 (Vignal - Kern) FC Augsburg - SpVgg Unterhaching 2:1 (2:1) 10,400 (Lawarée, Hdiouad - Lechleiter) Greuther Fürth - Erzgebirge Aue 2:1 (1:0) 6,400 (Timm 2 - Curri) Kickers Offenbach - SC Paderborn 07 0:2 (0:2) 8,590 (Müller 2) SC Freiburg - TSV 1860 München 3:0 (0:0) 14,300 (Antar 2, Bencik) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Rot-Weiss Essen 2:0 (1:0) 7,019 (Ashvetia, Sykora) Wacker Burghausen - TuS Koblenz 0:0 (0:0) 4,340 MSV Duisburg - Karlsruher SC 2:1 (1:1) 19,124 (Daun, Mokhtari - Kapllani) 1 Karlsruher SC 21 13 6 2 47:22 +25 45 2 MSV Duisburg 21 11 9 1 40:21 +19 42 3 Hansa Rostock 21 11 8 2 32:16 +16 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 21 9 9 3 28:18 +10 36 5 Erzgebirge Aue 21 10 3 8 30:28 +2 33 6 SC Freiburg 21 8 7 6 26:25 +1 31 7 TSV 1860 München 21 9 4 8 29:29 0 31 8 1. FC Köln 21 8 6 7 30:26 +4 30 9 Greuther Fürth 21 8 5 8 31:25 +6 29 10 FC Augsburg 21 7 8 6 20:18 +2 29 11 Kickers Offenbach 21 8 4 9 27:31 -4 28 12 SC Paderborn 07 21 6 8 7 17:19 -2 26 13 TuS Koblenz 21 6 6 9 21:28 -7 24 14 SpVgg Unterhaching 21 4 7 10 19:25 -6 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 21 4 7 10 22:38 -16 19 16 Wacker Burghausen 21 4 6 11 20:40 -20 18 17 Rot-Weiss Essen 21 3 6 12 16:27 -11 15 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 21 2 7 12 11:30 -19 13
February 05, 2007
Bundesliga, Round 20
In a somewhat shock result, Schalke toppled Werder in the match of the season, pitting the leaders in a clash in Bremen.
Bayern's title hopes are now pretty much over. Ottmar Hitzfeld's first game in charge was a disaster, as the defending champions were rolled by Nürnberg in a Bavarian derby. A fine performance by the hosts, as they smacked around the Müncheners like a rag doll.
Another defeat for Hamburg, who stare relegation in the face. HSV is the only original Bundesliga member never to have taken the drop, but the alarms are sounding like never before. They held out somewhat luckily as Hertha pressured in the 2nd half, but surely expected to take a point until the blast by newly signed Brazilian Mineiro.
An important win for Wolfsburg, steering towards safer water, and Gladbach's interim coach Jos Luhukay celebrated a win as they defeated a lame Arminia squad. Federico Insua got the game winner, so perhaps the new coach can inspire his his high-priced Argie import to a run of form. Mainz got a point in the derby with Frankfurt.
Team of the Week: Schalke
Turd of the Weak: Bayern München
Attendance: 323,539 (35,949 avg), 20 goals
1. FC Nürnberg - Bayern München 3:0 (1:0) 47,000 (Saenko, Schroth, Vittek) Hertha BSC Berlin - Hamburger SV 2:1 (0:1) 47,354 (Friedrich, Mineiro - Laas) VfL Wolfsburg - Bayer Leverkusen 3:2 (2:1) 16,621 (Hanke 2, Klimowicz - Kiessling, van der Heyden) Arminia Bielefeld - Borussia M'gladbach 0:2 (0:1) 23,114 (Insua, Jansen) Eintracht Frankfurt - 1. FSV Mainz 05 0:0 (0:0) 51,300 Alemannia Aachen - Hannover 96 1:4 (1:3) 20,800 (Reghecampf - Yankov, Rosenthal, Huszti, Stajner) Energie Cottbus - VfL Bochum 0:0 (0:0) 11,650 Werder Bremen - FC Schalke 04 0:2 (0:1) 42,100 (Lövenkrands 2) Borussia Dortmund - VfB Stuttgart 0:1 (0:0) 63,600 (Gomez) 1 FC Schalke 04 20 14 3 3 36:19 +17 45 2 Werder Bremen 20 13 3 4 52:24 +28 42 3 VfB Stuttgart 20 11 5 4 33:25 +8 38 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 20 10 4 6 32:25 +7 34 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 20 9 6 5 32:31 +1 33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 1. FC Nürnberg 20 6 12 2 28:17 +11 30 7 Bayer Leverkusen 20 8 4 8 33:31 +2 28 8 Hannover 96 20 7 5 8 25:30 -5 26 9 Borussia Dortmund 20 6 7 7 24:25 -1 25 10 Arminia Bielefeld 20 5 8 7 26:25 +1 23 11 VfL Wolfsburg 20 5 8 7 18:22 -4 23 12 Energie Cottbus 20 5 7 8 22:26 -4 22 13 Eintracht Frankfurt 20 4 10 6 25:33 -8 22 14 VfL Bochum 20 5 5 10 22:31 -9 20 15 Alemannia Aachen 20 5 4 11 32:42 -10 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Borussia M'gladbach 20 5 4 11 16:26 -10 19 17 1. FSV Mainz 05 20 3 9 8 13:30 -17 18 18 Hamburger SV 20 1 12 7 19:26 -7 15
2. Liga, Round 20
Something had to give as the two "in-form" clubs met, and leaders karlsruhe came out on top, breaking Offenbach's 6 game win streak. The guests gave up a solid performance, and looked like they might escape with a point, but KSC won in injury, on the balance a deserved victory. Rostock rigted their ship with a victory over a tough Fürth squad. Duisburg had an important away win at Aue, which solidified their claim on the vital 3rd position, and perhaps puts a damper on any promotion dreams of the Erzgebirge. Kaiserslautern played crap, but got the vital points away to stay close in the race. Once again Köln was unimpressive, but they get the points and ease any fears of relegation.
Attendance: 141,563 (15,729 avg), 15 goals
Erzgebirge Aue - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:0) 11,700 (Kurth) Karlsruher SC - Kickers Offenbach 2:1 (0:1) 20,700 (Kapllani, Federico - Türker) TuS Koblenz - Eintr. Braunschweig 1:0 (0:0) 7,416 (Maierhofer) SC Paderborn 07 - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:1 (0:0) 6,785 (Borbely) SpVgg Unterhaching - SC Freiburg 0:2 (0:1) 3,000 (Antar, Iashvili) Hansa Rostock - Greuther Fürth 1:0 (0:0) 13,000 (Hähnge) 1. FC Köln - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1:0 (0:0) 42,500 (Scherz) Rot-Weiss Essen - FC Augsburg 0:0 (0:0) 11,062 TSV 1860 München - Wacker Burghausen 5:1 (1:0) 25,400 (Vucicevic 2, Adler 2, Hoffmann - Krejci) 1 Karlsruher SC 20 13 6 1 46:20 +26 45 2 Hansa Rostock 20 11 7 2 31:15 +16 40 3 MSV Duisburg 20 10 9 1 38:20 +18 39 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 20 9 8 3 27:17 +10 35 5 Erzgebirge Aue 20 10 3 7 29:26 +3 33 6 TSV 1860 München 20 9 4 7 29:26 +3 31 7 Kickers Offenbach 20 8 4 8 27:29 -2 28 8 SC Freiburg 20 7 7 6 23:25 -2 28 9 1. FC Köln 20 7 6 7 29:26 +3 27 10 Greuther Fürth 20 7 5 8 29:24 +5 26 11 FC Augsburg 20 6 8 6 18:17 +1 26 12 SC Paderborn 07 20 5 8 7 15:19 -4 23 13 TuS Koblenz 20 6 5 9 21:28 -7 23 14 SpVgg Unterhaching 20 4 7 9 18:23 -5 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 Wacker Burghausen 20 4 5 11 20:40 -20 17 16 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 20 3 7 10 20:38 -18 16 17 Rot-Weiss Essen 20 3 6 11 16:25 -9 15 18 Eintr. Braunschweig 20 2 7 11 11:29 -18 13
January 31, 2007
Heads roll!!
The midweek matches had some dire consequences for a couple of famous coaches. Felix Magath has been relieved of command of champions Bayern München and apparently will replaced by ex-Bayern manager Ottmar Hitzfeld. (He ruled the roost from 1998-2004). Bayern brass decided to act quickly after the lame 0-0 home performance against Bochum yesterday. Magath had taken over the club in July 2004. Perhaps HSV will fire Thomas Doll and bring in Magath, an ex-HSV star, as their saviour :)
Gladbach head coach Jupp Heynckes resigned after his club failed to win against Nürnberg. His contract ran till 2008, and indications are that it was Heynckes who decided to quit, as club officials have at least pretended to be surprised. He had only taken over in July 2006, and "managed" them into the cellar, probably his least successful coaching stint in his long career. Assistant Jos Luhukay will take over until a replacement is found. Well, Felix Magath is available :)
On Thursday, Hamburg decided to pull the trigger and head coach Thomas Doll was indeed fired. His replacement is Huub Stevens.
Bundesliga, Round 19
Midweek action allowed leaders Bremen and Schalke to distance themselves slightly from the pack. While Werder had an impressive victory at the Alka-Seltzer Arena, Schalke struggled before an own goal gave them the points against a determined Aachen squad. Bayern sucked against a defensively sound Bochum squad, and apparently sealed head coach Felix Magath's fate. Stuttgart took advantage, as their good effort against a tough Arminia lifted them into 3rd.
Hannover probably provided the shock of the week, as they overran a stunningly incompetant Hertha squad. Mainz showed that they certainly haven't thrown in the towel, as they rose up to defeat Dortmund. Hamburg now brings up the rear, which really boggles the imagination, considering that HSV and their fans at least expected to be nailing down one of the Champions League spots this campaign.
Team of the Week: Hannover
Turd of the Weak: Hertha BSC
Attendance: 318,568 (35,396 avg), 22 goals
Borussia M'gladbach - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:0 (0:0) 33,116 VfB Stuttgart - Arminia Bielefeld 3:2 (1:1) 23,000 (Gomez 2, Cacau - Eigler, Ahanfouf) VfL Wolfsburg - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:2 (1:0) 15,097 (Klimowicz, Hanke - Thurk, Meier) Bayern München - VfL Bochum 0:0 (0:0) 64,000 Bayer Leverkusen - Werder Bremen 0:2 (0:1) 22,500 (Klose, Almeida) Hannover 96 - Hertha BSC Berlin 5:0 (3:0) 30,584 (Vinicius 2, Fahrenhorst, Rosenthal, Lala) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Borussia Dortmund 1:0 (0:0) 20,300 (Andreasen) FC Schalke 04 - Alemannia Aachen 2:1 (1:1) 61,482 (Rafinha, Sichone o.g. - Ibisevic) Hamburger SV - Energie Cottbus 1:1 (1:1) 52,484 (Sorin - Radu) 1 Werder Bremen 19 13 3 3 52:22 +30 42 2 FC Schalke 04 19 13 3 3 34:19 +15 42 3 VfB Stuttgart 19 10 5 4 32:25 +7 35 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 FC Bayern München 19 10 4 5 32:22 +10 34 5 Hertha BSC Berlin 19 8 6 5 30:30 0 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 19 8 4 7 31:28 +3 28 7 1. FC Nürnberg 19 5 12 2 25:17 +8 27 8 Borussia Dortmund 19 6 7 6 24:24 0 25 9 Arminia Bielefeld 19 5 8 6 26:23 +3 23 10 Hannover 96 19 6 5 8 21:29 -8 23 11 Energie Cottbus 19 5 6 8 22:26 -4 21 12 Eintracht Frankfurt 19 4 9 6 25:33 -8 21 13 VfL Wolfsburg 19 4 8 7 15:20 -5 20 14 Alemannia Aachen 19 5 4 10 31:38 -7 19 15 VfL Bochum 19 5 4 10 22:31 -9 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 1. FSV Mainz 05 19 3 8 8 13:30 -17 17 17 Borussia M'gladbach 19 4 4 11 14:26 -12 16 18 Hamburger SV 19 1 12 6 18:24 -6 15
January 29, 2007
Bundesliga, Round 18
The Bundesliga restarted with a bang, as Borussia Dortmund brought out a fighting effort and upended champions Bayern. The largest crowd of the season witnessed MOTM Swiss striker Alex Frei knock in a couple of headers as Borussia got back on track. Unless things get straightened out, expect headcoach Felix Magath to get his ass canned by season's end, if not sooner. I suppose a Champions League title would save his rear, "butt" don't bet the family farm. Good restart for Dortmund. If they can hold on to their talent they should be pretty decent, although it all seems to depend on getting their finances in order.
Schalke took a while to get started, but was impressive down the stretch in winning at Frankfurt, who have been fairly tough at home. Perhaps a hopeful sign for the Blues was the double-strike by Kevin Kuranyi, who has mostly sucked at his career with Schalke. However, his performance was outstanding, so is there is even talk of perhaps a return to the national squad. (OK, maybe just from his mum and dad.) Nevertheless, an encouraging sign for Schalke, since at least now they can stop widening the side of the barn that Kuranyi was having trouble hitting :)
Leaders Werder Bremen defended their top-of-table position with a strong performance against Hannov