Braced for the Bundesliga?

Hannover 96 1-1 Borussia Dortmund (43,754)

Following matchday 5’s trouncing at the hands of Bayern Munich, Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp gave a restrained team talk on the pitch before engaging his squad in light, “meditative-like” rest and recuperation sessions on Monday. This patient approach seemed to have paid off in week 6 as the BVB pummeled their hosts Hannover throughout an entirely one-sided 1st half, only to be thwarted by the in-form Florian Fromlowitz, deputizing for the 96ers’ injured German number 1, Robert Enke. It somehow took Dortmund until a minute before the break to make their dominance count, Nuri Sahin’s 1st of the season finally breaking the deadlock at the AWD-Arena. However, their lead was short lived. Ivory Coast international striker Didier Ya Konan, signed from Rosenborg during the summer, capitalized on space afforded him after a quickly taken throw-in and scored with a powerful, rising effort that caught Roman Weidenfeller out at his near post for his 1st in German football and leveled the scores 3 minutes after the turnaround. It was a game ridden with errors and Klopp’s already thin patience may have turned anorexic had Ya Konan seized on another mistake to win the game in the latter stages. Klopp will hope his side soon snaps out of its relaxed state as the BVB currently sit a place below their opponents and in a potentially perilous position in 13th place.

VfL Bochum 2-3 1 FSV Mainz 05 (16,225)

Klopp’s former club, Mainz, now managed by a man of similar appearance if not style to the Dortmund coach, Thomas Tuchel, have enjoyed a wonderful start to life in the top tier this season. Having already accounted for the mighty Bayern Munich in week 3, they climbed to 5th in the table on Saturday after a hard-fought win against Bochum at the rewirpower Stadion. Mimoun Azaouagh put Bochum ahead with his 3rd of a fruitful campaign on 7 minutes before a flurry of goals in and around the interval saw Andreas Ivanschitz equalize right on the 45 minute mark with a stooping header and Diego Klimowicz put the home side back in front in injury time with a controlled volley. Andre Schürrle then drew Mainz level again with a clipped finish 7 minutes after the restart and the 18-year-old struck a second 20 minutes later when he was presented with an open goal after some penalty-box pinball to seal the win. The VfL were already feeling the heat from 17th spot even before fans set home-made posters alight in the stands in protest against the management and the club were forced to sack coach Marcel Koller on Monday.

Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-4 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (46,511)

Hoffenheim had to come from behind to claim 3 points on Saturday after a fast start from Mönchengladbach, Juan Arango giving Gladbach the early advantage when the Venezuelan captain blasted home his 2nd of the season from 25 yards. While Hoffenheim’s Timo Hildebrand was faultless for the opener, the German stopper had to hold his hands up for spoon-feeding Raul Marcelo Bobadilla’s tame effort to the onrushing Roberto Colautti to make it 2 after just 17 minutes at Borussia Park. With Hoffenheim’s solid defensive start to the season out of the window, they went about doing what they do best and attacking. It took just 4 minutes to reduce the arrears but only thanks to a huge chunk of luck, Sejad Salihovic’s free-kick somehow squeezing past a clearly confused Logan Bailly in the Gladbach goal. TSG survived some swift play on the counter and a hearty handball shout in front of a pumped up crowd, then struck 3 times in the final 5 minutes, substitute De Matos Maicosuel composure personified as the Brazilian’s ice-cold finish found the far corner and his effort was followed by a Chinedu Obasi header and a deft Demab Ba dink to put Hoffenheim 4th and slip the Foals back into the bottom half.

FC Schalke 04 1-2 VfL Wolfsburg (61,000)

Former Wolf Felix Magath was beaten by his old charges in the Veltins Arena on Friday night as two Edin Dzeko finishes either side of a Benedikt Höwedes strike gave Wolfsburg the win that lifts them into the top half while Schalke drop to just 2 places above their guests, in 7th place. The game was goalless at half-time before two headers from set-pieces looked to have given the sides a share of the spoils. But just 80 seconds after Höwedes had cancelled out his first effort, Bosnian striker Dzeko notched his second of the game by drilling the ball low past Manuel Neuer from a Makoto Hasebe centre with 9 minutes to play and despite Kevin Kuranyi hitting the inside of the post towards the end the visitors held on to give new coach Armin Veh and his champions a timely boost after a sloppy start this time around. Schalke appear to be headed in the opposite direction after a bright opening to the season and Magath will hope for a big return from the derby in Dortmund next weekend to reinvigorate his new club.

VfB Stuttgart 0-2 1 FC Köln (41,000)

It is fair to say that Markus Babbel’s honeymoon period as Stuttgart trainer is well and truly over. After a phenomenal run at the back end of last season, VfB have started this campaign extremely sluggishly and, following a 0-2 home defeat at the hands of Köln on Saturday, they are now only 1 place and 1 point above the relegation zone. Köln have also endured a miserable start to the season under new coach Zvonimir Soldo, who played alongside Babbel for Stuttgart in the 90’s, but they leapt off the foot of the table to 16th with this win after newly signed striker Sebastien Freis, brought in from Karlsruhe in the summer but overshadowed thus far by the return of Lukas Podolski, netted his 1st for the club with a powerfully planted header 25 minutes in.

Then it was the Jens Lehmann show. Now, far be it from me to revel in another’s misfortune but, as the senile stopper advanced more than 40 yards from his goal and attempted to chest the ball down before being dispossessed and presenting Wilfried Sanou with an empty net, one couldn’t help but wonder how many games he has left at this level. It was eccentric in the extreme and it may no longer be deemed a necessary evil by Babbel as ever more marbles are misplaced in Lehmannland.

FC Bayern München 2-1 1 FC Nürnberg (69,000)

The Bayern Derby began with an emotional address from München manager Uli Hoeneß in remembrance of Dominik Brunner, who was beaten and kicked to death trying to protect a group of children from being attacked last week in a Munich train station. While this event helped put the two sides’ rivalry into perspective, it didn’t diminish FCN coach Michael Oenning’s sense of achievement after his attack-minded substitution allowed Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting to cancel out Ivica Olic’s 2nd of the season at the start of the 2nd half with his first contribution in the 73rd minute on Saturday. The neuzugang from HSV’s1st 2 touches controlled, the 3rd converted what would have been the game’s crucial goal had Daniel van Buyten not risen to head home an Arjen Robben cross and break Nürnberg hearts 10 minutes later. That win at the Allianz Arena was enough to take Bayern into the top 3, while FCN stay 14th, 2 points off the bottom.

Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 Hamburger SV (51,500)

Frankfurt have enjoyed an encouraging opening to the new campaign and continued their impressive form at the Commerzbank Arena on Sunday by holding league leaders Hamburg to a score draw despite falling behind to a Ze Roberto header as early as the 8th minute, as HSV scored 1st for the 6th time out of 6 this season. It was Marco Russ who provided the killer touch on 32 minutes after some beautifully worked 1-touch football created space for the man from Hanau to thread a low volley through Frank Rost’s legs and claim a vital point to keep his side 6th in the standings. Bruno Labbadia’s HSV stay top as a result of Bayer Leverkusen’s draw in Bremen.

Hertha BSC Berlin 0-4 SC Freiburg (38,176)

Hertha officials insist that coach Lucien Favre has not been given an ultimatum regarding the team’s results in 2009/10 but the Swiss tactician will surely not be afforded a repeat of Sunday’s performance at the Olympiastadion which saw the hosts carved apart by newly promoted Freiburg in a 4-goal drubbing that left the “Old Lady” of Berlin mugged, helpless and hoping to be put out of her misery. Favre may yet suffer a similar fate if he cannot arrest a slump that has seen his side lose 5 games in succession and slip to the bottom rung on the Bundesliga ladder, and it may be “Siegen oder fliegen” in their fixture away to Hoffenheim next Sunday.

Sunday’s debacle began with 19-year-old Sascha Burchert in goal in place of the injured Jaroslav Drobny and the keeper soon seemed out of his depth as goals flew past him with alarming regularity. The teenage stopper’s cause was not helped by slapstick defending that allowed Ivica Banovic the freedom of the capital to open the scoring after just 6 minutes and it was downhill from there. Freiburg’s measured build-up play should not be dismissed but it was far too easy to pick their passes at the heart of the home defence and find Cedrick Makiadi utterly undetected in the 12th minute to double their lead. It could and should have been more even before a hopeful long ball was latched onto by Mohamadou Idrissou, who made the game safe before the turnaround with an arrowed effort into the top corner. Hertha started the second period brighter but wasted decent situations by choosing to ignore options and shoot from distance before the away side, who had taken their foot off the pedal considerably and had slowed to a rush-hour crawl, rubbed industrial salt into the gaping wound as Banovic again strolled through the Berlin backbone to slot home past a bewildered Burchert on 68 minutes and take SCF up into a creditable 11th.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0-0 Werder Bremen (30,210)

Jupp Heynckes’ men missed the chance to go top of the table at the weekend as Werder took a valuable point from the Bay Arena on Sunday. It could have been even better for Bremen but the good work of Marko Marin was not followed up by an end product that has been missing since the injury to Mesut Özil earlier in the season. Had the German international been a little more imposing than his 1,70m frame he may have applied a finishing touch to Aaron Hunt’s first half pass but he narrowly failed to make contact. Bayer had their chances in a more animated 2nd half as Stefan Kießling had a goal correctly disallowed for offside and Arturo Vidal should have done better when put through by Toni Kroos late on but found Tim Wiese in imperious form as he tried to chip the big German international. The stalemate leaves Bayer 2nd on goal difference as Werder lose ground on the top 2 and slip to 8th.