What you’ve been waiting for

"Claudio Pizarro seems to have shrugged off his early-season form and returned to his true self"
(Quote from last week's update)

It's week 15 of the Bundesliga season and where else can i start but at the Weserstadion? Claudio Pizarro - a man reborn (again): The floppy-haired, flesh-fest loving forward, who "likes an orgy" according to reports that emanated last year from his native Peru, scored a scintillating hat-trick against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday to take his total thus far to 10 and his team, Werder Bremen, into a much-improved 7th place in the table.

Werder were in dire need of a boost in confidence, having suffered European humiliation and Champons League elimination at the hands of Temuri Ketsbaia's Anorthosis Famagusta in midweek and if that was down to bad finishing on Hugo Almeida's part, his strike partner was in no mood to be so wasteful just three days later.

The gangly goal-getter's first finish rounded off a swift counter attack from the hosts as he tucked in an Almeida centre, the Portuguese seeming as relieved as the Peruvian with the end-product. His second was a thing of beauty. Having ghosted in front of his man to receive a through-ball from his captain Thorsten Frings, he unleashed a first-time thunderbolt on the turn to find the near top corner after 20 minutes and leave the visitors reeling. But he wasn't finished there. After Diego had dispatched a disputed penalty to take the home side into the break with a 3-goal cushion, the striker combined well with his partner in crime and stole in to slip the ball under the witless visiting goalkeeper to make it 4-0 just after the hour mark. Aaron Hunt added the finishing touch to a thoroughly convincing victory to leave Werder on the fringes of the European places in the build-up to the winter break.

If this match was apparently over before it had begun then there was no doubt that any potential contest between Frankfurt fans and Bremen police outside the stadium had come to the same conclusion. 230 fans were arrested in the run-up to the game in anticipation of confrontation between the two sets of supporters, who have a history of violence. This resulted, unsurprisingly, in no trouble taking place after the game and led to police chiefs labelling the operation a success. However, if you are to be deemed guilty before being proved innocent in this same manner in the future it does pose the question, "Why not lock up the whole of Germany, or Europe for that matter, in order to make sure you get all the criminals?"

Second played third at the Bay Arena, where German giants Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich met for the first time this season. The game was turned on its head by two goals in the space of 20 second-half minutes, firstly from an unchallenged Luca Toni header and then through a well-taken Miroslav Klose effort, but the key player was again the pink-booted Frenchman, Franck Ribery. The resurgent Ribery was instrumental in both Bayern goals, playing an incisive one-two with Klose to create space for the experienced international to find the bottom corner with an accomplished finish on 82 minutes to make the game safe and ensure that Bayern overtook their rivals to claim 2nd place behind leaders Hoffenheim.

Hoffenheim again made light work of their opponents this week, going ahead after just 5 minutes through their inspirational tallysman, Vedad Ibisevic, who simply cannot stop scoring this season. His 17th of an overly efficient campaign up until now came in the form of a superbly executed scissor kick due to the cross from stand-in skipper Selim Teber being slightly behind him. Teber was making his first appearance of the season (not because of injury or suspension but through not being selected), and was made captain seemingly as if to impress upon the rest of the division the sheer strength-in-depth at the newcomers' disposal. He hopes to make the lineup next week.

It was 2-0 6 mins later, Carlos Eduardo slotting home a sublime solo effort after picking up the ball inside the centre-circle and finishing from outside the box. The home side were then guilty of squandering a number of gilt-edged opportunities, with big Demba Ba the main culprit, before Francisco Coppado ensured the points remained at the Rhein-Neckar Stadion with a cheekily chipped penalty at the death. Next up for the league leaders - Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, knowing that a share of the points will be enough to confirm Hoffenheim as 'Winter Champions' before a three-week respite (I know - for you and me both).

The team currently occupying third spot is Hertha Berlin, the team from the capital having overcome their counterparts from Köln by 2 goals to 1 to leapfrog Leverkusen into a Champions League qualifying position. It wasn't all plain sailing at the Olympiastadion on Friday night though, as the away team were level with just quarter of an hour to play. But an inspired substitution caused the game to take an unexpected turn as fans' favourite Marko Pantelic put his ill-feeling towards coach Lucian Favre aside to come off the bench and claim the winner in the 76th minute with a deft near-post header from a set-piece delivered by fellow replacement Patrick Ebert. The Berliners are enjoying an excellent spell in what has turned out to be a highly promising campaign. With Galatasary visiting a sold-out Olympiastadion on Wednesday evening, it could be about to get even better.

The big game at the bottom this week saw Borussia Mönchengladbach take on Energie Cottbus at Borussia Park, with Cottbus earning a vital 3-1 win in their quest for survival, with no little help from what, in a game context, could only be described as suicidal defending from the hosts. While Germany's women's U-20 team are in hot pursuit of glory at their World Cup in South America, one of the nation's oldest and most famous teams is currently managing to shade it in the category of 'Most amateurish defensive play'. (And some of those goals in Chile send shivers down your spine)

At times it was outright calamitous. At others it had to be seen to be believed. They had already fallen behind in the early stages to an own goal by backtracking midfielder Michael Bradley, who instinctively dangled out a leg to divert the ball in after Cottbus winger Ivica Iliev had been allowed to walk within a yard of the keeper and roll it along the goal line.

With Gladbach chasing the game, Energie were denied one of the most stonewall penalties you are ever likely to see, before being given the freedom of the West in which to play, and one pass proved ample in confusing hapless defender Steve Gohouri and carving open the home defence yet again, presenting Dennis Sörensen with a free run on goal and an offer to notch his second of the season, to which he duly obliged with a neatly lifted finish. Gohouri to some extent made amends for his sloppiness with an equally scrappy header at the other end to halve the deficit and Rob Friend missed a glorious chance to snatch an undeserved share of the spoils.

But they were too busy trying to stab themselves in the back to slice open the visitors again. The home defending took another desperately sharp turn for the worse when Filip Daems dallied unnecessarily, played a square ball from the touchline to his goalie, who miskicked, allowing the onrushing Cottbus striker to round him not once but twice, before he eventually wasted the chance. Top-drawer stuff.

And the knife wasn't done cutting through the butter yet. With two covering one runner, the ball was slipped effortlessly inside, carried to the byline and pulled back unchallenged to the penalty spot, where Emil Jula, that household name, won the fight with his own team-mates to head the queue for a tap-in into an empty net and took Cottbus out of the bottom 3, leaving Gladbach second from bottom. The only consolation for Gladbach was that Karlsruhe were beaten convincingly in Hannover, where Mikkael Forssell was on target for the first time this season, and so stay rock bottom after 15 games.

On Sunday, Stuttgart played host to Schalke 04 under the instructions of newly-appointed trainer Markus Babbel for the first time, and the new coach was rewarded for his half-time prompting with two late goals to seal a hugely significant win at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Another manager in the spotlight that day was Hamburg's Martin Jol, who adopted a strangely defensive ploy in their trip to the rewirpower Stadion to play Vfl Bochum, leaving the in-form Ivica Olic on the bench after his stunning winner in the Northern derby against Werder Bremen last week alongside influential German international Piotr Trochowski. Jol's blushes were only spared after he belatedly sent on the Croat, who promptly leapt on an effort from his countryman Mladen Petric that the keeper failed to hold and netted the rebound to sneak a 1-1 draw.

The game between Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg was so enthralling that the players' performances were overshadowed by that of the linesmen, who awarded a record number of offside decisions in the first half alone as the two sides played out a goalless draw in front of a packed Signal Iduna Park crowd. The achievement of one of the referee's assistants during the 90 minutes was enough to gain him a post-match interview, which was about as exciting and intriguing as you might expect.

The full run-down of results:

Hertha 2-1 Köln
Hoffenheim 3-0 Bielefeld
Bayer 0-2 Bayern
Werder 5-0 Franfurt
Hannover 3-0 Karlsruhe
Gladbach 1-3 Cottbus
Bochum 1-1 Hamburg
Dortmund 0-0 Wolfsburg
Stuttgart 2-0 Schalke