Read the Abseits
2007/08 Preseason Review!
Read the Abseits
2007/08 Preseason Review!
Bundesliga, Round 33
I've always been pretty bad at writing about midweek results, so no real commentary on the 32nd round, although the results are listed below the table. The penultimate round settled one issue, namely that Duisburg is joining Rostock back in the 2.Liga. On the other hand, to the surprise of many, Energie Cottbus will remain a thorn in the side of the big clubs, as they assure their survival for another season.
Bayern dominated against Duisburg, and apparently had things wrapped up by halftime. But the champions dallied, and Duisburg desperately threw everything into attack, and quickly got back into the game. However, that was it for the Zebras, as they say goodbye to the Bundesliga once again...
Cottbus put up yet another terrific fighting match at home and downed Hamburg, thereby securing their Bundesliga status for another season. Will HSV come up with the big choke? They've gone from a contender to holding on to UEFA only by goal difference. Somehow, they'll probably meddle through, but it would be pretty funny if they didn't.
Bielefeld missed a huge opportunity to save their asses as well. They were up 2-1 with about 5 minutes left when their GK headed the ball into his own net. It would be hilarious if they end up going down because of that. But for that to happen, that would mean that Nürnberg would have to win their last match against Schalke. Under normal circumstances that wouldn't be possible, because der Club looks too crap. But Schalke is unlikely to catch Bremen, and is already in the Champions League, and losing against Nürnberg is probably the one club that Schalke fans would actually tolerate, since there are decent relations between the fans. And they probably wouldn't mind seeing Arminia disappear, since they don't like to be reminded of their partnership in the 1971 Bundesliga-Skandal.
After grasping their last straw by beating Duisburg earlier in the week, Nürnberg's lame performance in Berlin was surely a disappointment. Hertha easily controlled the game with their minimalist football, and this loss almost cost them the Bundesliga. They've still got a chance, so we'll see if they've got the balls to pull it off.
Somewhat shocking was Wolfsburg's thorough thumping of Stuttgart. The VWs have quietly snuck into UEFA Cup contention. Meanwhile, the soon to be ex-defending-champions have one cold after a decent 2nd half run that almost salvaged their season. As it stands now, they will probably be left out in the cold.
Team of the Week: Cottbus
Turd of the Weak: Stuttgart
Attendance: 308,801 (avg 34,311), 31 goals
VfL Wolfsburg - VfB Stuttgart 4:0 (2:0) 28,001 (Marcelinho, Dzeko, Costa, Dejagah) MSV Duisburg - Bayern München 2:3 (0:3) 31,500 (Tararache, Daun - Ottl, Podolski 2) Hansa Rostock - Bayer Leverkusen 1:2 (0:1) 23,000 (Menges - Rolfes, Castro) Hertha BSC - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0 (0:0) 47,072 (Raffael) Energie Cottbus - Hamburger SV 2:0 (1:0) 22,746 (Rivic, Sörensen) Karlsruher SC - VfL Bochum 1:3 (0:1) 29,000 (Eggimann - Azaouagh, Dabrowski, Sestak) Arminia Bielefeld - Borussia Dortmund 2:2 (2:1) 25,000 (Marx, Wichniarek - Buckley, Fernandez o.g.) Werder Bremen - Hannover 96 6:1 (2:0) 41,000 (Almeida, Naldo, Borowski, KLasnic, Rosenberg, Hunt - Hustzi) FC Schalke 04 - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:0 (0:0) 61,482 (Krstajic) 1 FC Bayern München 33 21 10 2 64:20 +44 73 2 Werder Bremen 33 19 6 8 74:45 +29 63 3 FC Schalke 04 33 17 10 6 53:32 +21 61 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Bayer Leverkusen 33 15 6 12 57:39 +18 51 5 Hamburger SV 33 13 12 8 40:26 +14 51 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 VfL Wolfsburg 33 14 9 10 54:44 +10 51 7 VfB Stuttgart (M) 33 16 3 14 55:55 0 51 8 Hannover 96 33 12 10 11 50:56 -6 46 9 Hertha BSC Berlin 33 12 8 13 38:40 -2 44 10 Karlsruher SC (N) 33 11 10 12 38:46 -8 43 11 Eintracht Frankfurt 33 11 10 12 39:48 -9 43 12 VfL Bochum 33 10 11 12 47:52 -5 41 13 Borussia Dortmund 33 10 10 13 48:58 -10 40 14 Energie Cottbus 33 9 9 15 35:52 -17 36 15 Arminia Bielefeld 33 8 9 16 33:58 -25 33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 33 7 10 16 35:49 -14 31 17 MSV Duisburg (N) 33 8 5 20 34:51 -17 29 18 Hansa Rostock (N) 33 7 6 20 28:51 -23 27 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) (Round 32 results) Borussia Dortmund - VfB Stuttgart 3:2 (1:0) 64,400 (Tinga, Frei 2 - Gomez 2) VfL Bochum - FC Schalke 04 0:3 (0:1) 31,328 (Asamoah, Rakitic, Bordon) Karlsruher SC - Energie Cottbus 1:1 (0:0) 28,000 (Buck - Rivic) Hannover 96 - Hansa Rostock 3:0 (1:0) 35,453 (Balitsch, Rosenthal 2) Hamburger SV - Werder Bremen 0:1 (0:0) 57,000 (Almeida) Bayer Leverkusen - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:2 (0:1) 22,500 (Sinkiewicz - Pantelic, Chahed) Bayern München - Arminia Bielefeld 2:0 (1:0) 69,000 (Ribery, Podolski) Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Wolfsburg 2:3 (1:2) 45,300 (Amanatidis, Weissenberger - Grafite, Schäfer, Dzeko) 1. FC Nürnberg - MSV Duisburg 2:0 (2:0) 44,300 (Charisteas, Pinola) Attendance: 397,281 (avg 44,142), 26 goals
2. Liga, Round 33
Köln joins Gladbach going up to the Bundesliga, which seemed unlikely several weeks ago, as the Kölner were dicking around in mediocrity. But they peaked at the right time, ground out some results, and get their reward. Most likely they'll suck in the Bundesliga and be back in the 2.Liga in another year, but they will be partying hard for a while, and the dedicated fans deserve it. One more promotion spot remains open, and upstart Hoffenheim is in the drivers seat to create the sensation. They face Greuther Fürth at home, hardly an easy task, but have to be considered the favorites. If Hoffenheim fails, Mainz and Freiburg are waiting to pounce on the coveted 3rd spot.
On the relegation side, Kaiserslautern has a good chance of saving their ass. They face a promoted Köln side that probably will still be partying. Koblenz difficult end was helped somewhat. Their point deduction of 8 points was in fact increased to 9 points on appeal!! But they were thrown a bone, as only 6 points are being subtracted this season. The additional 3 points will be applied to next season if they stay up. And given that Osnabrück and Offenbach face each other in the last week, it would take a rout of legendary proportions to send Koblenz down. Augsburg is still in trouble, but they are likely to get a result at home to Jena, so they should be staying up.
1. FC Köln - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:0 (1:0) 50,000 (Antar 2) FC St. Pauli - Alemannia Aachen 0:2 (0:2) 22,717 (Lehmann, Nemeth) Borussia M'gladbach - SC Freiburg 2:3 (0:2) 54,067 (Friend, Kleine - Matmour, Günes 2) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2:2 (1:0) 11,162 (Torghelle, Günther - Runström, Simpson) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - FC Augsburg 3:2 (1:0) 6,800 (Biliskov, Nehrig 2 - Möhrle, Szabics) TuS Koblenz - Erzgebirge Aue 2:2 (0:0) 13,613 (Daham, Pektürk - Sykora 2) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - SC Paderborn 07 1:1 (1:0) 7,512 (Catic - Gouiffe à Goufan) Kickers Offenbach - 1899 Hoffenheim 1:1 (0:0) 14,256 (Türker - Copado) TSV 1860 München - VfL Osnabrück 1:1 (0:1) 32,000 (Göktan - Hennings) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 33 17 12 4 68:36 +32 63 2 1. FC Köln 33 17 9 7 62:41 +21 60 3 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 33 16 9 8 55:40 +15 57 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 33 15 10 8 57:35 +22 55 5 SC Freiburg 33 15 10 8 49:42 +7 55 6 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 33 14 10 9 53:42 +11 52 7 Alemannia Aachen (A) 33 14 9 10 48:41 +7 51 8 FC St. Pauli (N) 33 11 9 13 46:48 -2 42 9 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 33 10 11 12 45:53 -8 41 10 TSV 1860 München 33 9 13 11 41:44 -3 40 11 TuS Koblenz 33 11 11 11 43:46 -3 38 12 Kickers Offenbach 33 9 11 13 38:57 -19 38 13 FC Augsburg 33 10 7 16 38:50 -12 37 14 VfL Osnabrück (N) 33 9 10 14 40:54 -14 37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 33 8 12 13 34:37 -3 36 16 Erzgebirge Aue 33 7 10 16 48:56 -8 31 17 SC Paderborn 07 33 6 13 14 31:51 -20 31 18 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 33 6 10 17 44:67 -23 28 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated) (*) - Koblenz deducted 6 points now, possibly 3 points next season
Bundesliga, Round 31
Well, there was an air of inevitability about it, and it was official this weekend: Bayern wrapped up their 21st German title. And they could hardly be bothered to play like a champion, as instead they took the afternoon off and put everyone in Wolfsburg to sleep.
Bremen really didn't have much trouble with Energie Cottbus, although they hardly put in an impressive performance. Werder controlled the match and built up continual pressure on the Cottbus defense, so it was only a matter of time before it cracked. Werder now is in the driver's seat for 2nd place, whereas Cottbus is still mired in the relegation battle.
Schalke is probably kicking themselves for not getting all the points against Hannover. The Blues dominated most of the match, and created lots of chances. However, they could only beat GK Robert Enke once. The 96ers are undoubtedly happy with their point. Neither team really has much left to play for, as Hannover is going nowhere, and it would take a disaster for Schalke not to qualify for the Champions League.
Nürnberg remains in grave danger as they were unable to get a win in Dortmund. Since Borussia was sleeping, FCN grabbed the initiative and created several decent chances in the first half. Dortmund woke up in the 2nd period, and the fans were treated to end-to-end action, and either side could have claimed the victory.
Unfortunately for the sold out Ostseestadion, a dose of Hansa was just what the doctor ordered. Hamburg had been playing crap recently, exhibiting a totally lame offense. And with Rostock fighting for survival, one might have expected another HSV stumble. Instead, Hamburg controlled the match from the start, and essentially had the points wrapped up by halftime. An important win for HSV, as they can concentrate on holding on to a Euro spot. It definitely looks like Rostock has run out of gas, and relegation is almosy assured now.
Stuttgart had an easy time with Frankfurt, and basically blew them off the field in under 20 minutes. Then VfB merely went into autopilot and glided home. Frankfurt never knew whjat struck them, and were happy to run home like a dog with his tail between his legs.
A huge win for Bielefeld, as they took a step towards staying up. It wasn't easy, as visitors Bochum dominated most of the match. However, Arminia grimly held on, and in the end two late goals gave them the points.
Duisburg is still breathing! An injury time goal by Georgiev gave MSV their first home win in 2008, and keeps them hoping in the relegation battle. Meanwhile, another Alka-Seltzer moment for Leverksuen, as they lose their 5th consecutive road match.
Berliner fans actually got to watch an enjoyable match, as even though Hertha and KSC have nothing to play for, they went out and played hard. Hertha grabbed an early lead, but the guests threw caution into the win and were able to get close, until a late Berlin goal finished off the match.
Team of the Week: Duisburg, Bielefeld
Turd of the Weak: Rostock
Attendance: 384,130 (avg 42,681), 24 goals
Borussia Dortmund - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:0 (0:0) 70,500 Hansa Rostock - Hamburger SV 1:3 (0:2) 28,000 (Mathijsen - Olic 2, van der Vaart) Arminia Bielefeld - VfL Bochum 2:0 (0:0) 23,800 (Mijatovic, Kamper) FC Schalke 04 - Hannover 96 1:1 (1:1) 61,482 (Altintop - Bruggink) Werder Bremen - Energie Cottbus 2:0 (0:0) 39,678 (Rosenberg, Almeida) VfB Stuttgart - Eintracht Frankfurt 4:1 (3:0) 55,500 (Bastürk 2, Gomez, Cacau - Amanatidis) Hertha BSC - Karlsruher SC 3:1 (2:0) 49,595 (Kacar, Pantelic, Skacel - Kapllani) VfL Wolfsburg - Bayern München 0:0 (0:0) 30,000 MSV Duisburg - Bayer Leverkusen 3:2 (2:1) 25,575 (Ishiaku 2, Georgiev - Sinkiewicz, Barnetta) 1 FC Bayern München 31 19 10 2 59:18 +41 67 2 Werder Bremen 31 17 6 8 67:44 +23 57 3 FC Schalke 04 31 15 10 6 49:32 +17 55 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Hamburger SV 31 13 12 6 40:23 +17 51 5 VfB Stuttgart (M) 31 16 3 12 53:48 +5 51 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 31 14 6 11 54:36 +18 48 7 VfL Wolfsburg 31 12 9 10 47:42 +5 45 8 Hannover 96 31 11 10 10 46:50 -4 43 9 Eintracht Frankfurt 31 11 10 10 37:44 -7 43 10 Karlsruher SC (N) 31 11 9 11 36:42 -6 42 11 VfL Bochum 31 9 11 11 44:48 -4 38 12 Hertha BSC Berlin 31 10 8 13 35:39 -4 38 13 Borussia Dortmund 31 9 9 13 43:54 -11 36 14 Energie Cottbus 31 8 8 15 32:51 -19 32 15 Arminia Bielefeld 31 8 8 15 31:54 -23 32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 MSV Duisburg (N) 31 8 5 18 32:46 -14 29 17 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 31 6 10 15 33:48 -15 28 18 Hansa Rostock (N) 31 7 6 18 27:46 -19 27 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 31
Attendance: 189,482 (avg 21,053), 33 goals
TSV 1860 München - SC Freiburg 0:3 (0:2) 30,400 (Idrissou, Matmour, Günes) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2:1 (1:1) 20,300 (Borja, Soto - Reinert) FC St. Pauli - Erzgebirge Aue 4:2 (2:2) 21,421 (Schulz, Takyi, Schnitzler, Rothenbach - Orahovac, Curri) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - SC Paderborn 07 1:1 (0:0) 7,300 (Lanig - Krösche) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - VfL Osnabrück 1:1 (0:0) 9,291 (Allagui - Reichenberger) Kickers Offenbach - Borussia M'gladbach 1:7 (0:1) 19,051 (Brouwers o.g. - Neuville 2, Ndjeng 2, Marin, Touma, Coulibaly) Alemannia Aachen - FC Augsburg 3:0 (1:0) 18,440 (Brinkmann, Ebbers, Milchraum) TuS Koblenz - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2:0 (1:0) 13,279 (Fernandez, Daham) 1. FC Köln - 1899 Hoffenheim 3:1 (1:1) 50,000 (Novakovic, Antar, Mohamad - Salihovic) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 31 16 12 3 63:33 +30 60 2 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 31 15 10 6 57:32 +25 55 3 1. FC Köln 31 15 9 7 57:40 +17 54 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 31 15 8 8 51:38 +13 53 5 SC Freiburg 31 14 10 7 46:39 +7 52 6 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 31 13 9 9 50:40 +10 48 7 Alemannia Aachen (A) 31 12 9 10 45:41 +4 45 8 FC St. Pauli (N) 31 11 9 11 46:44 +2 42 9 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 31 10 10 11 44:49 -5 40 10 TSV 1860 München 31 9 12 10 39:40 -1 39 11 FC Augsburg 31 10 7 14 35:44 -9 37 12 TuS Koblenz 31 11 10 10 40:41 -1 35 13 VfL Osnabrück (N) 31 9 8 14 39:53 -14 35 14 Kickers Offenbach 31 8 10 13 36:56 -20 34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 31 7 11 13 30:35 -5 32 16 Erzgebirge Aue 31 6 9 16 41:54 -13 27 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 31 6 9 16 42:60 -18 27 18 SC Paderborn 07 31 5 12 14 27:49 -22 27 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated) (*) - Koblenz deducted 8 points
Bayern disgraced
Germany's Euro quest will end in defeat, at least at the club level. Bayern München, who had hoped to add the UEFA cup to the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal titles, was bitch-slapped silly in the semifinals by Russian upstart Zenit St.Petersburg. The Russkis embarassed the high priced German champs 4-0. In fact, previously Zenit had also kicked ass against Bayer Leverkusen, so I suppose you could write it off that the Germans always fail at the gates of Leningrad...
Zenit advances to the finals against another surprise team, Glasgow Rangers. Meanwhile Bayern has to run home like dogs with their tails between their legs. I wonder what kind of spin VP Uli Hoeness puts on this one?
If you consider the Bundesliga performance in Europe this year, it was pretty crappy. Bremen and Stuttgart were non-factors in the Champions League, only Schalke had a modicum of success. The UEFA Cup was pretty lame as well, although Bayern could have salvaged some honor by winning the Cup.
Kult-Verein update
With e-mails literally poring in from around the world, it's perhaps useful to give an update regarding the feedback of Kult-Vereine. Cult clubs and German football. What a match. Of course, the consensus from everyone is that St.Pauli qualifies, given the non-existant criteria of evaluating them. I would propose the requirement that folks from around the country follow the club, even though they have no geographic attachement to them. Hence all the yokels going to St.Pauli games, even though they don't live around the Reeperbahn. I guess using that criteria, perhaps only Bayern München qualifies, as they always attract tons of interest, at least to boo the millionaires...
Paul Duke, who undoubtedly cannot show his face at work now that his name appears on these pages, confirmed our original speculation that BFC Dynamo Berlin is a likely Kult candidate. This has mostly do to the behaviour of it's fans. And every defeat is gleefully followed among the rest of ex-GDR football fans, so they qualify. Meanwhile, Jason Gick was obviously trying to ingratiate himself with a lady friend, as he suggested her favorite club, Jahn Regensburg. Ha-ha, Jason, but no cigar! I don't think people in Regensburg even care these days. He then partially redeemed himself by suggesting 1860 München. This is quite clever, playing on the anti-Bayern bandwagon, so we give him props. However, there is definitely a feeling that probably nobody OUTSIDE München cares. Further suggestions rolled in, like various Kickers clubs, like Stuttgart or Offenbach. They would have a stronger case if they lived up to their names and dominated the league in yellow cards, but no such luck.
One possibility that comes to mind is 1.FC Kaiserslautern, despite the fact that they're trying to rip off poor little TuS Koblenz. There are undoubtedly many English speaking fans of 1.FCK largely due to the legendary efforts of Dan Herrin (?) and his legendary Gonzoliga blog, the pioneering 1990s English language news on German football. Had good beer reports too. Unfortunately Dan wandered off to England and probably became an Man United fan. Last I heard, he was somewhere in Belgium. Anyway, Dan's reports from the terraces of the Betzenberg (aka Fritz-Walter-Stadion) were of Pulitzer quality, and enthralled readers world-wide. As a Lautern fan, I'm sure his rantings contributed to many others taking up that dubious cause...
Finally, the suggestion of Wuppertaler SV popped up. As a 30+ year long suffering WSV fan, I was taken aback. Alas, the only Kult aspect of WSV is that of Jim Jones and the People's Temple, as the WSV fans are forced to line up at the Zoo-Stadion every season and drink the purple Kool-aid offered up by club management...
Bundesliga, Round 30
Bayern wrapped up another title in style as they destroyed defending champion Stuttgart. Bremen or Schalke still have mathematical chances to catch the leaders, but that would mean Bayern would have to lose 4 in a row, which has never happened in the history of the club. Against Stuttgart, after an obligatory Luca Toni strike, Bayern had to regain the lead after an hour, but the match was still up for grabs. But then it was the Franck Ribery show, as the Frenchman, who had only come on as a 2nd half sub, finished off the match with a couple of nice goals, one a nice blast from about 35 yards into the top corner, and another where he faked out several defenders. Stuttgart probably was expecting a defeat, and it was only wasteful by Lukas Podolski that prevented further damage, as he missed a couple of sitters near the end.
Schalke got a nice win against Hamburg, and perhaps guaranteed themselves a return to the Champions League. Red hot Kevin Kuranyi scored his 15th league goal (8th via a header) and sent HSV into despair. With their lame offense, Hamburg will probably not only not be in the CL next season, but I doubt they even hold on to a UEFA spot.
A wildly entertaining match in Karlsruhe, but Bremen is probably kicking themselves for not grabbing all the points. Werder dominated most of the match, and created tons of chances. However, KSC battled throughout, and almost came away with a win, thanks to lax Werder defending.
Hannover threw away an opportunity for 3 points. They dominated the first half and had a comfortable 2-0 lead. And of course, Hertha could fully be expected to phone it in, as they are one of the most boring teams in the league. However, the Berliners perhaps have perfected the "rope-a-dope" technique, and they came roaring back. After the match was squared, both sides had opportunities to claim all the points, but in the end, a draw was a fair result.
After a rather boring 1st half, Frankfurt and Dortmund opened up and delivered an entertaining match. The inability to win pretty much ends Frankfurt's chance of sneaking into a UEFA spot, but the overall result was fair.
Is this the match that sends Nürnberg down? Der Club led comfortably 2-0 at half, at home, against struggling Bielefeld. Certainly a win was called for. Instead, Arminia threw everything into the 2nd half, and were able to equalize. Nürnberg was shocked, and despite increasing pressure, was unable to restablish the lead. This 3 point swing (Nürnberg dropping 2, Bielefeld gaining one) keeps Nürnberg in a relegation spot, and has to be completely demoralizing. But if they go down, they've got nobody to blame but themselves.
Drama in the Laustiz region, as two ex-GDR clubs met at a packed Stadion der Freundschaft. And it was Hansa Rostock that was the better team, taking the lead, and playing better football. They could have wrapped up the match mid-way through the 2nd half. However they wasted their chances and the price they pay looks like it's millions - relegation is likely. Cottbus threw caution into the wind, desperately seeking to avoid defeat. And they were rewarded, as they scored twice in the last 10 minutes, undoubtedly helped by the fact that Hansa GK Stefan Wächter was injured, but Rostock had no more subs. A huge win for Energie, Dimitar Rangelov's header 1 minute into injury time likely ensuring Bundesliga football in the south-eastern corner of the former GDR for another year. They may be unloved throughout most of the Bundesliga, but you have to give Energie credit for their fighting spirit.
One of the less interesting Ruhr derbies, the Bochum-Duisburg match was in fact quite entertaining. Oddly enough, it was tailend Duisburg that was controlling the match, and they deservedly held the lead. A desperate all-out attack was necessary for Bochum to tie the game near the end, avoiding their first home defeat in 9 matches. Duisburg is probably going down, as matches like these you can't let slip away.
Leverkusen certainly expected to gather momentum and points for the UEFA qualification. Facing Wolfsburg, the Aspirins probably felt they would prevail. Instead, they ended up with a big headache, as they struggled against the VWs, and it took an own goal for them to even rescue a point. The match itself was pretty entertaining, especially in a wild 2nd half. As they went home after the final whistle, the Leverkusen fans probably needed some alka-seltzer as well, as some of the referee decisions were certainly questionable. Bayer was denied what looked an clear penalty, and one of Wolfsburg's goals was suspect as well. However, if I were a betting man, then I'd say Leverkusen still probably makes UEFA, and Stuttgart seems another likely candidate. That leaves HSV out in the cold...For Wolfsburg, any season where they're not a relegation candidate is a good one, so they'll be happy.
Team of the Week: Schalke, Cottbus
Turd of the Weak: Hamburg
Attendance: 362,939 (avg 40,327), 31 goals
Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia Dortmund 1:1 (0:0) 51,500 (Köhler - Blaszczykowski) Hamburger SV - FC Schalke 04 0:1 (0:1) 57,000 (Kuranyi) Karlsruher SC - Werder Bremen 3:3 (1:2) 29,470 (Freis 2, Kapllani - Diego, Özil, Sanogo) Hannover 96 - Hertha BSC 2:2 (2:0) 41,473 (Hanke, Stajner - Chahed, Piszcek) 1. FC Nürnberg - Arminia Bielefeld 2:2 (2:0) 46,300 (Mintal, Saenko - Wichniarek, Bollmann) Energie Cottbus - Hansa Rostock 2:1 (0:1) 21,357 (Rost, Rangelov - Cetkovic) VfL Bochum - MSV Duisburg 1:1 (0:1) 24,339 (Sestak - Niculescu) Bayern München - VfB Stuttgart 4:1 (1:1) 69,000 (Toni, Van Bommel, Ribery 2 - da Silva) Bayer Leverkusen - VfL Wolfsburg 2:2 (1:2) 22,500 (Gekas, Costa o.g. - Dzeko, Hasebe) 1 FC Bayern München 30 19 9 2 59:18 +41 66 2 Werder Bremen 30 16 6 8 65:44 +21 54 3 FC Schalke 04 30 15 9 6 48:31 +17 54 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Bayer Leverkusen 30 14 6 10 52:33 +19 48 5 Hamburger SV 30 12 12 6 37:22 +15 48 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 VfB Stuttgart (M) 30 15 3 12 49:47 +2 48 7 VfL Wolfsburg 30 12 8 10 47:42 +5 44 8 Eintracht Frankfurt 30 11 10 9 36:40 -4 43 9 Hannover 96 30 11 9 10 45:49 -4 42 10 Karlsruher SC (N) 30 11 9 10 35:39 -4 42 11 VfL Bochum 30 9 11 10 44:46 -2 38 12 Hertha BSC Berlin 30 9 8 13 32:38 -6 35 13 Borussia Dortmund 30 9 8 13 43:54 -11 35 14 Energie Cottbus 30 8 8 14 32:49 -17 32 15 Arminia Bielefeld 30 7 8 15 29:54 -25 29 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 30 6 9 15 33:48 -15 27 17 Hansa Rostock (N) 30 7 6 17 26:43 -17 27 18 MSV Duisburg (N) 30 7 5 18 29:44 -15 26 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 30
Of course the big news was Koblenz' 8 point deduction, which means that Kaiserslautern has a very good chance now to avoid the drop. The Red Devils helped themselves with a tough win over Aachen. Meanwhile, Koblenz was probably still shell shocked, as they ran into a Paderborn squad that desperately wanted to stave off mathematical relegation. Meanwhie, Offenbach and Osnabrück, who almost looked safe a short while ago, have hurt themselves by losing and remain in the relegation mire. On the other hand, Augsburg looks just about safe now, with an important win over a recently red-hot St.Pauli squad.
At the top, Gladbach had a packed house, but a tough time with the disappointing 1860 team. Hoffenheim showed they are no fluke as they completely annihilated Jena. Senegalese striker Demba Ba had a hat-trick in the first 25 minutes, and Jena was fortunate they didn't lose by double digits. Mainz won a important away tie in Osnabrück, so they pass Köln in the promotion spot. Given their superior goal-difference, the Mainzers almost have an additional point as well.
In huge match on Monday, the Freiburg-Greuther Fürth match went down to the wire. Freiburg came from behind to win it in the last minute. This keeps their promotion hopes alive, while it's just about "Gute Nacht" for Fürth.
Attendance: 158,173 (avg: 17,575), 35 goals
1. FC Kaiserslautern - Alemannia Aachen 2:1 (1:1) 30,482 (Bellinghausen,Ziemer - Nemeth) Erzgebirge Aue - 1. FC Köln 3:3 (2:2) 11,400 (Nemec 2, Sykora - Helmes, Scherz, Pezzoni) SC Paderborn 07 - TuS Koblenz 3:2 (3:1) 4,310 (Fischer, Löbe, Bogavac - Kuqi, Hartmann) VfL Osnabrück - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:2 (1:2) 12,300 (Cichon - Subotic, Borja) Borussia M'gladbach - 1860 München 2:2 (1:2) 50,183 (Neuville 2 - di Salvo, Göktan) 1899 Hoffenheim - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 5:0 (4:0) 5,700 (Ba 3, Salihovic, Obasi) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - Kickers Offenbach 2:1 (0:1) 11,276 (Catic, Atem - Bancé) FC Augsburg - FC St. Pauli 1:0 (0:0) 20,122 (Mölzl) SC Freiburg - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 3:2 (1:1) 12,400 (Butscher, Pitriopa 2 - Kanig, Kotuljac) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 30 15 12 3 56:32 +24 57 2 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 30 15 8 7 50:35 +15 53 3 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 30 14 10 6 55:31 +24 52 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Köln 30 14 9 7 54:39 +15 51 5 SC Freiburg 30 13 10 7 43:39 +4 49 6 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 30 13 8 9 49:39 +10 47 7 Alemannia Aachen (A) 30 11 9 10 42:41 +1 42 8 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 30 10 10 10 44:47 -3 40 9 TSV 1860 München 30 9 12 9 39:37 +2 39 10 FC St. Pauli (N) 30 10 9 11 42:42 0 39 11 FC Augsburg 30 10 7 13 35:41 -6 37 12 VfL Osnabrück (N) 30 9 7 14 38:52 -14 34 13 Kickers Offenbach 30 8 10 12 35:49 -14 34 14 TuS Koblenz 30 10 10 10 38:41 -3 32 (*) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 30 7 11 12 29:33 -4 32 16 Erzgebirge Aue 30 6 9 15 39:50 -11 27 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 30 6 8 16 41:59 -18 26 18 SC Paderborn 07 30 5 11 14 26:48 -22 26 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated) (*) - Koblenz deducted 8 points
Apr 25, 2008
2.Liga conspiracy!
In a stunning announcement, the DFL has announced that TuS Koblenz will be hit with a catastrophic 8 point penalty. The accusation is for violations in the license issue, but details are not forthcoming.
This outrageous verdict undoubtedly raises the spector of dirty laundry within the DFL (the governing body of the Bundesliga and 2.Liga). The clear benefactor is 1.FC Kaiserslautern, which all of a sudden can jump out of relegation with a couple of wins.
While there appears to be no argument regarding Koblenz guilt from any of the parties, the punishment and especially the timing are contraversial. In the past, teams have been punished with far lower point deductions, and usually only for the upcoming season. By making the announcement with only 5 games left - and taking effect in the current campaign, it appears a clear attempt to help Kaiserslautern avoid relegation.
Ther remains an unpleasant smell about the whole issue. In the past, clubs like Dortmund, Frankfurt, Schalke and yes, Kaiserslautern, have gotten away with a wimpy fine. But smaller clubs seem to suffer. Dresden got nailed with an 8 point dinger in the early 90s, but it took effect before the season started. Now perhaps Koblenz' affronts to the DFL Finance commitee are so grevious to warrant a draconian punishment. But I doubt it. More likely it's because Koblenz is a wimpy club with few friends, and of course Kaiserslautern is a big club with lots of friends. The DFL has a vested interest in keeping a club like FCK in the 2.Liga, as they are a huge draw, home and away. Nobody cares to watch Koblenz.
Obviously, the verdict will have to be appealed, so I'm sure it's not the end of the sordid story. Stay tuned....
Kult-Vereine
Now we know that most cults are located in Texas or somewhere else in the southwest, and consist of old men marrying multiple underage girls. However, in German football, there is also the phenomenon of the Kult-Verein, which is somewhat analogous to the "cult-movie" status. One reader asked if there are any other Kult clubs aside from the often mentioned St.Pauli. (I was so shocked at the concept of someone actually reading this blog that I instantly assumed it must be spam, so I inadvertantly deleted the e-mail.) It did get me thinking, and to be honest, I can't think of any that immediately qualify. St.Pauli seems in a class by itself, when you consider that most of the fans probably don't know what's going on in the field, and half of them don't care.
There might be some candidates in the east that fit at least part of the description. BFC Dynamo Berlin perhaps. They don't have a large following, and much of what they do have is more interested in hooligan violence. And because the fans of about just every other ex-GDR club hate them, they're at least on everyone's radar.
For non-German speakers, I would think potential candidates could be Borussia Mönchengladbach or Stahl Eisenüttenstadt, mainly because they're difficult to spell and pronounce :)
Anyway, if you have any thoughts on the matter, drop me a line...
Nürnberg still alive
A late goal by giant Jan Koller was enough for 1.FC Nürnberg to down VfL Wolfsburg 1-0 and keep their hopes of salvation alive. The match last week was canceled due to the water logged pitch during the deluge, with Nürnberg leading 1-0. So there was some justice in that the replay - this time under beautiful sunshine - also went to "der Club". A nice crowd of 45,000 watched the two squads battle it out, but the home side definitely needed the points a lot more than the VWs. In the end, it was Koller's 79th minute strike from 18 meters that provided the difference.
Nürnberg is still in desperate straits. The win gives them 26 points, enough to take them off the bottom, but only into 17th. They would still have to climb over Hansa Rostock (26) and of course stave off Duisburg (25). The good news is that they're only a win away from catching Bielfeld (28) in the all-important 15th slot.
Another Cup for Bayern
Bayern München won the DFB-Pokal for the 14th time, with a surprisingly difficult 2-1 overtime win over Borussia Dortmund. A sell-out crowd of 72,500 was treated to an entertaining match, where Bayern seemingly had the Cup locked up after an 11th minute goal from Luca Toni. However, Dortmund, which had been playing absolute crap in the run-up to the final, showed that they were indeed made of sterner stuff than their 0-5 loss to Bayern a week ago. Two minutes into injury time, Mladen Petric equalized for the Neons, throwing the match into overtime. Yet once again, Italian star Luca Toni was the man, as he put home Podolski's cross in the 103rd minute to give Bayern the win.
Hardly a surprising win for Bayern, as they look a cinch now for at least the German double, and of course remain a contender for a triple via the UEFA Cup. For Dortmund, their season essentially comes to a crappy end, although they put in a superb effort. I certainly expected more from this club, and they've disappointed in the league. On the balance, most people probably would have preferred cinderella Carl Zeiss Jena to sneak into the final against Bayern, but nobody can fault the Neons final performance.
Regionalliga action
With the Bundesliga and 2.Liga taking the weekend off due to the DFB-Pokal final, we have a chance to take a peak at the desperate struggle going on in the 3rd division Regionalligas. This is of course the "make-or-break" season, as next year the league structure is reorganized into a single 3rd division Dritte Liga. So clubs are scrambling to finish in the top 10 spots to avoid get restructured into the "new" Regionalliga - which will now be a 4th division level. Of course, one musn't forget that the top 2 spots get promotion into the 2.Liga, but you get the impression that given the tight battle going on, clubs are more concerned about not dropping to the 4th level.
One important rule to consider is of course that the "II" clubs are not only not eligible for promotion into the 2.Liga, but also a maximum of 4 clubs can qualify from each Regionalliga for the new 3.Liga. Although Werder Bremem II is effected as far as the Nord is concerned, it doesn't appear to be a big issue yet for the new 3.Liga. That fact probably makes the other clubs happy, because as you can see from the attendance figures, the "II" clubs are death at the box office.
A fierce battle is going on in the northern division. Dynamo Dresden in 10th holds the last 3.Liga spot, but in fact they're only 4 points from promotion into the 2.Liga - with a game in hand to boot. Not making the cut right now are a couple famed clubs, Eintracht Brauschweig and Rot-Weiss Essen, along with ex-DDR Oberliga powerhouse 1.FC Magdeburg. In general, the northern division has clubs attracting more interest, as there are 6 ex-Bundesliga clubs competing (Oberhausen, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Dresden, Braunschweig, Essen) and some ex-GDR favorites (Magdeburg, Erfurt, Union Berlin).
At the top, we find reconstituted club Rot-Weiss Ahlen clinging to a small lead. A nice story, as the Ahlen squad was of course the Hoffenheim of a few years ago, when they even changed their name to reflect their sponsor, cosmetics company LR. At the time, Ahlen was nocknamed the "Millionarios" as they bought their way up the ladder into the 2nd division. But eventually the money dried up, and the club was abandoned like a cheap hooker. Credit to the club that in their new incarnation, they've managed to put things back together. Hot on their heals are "going-nowhere" Werder II, and somewhat of a surprise, Kickers Emden, which holds a promotion spot. Oberhausen is a classic elevator club, which has been up in the very top, and down in the dregs. Right now, the elevator is going "UP", so they could sneak in. Famed eastern club Union Berlin and western stalwarts Düsseldorf and Wuppertal are also hot on the trail. Anyone can make it, and those that fall off will seemingly insure that the northern representation in the new 3.Liga are attractive venues.
In the southern division, it's mostly smaller clubs that are contending. Even the ex-Bundesliga clubs (Unterhaching and Kickers Stuttgart) have to be considered dwarfs. The leaders are Ingolstadt, which is a fusion success story. It's predecessors MTV and ESV were going nowhere, so the merger has put the city back on the footballing map. Their challengers are Aalen and FSV Frankfurt, as Sandhausen and ex-Bundesligist Unterhaching have a fair amount of work to do.
Regionalliga Nord VfB Lübeck - Bor. Dortmund II 0:4 (0:4) 2,465 (Nöthe 2, Tyrala, Njambe) 1. FC Magdeburg - Kickers Emden 1:3 (1:1) 15,188 (Baumgart - Reichwein 2, Klasen) RW Oberhausen - Rot-Weiss Ahlen 0:0 (0:0) 5,355 Wuppertaler SV Bor. - Rot-Weiss Essen 2:2 (0:1) 9,190 (Saglik, Damm - Güvenisik, Kazior) Werder Bremen II - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:0 (0:0) 950 (Artmann) Energie Cottbus II - Rot-Weiß Erfurt 2:1 (0:1) 844 (Müller, Schuppan - Brückner) Hamburger SV II - SV Babelsberg 03 0:0 (0:0) 450 Dynamo Dresden - Eintr. Braunschweig 1:1 (0:0) 8,388 (Bröker - Fuchs) SC Verl - VfL Wolfsburg II 5:1 (3:0) 250 (Ndiaye 2, Mainka 2, Remmert - Kullig) 1 Rot-Weiss Ahlen 30 14 10 6 60:38 +22 52 2 Werder Bremen II 30 15 5 10 46:37 +9 50 (not eligible) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 Kickers Emden 30 15 5 10 36:29 +7 50 (promotion) 4 Rot-Weiss Oberhausen (N) 29 14 7 8 48:29 +19 49 5 1. FC Union Berlin 29 13 9 7 50:36 +14 48 6 Fortuna Düsseldorf 28 14 6 8 31:19 +12 48 7 Wuppertaler SV Borussia 30 14 6 10 47:40 +7 48 8 Borussia Dortmund II 30 12 11 7 33:23 +10 47 9 Rot-Weiss Erfurt 29 13 7 9 58:35 +23 46 10 Dynamo Dresden 29 13 7 9 37:29 +8 46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11 Eintr. Braunschweig (A) 29 10 11 8 44:41 +3 41 12 1. FC Magdeburg 29 11 8 10 30:30 0 41 13 Energie Cottbus II (N) 30 10 7 13 23:35 -12 37 14 Rot-Weiss Essen (A) 29 9 9 11 32:32 0 36 15 SV Babelsberg 03 (N) 29 7 9 13 28:41 -13 30 16 Hamburger SV II 30 7 9 14 30:45 -15 30 17 SC Verl (N) 29 8 5 16 25:38 -13 29 18 VfB Lübeck 28 5 5 18 18:45 -27 20 19 VfL Wolfsburg II (N) 29 3 6 20 17:71 -54 15 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated) Regionalliga Süd VfB Stuttgart II - 1860 München II 1:2 (1:0) 700 (Percholdt - Fink, Duhnke) FC Bayern München II - Sportfr. Siegen 3:1 (2:0) 525 (Nagorny, Kroos, Sikorski - Pfingsten) FSV LU-Oggersheim - SV Elversberg 0:4 (0:2) 336 (Willmann 2, Zinnow, Feinbier) Wacker Burghausen - Stuttgarter Kickers 1:2 (0:0) 2,859 (Galuschka - Gambo, Tucci) VfR Aalen - SpVgg Unterhaching 0:0 (0:0) 4,267 SSV Reutlingen 05 - FSV Frankfurt 0:1 (0:1) 3,300 (Husterer) Hessen Kassel - SC Pfullendorf 3:1 (2:0) 3,700 (Beyer, Haas, Schönewolf - Konrad) Karlsruher SC II - Jahn Regensburg 1:0 (1:0) 544 (Fischer) SV Sandhausen - FC Ingolstadt 04 0:3 (0:1) 1,800 (Wohlfarth 2, Gerba) 1 FC Ingolstadt 04 27 14 8 5 41:27 +14 50 2 VfR Aalen 27 13 9 5 55:30 +25 48 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 FSV Frankfurt (N) 27 13 9 5 44:25 +19 48 4 VfB Stuttgart II 27 14 5 8 35:23 +12 47 5 SV Sandhausen (N) 27 13 5 9 36:28 +8 44 6 SpVgg Unterhaching (A) 27 11 9 7 44:33 +11 42 7 FC Bayern München II 27 9 10 8 35:29 +6 37 8 Wacker Burghausen (A) 27 8 12 7 28:32 -4 36 9 Hessen Kassel 27 8 11 8 45:41 +4 35 10 SSV Reutlingen 05 27 7 14 6 36:36 0 35 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11 Jahn Regensburg (N) 27 10 5 12 29:37 -8 35 12 Stuttgarter Kickers 27 8 10 9 26:28 -2 34 13 TSV 1860 München II 27 9 5 13 34:38 -4 32 14 Sportfr. Siegen 27 6 14 7 26:30 -4 32 15 SV Elversberg 27 8 7 12 30:42 -12 31 16 Karlsruher SC II 27 6 12 9 24:33 -9 30 17 SC Pfullendorf 27 5 9 13 25:35 -10 24 18 FSV LU-Oggersheim (N) 27 1 6 20 12:58 -46 9 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Bundesliga, Round 29
A so-called "English week" of mid-week games didn't bring forth too many surprises. However, some of the recent trends were stopped.
Bayern proved once again that they're up to the task. Frankfurt fought valiantly, and had the Müncheners against the wall. However, superior talent eventually began to show, and super-Italian Luca Toni's double was the sword that sliced up the Hot Dogs. The Frankfurters can be happy with their performance, but it wasn't enough, and their chances of making a UEFA spot look pretty slim now. Bayern seems to have wrapped up the title, with a commanding 10 point lead impossible for their challengers to overcome.
Bremen had an edge in play, and ended up winning at Rostock. Hansa needed the points, but really didn't do enough to earn them. GK Stefan Wächter stopped the decisive penalty from Naldo, but Klasnic pounced on the rebound to give Werder the win with only 5 minutes left. The win solidifies Bremen as the no.2 club in Germany so far.
Hamburg and Hertha struggled to see who could be the most boring team; unfortunately for the fans, both of the teams were equally horrible. A worthless point to both clubs, although HSV at least is still in European qualification.
Schalke fired Mirko Slomka's ass on Sunday, and lo and behold, the Blues actually score again. And not only that, they romped home against a heretofore decent Cottbus squad. But before the Schalke fans get too carried away, despite the great match from Kevin Kuranyi, it was mostly the visitors crappiness that led to the result. Energie was shockingly lame, given the fact they've been digging themselves out of relegation. Schalke interim-coach Mike Büskens still has a lot of work to do, but given how lousy Schalke has been recently, the rain of goals couldn't have come at a better time.
A crap Nürnberg meant that Stuttgart wouldn't have to work hard. VfB came out blazing, worked for 30 minutes, and wrapped up the game. Der Club was lucky that this didn't turn into a debacle. Looks like Nürnberg fans should be checking out train schedules for Wehen-Wiesbaden and Koblenz. Relegation looks certain unless they win the makeup match this Sunday against Wolfsburg. Meanwhile, Stuttgart has climbed back from the underworld into a UEFA spot, and might even sneak back into the Champions League. That would be quite an achievement, considering how crap they were in the first half of the season.
Wolfsburg was dominating the match against Bochum, but couldn't put anything in the net. And of course, with only a couple of minutes left, a Bochum counter gave the VWs a bitter defeat.
Bielefeld had a huge win, downing Leverkusen in a crucial match. The Aspirins were completely uninspired, perhaps they had taken Ex-Lax instead of Pepto-bismol. Meanwhile, Arminia lacks talent, but today they made up for it with fighting spirit, and deservedly keep all 3 points.
Duisburg must be gutted that they went down to Karlsruhe. This was a match that they desperately needed, and instead it blows up in their face. MSV controlled the game, but KSC was well organized in defense. The Zebras were too clueless, and of course were duly penalized in the last 10 minutes, when Karlsruhe struck.
Dortmund seems a real gutless squad. It's hard to tell whether they just suck, or they don't care. They ran around aimlessly, and only 2nd half sub forward Alex Frei had any real clue. Hannover just sat back and launched counterattacks, which usually caused panic in the Neon "defense". Perhaps Borussia was thinking of Saturday's DFB-Cup final in Berlin against Bayern, as it's certainly the only thing they have left to play for.
Team of the Week: Bielefeld
Turd of the Weak: Dortmund
Attendance: 338,663 (avg 37,629), 22 goals
Hansa Rostock - Werder Bremen 1:2 (0:0) 22,000 (Hähnge - Frings, Klasnic) Hertha BSC Berlin - Hamburger SV 0:0 (0:0) 40,289 VfL Wolfsburg - VfL Bochum 0:1 (0:0) 18,801 (Sestak) FC Schalke 04 - Energie Cottbus 5:0 (3:0) 60,018 (Kuranyi 4, da Silva o.g.) Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayern München 1:3 (1:0) 51,500 (Köhler - van Buyten, Toni 2) Arminia Bielefeld - Bayer Leverkusen 1:0 (0:0) 19,400 (Mijatovic) VfB Stuttgart - 1. FC Nürnberg 3:0 (3:0) 45,000 (Cacau, da Silva, Fernando Meira) Borussia Dortmund - Hannover 96 1:3 (0:2) 61,400 (Frei - Bruggink, Fahrenhorst, Huszti) MSV Duisburg - Karlsruher SC 0:1 (0:0) 20,255 (Hajnal) 1 FC Bayern München 29 18 9 2 55:17 +38 63 2 Werder Bremen 29 16 5 8 62:41 +21 53 3 FC Schalke 04 29 14 9 6 47:31 +16 51 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Hamburger SV 29 12 12 5 37:21 +16 48 5 VfB Stuttgart (M) 29 15 3 11 48:43 +5 48 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 29 14 5 10 50:31 +19 47 7 VfL Wolfsburg 28 12 7 9 45:39 +6 43 8 Eintracht Frankfurt 29 11 9 9 35:39 -4 42 9 Hannover 96 29 11 8 10 43:47 -4 41 10 Karlsruher SC (N) 29 11 8 10 32:36 -4 41 11 VfL Bochum 29 9 10 10 43:45 -2 37 12 Hertha BSC Berlin 29 9 7 13 30:36 -6 34 13 Borussia Dortmund 29 9 7 13 42:53 -11 34 14 Energie Cottbus 29 7 8 14 30:48 -18 29 15 Arminia Bielefeld 29 7 7 15 27:52 -25 28 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Hansa Rostock (N) 29 7 6 16 25:41 -16 27 17 MSV Duisburg (N) 29 7 4 18 28:43 -15 25 18 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 28 5 8 15 30:46 -16 23 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 29
Just a week-and-a-half ago, Hoffenheim was the toast of the 2.Liga. They still are, but it turn out to be just burnt, not champagne. They lost again, this time to red hot St.Pauli, and are barely holding on to the 3rd promotion spot. While, Gladbach continues to sail home, Köln missed a chance to improve their goal difference, which could be worth an extra point in a tight promotion race. Mainz and Fürth keep pace, but Freiburg suffers a severe setback. On the bottom, Kaiserslautern took their last chance to hop on the non-relegation bus, although they still have a steep climb. Aue and Jena look to join Paderborn in going down for sure. 1860's win over Wehen finally ended the Lions worries of getting dragged into the relegation mire.
1. FC Kaiserslautern - FC Augsburg 2:0 (2:0) 20,067 (Bohl, Simpson) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - SC Paderborn 07 6:1 (2:0) 19,000 (Borja 3, Blajak, Feulner, Amri - Damjanovic) 1. FC Köln - VfL Osnabrück 2:0 (2:0) 40,000 (Helmes, Antar) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Borussia M'gladbach 2:2 (2:0) 13,486 (Schied 2 - Colautti 2) TuS Koblenz - SC Freiburg 3:2 (1:1) 8,940 (Djokaj 2, Kuqi - Glockner, Idrissou) Alemannia Aachen - Erzgebirge Aue 1:0 (0:0) 18,366 (Plasshenrich) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Kickers Offenbach 2:1 (1:0) 7,000 (Biliskov, Nehrig - Agritis) FC St. Pauli - TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 3:1 (1:1) 20,017 (Ludwig, Eger, Gunesch - Jaissle) TSV 1860 München - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2:1 (1:0) 21,500 (Thorandt, Bierofka - Schwarz) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 29 15 11 3 54:30 +24 56 2 1. FC Köln 29 14 8 7 51:36 +15 50 3 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 29 14 8 7 45:35 +10 50 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 29 13 10 6 53:30 +23 49 5 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 29 13 8 8 47:36 +11 47 6 SC Freiburg 29 12 10 7 40:37 +3 46 7 Alemannia Aachen (A) 29 11 9 9 41:39 +2 42 8 TuS Koblenz 29 10 10 9 36:38 -2 40 9 FC St. Pauli (N) 29 10 9 10 42:41 +1 39 10 TSV 1860 München 29 9 11 9 37:35 +2 38 11 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 29 9 10 10 42:46 -4 37 12 FC Augsburg 29 9 7 13 34:41 -7 34 13 VfL Osnabrück (N) 29 9 7 13 37:50 -13 34 14 Kickers Offenbach 29 8 10 11 34:47 -13 34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 29 6 11 12 27:32 -5 29 16 Erzgebirge Aue 29 6 8 15 36:47 -11 26 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 29 6 8 15 41:54 -13 26 18 SC Paderborn 07 29 4 11 14 23:46 -23 23 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Bundesliga, Round 28
At least at the top, this was a week of "bitch-slapping". The clubs that want to go places put in some impressive performances, treating rivals as, well, you get the picture.
Bayern showed who's the boss, as they annihilated rivals Dortmund. A few years ago, the Neons were a serious threat to Bayern's German hegemony, but no more, and this match clearly demonstrated that. The leaders came out breathing fire, and the match was over in less than 20 minutes. The only question mark is whether perhaps Dortmund was playing possum, as they face Bayern in the Cup final next week. If that was the case, the Neons must have really been playing "hide the baloney", as they got their asses kicked.
Bremen destroyed Schalke in a rout that should have never happened. The sold out Weserstadion fans were treated to a thrilling match, and the difference was the deadly finishing of the Werder forwards. Like midweek in the Champions League against Barcelona, Schalke dominated the proceedings early, but disgracefully wasted chance after chance. This would be the pattern of the game. Schalke wasting, Bremen executing. Perhaps the only positive thing for the Blues is that head coach Mirko Slomka threw in the towel afterwards, although they might consider firing their forwards instead.
A huge awy win for a battling Duisburg squad, as they stunned Hamburg away. GK Tom Starke was brilliant, and as usual, HSV had no clue in front of goal. The Hamburgers need to be concerned that they don't just worry about the Champions League; they could fall out of a UEFA spot.
Leverkusen has been struggling, and defending champ Stuttgart has been on a roll. So you know what's coming. Another bitch-slapping! But the surprise is that it was the Aspirins wielding the whip. The match was actually pretty even, but Bayer took their chances and end up with a huge win.
A critical relegation battle was hard fought, but neither Cottbus nor Bielefeld showed much skill. Arminia hoped to get a point by defending in catenaccio style, but they then conceded a handball penalty. Then it was Energie's turn to catenaccio, and Arminia ran around aimlessly. A huge win for Cottbus, who are seriously looking at staying up.
Rostock also had a huge win, as they travelled to fading surprise team Karlsruhe, and came away with all the points. KSC probably should have decided the match in the 1st half, but Hansa grimly held on, and then started to dominate in the 2nd half. The final result was that they got a huge away win.
Nürnberg will curse, as they led 1-0 in a critical match, but the pouring rain and turned the pitch into a Schlammwüste, reminiscent of the bogs. Despite a long delay by the grounds crew to try and salvage the pitch, the ref reluctantly called the match.
An odd match in Hannover. Frankfurt looked the better team, and when Pinto got his ass tossed after an hour, they surely looked to win. But the 96ers showed great spirit, fighting for every ball, and were rewarded with a winner in the last minute.
Bochum and Hertha delivered a ho-hum match, and the Berliners probably could have got the win. But they're unambitious and satisfied with an away point.
Team of the Week: too many candidates: Bayer, Leverkusen, Cottbus, Duisburg, Rostock
Turd of the Weak: Basically either Schalke or HSV
Attendance: 290,127 (avg 36,266), 24 goals --- 8 matches only
1. FC Nürnberg - VfL Wolfsburg -:- (:) canceled, unplayable surface, Werder Bremen - FC Schalke 04 5:1 (2:1) 42,100 (Klasnic 2, Baumann, Sanogo, Rosenberg - Kuranyi) VfL Bochum - Hertha BSC 1:1 (1:1) 20,388 (Yahia - Skacel) Energie Cottbus - Arminia Bielefeld 1:0 (0:0) 16,103 (Skela) Hannover 96 - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:1 (1:1) 38,104 (Pinto, Schulz - Russ) Karlsruher SC - Hansa Rostock 1:2 (0:1) 27,714 (Freis - Bartels 2) Hamburger SV - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:0) 54,218 (Grlic) Bayer Leverkusen - VfB Stuttgart 3:0 (2:0) 22,500 (Rolfes 2, Kiessling) Bayern München - Borussia Dortmund 5:0 (4:0) 69,000 (Toni 2, Podolski, Zé Roberto, Ottl) 1 FC Bayern München 28 17 9 2 52:16 +36 60 2 Werder Bremen 28 15 5 8 60:40 +20 50 3 FC Schalke 04 28 13 9 6 42:31 +11 48 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Bayer Leverkusen 28 14 5 9 50:30 +20 47 5 Hamburger SV 28 12 11 5 37:21 +16 47 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 VfB Stuttgart (M) 28 14 3 11 45:43 +2 45 7 VfL Wolfsburg 27 12 7 8 45:38 +7 43 8 Eintracht Frankfurt 28 11 9 8 34:36 -2 42 9 Karlsruher SC (N) 28 10 8 10 31:36 -5 38 10 Hannover 96 28 10 8 10 40:46 -6 38 11 VfL Bochum 28 8 10 10 42:45 -3 34 12 Borussia Dortmund 28 9 7 12 41:50 -9 34 13 Hertha BSC Berlin 28 9 6 13 30:36 -6 33 14 Energie Cottbus 28 7 8 13 30:43 -13 29 15 Hansa Rostock (N) 28 7 6 15 24:39 -15 27 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 MSV Duisburg (N) 28 7 4 17 28:42 -14 25 17 Arminia Bielefeld 28 6 7 15 26:52 -26 25 18 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 27 5 8 14 30:43 -13 23 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 28
This may have been a decisive week for some of the clubs. First, leaders Gladbach romped home easily against Fürth and look to have accomplished their goal of bouncing straight back up to the Bundesliga. 5 pts clear at the top isn't much, but 9 points on a promotion spot is huge at this stage.
This was also a defining week in the relegation battle: the clubs below the drop-line failed to produce, but their rivals above all got wins. At this point, an 8 point gap from safety has opened, and this will be very difficult to overcome. Augsburg, Osnabrück and Offenbach all got huge wins, and that should be just about enough to keep them up. The implication is that Kaiserslautern, one of Germany's most famous clubs, is facing a drop to the new 3.Liga. (Well, at least this new league is national, and FCK is spared the disgrace of a regional league, which they haven't seen since the 1950s pre-Bundesliga era).
Hoffenheim lost for the 1st time in 14 matches, as Aachen showed they still have some bite. Köln struggled at bottom club Paderborn, but cling to the 3rd promotion spot. Also worth mentioning is St.Pauli's nice away win effectively ends any fears the Hamburgers had of relegation.
Attendance: 127,924 (avg 14,214), 23 goals
FC Augsburg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:1 (1:1) 14,694 (Szabics, Benschneider - Baljak) Erzgebirge Aue - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:0 (0:0) 12,700 SC Paderborn 07 - 1. FC Köln 2:2 (1:1) 8,954 (Bogovac, Löbe - Helmes, Antar) VfL Osnabrück - TuS Koblenz 2:0 (1:0) 12,000 (de Wit, Frommer) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - FC St. Pauli 1:3 (0:0) 10,606 (Diakité - Rothenbach, Boll, Schulz) TSG 1899 Hoffenheim - Alemannia Aachen 1:2 (0:0) 5,830 (Herdling - Nemeth, Ebbers) Borussia M'gladbach - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 3:0 (1:0) 37,032 (Marin 2, Neuville) Kickers Offenbach - 1860 München 2:0 (1:0) 12,058 (Johnson, Türker) SC Freiburg - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 2:0 (1:0) 14,050 (Idroussou, Butscher) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 28 15 10 3 52:28 +24 55 2 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 28 14 8 6 44:32 +12 50 3 1. FC Köln 28 13 8 7 49:36 +13 47 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 28 12 10 6 47:29 +18 46 5 SC Freiburg 28 12 10 6 38:34 +4 46 6 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 28 12 8 8 45:35 +10 44 7 Alemannia Aachen (A) 28 10 9 9 40:39 +1 39 8 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 28 9 10 9 41:44 -3 37 9 TuS Koblenz 28 9 10 9 33:36 -3 37 10 FC St. Pauli (N) 28 9 9 10 39:40 -1 36 11 TSV 1860 München 28 8 11 9 35:34 +1 35 12 FC Augsburg 28 9 7 12 34:39 -5 34 13 VfL Osnabrück (N) 28 9 7 12 37:48 -11 34 14 Kickers Offenbach 28 8 10 10 33:45 -12 34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 28 5 11 12 25:32 -7 26 16 Erzgebirge Aue 28 6 8 14 36:46 -10 26 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 28 6 7 15 39:52 -13 25 18 SC Paderborn 07 28 4 11 13 22:40 -18 23 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Oberliga Review
Mercifully for our readers, my last Oberliga profile. The venerable Bayernliga, the top Bavarian amateur league is on the table. (Please ignore the wise guys who suggest that 1860 München is Bavaria's top amateur team).
The top 4 clubs go into the new Regionalliga Süd, the new 4th division. The bottom 2 drop into their local leagues, 3rd from bottom is in a playoff. The rest will probably end up in another Bayernliga, now a 5th division. The Oberliga Bayern is made up of mostly overgrown village clubs, but there are a couple of "traditional names" to be foud if you look hard enough. Bayreuth is going up, so perhaps that will put them on the map instead of that singing festival where Brunhilde belts out Valkyrie songs. The saddest story is Bayern Hof, which was once a top 25 club, and is now going to disappear into something like the Oberunterundherumfrankenliga. Schweinfurt has a great name, but little else, and are barely hanging on.
Oberliga Bayern 1 SpVgg Bayreuth 25 14 8 3 46:19 +27 50 2 SpVgg Greuther Fürth II 25 15 2 8 48:23 +25 47 3 1. FC Nürnberg II 26 13 6 7 41:25 +16 45 4 TSV Großbardorf 24 12 6 6 43:21 +22 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 TSG Thannhausen (N) 26 12 5 9 37:29 +8 41 6 1. FC Eintracht Bamberg 25 11 5 9 37:34 +3 38 7 FC Ismaning 24 9 10 5 41:37 +4 37 8 SpVgg Weiden 25 11 4 10 34:32 +2 37 9 FC Memmingen 24 9 8 7 32:30 +2 35 10 Würzburger FV 25 8 8 9 31:36 -5 32 11 TSV Aindling 24 8 7 9 18:20 -2 31 12 SpVgg Ansbach (N) 25 8 6 11 32:37 -5 30 13 SpVgg Unterhaching II 22 7 5 10 27:30 -3 26 14 1. FC Bad Kötzting 25 5 10 10 31:42 -11 25 15 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 (N) 24 7 4 13 26:48 -22 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 SV Heimstetten 26 5 8 13 23:39 -16 23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17 FC Kempten (N) 25 5 8 12 20:41 -21 23 18 SpVgg Bayern Hof 26 5 8 13 26:50 -24 23 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Bundesliga, Round 27
The title race seems officially over now, with an amazing performance by leaders Bayern, and the stumble of Hamburg. München showed why they'll win another title. Bochum grabbed an early lead, and were then blessed further when Mark Van Bommel had yet another brain-fart and got his ass tossed. So after 30 minutes, FCB was losing and a man short. But they continued to play, and Bochum couldn't take any advantage. Indeed, they dicked around and ended up losing. If you win games like this, you're probably unstoppable, and a 9 point lead at this point is looking pretty good.
Bremen got on track in the opening seconds of the match, but only a few minutes later, had to take an equalizer from Hertha. However, a large Berlin crowd had to endure long stretches of Werder's domination, and the visitors eventually took home a deserved win. Hertha doesn't have to worry about relegation, and they don't have to worry about Europe either. In fact, their nothing-season is an accurate reflection of their play this year.
Stuttgart continues their revival, and the defending champs can actually dream about a potential Champions League berth. That was dreaming the impossible dream a few weeks ago, but they've been red hot since the winterbreak, and now are only a couple of points behind HSV. Hamburg actually put in a decent performance, as they controlled the 2nd half, but were unable to equalize. Frankly, their offensive "firepower" is more suited to a club fighting relegation than the championship.
Schalke gave ample evidence why they suck way too often. They should have been lighting it up against a crap Rostock squad, which hardly looked like they were interested in fighting relegation. Instead, a lone goal, and then they dicked around and left it to the referee, who saved their asses by denying Hansa a penalty in injury time. Surely the loyal Schalke fans (the umpteenth sold-out match) deserve better? As for Hansa, everyone says that "their home form will decide whether they stay up or not." Well, at least they did run around a bit...
Wolfsburg squared off in a northern derby against Hannover, and both clubs delivered in an exciting match. Wolfsburg was a bit more fortunate, and take home the points, which continues their hope for a UEFA spot. Hannover was somewhat unlucky, and end up with empty hands.
An injury time goal by Dede pretty much ends any fears - albeit small - Dortmund had about relegation, and may have sunk Leverkusen into despair. The Aspirins were riding high, but now they've dropped something like 4 in a row, at least if you count their disgraceful home loss to St.Petersburg in the UEFA Cup. However, it was not for lack of effort, as they fought a hard battle with Borussia, and had the lead until a wild desperate finish by Dortmund in thelast 5 minutes grabbed all the points.
The biggest match of the day might have been the huge relegation 6 pointer in Duisburg. Cottbus grabbed an early lead and then went into a discplined defensive shell. Duisburg had no clue to break it down, and if they go down, they may well look to this match as being decisive. For Energie, their 1st away win, and their fighting spirit continues in their remarkable turnaround from the dumps.
Nürnberg's fans almost cost "der Club" their best performance of the season. Away against a reasonably strong Frankfurt squad, Nürnberg was doing well. In fact, their travelling fans must have been so excited, they got carried away and started tossing firebombs onto the field, which led to the game being interrupted for over 20 minutes while the police charged into the stands. Obviously, there must be a significant number of retards here, as they could have easily cost their club the points. As it was, a crucial win in Nürnberg's struggle to avoid the drop. Frankfurt could try to protest, but probably nothing will come of it.
A huge win for Bielefeld, who are hoping that they they woke up int time. They attacked furiously against Karlsruhe, whose GK Markus Miller was stopping everything in sight. Ironically, in injury time, Miller gifted Arminia the goal, as his lame clearance was immediately put back in. A lucky win for Bielefeld, but beggars can't be choosy.
Team of the Week: probably Cottbus, honorable mention to Bayern
Turd of the Weak: Hertha was lame. Schalke played bad enough, but they won, so I guess not...
Attendance: 439,868 (avg 48,872), 23 goals
MSV Duisburg - Energie Cottbus 0:1 (0:1) 24,016 (Skela) Hertha BSC Berlin - Werder Bremen 1:2 (1:1) 59,728 (André Lima - Rosenberg, Borowski) Eintracht Frankfurt - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:3 (1:1) 51,500 (Fink - Charisteas, Vittek, Misimovic) VfB Stuttgart - Hamburger SV 1:0 (1:0) 55,800 (Hilbert) VfL Wolfsburg - Hannover 96 3:2 (2:1) 29,322 (Dejagah 2, Marcelinho - Bruggink, Stajner) Arminia Bielefeld - Karlsruher SC 1:0 (0:0) 19,600 (Kampantais) FC Schalke 04 - Hansa Rostock 1:0 (0:0) 61,482 (Halil Altintop) Borussia Dortmund - Bayer Leverkusen 2:1 (0:0) 69,400 (Frei, Dede - Kiessling) Bayern München - VfL Bochum 3:1 (1:1) 69,000 (Lucio, Ribery, Lell - Azaouagh) 1 FC Bayern München 27 16 9 2 47:16 +31 57 2 FC Schalke 04 27 13 9 5 41:26 +15 48 3 Hamburger SV 27 12 11 4 37:20 +17 47 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Werder Bremen 27 14 5 8 55:39 +16 47 5 VfB Stuttgart (M) 27 14 3 10 45:40 +5 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Bayer Leverkusen 27 13 5 9 47:30 +17 44 7 VfL Wolfsburg 27 12 7 8 45:38 +7 43 8 Eintracht Frankfurt 27 11 9 7 33:34 -1 42 9 Karlsruher SC (N) 27 10 8 9 30:34 -4 38 10 Hannover 96 27 9 8 10 38:45 -7 35 11 Borussia Dortmund 27 9 7 11 41:45 -4 34 12 VfL Bochum 27 8 9 10 41:44 -3 33 13 Hertha BSC Berlin 27 9 5 13 29:35 -6 32 14 Energie Cottbus 27 6 8 13 29:43 -14 26 15 Arminia Bielefeld 27 6 7 14 26:51 -25 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Hansa Rostock (N) 27 6 6 15 22:38 -16 24 17 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 27 5 8 14 30:43 -13 23 18 MSV Duisburg (N) 27 6 4 17 27:42 -15 22 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 27
The good old days in Köln for the Rheinderby against Gladbach. A sold out house, and plenty of excitement. Unfortunately, most of it off the pitch. The Köln fans waved around a giant Gladbach flag that they had "liberated", and the Gladbachers went nuts, firing rockets onto the pitch, endangering players and officials. Gladbach had taken the lead, but in injury time, Köln was gifted a point by the ref. Brouwers chopped down Novakovic and got his ass tossed. Although it was clearly outside the penalty box, the ref decided that the Gladbacher fans had behaved like animals, so he gave Köln a penalty anyway.
Meanwhile, nobody can stop Hoffenheim, as they won against staring-relegation-in-the-face-Lautern. The sad day of headlines such as "Red Devils in massive 3.Liga match!" seems to be just aroud the corner. How is this possible?
Mainz grabs the coveted 3rd spot (for this week), as they thumped Wehen, who have run out of gas.Greuther Fürth remains in the hunt as well with a couple of late goals against crap 1860.
St.Pauli probably banished any thoughts of the drop as they stunningly blasted Freiburg 5-0. Offenbach also got a nice point in Koblenz. Jena seems to have taken their last gasp chance to heart, and dispatched hopeless Paderborn to actually reawaken some chance of survival.
Attendance: 182,569 (avg 20,285), 26 goals
SpVgg Greuther Fürth - 1860 München 3:1 (1:1) 10,600 (Reisinger 2, Cidimar - Bierofka) TuS Koblenz - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (0:1) 9,640 (Vata - Agritis) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:2 (0:0) 26,720 (Carlos Eduardo, Obasi) FC St. Pauli - SC Freiburg 5:0 (3:0) 21,017 (Trojan, Schnitzler 2, Eger, Kuru) FC Augsburg - Erzgebirge Aue 1:1 (0:1) 15,123 (Thurk, Orahovac) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - SC Paderborn 07 3:0 (1:0) 10,112 (Allagui, Simak, Werner) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 3:0 (2:0) 20,300 (Hoogland, Karhan, Gunkel) Alemannia Aachen - VfL Osnabrück 3:0 (0:0) 18,683 (Milchraum, Nemeth, Brinkmann) 1. FC Köln - Borussia M'gladbach 1:1 (0:1) 50,374 (Helmes - Rösler) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 27 14 10 3 49:28 +21 52 2 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 27 14 8 5 43:30 +13 50 3 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 27 12 10 5 46:27 +19 46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Köln 27 13 7 7 47:34 +13 46 5 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 27 12 8 7 45:32 +13 44 6 SC Freiburg 27 11 10 6 36:34 +2 43 7 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 27 9 10 8 40:41 -1 37 8 TuS Koblenz 27 9 10 8 33:34 -1 37 9 Alemannia Aachen (A) 27 9 9 9 38:38 0 36 10 TSV 1860 München 27 8 11 8 35:32 +3 35 11 FC St. Pauli (N) 27 8 9 10 36:39 -3 33 12 FC Augsburg 27 8 7 12 32:38 -6 31 13 VfL Osnabrück (N) 27 8 7 12 35:48 -13 31 14 Kickers Offenbach 27 7 10 10 31:45 -14 31 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 27 5 10 12 25:32 -7 25 16 Erzgebirge Aue 27 6 7 14 36:46 -10 25 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 27 6 7 14 39:50 -11 25 18 SC Paderborn 07 27 4 10 13 20:38 -18 22 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Oberliga Review
It should hardly shock when mentioning that the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg consists of clubs from the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. While most of the interest surrounds the big clubs VfB Stuttgart, Karlsruher SC and elevator SC Freiburg, there is a vibrant small town participation in the lower leagues as well.
There are a few well known faces in the current Oberliga BW. Ulm and Waldhof were at one time in the Bundesliga, indeed the latter had a decent run there. Both have fallen on hard-times, Ulm's 1999 appearance in the top flight led to a complete financial meltdown, and they've been struggling to recover ever since. But things appear to be looking up for one of Germany's oldest sporting clubs. Waldhof was usually 2nd or top flight from the mid 1970s until the early 2000s, and at least appear to have stopped the rot as well. Villingen is a fairly well-know regional amateur club in these parts, but don't look to have the strength to go to the new 4th division. The saddest story is probbaly with Waldhof's city rival, VfR Mannheim. The 1949 German champion had overcome decades of total obscurity when they entered into an ill-fated semi-merger with Waldhof in 2002. That went over like the proverbial turd in a punch bowl. They've really struggled ever since, and their "reward" appears to be total obscurity in division 6. Most of the other clubs that probably even people living in those towns have never heard of. But the next "miracle dwarf" is probably not too far behind. Hell, even I had barely heard of Hoffenheim, and who's laughing now?
Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 1 SC Freiburg II 24 18 2 4 48:22 +26 56 2 SSV Ulm 1846 24 14 6 4 37:13 +24 48 3 SV Waldhof Mannheim 24 14 6 4 36:18 +18 48 4 1. FC Heidenheim 23 14 4 5 44:21 +23 46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 TSV Crailsheim 24 14 5 5 47:25 +22 45 6 FC Astoria Walldorf (N) 23 13 6 4 46:27 +19 45 7 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim II 24 12 7 5 38:26 +12 43 8 FC 08 Villingen 23 12 5 6 45:26 +19 41 9 1. FC Normannia Gmünd 24 11 6 7 35:29 +6 39 10 SG Sonnenhof Großaspach 24 8 6 10 23:22 +1 30 11 FC Nöttingen 24 7 9 8 35:35 0 30 12 SGV Freiberg 24 6 7 11 35:36 -1 25 13 Bahlinger SC 24 5 4 15 24:48 -24 19 14 VfL Kirchheim/Teck (N) 24 4 6 14 23:49 -26 18 15 Stuttgarter Kickers II 23 5 2 16 27:53 -26 17 16 TSV Schwieberdingen (N) 24 4 5 15 27:62 -35 17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17 SV Linx (N) 24 4 2 18 23:55 -32 14 18 VfR Mannheim 24 3 4 17 22:48 -26 13 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Bundesliga, Round 26
This was not a week for the favorites! In fact, basically none of the top clubs were able to get a win, whereas the bottomfeeders all got positive results.
Nürnberg played one of their best games of the year. In a hotly contested Bavarian derby, they pushed leaders Bayern to the limit. Indeed it took a late goal by Lukas Podolski to salvage a point for the Müncheners. Although a draw was probably a fair result, it's unfortunate for Nürnberg that they couldn't pull off the upset, as they clearly need the points.
Bremen continues to fall apart, and they may have reached rock-bottom in front of a stunned Weserstadion crowd watch them go down in flames against Duisburg.
Karlsruhe outplayed Schalke for most of the match, but couldn't create enough chances to get the win. The visitors seemed happy to leave Karlsruhe with a point and concentrate on their upcoming Champions League clash with Barcelona.
Hannover and Stuttgart delivered a boring match that put everybody to sleep.
Struggling Bielfeld came up with a fine effort, and were almost rewarded with a stunning away win in Hamburg. Second place Hamburg was weak and without ideas, and were being outhustled by a determined Bielefeld. Then to make matters worse, HSV's Jarolim got his ass red-carded after 66 minutes, and soon after, Arminia took a deserved lead.
A wild match in the "mini-Revier" derby saw Bochum and Dortmund slug it out. Bochum has been in great form, and jumped out to a quick double goal lead in the first 10 minutes. Dortmund fought back to tie, and the clubs traded goals to finish out in the draw.
Leverkusen was stunned at home by Frankfurt. Despite controlling the match, the Aspirins needed a heavy dose of the parent bayer company product, as they were forced to watch Frankfurt steal the points.
Wolfsburg conntrolled the match at Rostock, but were unable to break through until injury time. Hansa was too lame to do anything about it. Meanwhile, fellow eastern clubs Cottbus and Berlin delivered an interesting match. And not surprisingly, it was relegation threatened Energie that delivered the more "energetic" performance, and they got a critical win.
Team of the Week: Duisburg, or any of the bottom clubs
Turd of the Weak: Bremen
Attendance: 306,670 (avg 34,074), 19 goals
Hansa Rostock - VfL Wolfsburg 0:1 (0:0) 15,000 (Krzynowek) Karlsruher SC - FC Schalke 04 0:0 (0:0) 29,477 1. FC Nürnberg - Bayern München 1:1 (1:0) 47,000 (Misimovic - Podolski) VfL Bochum - Borussia Dortmund 3:3 (3:2) 31,328 (Auer 2, Dabrowski - Kehl, Petric, Tinga) Hamburger SV - Arminia Bielefeld 1:1 (0:0) 56,398 (Guerrero - Bollmann) Bayer Leverkusen - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:2 (0:1) 22,500 (Kießling o.g., Mantzios) Werder Bremen - MSV Duisburg 1:2 (0:2) 39,615 (Diego - Grlic, Ishiaku) Hannover 96 - VfB Stuttgart 0:0 (0:0) 45,176 Energie Cottbus - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:1 (1:1) 20,176 (Skela 2 - Mineiro) 1 FC Bayern München 26 15 9 2 44:15 +29 54 2 Hamburger SV 26 12 11 3 37:19 +18 47 3 FC Schalke 04 26 12 9 5 40:26 +14 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Bayer Leverkusen 26 13 5 8 46:28 +18 44 5 Werder Bremen 26 13 5 8 53:38 +15 44 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 VfB Stuttgart (M) 26 13 3 10 44:40 +4 42 7 Eintracht Frankfurt 26 11 9 6 32:31 +1 42 8 VfL Wolfsburg 26 11 7 8 42:36 +6 40 9 Karlsruher SC (N) 26 10 8 8 30:33 -3 38 10 Hannover 96 26 9 8 9 36:42 -6 35 11 VfL Bochum 26 8 9 9 40:41 -1 33 12 Hertha BSC Berlin 26 9 5 12 28:33 -5 32 13 Borussia Dortmund 26 8 7 11 39:44 -5 31 14 Hansa Rostock (N) 26 6 6 14 22:37 -15 24 15 Energie Cottbus 26 5 8 13 28:43 -15 23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 MSV Duisburg (N) 26 6 4 16 27:41 -14 22 17 Arminia Bielefeld 26 5 7 14 25:51 -26 22 18 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 26 4 8 14 27:42 -15 20 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 26
Hoffenheim must be shopping around for a bigger arena. Their tiny Dietmar-Hopp-stadion is sold out, but hardly a venue for Bundesliga matches - and they have to be seriously contemplating that outcome. Meanwhile, gladbach continue their march to return to the top-flight. They pressed all day against a determined Koblenz, but it took an unlucky own-goal header in injury to get the win. But sometimes that's what you need, and at this point, there's nobody who believes that Gladbach isn't back headed up. A massive win by Köln, despite falling behind after only 2 minutes. This puts the Geisböcke in the coveted 3rd promotion spot.
This was a week for the bottom clubs. Aside from the massive relegation 6 pointer in Osnabrück, Jena and Paderborn take their last chances to save themselves. Jena stunned 1860 with an awy win, while Paderborn rolled a hapless St.Pauli squad. Aue faced down promotion hopeful Mainz, and probably should have got all 3 points.
Of course, the big match was the struggle between Osnabrück and Kaiserslautern. Suprisingly, it was rather a one-sided contest, as the hosts dominated. After taking the lead immediately after the half, VfL wrapped up a huge victory when the outstanding Pierre de Wit slalomed through the FCK defense and hammered home. Although they're not completely out of the woods yet, Osnabrück has one foot in safety. For FCK, this defeat prevents them from climbing out of the drop for the first time in ages.
Erzgebirge Aue - 1. FSV Mainz 05 3:3 (2:1) 11,500 (Paulus, Nemec, Müller - Gunkel, Karhan 2) SC Freiburg - Alemannia Aachen 1:0 (1:0) 16,200 (Jäger) TSG 1899 Hoffenheim - FC Augsburg 2:0 (0:0) 5,680 (Ibisevic 2) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:1 (1:0) 7,860 (Nicu - Achenbach) Kickers Offenbach - 1. FC Köln 1:3 (1:1) 16,646 (Judt - Antar, Helmes, Novakovic) Borussia M'gladbach - TuS Koblenz 1:0 (0:0) 38,830 (Bajic o.g.) TSV 1860 München - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1:2 (0:0) 38,100 (Göktan - Werner, Schied) SC Paderborn 07 - FC St. Pauli 4:1 (1:1) 9,022 (Löbe 2, Koen 2 - Kuru) VfL Osnabrück - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2:0 (0:0) 18,000 (Frommer, de Wit) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 26 14 9 3 48:27 +21 51 2 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 26 13 8 5 41:30 +11 47 3 1. FC Köln 26 13 6 7 46:33 +13 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 26 11 10 5 43:27 +16 43 5 SC Freiburg 26 11 10 5 36:29 +7 43 6 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 26 11 8 7 42:31 +11 41 7 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 26 9 10 7 40:38 +2 37 8 TuS Koblenz 26 9 9 8 32:33 -1 36 9 TSV 1860 München 26 8 11 7 34:29 +5 35 10 Alemannia Aachen (A) 26 8 9 9 35:38 -3 33 11 VfL Osnabrück (N) 26 8 7 11 35:45 -10 31 12 FC Augsburg 26 8 6 12 31:37 -6 30 13 FC St. Pauli (N) 26 7 9 10 31:39 -8 30 14 Kickers Offenbach 26 7 9 10 30:44 -14 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 26 5 10 11 25:30 -5 25 16 Erzgebirge Aue 26 6 6 14 35:45 -10 24 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 26 5 7 14 36:50 -14 22 18 SC Paderborn 07 26 4 10 12 20:35 -15 22 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Germany whips Swizterland
In a friendly tune-up for the Euro 2008 tournament, Germany had little trouble beating Switzerland 4-0. More details here.
Oberliga Review
Not surprisingly, the Oberliga Hessen consists of clubs from the central state of Hessen, although some of the clubs also come from the extreme northeast corner of Bayern (e.g. Aschaffenburg, Alzenau etc.). For league purposes, Hessen belongs to the southern region of German football. Generally the clubs are from villages or small towns, although every once in a while, you do get a big fish, or a small club from the big city.
The top 4 clubs will move up to the new 4th division Regionalliga Süd, and the bulk of the clubs will remain in the soon-to-be 5th division Oberliga. The bottom 2 clubs will automatically drop to their respective Landesliga, and the 16th club will playoff for the right to remain in the Oberliga.
The big fish this season is none other than ex-Bundesliga club SV Darmstadt, which has fallen on very hard times. From the late 70s-early 90s, they popped up in the Bundesliga twice, and were a regular fixture in the 2.Liga, and on a couple of occasions barely missed a return to the top flight. But things started going downhill, and in the last decade they've been bouncing between the 3rd/4th divisions. They were relegated from the Regionalliga last season, but seem to recovered at least on the pitch. They lead the league and look good money to qualify. Well, actually, it's not that simple. Darmstadt is bankrupt and basically in administration. So if the court appointed administrators can't figure out a way to straighten things out, this traditional club will be wound up and obviously not allowed to go up - indeed, although the members will undoubtedly "refound" the club, they would be lucky to only get dropped to the Landesliga...
The other clubs toiling in the Hessenliga are small fry, perhaps only Aschaffenburg and Baunatal have ever really made an excursion higher. In trouble now is Frankfurt's no.3 club, Rot-Weiss, which may be 6th division soon.
Oberliga Hessen 1 SV Darmstadt 98 (A) 24 15 5 4 56:28 +28 50 2 SV Wehen Wiesbaden II (N) 24 14 5 5 53:26 +27 47 3 Eintracht Frankfurt II 24 12 6 6 46:27 +19 42 4 KSV Baunatal 24 12 5 7 41:27 +14 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 SC Waldgirmes 24 12 4 8 42:44 -2 40 6 Viktoria Aschaffenburg 23 9 10 4 28:17 +11 37 7 TSG Wörsdorf 23 10 7 6 39:32 +7 37 8 Bayern Alzenau 24 11 3 10 37:36 +1 36 9 Borussia Fulda 23 8 8 7 36:28 +8 32 10 KSV Klein-Karben 24 8 6 10 42:45 -3 30 11 Eintracht Wetzlar (N) 24 7 5 12 19:31 -12 26 12 RSV Würges 24 7 5 12 25:40 -15 26 13 FSV Fernwald 24 6 7 11 32:45 -13 25 14 FSC Lohfelden (N) 24 7 3 14 25:45 -20 24 15 Buchonia Flieden 24 5 8 11 26:39 -13 23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Rot-Weiss Frankfurt (N) 24 6 5 13 31:45 -14 23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17 Germania Ober-Roden (N) 23 6 4 13 27:39 -12 22 18 1. FC Schwalmstadt 22 6 4 12 24:44 -20 22
Bundesliga, Round 25
Bayern was the big winner this week. They had a strong performance against in-form Leverkusen, dominating the match. However the Aspirins might have escaped with a point, due to very poor finishing, as Podolski and Klose wasted sitters. It was left to Luca Toni to once again pull Bayern into the win column, the two strikes putting the Italian at a league leading 16. bayern's win and HSV's stumble puts the Münchener back in control of the board, a comfortable 7 points up.
A northern derby was the occasion for one of Wolfsburg's seldom sell-outs. The match with Hamburg was fairly even, both sides creating chances. As befits a hard fought match, some players got carried away, and in the final 10 minutes, Madlung, Kompany, Grafite and Mathijsen all got their asses tossed. But then it just meant even 9-9 on the field, and 1-1 on the scoreboard.
Bielefeld has been the crap team of the season, once you remove their good start. However, they seemed to have woken up, and were somewhat unlucky not to take full points against a shockingly harmless Werder squad. A silly foul led to a late Bremen penalty that allowed them to escape with the points.
An important away win for Schalke in Berlin, where they have often have problems. The traditional bad-blood between the 2 clubs goes back to the mid 1960s, when the DFB shenanigans allowed Hertha to get relegated, but Schalke was saved by expansion. Very often the Blues have travelled to Berlin in a promising position, only to get their ass kicked and run home like a dog with his tail between his legs. This time, some cold-blooded finishing in the 1st half, then stout defending against the Hertha onslaught (for once not boring their fans with their "sleep-a-naccio") allowed them to bring home the bacon.
A rare Thursday start saw Frankfurt fend off Cottbus in a fierce clash. Energie gave the hosts all they could handle, taking the leading and then defending with everything. Credit to Eintracht that they didn't give up and basically willed themselves a deserved win.
In a wild 2nd half, Stuttgart overran feeble Rostock. The defending champs have been dicking around for most of the season, but now seem to be playing with purpose to at least qualify for UEFA next season. And they've been banging in the goals, all 5 in this match. It's probably not a good time to play VfB, because you could get seriously slapped.
Dortmund dominated the match against Karlsruhe, who hadn't won in the Westfalenstadion since 1986. But the Neons wasted all sorts of chances, and had only a measly goal to show for it. So they were dutifully punished and left to rue the dropped points.
A "must-win" relegation 6 pointer for Nürnberg against Bochum, but once again "der Club" showed why they're evidently too crap to stay up. Bochum has been a tough nut recently, and this week was no different. The match started furiously, with the clubs trading goals in the first 8 minutes. The 1st half remained tense and exciting, but the 2nd half was anything but. Bochum was satisfied with a point, and Nürnberg was too lame to do anything about it. So the fans got a nice pre-Easter nap, and have no excuse not to go to early service on Sunday...
If Duisburg go down, it will be because of matches like these. Having announced themselves back from the dead recently, the Zebras were practically gifted the match by Hannover. Mike Hanke got his ass red carded after only 5 minutes, so MSV basically had the whole match with a man advantage. Instead of trying to win, they kicked around aimlessly like drug-addicted homeless, and the 96ers stunned them by taking the lead. In the 2nd half, MSV woke up to the impending disgrace, but was only able to notch a single goal and split the points.
Team of the Week: probably Bayern
Turd of the Weak: none really, maybe Nürnberg
Attendance: 417,694 (avg 46,410), 24 goals
Eintracht Frankfurt - Energie Cottbus 2:1 (0:0) 45,100 (Caio, Russ - Rost) Bayern München - Bayer Leverkusen 2:1 (1:0) 69,000 (Toni 2 - Bulykin) VfL Wolfsburg - Hamburger SV 1:1 (0:1) 30,000 (Ljuboja - Reinhardt) 1. FC Nürnberg - VfL Bochum 1:1 (1:1) 43,547 (Misimovic - Sestak) MSV Duisburg - Hannover 96 1:1 (0:1) 20,747 (Lamey - Stajner) Borussia Dortmund - Karlsruher SC 1:1 (1:0) 74,300 (Petric - Freis) VfB Stuttgart - Hansa Rostock 4:1 (0:0) 48,000 (Gomez, Pardo, Cacau, Bastürk - Gomez o.g.) Hertha BSC Berlin - FC Schalke 04 1:2 (0:2) 60,000 (Chahed - Asamoah, Jones) Arminia Bielefeld - Werder Bremen 1:1 (1:0) 27,000 (Kirch - Diego) 1 FC Bayern München 25 15 8 2 43:14 +29 53 2 Hamburger SV 25 12 10 3 36:18 +18 46 3 Bayer Leverkusen 25 13 5 7 46:26 +20 44 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Werder Bremen 25 13 5 7 52:36 +16 44 5 FC Schalke 04 25 12 8 5 40:26 +14 44 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 VfB Stuttgart (M) 25 13 2 10 44:40 +4 41 7 Eintracht Frankfurt 25 10 9 6 30:31 -1 39 8 VfL Wolfsburg 25 10 7 8 41:36 +5 37 9 Karlsruher SC (N) 25 10 7 8 30:33 -3 37 10 Hannover 96 25 9 7 9 36:42 -6 34 11 VfL Bochum 25 8 8 9 37:38 -1 32 12 Hertha BSC Berlin 25 9 5 11 27:31 -4 32 13 Borussia Dortmund 25 8 6 11 36:41 -5 30 14 Hansa Rostock (N) 25 6 6 13 22:36 -14 24 15 Arminia Bielefeld 25 5 6 14 24:50 -26 21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Energie Cottbus 25 4 8 13 26:42 -16 20 17 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 25 4 7 14 26:41 -15 19 18 MSV Duisburg (N) 25 5 4 16 25:40 -15 19 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 25
Hoffenheim remains unbeaten in 2008, as they withstood the test in Mainz. The nobodies must be taken as a serious promotion candidate. Köln suffered at home against Wehen, but superb play by GK Mondragon preserved their win. The big loser was Greuther Fürth, who were upended by bottom feeder Jena. Last place Paderborn got their first road win of the season at a certainly disgusted Augsburg. In a significant match, Kaiserslautern failed to win a relegation 5 pointer against Offenbach.
Attendance: 176,040 (avg 19,560), 22 goals
FC Augsburg - SC Paderborn 07 0:1 (0:0) 15,119 (Müller) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Kickers Offenbach 1:1 (0:1) 31,473 (Demai - Sichone) FC St. Pauli - VfL Osnabrück 2:1 (1:0) 22,648 (Rothenbach, Cichon o.g. - Schuon) Erzgebirge Aue - SC Freiburg 2:2 (1:0) 10,500 (Orahovac, Nemec - Aogo 2) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:0 (1:0) 5,000 (Simak) TuS Koblenz - TSV 1860 München 3:1 (2:1) 10,800 (Thorandt o.g., Berhalter o.g., Hartmann - Göktan) 1. FC Köln - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2:1 (2:1) 40,000 (Antar, Vucicevic - Diakité) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 1:1 (0:0) 20,300 (Spilacek o.g. - Ba) Alemannia Aachen - Borussia M'gladbach 1:1 (1:0) 20,200 (Ebbers - Neuville) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 25 13 9 3 47:27 +20 48 2 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 25 12 8 5 39:30 +9 44 3 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 25 11 9 5 40:24 +16 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Köln 25 12 6 7 43:32 +11 42 5 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 25 11 7 7 41:30 +11 40 6 SC Freiburg 25 10 10 5 35:29 +6 40 7 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 25 9 9 7 39:37 +2 36 8 TuS Koblenz 25 9 9 7 32:32 0 36 9 TSV 1860 München 25 8 11 6 33:27 +6 35 10 Alemannia Aachen (A) 25 8 9 8 35:37 -2 33 11 FC Augsburg 25 8 6 11 31:35 -4 30 12 FC St. Pauli (N) 25 7 9 9 30:35 -5 30 13 Kickers Offenbach 25 7 9 9 29:41 -12 30 14 VfL Osnabrück (N) 25 7 7 11 33:45 -12 28 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 25 5 10 10 25:28 -3 25 16 Erzgebirge Aue 25 6 5 14 32:42 -10 23 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 25 4 7 14 34:49 -15 19 18 SC Paderborn 07 25 3 10 12 16:34 -18 19 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
DFB Pokal
FC Bayern München - VfL Wolfsburg 2:0 (0:0) 62,000 (Ribery, Klose) Borussia Dortmund - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 3:0 (1:0) 80,708 (Tinga, Klimowicz, Petric)There were no real surprises as both Bayern and Dortmund advanced to the finals. Although both matches were entertaining, in the end the superior team had little difficulty in winning.
Bayern, seeking it's 16th Cup final, dominated from the outset, but Swiss GK Diego Benaglio was sharp, and in general the VW defense was quite strong. Still, Bayern's dominance should have seen them take the lead, but their finishing was poor. Ironically, around the hour mark, it was two defensive lapses in the otherwise stout Wolfsburg defense that lead to the München goals, and the game was wrapped up.
Dortmund returns to the DFB-Pokalfinale for the first time in 19 years, and despite the scoreline, it wasn't as easy as you might think. The underdog Jena, soon to be relegated from the 2.Liga, had everything to play for, and came out confident and fighting. Initially, they tried to catenaccio their way, perhaps intimidated by the sold out crowd that certainly dwarfed anything the Easterners have seen. Dortmund pressured from the start, and broke through after only 13 minutes. After a few more miserable moments, when the Neons could have finished off their opponent, Jena finally decided to throw caution into the wind, opened up, and made it a game. Both sides had chances as until they went into the locker. However, the 2nd half proved to be a nightmare for Jena. And as has been the case often in his career, it was the flawed genius of Czech midfielder Jan Simak that was their undoing. Everyone knows he's a headcase, and after 50 minutes, he committed a foul. He then proceeded to whine and snivel until the ref had no choice but to book him. Instead of shutting his trap, he continued to berate the ref, so he got another yellow and his ass tossed. Dortmund then took control of the game and finished off the upstarts.
So the final in Berlin promises to be an attractive matchup. Early estimates have indicated that already 150,000 ticket requests are in, which is already double the significant Olympiastadion capacity. With Bayern having won 13/15 Cup finals they've participated in, you'd have to figure the'd be the favorites .
Oberliga Review
The southwest is traditionally one of the weaker conferences, but often has some interesting clubs. In the current setup, the SW will once again be combined with the western region into the Regionalliga West - the top 4 clubs get a spot. The bottom two clubs get relegated into their respective Verbandsliga. The Oberliga Südwest will actually remain, becoming the new 5th division.
The II squad of Mainz pretty much has a lock on one of the Regionalliga spots, and the remaining 3 spots are still open, but a slight gap is opening. Eintracht Trier was one of the more successful clubs in recent years, having a legendary DFB Cup run in the late 1990s that saw them eliminate UEFA Cup champion Schalke and Champions League winner Dortmund!! They also recently dabbled in the 2.Liga, and would be a good bet to make the cut. Worms is well known regionally, but that's about it. 1. FC Saarbrücken is one of the traditional flagships of the southwest, and has fallen on hardtimes. Once in the Bundesliga, they are now struggling to maintain 4th division status. Two further ex-Bundesliga clubs, Homburg and Neunkirchen, are on the verge of dropping. Among the remaining clubs, Pirmasens was once a regional power, now mired in mediocrity. Bad Kreuznach was usually a force in the old German amateur championships, but now would do extremely well to hang on to their Oberliga status.
Oberliga Südwest 1 1. FSV Mainz 05 II 22 16 3 3 56:12 +44 51 2 Eintracht Trier 22 12 8 2 38:18 +20 44 3 Wormatia Worms 22 14 2 6 40:24 +16 44 4 1. FC Saarbrücken (A) 22 12 5 5 50:24 +26 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 1. FC K'lautern II (A) 22 11 4 7 35:18 +17 37 6 FC 08 Homburg 22 10 6 6 38:29 +9 36 7 Borussia Neunkirchen 22 11 3 8 23:21 +2 36 8 SpVgg EGC Wirges 22 8 5 9 30:29 +1 29 9 SC Hauenstein 22 8 5 9 32:36 -4 29 10 FK Pirmasens (A) 22 8 5 9 30:35 -5 29 11 SV Roßbach/Wied (N) 22 7 7 8 28:33 -5 28 12 TuS Mechtersheim 21 8 4 9 34:45 -11 28 13 TuS Mayen 22 7 5 10 35:40 -5 26 14 Sportfreunde Köllerbach (N) 22 6 5 11 27:36 -9 23 15 SC Idar-Oberstein (N) 22 6 3 13 23:41 -18 21 16 Eintracht Bad Kreuznach 22 4 6 12 22:49 -27 18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17 FV Engers 22 5 1 16 21:46 -25 16 18 Rot-Weiß Hasborn 21 5 1 15 20:46 -26 16
Bundesliga, Round 24
A stunning result in Cottbus. Bayern are beaten. Energie had lost the match in München 0-5, and in fact hadn't managed a point or even a goal against Bayern at home since 2001. But with the Stadion der Freundschaft packed, Energie played their match of the season, and climbed out of the drop zone. Meanwhile, Bayern blew a chance to maintain or extend their lead at the top, and disappointed across the board. Obviously Cottbus lacked technical skill, but the players fought for every ball, and never stopped running. Bayern basically wanted to go home and not get their jersies dirty.
Bremen could have got back into the race, as they faced Wolfsburg in a northern derby. However, the VWs were well prepared. They played solid defensive football, and their blitz counterattacks from Brazilians Marcelinho and Grafite caused chaos in the Werder defense. Meanwhile, the Bremen attack was shooting blanks, and their few chances were snuffed out. In the end, a deserved win for Wolfsburg.
Hamburg took advantage of Bayern's slip to creep closer. HSV dominated against Dortmund, creating lots of chances, but then after Guerrero's strike, withdrew into a defensive shell. But the visitors had no clue, and HSV kept all the points.
Leverkusen basically sucked in the 1st half against a crap Nürnberg squad. The guests certainly had dreams of an important away point as they went into the locker rooms at half. But Bayer obviously dosed on Alka-Seltzer and aspirin, and came out storming, basically kicking Nürnberg's ass. Perhaps the result was a bit unfair to "der Club", but in the end, they were deservedly well beaten.
Schalke had a rough time in a Ruhr-derby with Duisburg. MSV fought hard and took the lead, and Schalke had to struggle to get back and win the match.
Two in-form teams met in Bochum, unbeaten in 7 straight matches in the rewirpowerSTADION. Stuttgart had perhaps a slight edge, but in the end, a draw was a fair result.
A nice win for Frankfurt against a surprisingly weak Karlsruhe squad. Eintracht dominated and could have added additional goals.
Not surprisingly, the northeast derby between Rostock and Berlin was basically a snoozer. Neither team looked like they wanted to win the match, and the fans basically were treated to an afternoon nap.
Bielfeld finally got a good result - and ironically, it wasn't enough, as they drop into the relegation zone. Arminia outplayed their hosts in the first half, but in the 2nd, Hannover came back strong and pressured, getting a deserved point. After their promising early seasons, both clubs have slid down the table, but obviously Arminia's collapse has much more dire consequences.
Team of the Week: Cottbus
Turd of the Weak: Bayern, for their lame (non)performance
Attendance: 315,144 (avg 35,016), 19 goals
FC Schalke 04 - MSV Duisburg 2:1 (0:1) 61,482 (Kuranyi, Westermann - Georgiev) VfL Bochum - VfB Stuttgart 1:1 (1:0) 25,086 (Dabrowski - Hitzlsperger) Energie Cottbus - Bayern München 2:0 (2:0) 22,743 (Jelic 2) Hamburger SV - Borussia Dortmund 1:0 (0:0) 57,000 (Guerrero) Hansa Rostock - Hertha BSC 0:0 (0:0) 22,500 Hannover 96 - Arminia Bielefeld 2:2 (1:2) 35,104 (Bruggink, Stajner - Mijatovic, Eigler) Karlsruher SC - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:1 (0:1) 29,348 (Fink) Bayer Leverkusen - 1. FC Nürnberg 4:1 (1:1) 22,500 (Haggui, Glauber, Gekas, Kiessling - Misimovic) Werder Bremen - VfL Wolfsburg 0:1 (0:0) 39,381 (Grafite) 1 FC Bayern München 24 14 8 2 41:13 +28 50 2 Hamburger SV 24 12 9 3 35:17 +18 45 3 Bayer Leverkusen 24 13 5 6 45:24 +21 44 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Werder Bremen 24 13 4 7 51:35 +16 43 5 FC Schalke 04 24 11 8 5 38:25 +13 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 VfB Stuttgart (M) 24 12 2 10 40:39 +1 38 7 VfL Wolfsburg 24 10 6 8 40:35 +5 36 8 Eintracht Frankfurt 24 9 9 6 28:30 -2 36 9 Karlsruher SC (N) 24 10 6 8 29:32 -3 36 10 Hannover 96 24 9 6 9 35:41 -6 33 11 Hertha BSC Berlin 24 9 5 10 26:29 -3 32 12 VfL Bochum 24 8 7 9 36:37 -1 31 13 Borussia Dortmund 24 8 5 11 35:40 -5 29 14 Hansa Rostock (N) 24 6 6 12 21:32 -11 24 15 Energie Cottbus 24 4 8 12 25:40 -15 20 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Arminia Bielefeld 24 5 5 14 23:49 -26 20 17 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 24 4 6 14 25:40 -15 18 18 MSV Duisburg (N) 24 5 3 16 24:39 -15 18 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 24
Gladbach had a rough match with St.Pauli, but prevailed to stay secure at the top. The sensation remains promoted Hoffenheim. FC SAP won their 7th in a row, inflicting Aue's 11th straight away defeat. The Hoffeheimers have now moved into the promotion spot, much to the chagrin of Bundesliga financial officers. Hoffenheim's 6,500 capacity stadium is unlikely to get them all excited. Not only that, they could do a "Gretna" if their main sponsor ever gets bored. Mainz failed get maximum points against the toothless Lions of 1860. But they are certainly happier than Greuther Fürth, who were stunned at home 3 minutes into injury time by the nobodies from Koblenz. Freiburg got their "must-win" against Köln to get back in striking distance.
A huge away victory for Kaiserslautern allows hope to re-appear for the struggling Red Devils. A loss would have just about sunk the ship. After their loss at Offenbach, Jena joins hapless Paderborn in booking a ticket to the 3.Bundesliga. The only thing the Easterners care about is upcoming Tuesday, when they get a big payday against Dortmund in the semi-finals of the DFB-Cup. And of course a sensational win there would not only mean their first final, but potentially an automatic UEFA Cup spot - as Bayern will be a likely finalist!
Attendance: 163,440 (avg 18,160), 14 goals
SC Paderborn 07 - Alemannia Aachen 0:1 (0:1) 5,022 (Herzig) SV Wehen Wiesbaden - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:2 (0:2) 11,162 (König, Ziemer) Kickers Offenbach - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 2:1 (1:0) 9,258 (Bancé 2 - Torghelle) TSV 1860 München - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:1 (0:0) 39,000 (Berhalter - Baljak) VfL Osnabrück - FC Augsburg 0:2 (0:1) 12,800 (Thurk, Küntzel) TSG 1899 Hoffenheim - Erzgebirge Aue 1:0 (0:0) 5,780 (Ibisevic) SpVgg Greuther Fürth - TuS Koblenz 0:1 (0:0) 9,500 (Richter) Borussia M'gladbach - FC St. Pauli 1:0 (0:0) 48,418 (Friend) SC Freiburg - 1. FC Köln 1:0 (0:0) 22,500 (Jäger) 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 24 13 8 3 46:26 +20 47 2 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 24 12 7 5 38:29 +9 43 3 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 24 11 8 5 39:23 +16 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 24 11 7 6 41:29 +12 40 5 1. FC Köln 24 11 6 7 41:31 +10 39 6 SC Freiburg 24 10 9 5 33:27 +6 39 7 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 24 9 9 6 38:35 +3 36 8 TSV 1860 München 24 8 11 5 32:24 +8 35 9 TuS Koblenz 24 8 9 7 29:31 -2 33 10 Alemannia Aachen (A) 24 8 8 8 34:36 -2 32 11 FC Augsburg 24 8 6 10 31:34 -3 30 12 Kickers Offenbach 24 7 8 9 28:40 -12 29 13 VfL Osnabrück (N) 24 7 7 10 32:43 -11 28 14 FC St. Pauli (N) 24 6 9 9 28:34 -6 27 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 1. FC Kaiserslautern 24 5 9 10 24:27 -3 24 16 Erzgebirge Aue 24 6 4 14 30:40 -10 22 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 24 3 7 14 33:49 -16 16 18 SC Paderborn 07 24 2 10 12 15:34 -19 16 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Bundesliga update
VfB Stuttgart seems to have played themselves into form. They were victorious 1-0 at Energie Cottbus on a header by Portuguese midfielder Fernando Meira in the 22nd minute. The 13,500 fans at the Stadion der Freundschaft in Cottbus saw energie fight hard, but the result was never in doubt, as Stuttgart controlled the match from start to finish. The defending champs have now moved into 6th place, 1 point behind Schalke and the corresponding automatic UEFA spots.
No bigger stadium for Werder
Rising costs have apparently put an end to Werder Bremen's plans to expand to a 3rd deck for the Weserstadion. Faced with a cost estimate increase of 60 million euros, in a very logical - yet un-football management like - move, the Werder directors decided not to go ahead with an expansion, which would have increased seating by about 8,000, boosting the Weserstadion to 50,000+. However, the fans are not totally being ignored. The club still plans to go ahead with modernization plans to turn it into a "pure football arena". And of course add some additional VIP boxes so the fat cats can thumb their noses at the real fans.
Oberliga Review
This week we take a look at the Oberliga Westfalen and Nordrhein. These two are combining to form the new 3rd division Regionalliga West, but have also decided to field a single combined Oberliga West as the new 5th division.
The Westfalen division features a couple of small clubs well known in regional football. Preußen Münster was a founding memeber of the Bundesliga in 1963, and a regular fixture in 2nd and 3rd division levels throughout the years. Both Westfalia Herne and SpVgg Erkenschwick have seen better days, but are hoping to sneak into one of the Regionalliga spots. FC Gütersloh 2000 is the continuation of a club that was well established in the 2.Liga until they basically went bankrupt.
The Oberliga Nordrhein contains one famous club: KFC Uerdingen (then known as Bayer Uerdingen) once won the DFB Cup (1984), made it to the semi-finals of the European Cup, and in 1985 finished as 3rd in the Bundesliga!! As it stands now, they would sink down into the 6th division. Schwarz-Weiß Essen hasn't been a force for decades, but they did have a moment of glory in winning the DFB-Cup in 1958. They currently stand a good chance of making it to the new 4th division Regionalliga. The only other club that is somewhat know would be Bonner SC, which represented the sleepy capital of West Germany until reunification. The club is as sleepy as the town, and has basically been invisible.
In both divisions, the unfortunate circumstance of "B" squads of Bundesliga teams dominating continues, and expect to see a couple in the Regionalliga.
OBERLIGA WESTFALEN 1 FC Schalke 04 II 23 15 3 5 39:19 +20 48 2 Preußen Münster 23 13 8 2 44:15 +29 47 3 VfL Bochum II 23 13 5 5 40:20 +20 44 4 Sportfreunde Lotte 22 9 10 3 44:28 +16 37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 Westfalia Herne 23 10 5 8 36:28 +8 35 6 SpVgg Erkenschwick 23 10 4 9 37:31 +6 34 7 Delbrücker SC 23 9 7 7 30:27 +3 34 8 FC Gütersloh 2000 23 9 7 7 31:29 +2 34 9 Hammer SpVgg 23 10 4 9 29:29 0 34 10 SV Schermbeck (N) 23 7 10 6 31:30 +1 31 11 Germania Gladbeck (N) 22 7 6 9 28:34 -6 27 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12 SV Lippstadt 08 23 8 3 12 28:37 -9 27 13 Sportfr. Oestrich-Iserlohn 23 7 6 10 29:47 -18 27 14 Arminia Bielefeld II 23 6 7 10 33:36 -3 25 15 FC Eintracht Rheine 23 6 7 10 23:30 -7 25 16 Rot-Weiss Ahlen II 23 6 6 11 24:37 -13 24 17 SC Wiedenbrück 2000 (N) 23 3 8 12 23:40 -17 17 18 TSG Sprockhövel (N) 23 1 8 14 14:46 -32 11 OBERLIGA NORDRHEIN 1 Bayer Leverkusen II (A) 23 15 5 3 44:20 +24 50 2 Borussia M'gladbach II (A) 23 13 4 6 56:31 +25 43 3 Schwarz-Weiß Essen 23 12 6 5 29:20 +9 42 4 1. FC Kleve 23 12 5 6 34:24 +10 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 1. FC Köln II 23 11 5 7 31:20 +11 38 6 SSVg Velbert 22 10 6 6 29:28 +1 36 7 Fortuna Düsseldorf II (N) 23 10 3 10 31:31 0 33 8 Bonner SC 23 9 4 10 31:30 +1 31 9 Alemannia Aachen II 23 8 7 8 26:26 0 31 10 TuRU Düsseldorf 23 8 7 8 25:29 -4 31 11 Germania Dattenfeld (N) 23 8 6 9 26:25 +1 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12 Wuppertaler SV Bor. II 23 8 5 10 37:43 -6 29 13 MSV Duisburg II 23 7 6 10 50:46 +4 27 14 KFC Uerdingen 05 22 7 6 9 36:42 -6 27 15 VfB Homberg 23 6 7 10 25:37 -12 25 16 Bergisch Gladbach 09 23 5 5 13 33:45 -12 20 17 VfB Speldorf 23 5 5 13 29:46 -17 20 18 SV Straelen 23 3 6 14 24:53 -29 15
Bundesliga, Round 23
Bayern was the big winner of the weekend. They only did what was needed to grab all the points against a too defensively oriented Karlsruhe squad. Then they enjoyed their beers as Bremen went down in flames and Hamburg dropped points. What was a tight race is now an 8 point gap.
A wild shootout in Stuttgart saw Bremen go down in flames. Werder certainly had their chances to rack up more goals, but it was Stuttgart who nailed their opportunities, with Mario Gomez blasting a hattrick. Meanwhile, Hamburg was sucking wind against relegation threatened Nürnberg. HSV couldn't get untracked, and should be happy with a point, as Nürnberg missed a couple of huge chances to win the match. As it was, it deteriorated into a drab match that put everyone to sleep.
Leverkusen took advantage of others slipping as they clinically dispatched Hannover.
Schalke had a relatively easy time with hapless Bielefeld. They ended their own streak, and kept the lame Arminia squad continuing in their downward spiral, which amazingly still sees them above relegation, because other teams are playing just as crap.
A fair result in Dortmund, as although Borussia had more play, Hertha's well oragnized defense easily held the Neons in check.
Frankfurt and Bochum fought each other to a draw, that on the balance was probably fair. Eintracht had a slight edge, but Bochum's recent good form continued, and they were rewarded with a point.
Wolfsburg had an easy time with Cottbus, who showed none of the fight that they often show. After 20 minutes, the VWs were up 2-0, and coasted home, as Energie never threatened to make a game of it.
Meanwhile, at the bottom, a crucial relegation 6 pointer. Duisburg and Rostock squared off, and the result certainly sucked from the Zebras standpoint. They needed a win. Rostock is probably satisfied with a point, and given the relative even play, they deserved it.
Team of the Week: Stuttgart, finally showing what they can do
Turd of the Weak: Bielefeld sucked again
Attendance: 375,066 (avg 41,674), 24 goals
Borussia Dortmund - Hertha BSC 1:1 (1:0) 69,400 (Kehl - Pantelic) Arminia Bielefeld - FC Schalke 04 0:2 (0:1) 26,100 (Varela, Altintop) VfB Stuttgart - Werder Bremen 6:3 (2:1) 55,000 (Gomez 3, Cacau 2, Mertesacker o.g. - Almeida, Boenisch, Rosenberg) Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Bochum 1:1 (0:0) 46,700 (Toski - Azaouagh) VfL Wolfsburg - Energie Cottbus 3:0 (2:0) 21,260 (Gertner, Marcelinho 2) Bayern München - Karlsruher SC 2:0 (1:0) 69,000 (Toni, Ribery) MSV Duisburg - Hansa Rostock 1:1 (1:1) 20,206 (Grlic - Agali) 1. FC Nürnberg - Hamburger SV 0:0 (0:0) 44,900 Bayer Leverkusen - Hannover 96 2:0 (2:0) 22,500 (Gekas, Barnetta) 1 FC Bayern München 23 14 8 1 41:11 +30 50 2 Werder Bremen 23 13 4 6 51:34 +17 43 3 Hamburger SV 23 11 9 3 34:17 +17 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Bayer Leverkusen 23 12 5 6 41:23 +18 41 5 FC Schalke 04 23 10 8 5 36:24 +12 38 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Karlsruher SC (N) 23 10 6 7 29:31 -2 36 7 VfB Stuttgart (M) 22 11 1 10 38:38 0 34 8 VfL Wolfsburg 23 9 6 8 39:35 +4 33 9 Eintracht Frankfurt 23 8 9 6 27:30 -3 33 10 Hannover 96 23 9 5 9 33:39 -6 32 11 Hertha BSC Berlin 23 9 4 10 26:29 -3 31 12 VfL Bochum 23 8 6 9 35:36 -1 30 13 Borussia Dortmund 23 8 5 10 35:39 -4 29 14 Hansa Rostock (N) 23 6 5 12 21:32 -11 23 15 Arminia Bielefeld 23 5 4 14 21:47 -26 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 1. FC Nürnberg (P) 23 4 6 13 24:36 -12 18 17 MSV Duisburg (N) 23 5 3 15 23:37 -14 18 18 Energie Cottbus 22 3 8 11 23:39 -16 17 M = Meister (Champion) P = Pokal (Cup) N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted)
2. Liga, Round 23
Gladbach finally gets on track with a win, keeping a bit breathing room at the top. A huge win for Greuther Fürth away to Aachen, but Mainz, Aachen and Köln all win to keep up the pressure. The death throes of once great Kaiserslautern remain painful to watch, as they once again failed to win. But Osnabrück can celebrate a huge away win - a relegation 6 pointer - at Aue.
Attendance: 172,784 (avg 19,198), 17 goals
FC Augsburg - Borussia M'gladbach 0:2 (0:1) 20,204 (Rösler, Friend) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - SC Freiburg 0:0 (0:0) 21,533 Alemannia Aachen - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2:5 (1:3) 17,823 (Nemeth 2 - Kotuljac 2, Felgenhauer, Lanig, Cidmar) TSG 1899 Hoffenheim - SC Paderborn 07 1:0 (0:0) 5,350 (Carlos Eduardo) 1. FC Köln - TuS Koblenz 1:0 (0:0) 48,500 (Novakovic) 1. FSV Mainz 05 - Kickers Offenbach 1:0 (0:0) 20,300 (Hoogland) FC Carl Zeiss Jena - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2:2 (2:0) 6,721 (Schied, Werner - Werner o.g., Schmidt) Erzgebirge Aue - VfL Osnabrück 0:1 (0:0) 10,500 (Thomik) FC St. Pauli - TSV 1860 München 0:0 (0:0) 21,853 1 Borussia M'gladbach (A) 23 12 8 3 45:26 +19 44 2 1. FSV Mainz 05 (A) 23 11 7 5 38:22 +16 40 3 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 23 11 7 5 41:28 +13 40 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (N) 23 11 7 5 37:29 +8 40 5 1. FC Köln 23 11 6 6 41:30 +11 39 6 SV Wehen Wiesbaden (N) 23 9 9 5 38:33 +5 36 7 SC Freiburg 23 9 9 5 32:27 +5 36 8 TSV 1860 München 23 8 10 5 31:23 +8 34 9 TuS Koblenz 23 7 9 7 28:31 -3 30 10 Alemannia Aachen (A) 23 7 8 8 33:36 -3 29 11 VfL Osnabrück (N) 23 7 7 9 32:41 -9 28 12 FC Augsburg 23 7 6 10 29:34 -5 27 13 FC St. Pauli (N) 23 6 9 8 28:33 -5 27 14 Kickers Offenbach 23 6 8 9 26:39 -13 26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 Erzgebirge Aue 23 6 4 13 30:39 -9 22 16 1. FC Kaiserslautern 23 4 9 10 22:27 -5 21 17 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 23 3 7 13 32:47 -15 16 18 SC Paderborn 07 23 2 10 11 15:33 -18 16 N = Neuling/Aufsteiger (promoted) A = Absteiger (relegated)
Oberliga Review
This week we take a look at the two ex-GDR divisions, the Oberliga NOFV-Nord (Nordostdeutscher Fussballverband) and Oberliga NOFV-Süd. Ever since reunification in 1989, the ex-GDR divisions have been handled differently. From a geographical standpoint, the area is vast, but the population is smaller. As there are fewer clubs represented in the regional football federation - compared with other regions - the DFB has insisted on slapping the ex-GDR clubs in some combination with the North or South regions. This time is no exception, as the NOFV will be joining the new Regionalliga Nord, along with the clubs in Nidersachsen, Hamburg, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein in a new super 4th division (along with West and South).
The top 3 clubs from each NOFV division gain promotion to the new Regionalliga, and 4th place will playoff with it's NOFV counterpart for the right to join. The Oberliga will remain an NOFV fixture, now as the 5th division, split into north and south. Only one club will actually get dropped into the 6th division.
In the north division, Hertha's B squad looks like they'll waltz into Regionalliga. The other spots look up for grabs, although one of Germany's oldest and strongest ethnic clubs, Berlin's Türkiyemspor looks close to claiming another spot. Two famous Berlin clubs are struggling to make the grade: the ex-GDR giant BFC Dynamo and the one time Bundesligist Tennis Borussia. The relegated club is already known, as SV Yesilyurt (another Turkish club) decided to throw in the towel in November and all matches were forfeited.
Whereas the northern section is dominated by Berlin clubs (10) - and the corresponding low attendance, the southern region generally has more fan interest. But famous clubs such as Chemnitz, Sachsen Leipzig, Plauen and Halle are all struggling to make the cut. And one of the ex-GDR's better known clubs, FSV Zwickau (formerly "Sachsenring") has no prospect of getting promoted.
OBERLIGA NOFV-Nord 1 Hertha BSC Berlin II (A) 16 13 2 1 40:7 +33 41 2 Türkiyemspor 1978 16 11 2 3 26:12 +14 35 3 Greifswalder SV 04 (N) 16 10 1 5 35:17 +18 31 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Hansa Rostock II 15 9 3 3 41:15 +26 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 BFC Dynamo Berlin 16 8 5 3 29:15 +14 29 6 Optik Rathenow (N) 16 8 5 3 22:15 +7 29 7 Tennis Borussia Berlin 15 8 3 4 37:15 +22 27 8 Lichterfelder FC 15 7 2 6 25:31 -6 23 9 Germania Schöneiche 16 5 5 6 16:23 -7 20 10 TSG Neustrelitz 15 4 3 8 19:27 -8 15 11 Torgelower SV Greif 16 3 6 7 19:31 -12 15 12 Spandauer SV (N) 15 3 2 10 17:36 -19 11 13 Ludwigsfelder FC 16 1 6 9 10:35 -25 9 14 BFC Preussen 16 1 4 11 10:42 -32 7 15 Berlin Ankaraspor 15 0 3 12 10:35 -25 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 SV Yesilyurt 0 0 0 0 0:0 0 0 OBERLIGA NOFV-Süd 1 SC Borea Dresden 17 9 6 2 25:14 +11 33 2 Chemnitzer FC 15 10 1 4 32:14 +18 31 3 SSV Markranstädt (N) 17 9 3 5 28:22 +6 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1. FC Gera 03 (N) 17 8 4 5 29:23 +6 28 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 VFC Plauen 17 8 4 5 25:21 +4 28 6 Hallescher FC 16 7 5 4 25:14 +11 26 7 VfB Auerbach 16 7 5 4 23:12 +11 26 8 FC Carl Zeiss Jena II 17 7 4 6 28:25 +3 25 9 Sachsen Leipzig 17 6 6 5 28:25 +3 24 10 Germania Hal