Bundesliga break down

Week 21 in the German calendar was an extremely eventful one and, once the summary programme had shown the Chelsea highlights for the second week running in order to keep us all up to date with the progress of national team skipper Michael Ballack, we were given a glut of glorious goals, as well as some noteworthy news items.

As the Köln Carnival kicked into full swing, thousands of 'Kölner' - dressed from head to toe as characters appropriate for the occasion - made the trip by train from West to South to see their side take on the might of Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. When defender Fabrice Ehret gave them a shock lead to celebrate in the 22nd minute they were over the moon and keen to show their appreciation. But as Daniel Brosinski doubled the away team's advantage they must have felt they were in a parallel universe and they could not hide their delirium at the way things were unravelling.

They sang constantly, acclaiming 'Prince Poldi' (current Bayern striker Lucas Podolski, who has agreed to return home in the summer for a paltry fee of around 10 million Euros) in both banner and song to the point that the young German international, who was - at the behest of national trainer Joachim Löw - starting his first league game since November, failed to shrug off the attention of the visiting support and put in a poor performance.

The 0-2 half-time scoreline only appeared in danger of being extended after the interval as substitute Landon Donovan, on for the severely subdued Podolski, cleared another Köln effort off the line with virtually his first touch. Despite Donovan being denied a clear-cut penalty and a Daniel van Buyten header reducing the arrears late on to set up a grandstand finish, the party-goers held on to to ensure three more well-earned points left Munich this term. Jurgen Klinsmann's side remain 4th, "in crisis" according to the media, and at this rate face an increasingly tough task to keep their place at the top table of German football.

The parade in Köln is famous for throwing handfuls of sweets and candy from the side of its wagons and the club's players and staff reflected this tradition by tossing autographed tennis balls into the crowd at full-time, as they calebrated their first win in Bavaria since the 1960's and climbed to 10th place in the table.

Hamburg clambered back to the division's summit for the first time since October with an impressive 2-1 win away to Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday. They were indebted to two goals from midfielder Marcell Jansen, one either side of half time, to render Patrick Helmes' 32nd minute strike meaningless and so seal the points. After their comfortable 3-0 win at the home of NEC Nijmegen in midweek, Martin Jol's side's season is really beginning to take shape as they seek success on both domestic and continental fronts. Leverkusen stay stranded in 5th position in the Bundesliga as they continue to struggle in keeping pace with the leading pack in the league and are out of European competition for another year.

Hertha had started the day in top spot and the local Berlin papers had provided a cut-out copy of the current chart as evidence of their historic achievement, which sees them on top of the pile for the first time in 78 long years. However, they missed the chance to consolidate their status as league leaders due to bad luck, as well as a series of curious refereeing decisions that proved to be a feature of this week's action across the nation.

Firstly, the visitors to Wolfsburg's Volkswagen Arena, where the hosts have dropped just two points all season, had a perfectly good goal chalked off for a supposed foul by Cicero as he powered home a first half header from a Patrick Ebert corner, before Raffael unleashed an 'amtlicher Aluminiumtest' and was, as the meaning of the phrase suggests, thwarted by the woodwork. Then, having belatedly taken the lead through a Cicero strike on the hour, they succumbed to an Edin Dzeko double, the second of which was clearly only capable of crossing the line with the aid of a charge and a clumsy challenge on Hertha defender Josip Simunic a yard from goal. With 6 minutes to play the Berliners were in the ascendancy, but this sucker-punch seriously set them back in their efforts to stake a claim for the shield in May, and protests continued long after the final whistle.

So Hertha were unhappy to fall to their fifth defeat of the campaign and third spot in the standings when they could have had so much more. Wolfsburg, on the other hand, have sneakily slipped into 6th, and with Dzeko among the goals and Grafite not too far away on his road to recovery from a knee injury, Felix Magath will hope there is a lot more to come from his men this season.

Hoffenheim rose above Hertha into 2nd place after they twice came from behind to take a 3-3 draw from Markus Babbel's resurgent Stuttgart side at the Mercedes Benz Arena on Saturday. Demba Ba struck a stunning hat-trick as he easily won his dual with Jens Lehmann, but the veteran keeper was not to be outshone. Stuttgart's aged stopper committed an act of robbery that was so selfish, so sneaky and so shocking that Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangick called it "the most unsportsmanlike thing I have ever seen on a football field". And surely he cannot be exaggerating. With the game entering its dying embers, the scores locked at 3 each after Ba's wonderful array of finishes had cancelled out goals from Cacau and a pair from the in-form Mario Gomez, Sejad Salihovic committed himself to a tackle near the centre-circle. Due to his total commitment he lost a boot in the challenge, and thanks to his enduring efforts he carried on without it until the whistle was sounded.

In the meantime, Lehmann raced, possibly on tip-toes, all the way out to the soon-to-be scene of the crime and picked up the loose left shoe of Salihovic. He then proceeded to carry the boot back towards his box, like an eagle stealing food for his starving family, and as he approached his area he slung it over his shoulder and onto the top of the net and left it there. With the midfielder begging the referee to delay proceedings while he searched for his missing footwear, Lehmann failed to come forward and Salihovic was forced to take time out from the game to look for his boot, under the nose of the onlooking offender. The Bosnian was sufficiently staggered by events that when Hoffenheim were awarded a penalty, just moments later, he stepped up and lifted his attempt a good two yards over his intended target, launching the ball about the same distance that Lehmann had transported his boot minutes earlier.

If this event seemed destined to take precedence in the post-match press conference, it paled in comparison with stories surfacing off the pitch. The entertaining game was overshadowed by reports emerging from the away camp that Hoffenheim players Andreas Ibertsberger and Christian Janker would face investigations from anti-doping officials after the pair arrived late for a random drug test last month due to a post-match team talk following their game against Borussia Mönchengladbach. This is being treated as a serious offence, since a player in Italy was once handed a 1-year ban for turning up a mere 15 minutes late for a test in 2003.

On top of these disturbing developments, Hoffenheim will be mildly miffed not to have won and gone back to the league’s peak but now lie just two points behind leaders Hamburg in the runners' up spot. Stuttgart will be mightily relieved to have escaped with a point and remain unbeaten under the stewardship of boss Babbel.

The biggest derby fixture in the land was played out on Friday night between Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund in front of a capacity crowd of nearly 62,000, the guests returning the happier of the sides after a 1-1 draw. The result was disappointing for hosts Schalke, who led for much of the game thanks to a Kevin Kuranyi blockbuster at the 20 minute mark. Halil Altintop refused to give up a lost cause and when his superb cross drifted towards Kuranyi at the edge of the box the out-of-favour German international unleashed a piece of acrobatic artistry, connecting sweetly with the ball above head height and blasting the ball into the far corner, beyond the reach of Dortmund keeper Heiko Weidenfeller.

It was a strike worthy of winning any contest but it ended all square after the late entrance of Mohammed Zidan sparked a revival from the away team. He could have scored a hat-trick in the closing stages but will settle for the one that he did manage to make count, a rifled left-footed effort following some pin-ball in the penalty box with 10 minutes left. Both sides stay within touching distance of the European places, ranked 8th and 9th respectively, in a title race that will almost certainly go to the last day. It is the first time in Bundesliga history that the top five have been separated by only 5 points on matchday 21.

Out of all the sides contesting at the top end, the one side seemingly incapable of clawing their way back into the fray are Werder Bremen, who fell to yet another demoralising defeat on Saturday at the hands of lowly Energie Cottbus, at their 22,000 (by no means all-seater) Stadion der Freundschaft, which, adorably, translates as 'The Stadium of Friendship'. The return of Werder’s playmaker Diego in midweek allowed them to scrape a home draw against AC Milan ans they are aiming to gain another positive scoreline from their second visit to the San Siro this season and keep alive their feint hopes of glory on the continent this year. Domestically, their situation is far more fragile, as Diego's comeback after a 4-game ban was tempered by the absence of the ever-impressive Claudio Pizarro, who was dropped after failing to report for training on Friday because he brilliantly missed his flight back from his brother's birthday celebrations.

With Diego, Werder have claimed 6 wins from 12 games, whereas without him they have managed just 1 win from 8 attempts. However, they seemed to be welcoming the little magician back into the fold with ease while coping without their 11-goal hitman Pizarro when the latter’s replacement, Hugo Almedia, opened the scoring with a second-half header. But they were also missing number 1 Tim Wiese and his understudy, Christian Vander, proved less able at the other end as he allowed a daisy-cutter from Ivica Iliev and a last minute shot from Dimitar Rangelov to squirm underneath and round him respectively to leave the boys from Bremen in an embarassing 11th place and facing a horrendous list of upcoming fixtures which they must now negotiate.

Below them, Eintracht Frankfurt edged past Karlsruhe due to a delightful goal from midfielder Caio, 22. If ever there was a picture-book finish it was this one, as the Brazilian found the top-corner with a rising, ripping 25-yard rasper. That was one of few highlights, once the travelling Frankfurt support had temporarily brought the game to a halt by throwing 'Bengalische feuer' (fireworks) onto the field, narrowly missing a Karlsruhe defender, and been subsequently calmed by away skipper, Oka Nikolov. That result takes Frankfurt onto 12th rung on the ladder and leaves Karlsruhe gasping for air in 17th, a point off the bottom.

Borussia Mönchengladbach stay rock-bottom despite claiming the scalp of Hannover with a 3-2 win at Borussia-Park in a game brimming with top-class goals. Gladbach took the initiative in the 36th minute when newly signed striker Alexander Baumjohann delivered a startling finish to complement good build-up play from the nippy Marko Marin. Marin was then in on the act minutes later, as he beat two defenders with sublime trickery and finished neatly from just inside the 18-yard line.

Hannover came back into contention after the turnaround through an exquisite half-volley from Portuguese right-back Sergio Pinto as the 'Tor des Monats' (Goal of the Month) competition received more applicants. The visitors were then level when Christian Schulz lowered the level of goal-taking expertise on display with a simple, yet accomplished, header on 77 minutes. But there was just enough time for a winner from Gladbach's oldest ever scorer in the Bundesliga as Oliver Neuville, at the grand old age of 35 years and 9 months, hobbled off the bench and was on hand to score the winner after some neat interchanges between Baumjohann and the dynamic Marin. They are now within sight of the teams above them and Hannover will be looking over their shoulders from 13th place as they lie just a win above the danger zone and 5 points ahead of their opponents.

Arminia Bielefeld and Vfl Bochum took a share of the spoils after a 1-1 deadlock in a very tedious encounter, save for a delicious bicycle kick from recent arrival from Dortmund, Diego Klimowicz, who lengthened his impressive run by chesting the ball down near the penalty spot and, at an angle from goal, producing a scintillating scissor-kick to silence the home crowd after half an hour. Having notched 2 wins this side of the winter break, Bochum had trebled their number of victories this season before this game and looked in confident mood early on thanks to Klimowicz's spectacular volley, but the hosts hit back and after creating numerous openings the only surprise was that the breakthrough didn't come from 'King' Artur Wichniarek but from centre-back Andre Mijatovic, who leapt to convert a deep set-piece delivery and place the ball into the far bottom corner 7 minutes from time. Both teams reside in positions of troubling uncertainty, with Bielefeld a place and a point above their rivals in the relative safety of 15th position.

Bit of a long'un again this week i know. Hope it was worthwhile. It's just hotting up. More next week.