5 places and 3 points separate the contenders for the Bundesliga “Meisterschaft” (Championship) with 5 rounds remaining as a couple of considerable upsets look to have reshaped the league landscape for the umpteenth time this season.
Energie Cottbus somehow overcame table-toppers Vfl Wolfsburg at the Stadion der Freundschaft on Sunday to cap a marvelous turnaround after the club refunded fans who had travelled to see last week’s 4-goal drubbing at the hands of Schalke 04. The goals came in the last 20 minutes from Dimitar Rangelov and Ervin Skela respectively to give Cottbus the points and their success allied with the 1-1 draw played out simultaneously between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Arminia Bielefeld at Borussia-Park - goals from Karim Matmour and Robert Tesche ensuring a stalemate - leaves the East Germans 15th with 26 points, with Bielefeld having 25 and Gladbach on 24 although both sides below Cottbus boast a better goal difference as the gaps continue to close in a congested bottom 5.
Wolfsburg’s defeat rules out the possibility of Felix Magath eclipsing his own record of 15 consecutive wins at the helm but the Wolves do remain 2 points clear of second-placed Hertha Berlin with 29 games played.
Saturday’s biggest shock came from rock-bottom Karlsruhe SC as they grabbed an away win at the expense of Bayer Leverkusen, who are still without a win at their temporary home in Dusseldorf. The manner in which the win was achieved stirred memories of fairytale finishes of the past, including Frankfurt’s 5-1 win to earn a final day reprieve in 1999 clinched by a last-minute goal from Jan Aage Fjortoft (remember him at Swindon in the first season of the Prem?.
KSC’s fate has been seemingly sealed for some time but after a winner like theirs on Saturday there is always hope of the great escape. Defender Sebastien Langkamp admitted afterwards that his challenge near the half-way line had been aimed at seeing the ball into the “tribune” (stand) if only to halt a potential counter attack coming his way. That the ball gloriously flew upwards and sailed beyond the stranded German international keeper Rene Adler for a goal from 46.5m reminiscent of Jason Cundy in 1993 exceeded his wildest expectations as well as those of his team-mates, who acclaimed him as if he had just won them the Championship. Perhaps the 2nd division Championship, allowing them to fast-forward 12 months and embark upon their adventure all over again.
Karlsruhe remain bottom but won’t feel quite so lonely this morning as they gaze up at the 4 teams within 2 wins of them. Leverkusen are 9th and appear momentarily incapable of rediscovering their scent for goal with star striker Patrick Helmes scoreless since February and substitute Angelos Charisteas wasting a great opportunity to gain parity in “die Nachspielzeit” (injury time) on Saturday.
Scores of ‘warm-hearted sisters’ known as the “Barmherzigeschwestern” of the Holy Vincent from Pall were among the 69,000 who witnessed a colourful contest at the Allianz Arena on Saturday at the request of Munich chief Uli Hoeneß after they had knitted him his very own lucky scarf, but Bayern Munich were beaten 1-0 at home by Schalke 04 – a result which has seriously undermined their Championship bid.
The biggest surprise was that there were not more goals, saves at both ends keeping the match beautifully poised until its very last kick. The final shot-stopping contribution came from Schalke’s young number 1 Manuel Neuer, who reacted to his tipping over the bar of a swerving Hamit Altintop effort by racing to the corner flag and ripping it from the turf, an exact replica of former Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn’s celebration after pipping Schalke to the title in 2001 – an event watched by the 15-year-old Neuer in disbelief from Schalke’s former Park Stadion home, to which he later testified in the post-match interview.
It was the lesser-celebrated of the two Turkish brothers, Schalke’s Halil Altintop, who was to make the telling touch at the other end with a free header from a Christian Pander corner midway through the first half and take his team up to 6th in the table. But it was the four yellow cards and the two subsequent reds accrued by the guests’ Jermaine Jones and the hosts’ Franck Ribery that were to provide the bite to empower an already potentially poisonous atmosphere.
The home side was jeered off at the end, while cries of “Klinsmann raus!” reverberated around the Allianz, the spectators’ voices echoing ever louder as their side’s season spirals further into an abyss of mediocrity. Ribery saw much of the ball but appeared dis-spirited and at times disinterested as he continues to create, unassisted by his colleagues, his sending-off in the 76th minute a sign of the Frenchman’s frustration. Luca Toni failed to register a single shot, whether on target or off, during another fruitless 90 minutes and on one occasion was too busy pleading for a penalty to follow up a Mark van Bommel effort parried into his previous path. While 3rd in a 5-horse race all is not lost for Klinsmann’s side but any additional slip-ups could push the club back into the forbidden forest of UEFA-Cup Football and render the coach’s position untenable.
Two games that both resulted in 2-0 home wins, supported by a combined total of 135,552 fans, were to prove significant in the fluctuating momentum of the sides in the title hunt on Saturday with Vfb Stuttgart easing past 11th placed Eintracht Frankfurt whilst Hamburger HSV were dealt a blow by Borussia Dortmund.
Ludovic Magnin’s centre followed by Cacau’s bullet near post header were enough to give in-form Stuttgart the lead at the Mercedes Benz Arena and when stand-in skipper Mario Gomez was given the freedom of the West to see his scuffed shot over the line for the 19th goal – his 12th since January - of an increasingly triumphant campaign they were home and dry, despite Martin Fenin extending his advantage at the head of the “Aluminiumtreffer” (shots against the woodwork) charts by taking his tally to 6 and Cacau replying with one of his own by way of a fiersome half-volley tipped onto the post by Markus Proll late on. The win takes Markus Babbel’s boys behind Bayern in 3rd by virtue only of the Müncheners’ superior goal difference.
Hamburg had themselves started the day “punktgleich” (on the same number of points as) Munich but, after Neven Subotic had issued an early warning in the form of a long-range piledriver which skimmed the bar, Nuri Sahin’s aerial assist provided captain Sebastien Kehl the space in which to apply a measured first-time finish through Timo Rost’s legs and hand Dortmund the initiative on 32 minutes. Then, having survived one penalty scare, the away side were to eventually concede a spot-kick in the final minute, one which was put away without fuss by Swiss striker Alexander Frei to lift Jurgen Klopp’s energetic outfit into 7th and leave Hamburg, for whom Ivica Olic headed against the crossbar when trailing 1-0, the lowest-ranked of the 5 teams still harbouring title ambitions and their trainer Martin Jol has a severe selection headache ahead of their UEFA-Cup semi-final clash with rivals Werder Bremen on Thursday.
Hertha BSC leapt back into the title mix with a fortunate 1-0 win away to 1899 Hoffenheim on Friday night. The Herthaner’s 13th win by a single-goal cushion this season was earned through the awareness of playmaker Raffael to turn delightfully and burst into space from which Marko Pantelic found Patrick Ebert and the young German forced the ball in at Timo Hildebrand’s near post from the first attack of the game. Substitute Boubacar Sanogo again struck the woodwork in the second half to keep up his chase of Martin Fenin in the Aluminium stakes but the only sour note for the Berliners will be the continuingly indifferent performances of Pantelic. The former fans’ favourite was again hauled off before the end and when asked as to the situation with trainer Lucien Favre he responded with a deeply unconvincing and deadpan “Alles is wunderschön” (Everything’s wonderful). Despite carrying this baggage Hertha have hoisted themselves back into 2nd and can look forward to proving their credentials next week when they face Hamburg. Hoffenheim are 8th and in freefall and cannot wait for the summer break to give their overstretched squad an opportunity to achieve a clean bill of health for the first time since late last year.
When Vfl Bochum took a two-goal lead against Werder Bremen at the Weserstadion on Saturday, some of the home players would have been forgiven for beginning to think ahead to the more prevalent task of tackling their bitter rivals in Europe in midweek, but with Thomas Schaff calling for pride in what is left of this league campaign that was never likely to be contemplated. Bochum striker Stanislav Sestak had scored only 4 times all season before his hat-trick heroics in Hoffenheim two weeks ago and he struck twice in the first half here to put the hosts under the kosh at the interval.
Both goals had come from Werder mistakes and whatever was said in the dressing room at half-time all but eradicated any further errors as a flowing passing move culminated with Hugo Almeida tapping into an empty net after 54 minutes to give the hosts a way back into the contest. Naldo’s surging run, neat interchange and unerring finish then set up a grandstand finish and when Clemens Fritz’s up-and-under was brought down with ease by Diego with 10 minutes to play there was only ever going to be one outcome. The Brazilian turned on a sixpence and blasted the ball high into the Bochum goal to complete the comeback and cement Werder’s place in 10th, denying their guests what would have been a vital victory and dropping them to 15th place, 3 points the right side of the relegation line.
Hannover 96 and FC Köln met at the AWD-Arena on Saturday, with the points destined for “Entstation Enke” the German number one Robert Enke having held off numerous challengers this year to emerge as the leading candidate to solve the goalkeeping conundrum at Bayern Munich next season. He was on top form here to thwart a heavily improved second half display from the visitors, after two former Bremen players; Christian Schulz and Leon Andreasen combined to open the scoring for Hannover. Schulz’s lofted through-ball was guided in by Andreasen with a classy in-step volley and the former Fulham bench-warmer was on target again when Arnold Bruggink’s lifted pass presented him with a one-on-one situation for the second time with 32 minutes gone. Köln fought back and reduced the deficit within moments of the restart when Milivoje Novakovic turned in a drilled Nemanja Vucicevic cross for his 15th of the season. Köln now sit 12th - not yet technically safe but most likely holding enough in the locker to carry them over the finishing line. Hannover are now level with them on 32 points, 7 up from the division’s danger area.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Bask in the Bundesliga
This week contains a special feature on the match between Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen.
Week 28 was another to forget for fans of Energie Cottbus. With their team struggling near the foot of the Bundesliga and seemingly destined for relegation at the end of next month, thousands braved the trip West to Schalke 04 only to return short-changed as their side were comprehensively out-classed by their opponents. Schalke created 4 very aesthetically pleasing goals, evenly spaced out over the 90 minutes, from Christian Pander, Halil Altintop, Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi - in the 4th, 23rd, 60th and 88th minutes respectively - making the visitors appear as comfortable in this league as fish out of water. However, as it turns out the one thing the travelling faithful will not be this morning is out of pocket. The club has decided that the display offered by the team was so inept and so inexcusable that they are consoling those who endured this Friday night fiasco with full refunds. Not that that is likely to arrest a slide which has seen Energie slip to 17th place in the table, more so it is the hope that there might just be 3 teams out there worse than them which may lift the gloom as they currently stand a single point from safety.
Karlsruhe went into their game against Hoffenheim at the Wildparkstadion on the back of 753 goaless minutes amid calls of "Becker raus!" (coach Becker out!) but were fortunate that while they welcomed back their captain Mike Franz after a long lay-off, Ralf Rangwick's visiting outfit continued to be decimated by the level of injury and suspension that has catastrophically curtailed the club's climb towards the German crown. This was not helped by the absurd aggressivity of their Brazilian midfielder Luis Gustavo, who was booked twice within 3 minutes approaching the game's climax for two 'orange' offences and then followed through on the second bruising challenge by shoving his victim over maliciously as the referee was attempting to appease the situation.
It had begun so well for the guests as Fejae Salihovic had produced a sharp turn and an adroit finish to put them ahead after half an hour. But KSC hit back to break the second-longest stalemate in Bundesliga history (Köln consequently keep their unwanted title) with a remarkably composed finish from Sebastien Freis, having beaten a poorly-laid Hoffenheim offside trap, to go in at half-time level. However, Hoffenheim took advantage of some statuesque defending by the home side to score a training ground goal 3 minutes after the turnaround, stand-in skipper Selim Teber easing into the area to convert a routine header from 8 yards. It seemed at that stage that the league's presumed wooden-spoonists were set to surrender another 3 points, but such has been the demise of Hoffenheim during this second half of the season that when Giovani Federico equalised with a tidy finish with nearly half an hour still to play the momentum was suddenly with the hosts. Their pressure so nearly told, too, as Federico was put through at the death - only to leave his manager forlorn on his hands and knees in despair and the contents of his pockets spilled onto the turf by sliding his shot against the inside of the far upright and into the arms of the grateful Ramazan Ozcan. The draw leaves Hoffenheim 8th, having been top at Christmas, and Karlsruhe still anchored to the bottom, an eye-opening 5 point chasm separating themselves from safety.
Marginally above Cottbus, occupying the least threatening of the relegation places, is Borussia Mönchengladbach and, after showing real signs of recovery at the turn of the year, they have slumped in form and were beaten 4-1 by Frankfurt at the Commerzbank Arena on Saturday, goals from Alexander Meier, Nikos Liberopoulos, Marko Russ and Michael Fink rendering Filip Daems' 75th minute spot-kick irrelevant and leaving Gladbach in real need of inspiration if they intend to maintain their top-flight status next season. Frankfurt's win after this impressive showing takes them up into 11th for the first time since before the Winter break and almost certainly guarantees them first division Football next year.
The two sides nearest to danger are, and have been for most of the campign, Arminia Bielefeld and Vfl Bochum who both faced tricky home games at the weekend. Whereas Bochum went down rather timidly to Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund team 2-0, an early Patrick Owomoyela strike and a 54th minute effort from Nelson Valdez doing the damage, Bielefeld held their own with a little more defiance as they lost by the odd goal to Bayern Munich. Granted, the better chances inevitably fell to the away side in front of a sell-out crowd of 27,800 during a scrappy game cluttered with yellow cards but at the final whistle one was given the impression that without the reliable Franck Ribery in their ranks, Bayern may have struggled to break through Bielefeld's outer armoury, let alone put them to the sword. On 54 minutes the Frenchman flighted a teasing centre onto the greasy forehead of Luca Toni to present the whinger with a chance that even he couldn't pass up to break the deadlock with his 12th of the season.
Having said that, the as usual unimpressive, intelligence-devoid Italian did also manage to "force" a double save from Bielefeld stopper Dennis Eilhoff after being put through by another pin-point pass and presented with 2 gilt-edged opprtunities wrapped in 1 shortly before the end to undo some of his earlier good work. Bielefeld remain only 1 point ahead of Gladbach, with Bochum also 5 points clear of the boys from Borussia-Park. Bayern remain second, 3 points behind leaders Wolfsburg, and have not been on top of the pile all season long. However, there is an encouraging precedent for them, set in the 1985/6 season as Munich failed to snatch top spot until the very last matchday, at a time when current manager Uli Hoeneß was a member of the playing roster.
Felix Magath's side seem to be chasing the record for how many records can be beaten this season. Their "Zuschauerrekord" (attendance record) stands at 463,929 people through the turnstiles this year and that success has been replicated on the pitch by 13 league wins and 1 draw at the VW-Arena this season. They are currently on a run of 10 successive wins home and away, in search of the record of 15, held by Magath himself while in charge at Bayern in 2005. And their top marksman, the colossal Brazilian Grafite, has notched 25 goals in 23 appearances in total, 22 of those coming in the Bundesliga. He was on target to put the hosts into the lead with a 23rd-minute penalty against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, although the way in which the South American striker 'earned' his 9th penalty of the season was less appealing, a blatant dive conning the referee into awarding the "Elfmeter" (penalty - literally, 11 metres) which he duly dispatched low to the keeper's right with little regard for righteousness.
Leverkusen deservedly hit back after an energetic display allowed them to create numerous openings in a predictably open game of Football. Good work from Simon Rolfes and Stefan Kießling provided the on-loan Bayern attacker Toni Kroos space in which to control the ball with some tidy footwork and toe-poke home from the edge of the box for his first of the season. Wolfsburg could have already been out of sight at that stage had the referee deemed Bayer keeper and German number 2 Rene Adler's charge and subsequent rugby tackle on the pole-axed Grafite 40 yards from goal on the stroke of half-time as worthy of more than a free-kick in a game dominated by poor decisions.
As it was they were made to wait until the 85th minute, when one of the many beautiful slide-rule passes played through by the outstanding Zvjezdan Misimovic again found its target and, having previously wasted several chances for which he was berated by his strike partner Edin Dzeko throughout the game and beyond the final whistle, Grafite this time finished with aplomb to secure the victory. The Munich-born midfield playmaker Misimovic now has 19 assists to his name in 2008/9 and refuses to be outshone by his more-celebrated team mates. But before the party could start, the proceedings could not be brought to a close without one final aberration from the man in the middle. In added time the referee's failure to acknowledge an astonishingly obvious handball from the home side on the 6-yard line compounded his awarding of an earlier spot-kick at the same end in favour of the hosts in the first half, sealing one final record-achieving feat from Wolfsburg, who have now amassed a whopping 31 points from a possible 33, unchartered territory for any Bundesliga team at this stage of the run-in. Luckless Leverkusen will resume hostilities from 9th position in their challenge for a European place and will hope that the largely ineffective Patrick Helmes will rediscover his scoring touch in time to steal a march on their fellow competitors.
Vfb Stuttgart temporarily rocketed to 3rd on Saturday, but their stay was short-lived as Hamburg regained the initiative with a win over Hannover 96 a day later. Markus Babbel's remarkable run continued, as did that of on-fire "stürmer" (striker) Mario Gomez by way of a 3-0 win in Köln, all three goals coming from their talisman. Title talk has been banned at the Mercedes Benz Arena despite the players claiming their first win over Köln in 12 years to put themselves within touching distance of a Champions League place and keep the club on course for a mammoth meeting with the division's other form side, Wolfsburg, in two weeks time; a game which could have huge ramifications as to the destination of the coveted shield this season. Köln dropped a place to 12th and are currently at a low ebb, but should more than fancy their chances of steering their way to safety over the next few weeks based on the majority of their performances since their return to the top flight last summer.
Hamburg were also indebted to a prolific marksman, in their case the marauding Mladen Petric, who seems to be relishing the effects of manager Martin Jol's rotation system and appeared fresh right from the word ‘go’ yesterday, drumming in a lethal left-footed volley in the very first minute of the contest before converting a far simpler opportunity early in the second period to establish what proved to be an unassailable lead for his side. This in spite of Mikkael Forsell's 6th of the season, coming after one of the harsher handball decisions seen this term had allowed the Finn to reduce the arrears with 20 minutes still on the clock. Hamburg maintain more than an outside chance of scoring what would be a historic treble of Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal (German FA Cup) and UEFA Cup, with local rivals Werder Bremen standing in their way in both cup competitions, ensuring a hectic yet exhillarating end to the schedule for their long-suffering supporters, who have been starved of success since the heady days of the 1980's when they could boast the likes of Kevin Keegan on their books. Hannover have no such endeavours on the cards come May and, with 6 games to play, will not feel assured of safety just yet.
As the travelling Werder Bremen contingent absorbed Per Mertesacker's scrappy opening goal at the Olympiastadion yesterday the song emanating from the away end asserted "You'll never be German Champions" and it says much about the ambitions of the visitors in this regard that they have resorted to taunting the Hertha Berlin fans for even attempting to break their Bundesliga duck and claim their first title since 1931, rather than retaining the hope of reviving their side's flagging fortunes and challenging for the top honour in German Football at any point in the foreseeable future. As it turned out, this gibe proved inconsequential on all counts, as the decision of trainer Thomas Schaaf to rest star performers Diego and Mesut Özil, in preparation for the midweek DFB-Pokal semi-final vs Hamburg, eventually caught up with an out-of-sorts front line and the Berliners capitalised on their own coach Lucien Favre's decisiveness to overturn the deficit and run out 2-1 winners in front of a boisterous crowd of nearly 70,000 on Sunday.
As a spectacle, the game suffered massively from the absence, not only of Diego and Özil, but of Andriy Voronin, Hertha's key man this season, who looked on from the stands sporting designer sunglasses (a look that originally appeared unnecessary but consequently was proven to be spot-on as even Tim Wiese disregarded topping up his tan and maintaining his hair-do to don a cap for large parts of the proceedings) and a look that betrayed his desire to return to Liverpool (officially announced this week) after the centre-forward failed in his appeal to have a 3-game ban overturned for a cynical hack on an opponent and a not-so-subtle nudge of the ball into the back of his upended opponent in his team's previous fixture. His replacement, Marko Pantelic, idolised by the home fans who reacted angrily to his substitution after an hour, was largely ineffectual and coach Favre's decision to cut his losses and haul the Serbian off was thoroughly vindicated when his strike partner Raffael combined with Hungarian midfielder Pal Dardai from a free-kick to present Josip Simunic with a headed chance that the Croat glanced up and over the disappointing Wiese and into the Werder net for the equaliser. Three attacking alterations from the increasingly popular Swiss tactician Favre were to pay dividends again as Pantelic's indirect replacement, the Tunisian Amine Charmiti provided the pass for Raffael's clincher.
Another defender had already come forward for a set-piece to give the away side the lead 2 minutes before the interval. The manner in which Mertesacker bundled the ball in (and there is clearly no word more appropriate than 'bundle' for the way in which the ball was forced home off a mixture of hand and foot via two other players) was not favourably comparable to the contribution of Simunic but was very much in keeping with a first half that had stopped short of offering absolutely nothing by threatening to offer very little. Apart from a free header that struck an upright but which owed as much to the way in which the cross was defended as to that with which it was created, and a precise passing move orchestrated by the uncompromising yet uninspiring Claudio Pizarro that resulted in a fierce Sebastien Prodl drive being fielded by home keeper Jaroslav Drobny, there were air-shots from both Maximilian Nicu and Gojko Kacar for Hertha and mis-hit efforts from Frank Baumann and Alexandros Tziolis for Werder to show for the efforts of 22 players over 45, at times excruciating, minutes.
The goal ensured a far more open affair in the second half and a welcome change of impetus from the home side. Hertha almost visibly moved up through the gears with relative ease but were still second-best to the commanding presence of Thorsten Frings in the visitors' midfield and were left vulnerable to the counter-attack on numerous occasions, one such move culminating in the most glaring miss of the afternoon from Werder substitute Peter Niemeyer after Frings had worked his way to the by-line and found Tziolis, who in turn did exceptionally well to rescue the move's momentum at full stretch, diverting the ball back into the path of Niemeyer who had the simplest of tasks to nod the ball home but headed over the bar with the goal gaping.
That was to be Werder's final opportunity to gain a foothold in yet another match that was to slip away from them. Following Simunic's leveller, sub Chermiti disposessed the labouring Naldo and released Raffael, whose effort deflected off Mertesacker and looped over the head of the again stranded Wiese to grab a crucial win for the hosts in their bid for glory, as the boys from the capital look to begin one final assault on the league Championship from 4th place. Werder have been focusing on the cups for some time now in their quest for silverware and two meetings with their arch-nemeses HSV Hamburg will decide their fate for next season.
Week 28 was another to forget for fans of Energie Cottbus. With their team struggling near the foot of the Bundesliga and seemingly destined for relegation at the end of next month, thousands braved the trip West to Schalke 04 only to return short-changed as their side were comprehensively out-classed by their opponents. Schalke created 4 very aesthetically pleasing goals, evenly spaced out over the 90 minutes, from Christian Pander, Halil Altintop, Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi - in the 4th, 23rd, 60th and 88th minutes respectively - making the visitors appear as comfortable in this league as fish out of water. However, as it turns out the one thing the travelling faithful will not be this morning is out of pocket. The club has decided that the display offered by the team was so inept and so inexcusable that they are consoling those who endured this Friday night fiasco with full refunds. Not that that is likely to arrest a slide which has seen Energie slip to 17th place in the table, more so it is the hope that there might just be 3 teams out there worse than them which may lift the gloom as they currently stand a single point from safety.
Karlsruhe went into their game against Hoffenheim at the Wildparkstadion on the back of 753 goaless minutes amid calls of "Becker raus!" (coach Becker out!) but were fortunate that while they welcomed back their captain Mike Franz after a long lay-off, Ralf Rangwick's visiting outfit continued to be decimated by the level of injury and suspension that has catastrophically curtailed the club's climb towards the German crown. This was not helped by the absurd aggressivity of their Brazilian midfielder Luis Gustavo, who was booked twice within 3 minutes approaching the game's climax for two 'orange' offences and then followed through on the second bruising challenge by shoving his victim over maliciously as the referee was attempting to appease the situation.
It had begun so well for the guests as Fejae Salihovic had produced a sharp turn and an adroit finish to put them ahead after half an hour. But KSC hit back to break the second-longest stalemate in Bundesliga history (Köln consequently keep their unwanted title) with a remarkably composed finish from Sebastien Freis, having beaten a poorly-laid Hoffenheim offside trap, to go in at half-time level. However, Hoffenheim took advantage of some statuesque defending by the home side to score a training ground goal 3 minutes after the turnaround, stand-in skipper Selim Teber easing into the area to convert a routine header from 8 yards. It seemed at that stage that the league's presumed wooden-spoonists were set to surrender another 3 points, but such has been the demise of Hoffenheim during this second half of the season that when Giovani Federico equalised with a tidy finish with nearly half an hour still to play the momentum was suddenly with the hosts. Their pressure so nearly told, too, as Federico was put through at the death - only to leave his manager forlorn on his hands and knees in despair and the contents of his pockets spilled onto the turf by sliding his shot against the inside of the far upright and into the arms of the grateful Ramazan Ozcan. The draw leaves Hoffenheim 8th, having been top at Christmas, and Karlsruhe still anchored to the bottom, an eye-opening 5 point chasm separating themselves from safety.
Marginally above Cottbus, occupying the least threatening of the relegation places, is Borussia Mönchengladbach and, after showing real signs of recovery at the turn of the year, they have slumped in form and were beaten 4-1 by Frankfurt at the Commerzbank Arena on Saturday, goals from Alexander Meier, Nikos Liberopoulos, Marko Russ and Michael Fink rendering Filip Daems' 75th minute spot-kick irrelevant and leaving Gladbach in real need of inspiration if they intend to maintain their top-flight status next season. Frankfurt's win after this impressive showing takes them up into 11th for the first time since before the Winter break and almost certainly guarantees them first division Football next year.
The two sides nearest to danger are, and have been for most of the campign, Arminia Bielefeld and Vfl Bochum who both faced tricky home games at the weekend. Whereas Bochum went down rather timidly to Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund team 2-0, an early Patrick Owomoyela strike and a 54th minute effort from Nelson Valdez doing the damage, Bielefeld held their own with a little more defiance as they lost by the odd goal to Bayern Munich. Granted, the better chances inevitably fell to the away side in front of a sell-out crowd of 27,800 during a scrappy game cluttered with yellow cards but at the final whistle one was given the impression that without the reliable Franck Ribery in their ranks, Bayern may have struggled to break through Bielefeld's outer armoury, let alone put them to the sword. On 54 minutes the Frenchman flighted a teasing centre onto the greasy forehead of Luca Toni to present the whinger with a chance that even he couldn't pass up to break the deadlock with his 12th of the season.
Having said that, the as usual unimpressive, intelligence-devoid Italian did also manage to "force" a double save from Bielefeld stopper Dennis Eilhoff after being put through by another pin-point pass and presented with 2 gilt-edged opprtunities wrapped in 1 shortly before the end to undo some of his earlier good work. Bielefeld remain only 1 point ahead of Gladbach, with Bochum also 5 points clear of the boys from Borussia-Park. Bayern remain second, 3 points behind leaders Wolfsburg, and have not been on top of the pile all season long. However, there is an encouraging precedent for them, set in the 1985/6 season as Munich failed to snatch top spot until the very last matchday, at a time when current manager Uli Hoeneß was a member of the playing roster.
Felix Magath's side seem to be chasing the record for how many records can be beaten this season. Their "Zuschauerrekord" (attendance record) stands at 463,929 people through the turnstiles this year and that success has been replicated on the pitch by 13 league wins and 1 draw at the VW-Arena this season. They are currently on a run of 10 successive wins home and away, in search of the record of 15, held by Magath himself while in charge at Bayern in 2005. And their top marksman, the colossal Brazilian Grafite, has notched 25 goals in 23 appearances in total, 22 of those coming in the Bundesliga. He was on target to put the hosts into the lead with a 23rd-minute penalty against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, although the way in which the South American striker 'earned' his 9th penalty of the season was less appealing, a blatant dive conning the referee into awarding the "Elfmeter" (penalty - literally, 11 metres) which he duly dispatched low to the keeper's right with little regard for righteousness.
Leverkusen deservedly hit back after an energetic display allowed them to create numerous openings in a predictably open game of Football. Good work from Simon Rolfes and Stefan Kießling provided the on-loan Bayern attacker Toni Kroos space in which to control the ball with some tidy footwork and toe-poke home from the edge of the box for his first of the season. Wolfsburg could have already been out of sight at that stage had the referee deemed Bayer keeper and German number 2 Rene Adler's charge and subsequent rugby tackle on the pole-axed Grafite 40 yards from goal on the stroke of half-time as worthy of more than a free-kick in a game dominated by poor decisions.
As it was they were made to wait until the 85th minute, when one of the many beautiful slide-rule passes played through by the outstanding Zvjezdan Misimovic again found its target and, having previously wasted several chances for which he was berated by his strike partner Edin Dzeko throughout the game and beyond the final whistle, Grafite this time finished with aplomb to secure the victory. The Munich-born midfield playmaker Misimovic now has 19 assists to his name in 2008/9 and refuses to be outshone by his more-celebrated team mates. But before the party could start, the proceedings could not be brought to a close without one final aberration from the man in the middle. In added time the referee's failure to acknowledge an astonishingly obvious handball from the home side on the 6-yard line compounded his awarding of an earlier spot-kick at the same end in favour of the hosts in the first half, sealing one final record-achieving feat from Wolfsburg, who have now amassed a whopping 31 points from a possible 33, unchartered territory for any Bundesliga team at this stage of the run-in. Luckless Leverkusen will resume hostilities from 9th position in their challenge for a European place and will hope that the largely ineffective Patrick Helmes will rediscover his scoring touch in time to steal a march on their fellow competitors.
Vfb Stuttgart temporarily rocketed to 3rd on Saturday, but their stay was short-lived as Hamburg regained the initiative with a win over Hannover 96 a day later. Markus Babbel's remarkable run continued, as did that of on-fire "stürmer" (striker) Mario Gomez by way of a 3-0 win in Köln, all three goals coming from their talisman. Title talk has been banned at the Mercedes Benz Arena despite the players claiming their first win over Köln in 12 years to put themselves within touching distance of a Champions League place and keep the club on course for a mammoth meeting with the division's other form side, Wolfsburg, in two weeks time; a game which could have huge ramifications as to the destination of the coveted shield this season. Köln dropped a place to 12th and are currently at a low ebb, but should more than fancy their chances of steering their way to safety over the next few weeks based on the majority of their performances since their return to the top flight last summer.
Hamburg were also indebted to a prolific marksman, in their case the marauding Mladen Petric, who seems to be relishing the effects of manager Martin Jol's rotation system and appeared fresh right from the word ‘go’ yesterday, drumming in a lethal left-footed volley in the very first minute of the contest before converting a far simpler opportunity early in the second period to establish what proved to be an unassailable lead for his side. This in spite of Mikkael Forsell's 6th of the season, coming after one of the harsher handball decisions seen this term had allowed the Finn to reduce the arrears with 20 minutes still on the clock. Hamburg maintain more than an outside chance of scoring what would be a historic treble of Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal (German FA Cup) and UEFA Cup, with local rivals Werder Bremen standing in their way in both cup competitions, ensuring a hectic yet exhillarating end to the schedule for their long-suffering supporters, who have been starved of success since the heady days of the 1980's when they could boast the likes of Kevin Keegan on their books. Hannover have no such endeavours on the cards come May and, with 6 games to play, will not feel assured of safety just yet.
As the travelling Werder Bremen contingent absorbed Per Mertesacker's scrappy opening goal at the Olympiastadion yesterday the song emanating from the away end asserted "You'll never be German Champions" and it says much about the ambitions of the visitors in this regard that they have resorted to taunting the Hertha Berlin fans for even attempting to break their Bundesliga duck and claim their first title since 1931, rather than retaining the hope of reviving their side's flagging fortunes and challenging for the top honour in German Football at any point in the foreseeable future. As it turned out, this gibe proved inconsequential on all counts, as the decision of trainer Thomas Schaaf to rest star performers Diego and Mesut Özil, in preparation for the midweek DFB-Pokal semi-final vs Hamburg, eventually caught up with an out-of-sorts front line and the Berliners capitalised on their own coach Lucien Favre's decisiveness to overturn the deficit and run out 2-1 winners in front of a boisterous crowd of nearly 70,000 on Sunday.
As a spectacle, the game suffered massively from the absence, not only of Diego and Özil, but of Andriy Voronin, Hertha's key man this season, who looked on from the stands sporting designer sunglasses (a look that originally appeared unnecessary but consequently was proven to be spot-on as even Tim Wiese disregarded topping up his tan and maintaining his hair-do to don a cap for large parts of the proceedings) and a look that betrayed his desire to return to Liverpool (officially announced this week) after the centre-forward failed in his appeal to have a 3-game ban overturned for a cynical hack on an opponent and a not-so-subtle nudge of the ball into the back of his upended opponent in his team's previous fixture. His replacement, Marko Pantelic, idolised by the home fans who reacted angrily to his substitution after an hour, was largely ineffectual and coach Favre's decision to cut his losses and haul the Serbian off was thoroughly vindicated when his strike partner Raffael combined with Hungarian midfielder Pal Dardai from a free-kick to present Josip Simunic with a headed chance that the Croat glanced up and over the disappointing Wiese and into the Werder net for the equaliser. Three attacking alterations from the increasingly popular Swiss tactician Favre were to pay dividends again as Pantelic's indirect replacement, the Tunisian Amine Charmiti provided the pass for Raffael's clincher.
Another defender had already come forward for a set-piece to give the away side the lead 2 minutes before the interval. The manner in which Mertesacker bundled the ball in (and there is clearly no word more appropriate than 'bundle' for the way in which the ball was forced home off a mixture of hand and foot via two other players) was not favourably comparable to the contribution of Simunic but was very much in keeping with a first half that had stopped short of offering absolutely nothing by threatening to offer very little. Apart from a free header that struck an upright but which owed as much to the way in which the cross was defended as to that with which it was created, and a precise passing move orchestrated by the uncompromising yet uninspiring Claudio Pizarro that resulted in a fierce Sebastien Prodl drive being fielded by home keeper Jaroslav Drobny, there were air-shots from both Maximilian Nicu and Gojko Kacar for Hertha and mis-hit efforts from Frank Baumann and Alexandros Tziolis for Werder to show for the efforts of 22 players over 45, at times excruciating, minutes.
The goal ensured a far more open affair in the second half and a welcome change of impetus from the home side. Hertha almost visibly moved up through the gears with relative ease but were still second-best to the commanding presence of Thorsten Frings in the visitors' midfield and were left vulnerable to the counter-attack on numerous occasions, one such move culminating in the most glaring miss of the afternoon from Werder substitute Peter Niemeyer after Frings had worked his way to the by-line and found Tziolis, who in turn did exceptionally well to rescue the move's momentum at full stretch, diverting the ball back into the path of Niemeyer who had the simplest of tasks to nod the ball home but headed over the bar with the goal gaping.
That was to be Werder's final opportunity to gain a foothold in yet another match that was to slip away from them. Following Simunic's leveller, sub Chermiti disposessed the labouring Naldo and released Raffael, whose effort deflected off Mertesacker and looped over the head of the again stranded Wiese to grab a crucial win for the hosts in their bid for glory, as the boys from the capital look to begin one final assault on the league Championship from 4th place. Werder have been focusing on the cups for some time now in their quest for silverware and two meetings with their arch-nemeses HSV Hamburg will decide their fate for next season.
Bundesliga Breached
"Was für eine Geschichte!" (What a story!)
This year's Bundesliga title race has been thoroughly unpredictable from the outset and events took another twist in Week 26. At the start of the "Spieltag" (matchday) a single point separated the top four sides, with Hertha Berlin, chasing their first Championship since before the 2nd World War, ahead by the tip of a nose.
However, Hertha's Olympiastadion fortress was ransacked on Saturday, as Borussia Dortmund ran out deserved 3-1 winners in an unsurprisingly open game of Football. Lucien Favre has brought a real verve to the Berliners since taking over last year but this season has seen them add discipline and tactical acumen to their attacking flair and has turned them into real contenders for the league crown. However, from the moment Alexander Frei put the visitors ahead with an angled finish in the 25th minute all defensive inclinations were forgotten as the hosts attempted to reward their sold out stadium with a vital victory. As the game was stretched the home side exerted a great deal of pressure on Jurgen Klopp's youthful Dortmund outfit but it wasn't until Raffael eased past three defenders and applied a classy finish to a move that he had started that the guests looked in any real danger of succumbing. It was only the Brazilian's 4th goal of the season but it was one worth waiting for as he belatedly showed signs of the reason behind his reputation as a match-winner just before the break, having been coach Favre's favourite player before following him from Switzerland to the German capital.
Dortmund have impressed in this campaign, though, losing just 4 games, all of which have come away from home, and a powerful header from skipper Sebastien Kehl in the 53rd minute along with a late Nelson Valdez effort that trickled in after Hertha keeper Jaroslav Drobny could only parry a long-range shot kept them in the top half and condemned Hertha to back-to-back defeats for the 1st time this season. Hertha's hero, the on-loan Andriy Voronin, was nursing a broken nose as a result of a clash with England captain John Terry at Wembley on Wednesday, and failed to make an impact on proceedings. His side drop to 3rd on the back of this disappointing defeat and will have to rebuild very quickly if they intend to challenge for top honours this season.
Vfl Wolfsburg and Bayern München were equal on all counts prior to Saturday's "6-punkte Spiel" (6-pointer) at the VW Arena, boasting identical points and goals tallies both at home and away and sat level in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Despite this remarkable symmetry, equality could not have been further from the minds of those who witnessed the Wolves' demolition of their illustrious opponents by 5 goals to 1 on Saturday. Felix Magath, who was facing his former club, is currently overseeing the best run of form in the Bundesliga in 2008-9. His side's stunning form at home, where they have dropped only 2 points thus far, has been reinforced by 25 points from a possible 27 since the Winter break to give them a genuine chance of claiming their 1st ever title, their 11th consecutive home win and 8th in a row in total taking them top for the 1st time this season.
It says much for the fortunes of the respective managers on show here that all 11 starters in green were signed by Magath, whereas none of Bayern's starting 11 bore the mark of their manager, Jurgen Klinsmann. In addition, Bayern's front pairing of Luca Toni and Lucasz Podolski have found the net a mere 14 times between them so far, whereas the giant Grafite and the impressive Edin Dzeko have notched a startling 35. It was these two who did the damage against the Bavarians but only once Christian Gentner's opener had been cancelled out by a typical Toni tap-in, both goals coming within a minute of each other approaching the interval. When Dzeko easily beat the bewildered Breno and smashed the ball past a helpless Rensing on 63 minutes the writing appeared very much on the wall for the visiting side.
The last half-hour belonged to the Wolfsburg strike force, Dzeko and Grafite plundering a pair apiece, but they were no doubt aided by the questionable behaviour of experienced Munich centre-back Lucio who, having suffered a nasty knock in the first period, refused to be substituted and instead hobbled upfield to attack a corner on the hour mark. In failing to get back quickly enough he allowed Dzeko to take a floated ball over the top in his stride with his right foot and slip the ball inches inside the near post with his left to signal the opening of the floodgates. By the time Klinsmann had finally managed to replace Lucio with Andreas Ottl the damage was irreparable, as the green shirts marauded through the Bayern backline at will. Grafite then elegantly rolled his man, again the drastically out-of-depth Breno, to finish comfortably before completing the rout with what must go down as a "Tor des Jahres" (Goal of the Year) contender.
After tormenting Ottl and Christian Lell in the left-hand channel, the Brazilian cut inside and walked round a hopelessly committed Rensing before wrong-footing Breno, the covering Lell and the onlooking Phillip Lahm by backheeling the ball and wheeling away in celebration as it eased agonisingly for Bayern into their bottom corner. This goal, which he admitted was the best he had ever scored after the match, took him past Vedad Ibisevic's total of 18 to the top of the scoring charts as the new "Torschutzenkönig" (King of the goal scorers) on 20, despite having missed a large portion of the campaign through a serious injury to his neck. His partner in crime, the teenage Dzeko, is 4th with 15 for the season as we enter the business end. Bayern themselves are now 4th in the standings and Klinsmann will do well to heed any advice offered by the masterful Magath, himself having been ousted from the Munich hotseat less than 18 months ago, as the former national team trainer's position comes under increasing pressure despite a so-far-successful Champions League run that takes them to Barcelona in the coming weeks.
Second are Martin Jol's Hamburg, who recorded a fine 1-0 home win over rivals Hoffenheim in an eventful encounter, due in no small part to the "Testspiel" (friendly) that had taken place between the two teams in January, which saw Hoffenheim's Ibisevic rupture his cruciate ligament, as well as team-mate Carlos Eduardo and Hamburg's Ivica Olic both seeing red for exchanging open-handed blows in an ugly second half. On Saturday it was Hamburg's captain David Jarolim who was given his marching orders after a "kindergarten grab" according to the commentator and a cynical foul late in the game.
Hoffenheim have had to contend with an extraordinary injury crisis, with almost every 1st choice player being hit by injury or illness at some point since the turn of the year, and keeper Timo Hildebrand was welcomed back into the fold with a gaping stud-wound above the knee here, but Demba Ba should have offered some respite for his struggling side by marking his return with a goal after spurning a number of opportunities at the HSH Nordbank Arena. It was left to Jonathan Pitroipa to win the game for the hosts with his 1st league goal in 24 outings this season, the man from Burkina Faso taking advantage of a defensive mix-up to settle the tie in the 28th minute. The gap between the teams could have been wider had it not been for Pitroipa's need to remind everyone why he had not scored in the Bundesliga before Saturday with some dreadful finishing in the second half but 1-0 was enough to take Hamburg into 2nd and drop "Herbstmeister" (Autumn Champions) Hoffenheim out of the European places and into 6th.
Above them are Vfb Stuttgart, who beat Vfl Bochum away to make it 27 points from the 12 games of Markus Babbel's tremendous tenure. At the current rate of point accumulation they are on course to gain 77 points come May, 7 points more than that which proved enough for them to take the title in 2007. They did fall behind to a Joel Epalle effort carried over the line by Jens Lehmann, who has just announced his intention to play on another year and attempt to win back his Germany number 1 jersey in time for his 40th birthday (the release of his book, wonderfully titled, "Warum eigentlich immer Mich" or "Why always me?" has been put back indefinitely) just after the restart but rallied quickly, levelling through Cacau's firm header from a set-piece with 58 minutes gone.
In between this and the set-piece that won them the game in the final minute, with Serdar Tasci on hand to guide the ball into an empty net, Martin Lanig was culpable for wasting a series of chances and Roberto Hilbert contrived to miss the unmissable with 10 minutes to play. When Jan Simak played the ball across the face of goal it seemed easier not only for Hilbert to score, but to do so whilst laying down, setting up camp for the day and soaking in the sun. When, from around the length of a poorly constructed sandcastle from goal, he managed to lift the ball so far over the bar it ran the risk of blocking out the sun altogether the groans from around the ground were audible. And Stuttgart were the away side. However, he was rescued by Tasci and his team now sit pretty in 5th spot looking up at the rest, a slender 6 points behind the leaders. Bochum remain 14th, 2 points above the relegation mire.
Bayer Leverkusen rose to 7th in the table on Sunday after travelling home from Köln with a well-merited 2-0 win in their derby contest, watched by just under 50,000 fans at the Rhein Energie Stadion. Goals from Stefan Kießling and an 18th of the campaign from the penalty spot by Patrick Helmes, playing against his former employers and roundly booed upon every touch, sealed the points. Even Milivoje Novakovic, or "Novagol" as he is proclaimed by a handful of Köln fans in a song on Youtube, could not overturn the deficit, thus Köln stay treading water in 11th.
The team directly below Leverkusen are Schalke 04, the pantomime club of the Bundesliga at this moment in time. Having dismissed their manager and coach and deposed their captain in recent weeks, board members would be ill-advised to appear on television milking the publicity. While their club is linked with the summer appointment of management duos such as Oliver Kahn and Slaven Bilic, fans reminded their owners through the use of banners that "Schalke is not a sausage factory" in reference to the business via which their leading shareholder had come to pre-football prominence. The unrest was not enough to give Arminia Bielefeld cause for optimism on Friday night, as the visitors took all 3 points thanks to Jefferson Farfan's close-range header and Kevin Kuranyi, who had 1 effort disallowed and 1 rebound off the woodwork before finally seeing the fruits of his labour in the latter stages to leave Bielefeld teetering on the edge of the drop zone in 15th place.
Claudio Pizarro overcame his recent run-ins with police and press alike by grabbing another hat-trick as Werder Bremen romped to a 4-1 win over Hannover 96. The puny Peruvian has come in for criticism of late due to his financial affairs, made public by the wife of his former mentor and highlighted by the German media but the comments of his trainer Thomas Schaaf imploring his team to play for pride for the remainder of the league run may have held special resonance with Pizarro. It was his effort that deflected massively, looping up and over German number 1 Robert Enke to break the deadlock in the 41st minute, and after this strike had been nullified by a superbly crafted Jacek Krzynowek curler and Diego had seen his penalty saved by the international stopper but redeemed himself by pouncing on a loose ball in the area to regain the initiative for the home side, Pizarro stooped to nod home with 10 minutes left and again stepped up to control with his chest and blast his third past Enke in the 84th minute and so bring an end to the contest and render Hannover's fight against the drop incomplete as they now stand in 13th with Werder still occupying 10th spot.
The big game at the foot of the table took place at Karlsruhe's Wildparkstadion, where the hosts' run of 7 matches and over 10 hours without a goal rumbled on with a 0-0 draw against fellow strugglers Borussia Mönchengladbach. Officials at the rock-bottom club have been burying pennies all over the pitch for luck and the fans are obviously keeping the faith as almost 30,000 turned out on Sunday to watch the two teams trade strikes that hit the woodwork, the better of the two seeing Sebastien Freis incredibly unlucky to have his cracking volley canon back off the bar in the 41st minute. Gladbach remain in trouble on 23 points from 26 games and a further point from safety but have shown a marked improvement since the winter pause under new coach Hans Meier.
The other team making up the numbers in the lower echelons are Energie Cottbus, who fell to a narrow yet nevertheless demoralising defeat at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday to suffer their 5th consecutive reversal for the 1st time in 6 years. Frankfurt climbed to 12th on the back of this result, achieved after a Nikos Liberopoulos penalty and a Markus Steinhöfer free kick, which travelled fully 50 yards before nestling in the corner of the Cottbus net, sandwiched a Dimitar Rangelov spot-kick for the guests that came against the run of play. Indeed, the scoreline could have been far more humiliating for Cottbus had Frankfurt not been found guilty of failing to round off their free-flowing and at times very attractive Football with solid attempts on goal. As it turned out, Cottbus will not be too disheartened by this defeat with important home fixtures fast approaching and will hope to somehow find their way out of trouble in a similar way to that which was attained last year, when they found themselves bottom at Christmas but survived on the penultimate day.
This year's Bundesliga title race has been thoroughly unpredictable from the outset and events took another twist in Week 26. At the start of the "Spieltag" (matchday) a single point separated the top four sides, with Hertha Berlin, chasing their first Championship since before the 2nd World War, ahead by the tip of a nose.
However, Hertha's Olympiastadion fortress was ransacked on Saturday, as Borussia Dortmund ran out deserved 3-1 winners in an unsurprisingly open game of Football. Lucien Favre has brought a real verve to the Berliners since taking over last year but this season has seen them add discipline and tactical acumen to their attacking flair and has turned them into real contenders for the league crown. However, from the moment Alexander Frei put the visitors ahead with an angled finish in the 25th minute all defensive inclinations were forgotten as the hosts attempted to reward their sold out stadium with a vital victory. As the game was stretched the home side exerted a great deal of pressure on Jurgen Klopp's youthful Dortmund outfit but it wasn't until Raffael eased past three defenders and applied a classy finish to a move that he had started that the guests looked in any real danger of succumbing. It was only the Brazilian's 4th goal of the season but it was one worth waiting for as he belatedly showed signs of the reason behind his reputation as a match-winner just before the break, having been coach Favre's favourite player before following him from Switzerland to the German capital.
Dortmund have impressed in this campaign, though, losing just 4 games, all of which have come away from home, and a powerful header from skipper Sebastien Kehl in the 53rd minute along with a late Nelson Valdez effort that trickled in after Hertha keeper Jaroslav Drobny could only parry a long-range shot kept them in the top half and condemned Hertha to back-to-back defeats for the 1st time this season. Hertha's hero, the on-loan Andriy Voronin, was nursing a broken nose as a result of a clash with England captain John Terry at Wembley on Wednesday, and failed to make an impact on proceedings. His side drop to 3rd on the back of this disappointing defeat and will have to rebuild very quickly if they intend to challenge for top honours this season.
Vfl Wolfsburg and Bayern München were equal on all counts prior to Saturday's "6-punkte Spiel" (6-pointer) at the VW Arena, boasting identical points and goals tallies both at home and away and sat level in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Despite this remarkable symmetry, equality could not have been further from the minds of those who witnessed the Wolves' demolition of their illustrious opponents by 5 goals to 1 on Saturday. Felix Magath, who was facing his former club, is currently overseeing the best run of form in the Bundesliga in 2008-9. His side's stunning form at home, where they have dropped only 2 points thus far, has been reinforced by 25 points from a possible 27 since the Winter break to give them a genuine chance of claiming their 1st ever title, their 11th consecutive home win and 8th in a row in total taking them top for the 1st time this season.
It says much for the fortunes of the respective managers on show here that all 11 starters in green were signed by Magath, whereas none of Bayern's starting 11 bore the mark of their manager, Jurgen Klinsmann. In addition, Bayern's front pairing of Luca Toni and Lucasz Podolski have found the net a mere 14 times between them so far, whereas the giant Grafite and the impressive Edin Dzeko have notched a startling 35. It was these two who did the damage against the Bavarians but only once Christian Gentner's opener had been cancelled out by a typical Toni tap-in, both goals coming within a minute of each other approaching the interval. When Dzeko easily beat the bewildered Breno and smashed the ball past a helpless Rensing on 63 minutes the writing appeared very much on the wall for the visiting side.
The last half-hour belonged to the Wolfsburg strike force, Dzeko and Grafite plundering a pair apiece, but they were no doubt aided by the questionable behaviour of experienced Munich centre-back Lucio who, having suffered a nasty knock in the first period, refused to be substituted and instead hobbled upfield to attack a corner on the hour mark. In failing to get back quickly enough he allowed Dzeko to take a floated ball over the top in his stride with his right foot and slip the ball inches inside the near post with his left to signal the opening of the floodgates. By the time Klinsmann had finally managed to replace Lucio with Andreas Ottl the damage was irreparable, as the green shirts marauded through the Bayern backline at will. Grafite then elegantly rolled his man, again the drastically out-of-depth Breno, to finish comfortably before completing the rout with what must go down as a "Tor des Jahres" (Goal of the Year) contender.
After tormenting Ottl and Christian Lell in the left-hand channel, the Brazilian cut inside and walked round a hopelessly committed Rensing before wrong-footing Breno, the covering Lell and the onlooking Phillip Lahm by backheeling the ball and wheeling away in celebration as it eased agonisingly for Bayern into their bottom corner. This goal, which he admitted was the best he had ever scored after the match, took him past Vedad Ibisevic's total of 18 to the top of the scoring charts as the new "Torschutzenkönig" (King of the goal scorers) on 20, despite having missed a large portion of the campaign through a serious injury to his neck. His partner in crime, the teenage Dzeko, is 4th with 15 for the season as we enter the business end. Bayern themselves are now 4th in the standings and Klinsmann will do well to heed any advice offered by the masterful Magath, himself having been ousted from the Munich hotseat less than 18 months ago, as the former national team trainer's position comes under increasing pressure despite a so-far-successful Champions League run that takes them to Barcelona in the coming weeks.
Second are Martin Jol's Hamburg, who recorded a fine 1-0 home win over rivals Hoffenheim in an eventful encounter, due in no small part to the "Testspiel" (friendly) that had taken place between the two teams in January, which saw Hoffenheim's Ibisevic rupture his cruciate ligament, as well as team-mate Carlos Eduardo and Hamburg's Ivica Olic both seeing red for exchanging open-handed blows in an ugly second half. On Saturday it was Hamburg's captain David Jarolim who was given his marching orders after a "kindergarten grab" according to the commentator and a cynical foul late in the game.
Hoffenheim have had to contend with an extraordinary injury crisis, with almost every 1st choice player being hit by injury or illness at some point since the turn of the year, and keeper Timo Hildebrand was welcomed back into the fold with a gaping stud-wound above the knee here, but Demba Ba should have offered some respite for his struggling side by marking his return with a goal after spurning a number of opportunities at the HSH Nordbank Arena. It was left to Jonathan Pitroipa to win the game for the hosts with his 1st league goal in 24 outings this season, the man from Burkina Faso taking advantage of a defensive mix-up to settle the tie in the 28th minute. The gap between the teams could have been wider had it not been for Pitroipa's need to remind everyone why he had not scored in the Bundesliga before Saturday with some dreadful finishing in the second half but 1-0 was enough to take Hamburg into 2nd and drop "Herbstmeister" (Autumn Champions) Hoffenheim out of the European places and into 6th.
Above them are Vfb Stuttgart, who beat Vfl Bochum away to make it 27 points from the 12 games of Markus Babbel's tremendous tenure. At the current rate of point accumulation they are on course to gain 77 points come May, 7 points more than that which proved enough for them to take the title in 2007. They did fall behind to a Joel Epalle effort carried over the line by Jens Lehmann, who has just announced his intention to play on another year and attempt to win back his Germany number 1 jersey in time for his 40th birthday (the release of his book, wonderfully titled, "Warum eigentlich immer Mich" or "Why always me?" has been put back indefinitely) just after the restart but rallied quickly, levelling through Cacau's firm header from a set-piece with 58 minutes gone.
In between this and the set-piece that won them the game in the final minute, with Serdar Tasci on hand to guide the ball into an empty net, Martin Lanig was culpable for wasting a series of chances and Roberto Hilbert contrived to miss the unmissable with 10 minutes to play. When Jan Simak played the ball across the face of goal it seemed easier not only for Hilbert to score, but to do so whilst laying down, setting up camp for the day and soaking in the sun. When, from around the length of a poorly constructed sandcastle from goal, he managed to lift the ball so far over the bar it ran the risk of blocking out the sun altogether the groans from around the ground were audible. And Stuttgart were the away side. However, he was rescued by Tasci and his team now sit pretty in 5th spot looking up at the rest, a slender 6 points behind the leaders. Bochum remain 14th, 2 points above the relegation mire.
Bayer Leverkusen rose to 7th in the table on Sunday after travelling home from Köln with a well-merited 2-0 win in their derby contest, watched by just under 50,000 fans at the Rhein Energie Stadion. Goals from Stefan Kießling and an 18th of the campaign from the penalty spot by Patrick Helmes, playing against his former employers and roundly booed upon every touch, sealed the points. Even Milivoje Novakovic, or "Novagol" as he is proclaimed by a handful of Köln fans in a song on Youtube, could not overturn the deficit, thus Köln stay treading water in 11th.
The team directly below Leverkusen are Schalke 04, the pantomime club of the Bundesliga at this moment in time. Having dismissed their manager and coach and deposed their captain in recent weeks, board members would be ill-advised to appear on television milking the publicity. While their club is linked with the summer appointment of management duos such as Oliver Kahn and Slaven Bilic, fans reminded their owners through the use of banners that "Schalke is not a sausage factory" in reference to the business via which their leading shareholder had come to pre-football prominence. The unrest was not enough to give Arminia Bielefeld cause for optimism on Friday night, as the visitors took all 3 points thanks to Jefferson Farfan's close-range header and Kevin Kuranyi, who had 1 effort disallowed and 1 rebound off the woodwork before finally seeing the fruits of his labour in the latter stages to leave Bielefeld teetering on the edge of the drop zone in 15th place.
Claudio Pizarro overcame his recent run-ins with police and press alike by grabbing another hat-trick as Werder Bremen romped to a 4-1 win over Hannover 96. The puny Peruvian has come in for criticism of late due to his financial affairs, made public by the wife of his former mentor and highlighted by the German media but the comments of his trainer Thomas Schaaf imploring his team to play for pride for the remainder of the league run may have held special resonance with Pizarro. It was his effort that deflected massively, looping up and over German number 1 Robert Enke to break the deadlock in the 41st minute, and after this strike had been nullified by a superbly crafted Jacek Krzynowek curler and Diego had seen his penalty saved by the international stopper but redeemed himself by pouncing on a loose ball in the area to regain the initiative for the home side, Pizarro stooped to nod home with 10 minutes left and again stepped up to control with his chest and blast his third past Enke in the 84th minute and so bring an end to the contest and render Hannover's fight against the drop incomplete as they now stand in 13th with Werder still occupying 10th spot.
The big game at the foot of the table took place at Karlsruhe's Wildparkstadion, where the hosts' run of 7 matches and over 10 hours without a goal rumbled on with a 0-0 draw against fellow strugglers Borussia Mönchengladbach. Officials at the rock-bottom club have been burying pennies all over the pitch for luck and the fans are obviously keeping the faith as almost 30,000 turned out on Sunday to watch the two teams trade strikes that hit the woodwork, the better of the two seeing Sebastien Freis incredibly unlucky to have his cracking volley canon back off the bar in the 41st minute. Gladbach remain in trouble on 23 points from 26 games and a further point from safety but have shown a marked improvement since the winter pause under new coach Hans Meier.
The other team making up the numbers in the lower echelons are Energie Cottbus, who fell to a narrow yet nevertheless demoralising defeat at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday to suffer their 5th consecutive reversal for the 1st time in 6 years. Frankfurt climbed to 12th on the back of this result, achieved after a Nikos Liberopoulos penalty and a Markus Steinhöfer free kick, which travelled fully 50 yards before nestling in the corner of the Cottbus net, sandwiched a Dimitar Rangelov spot-kick for the guests that came against the run of play. Indeed, the scoreline could have been far more humiliating for Cottbus had Frankfurt not been found guilty of failing to round off their free-flowing and at times very attractive Football with solid attempts on goal. As it turned out, Cottbus will not be too disheartened by this defeat with important home fixtures fast approaching and will hope to somehow find their way out of trouble in a similar way to that which was attained last year, when they found themselves bottom at Christmas but survived on the penultimate day.
Bundesliga Briefing
More of the same was the order of Week 24 at the top of the Bundesliga as Hertha Berlin extended their lead over their nearest challengers to four points, but it was all change at the other end where Borussia Mönchengladbach leapt off the bottom and up to within a whisker of the revolving relegation zone doors in one fell swoop to leave Karlsruhe stranded at the foot of Germany's premier division.
Basement side or 'Kellerkind' Karlsruhe cannot say they haven't had it coming. They had lost 4 games in a row going into their clash with Arminia Bielefeld amidst a run of 5 scoreless afternoons and extended that miserable sequence when substitute Zlatko Janjic hit the target with an 86th minute header from a set-piece, ironically a minute after their main threat Artur Wichniarek had been replaced with the teams apparently deadlocked. That outcome condemned the home side to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the team just 2 places above them at the start of the day's play and left Bielefeld to take in the view from the giddy heights of 14th place.
Mönchengladbach overcame FC Köln by 4 goals to 2 at their Rhein Energie Stadion on Saturday to jump two rungs up the ladder to 16th and remain in the bottom 3 only on goal difference. It was the little magician Marko Marin, creator of the greatest number of Gladbach assists in a season since the great Stefen Effenberg, who again came to the fore in this victory as he supplied the energy and drive that spurred his team on to earn 3 valuable points through goals from Karim Matmour, Rob Friend and two from Michael Bradley, including one originating from one of the clearest fouls seen committed by a player from these shores since Schumacher in '82. Köln were up against their own obstacles on the day that their former skipper Umit Ozat was forced to officially announce his retirement due to an incident earlier in the season where he had fallen unconscious and had thus been advised by doctors not to continue his playing career. Two goals from right back Miso Brecko still failed to stop them losing ground on the teams above them and as a result they remain in 11th position.
On the day which saw a near-record number of 32 goals scored in a single Bundesliga 'spieltag' or 'matchday', a 1-0 win was enough to dispatch 7th placed Bayer Leverkusen and strap Hertha Berlin tightly into the league's hot seat, another goal from 'der Mann mit dem goldenen Zopf' (the man with the golden ponytail) Andriy Voronin, who continues to keep former talisman and fans' favourite Marko Pantelic in the shadows and on the bench after requesting a January move away from the capital, proving ample after the referee's failure to award a stonewall penalty to the guests early on. The Ukrainian's partnership with Raffael has proved highly fruitful and the style with which the Berliners now go about their business is greatly improved as a direct consequence of their pace and movement up front. The goal proved somewhat fortunate as the ball ricocheted back off national keeper Rene Adler and onto Voronin's chest before nestling in the back of Adler's net. However, the way in which the chance was presented capped another sublime performance at the Olympiastadion that gave the hosts a 10th successive home win in the league to allow centre back Josip Simunic to update his promise to the 30,000 fans who stayed behind for 20 minutes after the whistle to celebrate by stating that his team would win 6 from their remaining 10 fixtures and bring 'home' the Championship in May.
2nd placed Bayern Munich eased to victory away to Vfl Bochum in spite of a spate of injuries accrued by their front men. If the 3-0 scoreline flattered anyone it was Bochum, who had injuries to attacking players Franck Ribery, Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose, who may miss the rest of the campaign with torn ankle ligaments, to thank for the scoreboard's rather generous reading of the game, as well as some glaring misses from substitute Jose Ernesto Sosa, not to mention a missed penalty from Lucasz Podolski in the first period. It was left to the evergreen Ze Roberto to break the deadlock with a real zinger in the 32nd minute before Phillip Lahm added to their lead following a trademark surge forward from the left back slot and a Martin Demichaelis header late on to establish any kind of reasonable reflection of their dominance to leave them level on points with the two sides below them and 4 points off the summit.
Below the Bavarians by a deficit of 3 goals lie Wolfsburg, who came back from a goal down to claim a 4-3 win over Schalke 04 at the VW Arena on Friday night. Having gone behind to a superb Heiko Westermann strike with less than 10 minutes on the clock, the Wolves fought back via an Edin Dzeko effort and a hat-trick from goal-machine Grafite, who now sits a single goal behind Vedad Ibisevic's first half of the season tally of 18 despite having missed several games this term due to a serious neck injury, to render late goals from Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi strikes of solace for Schalke. The losers now occupy 8th spot and look increasingly likely to miss out on European competition altogether for next year, having reached the Champions League quarter-finals only last season.
The other side level on 45 points in the race to catch Hertha are Martin Jol's Hamburg, who eventually beat Energie Cottbus comfortably enough, 2-0 at the HSH Nordbank Arena on Sunday, via a stunning header from Iivca Olic and a free kick from Piotr Trochowski that bamboozled goalkeeper Gerdhart Tremmel, who'd committed himself and could bizarrely only stand and watch the ball fly inches past his foot to provide the game's decisive moment. Hamburg's 14th win of the campaign enabled them to stop the rot after back-to-back defeats, but they will have to do without their top scorer Mladen Petric after the Croat limped off, hamstrung, late in the first half and they will severely miss his goal-scoring input in the run-in to what becomes an ever more engrossing race for the title.
Hoffenheim fell off the pace and now stand in 5th place, 6 points behind Hertha, after they dropped two valuable points in Frankfurt, as the hosts earned a 1-1 draw to reward their 51,000 fans at the CommerzBank Arena on Saturday. Having come through an intestinal abscess (surely the most disgusting injury on record for any footballer, at least one made public) Boubacar Sanogo failed to find the net and even had his title of 'most shots against the woodwork' taken from him by the new 'Aluminiumtrefferkönig' Martin Fenin of Frankfurt, who has now hit post or bar on 5 occasions this season after seeing his improvised effort cannon cruelly back off the crossbar to deny the home side a late winner. Teammate Michael Fink had cancelled out Carlos Eduardo's early opener for the visitors to keep Frankfurt 12th and by no means safe in their battle to avoid the drop.
Hannover 96 and Borussia Dortmund went one better than Wolfsburg and Schalke by sharing 8 goals in a topsy-turvy match between two attack-minded outfits. Hannover are a Jekyll and Hyde sort of side, having racked up 6 home wins and just 1 away, along with 10 losses and 32 goals conceded on the road as we approach April. Dortmund had stormed into a 2 goal lead by the half hour mark thanks to a Florian Kringe strike and a spot-kick converted by Alexander Frei following a horrendous challenge from 39-year-old Michael Tarnat before Hannover hit back through Jari Stajner's 2nd in as many games and an Arnold Bruggink equaliser direct from a corner just after the restart. Dortmund then attained a 2nd seemingly insurmountable 2 goal advantage, only to see it nullified by goals in the last 10 minutes from Mike Hanke and Mikkael Forsell as the pendulum swung for the last time in the game. Dortmund are now 9th with Hannover 13th and 3 points above the drop zone, by no means assured of their Bundesliga status in 2009/10.
I usually leave Werder Bremen match reports til late or last these days because they're usually in mid-table and just have a nice 'summing-up' feel about them but this week i've simply saved the best til last, not necessarily in terms of the Football on show but certainly regarding what took place in and around the action by the river Weser.
Werder took on Vfb Stuttgart at the Weserstadion on Sunday, comprehensively defeating their rivals from the West of Germany and leaving the man with this season's most 'weiße Weste' or clean sheets, Jens Lehmann, thoroughly deflated. The final score read 4-0 but, in truth, it could have been more as the dynamic Diego was at his imperious best, putting in a masterful performance and rounding off an exemplary display by getting one over on everyone's enemy Lehmann, as tempers boiled to overshadow the occasion.
The pivotal moment came in the 34th minute. Diego 'earned' a free-kick for Bremen around 25 yards from goal and, as the referee turned his back to set the wall, he proceeded to move the ball a matter of inches to his right and nearer to goal. Lehmann immediately raced to the referee to alert the official of the minor infringement and the ref duly obliged the German by moving the ball a full yard away from goal, to the bemusement of the Werder players and most of those from Stuttgart. Diego then re-assessed the situation and sent a curling, cutting strike crashing down off the underside of the crossbar and up into the roof of Lehmann's net to leave the stopper stunned. Lehmann refused to let the issue go and continued his debate with the man in the middle at half-time.
On his way out for the 2nd half he squared up to the tiny Brazilian midfielder and told him what he thought of him in no uncertain terms. After that Lehmann appeared pre-occupied with the state of the Weserstadion surface, inspecting the pitch at given intervals and regularly replacing chunks of turf throughout the remainder of the 90 minutes. In his post-match interview he referred to Diego as a "cheater" (inexplicably in English), Diego replying by telling the big keeper to remember that he is, in fact, a player and not an official, while his manager Klaus Allofs remarked that Lehmann "takes himself too seriously" (perhaps the understatement of all understatements) adding more poignantly that the worrying thing is "people listen to him".
Further damage was done to the Stuttart cause by Claudio Pizarro, who scored what was, admittedly, a thunderbolt into the near-hand top corner on 53 minutes. Unfortunately (for everyone - especially Chelsea), the primitive Peruvian is wanted in court back in his homeland to answer charges relating to alleged tax evasion and, incredibly, mafia-related activities including his involvement in the nation's player-transfer 'black market'. Pizarro has vehemently denied any allegations of wrongdoing. However, photographic evidence of him pictured with some of the ‘major players' seem to heavily offset this standpoint and leave the South American ot odds with his club, who reportedly now want nothing to do with their star striker once the current campaign has been completed.
Diego was again instrumental in the final two much-needed goals for Markus Rosenberg, supplying the Swede with a delightfully disguised through-ball from which he was able to nutmeg Lehmann and increase his side's lead, as well as starting the move that led to Rosenberg sealing the win with an accomplished finish, maintaining Werder's status in 10th spot and gathering momentum, while resigning Stuttgart to their first league loss in their ten outings under Markus Babbel to date to put them 6th, 6 points from a Champions League place.
Basement side or 'Kellerkind' Karlsruhe cannot say they haven't had it coming. They had lost 4 games in a row going into their clash with Arminia Bielefeld amidst a run of 5 scoreless afternoons and extended that miserable sequence when substitute Zlatko Janjic hit the target with an 86th minute header from a set-piece, ironically a minute after their main threat Artur Wichniarek had been replaced with the teams apparently deadlocked. That outcome condemned the home side to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the team just 2 places above them at the start of the day's play and left Bielefeld to take in the view from the giddy heights of 14th place.
Mönchengladbach overcame FC Köln by 4 goals to 2 at their Rhein Energie Stadion on Saturday to jump two rungs up the ladder to 16th and remain in the bottom 3 only on goal difference. It was the little magician Marko Marin, creator of the greatest number of Gladbach assists in a season since the great Stefen Effenberg, who again came to the fore in this victory as he supplied the energy and drive that spurred his team on to earn 3 valuable points through goals from Karim Matmour, Rob Friend and two from Michael Bradley, including one originating from one of the clearest fouls seen committed by a player from these shores since Schumacher in '82. Köln were up against their own obstacles on the day that their former skipper Umit Ozat was forced to officially announce his retirement due to an incident earlier in the season where he had fallen unconscious and had thus been advised by doctors not to continue his playing career. Two goals from right back Miso Brecko still failed to stop them losing ground on the teams above them and as a result they remain in 11th position.
On the day which saw a near-record number of 32 goals scored in a single Bundesliga 'spieltag' or 'matchday', a 1-0 win was enough to dispatch 7th placed Bayer Leverkusen and strap Hertha Berlin tightly into the league's hot seat, another goal from 'der Mann mit dem goldenen Zopf' (the man with the golden ponytail) Andriy Voronin, who continues to keep former talisman and fans' favourite Marko Pantelic in the shadows and on the bench after requesting a January move away from the capital, proving ample after the referee's failure to award a stonewall penalty to the guests early on. The Ukrainian's partnership with Raffael has proved highly fruitful and the style with which the Berliners now go about their business is greatly improved as a direct consequence of their pace and movement up front. The goal proved somewhat fortunate as the ball ricocheted back off national keeper Rene Adler and onto Voronin's chest before nestling in the back of Adler's net. However, the way in which the chance was presented capped another sublime performance at the Olympiastadion that gave the hosts a 10th successive home win in the league to allow centre back Josip Simunic to update his promise to the 30,000 fans who stayed behind for 20 minutes after the whistle to celebrate by stating that his team would win 6 from their remaining 10 fixtures and bring 'home' the Championship in May.
2nd placed Bayern Munich eased to victory away to Vfl Bochum in spite of a spate of injuries accrued by their front men. If the 3-0 scoreline flattered anyone it was Bochum, who had injuries to attacking players Franck Ribery, Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose, who may miss the rest of the campaign with torn ankle ligaments, to thank for the scoreboard's rather generous reading of the game, as well as some glaring misses from substitute Jose Ernesto Sosa, not to mention a missed penalty from Lucasz Podolski in the first period. It was left to the evergreen Ze Roberto to break the deadlock with a real zinger in the 32nd minute before Phillip Lahm added to their lead following a trademark surge forward from the left back slot and a Martin Demichaelis header late on to establish any kind of reasonable reflection of their dominance to leave them level on points with the two sides below them and 4 points off the summit.
Below the Bavarians by a deficit of 3 goals lie Wolfsburg, who came back from a goal down to claim a 4-3 win over Schalke 04 at the VW Arena on Friday night. Having gone behind to a superb Heiko Westermann strike with less than 10 minutes on the clock, the Wolves fought back via an Edin Dzeko effort and a hat-trick from goal-machine Grafite, who now sits a single goal behind Vedad Ibisevic's first half of the season tally of 18 despite having missed several games this term due to a serious neck injury, to render late goals from Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi strikes of solace for Schalke. The losers now occupy 8th spot and look increasingly likely to miss out on European competition altogether for next year, having reached the Champions League quarter-finals only last season.
The other side level on 45 points in the race to catch Hertha are Martin Jol's Hamburg, who eventually beat Energie Cottbus comfortably enough, 2-0 at the HSH Nordbank Arena on Sunday, via a stunning header from Iivca Olic and a free kick from Piotr Trochowski that bamboozled goalkeeper Gerdhart Tremmel, who'd committed himself and could bizarrely only stand and watch the ball fly inches past his foot to provide the game's decisive moment. Hamburg's 14th win of the campaign enabled them to stop the rot after back-to-back defeats, but they will have to do without their top scorer Mladen Petric after the Croat limped off, hamstrung, late in the first half and they will severely miss his goal-scoring input in the run-in to what becomes an ever more engrossing race for the title.
Hoffenheim fell off the pace and now stand in 5th place, 6 points behind Hertha, after they dropped two valuable points in Frankfurt, as the hosts earned a 1-1 draw to reward their 51,000 fans at the CommerzBank Arena on Saturday. Having come through an intestinal abscess (surely the most disgusting injury on record for any footballer, at least one made public) Boubacar Sanogo failed to find the net and even had his title of 'most shots against the woodwork' taken from him by the new 'Aluminiumtrefferkönig' Martin Fenin of Frankfurt, who has now hit post or bar on 5 occasions this season after seeing his improvised effort cannon cruelly back off the crossbar to deny the home side a late winner. Teammate Michael Fink had cancelled out Carlos Eduardo's early opener for the visitors to keep Frankfurt 12th and by no means safe in their battle to avoid the drop.
Hannover 96 and Borussia Dortmund went one better than Wolfsburg and Schalke by sharing 8 goals in a topsy-turvy match between two attack-minded outfits. Hannover are a Jekyll and Hyde sort of side, having racked up 6 home wins and just 1 away, along with 10 losses and 32 goals conceded on the road as we approach April. Dortmund had stormed into a 2 goal lead by the half hour mark thanks to a Florian Kringe strike and a spot-kick converted by Alexander Frei following a horrendous challenge from 39-year-old Michael Tarnat before Hannover hit back through Jari Stajner's 2nd in as many games and an Arnold Bruggink equaliser direct from a corner just after the restart. Dortmund then attained a 2nd seemingly insurmountable 2 goal advantage, only to see it nullified by goals in the last 10 minutes from Mike Hanke and Mikkael Forsell as the pendulum swung for the last time in the game. Dortmund are now 9th with Hannover 13th and 3 points above the drop zone, by no means assured of their Bundesliga status in 2009/10.
I usually leave Werder Bremen match reports til late or last these days because they're usually in mid-table and just have a nice 'summing-up' feel about them but this week i've simply saved the best til last, not necessarily in terms of the Football on show but certainly regarding what took place in and around the action by the river Weser.
Werder took on Vfb Stuttgart at the Weserstadion on Sunday, comprehensively defeating their rivals from the West of Germany and leaving the man with this season's most 'weiße Weste' or clean sheets, Jens Lehmann, thoroughly deflated. The final score read 4-0 but, in truth, it could have been more as the dynamic Diego was at his imperious best, putting in a masterful performance and rounding off an exemplary display by getting one over on everyone's enemy Lehmann, as tempers boiled to overshadow the occasion.
The pivotal moment came in the 34th minute. Diego 'earned' a free-kick for Bremen around 25 yards from goal and, as the referee turned his back to set the wall, he proceeded to move the ball a matter of inches to his right and nearer to goal. Lehmann immediately raced to the referee to alert the official of the minor infringement and the ref duly obliged the German by moving the ball a full yard away from goal, to the bemusement of the Werder players and most of those from Stuttgart. Diego then re-assessed the situation and sent a curling, cutting strike crashing down off the underside of the crossbar and up into the roof of Lehmann's net to leave the stopper stunned. Lehmann refused to let the issue go and continued his debate with the man in the middle at half-time.
On his way out for the 2nd half he squared up to the tiny Brazilian midfielder and told him what he thought of him in no uncertain terms. After that Lehmann appeared pre-occupied with the state of the Weserstadion surface, inspecting the pitch at given intervals and regularly replacing chunks of turf throughout the remainder of the 90 minutes. In his post-match interview he referred to Diego as a "cheater" (inexplicably in English), Diego replying by telling the big keeper to remember that he is, in fact, a player and not an official, while his manager Klaus Allofs remarked that Lehmann "takes himself too seriously" (perhaps the understatement of all understatements) adding more poignantly that the worrying thing is "people listen to him".
Further damage was done to the Stuttart cause by Claudio Pizarro, who scored what was, admittedly, a thunderbolt into the near-hand top corner on 53 minutes. Unfortunately (for everyone - especially Chelsea), the primitive Peruvian is wanted in court back in his homeland to answer charges relating to alleged tax evasion and, incredibly, mafia-related activities including his involvement in the nation's player-transfer 'black market'. Pizarro has vehemently denied any allegations of wrongdoing. However, photographic evidence of him pictured with some of the ‘major players' seem to heavily offset this standpoint and leave the South American ot odds with his club, who reportedly now want nothing to do with their star striker once the current campaign has been completed.
Diego was again instrumental in the final two much-needed goals for Markus Rosenberg, supplying the Swede with a delightfully disguised through-ball from which he was able to nutmeg Lehmann and increase his side's lead, as well as starting the move that led to Rosenberg sealing the win with an accomplished finish, maintaining Werder's status in 10th spot and gathering momentum, while resigning Stuttgart to their first league loss in their ten outings under Markus Babbel to date to put them 6th, 6 points from a Champions League place.
Bookmark Bundesliga
The scores from week 23 in Germany read as follows: 5-1, 4-1, 3-1, 2-1, 1-1, 1-0, 1-0, 0-0, 0-0. The moral of the story - Don't bet on the Bundesliga. You never know what you're going to get.
'Spitzenreider' (League leaders) Hertha Berlin overcame crowd hostility, which briefly held up proceedings on Saturday with fireworks aplenty and tasty scenes all-round, on top of a record of 6 winless years against their East German rivals Energie Cottbus to earn a 3-1 win and stretch their lead at the top to 4 points. An Andriy Voronin hat-trick, including a delicious strike to complete the set, was offset by a disastrous Jaroslav Drobny mistake at the other end that gave the hosts the lead 20 minutes in. The words Massimo and Taibi spring to mind as the Hertha custodian (who has been a revelation this term, enjoying an impressive run of form) allowed the ball to squirm through hands, legs and body in a manner that would have cricket coaches up and down England shielding their eyes in horror at the lack of a 'long barrier'.
However, the visitors showed why they are the division's pace setters as Voronin, who is presenting his coach, Lucien Favre with a real dilemma as the return to fitness of fan favourite and former talisman Marko Pantelic asks serious questions as to who should start up front, pounced with a forceful header and a close-range finish to give his side the lead at the break. The Ukrainian's third was a thing of beauty, as he waltzed through the tired Cottbus backline as if it wasn't there before dispatching a low shot between the legs of the last man and past the unsighted Guy Tremmel in the Energie goal into the bottom corner to make the game safe.
The beauty of the goal contrasted heavily with the work of Cottbus's Emil Jula earlier in the half. The striker produced a miss so hideous that his own goalkeeper was forced to look away, despite standing around 100 yards from the action, in sheer terror at the prospect of his team-mate being capable of such criminal incompetence in front of goal. I often allow players to avoid embarassment when guilty of committing a sin that amounts to simple human error. But this was not human. It was monstrous. It was almost a carbon-copy of the Chris Iwelumo incident at Hampden Park and, while Jula can be excused for never having claimed to be a footballer of international standard, as well as for having erred on a pitch that is certainly below the Hampden Park benchmark, the ball was played across at an even lazier pace and the point of contact came even closer to the goal-line, with the ball ending up even further wide of the target. I have seen all 23 weeks of this season's Bundesliga, which is some statement within the context let me tell you, but that has to be the miss of the season. (Other candidates are Asamoah and Toni, with Pizarro responsible for the remainder of the top 20).
While Hertha set their sights on fulfilling defender Josip Simunic's on-pitch promise last week that "We will win the shield for the fans (by winning 8 from their last 12 - apparently that's enough in Germany)" by pulling away from the chasing pack, the teams beneath them are in deadlock. Bayern Munich, 1899 Hoffenheim, Vfl Wolfsburg and HSV Hamburg now all have 42 points, with second-placed Bayern actually having scored and conceded the same number as third-placed Hoffenheim.
Bayern rocketed back up into the reckoning with a 5-1 win over Hannover at the Allianz Arena after going behind yet again at home. Depressingly for Hannover, four of the five goals came from set-pieces as the hosts walked to another 5-star victory, having seemed shaky following a stunning opener from Jiri Stajner that saw the stalwart cut inside Lucio with one touch to leave him flat on his face and curl a wicked shot past the helpless Michael Rensing with his second and stun the home faithful. The Bavarians notched 5 goals for the second time in three games in all competitions but were under pressure having been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal (their FA Cup) in midweek by Bayer Leverkusen. They responded in the best possible way and goals from Daniel Van Buyten, Martin Demichaelis, Hamit Altintop, Miroslav Klose and Lucasz Podolski took them to the number 1 contender spot.
Hoffenheim were held at home by Werder Bremen, who grabbed their second successive 0-0 draw in fortunate circumstances. The reverse fixture between these sides saw 9 goals, 3 'aluminiumtreffer' (shots against the woodwork), a penalty, a red card, a stunning free-kick effort and a 3-goal comeback before Werder eventually ran out 5-4 winners in the game of the season so far. Obviously, the two sides had used up their allowance of goals against one another as not only did the game end goalless but the only element which featured again this time around was the 3 aluminiumtreffer. Boubacar Sanogo, who was only playing against the club whom he left in January due to a growing Hoffenheim injury list that forced coach Ralf Rangwick into playing 3 centre-forwards from the start, managed to claim the worst kind of hat-trick, as he struck the upright on 3 separate occasions during the course of the 90 minutes.
Luckily for him and his side, the man who has been given the job of filling his boots since arriving in Bremen in the summer fared no better. Pizarro endured a miserable afternoon. I counted 7 very presentable opportunities that he contrived to balloon over, drag wide, tamely roll into the arms of the keeper or fail to connect with altogether. The man has scored 11 times in the league this season and scored a brace in the San Siro to knock AC Milan out of Europe two weeks ago, but he's still a useless waste of anything one could care to mention. Werder climb to 10th and will desperately hope that they can get past their old foes Hamburg in their DFB-Pokal semi-final on April 22nd to stand any chance of qualifying for Europe next year.
Edin Dzeko, the acne-ravaged youngster, slammed home his 12th of an ever-more impressive campaign to hand Wolfsburg a 1-0 win over an extremely unfortunate Karlsruhe side at the VW-Arena. Karlsruhe, who stay second from bottom as a result of this narrow defeat, at times dominated proceedings and more than played their part in an entertaining spectacle and a fine game of football, which will have them feeling very hard done by indeed not to have taken at least a point at the ground which has still only been breached once in the league this season, and even then 'die Gastgeber' (the hosts) only spared their guests a single point. Felix Magath's team, having exited from both the UEFA and DFB Cups in the last fortnight, at the hands of PSG and Werder Bremen respectively, can now focus solely on the Bundesliga front, with both Dzeko and Grafite fighting fit, and now look ready for an all-out assault on the top of the table from now until May.
Over 50,000 watched Borussia Mönchengladbach humiliate HSV Hamburg at Gladbach's Borussia Park on Saturday, the 4-1 scoreline painting a fair picture of the control exerted by the league's lowest over their lofty counterparts. The performance was orchestrated by young Marko Marin, as he supplied the assists for goals from Rob Friend, Tobias Levels and Roel Brouwers before rounding off the display with a well-taken penalty at the death. The goal that put Gladbach in front for the second time in the game was particularly memorable, Marin pulling the strings and beating two before unleashing Alexander Baumjohann, who delivered a wonderfully well disguised reverse through ball that Levels forced against the goalkeeper and, as the rebound came back at him, the big defender stumbled, fell and hooked the ball up and over the covering defender on the line from the ground to notch his first of this term.
Martin Jol's decision to place his brother alongside him in the dugout in recent weeks with the modus operandi "watch the game and talk to me about it" (I mean there's getting your brother a job and then there's taking the piss) looks to have backfired as, despite a Mladen Petric strike on the swivel that briefly brought them first-half parity, they were overrun by the irrepressible Marin and his team-mates and looked fatigued and demotivated. That reverse leaves Hamburg at the bottom of the four clubs vying for second spot with an increasing number of fixtures on the horizon due to their impending European commitments. Gladbach's win was not enough to move them up in the rankings but they will take heart in Marin's contribution, as well as their ability to score goals - an element crucial to surviving the drop in any league.
Surely the most improved team in the league this season must be Stuttgart, who continued their unblemished record under Markus Babbel to put away Borussia Dortmund at the Mercedes-Benz Arena by 2 goals to 1. The result was thoroughly merited, the 'forgotten man' Elson putting them in front before the game's two best players, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Mario Gomez, combined for the winner after Nelson Valdez was on-hand to equalise against the run of play for Dortmund. Both Gomez and Hitzlsperger had hit a post before a series of short, sharp exchanges found Hitzlsperger in space 30 yards from goal. He turned and sprayed a pass out to Roberto Hilbert, whose low, first-time ball in was perfectly weighted for Gomez to add an expertly-applied finish with an in-step Yeboah from 12 yards. Gomez, under Babbel, has rediscovered the form that earned him so many admirers, including Arsene Wenger, prior to the European Championships last summer and has now found the net on 20 occasions this season in all competitions. Stuttgart are now just 3 points off the chasing pack in 6th and may be dark horses to make a late dash for a Champions League place at this rate, whereas Dortmund will be content with the stability found under highly-rated young coach Jürgen Klopp and look set to continue steadily laying the foundations from mid-table.
From popular trainers to one under real pressure, Schalke 04 fans produced a banner during their 1-0 home win over FC Köln on Friday night that read "Rutten oder wir" - meaning '(coach Fred) Rutten or us' - and reacted badly to the coach's decision to replace the in-form Vicente Sanchez with Gerald Asamoah with around a quarter of the game to play, although Rutten defended the switch on the basis that Sanchez had played two games in a week having been out for 6 months prior to his reintroduction. You wouldn't have guessed that the home side had won come full-time, as the final whistle was greeted with jeers from all sides of the ground, despite them having witnessed their side comfortably diminish the threat of an industrious yet uninspiring Köln outfit.
At one point, midfielder Mladen Krstaijic was seen gesturing to the crowd in a vain appeal for a positive response to the tidy-looking scoreboard except, had Köln carried out their idea of the late equaliser with which they tentatively toyed, the scoreboard and the rest of the stadium may not have lasted the night. The evening was hostile throughout, the atmosphere poisoned from the get-go right up until a delightful goal had them off their seats for all the right reasons with 28 minutes played. Kevin Kuranyi broke down the left-hand side before slipping a clever ball into the feet of Sanchez, who controlled the ball with his right foot and executed an audacious backheeled cross with his left that looped up and over two defenders to the onrushing Ivan Rakitic. He, in turn, nodded the ball down to Jermaine Jones (Jenas clones) to lash a thumping 20-yard piledriver inside the left-hand upright and send the stands into raptures. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for the home side, who currently sit in 8th place, 5 points from the European slots. Köln slip one place to 11th.
The final two fixtures that took place on Sunday appeared so unappetising that they put me off my dinner. I recovered to watch the highlights with a sandwich, but as it turned out I should've trusted my original instincts. Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to secure a 1-1 draw against Vfl Bochum through Patrick Helmes' 17th goal of the season from the spot, after they had gone behind to a first-half strike from Chris Dabrowski. Leverkusen lie 7th, Bochum 14th. As for Arminia Bielefeld versus Eintracht Frankfurt...well it was 0-0, let's just say that.
'Spitzenreider' (League leaders) Hertha Berlin overcame crowd hostility, which briefly held up proceedings on Saturday with fireworks aplenty and tasty scenes all-round, on top of a record of 6 winless years against their East German rivals Energie Cottbus to earn a 3-1 win and stretch their lead at the top to 4 points. An Andriy Voronin hat-trick, including a delicious strike to complete the set, was offset by a disastrous Jaroslav Drobny mistake at the other end that gave the hosts the lead 20 minutes in. The words Massimo and Taibi spring to mind as the Hertha custodian (who has been a revelation this term, enjoying an impressive run of form) allowed the ball to squirm through hands, legs and body in a manner that would have cricket coaches up and down England shielding their eyes in horror at the lack of a 'long barrier'.
However, the visitors showed why they are the division's pace setters as Voronin, who is presenting his coach, Lucien Favre with a real dilemma as the return to fitness of fan favourite and former talisman Marko Pantelic asks serious questions as to who should start up front, pounced with a forceful header and a close-range finish to give his side the lead at the break. The Ukrainian's third was a thing of beauty, as he waltzed through the tired Cottbus backline as if it wasn't there before dispatching a low shot between the legs of the last man and past the unsighted Guy Tremmel in the Energie goal into the bottom corner to make the game safe.
The beauty of the goal contrasted heavily with the work of Cottbus's Emil Jula earlier in the half. The striker produced a miss so hideous that his own goalkeeper was forced to look away, despite standing around 100 yards from the action, in sheer terror at the prospect of his team-mate being capable of such criminal incompetence in front of goal. I often allow players to avoid embarassment when guilty of committing a sin that amounts to simple human error. But this was not human. It was monstrous. It was almost a carbon-copy of the Chris Iwelumo incident at Hampden Park and, while Jula can be excused for never having claimed to be a footballer of international standard, as well as for having erred on a pitch that is certainly below the Hampden Park benchmark, the ball was played across at an even lazier pace and the point of contact came even closer to the goal-line, with the ball ending up even further wide of the target. I have seen all 23 weeks of this season's Bundesliga, which is some statement within the context let me tell you, but that has to be the miss of the season. (Other candidates are Asamoah and Toni, with Pizarro responsible for the remainder of the top 20).
While Hertha set their sights on fulfilling defender Josip Simunic's on-pitch promise last week that "We will win the shield for the fans (by winning 8 from their last 12 - apparently that's enough in Germany)" by pulling away from the chasing pack, the teams beneath them are in deadlock. Bayern Munich, 1899 Hoffenheim, Vfl Wolfsburg and HSV Hamburg now all have 42 points, with second-placed Bayern actually having scored and conceded the same number as third-placed Hoffenheim.
Bayern rocketed back up into the reckoning with a 5-1 win over Hannover at the Allianz Arena after going behind yet again at home. Depressingly for Hannover, four of the five goals came from set-pieces as the hosts walked to another 5-star victory, having seemed shaky following a stunning opener from Jiri Stajner that saw the stalwart cut inside Lucio with one touch to leave him flat on his face and curl a wicked shot past the helpless Michael Rensing with his second and stun the home faithful. The Bavarians notched 5 goals for the second time in three games in all competitions but were under pressure having been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal (their FA Cup) in midweek by Bayer Leverkusen. They responded in the best possible way and goals from Daniel Van Buyten, Martin Demichaelis, Hamit Altintop, Miroslav Klose and Lucasz Podolski took them to the number 1 contender spot.
Hoffenheim were held at home by Werder Bremen, who grabbed their second successive 0-0 draw in fortunate circumstances. The reverse fixture between these sides saw 9 goals, 3 'aluminiumtreffer' (shots against the woodwork), a penalty, a red card, a stunning free-kick effort and a 3-goal comeback before Werder eventually ran out 5-4 winners in the game of the season so far. Obviously, the two sides had used up their allowance of goals against one another as not only did the game end goalless but the only element which featured again this time around was the 3 aluminiumtreffer. Boubacar Sanogo, who was only playing against the club whom he left in January due to a growing Hoffenheim injury list that forced coach Ralf Rangwick into playing 3 centre-forwards from the start, managed to claim the worst kind of hat-trick, as he struck the upright on 3 separate occasions during the course of the 90 minutes.
Luckily for him and his side, the man who has been given the job of filling his boots since arriving in Bremen in the summer fared no better. Pizarro endured a miserable afternoon. I counted 7 very presentable opportunities that he contrived to balloon over, drag wide, tamely roll into the arms of the keeper or fail to connect with altogether. The man has scored 11 times in the league this season and scored a brace in the San Siro to knock AC Milan out of Europe two weeks ago, but he's still a useless waste of anything one could care to mention. Werder climb to 10th and will desperately hope that they can get past their old foes Hamburg in their DFB-Pokal semi-final on April 22nd to stand any chance of qualifying for Europe next year.
Edin Dzeko, the acne-ravaged youngster, slammed home his 12th of an ever-more impressive campaign to hand Wolfsburg a 1-0 win over an extremely unfortunate Karlsruhe side at the VW-Arena. Karlsruhe, who stay second from bottom as a result of this narrow defeat, at times dominated proceedings and more than played their part in an entertaining spectacle and a fine game of football, which will have them feeling very hard done by indeed not to have taken at least a point at the ground which has still only been breached once in the league this season, and even then 'die Gastgeber' (the hosts) only spared their guests a single point. Felix Magath's team, having exited from both the UEFA and DFB Cups in the last fortnight, at the hands of PSG and Werder Bremen respectively, can now focus solely on the Bundesliga front, with both Dzeko and Grafite fighting fit, and now look ready for an all-out assault on the top of the table from now until May.
Over 50,000 watched Borussia Mönchengladbach humiliate HSV Hamburg at Gladbach's Borussia Park on Saturday, the 4-1 scoreline painting a fair picture of the control exerted by the league's lowest over their lofty counterparts. The performance was orchestrated by young Marko Marin, as he supplied the assists for goals from Rob Friend, Tobias Levels and Roel Brouwers before rounding off the display with a well-taken penalty at the death. The goal that put Gladbach in front for the second time in the game was particularly memorable, Marin pulling the strings and beating two before unleashing Alexander Baumjohann, who delivered a wonderfully well disguised reverse through ball that Levels forced against the goalkeeper and, as the rebound came back at him, the big defender stumbled, fell and hooked the ball up and over the covering defender on the line from the ground to notch his first of this term.
Martin Jol's decision to place his brother alongside him in the dugout in recent weeks with the modus operandi "watch the game and talk to me about it" (I mean there's getting your brother a job and then there's taking the piss) looks to have backfired as, despite a Mladen Petric strike on the swivel that briefly brought them first-half parity, they were overrun by the irrepressible Marin and his team-mates and looked fatigued and demotivated. That reverse leaves Hamburg at the bottom of the four clubs vying for second spot with an increasing number of fixtures on the horizon due to their impending European commitments. Gladbach's win was not enough to move them up in the rankings but they will take heart in Marin's contribution, as well as their ability to score goals - an element crucial to surviving the drop in any league.
Surely the most improved team in the league this season must be Stuttgart, who continued their unblemished record under Markus Babbel to put away Borussia Dortmund at the Mercedes-Benz Arena by 2 goals to 1. The result was thoroughly merited, the 'forgotten man' Elson putting them in front before the game's two best players, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Mario Gomez, combined for the winner after Nelson Valdez was on-hand to equalise against the run of play for Dortmund. Both Gomez and Hitzlsperger had hit a post before a series of short, sharp exchanges found Hitzlsperger in space 30 yards from goal. He turned and sprayed a pass out to Roberto Hilbert, whose low, first-time ball in was perfectly weighted for Gomez to add an expertly-applied finish with an in-step Yeboah from 12 yards. Gomez, under Babbel, has rediscovered the form that earned him so many admirers, including Arsene Wenger, prior to the European Championships last summer and has now found the net on 20 occasions this season in all competitions. Stuttgart are now just 3 points off the chasing pack in 6th and may be dark horses to make a late dash for a Champions League place at this rate, whereas Dortmund will be content with the stability found under highly-rated young coach Jürgen Klopp and look set to continue steadily laying the foundations from mid-table.
From popular trainers to one under real pressure, Schalke 04 fans produced a banner during their 1-0 home win over FC Köln on Friday night that read "Rutten oder wir" - meaning '(coach Fred) Rutten or us' - and reacted badly to the coach's decision to replace the in-form Vicente Sanchez with Gerald Asamoah with around a quarter of the game to play, although Rutten defended the switch on the basis that Sanchez had played two games in a week having been out for 6 months prior to his reintroduction. You wouldn't have guessed that the home side had won come full-time, as the final whistle was greeted with jeers from all sides of the ground, despite them having witnessed their side comfortably diminish the threat of an industrious yet uninspiring Köln outfit.
At one point, midfielder Mladen Krstaijic was seen gesturing to the crowd in a vain appeal for a positive response to the tidy-looking scoreboard except, had Köln carried out their idea of the late equaliser with which they tentatively toyed, the scoreboard and the rest of the stadium may not have lasted the night. The evening was hostile throughout, the atmosphere poisoned from the get-go right up until a delightful goal had them off their seats for all the right reasons with 28 minutes played. Kevin Kuranyi broke down the left-hand side before slipping a clever ball into the feet of Sanchez, who controlled the ball with his right foot and executed an audacious backheeled cross with his left that looped up and over two defenders to the onrushing Ivan Rakitic. He, in turn, nodded the ball down to Jermaine Jones (Jenas clones) to lash a thumping 20-yard piledriver inside the left-hand upright and send the stands into raptures. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for the home side, who currently sit in 8th place, 5 points from the European slots. Köln slip one place to 11th.
The final two fixtures that took place on Sunday appeared so unappetising that they put me off my dinner. I recovered to watch the highlights with a sandwich, but as it turned out I should've trusted my original instincts. Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to secure a 1-1 draw against Vfl Bochum through Patrick Helmes' 17th goal of the season from the spot, after they had gone behind to a first-half strike from Chris Dabrowski. Leverkusen lie 7th, Bochum 14th. As for Arminia Bielefeld versus Eintracht Frankfurt...well it was 0-0, let's just say that.
Bite-size Bundesliga
"Spieltag 22" (Matchday 22) in Germany saw Hertha Berlin regain pole position and Bayern Munich regress to occupy 5th place as a result of the weekly rotation at the top of the Bundesliga.
Hertha's resurgence to the league summit came after a hard-fought home win over basement boys Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, two further goals from Andriy Voronin revving up his team in the race for the title while, in doing so, driving up his own price-tag in the transfer market. The interest of Hamburg boss Martin Jol on top of Fat Spaniard Rafael Benitez's reported eagerness in recalling the striker for next season have fuelled rumours of an astronomical 10 million pound asking price for the 29-year old Ukrainian, whose 6th and 7th goals of the current campaign proved enough to secure victory for the hosts despite Michael Bradley reducing the arrears 20 minutes from the end for Gladbach, who have not recovered from a two-goal deficit in 12 years, to leave the teams at opposite ends of the spectrum in the Championship. When asked for an assessment of his team's trip to the capital, Gladbach coach Hans Meier offered the opinion: "Gutes Hotel, gutes Essen, sonst bescheiden" - roughly translated as meaning: "Good hotel, good food, otherwise shit" - at which point the interview was over.
Hamburger SV relinquished top-spot following a 1-3 home reversal on Sunday against an impressive Vfl Wolfsburg side, who climbed to 4th on the back of only their second away success of the season thanks to a brace from the returning Grafite, who took his overall tally to 14, and 1 from the promising Edin Dzeko, who now has 11 in total. Paulo Guerrero's strike looked to have brought the hosts back into it in the 72nd minute after those two Grafite goals, 1 from the penalty spot, had given Felix Magath's side a imposing lead, but Dzeko's effort made sure of the points just 4 minutes later to allow the wolves to overtake Bayern and leap into the first UEFA-Cup slot and leave Hamburg in second, trailing leaders Hertha by a single point.
1899 Hoffenheim dropped to third due to their goalless draw with Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park. Having come through a long-term injury to top scorer Vedad Ibisevic, a ban given to influential midfielder Carlos Eduardo for slapping Ivica Olic in a mid-season friendly, and a disappointing run of 1 win in their previous 6 games, as the doping row involving valued squad members Andreas Ibertsberger and Christoph Janker rumbles on, it is fair to say that Hoffenheim are not enjoying the second half of their Bundesliga debut as much as the first. Their situation was neither helped by the dropping of two vital points in Dortmund on Saturday, nor by the sending-off of midfielder Tobias Weiss after he was kicked while on the floor and reacted in kind by kicking the wrong player back to earn his early shower.
News that both Ibertsberger and Janker could be suspended for up to two years for arriving ten minutes late for a post-match drug test (amid alarming stories emerging of players in the past using prosthetic penises filled with unblemished urine samples to evade the anti-doping agencies) will be unwelcome in the Hoffenheim camp, as will reports that the inspirational Sejad Salihovic is set to be out for up to 4 weeks with slightly torn knee ligaments, putting additional strain upon Ralf Rangnick's depleted squad. Jürgen Klopp's Dortmund side, however, continue to impress against the big boys and are hanging on their coat-tails in 9th, just 6 points below the European places.
Bayern lay 5th as a result of a battling Werder Bremen performance at the Weserstadion, after the thoroughly deserved dismissal of Werder's Brazilian centre-back Naldo had ruined an open and entertaining encounter inside 15 minutes. Bayern looked to exploit their numerical advantage but squandered a number of chances throughout the course of the game, and Werder were greatly indebted to their previously cumbersome veteran goalkeeper, Christian Vander, for a number of crucial second-half saves. Even with 10 men, the home team still managed to fashion the clearest opportunity of the contest on the hour mark, and no prizes are on offer for guessing who was responsible for wasting it.
After his midweek heroics in Milan, Claudio Pizarro was back to his old, excruciating self here as he found space in a crowded penalty area; so much space that he had time to chest the ball down comfortably (and probably squeeze in a quick fag, maybe even an orgy-he loves those), before dragging the ball hopelessly wide from 8 yards out and, in doing so, missing the chance to take his side nearer to the top half of the table and secure a league double over their counterparts from Munich. Werder stay 12th and in desperate need of an injection of quality similar to that provided by the Peruvian on Wednesday against AC, rather than yet another example of his shortcomings so obviously on display when facing his former club on Sunday.
Hannover 96 overcame Bayer Leverkusen at the AWD Arena by a first-half Arnold Bruggink goal to nil to leave their guests languishing in 6th, level on points with Vfb Stuttgart, who won again on Sunday to extend their unbeaten run under new coach Markus Babbel to 8 games through a goal five minutes after the restart from "der vergessener Profi" (the forgotten player) Elson, known as such for the fact that he was mistakenly not invited to either this season’s team photo or the yearbook-signing ceremonies, and was thus left off the squad list altogether and consequently, quite naturally, ignored by previous trainer Armin Veh. But Babbel reinstated the wayward wanderer and was rewarded for his faith with the winner in the 50th minute. Karlsruhe continue to keep Gladbach company in 17th, 3 points from safety, while Hannover remain 12th, the only record they are setting this season relating to their former-Manchester City employee Michael Tarnat, who is currently the Bundesliga's oldest player at 39 (nearly a whole year older than Jens Lehmann).
FC Schalke 04 rung the changes for their meeting with Eintracht Frankfurt at the CommerzBank Arena and attained a 2-1 win with an accomplished performance, goals from defenders Rafinha and Heiko Westermann sandwiching that of Frankfurt's Michael Fink. Schalke leapfrogged local rivals Dortmund into 8th, while Frankfurt will have to spend another week watching those below them fearfully as they were overtaken by Hannover and dropped to 13th.
Energie Cottbus changed both personnel and "aufstellung" (formation) for their tie away to Vfl Bochum in a crucial match-up at the wrong end of the division. The tactical renovations of Cottbus coach Bojan Prasniker seemed to have paid off as his side twice took the lead through an early Ivica Iliev left-footer and an Emil Jula header at the start of the second half, but these were annulled by goals from Joel Epalle in the 12th minute and a superb free-kick from Bochum left back Christian Fuchs in the 54th. Things were to get even worse for the visitors with 10 minutes to play, as Bochum claimed all 3 points with a controversial penalty, given after a fall that seemed somewhat early to say the least, which was dutifully dispatched by Marc Pfertzel to allow Bochum to rise two places to 14th and leave Cottbus once again stranded in the relegation zone.
However, they are only there on goal difference as Arminia Bielefeld could only manage a 1-1 draw at FC Köln, where a stunning long-range header from Petit for Köln and a less eye-catching effort from Christopher Katongo ensured a share of the spoils in the Friday night fixture to leave Bielefeld 15th and prolong Köln's stay as the best of the rest, in 10th.
Hertha's resurgence to the league summit came after a hard-fought home win over basement boys Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, two further goals from Andriy Voronin revving up his team in the race for the title while, in doing so, driving up his own price-tag in the transfer market. The interest of Hamburg boss Martin Jol on top of Fat Spaniard Rafael Benitez's reported eagerness in recalling the striker for next season have fuelled rumours of an astronomical 10 million pound asking price for the 29-year old Ukrainian, whose 6th and 7th goals of the current campaign proved enough to secure victory for the hosts despite Michael Bradley reducing the arrears 20 minutes from the end for Gladbach, who have not recovered from a two-goal deficit in 12 years, to leave the teams at opposite ends of the spectrum in the Championship. When asked for an assessment of his team's trip to the capital, Gladbach coach Hans Meier offered the opinion: "Gutes Hotel, gutes Essen, sonst bescheiden" - roughly translated as meaning: "Good hotel, good food, otherwise shit" - at which point the interview was over.
Hamburger SV relinquished top-spot following a 1-3 home reversal on Sunday against an impressive Vfl Wolfsburg side, who climbed to 4th on the back of only their second away success of the season thanks to a brace from the returning Grafite, who took his overall tally to 14, and 1 from the promising Edin Dzeko, who now has 11 in total. Paulo Guerrero's strike looked to have brought the hosts back into it in the 72nd minute after those two Grafite goals, 1 from the penalty spot, had given Felix Magath's side a imposing lead, but Dzeko's effort made sure of the points just 4 minutes later to allow the wolves to overtake Bayern and leap into the first UEFA-Cup slot and leave Hamburg in second, trailing leaders Hertha by a single point.
1899 Hoffenheim dropped to third due to their goalless draw with Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park. Having come through a long-term injury to top scorer Vedad Ibisevic, a ban given to influential midfielder Carlos Eduardo for slapping Ivica Olic in a mid-season friendly, and a disappointing run of 1 win in their previous 6 games, as the doping row involving valued squad members Andreas Ibertsberger and Christoph Janker rumbles on, it is fair to say that Hoffenheim are not enjoying the second half of their Bundesliga debut as much as the first. Their situation was neither helped by the dropping of two vital points in Dortmund on Saturday, nor by the sending-off of midfielder Tobias Weiss after he was kicked while on the floor and reacted in kind by kicking the wrong player back to earn his early shower.
News that both Ibertsberger and Janker could be suspended for up to two years for arriving ten minutes late for a post-match drug test (amid alarming stories emerging of players in the past using prosthetic penises filled with unblemished urine samples to evade the anti-doping agencies) will be unwelcome in the Hoffenheim camp, as will reports that the inspirational Sejad Salihovic is set to be out for up to 4 weeks with slightly torn knee ligaments, putting additional strain upon Ralf Rangnick's depleted squad. Jürgen Klopp's Dortmund side, however, continue to impress against the big boys and are hanging on their coat-tails in 9th, just 6 points below the European places.
Bayern lay 5th as a result of a battling Werder Bremen performance at the Weserstadion, after the thoroughly deserved dismissal of Werder's Brazilian centre-back Naldo had ruined an open and entertaining encounter inside 15 minutes. Bayern looked to exploit their numerical advantage but squandered a number of chances throughout the course of the game, and Werder were greatly indebted to their previously cumbersome veteran goalkeeper, Christian Vander, for a number of crucial second-half saves. Even with 10 men, the home team still managed to fashion the clearest opportunity of the contest on the hour mark, and no prizes are on offer for guessing who was responsible for wasting it.
After his midweek heroics in Milan, Claudio Pizarro was back to his old, excruciating self here as he found space in a crowded penalty area; so much space that he had time to chest the ball down comfortably (and probably squeeze in a quick fag, maybe even an orgy-he loves those), before dragging the ball hopelessly wide from 8 yards out and, in doing so, missing the chance to take his side nearer to the top half of the table and secure a league double over their counterparts from Munich. Werder stay 12th and in desperate need of an injection of quality similar to that provided by the Peruvian on Wednesday against AC, rather than yet another example of his shortcomings so obviously on display when facing his former club on Sunday.
Hannover 96 overcame Bayer Leverkusen at the AWD Arena by a first-half Arnold Bruggink goal to nil to leave their guests languishing in 6th, level on points with Vfb Stuttgart, who won again on Sunday to extend their unbeaten run under new coach Markus Babbel to 8 games through a goal five minutes after the restart from "der vergessener Profi" (the forgotten player) Elson, known as such for the fact that he was mistakenly not invited to either this season’s team photo or the yearbook-signing ceremonies, and was thus left off the squad list altogether and consequently, quite naturally, ignored by previous trainer Armin Veh. But Babbel reinstated the wayward wanderer and was rewarded for his faith with the winner in the 50th minute. Karlsruhe continue to keep Gladbach company in 17th, 3 points from safety, while Hannover remain 12th, the only record they are setting this season relating to their former-Manchester City employee Michael Tarnat, who is currently the Bundesliga's oldest player at 39 (nearly a whole year older than Jens Lehmann).
FC Schalke 04 rung the changes for their meeting with Eintracht Frankfurt at the CommerzBank Arena and attained a 2-1 win with an accomplished performance, goals from defenders Rafinha and Heiko Westermann sandwiching that of Frankfurt's Michael Fink. Schalke leapfrogged local rivals Dortmund into 8th, while Frankfurt will have to spend another week watching those below them fearfully as they were overtaken by Hannover and dropped to 13th.
Energie Cottbus changed both personnel and "aufstellung" (formation) for their tie away to Vfl Bochum in a crucial match-up at the wrong end of the division. The tactical renovations of Cottbus coach Bojan Prasniker seemed to have paid off as his side twice took the lead through an early Ivica Iliev left-footer and an Emil Jula header at the start of the second half, but these were annulled by goals from Joel Epalle in the 12th minute and a superb free-kick from Bochum left back Christian Fuchs in the 54th. Things were to get even worse for the visitors with 10 minutes to play, as Bochum claimed all 3 points with a controversial penalty, given after a fall that seemed somewhat early to say the least, which was dutifully dispatched by Marc Pfertzel to allow Bochum to rise two places to 14th and leave Cottbus once again stranded in the relegation zone.
However, they are only there on goal difference as Arminia Bielefeld could only manage a 1-1 draw at FC Köln, where a stunning long-range header from Petit for Köln and a less eye-catching effort from Christopher Katongo ensured a share of the spoils in the Friday night fixture to leave Bielefeld 15th and prolong Köln's stay as the best of the rest, in 10th.
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.
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.
Business end Bundesliga
Week 20 in the Bundesliga took in a few more twists and turns and saw history being made by Hertha Berlin, who rose to occupy top spot in the table during the second half of the season for the first time in the competition's history, since it became known as the Bundesliga in 1963. The Berliners' two Championships were claimed in the 1930's, but this year Swiss trainer Lucien Favre has assembled a talented and exciting squad capable of qualifying on all fronts. Despite a disappointing UEFA Cup campaign, his side were able to scale the heights and go top for the first time on home soil with a 2-1 win over Bayern Munich at a sold out Olympiastadion on Saturday without their absent goal-machine Marko Pantelic, who was forced to watch from the stands with a knee injury.
Hertha vs Bayern has, for some time now, been a family affair as it pits brothers Dieter and Uli Hoeness against one another as managers of the respective clubs. Therefore, as long-time Bayern chief Uli pointed out after the game, "It is always hard to lose but if it must be to anyone then it is better that it is to Hertha so that at least one half of the family can enjoy their weekend".
The game was billed as a clash of titanic proportions and it did not fail to deliver on its pre-match promise. A capacity crowd of 74,244 witnessed the side from the capital take the lead through Andriy Voronin in the 38th minute with a far-post header before Miroslav Klose equalised for the Bavarians on the hour mark, picking up the ball and racing to the centre-circle, seemingly in search of the victory that would have taken them to the summit for the first time this season.
Unfortunately for Bayern, they found home goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny in fine form, having made his Czech Republic debut in midweek in place of the injured Petr Cech, and Klose's strike only found the back of the net after the experienced stopper had miraculously thwarted Bayern three times in the build-up. The pick of his stops, however, was arguably a fantastic one-handed parry of a second-half effort from substitute striker Landon Donovan, the American international having replaced the wounded Luca Toni earlier in the proceedings. On 77 minutes it was Hertha who struck with another sucker-punch from Voronin following a flowing counter-attack in which Raffael slid a subtle through-ball to the Ukrainian, who slipped the ball past the increasingly vulnerable Michael Rensing for the decisive strike.
Hertha were impressive but indebted to their man between the posts, who dedicated the win to the fans, who were sent into raptures after Voronin's "doppelpack" (brace) and to his team-mates, who "fought like animals" according to the keeper. Bayern's recovery has stuttered somewhat and one cannot shake the feeling that it has a great deal to do with the disinterested displays of late from Frenchman Franck Ribery. Ribery has appeared reserved to say the least since the winter break when, with clubs all over Europe linked with his signature in the press, perhaps his head was turned. The boys from München will need him to be in top form if they wish to retain their crown in May, as they remain 4th in the current standings but by no means out of the race for that much sought after shield.
Hoffenheim were dealt a crushing blow by Bayer Leverkusen at their new Rhein-Neckar Stadion on Friday night, suffering a heavy 4-1 defeat, and the fans literally couldn't get out fast enough, due to queues stretching back in the car park as the club try to come to terms with the scale of their success, both on and off the pitch. The key moment of the match came in the build-up to Leverkusen's second goal, after a stunning strike from Patrick Helmes had given the guests the lead early on. As the ball broke loose in the area, Simon Rolfes seemed to kick the ball out of the hands of newly appointed number 1 Timo Hildebrand, previously of Valencia, but the referee saw no violation and awarded the goal.
The hosts were briefly hopeful when set-piece specialist Sejad Salihovic struck from the spot and came close with a free-kick, but another well-taken effort from Helmes put paid to any chance of a comeback and a Gonzalo Castro header from a Renato Augusto corner sealed the win in the latter stages. Hoffenheim stay second due to Bayern's slip-up in Berlin and Leverkusen climb to 4th, 4 points behind leaders Hertha in what looks set to be a memorable race for the title.
It was goals galore at the AWD-Arena as Hannover 96 played host to Stuttgart on Saturday. The galvanised Mario Gomez gave Markus Babbel's in-form side the lead in the 7th minute with a composed finish and their lead was extended just 15 minutes later by Martin Lanig following some poor defending. It seemed that Stuttgart would take this advantage into the break but the home team struck twice in the space of three minutes through a Jiri Stajner tap-in on 43 minutes and a delicious, curling shot from a dead ball that Jens Lehmann could only watch and admire that gave Jacek Krzynowek his first goal of the season in the 45th minute to level the scores.
Lehmann was also involved in his weekly dose of handbags with Hannover's ex-Manchester City midfielder Michael Tarnat that seemed to unsettle the former German national keeper, and after Khalid Bouhlarouz had a goal correctly chalked off at one end for offside, Mikkael Forssell beat the trap set at the other end and kept his nerve to out-fox Lehmann and give the home side the lead for the first time in the game. But Markus Babbel has given his side a renewed impetus since taking over the coach’s mantel in December and they were to come back again with 3 minutes to play when a counter-attack led to the ball falling at the feet of Thomas Hitzelsperger, who unleashed his trademark "hammer" to take a hard-earned point and lift his team up to 7th place in the league. Hannover stay 12th.
Werder Bremen welcomed back Peruvian playboy Claudio Pizarro against Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Weserstadion on Saturday after his three-match ban for slapping an opponent but still await the return of Diego in their bid to turn around the club's worst run in nearly a decade. Winless in 2009 (without a point before this match) Werder are apparently offering "Motivationsmangelerscheinung" (displays lacking motivation - 1 word!) but the reinstated Pizarro went about trying to stop the rot, directing and commanding his troops from the get-go and always leading from the front, as his first effort was blocked on the line by Tottenham reject Paul Staltieri.
He was everywhere after that, even testing the keeper from the floor with a shot on the turn in the first half, then trying to "win" a penalty with a disgusting and utterly ludicrous dive that would have required legs ten years younger to execute the technique as the contact came and went, before the back belatedly began to arch and the knees slowly showed signs of wobbling. He was then denied by his own uselessness when he scooped the ball over the bar after Hugo Almeida had not so much invited but instructed him to open the scoring from 6 yards in an open game which saw chances at both ends. However, Werder had totally dominated the second half and been kept at bay only by the lightning reflexes of newly signed Gladbach goalie Logan Baillie, when the piss-poor Pizarro finally made his mark on the game with 76 minutes on the clock via a free header from 4 yards, allowing him to notch, incredibly, his 11th goal of the season. So far. There may well be more to come.
Bremen's lead only lasted 3 minutes, though, until characteristically crass defending from a free-kick permitted the ball to float all the way over to the unmarked Michael Bradley, who had the time and awareness to casually chest the ball into the goal from no more than 3 yards to steal a point with ten minutes left, although there was still time for Naldo to hit the crossbar with a header late on. Despite dominating the encounter Werder still show no signs of recovering anything like championship challenging form, and with the team lying in 10th place in the league and AC Milan set to arrive in Bremen on Wednesday for the 1st leg of their UEFA Cup last 32 tie, the pressure is rising in the North. Gladbach would love to have these problems of course, as the "Kellerkind" (basement boys) harbour no continental hopes and continue to prop up the Bundesliga while resembling an increasingly efficient anchor, in spite of receiving significant winter investment.
Felix Magath's Wolfsburg maintained their impressive run in Frankfurt on Saturday, running out comfortable 2-0 winners over Eintracht after another strike from the Bosnian Edin Dzeko, who has now scored 8 times in this campaign, complimenting his partner Grafite and releasing a portion of the mighty burden around the Brazilian's neck while he remains sidelined through injury and looks to be out for another 3 weeks. His goal was a thing of beauty after a well-flighted cross picked out the tall talisman at the back stick and the Bosnian's diving header proved unstoppable. The clincher was controversial to say the least as the referee compounded his error in refusing to hand the hosts a clear-cut penalty by offering one to the away side for a handball from a player clearly protecting his face. Zvjezdan Misimovic stepped up to make the game safe and take the Wolves into position 6 in the table. Frankfurt fall to 13th and now face the possibility of a long drawn out fight to preserve their Bundesliga status for another year.
Vfl Bochum have been suffering a severe injury crisis of late and this was not helped by the loss of both of their "Inverteidiger" (centre-backs) within 6 minutes in the big derby against Schalke 04 on Saturday. Schalke have only managed two wins on the road in 2008/9 and decided to give Kevin Kuranyi a rare start at the rewirpower Stadion. He responded by grabbing the opener after just 17 minutes to get the ball rolling with his 7th of the season, slamming home a rebound after a shot from Halil Altintop was palmed into his path by the Bochum goalkeeper.
Bochum lifted themselves sufficiently to force their local rivals to withdraw and this increased pressure led to Mimoun Azaouagh equalising with a shot that, according to a rough translation of the commentator "stumbled past Manuel Neuer like a pissed-up pedestrian at the Rose Montag (Köln Carnival)". It was actually a swerving strike that confused Neuer and flew into the back of the net to crank the atmosphere up another notch inside the ground just before half-time. In the 57th minute the turnaround was complete as Bochum captain Christoph Dabrowski eventually turned in a scrappy second for the hosts that turned out to be the winner. If the "Derbysieger" (derby winners) were elated, their opponents were truly crushed and the heat is now on Dutch boss Fred Rutten, formerly assistant to Guus Hiddink at PSV, to gain ground on the league leaders. Schalke now lie in 9th, while Bochum have hit the dizzying heights of 15th rung on the ladder, temporarily escaping the danger zone on goal difference.
Köln were held to a goalless draw at home to Karlsruhe, who followed up their win over Hamburg last week with another valuable point this time around. Karlsruhe's primary attacking threat, Sebastian Freis, however, has agreed to join Köln in the summer and his new employers will hope his arrival, along with that of Lucas Podolski, will enable them to become more of a potent force next season as they continue to consolidate their status in the top tier. It was their existing front-line, led by Milivoje Novakovic, that was guilty of wasting a whole host of chances on Saturday, but both teams will be content with the result in their respective quests, although Köln stay 11th and out of touch with the big boys, and Karlsruhe are 17th this morning, but level on points with Cottbus and Bochum above them.
Sunday saw Borussia Dortmund meet Energie Cottbus and Hamburg host Arminia Bielefeld, where goals from Piotr Trochowski and Paulo Guerrero either side of half-time took HSV back into 3rd place and kept up the pressure on the top two, leaving Bielefeld above the relegation line but only by a point. Dortmund's contest proved not to be quite as straightforward, as Cagdas Atan scored first for the visitors before Alexander Frei salvaged a draw just before the interval. Korean left-back Young-Pyo Lee, formerly of Tottenham, was also dismissed in stoppage time for the home side as they slipped to 8th. Cottbus climb to 16th place but remain very much in the thick of it in the battle to avoid the drop.
Hertha vs Bayern has, for some time now, been a family affair as it pits brothers Dieter and Uli Hoeness against one another as managers of the respective clubs. Therefore, as long-time Bayern chief Uli pointed out after the game, "It is always hard to lose but if it must be to anyone then it is better that it is to Hertha so that at least one half of the family can enjoy their weekend".
The game was billed as a clash of titanic proportions and it did not fail to deliver on its pre-match promise. A capacity crowd of 74,244 witnessed the side from the capital take the lead through Andriy Voronin in the 38th minute with a far-post header before Miroslav Klose equalised for the Bavarians on the hour mark, picking up the ball and racing to the centre-circle, seemingly in search of the victory that would have taken them to the summit for the first time this season.
Unfortunately for Bayern, they found home goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny in fine form, having made his Czech Republic debut in midweek in place of the injured Petr Cech, and Klose's strike only found the back of the net after the experienced stopper had miraculously thwarted Bayern three times in the build-up. The pick of his stops, however, was arguably a fantastic one-handed parry of a second-half effort from substitute striker Landon Donovan, the American international having replaced the wounded Luca Toni earlier in the proceedings. On 77 minutes it was Hertha who struck with another sucker-punch from Voronin following a flowing counter-attack in which Raffael slid a subtle through-ball to the Ukrainian, who slipped the ball past the increasingly vulnerable Michael Rensing for the decisive strike.
Hertha were impressive but indebted to their man between the posts, who dedicated the win to the fans, who were sent into raptures after Voronin's "doppelpack" (brace) and to his team-mates, who "fought like animals" according to the keeper. Bayern's recovery has stuttered somewhat and one cannot shake the feeling that it has a great deal to do with the disinterested displays of late from Frenchman Franck Ribery. Ribery has appeared reserved to say the least since the winter break when, with clubs all over Europe linked with his signature in the press, perhaps his head was turned. The boys from München will need him to be in top form if they wish to retain their crown in May, as they remain 4th in the current standings but by no means out of the race for that much sought after shield.
Hoffenheim were dealt a crushing blow by Bayer Leverkusen at their new Rhein-Neckar Stadion on Friday night, suffering a heavy 4-1 defeat, and the fans literally couldn't get out fast enough, due to queues stretching back in the car park as the club try to come to terms with the scale of their success, both on and off the pitch. The key moment of the match came in the build-up to Leverkusen's second goal, after a stunning strike from Patrick Helmes had given the guests the lead early on. As the ball broke loose in the area, Simon Rolfes seemed to kick the ball out of the hands of newly appointed number 1 Timo Hildebrand, previously of Valencia, but the referee saw no violation and awarded the goal.
The hosts were briefly hopeful when set-piece specialist Sejad Salihovic struck from the spot and came close with a free-kick, but another well-taken effort from Helmes put paid to any chance of a comeback and a Gonzalo Castro header from a Renato Augusto corner sealed the win in the latter stages. Hoffenheim stay second due to Bayern's slip-up in Berlin and Leverkusen climb to 4th, 4 points behind leaders Hertha in what looks set to be a memorable race for the title.
It was goals galore at the AWD-Arena as Hannover 96 played host to Stuttgart on Saturday. The galvanised Mario Gomez gave Markus Babbel's in-form side the lead in the 7th minute with a composed finish and their lead was extended just 15 minutes later by Martin Lanig following some poor defending. It seemed that Stuttgart would take this advantage into the break but the home team struck twice in the space of three minutes through a Jiri Stajner tap-in on 43 minutes and a delicious, curling shot from a dead ball that Jens Lehmann could only watch and admire that gave Jacek Krzynowek his first goal of the season in the 45th minute to level the scores.
Lehmann was also involved in his weekly dose of handbags with Hannover's ex-Manchester City midfielder Michael Tarnat that seemed to unsettle the former German national keeper, and after Khalid Bouhlarouz had a goal correctly chalked off at one end for offside, Mikkael Forssell beat the trap set at the other end and kept his nerve to out-fox Lehmann and give the home side the lead for the first time in the game. But Markus Babbel has given his side a renewed impetus since taking over the coach’s mantel in December and they were to come back again with 3 minutes to play when a counter-attack led to the ball falling at the feet of Thomas Hitzelsperger, who unleashed his trademark "hammer" to take a hard-earned point and lift his team up to 7th place in the league. Hannover stay 12th.
Werder Bremen welcomed back Peruvian playboy Claudio Pizarro against Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Weserstadion on Saturday after his three-match ban for slapping an opponent but still await the return of Diego in their bid to turn around the club's worst run in nearly a decade. Winless in 2009 (without a point before this match) Werder are apparently offering "Motivationsmangelerscheinung" (displays lacking motivation - 1 word!) but the reinstated Pizarro went about trying to stop the rot, directing and commanding his troops from the get-go and always leading from the front, as his first effort was blocked on the line by Tottenham reject Paul Staltieri.
He was everywhere after that, even testing the keeper from the floor with a shot on the turn in the first half, then trying to "win" a penalty with a disgusting and utterly ludicrous dive that would have required legs ten years younger to execute the technique as the contact came and went, before the back belatedly began to arch and the knees slowly showed signs of wobbling. He was then denied by his own uselessness when he scooped the ball over the bar after Hugo Almeida had not so much invited but instructed him to open the scoring from 6 yards in an open game which saw chances at both ends. However, Werder had totally dominated the second half and been kept at bay only by the lightning reflexes of newly signed Gladbach goalie Logan Baillie, when the piss-poor Pizarro finally made his mark on the game with 76 minutes on the clock via a free header from 4 yards, allowing him to notch, incredibly, his 11th goal of the season. So far. There may well be more to come.
Bremen's lead only lasted 3 minutes, though, until characteristically crass defending from a free-kick permitted the ball to float all the way over to the unmarked Michael Bradley, who had the time and awareness to casually chest the ball into the goal from no more than 3 yards to steal a point with ten minutes left, although there was still time for Naldo to hit the crossbar with a header late on. Despite dominating the encounter Werder still show no signs of recovering anything like championship challenging form, and with the team lying in 10th place in the league and AC Milan set to arrive in Bremen on Wednesday for the 1st leg of their UEFA Cup last 32 tie, the pressure is rising in the North. Gladbach would love to have these problems of course, as the "Kellerkind" (basement boys) harbour no continental hopes and continue to prop up the Bundesliga while resembling an increasingly efficient anchor, in spite of receiving significant winter investment.
Felix Magath's Wolfsburg maintained their impressive run in Frankfurt on Saturday, running out comfortable 2-0 winners over Eintracht after another strike from the Bosnian Edin Dzeko, who has now scored 8 times in this campaign, complimenting his partner Grafite and releasing a portion of the mighty burden around the Brazilian's neck while he remains sidelined through injury and looks to be out for another 3 weeks. His goal was a thing of beauty after a well-flighted cross picked out the tall talisman at the back stick and the Bosnian's diving header proved unstoppable. The clincher was controversial to say the least as the referee compounded his error in refusing to hand the hosts a clear-cut penalty by offering one to the away side for a handball from a player clearly protecting his face. Zvjezdan Misimovic stepped up to make the game safe and take the Wolves into position 6 in the table. Frankfurt fall to 13th and now face the possibility of a long drawn out fight to preserve their Bundesliga status for another year.
Vfl Bochum have been suffering a severe injury crisis of late and this was not helped by the loss of both of their "Inverteidiger" (centre-backs) within 6 minutes in the big derby against Schalke 04 on Saturday. Schalke have only managed two wins on the road in 2008/9 and decided to give Kevin Kuranyi a rare start at the rewirpower Stadion. He responded by grabbing the opener after just 17 minutes to get the ball rolling with his 7th of the season, slamming home a rebound after a shot from Halil Altintop was palmed into his path by the Bochum goalkeeper.
Bochum lifted themselves sufficiently to force their local rivals to withdraw and this increased pressure led to Mimoun Azaouagh equalising with a shot that, according to a rough translation of the commentator "stumbled past Manuel Neuer like a pissed-up pedestrian at the Rose Montag (Köln Carnival)". It was actually a swerving strike that confused Neuer and flew into the back of the net to crank the atmosphere up another notch inside the ground just before half-time. In the 57th minute the turnaround was complete as Bochum captain Christoph Dabrowski eventually turned in a scrappy second for the hosts that turned out to be the winner. If the "Derbysieger" (derby winners) were elated, their opponents were truly crushed and the heat is now on Dutch boss Fred Rutten, formerly assistant to Guus Hiddink at PSV, to gain ground on the league leaders. Schalke now lie in 9th, while Bochum have hit the dizzying heights of 15th rung on the ladder, temporarily escaping the danger zone on goal difference.
Köln were held to a goalless draw at home to Karlsruhe, who followed up their win over Hamburg last week with another valuable point this time around. Karlsruhe's primary attacking threat, Sebastian Freis, however, has agreed to join Köln in the summer and his new employers will hope his arrival, along with that of Lucas Podolski, will enable them to become more of a potent force next season as they continue to consolidate their status in the top tier. It was their existing front-line, led by Milivoje Novakovic, that was guilty of wasting a whole host of chances on Saturday, but both teams will be content with the result in their respective quests, although Köln stay 11th and out of touch with the big boys, and Karlsruhe are 17th this morning, but level on points with Cottbus and Bochum above them.
Sunday saw Borussia Dortmund meet Energie Cottbus and Hamburg host Arminia Bielefeld, where goals from Piotr Trochowski and Paulo Guerrero either side of half-time took HSV back into 3rd place and kept up the pressure on the top two, leaving Bielefeld above the relegation line but only by a point. Dortmund's contest proved not to be quite as straightforward, as Cagdas Atan scored first for the visitors before Alexander Frei salvaged a draw just before the interval. Korean left-back Young-Pyo Lee, formerly of Tottenham, was also dismissed in stoppage time for the home side as they slipped to 8th. Cottbus climb to 16th place but remain very much in the thick of it in the battle to avoid the drop.
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