Bundesliga review

Week 19 of the Bundesliga season was another high-octane feast of football with 30 more goals over the usual 9 games, including a five-goal thriller in Karlsruhe that served to undermine Martin Jol's 2009 title bid with Hamburg.

Jol is currently overseeing a complete squad overhaul in the northern region, with 6 new faces added to an already fresh-looking group of players last month, after significant movement in the previous transfer window. And the money shelled out from the outsourcing of players like Nigel de Jong and Vincent Kompany (both to the moneybags from Manchester) seemed to have been spent wisely when, in the early stages, the away side took the lead through Peruvian predator Paolo Guerrero following a flowing move involving a number of the new boys. Sound investments appeared more like proven cash cows after the break as HSV took a commanding two-goal lead in the 48th minute with an accomplished finish from experienced defender Colin Benjamin.

However, having held on to beat Bayern Munich last week with only a slender lead to protect, Hamburg proceeded to throw away a far more sturdy advantage in 5 manic minutes. A single minute after going two goals to the good, the deficit was reduced by Sebastien Freis, who scored Karlsruhe's 1st league goal in 2009 after some slapstick defending by the visitors. The "Ausgleichtreffer" (equaliser) was notched just 4 minutes later when Giovanni Federico rammed home his 1st of the season so far on the turn after scoring 19 to help the hosts achieve promotion from the 'Zweite Bundesliga' last season.

Mladen Petric then saw red with just under a quarter of an hour remaining for a wild and clearly frustrated lashing-out of an elbow and the writing was on the wall. Numerical advantage was surrendered only a few minutes later, though, as Marco Engelhart was given his marching orders for a "gelb-rot" (second yellow, literally yellow-red) with ten minutes remaining. However, continued Karlsruhe pressure eventually came to fruition in the 90th minute as a goalmouth scramble gave Sebastien Freis the chance to grab his 7th of the season and complete a remarkable turnaround at the Wildparkstadion. Manager Ralf Dohmen's reaction to the goal, which sees Karlsruhe remain in the bottom three but only on goal difference, included an uncontrolled foray onto the pitch, a la Fergie in '93.

The only game which produced more goals last weekend came in Leverkusen, where Bayer were taken to task by a much-improved Stuttgart side, the final 4-2 scoreline failing to do justice to the contrasting qualities of both sides. The revitalised Mario Gomez set out the Stuttgart stall in the 3rd minute when he completed a wonderful move with an astute finish to give the guests an early lead. That lead was nullified before the clock ticked into double figures as Stefan Kießling celebrated his recall to the national squad last week with a close-range strike.

That was as good as it got for the hosts, who were playing at 'Dritte Bundesliga' (3rd league) Fortuna Düsseldorf's stadium due to repairs being undertaken at the Bayarena. Somewhat surprisingly, the stand-in stadium has a greater capacity than that which is normally enjoyed by the Bayer faithful, resulting in a club record crowd on Saturday of 32,000. But if the fans were becoming accustomed to their new surroundings, this feeling was not replicated by the players out on the pitch. After Thomas Hitzlsperger's 'hammer' from a set-piece proved too hot for German number 1 Rene Adler to touch, let alone hold, even when the ball was aimed at the "Torwartecke" (keeper's side) with 20 minutes gone, Markus Babbel's side never looked back and when Arturo Vidal was sent off in the second half the visitors threatened an onslaught. A sizeable scoreline that could have swelled to an ugly sore on the faces of the hosts was merely mildly angered in the 75th minute after another adroit finish from Gomez gave his team a three-goal margin for error, but the spot was tempered with the last kick of the game, an Angelos Charisteas tap-in reducing the arrears after good work again from Kießling.

One moment that would have had both sets of supporters in stitches was captured on camera during the game, as a ball-boy let the emotions of the big day get to him and was nutmegged almost in slow-motion before staggering and then stumbling into the advertising hoardings. (Funny stuff, unnecessarily liberties to show it on telly.) Stuttgart have now leapt to just one place below Bernard Labaddia's Leverkusen in the table as the two teams stand in 5th and 6th place respectively.

Hoffenheim stayed on top of the pile despite being held to a 1-1 draw away at Borussia Mönchengladbach after getting out of jail via a last minute equaliser from substitute striker Wellington Luis de Sousa, which made amends for conceding a first-half Alexander Baumjohann strike on the stroke of half-time. Hoffenheim were awarded a second-half penalty after Chinedu Obasi Ogbuke, linked with Chelsea during the transfer window, seemed to have been brought down in the box, only for the referee to consult his linesman and consequently cancel his decision and book Obasi for diving because, as he stated in the post-match press conference, there was contact, but the player had looked to go down before the contact was made. (Interesting way of looking at it. To be honest, I'm all for it. Except it'll lead to the most inconsistency since the offside rule was changed.)

Pre-match talk had been dominated by Gladbach trainer Hans Meier's criticism of his team's situation, stating that their main problem was that their style of play was an "Opataktik" i.e. resembling that which might be employed by a grandad. (He's an insightful fella. Maybe the Mourinho of the Bundesliga. Except old and probably not as popular with the ladies.) This time last year Gladbach were top of the 2nd Bundesliga with Hoffenheim trailing in 7th, but Saturday's result leaves the contrasting fortunes of the two clubs this season unaltered as Hoffenheim remain a point clear at the summit and Gladbach two points adrift at the foot of the league.

Hertha Berlin slipped up in their chase to stay with the leading pack as they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Arminia Bielefeld on Friday night. Andriy Voronin had put the visitors into the ascendancy in the early stages directly from a Jaroslav Drobny long ball and when he was presented with a similar situation from an identical source he really should have made the game safe for the Berliners. However, when his lifted shot cannoned back of the crossbar it invited the home team to re-enter the contest and that is exactly what they did through the inevitable, unstoppable Artur Wichniarek. King Artur has now scored 12 of his side's 18 goals this season and it proved enough to earn them a vital point on this occasion and move them up to 14th spot in the table. Hertha fall to third, having missed their chance to go top for the first time in many a long year but stay in contention, just 2 points off the pace.

Arguably the biggest game of the weekend was played out at the Veltins Arena as Schalke 04 saw off a beleaguered Werder Bremen side by a solitary goal. The winner came from the first set play of the second period, centre-back Benedikt Höwedes heading in unmarked from inside the 6-yard area. Werder cannot wait for their suspended South American duo of Diego and Claudio Pizarro to return to bolster an out-of-form frontline, having established a winless sequence of 6 games, their worst for 8 years. The aged Asamoah followed up his atrocious miss during last week's loss to Hannover with a shot about as bad as they come in the first half here. He managed to save himself the embarassment of the ball ending up the wrong side of the corner flag, but only after a late deflection...surely it’s only a matter of time before someone puts that man out of his misery and hangs up his boots for him. His side, however, climb into 8th place, their highest position since before the winter break.

Wolfsburg overcame the hostile environment inside their emotionally charged Volkswagen Arena to claim a 2-0 victory over Vfl Bochum, who have been hit by inner turmoil due to the departure of club skipper Thomas Zdebel following a row with the manager, which led to their entire support holding aloft banners bearing their skipper's number 8 in protest against coach Marcel Koller, who has a dismal record at this level. The Bosnian-born Edin Dzeko, linked with a number of Premiership clubs in January, did the damage for the Wolves with a brace, goals coming either side of half-time to lift Felix Magath's side to 7th, 7 points below the Champions League places. Bochum drift deeper into the mire and now lie second from bottom with 14 points from 19 games and now without their captain at the helm. Worrying times indeed for their supporters.

Energie Cottbus leapfrogged Bochum, as well as Karlsruhe, to stand outside the relegation zone for the first time in months after they gained 3 crucial points with a vital home win over Hannover 96 on Sunday. Two goals from a man named (Dimitar) Rangelov and one from (Stanislav) Angelov rendered Frank Fahrenhorst's late strike a mere consolation. (You can see roughly where they've got their scouting systems set up). Hannover now occupy 13th place in the Bundesliga and find themselves in increasing danger of being dragged into the dogfight that seems destined to go to the wire.

Frankfurt and Köln stay in 12th and 11th spot respectively after sharing the spoils at the Commerzbank Arena on Saturday, Köln twice coming from behind to deny the home side after goals from Marco Russ and Martin Fenin had put them in the driving seat. Two from 29 year-old Slovenian hitman Milivoje Novakovic, one from the penalty spot after Frankfurt's Brazilian left-back Chris was ordered off for a deliberate and absolutely blatant handball, put paid to the hosts' hopes of a win to leave both sides still seemingly in search of mid-table mediocrity in May.

The final game on Sunday saw Bayern Munich meet Borussia Dortmund in a topsy-turvy encounter that had both a goal inside 90 seconds and a comeback of epic proprtions. When Nelson Valdez was played through in the second minute, allowed in by a poor mis-judgement from Martin Demichaelis, in which the big defender tripped and then tried in vain to get his head to the rolling ball, the Paraguayan produced a beautiful finish to curl the ball high past Bayern keeper Michael Rensing into the top corner of the net, it appeared as though yet another upset may have been on the cards at the Allianz Arena. But after so many home slip-ups this season, the Bavarians seemed to have hardened themselves to the prospect of trailing in front of their own fans and the goal duly spurred them into action.

When the recently reticent Franck Ribery took aim at the Dortmund goal just over 20 minutes in, the shot looked to have little to trouble a keeper in the form currently being enjoyed by guest stopper Roman Weidenfeller. Nevertheless, when the imposing German failed to either hold the effort or push it round the post the ball fell invitingly for the effervescent Ze Roberto to tap in for the equaliser. Once the scoreline had been rectified there was only ever going to be one winner and, although always in the game, Dortmund were second best from then on. It took, however, until the 87th minute for Bayern to break through again, Miroslav Klose striking not once but twice in the final 4 minutes with two tidy close-range finishes to take the men from München back into second spot, just one point behind leaders Hoffenheim.