Bundesliga Laid Bare

The build-up to Week 30 in the Bundesliga has been overshadowed by Bayern Munich’s sudden sacking of coach Jürgen Klinsmann as well as rumours linking Felix Magath, boss of league leaders Wolfsburg, with the vacant Schalke 04 post, as the managerial merry-go-round begins to get into full swing in Germany.

Jupp Heynckes, scorer of 220 goals from 871 Bundesliga games in his playing days, took charge of “die Bayern” for the first time on Saturday, ironically against the club for whom he made the majority of those appearances - Borussia Mönchengladbach. Munich’s former assistant coach proved a breath of fresh air for those fans proclaiming through banner “Danke Uli (Hoeneß – the manager who deposed of Klinsmann) für die Erlösung” meaning ‘Thanks for the Salvation’ – a strong word in the sectarian South. Heynckes was to oversee a dearth of quality disguised at the end of the first half by a flurry of goals, Bastien Schweinsteiger setting the ball rolling with his 5th of the season in the 33rd minute before Hamit Altintop capped off a fine individual display by creaming a crackerjack of a goal past Logan Bailly 8 minutes later. Gladbach had leveled with a penalty from Filip Daems on 38 minutes after Bayern keeper Hans-Jorg Butt had fumbled on a routine manoeuvre and sent the onrushing Roel Brouwers tumbling in the area.

But that was to be the high point for the visitors as Bayern flooded forward after the break and were unfortunate that, though never pretty, their flowing football inevitably reached the incapable Italian Luca Toni who at one stage was given the freedom of Bavaria to watch and wait for a dinked Altintop set-up before pulling his head back, throwing his full weight behind the ball and somehow failing to make any sort of contact from 4 yards, reinforcing the belief in his lack of any form of technical awareness as another Bayern chance went begging. Munich remain second with Gladbach second from bottom but both clubs face similarly uncertain futures with newly installed favourite for the Bayern hotseat Louis van Gaal yesterday insisting he would stay in Holland and original target Guus Hiddink proving an unrealistic appointment to say the least.

“Magath – Geld oder Liebe?” (Money or love?) read the sign at the VW-Arena as Wolfsburg trainer Felix Magath continued to fuel speculation by ‘taking the 5th’ to suggestions he is to relinquish his post at the end of the season to take the reins at rivals Schalke 04 in the summer. His counterpart on Saturday, Hoffenheim’s Ralf Rangwick, would appear to be the favourite to succeed Magath and he too refused to commit to his current employers by admitting his disgust at the mediocrity being currently carried out at the club.

The two trainers are experiencing vastly contrasting fortunes of late, however, with Magath’s Wolves sitting atop the pile on a run of 13 successive home wins while Rangwick’s Hoffs are 12 games without a victory and once “der Mann des Tages” (man of the day) Edin Dzeko had broken the deadlock on 65 minutes here it was one-way traffic. The puberty-struck Serbian went on to notch a German hat-trick (all in one half) before his partner-in-crime Grafite scored from the spot in the closing stages, Andreas Beck seeing red for the preceeding foul. Wolfsburg now boast the league’s top two scorers, Grafite having plundered 23 with Dzeko hurtling towards him on 19, level with Bayer Leverkusen’s Patrick Helmes.

Schalke vs Leverkusen was billed as the battle of the “Torwarts” (goalkeepers) as young upstart Manuel Neuer, on the back of an impressive campaign, was upstaged by his more experienced counterpart, Rene Adler - German number 1 Robert Enke’s official understudy - at the Veltins Arena. Adler produced a string of top-drawer stops to preserve Bayer’s lead on Saturday, established after Patrick Helmes’s 19th goal of the season squirmed underneath Neuer and then Renato Augusto beat the young pretender at his near post with less than half an hour gone, Kevin Kuranyi eventually clawing one back in the closing stages, having been denied by Adler on no fewer than 4 previous occasions. With both teams seemingly out of the running for European places, the most significant impact of this result moves “Herbstmeister” Hoffenheim down to a depressing 9th after they were overrun by Wolfsburg on Saturday.

Supporters of Schalke’s nearest rivals Borussia Dortmund travelled to Frankfurt on Saturday with high hopes as 10,000 pitched up to see Jurgen Klopp's unit dismantle their hosts by way of a clinical finish from ‘supersub’ Mohammed Zidan and a Habib Bellaid “Eigentor” (own goal) in the last 10 minutes to secure 3 points for the 6th game running. Apparently, the day that match tickets went on sale Dortmund fans simply snapped up seats online in the home section which borders their allocated area and extended their curve into one entire end of the 51,500 capacity Commerzbank Arena. (If only it were that easy in England!) Their ingenuity was rewarded with a win which probably even allowed them to enjoy a world-class save from opposition keeper Markus Proll to deny Nelson Valdez with his feet in spectacular fashion in the second half. Dortmund are now 6th and while they will be dreaming of Europe next year Frankfurt will be enduring nightmares of competing in Germany’s second tier as they stand a mere 6 points from the drop zone with 4 to play.

Sunday saw FC Köln beat Werder Bremen somewhat fortunately for a crucial 1st win in 6 months at their Rhein Energie Stadion to arrest an alarming recent slide and cement, if not set in stone, their Bundesliga status for next season. Werder had rested key personnel ahead of their UEFA-Cup semi-final 2nd leg in Hamburg on Thursday but still managed to dominate possession for large parts and did create chances, the most inviting of which was wasted by the confidence-stricken Markus Rosenberg in the 12th minute with the goal at his mercy. Werder have only won 3 times in the league since the turn of the year and when Milivoje Novakovic opened the Köln account on 61 minutes with a far-too-close-range finish there was only going to be one outcome. Köln now lie just 4 points off Werder in 10th spot.

The other Sunday game involved two title contenders at the HSH Nordbank Arena as HSV Hamburg pitted their wits against Hertha Berlin. When HSV’s Ivica Olic left Steve von Bergen with the proverbial twisted blood and provided Marcell Jansen with his 3rd goal of the campaign - a personal best - he put his side on course for joint second in the table and Hertha for 5th. Surely a loss for either team would have ended all title aspirations but with Hertha’s hopes hanging by a thread a Gojko Kacar netbuster rose and rocketed into the top corner of Frank Rost’s goal in the 67th minute to leave things all square.

It was a thoroughly enticing game, Piotr Trochowski constantly a threat from set-pieces for the hosts, Cicero probing influentially from the Hertha midfield, the players obviously aware of the finest of lines being trodden by both parties as 4 penalty claims were correctly waved away by the coolest of officials during the course of the 90 minutes. This was very much a day for goalkeepers and Jaroslav Drobny’s superb one-handed diversion of a Joris Mathijsen header in the last minute ensured both teams remained in the fray, with the Berliners 3rd and HSV in 5th, 5 points behind the leaders.

The fight for survival lives on for all 5 sides at the foot of the table after Hannover gained their first away win for over a year thanks to headed Arnold Bruggink and Hanno Balitsch goals on Friday night at VFL Bochum, who recorded their 4th straight home defeat and now face daunting trips to Berlin and Hamburg before the season’s end. A solitary point below Bochum are Energie Cottbus, who could only achieve a scoreless “Unentsheiden” (draw) away to bottom club Karlsruhe, who have scored three goals since October and prop up the rest on 23 points from 30 matches played, 4 points from Cottbus’ position of security.

With Gladbach 17th on 24 points, having been dispatched at the Allianz Arena, Arminia Bielefeld had a chance to extend the gap between themselves and the two teams in the automatic relegation places and did so with a dramatic draw at home to Vfb Stuttgart on Saturday. Bilefeld have only 2 home wins to their name in this campaign and have paraded flags all round the city centre in an attempt to drum up support in their bid to avoid the dreaded relegation play-offs at the end of this month. Having gone behind firstly to Matthieu Delpierre’s 1st goal in 3 and a half years before equalising when Christopher Katongo found himself in acres of space to nod home on the half-hour mark, the 25,800 capacity crowd at the "ausverkauft" (sold out) Schüco Arena stadium saw their side fall behind again when Thomas Hitzlsperger’s trademark hammer forced the ball to swerve, dip then caress the underside of the bar on its way home in the 34th minute to leave the hosts precariously placed at the interval.

Markus Babbel’s impact upon this Stuttgart side has been tremendous and they seemed set to never cease their surge up the rankings since his arrival. But the juggernaut came to a shuddering halt as fortunes took a turn for the worse for both manager and players alike in the second half. The resurgence of Mario Gomez has recently seen no bounds but he twice had to watch efforts roll agonisingly wide before hitting a post late on and when their hero Hitzlsperger brought down Thorben Marx with 20 minutes to play home substitute Vlad Munteanu rammed in the penalty to claim a welcome point for Bielefeld. Stuttgart’s other scorer, the Frenchman Delpierre, also picked up his 5th booking of the season, meaning he will miss the all-important clash with Wolfsburg next week and gives Babbel a dilemma he must deal with if the ’Stuttgart Story’ is to rumble on for another week. As a result of Saturday’s turnaround Stuttgart fall to 4th and Bielefeld stay 16th, although now a mere point from safety.