Bundesliga Breached

"Was für eine Geschichte!" (What a story!)

This year's Bundesliga title race has been thoroughly unpredictable from the outset and events took another twist in Week 26. At the start of the "Spieltag" (matchday) a single point separated the top four sides, with Hertha Berlin, chasing their first Championship since before the 2nd World War, ahead by the tip of a nose.

However, Hertha's Olympiastadion fortress was ransacked on Saturday, as Borussia Dortmund ran out deserved 3-1 winners in an unsurprisingly open game of Football. Lucien Favre has brought a real verve to the Berliners since taking over last year but this season has seen them add discipline and tactical acumen to their attacking flair and has turned them into real contenders for the league crown. However, from the moment Alexander Frei put the visitors ahead with an angled finish in the 25th minute all defensive inclinations were forgotten as the hosts attempted to reward their sold out stadium with a vital victory. As the game was stretched the home side exerted a great deal of pressure on Jurgen Klopp's youthful Dortmund outfit but it wasn't until Raffael eased past three defenders and applied a classy finish to a move that he had started that the guests looked in any real danger of succumbing. It was only the Brazilian's 4th goal of the season but it was one worth waiting for as he belatedly showed signs of the reason behind his reputation as a match-winner just before the break, having been coach Favre's favourite player before following him from Switzerland to the German capital.

Dortmund have impressed in this campaign, though, losing just 4 games, all of which have come away from home, and a powerful header from skipper Sebastien Kehl in the 53rd minute along with a late Nelson Valdez effort that trickled in after Hertha keeper Jaroslav Drobny could only parry a long-range shot kept them in the top half and condemned Hertha to back-to-back defeats for the 1st time this season. Hertha's hero, the on-loan Andriy Voronin, was nursing a broken nose as a result of a clash with England captain John Terry at Wembley on Wednesday, and failed to make an impact on proceedings. His side drop to 3rd on the back of this disappointing defeat and will have to rebuild very quickly if they intend to challenge for top honours this season.

Vfl Wolfsburg and Bayern München were equal on all counts prior to Saturday's "6-punkte Spiel" (6-pointer) at the VW Arena, boasting identical points and goals tallies both at home and away and sat level in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Despite this remarkable symmetry, equality could not have been further from the minds of those who witnessed the Wolves' demolition of their illustrious opponents by 5 goals to 1 on Saturday. Felix Magath, who was facing his former club, is currently overseeing the best run of form in the Bundesliga in 2008-9. His side's stunning form at home, where they have dropped only 2 points thus far, has been reinforced by 25 points from a possible 27 since the Winter break to give them a genuine chance of claiming their 1st ever title, their 11th consecutive home win and 8th in a row in total taking them top for the 1st time this season.

It says much for the fortunes of the respective managers on show here that all 11 starters in green were signed by Magath, whereas none of Bayern's starting 11 bore the mark of their manager, Jurgen Klinsmann. In addition, Bayern's front pairing of Luca Toni and Lucasz Podolski have found the net a mere 14 times between them so far, whereas the giant Grafite and the impressive Edin Dzeko have notched a startling 35. It was these two who did the damage against the Bavarians but only once Christian Gentner's opener had been cancelled out by a typical Toni tap-in, both goals coming within a minute of each other approaching the interval. When Dzeko easily beat the bewildered Breno and smashed the ball past a helpless Rensing on 63 minutes the writing appeared very much on the wall for the visiting side.

The last half-hour belonged to the Wolfsburg strike force, Dzeko and Grafite plundering a pair apiece, but they were no doubt aided by the questionable behaviour of experienced Munich centre-back Lucio who, having suffered a nasty knock in the first period, refused to be substituted and instead hobbled upfield to attack a corner on the hour mark. In failing to get back quickly enough he allowed Dzeko to take a floated ball over the top in his stride with his right foot and slip the ball inches inside the near post with his left to signal the opening of the floodgates. By the time Klinsmann had finally managed to replace Lucio with Andreas Ottl the damage was irreparable, as the green shirts marauded through the Bayern backline at will. Grafite then elegantly rolled his man, again the drastically out-of-depth Breno, to finish comfortably before completing the rout with what must go down as a "Tor des Jahres" (Goal of the Year) contender.

After tormenting Ottl and Christian Lell in the left-hand channel, the Brazilian cut inside and walked round a hopelessly committed Rensing before wrong-footing Breno, the covering Lell and the onlooking Phillip Lahm by backheeling the ball and wheeling away in celebration as it eased agonisingly for Bayern into their bottom corner. This goal, which he admitted was the best he had ever scored after the match, took him past Vedad Ibisevic's total of 18 to the top of the scoring charts as the new "Torschutzenkönig" (King of the goal scorers) on 20, despite having missed a large portion of the campaign through a serious injury to his neck. His partner in crime, the teenage Dzeko, is 4th with 15 for the season as we enter the business end. Bayern themselves are now 4th in the standings and Klinsmann will do well to heed any advice offered by the masterful Magath, himself having been ousted from the Munich hotseat less than 18 months ago, as the former national team trainer's position comes under increasing pressure despite a so-far-successful Champions League run that takes them to Barcelona in the coming weeks.

Second are Martin Jol's Hamburg, who recorded a fine 1-0 home win over rivals Hoffenheim in an eventful encounter, due in no small part to the "Testspiel" (friendly) that had taken place between the two teams in January, which saw Hoffenheim's Ibisevic rupture his cruciate ligament, as well as team-mate Carlos Eduardo and Hamburg's Ivica Olic both seeing red for exchanging open-handed blows in an ugly second half. On Saturday it was Hamburg's captain David Jarolim who was given his marching orders after a "kindergarten grab" according to the commentator and a cynical foul late in the game.

Hoffenheim have had to contend with an extraordinary injury crisis, with almost every 1st choice player being hit by injury or illness at some point since the turn of the year, and keeper Timo Hildebrand was welcomed back into the fold with a gaping stud-wound above the knee here, but Demba Ba should have offered some respite for his struggling side by marking his return with a goal after spurning a number of opportunities at the HSH Nordbank Arena. It was left to Jonathan Pitroipa to win the game for the hosts with his 1st league goal in 24 outings this season, the man from Burkina Faso taking advantage of a defensive mix-up to settle the tie in the 28th minute. The gap between the teams could have been wider had it not been for Pitroipa's need to remind everyone why he had not scored in the Bundesliga before Saturday with some dreadful finishing in the second half but 1-0 was enough to take Hamburg into 2nd and drop "Herbstmeister" (Autumn Champions) Hoffenheim out of the European places and into 6th.

Above them are Vfb Stuttgart, who beat Vfl Bochum away to make it 27 points from the 12 games of Markus Babbel's tremendous tenure. At the current rate of point accumulation they are on course to gain 77 points come May, 7 points more than that which proved enough for them to take the title in 2007. They did fall behind to a Joel Epalle effort carried over the line by Jens Lehmann, who has just announced his intention to play on another year and attempt to win back his Germany number 1 jersey in time for his 40th birthday (the release of his book, wonderfully titled, "Warum eigentlich immer Mich" or "Why always me?" has been put back indefinitely) just after the restart but rallied quickly, levelling through Cacau's firm header from a set-piece with 58 minutes gone.

In between this and the set-piece that won them the game in the final minute, with Serdar Tasci on hand to guide the ball into an empty net, Martin Lanig was culpable for wasting a series of chances and Roberto Hilbert contrived to miss the unmissable with 10 minutes to play. When Jan Simak played the ball across the face of goal it seemed easier not only for Hilbert to score, but to do so whilst laying down, setting up camp for the day and soaking in the sun. When, from around the length of a poorly constructed sandcastle from goal, he managed to lift the ball so far over the bar it ran the risk of blocking out the sun altogether the groans from around the ground were audible. And Stuttgart were the away side. However, he was rescued by Tasci and his team now sit pretty in 5th spot looking up at the rest, a slender 6 points behind the leaders. Bochum remain 14th, 2 points above the relegation mire.

Bayer Leverkusen rose to 7th in the table on Sunday after travelling home from Köln with a well-merited 2-0 win in their derby contest, watched by just under 50,000 fans at the Rhein Energie Stadion. Goals from Stefan Kießling and an 18th of the campaign from the penalty spot by Patrick Helmes, playing against his former employers and roundly booed upon every touch, sealed the points. Even Milivoje Novakovic, or "Novagol" as he is proclaimed by a handful of Köln fans in a song on Youtube, could not overturn the deficit, thus Köln stay treading water in 11th.

The team directly below Leverkusen are Schalke 04, the pantomime club of the Bundesliga at this moment in time. Having dismissed their manager and coach and deposed their captain in recent weeks, board members would be ill-advised to appear on television milking the publicity. While their club is linked with the summer appointment of management duos such as Oliver Kahn and Slaven Bilic, fans reminded their owners through the use of banners that "Schalke is not a sausage factory" in reference to the business via which their leading shareholder had come to pre-football prominence. The unrest was not enough to give Arminia Bielefeld cause for optimism on Friday night, as the visitors took all 3 points thanks to Jefferson Farfan's close-range header and Kevin Kuranyi, who had 1 effort disallowed and 1 rebound off the woodwork before finally seeing the fruits of his labour in the latter stages to leave Bielefeld teetering on the edge of the drop zone in 15th place.

Claudio Pizarro overcame his recent run-ins with police and press alike by grabbing another hat-trick as Werder Bremen romped to a 4-1 win over Hannover 96. The puny Peruvian has come in for criticism of late due to his financial affairs, made public by the wife of his former mentor and highlighted by the German media but the comments of his trainer Thomas Schaaf imploring his team to play for pride for the remainder of the league run may have held special resonance with Pizarro. It was his effort that deflected massively, looping up and over German number 1 Robert Enke to break the deadlock in the 41st minute, and after this strike had been nullified by a superbly crafted Jacek Krzynowek curler and Diego had seen his penalty saved by the international stopper but redeemed himself by pouncing on a loose ball in the area to regain the initiative for the home side, Pizarro stooped to nod home with 10 minutes left and again stepped up to control with his chest and blast his third past Enke in the 84th minute and so bring an end to the contest and render Hannover's fight against the drop incomplete as they now stand in 13th with Werder still occupying 10th spot.

The big game at the foot of the table took place at Karlsruhe's Wildparkstadion, where the hosts' run of 7 matches and over 10 hours without a goal rumbled on with a 0-0 draw against fellow strugglers Borussia Mönchengladbach. Officials at the rock-bottom club have been burying pennies all over the pitch for luck and the fans are obviously keeping the faith as almost 30,000 turned out on Sunday to watch the two teams trade strikes that hit the woodwork, the better of the two seeing Sebastien Freis incredibly unlucky to have his cracking volley canon back off the bar in the 41st minute. Gladbach remain in trouble on 23 points from 26 games and a further point from safety but have shown a marked improvement since the winter pause under new coach Hans Meier.

The other team making up the numbers in the lower echelons are Energie Cottbus, who fell to a narrow yet nevertheless demoralising defeat at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday to suffer their 5th consecutive reversal for the 1st time in 6 years. Frankfurt climbed to 12th on the back of this result, achieved after a Nikos Liberopoulos penalty and a Markus Steinhöfer free kick, which travelled fully 50 yards before nestling in the corner of the Cottbus net, sandwiched a Dimitar Rangelov spot-kick for the guests that came against the run of play. Indeed, the scoreline could have been far more humiliating for Cottbus had Frankfurt not been found guilty of failing to round off their free-flowing and at times very attractive Football with solid attempts on goal. As it turned out, Cottbus will not be too disheartened by this defeat with important home fixtures fast approaching and will hope to somehow find their way out of trouble in a similar way to that which was attained last year, when they found themselves bottom at Christmas but survived on the penultimate day.