News and Commentary - 2006/2007 Archive


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May 20, 2007

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


May 13, 2007

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


May 6, 2007

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



April 29, 2007

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



April 22, 2007

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


April 15, 2007

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



April 8, 2007

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



April 2, 2007

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



March 25, 2007

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


March 18, 2007

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...


March 11, 2007

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 	  	18


P> 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 Hannover. The guests actually played pretty well, but eventually were overpowered by a Werder which played excellent football at times, but was otherwise uninspired. They clearly look the strongest club in the Bundesliga this year, which means they'll probably suck over the next few matches.

Hamburg was stunned by a last minute goal that prevented what would have been crucial points. They probably didn't deserve a win in a so-so match, but Thomas Doll really needs a good restart, so he has to be disappointed. HSV remain in the dumpster, which continues to be one of the top stories of the season.

Nürnberg got off to a good start, as they bitch-slapped a suprisingly hapless Stuttgart squad that showed no indication of any title aspirations. Instead they were overrun by a rampant "Club", spearheaded by the outstanding Ivan Saenko. Would the REAL Stuttgart please stand up? Headcoach Armin Veh was hardly encouraging to his minions, as after the match he stated "We have no business being near the top of the table."

It was "Romania Rules!" day in Cottbus, as they scored all the goals for winning Energie in a critical relegation tussle with a lame Gladbach squad. How lame? Under the old two-point-win system they would be last. You have to admire Energie's spirit, as they probably have the lowest budget and talent level of anybody. And now that Romania and Bulgaria have joined the EU, those players will probably become too expensive as well. So be on the lookout for Energie scouts in Kazakhstan...There might still be some life in tail-end Mainz, who defended against Bochum pressure - however inept - and stole all the points. It's probably a futile effort, but Jürgen Klopp's troops haven't yet thrown in the towel.

Marcelinho is back!! Well, unfortuately for Hertha, it was with their opponent, Volkswagen. But he was back to his old tricks, complete with dumb-ass hairstyle (this time sporting a Brazilian crest spray painted on top), and was in good form. And another ex-Berliner, Alex Madlung, put them ahead. Neverthless, despite a largely crap performance, Hertha pulled out a win when Kevin Hofland committed a stupid foul handing the hosts a penalty. An exciting struggle in Aachen as the potato-bugs tussled with rivals Leverkusen. The Aspirins were somewhat lucky to talke all the points in yet another sold-out Tivoli stadium (One of 5 sold out parks this week.) After their nice start, Alemannia is slowly sinking towards the 2.Liga (where they probably belong), but they're not going down without a fight.

Team of the Week: Nürnberg, Dortmund, Mainz
Turd of the Weak: Stuttgart

Attendance: 330,599 (36,733 avg), 32 goals

 
Borussia Dortmund 	 -  	Bayern München 		3:2 (1:2) 	80,708	(Frei 2, Tinga - Van Buyten, Makaay)
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	Hamburger SV 		1:1 (0:1) 	26,601	(Borges - Ljuboja)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	FC Schalke 04 		1:3 (0:1) 	51,505	(Takahara - Varela, Kuranyi 2)
1. FC Nürnberg 		 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		4:1 (1:1) 	35,082	(Saenko, Gresko, Schroth, Magnin - Cacau)
Energie Cottbus 	 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 	3:1 (2:0) 	13,044	(Radu 2, Munteanu - Degen)
VfL Bochum 		 -  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	0:1 (0:1) 	20,487	(Rose)	
Hertha BSC Berlin	 -  	VfL Wolfsburg 		2:1 (1:1) 	40,272	(Gimenez, Pantelic - Madlung)
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	Bayer Leverkusen 	2:3 (2:1) 	20,800	(Reghecampf, Ibisevic - Schneider 2, Voronin)	
Werder Bremen	 	 -  	Hannover 96 		3:0 (1:0)	42,100	(Borowski, Almeida, Mertesacker)


 1  Werder Bremen 	  	18 	  12 	3 	3 	  50:22   +28 	  	39
 2  FC Schalke 04 	  	18 	  12 	3 	3 	  32:18   +14 	  	39
 3  FC Bayern München 	  	18 	  10 	3 	5 	  32:22   +10 	  	33
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  VfB Stuttgart 	  	18 	  9 	5 	4 	  29:23   +6 	  	32
 5  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	18 	  8 	6 	4 	  30:25   +5 	  	30
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	18 	  8 	4 	6 	  31:26   +5 	  	28
 7  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	18 	  5 	11 	2 	  25:17   +8 	  	26
 8  Borussia Dortmund 	  	18 	  6 	7 	5 	  24:23   +1 	  	25
 9  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	18 	  5 	8 	5 	  24:20   +4 	  	23
10  Energie Cottbus 	  	18 	  5 	5 	8 	  21:25   -4 	  	20
11  Eintracht Frankfurt   	18 	  4 	8 	6 	  23:31   -8 	  	20
12  Hannover 96 	  	18 	  5 	5 	8 	  16:29   -13 	  	20
13  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	18 	  4 	7 	7 	  13:18   -5 	  	19
14  Alemannia Aachen 	  	18 	  5 	4 	9 	  30:36   -6 	  	19
15  VfL Bochum 	  		18 	  5 	3 	10 	  22:31   -9 	  	18
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Borussia M'gladbach   	18 	  4 	3 	11 	  14:26   -12 	  	15
17  Hamburger SV 	  	18 	  1 	11 	6 	  17:23   -6 	  	14
18  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	18 	  2 	8 	8 	  12:30   -18 	  	14

2.Liga - Round 19

Finally a decent result for Chrostoph Daum, as Köln brings home the bacon. Actually, it was Burghausen's fault. while the guests seemed content with a another mediocre performance, Wacker had the audacity to take the lead. That woke up the Goats from their slumber and led by an outstanding Thomas Broich, they came roaring back.

Karlsruhe maintained their top-table status, as they delivered a strong performance in Kaiserlautern. Despite the large crowd support, it was FCK that has to be happy with the draw, as the leaders controlled most of the match and seem to be marching towards the Bundesliga. A stunning defeat by Rostock, who were crushed in an eastern derby by Aue, which is one of the surprises of the season so far. After going the longest without defeat, Hansa has gotten slapped in the face recently, and perhaps need to be reminded that having "one foot in the Bundesliga" isn't good enough except for the hokey-pokey. Duisburg certainly didn't hurt their chances with their win, but they struggled for a long time against Unterhaching, twice coming back before Yousef Mokhtari finally took control of the match.

7th win in a row for Offenbach!! They "kicked" 1860, who continue to flail about haplessly. Kickers aren't good enough for promotion, but given their crap start, they have to be ecstatic. 1860 of course is "condemned" to promotion, so obviously heads will roll at some point.

Solid performance by Greuther Fürth, not that anybody watched. In fact, recent reports indicate that the Greuther Fürth Ultras fan group have thrown in the towel, because nobody cares. It's unlikely that they will make it to the Bundesliga this year, given their poor start, but if they did, that would be pretty embarassing. Cmon, 3 times as many fans showed up at tail-enders Braunschweig, who haven't yet given up the fight. It's probably hopeless, but who knows, everybody was thinking the same thing about Offenbach 2 months ago.

Attendance: 128,657 (14,295 avg), 26 goals



Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	1. FC Köln 		1:3 (0:0) 	 5,012	(Nicu - Serhat, Scherz, Broich)
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	1:0 (0:0) 	13,700	(Rische)
Erzgebirge Aue 		 -  	Hansa Rostock 		3:0 (1:0) 	14,700	(Juskowiak, Ehlers, Klinka)	
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	1860 München 		2:1 (1:0) 	12,971	(Toppmöller, Sieger - Wolff) 
MSV Duisburg 		 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	4:2 (2:2) 	14,567	(Daun, Idrissou, Mokhtari, Lavric - Feldhahn, Buck) 
SC Freiburg 		 -  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	3:1 (0:0) 	10,500	(Khizaneishvili, Bencik, Pitroipa - Epstein)
Greuther Fürth 		 -  	TuS Koblenz 		2:0 (0:0) 	 4,600	(Kleine, Kucukovic)	
1. FC Kaiserslautern 	 -  	Karlsruher SC 		1:1 (0:1)	44,007	(Bellinghausen - Federico) 	
FC Augsburg	 	 -  	SC Paderborn 07 	0:1 (0:0)	 8,600	(Schüßler) 	



 1  Karlsruher SC 	  	19 	  12 	6 	1 	  44:19   +25 	  	42
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	19 	  10 	7 	2 	  30:15   +15 	  	37
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	19 	  9 	9 	1 	  37:20   +17 	  	36
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	19 	  10 	3 	6 	  29:25   +4 	  	33
 5  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	19 	  8 	8 	3 	  26:17   +9 	  	32
 6  Kickers Offenbach 	  	19 	  8 	4 	7 	  26:27   -1 	  	28
 7  TSV 1860 München 	  	19 	  8 	4 	7 	  24:25   -1 	  	28
 8  Greuther Fürth 	  	19 	  7 	5 	7 	  29:23   +6 	  	26
 9  FC Augsburg 	  	19 	  6 	7 	6 	  18:17   +1 	  	25
10  SC Freiburg 	  	19 	  6 	7 	6 	  21:25   -4 	  	25
11  1. FC Köln 	  		19 	  6 	6 	7 	  28:26   +2 	  	24
12  SC Paderborn 07 	  	19 	  5 	8 	6 	  15:18   -3 	  	23
13  TuS Koblenz 	  	19 	  5 	5 	9 	  20:28   -8 	  	20
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	19 	  4 	7 	8 	  18:21   -3 	  	19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	19 	  4 	5 	10 	  19:35   -16 	  	17
16  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	19 	  3 	7 	9 	  20:37   -17 	  	16
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	19 	  3 	5 	11 	  16:25   -9 	  	14
18  Eintr. Braunschweig	  	19 	  2 	7 	10 	  11:28   -17 	  	13


January 22, 2007

Nowotny throws in towel

In another surprise retirement, exiled sweeper Jens Nowotny has decided to hang up his boots. The German international defender (some 48 caps) got himself in the dog-house with his club Bayer Leverkusen during an injury break, and after suing for backpay, was temporarily re-instated, but then essentially booted out. In the summer, he signed with Croatian club NK Dinamo. Unfortunately, he was unable to regain his old form completely, as he suffered another knee injury. Recovery was not progressing as planned, so he decided to end his professional days. Ironically, he was being reconsidered for national team duties by head coach Löw.

2.Liga - Round 18

You'll have to wait a bit longer for the Bundesliga, but the Zweite Liga has restarted after the winterbreak.

Rostock was finally toppled, so the last undefeated team in German professional football kicks the bucket in the start of the Rückrunde. however, critical points for relegation threatened Freiburg, whose long serving coach Volker Finke is apparently throwing in the towel at season end. 1860 also receives the Bronx cheer for their restart, as they got horsewhipped at home by Fürth. Karlsruhe waited about 1 hour, but finally upended Burghausen, so they gain additional breathing room at the top.

Offenbach continues to climb up the table, their 5th win in a row at the expense of Jena, which had rebuilt their squad during the winterbreak, integrating no less than 5 new players into the squad.

Attendance: 155,399 (17,267 avg), 16 goals

 

Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	0:0 (0:0)	15,015
SpVgg Unterhaching 	 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		1:1 (1:1) 	 3,200	(Ehlers o.g. - Trehkopf) 		
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	Kickers Offenbach 	2:3 (0:2) 	 6,611	(Voigt, Fröhlich - Türker 2, Oswald)
TuS Koblenz 		 -  	MSV Duisburg 		1:1 (0:1) 	11,201	(Dzaka - Lavric) 		
TSV 1860 München 	 -  	Greuther Fürth 		0:3 (0:2) 	30,200	(Adlung, Timm, Fuchs)
Karlsruher SC 		 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	2:1 (0:0) 	21,000	(Federico, Porcello - Burkhardt) 
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	Eintr. Braunschweig 	0:0 (0:0)	 6,172
1. FC Köln 		 -  	FC Augsburg 		1:1 (1:1) 	43,000	(Novakovic - da Costa) 		
Hansa Rostock 		 -  	SC Freiburg 		0:1 (0:0)	19,000	(Coulibaly)


 1  Karlsruher SC 	  	18 	  12 	5 	1 	  43:18   +25 	  41
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	18 	  10 	7 	1 	  30:12   +18 	  37
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	18 	  8 	9 	1 	  33:18   +15 	  33
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern   	18 	  8 	7 	3 	  25:16   +9 	  31
 5  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	18 	  9 	3 	6 	  26:25   +1 	  30
 6  TSV 1860 München 	  	18 	  8 	4 	6 	  23:23    0 	  28
 7  FC Augsburg 	  	18 	  6 	7 	5 	  18:16   +2 	  25
 8  Kickers Offenbach 	  	18 	  7 	4 	7 	  24:26   -2 	  25
 9  Greuther Fürth 	  	18 	  6 	5 	7 	  27:23   +4 	  23
10  SC Freiburg 	  	18 	  5 	7 	6 	  18:24   -6 	  22
11  1. FC Köln 	  		18 	  5 	6 	7 	  25:25    0 	  21
12  SC Paderborn 07 	  	18 	  4 	8 	6 	  14:18   -4 	  20
13  TuS Koblenz 	  	18 	  5 	5 	8 	  20:26   -6	  20
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	18 	  4 	7 	7 	  16:17   -1 	  19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	18 	  4 	5 	9 	  18:32   -14 	  17
16  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	18 	  3 	7 	8 	  20:36   -16 	  16
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	18 	  3 	5 	10 	  15:22   -7 	  14
18  Eintr. Braunschweig 	18 	  1 	7 	10 	  10:28   -18 	  10



January 16, 2007

Deisler calls it quits

In a bit of sad news, Bayern midfielder Sebastian Deisler has called it a career. The 27 year old midfielder decided that his frequent injuries made it impossible to keep playing. He walks away from a contract through 2009, although Bayern officials have left the door open for his return.

Deisler will go down in history as just a footnote, but for a brief moment, he was the shining star of German football, the supposed saviour of the national team. He burst onto the scene as a 19 year old with Hertha BSC, and showed brilliance in midfield. His problems really began with his high priced transfer to Bayern München. Frequent injuries (especially a severe knee problem) led to mental depression, and he struggled to regain form and live up to the sky high expectations. Although he often showed flashes of his former brilliance, inevitably injury problems would slow his comeback. He was expected to be a key figure in Germany's 2006 World Cup campaign, but was once again knocked out via injury. Although the indications are that he has once again recovered, over the Winterbreak he decided that he couldn't continue, and it was time to walk away.


December 21, 2006

It's that time! The Bundesliga mid season Review

To be followed by mini-reviews of the 2.Liga , Regionalliga , and perhaps even Oberliga


December 20, 2006

DFB Cup - one surprise

The sensation was at the sold out Aachen Tivoli, where Alemannia knocked out defending Cup winner Bayern. Alemannia got off to a brilliant start with a fabulous free kick by Laurentiu Reghecampf, and seemed to have everything wrapped up by half. No doubtedly Bayern was embarassed, and stormed back. Finally, a goal at the whistle by Jan Schlaudraff wrapped things up. This was Bayern's first Cup loss since 2004 - ironically also in Aachen!

There weren't too many shocks in the other matches. Noteworthy is that after a boring scoreless draw, Nürnberg and Unterhaching did everything possible to keep the score line. But eventually the Bundesligist prevailed, despite missing 2 of 4 penalties. But Haching did them one worse, missing 4 of 5!!

As for the remaining Regionalliga club, Osnabrück got their ass ripped by Hertha. But at least they got a nice payday from the sold out venue. The only non-Bundesligist to go to the Quarterfinals is Kickers Offenbach, who got the lucky draw of a fellow 2.Ligist, and a crappy one at that. Köln pushed host Frankfurt to the limit, and despite their crappiness, proved that they a still a major draw, as the match was also sold-out.

 

VfL Osnabrück  		 -   	Hertha BSC  		0:3 (0:2)	18,300	(Gimenez 2, Fathi)
VfL Bochum 		 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		1:4 (0:1) 	18,650	(Bechmann - Hitzlsperger 2, Gomez, Cacau)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	1. FC Köln 		3:1 ot		50,700	(Meier, Takahara, Kyrgiakos - Madsen)
1. FC Nürnberg 		 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	0:0 pen		16,676	(FCN 2-1 penalties)
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	2:1 (0:0) 	 9,131	(Türker, Toppmöller - Burkhardt)
Greuther Fürth 		 -  	VfL Wolfsburg 		1:3 (0:1) 	 6,600	(Reisinger - Krzynowek, Klimowicz, Hoogendorp)
Hannover 96 		 -  	MSV Duisburg 		1:0 (1:0) 	39,758	(Balitsch)
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	Bayern München 		4:2 (3:0)	20,800	(Reghecampf 2, Ebbers, Schlaudraff - Podolski, van Bommel)


December 17, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 17

Werder Bremen deservedly takes the "Herbstmeisterschaft" (the Fall Championship), as Germany goes into the winter break. They defeated a determined Wolfsburg squad to stay ahead of Schalke on goal difference, who had a tough 1-0 win at Bielefeld. Bayern also ended the year in fashion, as they thrashed hapless Mainz on the road.

Nürnberg stunned everybody by getting the full 3 points for a change. The victory came against a Hannover side that has dug themselves out of crisis with a recent run of form. A nice win for Bochum, whom many had thought for dead early in the season. An exciting first half, with Gekas scoring in injury time. Gladbach is in serious trouble. Once again, HSV failed to win, but they had a wild shootout at an Aachen squad with surprising firepower. Luckily for Hamburg, they also have the worst defense. Dortmund lost at home to Leverkusen, and then fired coach Bert Van Marwijk (who was supposed to get dumped at end of season.) The new boss is retread Jürgen Röber.

Team of the Week: Bochum, critical win,
Turd of the Weak: Gladbach, Mainz, both reaching new lows of suckiness.

Attendance: 288,822 (32,091 avg), 24 goals


VfL Bochum  		 -   	Borussia M'gladbach  	2:0 (1:0)	30,500	(Gekas, Kahe)
Hertha BSC Berlin 	 -  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	1:0 (0:0) 	42,549	(Gimenez)
1. FC Nürnberg 		 -  	Hannover 96 		3:1 (1:1) 	28,683	(Banovic, Schroth, Mnari - Brdaric)	
1. FSV Mainz 05 	 -  	Bayern München 		0:4 (0:2) 	20,300	(Salihamidzic, Makaay, Pizarro, Schweinsteiger) 
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	FC Schalke 04 		0:1 (0:0) 	26,601	(Bajramovic)
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	Hamburger SV 		3:3 (0:1) 	20,800	(Reghecampf, Fiel, Reinhardt - Berisha, Benjamin, Ljuboja)	
Energie Cottbus 	 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		0:0 (0:0) 	13,650
Werder Bremen 		 -  	VfL Wolfsburg 		2:1 (1:1) 	39,584	(Jensen, Naldo - Boakye)
Borussia Dortmund 	 -  	Bayer Leverkusen 	1:2 (0:1) 	66,155	(Amedick - Voronin, Kiessling)



 1  Werder Bremen  	   	17  	  11  	3  	3  	  47:22   +25  	   	36
 2  FC Schalke 04 	  	17 	  11 	3 	3 	  29:17   +12 	  	36
 3  FC Bayern München 	  	17 	  10 	3 	4 	  30:19   +11 	  	33
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  VfB Stuttgart 	  	17 	  9 	5 	3 	  28:19   +9 	  	32
 5  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	17 	  7 	6 	4 	  28:24   +4 	  	27
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	17 	  7 	4 	6 	  28:24   +4 	  	25
 7  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	17 	  4 	11 	2 	  21:16   +5 	  	23
 8  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	17 	  5 	7 	5 	  23:19   +4 	  	22
 9  Borussia Dortmund 	  	17 	  5 	7 	5 	  21:21    0 	  	22
10  Eintracht Frankfurt 	17 	  4 	8 	5 	  22:28   -6 	  	20
11  Hannover 96 	  	17 	  5 	5 	7 	  16:26   -10 	  	20
12  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	17 	  4 	7 	6 	  12:16   -4 	  	19
13  Alemannia Aachen 	  	17 	  5 	4 	8 	  28:33   -5 	  	19
14  VfL Bochum 	  		17 	  5 	3 	9 	  22:30   -8 	  	18
15  Energie Cottbus 	  	17 	  4 	5 	8 	  18:24   -6 	  	17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Borussia M'gladbach 	17 	  4 	3 	10 	  13:23   -10 	  	15
17  Hamburger SV 	  	17 	  1 	10 	6 	  16:22   -6 	  	13
18  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	17 	  1 	8 	8 	  11:30   -19 	  	11


2. Liga, Round 17

Karlsruhe powers to a win and the Herbstmeisterschaft. Rostock remains the only unbeaten team in German professional football with a draw in Unterhaching. Both the top two clubs have opened a gap with the others, and given how the promotion race is usually so close in the 2.Liga, they basically have one foot in the Bundesliga already. 1860 saved their best for last, as they rode a hattrick by Serbian striker Nemanja Vucicevic in a most impressive 4-0 hammering of Aue.

Köln remains in crisis. Despite a huge crowd (larger than any Bundesliga attendance this week except Dortmund) and a 2-0 lead, they could not win against Kaiserslautern.

At the bottom, a critical loss for Braunschweig, who look beaten into a return to the 3rd division. Offenbach's win allows them to move out of immediate danger, and one of their highest rankings this season.

Attendance: 160,611 (17,846 avg), 21 goals


1. FC Köln	  	 -   	1. FC Kaiserslautern  	2:2 (2:0)  	49,500	(Bouzid o.g., Scherz - Hajnal, Bohl)
SpVgg Unterhaching 	 -  	Hansa Rostock 		0:0 (0:0) 	 3,700
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	FC Augsburg 		0:2 (0:0) 	 6,316 		
Karlsruher SC 		 -  	Greuther Fürth 		2:0 (1:0) 	26,000	(Kanig, Freis) 		
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	1:1 (0:0) 	 4,917	(Brouwers - Aigner)	
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	Kickers Offenbach 	1:2 (1:1) 	17,100	(Schweinsteiger - Mokhtari, Türker)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	MSV Duisburg 		1:2 (1:1) 	18,052	(Younga-Mohouni - Bodzek, Lavric)
TuS Koblenz 		 -  	SC Freiburg 		0:1 (0:1)	10,626	(Antar)
TSV 1860 München 	 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		4:0 (3:0) 	24,400	(Vucicevic 3, Thorandt) 


 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	17  	  11  	5  	1  	  41:17   +24  	   	38
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	17 	  10 	7 	0 	  30:11   +19 	  	37
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	17 	  8 	8 	1 	  32:17   +15 	  	32
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	17 	  8 	6 	3 	  25:16   +9 	  	30
 5  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	17 	  9 	2 	6 	  25:24   +1 	  	29
 6  TSV 1860 München 	  	17 	  8 	4 	5 	  23:20   +3 	  	28
 7  FC Augsburg 	  	17 	  6 	6 	5 	  17:15   +2 	  	24
 8  Kickers Offenbach 	  	17 	  6 	4 	7 	  21:24   -3 	  	22
 9  Greuther Fürth 	  	17 	  5 	5 	7 	  24:23   +1 	  	20
10  1. FC Köln 	  		17 	  5 	5 	7 	  24:24    0 	  	20
11  SC Paderborn 07 	  	17 	  4 	7 	6 	  14:18   -4 	  	19
12  TuS Koblenz 	  	17 	  5 	4 	8 	  19:25   -6 	  	19
13  SC Freiburg 	  	17 	  4 	7 	6 	  17:24   -7 	  	19
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	17 	  4 	6 	7 	  15:16   -1 	  	18
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	17 	  4 	5 	8 	  17:30   -13 	  	17
16  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	17 	  3 	7 	7 	  18:33   -15 	  	16
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	17 	  3 	4 	10 	  15:22   -7 	  	13
18  Eintr. Braunschweig 	17 	  1 	6 	10 	  10:28   -18 	  	9


December 13, 2006

Chaos in Hamburg

And not just on the field. Apparently the annual members meeting of HSV was quite the riot. The assembly voted to ban the press from the proceedings, which led to all sorts of whining from the journalists. Furthermore, apparently most of the board proposals were voted down, leading to further chaos. The Hamburg Supporters Group has taken a strong position in the dealings and unlike other countries like England, where the bosses just give the middle finger to the fans, in Germany they have to pay attention. That's because the clubs are just that, clubs. Anyone can become a full dues paying member, and then they can vote. And unlike England, just become some mafia SOB oil oligarch got billions by swindling money during the collapse of a regime, doesn't mean that they can just buy the club and treat it like his personal toy. The board fears "that the fans could take over the club", which would certainly be an interesting proposition.

Of course, HSV is in a complete crisis. They are the only founding member of the Bundesliga never to have been relegated. They've had a few close calls, but they've been up since 1963. The expectation was that they would challenge for the title this year, although that seems wishful thinking. They had a great run last season, but there was huge turnover in the offseason. Clearly management has to assume at least some of the responsibility for the collapse. They sold many of the stalwarts from last year, and replaced them with what is largely been crap so far. And they seem to be mostly overpaid prima-donnas rather than the "fighters" they'll probably need in the relegation battle. Coach Thomas Doll doesn't seem to have a clue how to get the best out of this squad, so he'll probably get fired as his Xmas present.


December 10, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 16

A magnificent away performance by leaders Bremen, who ran rampant through the streets of Frankfurt. Eintracht probably was beaten too heavily, but with Werder getting a hattrick from Naldo, you have to figure that the result goes in order. Meanwhile, Schalke stays on their heals, as they dominated the 69th Revierderby, which has developedperhaps into Germany's largest rivalry. Dortmund tried, but was too weak. Champions Bayern looked tired and struggled against Cottbus, who have traditionally given them a hard time. same story at Stuttgart, as VfB struggled against a determined Bochum side. They got a slight edge in the 2nd half, and a late goal gave them the win, and remain in the crucial 3rd spot.

Bayer's win against Hertha is justified, as the Aspirins used their chances. Both teams played a good 1st half, but things slowed down considerably in the 2nd, Leverkusen winning the match through Babic about 10 minutes from time.

The obligatory draw for Nürnberg in Hamburg. Generally a boring match, but given the disaster that is HSV, they're probably happy just not to lose. Also a rather fair draw in hannover, as Bielefeld held their ground rather easily. Gladbach thought they had the points in the bag against bottom Mainz, but a header by Jovanovic just before the whistle saved the visitors a point. Wolfsburg was shocked at home against Aachen; keeper Simon Jentzsch missed a cross, which was a nice birthday present for Nico Herzig, who slammed in the game winner.

Team of the Week: Bremen, Schalke (derby winner)
Turd of the Weak: probably Wolfsburg

Attendance: 405,165 (45,018 avg), 26 goals



Bayer Leverkusen  	 -   	Hertha BSC  		2:1 (1:1)  	22,500	(Freier, Babic - Pantelic)
Bayern München	 	 -  	Energie Cottbus 	2:1 (1:0) 	69,000	(Schweinsteiger, Van Buyten - Baumgart)
Hamburger SV 		 -  	1. FC Nürnberg 		0:0 (0:0) 	54,628	
VfB Stuttgart	 	 -  	VfL Bochum 		1:0 (0:0) 	48,000	(Streller)
Borussia M'gladbach 	 -  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	1:1 (1:0) 	44,157	(Demirtas - Jovanovic)
Hannover 96 		 -  	Arminia Bielefeld 	1:1 (0:0) 	34,107	(Brdaric - Ndjeng) 		
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	Werder Bremen 		2:6 (1:3) 	51,400	(Russ, Kirgiakos - Naldo 3, Jensen, Vranjes, Diego)
FC Schalke 04 		 -  	Borussia Dortmund 	3:1 (2:0) 	61,482	(Pander, Kuryani, Lövenkrands - Frei)
VfL Wolfsburg 		 -  	Alemannia Aachen 	1:2 (0:0) 	19,891	(Madlung - Reghecampf, Herzig)



 1  Werder Bremen  	   	16  	  10  	3  	3  	  45:21   +24  	   	33
 2  FC Schalke 04 	  	16 	  10 	3 	3 	  28:17   +11 	  	33
 3  VfB Stuttgart 	  	16 	  9 	4 	3 	  28:19   +9 	  	31
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Bayern München 	  	16 	  9 	3 	4 	  26:19   +7 	  	30
 5  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	16 	  6 	6 	4 	  27:24   +3 	  	24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	16 	  5 	7 	4 	  23:18   +5 	  	22
 7  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	16 	  6 	4 	6 	  26:23   +3 	  	22
 8  Borussia Dortmund 	  	16 	  5 	7 	4 	  20:19   +1 	  	22
 9  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	16 	  3 	11 	2 	  18:15   +3 	  	20
10  Eintracht Frankfurt   	16 	  4 	8 	4 	  22:27   -5 	  	20
11  Hannover 96 	  	16 	  5 	5 	6 	  15:23   -8 	  	20
12  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	16 	  4 	7 	5 	  11:14   -3 	  	19
13  Alemannia Aachen 	  	16 	  5 	3 	8 	  25:30   -5 	  	18
14  Energie Cottbus 	  	16 	  4 	4 	8 	  18:24   -6 	  	16
15  Borussia M'gladbach   	16 	  4 	3 	9 	  13:21   -8 	  	15
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Bochum 		  	16 	  4 	3 	9 	  20:30   -10 	  	15
17  Hamburger SV 	  	16 	  1 	9 	6 	  13:19   -6 	  	12
18  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	16 	  1 	8 	7 	  11:26   -15 	  	11

2. Liga, Round 16

A nice result for 1860 as they draw at leaders Rostock. The ex-GDR Hansa remain the only unbeaten team in the top divisions. The 2nd eastern team has announced themselves as an entry in the fiercely competitive promotion race. Erzgebrige Aue thumped Koblenz, and have quietly moved into contention. Dark clouds continue to hover over Köln. Christoph Daum was hailed as the saviour, but he must now be wondering what he got himself into. Following their pasting in Offenbach, The Goats have dropped 10 points out of promotion, and only 3 above relegation.

Attendance: 146,810 (16,312 avg), 18 goals



1. FC Kaiserslautern  	 -   	FC Carl Zeiss Jena  	0:0 (0:0)  	25,860
Erzgebirge Aue	 	 -  	TuS Koblenz 		4:1 (1:1) 	11,200	(Emmerich, Lenze, Klinke, Juskowiak - Ziehl) 		
Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	1:1 (0:0) 	 5,100	(Krejci - Calik) 		
MSV Duisburg 		 -  	SC Paderborn 07 	1:1 (0:1) 	18,050	(Daun - R. Müller)		
Greuther Fürth 		 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	1:0 (1:0) 	 5,100	(Mijatovic)	
Hansa Rostock 		 -  	TSV 1860 München 	1:1 (1:1) 	26,000	(Kern - Hoffmann)	
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	1. FC Köln 		2:0 (0:0) 	18,100	(Toppmöller, Mokhtari)
FC Augsburg 		 -  	Eintr. Braunschweig 	0:0 (0:0) 	15,400 		
SC Freiburg 		 -  	Karlsruher SC 		0:4 (0:1)	22,000	(Kapllani, Staffelt, Federico, Sanou)


 1  Hansa Rostock  	   	16  	  10  	6  	0  	  30:11   +19  	   	36
 2  Karlsruher SC 	  	16 	  10 	5 	1 	  39:17   +22 	  	35
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	16 	  7 	8 	1 	  30:16   +14 	  	29
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	16 	  8 	5 	3 	  23:14   +9 	  	29
 5  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	16 	  9 	2 	5 	  25:20   +5 	  	29
 6  TSV 1860 München 	  	16 	  7 	4 	5 	  19:20   -1 	  	25
 7  FC Augsburg 	  	16 	  5 	6 	5 	  15:15    0 	  	21
 8  Greuther Fürth 	  	16 	  5 	5 	6 	  24:21   +3 	  	20
 9  1. FC Köln 	  		16 	  5 	4 	7 	  22:22    0 	  	19
10  Kickers Offenbach 	  	16 	  5 	4 	7 	  19:23   -4 	  	19
11  TuS Koblenz 	  	16 	  5 	4 	7 	  19:24   -5 	  	19
12  SC Paderborn 07 	  	16 	  4 	6 	6 	  13:17   -4 	  	18
13  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	16 	  4 	5 	7 	  15:16   -1 	  	17
14  SC Freiburg 	  	16 	  3 	7 	6 	  16:24   -8 	  	16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	16 	  3 	7 	6 	  18:31   -13 	  	16
16  Wacker Burghausen 	  	16 	  4 	4 	8 	  16:29   -13 	  	16
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	16 	  3 	4 	9 	  14:20   -6 	  	13
18  Eintr. Braunschweig 	16 	  1 	6 	9 	   9:26   -17 	  	9



December 3, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 15

Werder Bremen becomes the new leader with a power display in the opening period, as they overran Berlin. Hertha played much better in the 2nd half, but was unable to get any closer, as Bremen easily nursed their lead to the points. Schalke has - surprise! - a draw at Nürnberg. Both teams played open football in the first half, but curtailed activity in the 2nd period. Schalke had the better of the play, but since "der Club" basically draws all the time, no surprise here. (Some 38 matches this season have been drawn, and Nürn;berg and Frankfurt have been in about 50% of them!!)

Stuttgart had a rather disappointing draw at tail-end Mainz. Clearly a good result for the bottom-feeders, but Stuttgart certainly expected the "W". Bayern controlled their match with Gladbach, and hit the post several times. But they were unable to win, dropping valuable points.

An injury time goal gave Dortmund a fortunate win against the catenaccio playing VW squad. This was Wolfsburg's first defeat in 7 matches. Nevertheless, in a somewhat odd move, the Dortmund directorship announced that head coach Bert Van Marwijk will be fired...after the season. Talk about a lame duck! Why don't they just can his ass now?! In general, a rather boring match in Bielefeld saw Arminia retain their recent home streak (unbeaten in 7). The Aspirins were somewhat better, but it wasn't enough for a Leverkusen win.

Another disastrous outing for Hamburg, as they went down to Bochum in a critical relegation battle. After fighting back into the match, HSV was dealt a potentially severe blow as star playmaker Rafael van der Vaart got his ass red carded for a nasty foul late in the match. So HSV's best player will be out for a while - the DFB promptly issued a 4 match ban. The team is falling apart, and the Nero-esque directors play the fiddle as Rome is burning. Hamburg's record as the only original Bundesliga member to never have been relegated is in severe trouble. Meanwhile, Hannover pulled off another solid performance, this time winning at Cottbus. Not long ago, the 96ers were mired in the toilet, but they've climbed out of the bottom and have a 5 point gap over relegation. Frankfurt's Japanese striker Naohiro Takahara (ex-HSV, BTW) was the man of the day with his game winning hattrick at Aachen.

Team of the Week: Hannover
Turd of the Weak: Hamburg

Attendance 314,139 (34,904 avg), 16 goals

 

1. FSV Mainz 05  	 -   	VfB Stuttgart  		0:0 (0:0)	20,300
Bayern München 		 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 	1:1 (1:1)	69,000	(Demichelis - Delura) 
Werder Bremen 		 -  	Hertha BSC 		3:1 (3:1) 	40,168	(Klose 2, Diego - Simunic)
Borussia Dortmund 	 -  	VfL Wolfsburg 		1:0 (0:0) 	62,900	(Smolarek)
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	Bayer Leverkusen 	0:0 (0:0) 	20,469
VfL Bochum 		 -  	Hamburger SV 		2:1 (1:1) 	25,715	(Dabrowski, Misimovic - Ljuboja)
Energie Cottbus 	 -  	Hannover 96 		0:1 (0:1)	11,545	(Cherundolo) 
1. FC Nürnberg 		 -  	FC Schalke 04 		0:0 (0:0) 	43,242
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	2:3 (1:2) 	20,800	(Schlaudraff, Fiel - Takahara 3)



 1  Werder Bremen		15  	9  	3  	3  	  39:19   +20  	  30
 2  FC Schalke 04 	  	15 	9 	3 	3 	  25:16   +9 	  30
 3  VfB Stuttgart 	  	15 	8 	4 	3 	  27:19   +8 	  28
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Bayern München 	  	15 	8 	3 	4 	  24:18   +6 	  27
 5  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	15 	6 	6 	3 	  26:22   +4 	  24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Borussia Dortmund 	  	15 	5 	7 	3 	  19:16   +3 	  22
 7  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	15 	5 	6 	4 	  22:17   +5 	  21
 8  Eintracht Frankfurt 	15 	4 	8 	3 	  20:21   -1 	  20
 9  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	15 	3 	10 	2 	  18:15   +3 	  19
10  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	15 	5 	4 	6 	  24:22   +2 	  19
11  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	15 	4 	7 	4 	  10:12   -2 	  19
12  Hannover 96 	  	15 	5 	4 	6 	  14:22   -8 	  19
13  Energie Cottbus 	  	15 	4 	4 	7 	  17:22   -5 	  16
14  Alemannia Aachen 	  	15 	4 	3 	8 	  23:29   -6 	  15
15  VfL Bochum 	  		15 	4 	3 	8 	  20:29   -9 	  15
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Borussia M'gladbach 	15 	4 	2 	9 	  12:20   -8 	  14
17  Hamburger SV 	  	15 	1 	8 	6 	  13:19   -6 	  11
18  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	15	1 	7 	7 	  10:25   -15 	  10


2. Liga, Round 15

Hansa Rostock is now the only undefeated club in the top divisions. While erstwhile leader Karlsruhe was shocked at home by Aue, Rostock thumped a strong Koblenz team on the road to seize the lead.

A revival of an old Bundesliga rivalry in Braunschweig, Kaiserlautern came away with a hard fought win and moved back into a promotion spot temporarily. Despite a poor season on the field, Eintracht are doing well at the box office. However, a fine performance by Markus Daun and Duisburg ruined Köln's saviour hope Christoph Daum's return home. MSV grabbed the promotion spot back from 'Lautern on the strength of their impressive road win at a packed RheinEnergiestadion. Meanwhile, it looks like Daum has a lot of work if he is to turn things around for the Goats. The fans are clinging to that last vestige of hope, whihc doesn't seem justified, considering the team is crap.

The first sell-out in eons as Unterhaching met 1860 in a München derby, and a somewhat shocking result: the suburb squad kicked the Lions ass all over the field. 'Haching is definitely small fry compared to Bayern or 1860, but the sky blues are the ones having to drown their sorrow in some Pils...

Attendance: 143,379 (15,931 avg), 24 goals

 

SC Paderborn 07  	 -   	SC Freiburg  		1:1 (1:0)	 4,317	(Röttger - Mohamad)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	Greuther Fürth 		1:0 (0:0)	 9,067	(Boskovic)
TuS Koblenz	 	 -  	Hansa Rostock 		0:3 (0:0)	10,543	(Kern, Rahn, Beinlich)
Karlsruher SC 		 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		0:1 (0:0)	22,000	(Siradze)
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	FC Augsburg 		3:2 (1:1)	 8,200	(Dorn, Sieger 2 - Hidiouad, Lawarée)
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	0:1 (0:0)	19,900	(Daham)
SpVgg Unterhaching 	 -  	1860 München 		5:1 (1:0)	15,000	(Buck 2, Omodiagbe, Lechleiter, Custos - Thorandt)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	0:2 (0:1)	 6,352	(Krejci, Bogavac)
1. FC Köln 		 -  	MSV Duisburg 		1:3 (0:2)	48,000	(Tripodi - Daun 2, Lavric)


 1  Hansa Rostock  	   	15   	10  	5  	0  	  29:10   +19  	  35
 2  Karlsruher SC 	  	15 	9 	5 	1 	  35:17   +18 	  32
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	15  	7 	7 	1 	  29:15   +14 	  28
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	15 	8 	4 	3 	  23:14   +9 	  28
 5  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	15 	8 	2 	5 	  21:19   +2 	  26
 6  TSV 1860 München 	  	15  	7 	3 	5 	  18:19   -1 	  24
 7  FC Augsburg 	  	15  	5 	5 	5 	  15:15    0 	  20
 8  1. FC Köln 	  		15  	5 	4 	6 	  22:20   +2 	  19
 9  TuS Koblenz 	  	15  	5 	4 	6 	  18:20   -2 	  19
10  Greuther Fürth 	  	15  	4 	5 	6 	  23:21   +2 	  17
11  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	15  	4 	5 	6 	  15:15    0 	  17
12  SC Paderborn 07 	  	15  	4 	5 	6 	  12:16   -4 	  17
13  SC Freiburg 	  	15  	3 	7 	5 	  16:20   -4 	  16
14  Kickers Offenbach 	  	15  	4 	4 	7 	  17:23   -6 	  16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	15  	3 	6 	6 	  18:31   -13 	  15
16  Wacker Burghausen 	  	15  	4 	3 	8 	  15:28   -13 	  15
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	15  	3 	3 	9 	  13:19   -6 	  12
18  Eintr. Braunschweig 	15  	1 	5 	9 	   9:26   -17 	  8




November 26, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 14

Schalke defended their lead, but had a rough time against lowly Bochum in a "mini-Revier derby". After an easy first half, they even had a man advantage, but struggled to hold on to the win. Werder only had moderate difficulty in the first half against recently in-form Bielefeld, but ended up whipping their ass. Bayern struggled against HSV, but the Hamburgers once again choked and loss. HSV was the stronger team in the 1st period, and deserved their lead, but in the 2nd, they retreated to a defensive shell and let the champions overrun them. Another loss, and despite management claims that coach Thomas Doll has until Xmas to straighten the disastrously sinking ship, you have to wonder...Stuttgart played crap against a lame Gladbach squad, but were good enough to garner the points.

A ho-hum victory for Berlin, who remain near the top. An entertaining match between Frankfurt and Dortmund, with a fair result. The same outcome in Wolfsburg, with Nürnberg already getting their 7th draw. They actually were in the drivers seat after an early goal, but VW fought hard and were rewarded with a tie. A strange match in "Pop-pop-fizz-fizz-oh-what-a-reliefit-is" land as Leverkusen dominated the 1st half, but after Cottbus goal, seemed to lose the thread and were on the verge of losing. Then Rolfes hit a long blast that turned the game in the Alka-Seltzers favor.

A late 2nd half goal gave Hannover a critical 3 points in their relegation battle, condemning Mainz further to prop up the table. 96 had been very weak at home, so the guests certainly hoped for at least a point, but only get a reservation for the elevator ride down.

373,000 fans (41,400 average), along with 22 goals (2.44 avg)

Team of the Week: Bremen
Turd of the Weak: Hamburg

 

FC Schalke 04  		 -   	VfL Bochum  		2:1 (2:0)	61,482	(Rafinha, Lövenkrands - Gekas)
Werder Bremen 		 -  	Arminia Bielefeld 	3:0 (2:0) 	40,792	(Klose 2, Hunt) 		
Hamburger SV 		 -  	Bayern München 		1:2 (1:0) 	57,000	(van der Vaart - Makaay, Pizarro)
Hertha BSC 		 -  	Alemannia Aachen 	2:1 (1:1) 	40,879	(Pantelic, Dejagah - Lehmann)
Hannover 96 		 -  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	1:0 (0:0) 	29,108	(Hashemian)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	Borussia Dortmund 	1:1 (1:0) 	51,500	(Kyrgiakos - Smolarek)
VfL Wolfsburg 		 -  	1. FC Nürnberg 		1:1 (0:1) 	16,397	(Menseguez - Saenko)
Bayer Leverkusen 	 -  	Energie Cottbus 	3:1 (1:0) 	22,500	(Barbarez, Rolfes, Voronin - Munteanu)
VfB Stuttgart 		 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 	1:0 (1:0) 	53,000	(Cacau)



 1  FC Schalke 04  	   	14  	  9  	2  	3  	  25:16   +9  	  29
 2  Werder Bremen 	  	14 	  8 	3 	3 	  36:18   +18 	  27
 3  VfB Stuttgart 	  	14 	  8 	3 	3 	  27:19   +8 	  27
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Bayern München 	  	14 	  8 	2 	4 	  23:17   +6 	  26
 5  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	14 	  6 	6 	2 	  25:19   +6 	  24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	14 	  5 	5 	4 	  22:17   +5 	  20
 7  Borussia Dortmund 	  	14 	  4 	7 	3 	  18:16   +2 	  19
 8  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	14 	  4 	7 	3 	  10:11   -1 	  19
 9  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	14 	  3 	9 	2 	  18:15   +3 	  18
10  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	14 	  5 	3 	6 	  24:22   +2 	  18
11  Eintracht Frankfurt 	14   	  3 	8 	3 	  17:19   -2 	  17
12  Energie Cottbus 	  	14 	  4 	4 	6 	  17:21   -4 	  16
13  Hannover 96 	  	14 	  4 	4 	6 	  13:22   -9 	  16
14  Alemannia Aachen 	  	14 	  4 	3 	7 	  21:26   -5 	  15
15  Borussia M'gladbach	  	14 	  4 	1 	9 	  11:19   -8 	  13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Bochum 	  		14 	  3 	3 	8 	  18:28   -10 	  12
17  Hamburger SV 	  	14 	  1 	8 	5 	  12:17   -5 	  11
18  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	14 	  1 	6 	7 	  10:25   -15 	  9

2.Liga, Round 14

Both Karlsruhe and Rostock won to continue their pace at the top. The Christoph Daum era at Köln already paid it's first dividends with a somewhat lucky win at Fürth. No matter, the 1500 travelling Köln fans eulogized their new coach. Let's see if they're still singing the same tune by Xmas...Kaiserslautern had a lackluster performance that hardly endeared them to their considerable fanbase.

Huge win for Offenbach at Freiburg. The hosts might have been entertaining some ideas of recovery and rejoining their pre-season expectation of promotion fight, but the cold hard truth of 3 Kickers goals surely puts paid to that thought?!

Attendance: 125,606 (13,956 avg), 20 goals (2.22 avg)


1. FC Kaiserslautern  	 -   	FC Augsburg  		0:0 (0:0)	29,054
MSV Duisburg 		 -  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	4:0 (3:0) 	14,002	(Idrissou 2, Kurth, Grilic)
Hansa Rostock 		 -  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	2:0 (1:0) 	17,000	(Bülow, Stein)
SC Freiburg 		 -  	Kickers Offenbach 	1:3 (1:2) 	11,000	(Iashvili - Müller, Sieger, Türker) 		
Greuther Fürth 		 -  	1. FC Köln 		1:2 (0:1) 	10,000	(Kucukovic - Broich, Novakovic)	
Erzgebirge Aue 		 -  	SC Paderborn 07 	1:0 (0:0) 	10,500	(Curri)
Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	Eintr. Braunschweig 	1:1 (0:1) 	 5,050	(Krejci - Siegert)
SpVgg Unterhaching 	 -  	Karlsruher SC 		0:1 (0:1) 	 8,000	(Federico)
TSV 1860 München 	 -  	TuS Koblenz 		2:1 (1:0)	21,000	(Hoffmann, Berhalter - Nessos)



 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	14  	  9  	5  	0  	  35:16   +19  	  32
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	14 	  9 	5 	0 	  26:10   +16 	  32
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	14 	  6 	7 	1 	  26:14   +12 	  25
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	14 	  7 	4 	3 	  22:14   +8 	  25
 5  TSV 1860 München 	  	14 	  7 	3 	4 	  17:14   +3 	  24
 6  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	14 	  7 	2 	5 	  20:19   +1 	  23
 7  FC Augsburg 	  	14 	  5 	5 	4 	  13:12   +1 	  20
 8  1. FC Köln 	  		14 	  5 	4 	5 	  21:17   +4 	  19
 9  TuS Koblenz 	  	14 	  5 	4 	5 	  18:17   +1 	  19
10  Greuther Fürth 	  	14 	  4 	5 	5 	  23:20   +3 	  17
11  SC Paderborn 07 	  	14 	  4 	4 	6 	  11:15   -4 	  16
12  SC Freiburg 	  	14 	  3 	6 	5 	  15:19   -4 	  15
13  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	14 	  3 	6 	5 	  18:29   -11 	  15
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	14 	  3 	5 	6 	  10:14   -4 	  14
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Kickers Offenbach 	  	14 	  3 	4 	7 	  14:21   -7 	  13
16  Wacker Burghausen 	  	14 	  3 	3 	8 	  13:28   -15 	  12
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	14 	  2 	3 	9 	  12:19   -7 	  9
18  Eintr. Braunschweig	  	14 	  1 	5 	8 	   9:25   -16 	  8


November 22, 2006

Mixed euro results

Midweek european play revealed par-for-the-course results. Hamburg continued their miserable run, as they were defeated 3-1 at Arsenal, despite rather decent play. Bayern München had a 2-2 draw at Spartak Moscow, which really didn't matter, since they're already through to the next round. The impressive result was Werder Bremen defeating Chelski 1-0 on a first half header by Per Mertesacker. Werder now has a chance to advance to the next round. It is a tall task, as they would need to get a point away at Barcelona. They might also sneak by in the unlikely event that Chelski were to get pounded by Levski Sofia.


November 20, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 13

The Bundesliga remains topsy-turvy, as Schalke becomes the 6th team to lead the table. Erstwhile leaders Stuttgart were upended in the top-of-the-table clash by champions Bayern at the Allianz-Arena. The first half was quite thrilling. Stuttgart took an early lead, by Bayern came storming back. However, the 2nd part was a snooze fest, as the champions decided to sit on their lead, and VfB has no clue on how to take control. Schalke took advantage and seized the lead with a hard fought victory at always tough Cottbus. The Blues jumped out to quick two goal lead, only to see Energie storm back to tie. But the Schalker were up to the task, and won the match in the 2nd half with a strong effort. However, don't get too excited if you're a Schalke fan, as they'll undoubtedly get dumped next week :)

An important road win for Hertha at Dortmund. The guests jumped out quick, and the Neons responded. But then the match teetered out, as Hertha played a solid catenaccio, and Dortmund was without ideas to break it down. The tiny Tivoli was packed and the crowd fired up Alemannia in a strong performance to split the points with Werder. They might have pulled it off, but a cold blooded finish late by Miro Klose salvaged the match for Bremen. Werder seemed to be red hot a couple of weeks ago, but are stumbling around now.

Many thought that Nürnberg had forgotten how to win, having gone 10 matches without the "3". And they wasted enough chances against the Aspirins to win several games. In the end, they did just enough to get the "W". Bochum got a good win in their relegation struggle. Frankfurt seemed to be on the road to victory, but Vasovic got his ass tossed, and Bochum roared back to take the points. In the end, it probably won't matter, but at least Bochum is putting up a fight. Gladbach loses disgracefully at home to a fighting Hannover side, who pull out the botton relegation spots. A crisis is brewing among "die Fohlen", so if Heynckes doesn't right the ship soon, don't be surprised if he's canned.

Another sell-out crowd in Mainz, and yet another drab performance, but this time by both clubs. Since Hamburg is equally crap to the hosts, not much else to say about this one. The HSV directors had announced earlier that coach Thomas Doll "had through December to straighten things out." I guess one can interpret that as if HSV is still in a relegation spot by winter-break, Doll gets tossed on the street. Now certainly the club directors deserve a lot of the blame, as they sold off a lot of good players. And HSV has had injury problems. But they've played so crap, you've got to wonder if Doll doesn't deserve to be canned anyway.

Bielefeld and Wolfsburg also put everybody to sleep. Arminia is having a decent season, and VW seems to have stablized, so probably no one cared one way or another.

328,000 fans (36,460 avg), 29 goals (3.22)

Team of the Week: Schalke
Turd of the Weak: Dortmund



VfL Bochum  		 -   	Eintracht Frankfurt  	4:3 (3:2)  	21,260	(Misimovic, Maltritz, Butscher, Gekas - Streit 2, Amanatidis)
Bayern München 		 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		2:1 (2:1) 	69,000	(Makaay, Pizarro - Gomez)
Borussia Dortmund 	 -  	Hertha BSC 		1:2 (1:2) 	70,200	(Frei - Schmidt, Gilberto)
1. FC Nürnberg 		 -  	Bayer Leverkusen 	3:2 (1:1) 	37,143	(Vittek, Schroth, Saenko - Madouni, Paulus)
1. FSV Mainz 05 	 -  	Hamburger SV 		0:0 (0:0) 	20,300	
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	Werder Bremen 		2:2 (1:0) 	20,800	(Rösler, Schlaudraff - Mertesacker, Klose)
Energie Cottbus 	 -  	FC Schalke 04 		2:4 (2:2) 	17,120	(Radu 2 - Hamit Altintop, Kuranyi, Pander, Kobiashvili)
Borussia M'gladbach 	 -  	Hannover 96 		0:1 (0:0) 	39,670	(Balitsch)
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	VfL Wolfsburg 		0:0 (0:0) 	22,651



 1  FC Schalke 04  	   	13	8  	2  	3  	  23:15   +8  	  26
 2  Werder Bremen 	  	13 	7 	3 	3 	  33:18   +15 	  24
 3  VfB Stuttgart 	  	13 	7 	3 	3 	  26:19   +7 	  24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Bayern München 	  	13 	7 	2 	4 	  21:16   +5 	  23
 5  Hertha BSC Berlin	  	13 	5 	6 	2 	  23:18   +5 	  21
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	13 	5 	5 	3 	  22:14   +8 	  20
 7  Borussia Dortmund 	  	13 	4 	6 	3 	  17:15   +2 	  18
 8  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	13 	4 	6 	3 	   9:10   -1 	  18
 9  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	13 	3 	8 	2 	  17:14   +3 	  17
10  Eintracht Frankfurt   	13 	3 	7 	3 	  16:18   -2 	  16
11  Energie Cottbus 	  	13 	4 	4 	5 	  16:18   -2 	  16
12  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	13 	4 	3 	6 	  21:21    0 	  15
13  Alemannia Aachen 	  	13 	4 	3 	6 	  20:24   -4 	  15
14  Borussia M'gladbach   	13 	4 	1 	8 	  11:18   -7 	  13
15  Hannover 96 	  	13 	3 	4 	6 	  12:22   -10 	  13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Bochum 	  		13 	3 	3 	7 	  17:26   -9 	  12
17  Hamburger SV 	  	13 	1 	8 	4 	  11:15   -4 	  11
18  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	13 	1 	6 	6 	  10:24   -14 	  9




2. Liga, Round 13

A wild shootout at the top, as the undefeated leaders Karlsruhe and Rostock met in the Wildparkstadion. For once, the match lived up to expectations. KSC came out of blocks possesed, and looked to finish off the easterners early, jumping out to a 3-0 halftime lead. The clubs then traded goals early in the 2nd half, but Hansa mounted a furious, unbelievable, comeback in the closing minutes - 3 goals in about 10 minutes!! Clearly a moral victory for Hansa, with KSC and their fans in stunned disbelief. Nevertheless, both clubs remain 7 points clear at the top.

Köln is clearly in crisis, with yet another loss. But they got some good news, as they finally convinced Christoph Daum to take over the reigns. You might recall that he was in line to become national team coach until he lied about taking drugs, and then offered to prove it by taking a test, which he promptly failed. But he has a reputation as being a great motivator, and is supposedly clean, so this could salvage the Goats season. On the flip side, a huge win for 1860, which has had it's own problems.

Lautern struggled at Offenbach, but managed to eek out a win. Things are proving more difficult in die Zweite than many had anticipated for the Reds. A good result for Braunschweig, coming back to tie Duisburg. It's too bad the Lions are crap and likely to drop. Their fans deserve better, and have supported the team with decent attendance.

146,730 fans (16,303 avg), 19 goals (2.11)

 

Kickers Offenbach  	 -   	1. FC Kaiserslautern  	0:1 (0:0)	14,163	(Daham)  	
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	MSV Duisburg 		1:1 (0:1) 	16,200	(Lieberknecht - Idrissou)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	SC Freiburg 		2:1 (0:1) 	 6,000	(Helbig, Fröhlich - Hansen)
1. FC Köln 		 -  	TSV 1860 München 	1:2 (1:0) 	44,800	(Scherz - Adler, Milchraum)
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	Greuther Fürth 		0:0 (0:0) 	 6,111
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		0:1 (0:0) 	 9,180	(Liebers) 		
TuS Koblenz 		 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	0:0 (0:0) 	 9,076	
FC Augsburg 		 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	1:0 (1:0) 	13,200	(Lawarée) 		
Karlsruher SC 		 -  	Hansa Rostock 		4:4 (3:0)	28,000	(Kapllani, Porcello, Carnell, Freis - Sharpourzadeh 2, Kern, Cetkovic)


 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	13  	  8  	5  	0  	  34:16   +18  	  29
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	13 	  8 	5 	0 	  24:10	  +14 	  29
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	13 	  7 	3 	3 	  22:14   +8 	  24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  MSV Duisburg 	  	13 	  5 	7 	1 	  22:14   +8 	  22
 5  TSV 1860 München 	  	13 	  6 	3 	4 	  15:13   +2 	  21
 6  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	13 	  6 	2 	5 	  19:19    0 	  20
 7  TuS Koblenz 	  	13 	  5 	4 	4 	  17:15   +2 	  19
 8  FC Augsburg 	  	13 	  5 	4 	4 	  13:12   +1 	  19
 9  Greuther Fürth 	  	13 	  4 	5 	4 	  22:18   +4 	  17
10  1. FC Köln 	  		13 	  4 	4 	5 	  19:16   +3 	  16
11  SC Paderborn 07 	  	13 	  4 	4 	5 	  11:14   -3 	  16
12  SC Freiburg 	  	13 	  3 	6 	4 	  14:16   -2 	  15
13  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	13 	  3 	6 	4 	  18:25   -7 	  15
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	13 	  3 	5 	5 	  10:13   -3 	  14
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	13 	  3 	2 	8 	  12:27   -15 	  11
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Kickers Offenbach 	  	13 	  2 	4 	7 	  11:20   -9 	  10
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	13 	  2 	3 	8 	  12:17   -5 	  9
18  Eintr. Braunschweig 	13 	  1 	4 	8 	   8:24   -16 	  7





November 16, 2006

Crap euro performance

Germany only managed a lame 1-1 draw at Cyprus in the Euro 2008 qualifier. Despite controlling most of the game and having several chances to win, Jürgen Löw's squad looked lame. Even though they were missing several starters, this is a poor result. Keeper Timo Hildebrand, who has been waiting in the wings looked especially crap. The Stuttgart keeper hardly advanced his claim to become the new no.1. Cyprus on the other hand gave a good performance, a nice followup to their surprise 5-2 win over Ireland earlier. In reality, Cyprus playing at home has often given Germany fits. Even the beginning of the legendary early 1970s team struggled in Nicosia: only an injury time goal by Gerd Müller saved Germany's bacon in the 1970 World Cup qualifier. (They did better in Germany, winning 12-0).


November 12, 2006

The first surprise was the solid performance of visiting Dortmund, winners at Bremen. Leaders Werder couldn't follow up with their recent performances, and seemed listless and without ideas. Stuttgart was hardly impressive, but did enough to win at hannover, and thus take over the lead. Schalke had an easy time slapping hapless Mainz all over the field, and had things wrapped up in the first 30 minutes. Leverkusen was on the verge of sending Bayern down to defeat, but a couple of cold blooded strikes near the end did in the Aspirins.

HSV dominated most of the match and took a deserved lead, but was unable to hold on to the victory. A late goal by Oli Neuville brought a rather lucky point for Gladbach. Nürnberg dominated against Aachen, and should have all the points wrapped up, but then gave up a goal in injury time to suffer yet another draw. Bochum had host Hertha on the ropes, but couldn't hold out and had to be statified with a draw. On paper, the Wolfsburg-Cottbus match was the bore of the week (in fact, you could argue that VW would be in that match every week.) But it was actually quite entertaining, both teams going on attack, and both goalkeepers in fine form.

Bundesliga, Round 12

Attendance: 315,241 (35,027 avg), 29 goals (3.22 avg)


Werder Bremen  	 	 -   	Borussia Dortmund  	1:3 (1:1)  	42,100	(Klose - Frei, Tinga, Kruska)
Hamburger SV 	 	 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 	1:1 (0:0) 	56,587	(Ljuboja - Neuville)
FC Schalke 04 	 	 -  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	4:0 (3:0) 	61,162	(Kuryani 2, Halil Altintop)
Bayer Leverkusen 	 -  	Bayern München 		2:3 (0:1) 	22,500	(Athirson, Kiessling - Salihamidzic, Demichelis, Pizarro)	
Hertha BSC Berlin	 -  	VfL Bochum 		3:3 (1:2) 	29,104	(Pantelic, van Burik, Neuendorf - Gekas, Misimovic 2)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	Arminia Bielefeld 	0:3 (0:1) 	35,500	(Wichnariek, Zuma, Ndjeng)
VfL Wolfsburg 	 	 -  	Energie Cottbus 	0:0 (0:0) 	18,641
Hannover 96 		 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		1:2 (1:0) 	28,847	(Rosenthal - Hitzlsperger, Cacau)
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	1. FC Nürnberg 		1:1 (0:1)	20,800	(Plaßhenrich - Galasek)



 1  VfB Stuttgart  	  12	7  	3  	2  	  25:17   +8  	  24
 2  Werder Bremen 	  12 	7 	2 	3 	  31:16   +15 	  23
 3  FC Schalke 04 	  12 	7 	2 	3 	  19:13   +6 	  23
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Bayern München 	  12 	6 	2 	4 	  19:15   +4 	  20
 5  Arminia Bielefeld 	  12 	5 	4 	3 	  22:14   +8 	  19
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  12 	4 	6 	2 	  21:17   +4 	  18
 7  Borussia Dortmund 	  12 	4 	6 	2 	  16:13   +3 	  18
 8  VfL Wolfsburg 	  12 	4 	5 	3 	  9:10 	  -1 	  17
 9  Energie Cottbus 	  12 	4 	4 	4 	  14:14    0 	  16
10  Eintracht Frankfurt   12 	3 	7 	2 	  13:14   -1 	  16
11  Bayer Leverkusen 	  12 	4 	3 	5 	  19:18   +1 	  15
12  1. FC Nürnberg 	  12 	2 	8 	2 	  14:12   +2 	  14
13  Alemannia Aachen 	  12 	4 	2 	6 	  18:22   -4 	  14
14  Borussia M'gladbach   12 	4 	1 	7 	  11:17   -6 	  13
15  Hamburger SV 	  12 	1 	7 	4 	  11:15   -4 	  10
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Hannover 96 	  12 	2 	4 	6 	  11:22   -11 	  10
17  VfL Bochum 	  	  12 	2 	3 	7 	  13:23   -10 	  9
18  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  12 	1 	5 	6 	  10:24   -14 	  8



2.Liga, Round 12

Attendance: 105,946 (11,772 avg), 28 goals (3.11 avg)


Hansa Rostock  		 -   	Eintr. Braunschweig  	4:0 (2:0)	14,000	(Rahn 2, Kern, Hähnge)	 	
TSV 1860 München 	 -  	SC Paderborn 07 	1:0 (0:0) 	20,100	(Adler)	
TuS Koblenz 		 -  	Karlsruher SC 		1:1 (0:1) 	10,596	(Sahin - Eggimann)		
MSV Duisburg 		 -  	FC Augsburg 		3:0 (3:0) 	13,150	(Lavric, Schlicke, Idrissou)
SC Freiburg 		 -  	1. FC Köln 		0:0 (0:0) 	20,000
Erzgebirge Aue 		 -  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	5:1 (2:0) 	14,500	(Heller 2, Juskowiak 2, Liebers - Sykora)
Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	Kickers Offenbach 	4:1 (2:0) 	 4,100	(Bogavac 2, Burkhardt, Vukovic - Wörle)
SpVgg Unterhaching 	 -  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	2:1 (1:1) 	 4,000	(Buck, Lechleiter - Buck o.g.)
Greuther Fürth 		 -  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	2:2 (1:1)	 5,500	(Timm, Adlung - Daham, Hajnal)



 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	12   	8  	4  	0  	  30:12   +18  	  28
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	12 	8 	4 	0 	  20:6 	  +14 	  28
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	12  	5 	6 	1 	  21:13   +8 	  21
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	12  	6 	3 	3 	  21:14   +7 	  21
 5  TuS Koblenz 	  	12  	5 	3 	4 	  17:15   +2 	  18
 6  TSV 1860 München 	  	12  	5 	3 	4 	  13:12   +1 	  18
 7  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	12  	5 	2 	5 	  18:19   -1 	  17
 8  Greuther Fürth 	  	12  	4 	4 	4 	  22:18   +4 	  16
 9  1. FC Köln 	  		12  	4 	4 	4 	  18:14   +4 	  16
10  FC Augsburg 	  	12  	4 	4 	4 	  12:12    0 	  16
11  SC Freiburg 	  	12  	3 	6 	3 	  13:14   -1 	  15
12  SC Paderborn 07 	  	12  	4 	3 	5 	  11:14   -3 	  15
13  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	12  	3 	4 	5 	  10:13   -3 	  13
14  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	12  	2 	6 	4 	  16:24   -8 	  12
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	12  	3 	2 	7 	  12:26   -14 	  11
16  Kickers Offenbach 	  	12  	2 	4 	6 	  11:19   -8 	  10
17  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	12  	2 	3 	7 	  12:16   -4 	  9
18  Eintr. Braunschweig	  	12  	1 	3 	8 	   7:23   -16 	  6




November 8, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 11

A rare "English" week for the Bundesliga, as teams saw full midweek action. (In the old days, the English leagues often played weekends and midweek, so the Germans now call all such event "Englische Woche"). Bayern was the main victim, as they suffered a disgraceful home defeat to Bottom Hannover. The 96ers put up a defensive wall and fought for every ball, while Magath's team looked listless and without ideas. The fans couldn't take it by halftime, and treated the team to a whistling concert. Leaders Werder Bremen took full advantage with an excellent away result. Nürnberg gave a good effort, but it wasn't enough, as a brilliant freekick by Brazilian playmaker Diego decided the contest. Stuttgart gave one of their weakest performances in a while, but still came out on top with two late goals. HSV dominated much of the match, but were incompetant in front of goal. Surely manager Thomas Doll is going to be fired?! schalke also had a good result, although Gladbach look like crap. The Blues easily handled Jupp Heynckes squad, who have now dropped 4 straight.

Bielefeld and Hertha slugged it out to a draw in an entertaining match, both teams playing well the last couple of matches. A good road win for Frankfurt at always tough Cottbus, but Energie basically fell asleep in the 1st half, and by the time they woke up, Eintracht was too well organized for them to do anything about it. Basically a crap result for Borussia at home in the "neon" derby, both clubs yellow-black. They dominated, but were unable to get one past Aachen's aptly name GK Nicht ("not" or perhaps "Not!").

Mainz now prop up the table with another lame home result. They actually seemed to be the better squad in a generally boring match, but Volkswagen took advantage of a lapse of concentration to steal the points. That makes 4 goals in 5 matches for Wolfsburg's Mike Hanke, which is saying something, since VW don't score much. Bochum was unable to followup theuir decent result in Hannover, and basically sucked against Leverkusen. The Asiprins had an easy time, and the Bochum fans spent most of their time yelling "Köhler raus!", which might mean that good ol' Jürgen probably won't get invited to the fan club Xmas party.

Attendance: 333,671 (37,074 avg), 20 goals (2.22 avg)

 
 
Borussia Dortmund  	 -   	Alemannia Aachen  	0:0 (0:0)	67,500  	
1. FC Nürnberg 		 -  	Werder Bremen 		1:2 (0:1) 	37,174	(Banovic - Frings, Diego)
VfB Stuttgart 		 -  	Hamburger SV 		2:0 (0:0) 	37,000	(Gomez, Hitzlsperger)
1. FSV Mainz 05 	 -  	VfL Wolfsburg 		1:2 (1:1) 	19,500	(Szabics - Hanke, Lamprecht)
Bayern München 		 -  	Hannover 96 		0:1 (0:1) 	68,000	(Huszti)
Borussia M'gladbach 	 -  	FC Schalke 04 		0:2 (0:2) 	52,018	(Zé Antonio, Varela)
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	Hertha BSC 		2:2 (1:1) 	21,075	(Zuma, Kucera - Gilberto, Gimenez) 		
VfL Bochum 		 -  	Bayer Leverkusen 	1:3 (0:2) 	18,649	(Ilicevic - Barbarez, Voronin, Barnetta)
Energie Cottbus 	 -  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	0:1 (0:1)	12,755	(Takahara)


 1 Werder Bremen  	   	11   	7  	2  	2  	  30:13   +17  	   	23
 2 VfB Stuttgart 	  	11  	6 	3 	2 	  23:16   +7 	  	21
 3 FC Schalke 04 	  	11  	6 	2 	3 	  15:13   +2 	  	20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4 Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	11  	4 	5 	2 	  18:14   +4 	  	17
 5 FC Bayern München 	  	11  	5 	2 	4 	  16:13   +3 	  	17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6 Arminia Bielefeld 	  	11  	4 	4 	3 	  19:14   +5 	  	16
 7 Eintracht Frankfurt 	  	11  	3 	7 	1 	  13:11   +2 	  	16
 8 VfL Wolfsburg 	  	11  	4 	4 	3 	   9:10   -1 	  	16
 9 Bayer Leverkusen 	  	11  	4 	3 	4 	  17:15   +2 	  	15
10 Borussia Dortmund 	  	11  	3 	6 	2 	  13:12   +1 	  	15
11 Energie Cottbus 	  	11  	4 	3 	4 	  14:14    0 	  	15
12 1. FC Nürnberg 	  	11  	2 	7 	2 	  13:11   +2 	  	13
13 Alemannia Aachen 	  	11  	4 	1 	6 	  17:21   -4 	  	13
14 Borussia M'gladbach 	  	11  	4 	0 	7 	  10:16   -6 	  	12
15 Hannover 96 	  		11  	2 	4 	5 	  10:20   -10 	  	10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Hamburger SV 	  	11  	1 	6 	4 	  10:14   -4 	  	9
17 VfL Bochum 	  		11  	2 	2 	7 	  10:20   -10 	  	8
18 1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	11  	1 	5 	5 	  10:20   -10 	  	8

2.Liga, Round 11

Crunching win for leaders Karlsruhe in an important home match. Köln apparently shot their wad in the epic Cup win over Schalke a week ago. Now they can't get it up :). Essen fired their manager Uwe Neuhaus, not that it matters.

Attendance: 129,902 (14,434 avg), 22 goals



Karlsruher SC 	 	 -   	TSV 1860 München	4:1 (0:0)	23,700	(Kapllani 2, Federico, Mutzel - Adler)
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	Hansa Rostock 		0:2 (0:0) 	 4,779	(Gledson, Cetkovic)
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	2:3 (1:1) 	13,000	(Rische, Fuchs - Thomik, N'Diaye, Buck)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	TuS Koblenz 		0:1 (0:0) 	 9,030	(Sahin)
1. FC Kaiserslautern 	 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	4:0 (1:0) 	20,061	(Bellinghausen, Müller, Hajnal, Lexa)		
1. FC Köln 		 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		0:1 (0:1) 	34,000	(Juskowiak)
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	MSV Duisburg 		0:0 (0:0) 	 8,129	
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	Greuther Fürth 		1:1 (1:0) 	 6,403	(de Napoli - Kleine)
FC Augsburg 		 -  	SC Freiburg 		2:0 (2:0) 	10,800	(Strauß, Müller)



 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	11    	8  	3  	0  	  29:11   +18  	   	27
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	11   	7 	4 	0 	  16:6 	  +10 	  	25
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	11   	6 	2 	3 	  19:12   +7 	  	20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  MSV Duisburg 	  	11   	4 	6 	1 	  18:13   +5 	  	18
 5  TuS Koblenz 	  	11   	5 	2 	4 	  16:14   +2 	  	17
 6  FC Augsburg 	  	11   	4 	4 	3 	  12:9 	  +3 	  	16
 7  Greuther Fürth 	  	11   	4 	3 	4 	  20:16   +4 	  	15
 8  1. FC Köln 	  		11   	4 	3 	4 	  18:14   +4 	  	15
 9  TSV 1860 München 	  	11   	4 	3 	4 	  12:12    0 	  	15
10  SC Paderborn 07 	  	11   	4 	3 	4 	  11:13   -2 	  	15
11  SC Freiburg 	  	11   	3 	5 	3 	  13:14   -1 	  	14
12  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	11   	4 	2 	5 	  13:18   -5 	  	14
13  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	11   	2 	6 	3 	  15:19   -4 	  	12
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	11   	2 	4 	5 	   8:12   -4 	  	10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Kickers Offenbach 	  	11   	2 	4 	5 	  10:15   -5 	  	10
16  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	11   	2 	3 	6 	  11:14   -3 	  	9
17  Wacker Burghausen 	  	11   	2 	2 	7 	   8:25   -17 	  	8
18  Eintr. Braunschweig	  	11   	1 	3 	7 	   7:19   -12 	  	6


November 6, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 10

Energie Cottbus created a sensation of sorts as they held high-flying leaders Werder Bremen to a draw in the Weserstadion. Although Cottbus played largely a defensive setup, they almost stole the points, but were denied to clear penalty in injury time. Bremen generally dominated the match, but was unable to break down the determined Energie defense. Cottbus surely has to be one of the early season sensations. Meanwhile, in the most highly anticipated matchup, Schalke couldn't hold a two goal lead and had to be satisifed with a draw against champions Bayern. Although neither club can be exhilirated with the results, given their rather poor recent performances, they both can take something positive from this match. The winner of the top of the table stumbles was undoubtedly VfB Stuttgart, which put on an impressive offensive display in Aachen, and have now climbed into 2nd. Aachen's Tivoli is a tiny arena, but it's usually packed and Alemannia fights hard, so it's a nice win for the visitors. Stuttgart had started the season in dreadful fashion, and was perhaps the most inconsistent squad, but seems to have put things together and are now a title contender.

Hertha got a good win, ending Nürnberg's unbeated start. Bielefeld was somewhat unlucky not to escape with all 3 points, as Dortmund got an injury time penalty from Alex Frei. There were some interesting matchs at the bottom as well. A nice away win in the relegation battle, but it's unlikely to help Bochum in the long run. Hannover on the other hand looks dreary and drops to bottom. Wolfsburg won the key northern match against Hamburg, who continue to suck. Mainz got an unexpected point at Bayer Aspirin.

Attendance was pretty good, as the 40,000 per match average was breached. (Sellouts at Schalke, Aachen, Leverkusen, Bremen)

Team of the Week: Stuttgart, Cottbus
Turd of the Weak: Hannover, Hamburg

Attendance: 364,681 (40,520 avg), 22 goals


Hannover 96  	 	-   	VfL Bochum  		0:2 (0:1)	30,042	(Drsek, Gekas) 
Werder Bremen 	 	-  	Energie Cottbus 	1:1 (0:0) 	39,222	(Klasnic - Kioyo)
Bayer Leverkusen 	-  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	1:1 (1:1)	22,500	(Barbarez -  Szabics)
Hertha BSC Berlin 	-  	1. FC Nürnberg 		2:1 (1:0)	41,162	(Pantelic 2 - Banovic)
Borussia Dortmund 	-  	Arminia Bielefeld 	1:1 (0:0) 	74,300	(Frei - Wichnariek)	
VfL Wolfsburg 	 	-  	Hamburger SV 		1:0 (1:0) 	25,623	(Hanke)
Alemannia Aachen 	-  	VfB Stuttgart 		2:4 (1:2)	20,300	(Rösler, Ibisevic - Gomez, Hitzlsperger, Streller 2)
FC Schalke 04 	 	-  	Bayern München 		2:2 (2:1)	61,482	(Lövenkrands, Kobiashvili - Ottl, Makaay)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	-  	Borussia M'gladbach 	1:0 (0:0)	50,050	(Takahara)



 1  Werder Bremen  	   	10   	6  	2  	2  	 28:12   +16  	  20
 2  VfB Stuttgart 	  	10 	5 	3 	2 	 21:16 	 +5   	  18
 3  FC Bayern München 	  	10 	5 	2 	3 	 16:12 	 +4 	  17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Schalke 04 	  	10 	5 	2 	3 	 13:13 	  0 	  17
 5  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	10 	4 	4 	2 	 16:12 	 +4 	  16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	10 	4 	3 	3 	 17:12 	 +5 	  15
 7  Energie Cottbus 	  	10 	4 	3 	3 	 14:13 	 +1 	  15
 8  Borussia Dortmund 	  	10 	3 	5 	2 	 13:12 	 +1 	  14
 9  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	10 	2 	7 	1 	 12:9 	 +3 	  13
10  Eintracht Frankfurt 	10 	2 	7 	1 	 12:11 	 +1 	  13
11  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	10 	3 	4 	3 	  7:9 	 -2 	  13
12  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	10 	3 	3 	4 	 14:14    0 	  12
13  Alemannia Aachen 	  	10 	4 	0 	6 	 17:21 	 -4 	  12
14  Borussia M'gladbach 	10 	4 	0 	6 	 10:14 	 -4 	  12
15  Hamburger SV 	  	10 	1 	6 	3 	 10:12 	 -2 	  9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Bochum 	  		10 	2 	2 	6 	  9:17 	 -8 	  8
17  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	10 	1 	5 	4 	  9:18 	 -9 	  8
18  Hannover 96 	  	10 	1 	4 	5 	  9:20 	 -11 	  7

2. Liga, Round 10

One big winner and one big loser. The winner was undoubtedly Karlsruhe, whose emphatic win not only opens some room at the top, but clear a 7 point lead in promotion. The big loser was Köln, which was upended in front of a sell-out crowd in Koblenz, their biggest match in years. Rostock was unable to take full advantage, as they struggled against a determined Jena squad in an eastern clash.

The crap match of the year had to be Unterhaching hosting Burghausen, and as expected nobody wanted to watch. On the other hand, folks still seem interested in watching Braunschweig, but their loss at recovered Freiburg threatens to open up a gap in the relegation line for the Lions, propping up the bottom.

Attendance: 128,336 (14,260 avg), 20 goals


SC Freiburg  	 	-   	Eintr. Braunschweig  	1:0 (0:0)  	12,000	(Mohamad)
Karlsruher SC 	 	-  	SC Paderborn 07 	3:0 (1:0) 	20,300	(Federico 2, Kapllani)	
Hansa Rostock 	 	-  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	1:1 (0:0) 	22,500	(Rydlewicz - Hasse)
TSV 1860 München 	-  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	2:0 (0:0) 	23,400	(Vucicevic, di Salvo)
SpVgg Unterhaching 	-  	Wacker Burghausen 	0:2 (0:0) 	 2,700	(Krejci, Mosquera)
TuS Koblenz 	 	-  	1. FC Köln 		3:1 (0:0) 	15,000	(Sukalo, Ziehl, Dzaka - Scherz)
MSV Duisburg 	 	-  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	1:1 (1:1) 	19,086	(Lavric - Outtarra)	
Greuther Fürth 	 	-  	Kickers Offenbach 	2:0 (0:0) 	 5,200	(Barut, Oehrl)
Erzgebirge Aue 	 	-  	FC Augsburg 		1:1 (0:1)	 8,150	(Adamski - Lawarée)



 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	10  	7  	3  	0  	  25:10	  +15  	   24
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	10 	6 	4 	0 	  14:6 	  +8 	   22
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	10 	4 	5 	1 	  18:13   +5 	   17
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	10 	5 	2 	3 	  15:12   +3 	   17
 5  1. FC Köln 	  		10 	4 	3 	3 	  18:13   +5 	   15
 6  TSV 1860 München 	  	10 	4 	3 	3 	  11:8 	  +3 	   15
 7  SC Paderborn 07 	  	10 	4 	3 	3 	  11:11    0 	   15
 8  Greuther Fürth 	  	10 	4 	2 	4 	  19:15   +4 	   14
 9  TuS Koblenz 	  	10 	4 	2 	4 	  15:14   +1 	   14
10  SC Freiburg 	  	10 	3 	5 	2 	  13:12   +1 	   14
11  FC Augsburg 	  	10 	3 	4 	3 	  10:9 	  +1 	   13
12  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	10 	2 	5 	3 	  14:18   -4 	   11
13  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	10 	3 	2 	5 	  12:18   -6 	   11
14  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	10 	2 	3 	5 	  11:13   -2 	    9
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Kickers Offenbach 	  	10 	2 	3 	5 	  10:15   -5 	    9
16  Wacker Burghausen 	  	10 	2 	2 	6 	   8:21   -13 	    8
17  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	10 	1 	4 	5 	   5:10   -5 	    7
18  Eintr. Braunschweig 	10	1 	3 	6 	   5:16   -11 	    6


November 1, 2006

Euro results

Bayern München assured their advancement to the next stage with a rather lackluster 0-0 at home to Sporting of Lisbon. They had a couple of chances to win the match near the end, but in general couldn't be bothered, to the point of being booed by the home crowd. Werder Bremen thumped Levski Sofia 3-0 on the road, and this result temporarily takes them past Barcelona. Their remaining matches are at the Spanish champion and a home struggle against group-leader Chelsea, so qualification still seems a bit iffy. Hamburg on the other hand doesn't need to worry about continued European play. HSV was beaten 3-1 at home by FC Porto, and remain dead-last and pointless...


October 29, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 9

No huge surprises this week, but there were some impressive performances. Leaders Bremen had a brilliant display of firepower as the ripped Mainz. And it could have been even worse, as Werder was far superior in all aspects of the game. The Mainz miracle may be coming to an end, as they hardly look like a Bundesliga squad these days. On the plus side, the hosts never gave up, but that won't be enough to keep them up. Werder on the other hand, seems to be firing on all cylinders, having blasted 6 each past Mainz and Bochum away and beaten Bayern München to boot.

Bayern ended Frankfurt's unbeaten run, as they easily won in front of another sell-out crowd. Nürnberg is thereby the only unbeaten team, as Dortmund held them to a draw. A good result for the Neons, but der Club must be getting tired of draws.

Bochum looks like they reserved their elevator ride tickets earlier than usual, as they gave up Volkswagen's first away win, and continued their poor performance. Cottbus pulled somewhat of a surprise, as they easily won the eastern derby againt a lame Hertha squad, whose only achievemnet was Okoronkwo getting his ass red carded. Possibly worse was an injury to playmaker Yildiray Bastürk, without whom the Herthaners are hopeless.

Hamburg at least didn't lose. They controlled the north derby with Hannover, but were unable to score. Hardly a huge surprise, but the disappointment leader of the season is at least showing signs of life. And on the plus side, with everybody bunched up, a couple of wins and they could be on track. Gladbach's home loss to Leverkusen won't go down too well. They looked crap, and the Aspirins easily bring home the points.

Sunday matches saw a couple of ass-whuppings. Stuttgart seems to have gotten their act together, and ripped Schalke. They started the season on a roller coaster, but totally dominated against Schalke. About the only decent thing for Schalke is that they got the big sponsorship deal a few weeks ago, so at least they'll be solvent. However, despite their high standing, in this form, no way the Blues even get near the title. Nobody really took Stuttgart as a serious contender either, but more solid performances like this should allow them to grab a Euro spot.

Bielefeld gave a thorough bitch-slapping to Aachen, who had been playing an upstart role. (That seems to have been taken over by Cottbus, whjo have a history of overachieving in the Bundesliga.)

Team of the Week: Werder Bremn, VfB Stuttgart - both delivering ass-kickings
Turd of the Weak: Schalke, Hertha


1. FSV Mainz 05  	-   	Werder Bremen  		1:6 (0:3)	20,300	(Azaouagh - Hunt 2, Klose 2, Naldo, Diego)
Bayern München 	 	-  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	2:0 (2:0) 	69,000	(Makaay, van Bommel)
Hamburger SV 	 	-  	Hannover 96 		0:0 (0:0) 	57,000
1. FC Nürnberg 	 	-  	Borussia Dortmund 	1:1 (0:0) 	46,229	(Mnari - Tinga) 
Borussia M'gladbach 	-  	Bayer Leverkusen 	0:2 (0:1) 	51,217	(Babic, Voronin)
VfL Bochum 	 	-  	VfL Wolfsburg 		0:1 (0:1) 	18,659	(Hanke)
Energie Cottbus 	-  	Hertha BSC 		2:0 (0:0) 	17,525	(Gunkel, Shao)
VfB Stuttgart 	 	-  	FC Schalke 04 		3:0 (1:0) 	53,000	(Kedira 2, Tasci)
Arminia Bielefeld 	-  	Alemannia Aachen 	5:1 (2:0)	23,538	(Kamper 2, Kucera, Wichniarek, Eigler - Plaßhenrich)


 1  Werder Bremen  	   	9  	  6  	1       2  	 27:11   +16  	  19
 2  FC Bayern München 	  	9 	  5 	1 	3 	 14:10 	 +4 	  16
 3  FC Schalke 04 	  	9 	  5 	1 	3 	 11:11 	  0 	  16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  VfB Stuttgart 	  	9 	  4 	3 	2 	 17:14 	 +3 	  15
 5  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	9 	  4 	2 	3 	 16:11 	 +5 	  14
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Energie Cottbus 	  	9 	  4 	2 	3 	 13:12 	 +1 	  14
 7  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	9 	  2 	7 	0 	 11:7 	 +4 	  13
 8  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	9 	  3 	4 	2 	 14:11 	 +3 	  13
 9  Borussia Dortmund 	  	9 	  3 	4 	2 	 12:11 	 +1 	  13
10  Alemannia Aachen 	  	9 	  4 	0 	5 	 15:17 	 -2 	  12
11  Borussia M'gladbach 	9 	  4 	0 	5 	 10:13 	 -3 	  12
12  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	9 	  3 	2 	4 	 13:13 	  0 	  11
13  Eintracht Frankfurt 	9 	  1 	7 	1 	 11:11    0 	  10
14  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	9 	  2 	4 	3 	  6:9 	 -3 	  10
15  Hamburger SV 	  	9 	  1 	6 	2 	 10:11 	 -1 	   9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Hannover 96 	  	9 	  1 	4 	4 	  9:18 	 -9 	   7
17  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	9 	  1 	4 	4 	  8:17 	 -9 	   7
18  VfL Bochum 	  		9 	  1 	2 	6 	  7:17 	-10 	   5

2. Liga, Round 9

The highlight was undoubtedly in Köln, where Rostock comes away with a good result. This allows them to hold on to a share of the lead, despite Karlsruhe important win in Essen, a tough place to play. Duisburg has to be disappointed, as they missed a chance to gain ground, with a crap draw in Burghausen.

Augsburg saw their first big crowd in the Rosenau in ages, and gave an ass-whupp to a rather tootless Lion squad in a Bayern derby. 1860 looks like they're going nowhere, which is undoubtedly good for other 2.Liga club-treasurers, since they're one of the biggest draws. But the long suffering fans only have the new Allianz-Arena to keep them happy.

Relegated Kaiserslautern got a cold shower on the Monday Night feature match, as they were upended at home by the re-awakened(?) SC Freiburg. The guests dominated the action, and lived up to the pre-season expectations. The win brings them to mid-table after their slow start. For FCK, this weak outing leaves them in the "chasing" field, as they missed their chance to move into a promotion spot.


Eintr. Braunschweig  	 -   	Greuther Fürth  	0:2 (0:1)  	15,800	(Kleine, Timm)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	TuS Koblenz 		2:0 (0:0) 	 6,521	(Zimmermann, Sykora)	
FC Augsburg 	 	 -  	TSV 1860 München 	3:0 (2:0) 	28,000	(Lawarée, Galuschka, da Costa)
1. FC Köln 	 	 -  	Hansa Rostock 		2:2 (1:1) 	46,500	(Novakovic, Chihi - Kern, Hähnge)
Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	MSV Duisburg 		1:1 (1:1) 	 4,250	(Palionis - Schlicke)
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	2:0 (1:0) 	 3,699	(Röttger, Dogan)
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		3:1 (1:0)	 9,488	(Sieger 2, Türker)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	Karlsruher SC 		1:2 (1:1)   	11,689	(Löbe - Porcello 2)
1. FC Kaiserslautern 	 -  	SC Freiburg 		1:3 (1:1)	30,736	(Demai - Antar, Pitroipa, Coulibaly)


 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	9  	 6  	3  	0  	 22:10   +12  	  21
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	9 	 6 	3 	0 	 13:5 	  +8 	  21
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	9 	 4 	4 	1 	 17:12 	  +5 	  16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	9 	 5 	1 	3 	 14:11 	  +3 	  16
 5  1. FC Köln 	  		9 	 4 	3 	2 	 17:10 	  +7 	  15
 6  SC Paderborn 07 	  	9 	 4 	3 	2 	 11:8 	  +3 	  15
 7  FC Augsburg 	  	9 	 3 	3 	3 	  9:8 	  +1 	  12
 8  TSV	1860 München 	  	9 	 3 	3 	3 	  9:8 	  +1 	  12
 9  Greuther Fürth 	  	9 	 3 	2 	4 	 17:15 	  +2 	  11
10  SC Freiburg 	  	9 	 2 	5 	2 	 12:12 	   0 	  11
11  TuS Koblenz 	  	9 	 3 	2 	4 	 12:13 	  -1 	  11
12  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	9 	 2 	4 	3 	 13:17 	  -4 	  10
13  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	9 	 3 	1 	5 	 11:17 	  -6 	  10
14  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	9 	 2 	3 	4 	 11:11 	   0 	   9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Kickers Offenbach 	  	9 	 2 	3 	4 	 10:13 	  -3 	   9
16  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	9 	 1 	4 	4 	  5:8 	  -3 	   7
17  Eintr. Braunschweig 	9 	 1 	3 	5 	  5:15 	  -10 	   6
18  Wacker Burghausen 	  	9 	 1 	2 	6 	  6:21 	  -15 	   5


October 25, 2006

DFB Pokal, 2. Hauptrunde

The 2nd main round of the DFB Cup brought sensations as usual. Famed Bundesliga clubs bit the dust with bitter acrimony :) Schalke was beaten down by 2.Liga 1.FC Köln in a pulsating match in front of a sold out stadium. The relegated Kölners looked to be waltzing home to the upset, but a 10 man Schalke squad finally woke up to even the match, before getting clubbed down in overtime. (No "Golden Goal" rule). In a similar match, Duisburg claimed another Bundesliga scalp, as they upended Bayer Aspirin. Gladbach went even further, getting dropped by Regionalliga Nord side Osnabrück. Dortmund disgraced themselves by losing at home to Hannover, in front of a miniscule crowd (by Dortmund standards).

The Kickers Stuttgart matchup with Hertha was suspended with 4 minutes left, as a line ref was hit in the head with a bottle thrown from the stands. Since Hertha pretty much had the game wrapped up, the result will probably be allowed to stand, and all Kickers will get is a heavy fine.

In general, attendance wasn't too impressive. Fans are only interested in the "David vs. Goliath" matchups, where the lower division club meets a Bundesliga club. So you have big crowds in Osnabrück and Essen. And of course a sell out in Köln, which was also a traditional regional derby.


SV Babelsberg 03  	-   	VfB Stuttgart  		2:4 (0:1)  	 7,120	(BenHatira 2 - Hilbert, Delpierre, Gomez, Cacau)
1. FC Saarbrücken 	-  	Greuther Fürth 		0:2 (0:1) 	 3,300	(Caillas, Reisinger)
FK Pirmasens 	 	-  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	0:3 (0:2) 	 5,000	(Kolomaznik 2, Custos)
VfB Lübeck 	 	-  	Wacker Burghausen 	0:0 (4:5 pen)	 5,000
VfL Bochum 	 	-  	Karlsruher SC 		3:2 (2:1) 	10,480	(Gekas, Butscher 2 - Porcello 2)
VfL Wolfsburg 	 	-  	SC Freiburg 		1:0 (0:0) 	 6,497	(Hanke)
Borussia Dortmund 	-  	Hannover 96 		0:1 (0:0) 	29,000	(Hashemian)		
1. FC Köln 	 	-  	FC Schalke 04 		4:2 ot 		50,000	(Rodriguez o.g, Novikovic, Broich, Chihi - Lövenkrands, Rodgriguez)
Alemannia Aachen 	-  	Erzgebirge Aue 		4:2 ot 		13,583	(Ebbers, Rösler, Herzig, Schlaudraff - Siradze, Juskowiak)
SC Pfullendorf 	 	-  	Kickers Offenbach 	0:2 (0:1) 	 3,553	(Dorn, Wörle)
VfL Osnabrück 	 	-  	Borussia M'gladbach 	2:1 (1:1) 	18,500	(Menga 2 - Sonck)
Rot-Weiss Essen  	-   	Eintracht Frankfurt  	1:2 (0:2) 	18,090	(Löbe - Weissenberger, Amanatidis)
MSV Duisburg  		- 	Bayer Leverkusen 	3:2 ot		16,139	(Mokhtari, Idrissou, Lavric - Barnetta, Rolfes) 
SC Paderborn 07  	-   	1. FC Nürnberg  	1:2 ot		 7,028	(Bröker - Mintal, Vittek)
Stuttgarter Kickers  	-   	Hertha BSC Berlin	0:2 (0:0) stopped	(Okoronkwo, Bastürk)
FC Bayern München 	-  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	1:0 (0:0) 	51,000	(Ottl)


October 22, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 8

The big match was of course in Bremen, and Werder gave Bayern a veritable Ohrfeige. The champions had shown up with their 3 forward attack oriented lineup (having had success against Hertha recently), but they were totally exposed and ripped by Bremen.

Schalke should have had an easy time against a relatively harmless Hannover squad, and jumped out to a good start. But they played down to their opponent's level after taking a solid lead into half. Despite this rather lame performance, and all other problems, Schalke has been quitely doing decently on the field, and gains a share of 1st. Hertha also took advantage of Bayern's toe-stubbing, but although they're currently 3rd, it's only 1 point above 9th place.

On the bottom, Hamburg finally got their first win, ironically against the usually home fortress of bayer Aspirin. Another big result was Cottbus winning away against fellow promotee Aachen.

Team of the Week: Werder, Hamburg
Turd of the Weak: none! Nobody played real crap to deserve it.


Borussia Dortmund  	 -   	VfL Bochum  		1:1 (1:1)	75,100	(Smolarek - Gekas)
Werder Bremen 	 	 -  	Bayern München 		3:1 (2:1) 	42,500	(Diego, Womé, Lucio o.g. - Makaay)
FC Schalke 04 	 	 -  	Hannover 96 		2:1 (2:0) 	61,031	(Bajramovic, Kobiashvili - Rosenthal)
Hertha BSC Berlin 	 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 	2:1 (0:0) 	43,604	(Dardai, Pantelic - Neuville)
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	1:0 (0:0) 	19,260	(Westermann)
VfL Wolfsburg 	 	 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		1:1 (1:1)	21,927	(Hanke - Gomez) 		
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	Energie Cottbus 	1:2 (1:0) 	19,873	(Reghecampf - Munteanu, Rost)	
Bayer Leverkusen 	 -  	Hamburger SV 		1:2 (1:0) 	22,500	(Voronin - Guerrero 2)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	1. FC Nürnberg 		2:2 (1:1)	50,300	(Amanatidis, Streit - Saenko, Pinola)



 1  Werder Bremen  	   	8  	  5  	1  	2  	 21:10	 +11  	  16
 2  FC Schalke 04 	  	8 	  5 	1 	2 	 11:8 	 +3 	  16
 3  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	8 	  3 	4 	1 	 14:9 	 +5 	  13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Bayern München 	  	8 	  4 	1 	3 	 12:10   +2 	  13
 5  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	8 	  2 	6 	0 	 10:6 	 +4 	  12
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Alemannia Aachen 	  	8 	  4 	0 	4 	 14:12   +2 	  12
 7  Borussia Dortmund 	  	8 	  3 	3 	2 	 11:10   +1 	  12
 8  VfB Stuttgart 	  	8 	  3 	3 	2 	 14:14    0 	  12
 9  Borussia M'gladbach 	8 	  4 	0 	4 	 10:11   -1 	  12
10  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	8 	  3 	2 	3 	 11:10   +1 	  11
11  Energie Cottbus 	  	8 	  3 	2 	3 	 11:12 	 -1 	  11
12  Eintracht Frankfurt 	8 	  1 	7 	0 	 11:9 	 +2 	  10
13  Hamburger SV 	  	8 	  1 	5 	2 	 10:11 	 -1 	   8
14  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	8 	  2 	2 	4 	 11:13 	 -2 	   8
15  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	8 	  1 	4 	3 	  7:11 	 -4 	   7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	8 	  1 	4 	3 	  5:9 	 -4 	   7
17  Hannover 96 	  	8 	  1 	3 	4 	  9:18 	 -9 	   6
18  VfL Bochum 	  		8 	  1 	2 	5 	  7:16 	 -9 	   5

2.Liga, Round 8

Leaders Rostock struggled, but maintained first place. Big victories for KSC and Duisburg, but the most noticed result was Kaiserslautern's late goal victory at 1860. Almost 50,000 watched, compared to under 6,000 nearby that showed up to watch an equally attractive opponent, Köln. Now that sounds like a good reason for forcible relegation for Unterhaching :)

A milestone of sorts as Freiburg finally got their first victory.


SC Freiburg  	 	-   	Wacker Burghausen  	2:0 (0:0)	11,000	(Pitroipa, Coulibaly)  	 	
Greuther Fürth 	 	-  	MSV Duisburg 		3:5 (2:0) 	 5,800	(Kleine, Fuchs, Callas - Caligiuri 2, Idrissou 2, Mijatovic)
Karlsruher SC 	 	-  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	4:1 (3:0) 	17,400	(Freis 2, Kapllani, Carnell - Fröhlich)
SpVgg Unterhaching 	-  	1. FC Köln 		0:0 (0:0) 	 5,500
Erzgebirge Aue 	 	-  	Eintr. Braunschweig 	3:0 (0:0) 	10,400	(Siradze, Klinka, Heller)
Hansa Rostock 	 	-  	Kickers Offenbach 	2:1 (0:1) 	20,000	(Stein, Cetkovic - Dorn)
TSV 1860 München 	-  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	0:1 (0:0) 	48,800	(Hajnal)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	-  	SC Paderborn 07 	2:2 (1:0) 	12,187	(Lorenz, Bembem - Dogan, Röttger)
TuS Koblenz 	 	-  	FC Augsburg 		1:1 (0:1)	 6,252	(Sukalo, Lawarée)



 1  Hansa Rostock  	   	8  	 6  	2  	0  	  11:3  	+8  	  20
 2  Karlsruher SC 	  	8 	 5 	3 	0 	  20:9 		+11 	  18
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	8 	 5 	1 	2 	  13:8 		+5 	  16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  MSV Duisburg 	  	8 	 4 	3 	1 	  16:11 	+5 	  15
 5  1. FC Köln 	  		8 	 4 	2 	2 	  15:8 		+7 	  14
 6  TSV 1860 München 	  	8 	 3 	3 	2 	   9:5 		+4 	  12
 7  SC Paderborn 07 	  	8 	 3 	3 	2 	   9:8 		+1 	  12
 8  TuS Koblenz 	  	7 	 3 	1 	3 	  11:10 	+1 	  10
 9  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	8 	 3 	1 	4 	  10:14 	-4 	  10
10  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	8 	 2 	3 	3 	  10:9 		+1 	   9
11  Greuther Fürth 	  	8 	 2 	2 	4 	  15:15 	 0 	   8
12  SC Freiburg 	  	8 	 1 	5 	2 	   9:11 	-2 	   8
13  FC Augsburg 	  	7 	 2 	2 	3 	   5:7 		-2 	   8
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	8 	 1 	4 	3 	   5:6 		-1 	   7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	8 	 1 	4 	3 	  11:17 	-6 	   7
16  Kickers Offenbach 	  	8 	 1 	3 	4 	   7:12 	-5 	   6
17  Eintr. Braunschweig 	8 	 1 	3 	4 	   5:13 	-8 	   6
18  Wacker Burghausen 	  	8 	 1 	1 	6 	   5:20 	-15 	   4


October 18, 2006

Champions League, etc.

Ho-hum results for the Bundesliga clubs. Bayern München wasn't too impressive, but won 1-0 away to Sporting Lisbon on a goal by Schweinsteiger. Werder Bremen defeated Levski Sofia 2-0, drawing level with Barcelona temporarily, who lost at Chelski. Hardly anything to write home about, as Levski is getting hammered in just about every match. Undoubtedly Werder will be eliminated soon enough, but at least the give effort. You can't say the same about the 3rd German club. Hamburger SV continued their crap season, as they were creamed 4-1 away by FC Porto. Daniel Ljuboja demonstrated the HSV bankruptcy with his deliberate handball gift penalty to the hosts.

In the UEFA Cup, Eintracht Frankfurt was unlucky to lose 1-2 against Palermo, but given that it was at home, it's a major crap result. Bayer Aspirin got a 1-1 draw at Belgium's FC Brugge.

Yanked back...

Former Bayern and Germany forward Carsten Jancker is set to return from a disastrous stint in the Chinese Premier League with Shenhua Shanghai. The 32 yr old (last played with Kaiserslautern, where he sucked) only managed 1 goal in 7 months, although most of the time he was injured. He's unlikely to play for a German club, since I can't imagine anyone would want him. He's apparently looking at going to Austria, where he previously played at Rapid Wien.


October 16, 2006

Bundesliga, Rd. 7

The top match saw a return to form for Bayern, or at least a continued run of hapless Hertha results in München (29 years without a victory). Bayern dominated from the start, and threatened to overrun the Berliners. After several lackadasical efforts, Felix Magath's troops looked like their old self, and quickly jumped out to a commanding lead. They slacked off a bit, and Hertha mounted a nice comeback, but were soon out of gas. However, more impressive was Werder Bremen's brutal mugging of crap Bochum. Just about everybody but Klose(!) got into the act, as Werder kicked their host's in the ass. Furthermore, Werder's Brazilian playmaker Diego had another superb performance, so Bremen looks to have got another bargain purchase. About the only positive for Bochum was that they got some money, as a sell-out crowd showed up. Whether they show up again is questionable, as the blues only were semi-non-crap only in the first half.

Lame Schalke joined the favorites at the top with an important away win against horrible Hamburg, the disappointment of the season. HSV usually nails Schalke in this match, so losing this match should start the alarm bells ringing in Hamburg, the only winless club. For Schalke, a decent performance. Hamit Altintop, Halil's twin, assisted on both goals.

Promoted Aachen has become the promoted surprise of the season. Their win at Mainz was not only their second road win, but the 2nd against a fellow relegation candidate. Alemannia has gotten soem tough points, and their fine start has pushed them into a UEFA spot! Stuttgart seems to have straightened things out, as they easily got their first home win, against a crap Leverkusen performance. Luckily, coach Skibbe probably won't have to take too much of the Pepto-Bismol, as the Aspirins expect full recovery by beating Hamburg next week.

Draw masters Frankfurt and Nürnberg remain unbeaten, as they both split points with Hannover and Bielefeld. While Eintracht is undoubtedly happy with a point at the 96ers, "der Club" certainly wanted more at home. Even though Arminia got a rather dubious penalty, this is a game Nürnberg needed maximum points if they have any illusions about doing something this season. Gladbach had a ho-hum win over Wolfsburg. Dortmund struggled but eventually won at rabid Cottbus. This was Energie's first home less, and they have never beaten Dortmund in 7 tries.

Team of the Week: Aachen, Bremen
Turd of the Weak: Bochum

1. FSV Mainz 05  	-   	Alemannia Aachen  	1:3 (1:2)  	20,300	(Rose -  Stehle, Rösler, Ebbers)
FC Bayern München 	-  	Hertha BSC Berlin 	4:2 (2:0) 	69,000	(Makaay, Sagnol, Pizarro, Podolski - Fathi, Pantelic)
Hamburger SV 	 	-  	FC Schalke 04 		1:2 (1:1) 	57,000	(Trochowski - Halil Altintop, Bordon)	
VfB Stuttgart 	 	-  	Bayer Leverkusen 	3:0 (1:0) 	35,000	(Gomez, Boka, Hitzlsperger)
Borussia M'gladbach 	-  	VfL Wolfsburg 		3:1 (2:1) 	45,096	(Kluge, Neuville, Degen - Madlung) 		
Hannover 96 	 	-  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	1:1 (1:0) 	34,021	(Hashemian - Mayer)
VfL Bochum 	 	-  	Werder Bremen 		0:6 (0:1) 	31,328	(Hunt, Schulz, Vranjes, Diego, Fritz, Naldo)	
1. FC Nürnberg 	 	-  	Arminia Bielefeld 	1:1 (1:1) 	39,788	(Polak - Böhme)
Energie Cottbus 	-  	Borussia Dortmund 	2:3 (1:1) 	19,699	(da Silva, Munteanu - Brzenska 2, Frei)



 1  Werder Bremen  	   	7	4  	1  	2  	  18:9  	+9  	  13
 2  FC Bayern München 	  	7 	4 	1 	2 	  11:7 		+4 	  13
 3  FC Schalke 04 	  	7 	4 	1 	2 	   9:7 		+2 	  13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Alemannia Aachen 	  	7 	4 	0 	3 	  13:10 	+3 	  12
 5  Borussia M'gladbach   	7 	4 	0 	3 	   9:9 		 0 	  12
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	7 	2 	5 	0 	   8:4 		+4 	  11
 7  Borussia Dortmund 	  	7 	3 	2 	2 	  10:9 		+1 	  11
 8  VfB Stuttgart 	  	7 	3 	2 	2 	  13:13 	 0 	  11
 9  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	7 	2 	4 	1 	  12:8 		+4 	  10
10  Eintracht Frankfurt 	7 	1 	6 	0 	   9:7 		+2 	   9
11  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	7 	2 	2 	3 	  10:10 	 0 	   8
12  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	7 	2 	2 	3 	  10:11 	-1 	   8
13  Energie Cottbus 	  	7 	2 	2 	3 	   9:11 	-2 	   8
14  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	7 	1 	4 	2 	   7:10 	-3 	   7
15  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	7 	1 	3 	3 	   4:8 		-4 	   6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Hannover 96 	  	7 	1 	3 	3 	   8:16 	-8 	   6
17  Hamburger SV 	  	7 	0 	5 	2 	   8:10 	-2 	   5
18  VfL Bochum 	 	 	7 	1 	1 	5 	   6:15 	-9 	   4


2. Liga, Rd. 7

MSV Duisburg  	 	 -   	SC Freiburg  		1:1 (1:1)  	15,580	(Willi - Iashvili)
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	TSV 1860 München 	2:0 (0:0) 	19,200	(Schweinsteiger)
FC Augsburg 	 	 -  	Greuther Fürth 		1:0 (1:0) 	11,400	(da Costa)
1. FC Kaiserslautern 	 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		4:0 (1:0) 	32,053	(Reinhardt, Daham, Bohl)
Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	Hansa Rostock 		0:1 (0:0) 	 5,100	(Kern)
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	TuS Koblenz 		1:2 (1:0) 	 6,179	(Djurisic - Tiéku, Dzaka)
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	1:0 (1:0) 	10,209	(Türker)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	0:2 (0:1) 	 8,270	(Leichleiter 2)		
1. FC Köln 	 	 -  	Karlsruher SC 		1:1 (0:0)	40,000	(Lagerblom - Kapllani)



 1  Hansa Rostock  	   	7  	  5  	2  	0  	  9:2  		+7  	  17
 2  Karlsruher SC 	  	7 	  4 	3 	0 	 16:8 		+8 	  14
 3  1. FC Köln	 	  	7 	  4 	1 	2 	 15:8 		+7 	  13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	7 	  4 	1 	2 	 12:8 		+4 	  13
 5  TSV 1860 München 	  	7 	  3 	3 	1 	  9:4 		+5 	  12
 6  MSV Duisburg 	  	7 	  3 	3 	1 	 11:8 		+3 	  12
 7  SC Paderborn 07 	  	7 	  3 	2 	2 	  7:6 		+1 	  11
 8  TuS Koblenz 	  	7 	  3 	1 	3 	 11:10 		+1 	  10
 9  SpVgg Greuther Fürth 	7 	  2 	2 	3 	 12:10 		+2 	   8
10  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	7 	  2 	2 	3 	  8:7 		+1 	   8
11  FC Augsburg 	  	7 	  2 	2 	3 	  5:7 		-2 	   8
12  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	7 	  1 	4 	2 	 10:13 		-3 	   7
13  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	7 	  2 	1 	4 	  7:14 		-7 	   7
14  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	7 	  1 	3 	3 	  5:6 		-1 	   6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Kickers Offenbach 	  	7 	  1 	3 	3 	  6:10 		-4 	   6
16  Eintr. Braunschweig	  	7 	  1 	3 	3 	  5:10 		-5 	   6
17  SC Freiburg 	  	7 	  0 	5 	2 	  7:11 		-4 	   5
18  Wacker Burghausen 	  	7 	  1 	1 	5 	  5:18 		-13	   4


October 12, 2006

Easy Euro Qualifier

The national team had an easy time and routed hosts Slovakia 4-1 in the Euro 2008 qualifier in Bratislava. Germany dominated from the start, and the match was over by half-time. Lukas Podolski scored twice, and Bastian Schweinsteiger and Michael Ballack notched the other goals. Nürnberg's Slovak strike force, Marek Mintal and Robert Vittek, were surprisingly ineffective. Slovakia did pull a goal back on a Jens Lehmann mistake, but never looked like a serious challenge. After the match, Slovak head coach Dusan Galis resigned. Meanwhile, German head coach Jürgen Löw has to be happy that his side appears to be coasting nicely to qualification, as the opposition continue to struggle. The Irish finally got a point, in drawing the Czechs, but are already 8 points behind after only 3 matches!! So if the qualifiers out of this group are anyone but Germany and the Czechs, it would be a huge shock.

Euro 2008 Qualifying, Group D

Ireland  	-   	Czech Rep.  	1:1 (0:0)  
Slovakia 	-  	Germany 	1:4 (0:3) 
Wales 	 	-  	Cyprus 		3:1 (2:0)



1  Czech Rep. 	  	4	3 	1 	0 	  13:2 	 +11	10
2  Germany 	  	3 	3 	0 	0 	  18:1 	 +17 	 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  Slovakia 	  	4 	2 	0 	2 	  12:9 	 +3 	 6
4  Wales 	  	3 	1 	0 	2 	   5:8 	 -3 	 3
5  Cyrpus 	  	3 	1 	0 	2 	   7:11  -4 	 3
6  Ireland 	  	3 	0 	1 	2 	   3:7 	 -4 	 1
7  San Marino 	  	2 	0 	0 	2 	   0:20  -20 	 0

October 7, 2006

Friendly against Georgia

No Bundesliga this weekend as Germany travelled down south to face the Georgia Bulldogs in an SEC clash...No seriously, Joachim Löw's troops faced up against the Caucasas republic in the Osteseestadion of Rostock. While most of Europe was in Euro qualifiers, Germany decided to tune up with a friendly on their bye-date. In general, the DFB squad was in control, although especially in the first half the vistors showed some technical cleverness, as one would expect from the several legionaires in the squad, many with Bundesliga experience. (Hint: if the name ends with "-adze" or "-vili", they're from Georgia). Bastian Schweinsteiger scored on a "Sonntagsschuss" rocket from about 30 yards, and set up Michael Ballack for another cool finish. Timo Hildebrand started in goal, and generally didn't have too much to do. He's probably the heir apparent to Jens Lehmann. Lukas Podolski tried sneak attack stomp on a fallen opponent, and was rewarded for his efforts by a red card. Michael Ballack was said to be peeved at his ex-Bayern teammate, calling him a copy cat :) But Prince Poldi revealed himself to be more clever, as Ballack got a 3 match ban for his dance at Chelski, but Poldi gets squat since it was a meaningless friendly and is still eligible for the upcoming Euro qualifier.

Midweek Germany continues the Euro campaign by travelling to inconsistent Slovakia (who inflicted a massive 5-1 away defeat on Wales). A win here would pretty much qualify Germany for Euro 2008, as the group looks weak. The Czechs (who trounced San Marino 7-0) have already thoroughly thumped their ex-compatriots 3-0 in the last outing. Ireland looks to be in total disarray after their disgraceful 2-5 defeat at Cyprus. So a win here and splitting the points with the Czechs probably means both teams advance, despite several matches left. (Be wary though of the tough home match to San Marino, as the DFB squad only managed two measly touchdowns in their last meeting.)

FC Schalski 04

Financially troubled club Schalke 04 pulled off a major coup by bringing in a new shirt sponsor: Russian natural gas giant Gazprom. The 5 year deal is worth up to 125 million euros and should go a long way in resolving the financial difficulties that have beset the club through high salaries and debt service from the new stadium. With debt of some 250 million (mostly long term stadium bonds), the guaranteed amount of 100 million from Gazprom will be a nice cash inflow. Apparently the deal was brokered by ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, now a consultant for Gazprom. (BTW, he's a Dortmund fan!).


October 1, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 6

Bayern had a disgraceful loss at bottom Volkswagen. The champions looked crap and tired after their mid-week win in the Champions League, and showed no ideas. Wolfsburg played their usual (s)crappy style, and were rewarded when Mike Hanke tapped in the only goal as Van Buyten was too busy waving his arms like a fairy asking for offsides.

Hertha BSC is now the new leader, despite an unconvincing tie at home with Stuttgart. Nürnberg can also hardly be happy with their result, only a 1-1 against Mainz, a team they needed to beat if they are serious about staying in the upper echelons. Bremen was the only leader to take full advantage, as they shook off their inconsistent play to make short shrift of road-hapless Gladbach. Schalke got their ass kicked by Bayer Aspirin, and the Blues will be singing tht color too, as allegations of bankruptcy have begun to surface. Apparently the high-priced squad has been paid for with borrowed money, and their crap performances and the crushing debt from the new stadium have investors and fans worried.

Frankfurt was rewarded by recent decent performances and the UEFA Cup success with a sell-out crowd. And they faced the season's most disappointing club, Hamburg. But the match in a lively draw, which sees HSV drop to a relegation spot.

Another great result for Aachen in their relegation fight. Despite the excellent start, the Eagles know their first appearance in 40 years will probably go down to the wire so every point is precious. Two quick strikes within a minute after half were enough to get the win over fellow promotee Bochum.

Dortmund was unable to get the win against Hannover, and in the end, should be happy with the draw, as H96 finished as the stronger team. Bielefeld got off to a slow start, but overran Cottbus in the 2nd half. The guests mounted a desperate assault in the closing quarter, but Arminia coasted home to important points.

Team of the Week:
Turd of the Weak: Bayern München

 

Borussia Dortmund  	 -   	Hannover 96  		2:2 (1:0)  	66,100	(Smolarek 2 - Hashemian, Huszti)
VfL Wolfsburg 	 	 -  	Bayern München 		1:0 (1:0) 	30,000	(Hanke)
Werder Bremen 	 	 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 	3:0 (3:0) 	41,179	(Hunt, Schulz, Diego)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	Hamburger SV 		2:2 (1:0) 	51,500	(Meier, Amanatidis - Ljuboja, Sanogo)
1. FC Nürnberg 	 	 -  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	1:1 (1:0) 	38,004	(Polak - Babatz)
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	VfL Bochum 		2:1 (0:1) 	20,300	(Schlaudraff,Rösler - Misimovic)
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	Energie Cottbus 	3:1 (0:1) 	17,543	(Zuma, Wichnariak, Masmanidis - Munteanu) 	
Bayer Leverkusen 	 -  	FC Schalke 04 		3:1 (1:1) 	22,500	(Castro 2, Ramelow - Bordon)
Hertha BSC Berlin 	 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		2:2 (2:1)	48,637	(Friedrich, Pantelic - Gomez, Cacau)



 1  Hertha BSC Berlin  	   	6   	2  	4  	0  	 10:4  	+6  	  10
 2  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	6  	2 	4 	0 	  7:3 	+4 	  10
 3  Werder Bremen 	  	6 	3 	1 	2 	 12:9 	+3 	  10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Bayern München 	  	6  	3 	1 	2 	  7:5 	+2 	  10
 5  FC Schalke 04 	  	6  	3 	1 	2 	  7:6 	+1 	  10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Alemannia Aachen 	  	6  	3 	0 	3 	 10:9 	+1 	   9
 7  Borussia M'gladbach 	6  	3 	0 	3 	  6:8 	-2 	   9
 8  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	6 	2 	2 	2 	 10:8 	+2 	   8
 9  Eintracht Frankfurt 	6 	1 	5 	0 	  8:6 	+2 	   8
10  Borussia Dortmund 	  	6 	2 	2 	2 	  7:7 	 0 	   8
11  Energie Cottbus 	  	6 	2 	2 	2 	  7:8 	-1 	   8
12  VfB Stuttgart 	  	6 	2 	2 	2 	 10:13 	-3 	   8
13  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	6 	2 	1 	3 	  9:9 	 0 	   7
14  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	6 	1 	4 	1 	  6:7 	-1 	   7
15  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	6 	1 	3 	2 	  3:5 	-2 	   6
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Hamburger SV 	  	6 	0 	5 	1 	  7:8 	-1 	   5
17  Hannover 96 	  	6 	1 	2 	3 	  7:15 	-8 	   5
18  VfL Bochum 		  	6 	1 	1 	4 	  6:9 	-3 	   4

2. Liga, Round 6

An interesting round in the Zweite Liga, as leaders Köln were upended in front of a soldout house in Paderborn. Karlsruhe took advantage and takes over the lead, at least for this week. Rostock inflicted the first defeat on the Zebras of Duisburg, so they move into 2nd. 1860 finally won a big match at home (which they failed to do all last season), as they handed Jena their first defeat. Kaiserslautern stumbled, unable to win in the München suburbs. Essen won an important relegation battle over Braunschweig.

The only remaining suprise is the continued crap performance by Freiburg, which remains winless and only goal difference above relegation.

 

SpVgg Unterhaching  	 -   	1. FC Kaiserslautern  	1:1 (0:0)  	 4,700	(Kolomankzik - Karadas)
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	1. FC Köln 		2:0 (0:0) 	10,165	(Koen, Röttger)	
TuS Koblenz 		 -  	Kickers Offenbach 	1:1 (1:0) 	 8,561	(Dzaka - Türker) 	
Erzgebirge Aue 		 -  	SC Freiburg 		3:1 (2:0) 	10,500	(Klinka 3, Mohamad)
Greuther Fürth 		 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	4:1 (1:0) 	 6,900	(Kleine, Mijatovic, Viana, Caillas - Burkhardt)
TSV 1860 München 	 -  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	2:0 (0:0) 	44,600	(Baier, Ziegenbein)
Karlsruher SC 		 -  	FC Augsburg 		3:2 (2:1) 	20,000	(Franz, Federico, Porcello - Hdiouad, Lawarée)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	Eintr. Braunschweig 	2:0 (1:0) 	14,557	(Kläsener, Löbe) 
Hansa Rostock 	 	 -  	MSV Duisburg 		1:0 (0:0)	26,000	(Kern) 	 


 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	6   	4  	2  	0  	  15:7  +8	  14
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	6  	4 	2 	0 	  8:2 	+6 	  14
 3  1. FC Köln 	  		6  	4 	0 	2 	  14:7 	+7 	  12
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  TSV 1860 München 	  	6  	3 	3 	0 	  9:2 	+7 	  12
 5  MSV Duisburg 	  	6  	3 	2 	1 	 10:7 	+3 	  11
 6  SC Paderborn 07 	  	6  	3 	2 	1 	  6:4 	+2 	  11
 7  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	6  	3 	1 	2 	  8:8 	 0 	  10
 8  SpVgg Greuther Fürth  	6  	2 	2 	2 	 12:9 	+3 	   8
 9  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	6  	2 	2 	2 	  8:6 	+2 	   8
10  TuS Koblenz 	  	6  	2 	1 	3 	  9:9 	 0 	   7
11  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	6  	1 	4 	1 	 10:11 	-1 	   7
12  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	6  	2 	1 	3 	  7:10 	-3 	   7
13  FC Augsburg 	  	6  	1 	2 	3 	  4:7 	-3 	   5
14  SC Freiburg 	  	6  	0 	4 	2 	  6:10 	-4 	   4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	6  	1 	1 	4 	  5:17 	-12 	   4
16  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	6  	0 	3 	3 	  3:6 	-3 	   3
17  Kickers Offenbach 	  	6  	0 	3 	3 	  5:10 	-5 	   3
18  Eintr. Braunschweig   	6  	0 	3 	3 	  3:10 	-7 	   3


September 28, 2006

Euro roundup

By and large crap performances by the Bundesliga clubs, who suffered some embarassing setbacks. Judging by the trend, Germany is certainly to lose points in the Eurorankings.

Only Bayern has brought in the results, following up their 4-0 thrashing of Spartak Moscow with a nice 2-0 win against Inter Milan away. Hardly a brilliant performance, as Bayern was helped by two of the cheating Italians getting sent off, but at least they bring home the bacon. Werder Bremen has played somewhat decently, but their group is too tough, so they'll soon be elmininated. After wasting some good chances in losing away 0-2 to Chelsea, the Bremers held Barcelona 1-1 at home. They should collect some points against Levksi Sofia, but I can't see them getting a win against Chelski or Barsa, so they're practically out. Hamburg meanwhile followed up their somewhat unlucky 0-1 home loss to Arsenal with a real sucky 0-1 away loss to CSKA Moscow. So at least they're maintaining their crap Bundesliga form in europe; Afterall, consistency, that's what coaches want!

In the UEFA Cup, Hertha BSC disgraced themselves by losing 0-1 at danish club BK Odense, and were therefore eliminated, having only drawn 2-2 at home. How anyone could be knocked out by some Danish provincial midget is beyond comprehension, but leave it to Hertha to pull that one off. Hardly much better was the crash by Schalke, as they were unceremoniously by French club AS Nancy, which only 100 years ago would have been a German club competing in the Reichliga Lothringen. The Frenchies slapped Schalke 3-1, erasing the 0-1 deficit from the first match. Bayer Aspirin had an uninspired 3-1 win over Swiss club FC Sion, and advanced. The only half-way decent performance was Eintracht Frankfurt, which two weeks ago crunched Danish bigger-midget Brondby 4-0, and then coasted to a 2-2 away draw.


September 24, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 5

Hard fought matches all around, and no real surprises. Bayern dominated against a determined Aachen squad, and had to come from behind to get the win. Mark van Bommel got the winner, and is quickly replacing the departed Ballack. Schalke moved into 2nd with a workman-like performance against Volkswagen. The north derby featured troubled Hamburg and Bremen, and the interesting match ended with a 1-1 draw. HSV still seems in total chaos, and remain winless. Werder was expected to jump out of the box and challenge, but so far have merely stubbed their toe. Berlin remained unbeaten, but hardly impressed against lowly Mainz. Other teams that have done well in the early going, Cottbus and Nürnberg, split the points, and Frankfurt maintained their good start with a draw at inconsistent Stuttgart.

Bochum got it's first win of the season, defeating Bielefeld. Probably won't matter in the long run, as they're likely t be relegated anyway :)

Attendance was pretty good again, averaging 41,000+ per match.

Team of the Week: Bochum (first win!)
Turd of the Weak: none! decent performances by everybody. OK, maybe VW sucked.

 


Borussia M'gladbach  	-   	Borussia Dortmund  	1:0 (1:0)  	53,531	(Kahe)
1. FSV Mainz 05 	-  	Hertha BSC Berlin	1:1 (0:0) 	20,300	(Diakité - Boateng)
Hannover 96 	 	-  	Bayer Leverkusen 	1:1 (0:1) 	31,155	(Brdaric - Barbarez)
FC Schalke 04 	 	-  	VfL Wolfsburg 		2:0 (0:0) 	60,404	(Kuranyi, Lincoln)
VfB Stuttgart 	 	-  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	1:1 (0:0) 	41,000	(Gomez - Meier)
Hamburger SV 	 	-  	Werder Bremen 		1:1 (0:0) 	57,000	(Reinhardt - Borowski)
Bayern München 	 	-  	Alemannia Aachen 	2:1 (1:1) 	69,000	(Pizarro, Van Bommel - Dum)
VfL Bochum 	 	-  	Arminia Bielefeld 	2:1 (0:1) 	20,318	(Fabio Jr, Ilicevic - Gabriel)
Energie Cottbus 	-  	1. FC Nürnberg 		1:1 (0:1) 	16,900	(Baumgart - Mnari)


 1  FC Bayern München  	   	5   	3  	1  	1  	  7:4  	+3   	10
 2  FC Schalke 04 	  	5  	3 	1 	1 	  6:3 	+3 	10
 3  Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	5  	2 	3 	0 	  8:2 	+6 	 9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	5  	2 	3 	0 	  6:2 	+4 	 9
 5  Borussia M'gladbach 	5  	3 	0 	2 	  6:5 	+1 	 9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  Energie Cottbus 	  	5  	2 	2 	1 	  6:5 	+1 	 8
 7  Eintracht Frankfurt 	5  	1 	4 	0 	  6:4 	+2 	 7
 8  Werder Bremen 	  	5  	2 	1 	2 	  9:9 	 0 	 7
 9  Borussia Dortmund 	  	5  	2 	1 	2 	  5:5 	 0 	 7
10  VfB Stuttgart 	  	5  	2 	1 	2 	  8:11 	-3 	 7
11  Alemannia Aachen 	  	5  	2 	0 	3 	  8:8 	 0 	 6
12  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	5  	1 	3 	1 	  5:6 	-1 	 6
13  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	5  	1 	2 	2 	  7:7 	 0 	 5
14  Hamburger SV 	  	5  	0 	4 	1 	  5:6 	-1 	 4
15  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	5  	1 	1 	3 	  6:8 	-2 	 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Bochum 		  	5  	1 	1 	3 	  5:7 	-2 	 4
17  Hannover 96 	  	5  	1 	1 	3 	  5:13 	-8 	 4
18  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	5  	0 	3 	2 	  2:5 	-3 	 3


2.Liga, Round 5

A couple of wild shootouts, as Kaiserslautern was pressed to the wall by upstart Koblenz. The Reds had to come storming back from two goals down. Freiburg remains an enigma, a high scoring draw with Fürth. The Breisgauer have to be considered a promotion favorite, yet they haven't won a single match yet. Of course, dropping points in the competitive 2.Liga isn't so crucial, as a couple of consecutive wins can vault you up the table, but long serving coach Volker Finke must be scratching his head. The top match this week featured Duisburg hosting 1860, but no goals. However, since both remain unbeaten, they're probably satisfied. In the Monday night match, Köln took advantage of their rivals point loss, and seized the lead in a hard fought battle against a determined Essen squad.

 

1. FC Kaiserslautern  	 -   	TuS Koblenz  		4:3 (0:2)	40,028	(Bohl 2, Daham, Sahin o.g. - Sukalo, Ziehl, Dzaka)
SC Freiburg 	 	 -  	Greuther Fürth 		3:3 (1:2) 	11,500	(Mohamad 2, Pitroipa - Fuchs 2, Kleine)
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	Karlsruher SC 		2:2 (0:0) 	16,700	(Rische, Kastrati - Carnell, Franz)	
MSV Duisburg 	 	 -  	TSV 1860 München 	0:0 (0:0) 	19,480
Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		1:1 (1:0) 	 5,000	(Burkhardt - Kurth)
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	1:1 (1:1)	 7,500	(Siger - Spizak)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	SC Paderborn 07 	1:1 (0:0)	 6,257	(Sykora - Koen)
FC Augsburg 	 	 -  	Hansa Rostock 		1:1 (0:0) 	13,100	(Benschneider - Schied)
1. FC Köln 	 	 -  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	1:0 (0:0)	40,000	(Helmes) 	 


 1  1. FC Köln 	  		5 	  4 	0 	1 	  14:5 	 +9 	  12
 2  Karlsruher SC  	   	5  	  3  	2  	0  	  12:5   +7  	  11
 3  Hansa Rostock 	  	5 	  3 	2 	0 	   7:2 	 +5 	  11
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  MSV Duisburg 	  	5 	  3 	2 	0 	  10:6 	 +4 	  11
 5  TSV	1860 München 	  	5 	  2 	3 	0 	   7:2 	 +5 	   9
 6  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	5 	  3 	0 	2 	   7:7 	  0 	   9
 7  SC Paderborn 07 	  	5 	  2 	2 	1 	   4:4 	  0 	   8
 8  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	5 	  1 	4 	0 	  10:9 	 +1 	   7
 9  TuS Koblenz 	  	5 	  2 	0 	3 	   8:8 	  0 	   6
10  Greuther Fürth 	  	5 	  1 	2 	2 	   8:8 	  0 	   5
11  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	5 	  1 	2 	2 	   6:6 	  0 	   5
12  FC Augsburg 	  	5 	  1 	2 	2 	   2:4 	 -2 	   5
13  SC Freiburg 	  	5 	  0 	4 	1 	   5:7 	 -2 	   4
14  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	5 	  1 	1 	3 	   4:9 	 -5 	   4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	5 	  1 	1 	3 	   4:13  -9 	   4
16  Eintr. Braunschweig	  	5 	  0 	3 	2 	   3:8 	 -5 	   3
17  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	5 	  0 	2 	3 	   2:5 	 -3 	   2
18  Kickers Offenbach 	  	5 	  0 	2 	3 	   4:9 	 -5 	   2


September 17, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 4

Lots of surprises after the Bundesliga restarted!

Bayern suffered their first loss of the season, as they were upended by an inspired Arminia Bielefeld. Werder stunningly lost at home to the wildly inconsistent Stuttgart. Aachen followed up their last outing with a beat-down of Mönchengladbach. This was the debut of new Alemannia head coach Micheal Frontzcek, a somewhat surprise pick. (Although the club revealed that they had acually "considered" Frontzcek back in 2004 when they hired Dieter Hecking.) And with ex-Aachen boss Hecking taking over at Hannover, the 96ers managed their first points, ironically a win in the north derby at Wolfsburg. (Although most non-VW employees would tell you that a match with Wolfsburg doesn't qualify as a derby, because you actually have to care about the team...)

Although Bayern's defeat seems shocking, Bielefeld has always been very tough at home, and Bayern has looked vulnerable. Despite his goal, Mark van Bommel will probably take a while to fill in, and despite what many of the fans think, replacing Michael Ballack is not going to be that easy. bremen's defeat is a bit more surprising, coming at home, and certainly Werder would have expected a field day against the shaky Stuttgart defense. Throwing away points like this is certainly going to reduce their chances of bringing the title north.

Instead the new surprise leader is non-other than the often maligned Hertha BSC, which won against Schalke. Berlin usually chokes in important matches, so actually winning and taking over the lead (even if it is only after 4 matches) is quite an accomplishment. So far they seem to avoided the predicted collapse from losing playmaker Marcelinho in the off-season. Christian Gimenez was the hero, notching a pair in this battle of underacheivers.

Dortmund's Westfalenstadion (officially known as "Signal Igluna" or some such crap) was actually sold out, and the massive crowd saw the continued collapse of Hamburg, which doesn't shock most pundits, since the sell-out of talent over the last season from HSV has been ridiculous.

Bochum managed to get their first point at erstwhile leaders Nürnberg, but this hardly qualifies as an upset, as "der Club" is a mid-level team at best, despite their great start. Bochum looks pretty crap, but perhaps this is the start of a positive run. Another good result was Frankfurt's impressive effort against the Aspirins, coming off their UEFA Cup win midweek as well. Cottbus easily handled a surprisingly lame Mainz squad. Energie would probably be OK with the season ending now, as the promoted side are in a UEFA Cup spot.

Team of the Week: Bielefeld, Hertha BSC, both winners of huge games. Honorable mention to Frankfurt
Turd of the Weak: Hamburg, Wolfsburg, Mainz...take your pick

 

VfL Wolfsburg  	 	 -   	Hannover 96  		1:2 (0:0)  	26,479	(Krzynowek - Brdaric 2)
Werder Bremen 	 	 -  	VfB Stuttgart 		2:3 (2:1)	39,654	(Hilbert o.g., Zidan - Hilbert, Pardo, Gomez)
Borussia Dortmund 	 -  	Hamburger SV 		1:0 (0:0) 	80,708	(Wörns) 
1. FC Nürnberg 	 	 -  	VfL Bochum 		1:1 (1:1) 	40,240	(Polak - Gekas)	
Arminia Bielefeld 	 -  	Bayern München 		2:1 (1:1) 	26,601	(Wichniarek, Kamper - van Bommel) 	
Alemannia Aachen 	 -  	Borussia M'gladbach 	4:2 (2:0) 	21,300	(Schlaudraff 2, Reghecampf, Ebbers - Kahe 2)	
Energie Cottbus 	 -  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	2:0 (0:0) 	13,000	(Radu, Munteanu)
Hertha BSC Berlin	 -  	FC Schalke 04 		2:0 (1:0)	60,674	(Gimenez 2) 	
Eintracht Frankfurt 	 -  	Bayer Leverkusen 	3:1 (0:0) 	44,000	(Takahara, Thurk, Ochs - Madouni)


 1  Hertha BSC Berlin  	   	4  	2  	2  	0  	  7:1  	+6	8
 2  1. FC Nürnberg 	  	4 	2 	2 	0 	  5:1 	+4 	8
 3  FC Bayern München 	  	4 	2 	1 	1 	  5:3 	+2 	7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Borussia Dortmund 	  	4 	2 	1 	1 	  5:4 	+1 	7
 5  Energie Cottbus 	  	4 	2 	1 	1 	  5:4 	+1 	7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  FC Schalke 04 	  	4 	2 	1 	1 	  4:3 	+1 	7
 7  Eintracht Frankfurt	  	4 	1 	3 	0 	  5:3 	+2 	6
 8  Alemannia Aachen 	  	4 	2 	0 	2 	  7:6 	+1 	6
 9  Werder Bremen 	  	4 	2 	0 	2 	  8:8 	 0 	6
10  Borussia M'gladbach	  	4 	2 	0 	2 	  5:5 	 0 	6
11  VfB Stuttgart 	  	4 	2 	0 	2 	  7:10 	-3 	6
12  1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	4 	1 	2 	1 	  4:5 	-1 	5
13  Bayer Leverkusen 	  	4 	1 	1 	2 	  6:6 	 0 	4
14  Arminia Bielefeld 	  	4 	1 	1 	2 	  5:6 	-1 	4
15  Hamburger SV 	  	4 	0 	3 	1 	  4:5 	-1 	3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Wolfsburg 	  	4 	0 	3 	1 	  2:3 	-1 	3
17  Hannover 96 	  	4 	1 	0 	3 	  4:12 	-8 	3
18  VfL Bochum 	  		4	0 	1 	3 	  3:6 	-3 	1


2. Liga, Round 4

A wild shootout at the top, as Karlsruhe and Duisburg split the points. Rostock showed they are a legit contender with a solid win in the Monday night match against relegated Kaiserslautern. Hansa's defense has been especially stingy, only allowing a single goal. Köln remains close as they clobbered braunschweig in front of a large crowd. 1860 failed to gain the upper hand in their clash with Freiburg. Despite their slow start, most observors believe that Freiburg will contend for a promotion spot, so this would have been a nice match to win for 1860.

Jena remained unbeaten in a veritable goal-fest in Essen, but fellow East Germans Aue took it on the chin, as they got clobbered at home by Fürth. The Greuther, who had expected to challenge for promotion, had started poorly, but perhaps now have righted the ship.

Burghausen got their first win of the season, a suprise win at Koblenz. Perhaps the hosts (formerly known as TuS Neuendorf) were exhausted from their recent epic battle in the DFB Cup against Bayer Leveerkusen. Newly promoted Augusburg also got their first "W", winning a Bayern matchup with Unterhaching, which didn't seem to hold much interest for the fans.

 

SpVgg Unterhaching  	 -   	FC Augsburg  		0:1 (0:0)  	 4,500	(Diabang)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	4:4 (2:1) 	13,034	(Younga-Mouhani 2, Lorenzon, Pauolo Sergo - Helbig 2, Schlitte, Fröhlich)
1. FC Köln 		 -  	Eintr. Braunschweig 	4:1 (2:1) 	40,000	(Helmes 2, Scherz 2 - Graf) 	
Karlsruher SC 		 -  	MSV Duisburg 		3:3 (1:1) 	26,000	(Eggimann, Kapllani, Freis - Lavric, Schlicke, Kurth) 	
Erzgebirge Aue 	 	-  	Greuther Fürth 		0:3 (0:2) 	11,100	(Timm 2, Reisinger)
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	Kickers Offenbach 	2:1 (1:1) 	 4,962	(R. Müller, Röttger - Türker) 
TSV 1860 München 	 -  	SC Freiburg 		1:1 (0:0) 	40,000	(di Salvo -Antar)
TuS Koblenz 	 	-  	Wacker Burghausen 	1:2 (1:0) 	 8,495	(Nessos - Bogavac, Jeknic)
Hansa Rostock 	 	-  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	2:0 (1:0)	15,000	(Kern, Beda o.g.) 	 


 1  Karlsruher SC  	   	4  	  3  	1  	0  	 10:3  	+7  	 10
 2  Hansa Rostock 	  	4 	  3 	1 	0 	  6:1 	+5 	 10
 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	4 	  3 	1 	0 	 10:6 	+4 	 10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Köln 	  		4 	  3 	0 	1 	 13:5 	+8 	  9
 5  TSV 1860 München 	  	4 	  2 	2 	0 	  7:2 	+5 	  8
 6  SC Paderborn 07 	  	4 	  2 	1 	1 	  3:3 	 0 	  7
 7  FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	4 	  1 	3 	0 	  9:8 	+1 	  6
 8  TuS Koblenz 	  	4 	  2 	0 	2 	  5:4 	+1 	  6
 9  1. FC Kaiserslautern  	4 	  2 	0 	2 	  3:4 	-1 	  6
10  Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	4 	  1 	2 	1 	  6:5 	+1 	  5
11  Greuther Fürth 	  	4 	  1 	1 	2 	  5:5 	 0 	  4
12  FC Augsburg 	  	4 	  1 	1 	2 	  1:3 	-2 	  4
13  SC Freiburg 	  	4 	  0 	3 	1 	  2:4 	-2 	  3
14  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	4 	  1 	0 	3 	  3:8 	-5 	  3
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Wacker Burghausen 	  	4 	  1 	0 	3 	  3:12 	-9 	  3
16  Eintr. Braunschweig   	4 	  0 	2 	2 	  1:6 	-5 	  2
17  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	4 	  0 	1 	3 	  1:4 	-3 	  1
18  Kickers Offenbach 	  	4 	  0 	1 	3 	  3:8 	-5 	  1


September 10, 2006

First Round DFB Cup

The first main round of the DFB Cup got underway, with a few shocking results. Germany continues to have one of the world's best cup competitions, with upsets being part of the process. The rules are skewed to favor the underdogs, thereby creating more excitement. The main aspect is that in the drawing of the match, the lower division team is automatically granted home field advantage. This not only makes for a nice financial windfall for the (generally) smaller club, but a nice treat for the fans. It also almost guarantees that the big boys will have to fight for the victory.

The first round saw some shocking upsets and some near misses. The big ones saw Bundesligists crash out against Regionalliga (3rd division) clubs. Probably the most shocking was Werder Bremen losing on penalties at Pirmasens. Werder had been fairly successful the last few years in the Cup, and many think they can challenge for the league title. Well, at least now they can concentrate more on the Bundesliga :). Hamburg crashed out again, in extra time to Stuttgarter Kickers. This is less of a shock, since HSV has looked crap so far. Last year they also bombed out against a Regionalliga club, but that was because the ref had been bribed. (Hoyzer incident). Also not a huge shock, 3rd division Saarbrücken dumped out Mainz. Not to long ago, these roles would have been reversed, as only in the last few years has Mainz risen about their regional rival. Other Bundesliga clubs to get dumped unceremoniously included Cottbus and Bielefeld.

Most of the other Bundesliga clubs had their hands full as well. Bayern München had the unenviable task of facing the wild Millerntor crowd at St.Pauli, and barely survived after extra time. Leverkusen needed penalties. Hertha barely escaped at Darmstadt, and Nürnberg didn't exactly cover themselves with glory at Cloppenburg. Only Schalke acted like a bully, as they pummeled Rostock's B team 9-1. (And Rostock's A squad crashed out losing at Babelsberg.)


 DFB Pokal - 1. Runde

VfL Osnabrück  	 	-   	Eintr. Braunschweig  	3:1 (0:0)  	  	
SV Sandhausen 	 	-  	Greuther Fürth 		0:2 (0:1)  	
Westfalia Herne 	-  	Erzgebirge Aue 		1:2 (0:0) 		
1. FC Magdeburg 	-  	SC Paderborn 07 	6:7 - penalties 	 	
Tennis Borussia Berlin 	-  	Karlsruher SC 		1:3 (0:2) 		
SpVgg Bayreuth 	 	-  	Kickers Offenbach 	0:2 (0:2) 		
Dynamo Dresden 	 	-  	Hannover 96 		2:3 (0:2) 	 	
Rot-Weiss Essen 	-  	Energie Cottbus 	1:0 (0:0) 	
Stuttgarter Kickers 	-  	Hamburger SV 		4:3 - aet 		
Hansa Rostock II 	-  	FC Schalke 04 		1:9 (0:5) 			
BV Cloppenburg 	 	-  	1. FC Nürnberg 		0:1 (0:0) 		
TuS Koblenz 	 	-  	Bayer Leverkusen 	1:3 - penalties 	 	
1. FC Gera 2003 	-  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	0:2 (0:1) 	 	
TSG Thannhausen 	-  	Borussia Dortmund 	0:3 (0:3) 	 	
Delbrücker SC 	 	-  	SC Freiburg 		2:4 (0:1) 		
FK Pirmasens 	 	-  	Werder Bremen 		4:2 - penalties 	 	
FC Augsburg 	 	-  	Wacker Burghausen 	3:4 - aet	 	
Sportfr. Siegen 	-  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	0:2 (0:1) 		
FC 08 Homburg 	 	-  	VfL Bochum 		1:2 (0:1) 	 	
Alemannia Aachen II 	-  	VfB Stuttgart 		0:4 (0:1) 	 	
FC St. Pauli 	 	-  	Bayern München 		1:2 - aet 		
VfB Lübeck	 	-  	1860 München 		1:0 (1:0) 	 	
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	-  	1. FC Köln 		1:2 (0:2) 	 	
Rot-Weiss Ahlen 	-  	MSV Duisburg 		1:2 (1:1) 	 	
SSVg Velbert 	 	-  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	0:3 (0:1) 	 	
SV Babelsberg 03 	-  	Hansa Rostock 		2:1 (1:0) 	 	
SV Roßbach/Wied 	-  	Borussia M'gladbach 	1:4 (0:3) 		
FC Bremerhaven 	 	-  	VfL Wolfsburg 		1:3 (1:1) 	 	
1. FC Saarbrücken 	-  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	1:0 (1:0) 		
SV Darmstadt 98 	-  	Hertha BSC Berlin	0:1 - aet  	
SC Pfullendorf 	 	-  	Arminia Bielefeld 	2:1 (0:0) 		
Chemnitzer FC 	 	-  	Alemannia Aachen 	0:2 (0:2)  	

Coaching carousel!

In a shocking (by German standards) move, Alemannia Aachen head coach Dieter Hecking abandoned his club to take up the reigns at Hannover 96. And Hecking played a key role in getting the job himself. The newly promoted Bundesliga club thumped Hannover 3-0 on the road - which undoubtedly led to H96 boss Peter Neururer to throw in the towel. 96er management must have been so impressed that they practically hired Hecking on the spot. As I recall, this type of movement is fairly rare; seems to happen more often in the EPL. Clubs are constantly firing their managers, but usually they find somebody currently "between jobs" or perhaps overseas.

Hecking was probably offered more money, and one might speculate that the long term prospects of Hannover 96 are better than Aachen. Alemannia is now looking for a new boss. Press speculation is that the front runner is Jos Luhukay, who had surprisingly resigned from 2.Liga SC Paderborn before season-start. The fan favorite is believed to ex-player Erik Meijer, although he doesn't have his DFB trainer license yet.


September 7, 2006

Germany footballers crap!

Germany's footballing future certainly looks to be in question as the Bratwursts struggled against the San Marino Biscotti in an "NFL Europe 2008" qualifier. The Bratwursts, who had looked so good in the recent preseason tournament they hosted (won by the Italian Linguinis in a disputed playoff match against the French Fries), failed to impress as they only managed a single touchdown in each half, and even missed an extra point to boot! Highly touted QB Michael Ballack, who recently transferred from the Munich Bavarians to the London Wankers, looked off target with his throws, only netting a couple of completions, and had to be taken off at half-time. (Neverthless, San Francisco 49er head coach Mike Nolan, scouting the match, admitted he was still interested in acquiring Ballack, as his two completions were more than current 49er QB Alex Smith.) His replacement, Sebastian Pigclimber, settled for a couple of throws and concentrated on handing off to running backs Luke Puddlesky and Myron Clothes. At least the German defense was much better than the anemic offense, as the cornerbacks and safeties were strong. Also, middle linebacker Torsten Frings was solid, as was his backup, Thomas Hitzelsspitzelsditzelsfritzels-burger-mit-fries.

The NFL has also got to be disappointed in the small crowd, only 5,500 - smaller than an average "Friday Night Lights" high school game in Texas! What kind of lame attendance is that!? You'd think a whole country like San Marino could have a bigger stadium! Yet they acted like 20% of the population was on hand!! What's up with that?!

The crisis for the Bratwursts was further revelaed as angry German fans, enraged over their team's sour performance, began chanting "Vorfelder RAUS!!!". These insults were directed at NFL Germany comissioner Gerhard-Mayer Vorfelder, who was watching the match from a luxury directors box. He had been touted as a potential successor to Paul Tagliabue, but clearly the NFL owners made the right choice by not outsourcing the job and keeping Americans employed...


September 3, 2006

Lower division news

Since all eyes were really on Germany's Euro 2008 qualifier against Ireland (1-0 thanks to Podolski diverted free kick), this would be a good time to look at the 3rd division Regionalliga.

Split into North and South divisions, the top two finishers in each are promoted into the 2.Liga. The execption is that the "B" squads of professional clubs, now designated as "II", cannot be promoted. Previously, these squads were known as "Amateurs" (even though they weren't), or often "U23" or "U21" (also not true). Basically, anyone on the squad of the A team can play, although not on the same weekend. In any case, the "II" squads aren't very popular among other "traditional" clubs, as it means death-at-the-box office. The Regionalliga has institued rules for a minimum number of German U23 eligible players that must be on the roster, but otherwise, it's pretty much fully professional.

In general, the North has slightly better attendance levels, due to popular clubs like Erfurt, Dresden, Union Berlin, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal etc. And of course, the "Croesus" of the league, St.Pauli, which packs them in home and on the road.

Among the favorites in the North, Dresden, Union Berlin and Lübeck are reckoned to have the best promotion chances. St.Pauli is also considered a clear promotion squad, and they are merely following their usual elevator pattern, which allows their fans to visit every league (including the Bundesliga) throughout the decade :)

In the South, Stuttgarter Kickers and Reutlingen, both ex-2.Ligists, are probably at the top. Among other interesting prospects are Hessen Kassel, which a few years went bankrupt and started over in something like the 10th division, and have promoted themselves back up every year since. Also interesting is a basically worthless club, Hoffenheim, which benefits from the largesse of Dietmar Bopp, a bigwig of the software monster SAP, and have ambition. (Undoubtedly they will eventually replace the current 2.Liga club Burghausen, which is bankrolled by the "Wacker" chemical company). Saarbr¨cken is another "big fish in the small pond", although their relegation from the 2.Liga last season sapped their strength and they're off to a ho-hum start.

The national federation, the DFB, has proposed that a single division Regionalliga be instituted. There is still indecision as to whether the "II" squads be allowed to join this division, or whether they be forced into their own "reserve division" (like England), where they can play matches that nobody watches. So far, the greedy bastard Bundesliga clubs, led by loud-mouth Bayern VP Uli Hoeness, have been demanded that they be allowed to pollute the potential 3rd division. Most of the traditional clubs seem to be in favor, although there is concern over increased costs of travel, less regional derbies etc. Perhaps some compromise could be instituted. In general, the "loan out" of promising players from top clubs is used much less in Germany than in England or Italy. If this were used more, it could help the lower division clubs, and still give the players good experience.

As of today, there appears to a compromise between the Bundesliga and the rest of the clubs. The new plan is for a single 20 club 3rd Division, with a limit of 4 "II" squads. It's not clear if the "II" squads will handle relegation among themselves, probably some sort of playoff if a "II" squad is to be promoted from the Oberliga. The "II" squads will also no longer be eligible for the main rounds of the DFB Cup, which should increase the chances and gate for the "traditional" clubs. The new setup would take effect in the 2008/09 season.

 


 Regionalliga Nord 

Rot-Weiss Ahlen  	-   Bor. Dortmund II 	0:2 (0:1) 	2,218
Holstein Kiel  		-   Werder Bremen II 	2:2 (1:1) 	5,030	
Hamburger SV II  	-   Hertha BSC II 	4:1 (2:0) 	  350  	
FC St. Pauli  		-   1. FC Union Berlin 	0:0 (0:0)      19,040 (sold out!)	
Kickers Emden  		-   SV Wilhelmshaven 	1:3 (0:2) 	3,000
Fortuna Düsseldorf  	-   1. FC Magdeburg 	3:1 (0:0)       6,544
VfL Osnabrück  		-   Wuppertaler SV Bor. 1:1 (0:1)       8,000
Borussia M'gladbach II  -   VfB Lübeck 		1:1 (1:1)         791
RotWeiss Erfurt  	-   Dynamo Dresden 	0:2 (0:1)      12,029


 1 Dynamo Dresden   		6   4 1 1   11:6   +5   13 
 2 Wuppertaler SV Bor.  	6   3 2 1   13:6   +7   11
---------------------------------------------------------- 
 3 1. FC Union Berlin   	5   3 2 0    6:0   +6   11 
 4 Werder Bremen II   		6   3 2 1   13:10  +3   11 
 5 VfB Luebeck   		6   3 2 1    5:3   +2   11 
 6 VfL Osnabrück   		5   3 1 1    7:5   +2   10 
 7 Hamburger SV II   		6   3 1 2    9:9    0   10 
 8 Holstein Kiel   		6   2 3 1   15:9   +6    9 
 9 Hertha BSC Berlin II		6   3 0 3    7:8   -1    9 
10 Fortuna Duesseldorf   	5   2 1 2    6:7   -1    7 
11 Rot-Weiss Ahlen   		6   2 1 3    8:10  -2    7 
12 1. FC Magdeburg   		6   2 1 3    7:10  -3    7 
13 Bor. Dortmund II	   	6   2 1 3    7:10  -3    7 
14 FC St. Pauli   		6   2 1 3    5:9   -4    7
---------------------------------------------------------- 
15 SV Wilhelmshaven   		5   2 0 3    6:7   -1    6 
16 Rot-Weiss Erfurt   		5   1 1 3    6:9   -3    4 
17 Kickers Emden   		6   1 1 4    3:7   -4    4 
18 Borussia M'gladbach II   	6   1 1 4    5:10  -5    4 
19 Bayer Leverkusen II   	5   0 2 3    4:8   -4    2 



Regionalliga Süd

Stuttgarter Kickers  	-   SV Darmstadt 98 	3:0 (0:0) 	4,580  
FK Pirmasens  		-   SC Pfullendorf 	1:3 (1:3) 	2,000
TSG Hoffenheim  	-   Karlsruher SC II 	3:2 (2:1) 	3,200  
Sportfr. Siegen  	-   Bayern München II 	0:0 (0:0) 	5,744  
SV Elversberg  		-   VfR Aalen 		0:1 (0:0) 	  800 
TSV 1860 München II  	-   VfB Stuttgart II 	1:4 (1:2)	  550 
SV Wehen  		-   FC Ingolstadt 04 	2:3 (1:1) 	  600  
SSV Reutlingen 05  	-   1. FC Saarbrücken 	2:1 (1:1) 	5,600   
Hessen Kassel  		-   1. FC K'lautern II 	2:0 (0:0) 	5,250 


 1 Stuttgarter Kickers   	6   5 1 0   17:6   +11   16 
 2 VfB Stuttgart II   		6   4 2 0   11:5   +6    14 (not eligible)
 3 Hessen Kassel   		6   4 2 0    8:2   +6    14
...........................................................
 4 SSV Reutlingen 05   		6   4 2 0   10:5   +5    14 
 5 SV Wehen   			6   3 1 2    9:6   +3    10 
 6 FC Ingolstadt 04   		6   3 0 3    8:11  -3     9 
 7 1. FC Saarbrücken   		6   2 2 2    8:6   +2     8 
 8 TSG Hoffenheim   		6   2 2 2    7:7    0     8 
 9 FC Bayern München II   	6   2 2 2    6:7   -1     8 
10 FK Pirmasens   		6   2 1 3    8:9   -1     7 
11 SC Pfullendorf   		6   2 1 3    6:8   -2     7 
12 SV Elversberg   		6   1 3 2   10:13  -3     6 
13 VfR Aalen   			6   1 3 2    6:9   -3     6 
14 SV Darmstadt 98   		6   2 0 4    5:9   -4     6 
-----------------------------------------------------------
15 Sportfr. Siegen   		6   1 2 3    5:6   -1     5 
16 TSV 1860 München II   	6   0 4 2    9:13  -4     4 
17 Karlsruher SC II  		6   0 2 4    6:10  -4     2 
18 1. FC K'lautern II   	6   0 2 4    3:10  -7     2 
 


August 30, 2006

Another one bites the dust...

The first ex-coach of the season! Hannover 96 head-coach Peter Neururer has thrown in the towel and resigned. The Schlappe suffered at the hands of football-dwarf Alemannia Aachen was evidently too much to bear. This might be an indication that things are more chaotic than meets the eye in Hannover. You have to figure that Neururer is used to dealing with clubs with minimal talent (e.g. Bochum) and Hannover surely fits that bill. But firing himself before the season is even warm must be an indication that he figured that 96 is too crap...


August 27, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 3

Some eyebrow raising results this round, as the favorites did poorly. The first match was Friday night clash at the sold out Arena-Auf Schalke, where the Blues upended high flying Werder Bremen. Given the generally lame start to the season for die Knappen, a bit of a surprise, but Schalke certainly has teh talent to beat anybody, especially at home in front of their loyal fans. Then Bayern went out and laid an egg and was unable to beat Nürnberg at home. A great result for der Club, who still haven't conceded a goal. Bayern perhaps recognizes that the loss of Michael ballack may be more influential than originally thought. They announced that Barcelona's Mark Van Bommel will be joining this week, pending a medical.

Stuttgart continued their roller coaster season with another stinker at home, as they fell to a recovered Dortmund. Highly touted Swiss striker Alexander Frei opened his account for the Neons with his first goal. Stuttgart coach Armin Veh is the odds on favorite of the bookmakers to be the first one fired this season. Despite some calls of "Veh raus!" from the stands, in general most fans noticed that Stuttgart did play better than their previous home defeat (the opener to Nürnberg), and VfB was also denied a clear penalty. But things don't get easier, as VfB travel to Bremen next.

The other surprises were at the bottom. Cottbus got what promises to be a rare road victory as they knocked off Bochum on a late goal. Every point counts against relegation. The sensation has to be Aachen's thumping of Hannover. Alemannia had looked like relegation candidate no.1, but Hannover's collapse gives them that "honor". Coach Peter Neururer is high on the odds makers list of "first to be fired", but most observors would expect a few more crap results before anything happens.

Hamburg gave another lackluster effort, and rumours persist that the club is about to sell-off another starter, this time Tim Atouba. All that remains is for HSV to sell Rafael van der Vaart, and the obvious plan to "destroy HSV from the inside" will come to fruition :) The interesting news out of Mainz is that the famed party town wasn't too friendly to the visitors from Frankfurt. Unconfirmed accounts claim that visiting hot doggers were forced by stadium "security" to strip off their Frankfurt shirts and paraphanalia; so many women fans had to watch the match in only their bras...

Team of the Week: Schalke, winning a big match. Honorable mention to Aachen.
Turd of the Weak: Hannover, getting slapped silly at home.

 

FC Schalke 04  	 	-   	Werder Bremen  		2:0 (1:0)	61,482	(Kuranyi 2)
Bayern München 	 	-  	1. FC Nürnberg 		0:0 (0:0) 	69,000
Bayer Leverkusen 	-  	VfL Wolfsburg 		1:1 (0:0) 	22,500	(Juan - Madouni)
VfB Stuttgart 	 	-  	Borussia Dortmund 	1:3 (1:2) 	44,000	(Tasci - Magnin, Kringe, Frei)	
Borussia M'gladbach 	-  	Arminia Bielefeld 	1:0 (0:0) 	41,129	(Kahe)
Hannover 96 	 	-  	Alemannia Aachen 	0:3 (0:1) 	30,087	(Schlaudraff, Dum, Plaßhenrich)
VfL Bochum 	 	-  	Energie Cottbus 	0:1 (0:0) 	21,166	(da Silva)
Hamburger SV 	 	-  	Hertha BSC Berlin 	1:1 (1:0) 	53,989	(Sanogo - Gimenez)
1. FSV Mainz 05 	-  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	1:1 (0:1)	20,300	(Jovanovic - Amanatidis)


 1  	1. FC Nürnberg  	3  	  2  	1  	0	4:0  	+4  	  7
 2 	FC Schalke 04 	  	3 	  2 	1 	0 	4:1 	+3 	  7
 3	Bayern München 	  	3 	  2 	1 	0 	4:1 	+3 	  7
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4 	Borussia M'gladbach 	3 	  2 	0 	1 	3:1 	+2 	  6
 5 	Werder Bremen 	  	3 	  2 	0 	1 	6:5 	+1 	  6
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6 	Hertha BSC Berlin  	3 	  1 	2 	0 	5:1 	+4 	  5
 7 	1. FSV Mainz 05 	3 	  1 	2 	0 	4:3 	+1 	  5
 8 	Bayer Leverkusen 	3 	  1 	1 	1 	5:3 	+2 	  4
 9 	Borussia Dortmund 	3 	  1 	1 	1 	4:4 	 0 	  4
10 	Energie Cottbus		3 	  1 	1 	1 	3:4 	-1 	  4
11 	Hamburger SV 	  	3 	  0 	3 	0 	4:4 	 0 	  3
12 	Eintracht Frankfurt 	3	  0 	3 	0 	2:2 	 0 	  3
13 	VfL Wolfsburg 	  	3 	  0 	3 	0 	1:1 	 0 	  3
14 	Alemannia Aachen   	3 	  1 	0 	2 	3:4 	-1 	  3
15 	VfB Stuttgart 	  	3 	  1 	0 	2 	4:8 	-4 	  3
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 	Arminia Bielefeld 	3 	  0 	1 	2 	3:5 	-2 	  1
17 	VfL Bochum 	  	3 	  0 	0 	3 	2:5 	-3 	  0
18	Hannover 96 	  	3 	  0 	0 	3 	2:11 	-9 	  0

2.Liga, Round 3

A great result for promoted Jena, as they gave a great "fighting" effort to knock of favored Köln. The other relegated Bundesligists, Kaiserslautern and Duisburg, faced determined opponents, but finally overpowered their foes. lautern once again played in their red-white vertical striped jersey instead of the "traditional" red. Perhaps it's the club's recognition that they're only half-full when outside the Bundesliga. Karlsruhe remains the early season surprise, as their victory at Offenbach puts them at the top. While KSC's "new-stadium-iniative" seems to be falling apart at the seems (Everybody, including the city, wants a new stadium, but nobody has any money), the team is off to a great start. 1860 continued their decent run with a Monday night victory over hapless Burghausen. (Wacker keeps their perfect record intact.)

Braunschweig was undoubtedly shocked, disappointing their fans by getting upended at home by upstart Koblenz. The Lions are drawing well at home, but if they continue such lame performances, undoubtedly they'll be paying down the road.

It seems however that the clear early season disappointment is Greuther Fürth, which suffered a Heimschlappe to Rostock. GF usually counts themselves one of the potential challengers for a promotion spot, but have clearly started on the wrong foot. Of almost equal embarassment must be the fact that they had the worst attendance of the week, as even Burghausen outdrew them.

 

SC Freiburg  	 	 -   	SpVgg Unterhaching  	1:1 (0:0)  	12,000	(Antar - Kolomaznik)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	1. FC Köln 		3:2 (2:2) 	10,159	(Schlitte 2, Werner - Helmes 2)
Kickers Offenbach 	 -  	Karlsruher SC 		0:1 (0:1) 	12,329	(Federico)
MSV Duisburg 	 	 -  	Erzgebirge Aue 		4:2 (2:1) 	14,312	(Mokhtari 2, Lavric, Kurth - Emmerich, Brecko)
1. FC Kaiserslautern 	 -  	SC Paderborn 07 	2:0 (2:0) 	27,609	(Daham 2) 	
Eintr. Braunschweig 	 -  	TuS Koblenz 		0:2 (0:0) 	16,800	(Sahin, Rahn)
SpVgg Greuther Fürth 	 -  	Hansa Rostock	 	1:3 (1:1) 	 6,500	(Mijatovic - Kern, Gledson, Shahpourzadeh) 	
FC Augsburg 	 	 -  	Rot-Weiss Essen 	0:0 (0:0) 	 8,053
Wacker Burghausen 	 -  	TSV 1860 München 	0:2 (0:1)	 8,500	(di Salvo, Vucicevic)



1  	Karlsruher SC  	   	3  	  3  	0  	0  	7:0  	+7   	9
2 	MSV Duisburg 	  	3 	  3 	0 	0 	7:3 	+4  	9
3 	TSV 1860 München  	3 	  2 	1 	0 	6:1 	+5  	7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 	Hansa Rostock 	  	3 	  2 	1 	0 	4:1 	+3  	7
5 	1. FC Köln 	  	3 	  2 	0 	1 	9:4 	+5  	6
6 	TuS Koblenz 	  	3 	  2 	0 	1 	4:2 	+2  	6
7 	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	3 	  2 	0 	1 	3:2 	+1  	6
8 	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	3 	  1 	2 	0 	5:4 	+1  	5
9 	Rot-Weiss Essen 	3 	  1 	1 	1 	2:1 	+1  	4
10 	SC Paderborn 07 	3 	  1 	1 	1 	1:2 	-1  	4
11 	Erzgebirge Aue 	  	3 	  1 	0 	2 	3:5 	-2  	3
12 	SC Freiburg 	  	3 	  0 	2 	1 	1:3 	-2  	2
13 	Eintr. Braunschweig 	3 	  0 	2 	1 	0:2 	-2 	2
14 	SpVgg Unterhaching 	3 	  0 	1 	2 	1:3 	-2  	1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 	Greuther Fürth 	  	3 	  0 	1 	2 	2:5 	-3  	1
16 	FC Augsburg 	  	3 	  0 	1 	2 	0:3 	-3  	1
17 	Kickers Offenbach 	3 	  0 	1 	2 	2:6 	-4  	1
18 	Wacker Burghausen 	3 	  0 	0 	3  	1:11 	-10  	0



August 20, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 2

Again no real stunning results, although Hertha's demolition of Hannover might raise some eyebrows. The "Hiobbotschaft", which Germans love to use to indicate bad news (read the "Book of Job" to find out), in Nürnberg was somewhat tempered. The bad news: Fußballgott Robert Vittek is out for several weeks. The cheers from the sold-old stadium? "Phantom scorer" Marek Mintal returned after two broken foot injuries for the first time in about 2 years. Der Club also managed to win and hold on to first. Another brilliant match by new signing Diego allowed Werder to win the top struggle with the Aspirins. Schalke managed to win against Aachen, despite playing the match with only 10 men as Delura got his ass tossed for a cheap shot. Bayern did just enough to win at Bochum.

New look Dortmund still looks crap, but Stuttgart had an about face with a hard fought road win. Well, at least the fans still show up.

Attendance was about 37,000, but with tiny parks in Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, Mainz and Cottbus, the Bundesliga will be hard pressed to match last season's record pace.

Team of the Week: Hertha, honrable mention to Bremen
Turd of the Weak: probably Hannover

 

1. FC Nürnberg  	-   	Borussia M'gladbach  	1:0 (1:0)	47,000	(Schroth)  	
Werder Bremen 	 	-  	Bayer Leverkusen 	2:1 (1:1) 	39,600	(Klose, Almeida - Freier)
Hertha BSC Berlin	-  	Hannover 96 		4:0 (2:0) 	37,166	(Pantelic 2, Dardai, Ebert)
Borussia Dortmund 	-  	1. FSV Mainz 05 	1:1 (0:0) 	70,100	(Amedick - Edu)
Eintracht Frankfurt 	-  	VfL Wolfsburg 		0:0 (0:0) 	40,000 	
Energie Cottbus 	-  	Hamburger SV 		2:2 (0:1) 	21,000 	(Munteanu, Radu - Sanogo, Ziebig)
Alemannia Aachen 	-  	FC Schalke 04 		0:1 (0:0) 	21,300	(Rodriguez) 	
Arminia Bielefeld 	-  	VfB Stuttgart 		2:3 (0:1) 	22,095	(Ahanfouf, Böhme - Cacau 2, F.Meira)
VfL Bochum 	 	-  	Bayern München 		1:2 (0:1) 	31,328	(Fabio Jr - Makaay, Lahm)


 1  	1. FC Nürnberg 	   	2    	2  	0  	0  	  4:0  	+4   	6
 2 	Werder Bremen 	  	2   	2 	0 	0 	  6:3 	+3 	6
 3 	Bayern München 	  	2   	2 	0 	0 	  4:1 	+3 	6
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4 	Hertha BSC 	  	2   	1 	1 	0 	  4:0 	+4 	4
 5 	1. FSV Mainz 05	  	2   	1 	1 	0 	  3:2 	+1 	4
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6 	FC Schalke 04 	  	2   	1 	1 	0 	  2:1 	+1 	4
 7 	Bayer Leverkusen  	2   	1 	0 	1 	  4:2 	+2 	3
 8 	Borussia M'gladbach  	2   	1 	0 	1 	  2:1 	+1 	3
 9 	VfB Stuttgart 	  	2   	1 	0 	1 	  3:5 	-2 	3
10 	Hamburger SV 	  	2   	0 	2 	0 	  3:3 	 0 	2
11 	Eintracht Frankfurt  	2   	0 	2 	0 	  1:1 	 0 	2
12 	VfL Wolfsburg 	  	2   	0 	2 	0 	  0:0 	 0 	2
13 	Arminia Bielefeld  	2   	0 	1 	1 	  3:4 	-1 	1
14 	Energie Cottbus   	2   	0 	1 	1 	  2:4 	-2 	1
15 	Borussia Dortmund  	2   	0 	1 	1 	  1:3 	-2 	1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 	VfL Bochum 	 	2   	0 	0 	2 	  2:4 	-2 	0
17 	Alemannia Aachen   	2  	0 	0 	2 	  0:4 	-4 	0
18 	Hannover 96 	  	2   	0 	0 	2 	  2:8 	-6 	0


2.Liga, Round 2

No real shocking results here either, although perhaps the first statement was made: Karlsruhe looks "for real", as they defeated Kaiserslautern in an exciting match. This was probably the first sell-out in the Wildparkstadion since Bundesliga days, and KSC looks like a serious contender. FCK played well, even having a slight edge, but failed to convert their chances. K&öln easily "whacked" Wacker, and their huge fan base is already singing "...next year Bundesliga". (But maybe the song should continue "...and next, next year 2.Liga"). Still, the Goats look strong. 1860 almost got relegated last year due to their amazingly crap home form, but no problem this year in their home opener, as they slapped hapless Offenbach silly.

Also interesting results were in the good effort by Essen, and Koblenz first win over constant pretender Fürth. Attendance wasn't too bad either, with an average of just under 20,000 per match. If teams like Haching, Paderborn and Burghausen would do everybody a favor and get relegated, that would really boost totals. As it is, the 2.Liga has passed England's "Championship" , or whatever they call the 2nd division these days :), in attendance. And it's right up their with the Serie A from last year. The Italians may have the players, but apparently nobody, including the Italians, wants to watching their boring anti-football.

 

Hansa Rostock  	 	 -   	Erzgebirge Aue  	1:0 (1:0)	25,000	(Kern)
TSV 1860 München 	 -  	Kickers Offenbach 	3:0 (0:0) 	37,000	(Baier, Schwarz, Adler)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	 -  	Eintr. Braunschweig 	0:0 (0:0) 	 8,526
1. FC Köln 	 	 -  	Wacker Burghausen 	5:1 (3:0) 	41,100	(Chihi 2, Cabanas, Scherz, Helmes - Nicu)
SC Paderborn 07 	 -  	FC Augsburg	 	1:0 (0:0) 	 4,602	(Gouiffe à Goufan)
SpVgg Unterhaching 	 -  	MSV Duisburg 		0:1 (0:1) 	 4,000	(Mokhtari)
Rot-Weiss Essen 	 -  	SC Freiburg 		2:0 (1:0) 	15,076	(Younga-Mohani, Wehlage)
TuS Koblenz 	 	 -  	Greuther Fürth 		1:0 (0:0) 	 8,649	(Forkel)
Karlsruher SC 	 	 -  	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	2:0 (1:0)	32,306	(Federico 2)


 1  	1. FC Köln  	   	2   	2  	0  	0   	7:1  	+6   	6
 2 	Karlsruher SC 	  	2  	2 	0 	0  	6:0 	+6  	6
 3 	MSV Duisburg 	  	2  	2 	0 	0 	3:1 	+2 	6
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4 	TSV 1860 München  	2  	1 	1 	0 	4:1 	+3 	4
 5 	Hansa Rostock 	  	2  	1 	1 	0 	1:0 	+1  	4
 6	SC Paderborn 07 	2  	1 	1 	0  	1:0 	+1  	4
 7 	Rot-Weiss Essen 	2  	1 	0 	1  	2:1 	+1  	3
 8 	TuS Koblenz 	  	2  	1 	0 	1  	2:2 	 0  	3
 9 	Erzgebirge Aue 	  	2  	1 	0 	1  	1:1 	 0  	3
10 	1. FC Kaiserslautern 	2  	1 	0 	1  	1:2 	-1  	3
11 	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	2  	0 	2 	0  	2:2 	 0  	2
12 	Eintr. Braunschweig 	2  	0 	2 	0  	0:0 	 0  	2
13 	Greuther Fürth 	  	2  	0 	1 	1  	1:2 	-1  	1
14 	SC Freiburg 	  	2  	0 	1 	1  	0:2 	-2  	1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 	Kickers Offenbach 	2 	0 	1 	1  	2:5 	-3  	1
16 	SpVgg Unterhaching 	2  	0 	0 	2  	0:2 	-2  	0
17 	FC Augsburg 	  	2	0 	0 	2  	0:3 	-3  	0
18 	Wacker Burghausen 	2  	0 	0 	2  	1:9 	-8  	0



August 14, 2006

Betting scandal

German football gets it's own betting scandal, with far reaching consequences. However, it's not what you think it is. The state court of Sachsen has ruled that "Betandwin", an Austrian based online betting services, should be banned from Germany. The company does about 500 million euros business in Germany, and is a huge sponsor of clubs, including at the youth level; in addition the Bundesliga gets some 18 million directly. Expect multi-zillion euro countersuits now.

It's not clear to me what the reasoning was, although it sounds like it's combination of state control and dumb-ass moralizing about the evils of gambling. Considering that the state run football pools have been a fixture of German football for eons, even being reported as part of nightly scores on the news, (Think "1 0 2"), it's the utmost of hypocrisy. The real reason is probably that the Sachsen government is pissed off that all the local teams are pretty much crap, so there hasn't been as much money to bribe the pointy-headed bureaucrats.

August 13, 2006

Bundesliga, Round 1

Ah yes, another season is finally underway. The World Cup was entertaining enough, although one has to discount all the hoopla, since most of the "fans" were just there for the party. Neverthless, some of the enthusiasm is bound to spill over into the Bundesliga, which might again set new attendance records - despite already being the envy of leagues everywhere.

Without going into too many details, there weren't a lot of surprises in the opener. Yes, Bayern is once again the run-away favorite, and they had a clinical win over Dortmund in the opener. Dortmund figures to be improved as their new players settle in, and the financial situation of Borussia has stabilized, so they should soon be a contender again. Bremen showed their offensive firepower and remain the only serious challenger to Bayern. The only real surprise was Nuernberg's Ohrfeige of Stuttgart - der Club's best start in 38 years. Schalke and Hamburg, two legends in their own mind, had typical lame results. These two popular clubs look likely to disappoint their legions of fans once more, despite the reasonable talent pool.

Among the new clubs, Aachen got slapped silly by FC Pepto-Bismol and need to improve rapidly. Cottbus and Bochum sold themselves dearly and at least showed fighting spirit.

Team of the Week: Nürnberg
Turd of the Weak: Wolfsburg (OK, it's really Stuttgart, but VW is so boring I couldn't resist.)

 

Bayern München  	 -   	Borussia Dortmund  	2:0 (1:0)  	69,000 	(Makaay, Schweinsteiger)	
Hamburger SV 	 	-  	Arminia Bielefeld 	1:1 (0:1) 	52,116	(Sanogo - Eigler) 	
FC Schalke 04 	 	-  	Eintracht Frankfurt 	1:1 (1:0) 	61,482	(Hal. Altintop - Amanatidis) 	
Bayer Leverkusen 	-  	Alemannia Aachen 	3:0 (2:0) 	22,500	(Ramelow, Castro, Rolfes)
VfB Stuttgart 	 	-  	1. FC Nürnberg 		0:3 (0:2) 	39,000	(Vittek, Schroth, Saenko)	
Borussia M'gladbach 	-  	Energie Cottbus 	2:0 (0:0) 	47,638	(Svensson, Neuville)
1. FSV Mainz 05 	-  	VfL Bochum 		2:1 (1:0) 	20,000	(Damm, Azaouagh - Zdebel)
Hannover 96 	 	-  	Werder Bremen 		2:4 (1:1) 	49,000	(Stajner, Hashemian - Diego, Almeida, Klose, Jensen)
VfL Wolfsburg 	 	-  	Hertha BSC Berlin	0:0 (0:0) 	23,496


 1 Bayer Leverkusen  	   	1  	  1  	0  	0  	  3:0  	+3  	3
 2 1. FC Nürnberg 	  	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  3:0 	+3 	3
 3 Werder Bremen 	  	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  4:2 	+2 	3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4 Bayern München 	  	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  2:0 	+2 	3
 5 Borussia M'gladbach 	  	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  2:0 	+2 	3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6 1. FSV Mainz 05 	  	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  2:1 	+1 	3
 7 Eintracht Frankfurt 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  1:1 	 0 	1
 8 FC Schalke 04 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  1:1 	 0 	1
 9 Hamburger SV 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  1:1 	 0 	1
10 Arminia Bielefeld 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  1:1 	 0 	1
11 VfL Wolfsburg 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  0:0 	 0 	1
12 Hertha BSC Berlin 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  0:0 	 0 	1
13 VfL Bochum 	  		1 	  0 	0 	1 	  1:2 	-1      0
14 Hannover 96 	  		1 	  0 	0 	1 	  2:4 	-2   	0
15 Energie Cottbus 	  	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:2 	-2   	0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Borussia Dortmund 	  	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:2 	-2   	0
17 VfB Stuttgart 	  	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:3 	-3   	0
18 Alemannia Aachen 	  	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:3 	-3   	0


2.Liga, Round 1

As usual, the 2.Liga should be entertaining if you like your soccer with lots of "fighting", i.e. physical play and running around. Given some attractive "traditional" clubs such as 'Lautern, Köln and 1860, the attendance should be quite good as well. As for the matches themselves, who knows what is shocking or not, since it's always a pretty balanced league. Relegated favorites Kaiserslautern and Duisburg struggled mightily against newcomers Essen and Koblenz, but managed to eek out the victories. Köln rained on Augsburg's parade as the Rosenaustadion saw 2.Division football for the first time in eons. Only Karlsruhe was impressive, as they "whacked" Burghausen, who needs to get relegated for the good of football. Village clubs are nice stories, but are deadmeat at the gate, and most clubs depend on attendance for the lion share of revenue. And Burghausen has benefitted from the pockets of the Wacker chemical company to distort their finances.

Attendance:


1. FC Kaiserslautern  	-   	Rot-Weiss Essen  	1:0 (1:0)  	40,051	(Hajnal)  	
Wacker Burghausen 	-  	Karlsruher SC 		0:4 (0:1) 	 5,100	(Freis, Karnell, Kapllani, Federico)
Kickers Offenbach 	-  	FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	2:2 (2:0) 	11,479	(Dorn, Türker - Helbig, Günther)  	
MSV Duisburg 	 	-  	TuS Koblenz 		2:1 (1:0) 	18,029	(Mokhtari, Blank - Koch o.g.)
SC Freiburg 	 	-  	Hansa Rostock 		0:0 (0:0) 	15,000
Greuther Fürth 	 	-  	TSV 1860 München 	1:1 (0:0) 	14,000	(Mijatovic - Ziegenbein) 	
Erzgebirge Aue 	 	-  	SpVgg Unterhaching 	1:0 (0:0) 	12,000	(Juskowiak)
Eintr. Braunschweig 	-  	SC Paderborn 07 	0:0 (0:0) 	21,500
FC Augsburg 	 	-  	1. FC Köln 		0:2 (0:1)	28,000	(Helmes, Scherz)


 1 Karlsruher SC  	   	1  	  1  	0  	0  	  4:0  	+4  	  3
 2 1. FC Köln 	  		1 	  1 	0 	0 	  2:0 	+2 	  3
 3 MSV Duisburg 	  	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  2:1 	+1 	  3
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  1:0 	+1 	  3
 5 Erzgebirge Aue 	  	1 	  1 	0 	0 	  1:0 	+1 	  3
 6 Kickers Offenbach 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  2:2 	 0 	  1
 7 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  2:2 	 0 	  1
 8 TSV 1860 München 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  1:1 	 0 	  1
 9 Greuther Fürth 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  1:1 	 0 	  1
10 Eintr. Braunschweig 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  0:0 	 0 	  1
11 Hansa Rostock 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  0:0 	 0 	  1
12 SC Freiburg 	  		1 	  0 	1 	0 	  0:0 	 0 	  1
13 SC Paderborn 07 	  	1 	  0 	1 	0 	  0:0 	 0 	  1
14 TuS Koblenz 	 	 	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  1:2 	-1 	  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:1 	-1 	  0
16 Rot-Weiss Essen 	  	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:1 	-1 	  0
17 FC Augsburg 	  		1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:2 	-2 	  0
18 Wacker Burghausen 	  	1 	  0 	0 	1 	  0:4 	-4 	  0




(c) Abseits Guide to Germany : www.abseits-soccer.com