blighty to berlin

Braced for the Bundesliga?

2009-09-23T19:04:00.000+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VfB Stuttgart 0-2 1 FC Köln (41,000)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brand New Bundesliga

2009-09-14T21:41:00.000+02:00

VfL Wolfsburg 2-3 Bayer 04 Leverkusen

In 25 meetings between these two clubs there has never been a 0-0, although referee Dr. Felix Brych may have wished for one after two red cards and a penalty apiece gave both sides cause for complaint at the VW-Arena on Saturday.

The game’s turning point came in the 32nd minute, when home keeper Diego Benaglio was sent off for an ill-advised lunge outside his box that thwarted the efforts of visiting striker Erin Derdiyok. (It didn’t exactly pole-axe him, though, as the attacker seemed to imply with his sprawling actions in the event’s immediate aftermath.) That allowed the guests to establish a 3-goal lead before Derdiyok himself was on the wrong end of the referee’s red mist for a second bookable offence that helped Wolfsburg back into the contest and ensure a barnstorming finish to a riveting encounter.

Leverkusen’s 1st came when substitute stopper Andre Lenz twice parried point-blank attempts before Simon Rolfes rammed home to put his side in the ascendancy shortly before the interval. An incredibly soft penalty award endeared the good doctor to the home crowd even further in the 51st minute to allow Rolfes to plunder his 2nd from the spot, before Derdiyok was dismissed two minutes later. As Armin Veh was forced to go for broke by replacing defender Marcel Schäfer with Bosnian forward Edin Dzeko, his side were caught cold by an intricate attack from the away team that presented Stefan Kießling with an empty net in which to notch his 5th of the season with half an hour still on the clock.

With numerical parity restored, the balance of play became far more even, and the Wolves were dragged back into the contest by midfield maestro Zvjezdan Misimovic, who scored with a sumptuous set-piece after 76 minutes for his 3rd of another so far impressive campaign. Ten against ten, Dr. Brych decided to level the penalty count by giving an equally questionable spot-kick to Wolfsburg with 10 minutes to play, and Grafite who, having scored 28 Bundesliga goals last year, was enduring a 358 minute drought, knocked in his 11th penalty out of 11 in German football to make things interesting.

Bayer have managed a meagre total of seven points in their 12 visits to Wolfsburg, losing nine times, but they held on and are now the only team, other than Hamburg, to win on their last four league outings. Jupp Heynckes’ title contenders sit 2nd on goal difference, while Champions Wolfsburg now lie in 10th position.

Borussia Dortmund 1-5 FC Bayern München

80,552 fans squeezed into the Westfalenstadion to watch the two teams to have won the Bundesliga twice or more in the last 16 years on Saturday. Such is the competitive history of this rivalry that FCB have drawn against the BVB 26 times - more often than against any other team. More recently Munich have found it more easy-going, with five wins and four draws from their last 10 meetings with Dortmund, though, and there was only a brief flicker of danger that this one would end up all-square.

When a Nuri Sahin free kick was met by a Mats Hummels header on 10 minutes to put Dortmund in front there was hope. But Borussia have now scored exactly one goal in each of their last five league matches and once Mario Gomez had levelled from an offside position 10 minutes before the break the three points began to slowly slide south to Bavaria. Arjen Robben, having already struck a sublime volley on this ground this season to help Real Madrid win a friendly arranged to celebrate BVB’s centenary last month, began to run proceedings. When he was joined, from the bench, by Franck Ribery it signalled the beginning of the end for Jürgen Klopp’s Jungs.

First, Bastien Schweinsteiger beat Roman Weidenfeller at his near post, then Ribery curled a wonderful free-kick past him to formally open the floodgates. Youth product Thomas Muller entered the fray at the same time as the Frenchman and grabbed a brace to complete the rout, his second a stunning strike into the top corner from 25 yards. Bayern now loom large on the perimeter of the title race, slithering into 5th spot, while Dortmund face tough times as they have slipped to 15th with 5 points from as many matches.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 3-0 VfL Bochum

A Stanislav Sestak hat-trick gave Bochum a 3-0 win in this fixture last time around, but it was roles reversed on Saturday as Ralf Rangwick’s team returned to the top seven. Hoffenheim's last three home matches had ended in a draw with 1899 having notched just 2 goals in total, but Bochum have now also failed to find the net in nearly 400 minutes of football since scoring three times in the space of 12 minutes on the opening day, and they never looked like amending that record once they had gone behind to a deadly Demba Ba finish on 16 minutes. A fabulous solo-effort from wing-wizard Chinedu Obasi and Marvin Commper’s late tap-in gave the home side the points at the Rhein-Neckar Stadion to leave VfL struggling in 15th spot.

SC Freiburg 0-2 Eintracht Frankfurt

SCF’s South Korean striker Du-ri Cha faced his father Bum-Kun Cha’s former club Frankfurt, where the ex-stopper is still held in high esteem, and nearly made his mark with a long-range effort narrowly kept out by Eintracht’s Oka Nikolov on Saturday. However, despite the SC having won five of their last six home matches against the Hessians, Eintracht have an excellent record away from home this season and remain unbeaten after Alexander Meier walked the ball into the net in the last minute, following Maik Franz’s 1st for the club from close-range early in the 2nd half, to cap another accomplished performance from Michael Skibbe’s side and leave them 3rd with five games played. Freiburg have now conceded 12 times this term – more than any other side – and stay 16th after their 3rd loss so far.

1 FSV Mainz 05 2-1 Hertha BSC Berlin

The 05ers overtook the "Old Lady" of Berlin on Saturday as late goals from Andreas Ivanschitz and Aristide Bance cancelled out Maximilian Nicu’s opener for Hertha. The Berliners seemed relatively secure until suddenly succumbing to a late onslaught from their hosts and now sit stranded in 17th after Ivanschitz scored from the spot and Burkina Faso‘s Bance showed neat footwork in netting his 3rd of the campaign to undo all keeper Jaroslav Drobny’s preceding hard work in keeping him at bay up to that point. The 05ers are now unbeaten at home in their last seven league matches (five wins, two draws) and are up into 8th place on the back of this fine run, which included that epic win over Bayern Munich in week 3.

1 FC Nürnberg 1-0 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Nürnberg had failed to score in three hours and 26 minutes before this match but Peer Kluge’s prodded effort just six minutes in proved sufficient in seeing off Gladbach at the easycredit Stadion and subsequently climbing to 13th in the table. The FCN have more Bundesliga wins to their name against Gladbach (19) than against any other team and have won three of their last four meetings with the "Foals". But Michael Frontzeck’s men did have their chances, Roberto Colautti wasting a glorious opening by nodding a header over from three yards before a brilliant dummy by new number 10 Raul Marcelo Bobadilla created space inside the area, but the Argentinian assassin shot wide. They were also denied a stonewall penalty when Karim Matmour was upended in the second period, but can take heart from only conceding once, having let in 11 in their previous three away matches. They drop to 9th.

Hamburger SV 3-1 VfB Stuttgart

A delightful goal from Mladen Petric set Hamburg on their way to a vital win over Stuttgart at the HSH Nordbank Arena on Sunday, where Markus Babbel’s side suffered their 2nd loss of the season and are yet to win away thus far. The VfB have won five of their last seven meetings with Hamburger SV but they were put to the sword here by way of a well-rounded performance from the home side.

The opener from Petric was superb, the robust Croatian picking the ball up just inside the opponents’ half, outfoxing Thomas Hitzlsperger with quick feet and solid technique before exchanging passes with Dutchman Eljero Elia and unleashing an unstoppable left-footed rasper into Jens Lehmann’s top corner. You could have put 11 Lehmann’s in there – and their owners – and they still would’ve been fighting only to pick the ball out of the back of the net after half an hour. Elia then got in on the act with another smart finish just before the hour mark, Lehmann this time beaten by a low Aufsetzer (daisy-cutter) that flew into the bottom left-hand corner. Hamburg have not kept a clean sheet in any of their last 12 Bundesliga matches - the longest such run in the league, and only four minutes later Christian Träsch delivered into the path of Pavel Pogrebnyak and the Russian doubled his season’s tally with an angled finish.

But the last word went to the oldest (outfield) player on the pitch, as the evergreen Ze Roberto stepped up to make the game safe with a low drive that Lehmann gloved but could not keep out in the closing stages. Hamburg retain top spot after their fourth successive win by virtue of a marginally better goal difference than rivals Leverkusen, while Stuttgart fall to 12th, a point above the dropzone.

Werder Bremen 0-0 Hannover 96

Werder have won their last five home matches against 96 scoring 21 goals and conceding only two in the process, so it was with some surprise that the home fans greeted the final whistle that confirmed a stalemate at the Weserstadion on Sunday. The hosts went into the match on the back of two consecutive wins accompanied by separate three-goal hauls but, although Marko Marin tested replacement keeper Florian Fromlowitz from distance and Claudio Pizarro was denied twice by the stand-in stopper, Per Mertesacker’s set-piece header came closest to breaking the deadlock but was cleared off the line in the first half and as a result, Werder stand in 6th.

Jari Stajner had two opportunities to snatch an unlikely victory for Hannover but was denied by assured handling from Tim Wiese. Only once (in 21 attempts) in the history of the Bundesliga have the 96ers been able to win in the Weserstadion - Fredi Bobic scored a brace in their 2-1 win during the 2002/03 season. This hard-fought point took them to 11th.

1 FC Köln 1-2 FC Schalke 04

And so it finally came to pass that Prince Poldi found himself on the scoresheet for the very first time since his emotional homecoming. It mattered little the goals scored either side of it by the opposition. Or that the resulting reversal set the league’s longest winless streak at six. Or that the defeat left Köln rock bottom of the Bundesliga after five matches. These wer mere details. They broke the bank to get their man, and now he was paying them back. This was to be the first of many decisive interventions that would carry the Köln all the way to salvation. Schalke looked to the details for consolation.

In their last 15 matches against Köln, the Royal Blues have failed to score only once, and it took less than two minutes for an Ivan Rakitic corner to find Gerald Asamoah unmarked at the back post, who nodded the ball back across for Jefferson Farfan to beat a static defence to the loose ball and glance home a header in the 2nd minute. However, Schalke have failed to score in two successive matches for the first time since early 2008 and nerves re-surfaced when Maniche found Fabrice Ehret, who slid a ball into Lukas Podoloski, who did the rest. The German international and local pin-up ghosted past Marcelo Bordon, stretching to control with his right before burying the ball at the near post with his infamous left foot.

What may have appeared to be salvation to the home supporters resembled temporary relief to the rest, and so it turned out when Levan Kobiashvili utilized the acres of space that he was offered to deadly effect by guiding the ball into the far corner for the wnner a minute after the restart, ironically crushing any false hope of victory at the same end that it had been given to them by their Prince when the contest was just 6 minutes old. This well-earned win puts Felix Mageth’s boys into 3rd ahead of their clash with Champions Wolfsburg next Friday night.

Bundesliga Beginnings

2009-09-02T22:16:00.000+02:00

With 111 new players and 10 new coaches, the Bundesliga takes on a fresh new look this season. And with attendances up and Sky’s arrival set to boost the league’s global profile the Germans are in predictably buoyant mood ahead of the new campaign.

Here is how the 18 clubs have progressed so far:

VfL Wolfsburg

Reigning Fußballer des Jahres and Torschützenkönig Grafite appeared to have picked up where he left off last year for the league Champions with an opening day goal in a 2-0 win over Stuttgart. A 3-1 win in Köln gave new boss Armin Veh further cause for optimism before consecutive defeats at home to Hamburg then at the Allianz Arena, conceding 7 goals in the process, now mean that former coach Felix Magath’s shadow looms large over the VW-Arena once more. The fact that star striker Grafite has failed to add to his week 1 tally is significant, as is the loss of club captain Josue with a knee injury that caused him to miss the 3-0 defeat in München. After successfully resisting offers from all over Europe for prodigal frontman Edin Dzeko during the summer, they will also expect him to add heavily to his current 1 goal haul over the course of the campaign, while new boy Obafemi Martins will add further firepower, having already bagged 2 from 3 appearances. The Wolves sit 7th and face a home clash with in-form Bayer Leverkusen next before travelling to Magath’s Schalke during a crucial 2 week period in September.

FC Schalke 04

2009’s Trainer des Jahres Felix Magath started out life at Schalke in impressive fashion, 2 straight wins - in Nürnberg and at home to Bochum - alleviating any early fears he may have held of being able to replicate success in his new surroundings. However, his team have not found the net in their last 2 games, picking up a solitary point in a goalless draw in Hoffenheim before unthinkably succumbing to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of promoted SC Freiburg at the Veltins Arena on Saturday. The club have been unusually quiet on the transfer front as Magath intends to try and get the best out of what he has for now, but they have picked up promising German youngster Lewis Holtby from Alemannia Aachen and former Brazilian international Mineiro for free after the defensive midfielder was discarded by Chelsea. Schalke are now 4th in the table with impending trips to Köln and Dortmund sandwiched by their titanic encounter with Magath’s former employers Wolfsburg in 2 weeks’ time.

Hertha BSC Berlin

This season is very slowly starting to take shape for Hertha BSC. The Berliners have had to come to terms with father figure Dieter Hoeneß seeking pastures new as well as the departures of influential frontmen Marko Pantelic and the on-loan Andriy Voronin. Results have not been good, a 1-0 win over Hannover on matchday 1 being their only success to date and 3 losses in a row – against Mönchengladbach, Bochum and, most recently, Werder Bremen – have cranked up the pressure on new Manager Michael Preetz. The club did announce the arrival of 3 new players on transfer deadline day, including that of ex-Dortmund midfield stalwart Florian Kringe, and this, allied with Sunday’s greatly improved performance during the defeat to Werder at the Olympiastadion should give the supporters hope for the season ahead. The team also made it through to the 2nd round of the DFB-Cup and the group stage of the UEFA Europa League, thanks to a miraculous comeback against Brondby inspired by on-fire Serbian maestro Gojko Kacar. The boys from the capital still lie in the danger zone in 16th place but can look forward to fixtures against 2 promoted sides, Mainz and Freiburg, in the upcoming weeks.

Eintracht Frankfurt

The return of club captain Ioannis Amanatidis after a lengthy lay-off has proved to be the catalyst for an upsurge in his side’s form and fortune this season. A high-octane start to the campaign saw Frankfurt take all 3 points from Bremen in a 5-goal thriller at the Weserstadion, and draws against Nürnberg, Köln and Dortmund leave the team who finished 13th last season unbeaten after 4 games with Amanatidis having netted on 4 occasions. They have looked revitalized under new trainer Michael Skibbe and on current form the fans will relish a trip to Freiburg before eagerly playing host to Hamburg in matchday 6.

HSV Hamburg

Dutchman Martin Jol was another trainer lured away from the Bundesliga in the summer – destination Ajax back in his Holland homeland. His successor Bruno Labbadia, formaerly of Leverkusen, has enjoyed a terrific opening spell in charge, an opening day draw in Freiburg the only blemish on an otherwise perfect scorecard. Wins over Köln (3-1), Dortmund (4-1) and away to Champions Wolfsburg (4-2) have been impressive aesthetically, as well as efficiently. Neuzugang Marcus Berg has yet to cement a place in the starting 11, the young Swede having had to play second fiddle to Peruvian hitman Paolo Guerrero, who has 4 goals in as many matches this term. However, his addition to an already exciting playing roster should in time prove an astute move from Labbadia, as should the acquisition of vastly experienced playmaker Ze Roberto from Bayern. HSV sit atop the pack, as do local rivals St. Pauli in der zweite Bundesliga, making Hamburg Germany’s top football city at the moment. Hamburg face Stuttgart next before visiting Frankfurt in two early tests of their title credentials.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Jupp Heynckes is the division’s oldest coach at 64, yet his energetic Leverkusen outfit lead the way alongside Hamburg as we enter September. 2nd only on goals scored, this well-balanced side has been offered depth and assurance with the signing of Sami Hyypia from Liverpool to shore up their rearguard – so often a stumbling block to success last season – and Heynckes’ attacking style has been rewarded with a big win over Freiburg along with narrow victories over Hoffenheim and Bochum, with a point gained from their week 1 match in Mainz. Swiss striker Eren Derdiyok has been bought from Basle but it is Stefan Kießling who has shone, with 4 in 4 games thus far representing an admirable return for a striker who aims to force his way into Joachim Löw’s World Cup plans next year. His team’s next 2 games could be pivotal as they meet Wolfsburg and then Werder within a vital 2-week stretch.

Werder Bremen

Wilkommen zu Hause Claudio Pizarro is the cry from the Weserstadion as the Peruvian pin-up has finally made his switch from west London permanent, celebrating in style with 2 goals in his 1st game back helping his new employers overturn what had threatened to become another disappointing start to a season. Storms heard brewing after the home loss to Frankfurt were tempered with their well-earned draw at the Allianz Arena followed by hard-fought wins over Mönchengladbach and Hertha Berlin to take Thomas Schaaf’s team 3rd. On top of Pizarro’s comeback, Tim Borowski has also returned to the club after a brief stint in Bavaria and attacking options have again been added in the form of Bolivian Marcello Moreno from Shaktar Donetsk and der Flügelflitzer Marko Marin from Gladbach. Hannover visit Bremen next, while a colossal clash with Leverkusen follows in week 6.

SC Freiburg

Aufsteiger Freiburg began with an encouraging home draw with Hamburg and, despite being comprehensibly beaten by both Stuttgart and Leverkusen in the 2 contests that followed, the month culminated in a famous win for the new boys of the Bundesliga at the Veltins Arena, a 1st half Du-Ri Cha strike enough to see off the top-flight’s early pace setters in week 4. Cha, a journeyman defender signed from TuS Koblenz in July, is 1 of 6 new signings in a squad which hopes to escape a prolongued season of turmoil by avoiding a repetition of scorelines such as the 5-0 reversal at home to Leverkusen in week 3. Frankfurt and Hertha provide the opposition on their next two outings as they sit just 1 spot outside the relegation places.

1 FC Köln

Prince Poldi’s procession was met with promises of proliferation but these seem to have been premature as Köln prop up the pile having scored only 2 goals in 4 games so far this term, with the returning boy wonder yet to get off the mark during his long-awaited 2nd stint at the club. Sebastien Freis has also been picked up from Karlsruhe but he, too, is yet to score and Maniche has been drafted in from Athletico Madrid to play alongside his countryman Petit in the middle of the park. New coach Zvonomir Soldo has stepped in to fill the void created by the departure of Christoph Daum to Turkey but has not yet found the winning formula with his side having picked up only a single point - that by way of a stalemate with Frankfurt 2 games ago. Setbacks against Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Hamburg either side of that unimpressive deadlock have not been unmerited, but with games featuring Schalke and Stuttgart to come in their next 2 fixtures their will be no let up in the challenge to improve on last season’s mid-table finish.

Borussia Dortmund

As one of the relatively few coaches to have survived the cull in the Bundesliga since May, Jürgen Klopp must cherish the stability he has nurtured in Dortmund. However, he must also be aware that this is to be a key season in the development of his young side, as several 1st-teamers have moved on and it will be down to the likes of Mohammed Zidan to step into the breach, as he did on Sunday with a vital goal away to Frankfurt that earned his side a share of the spoils. Dimitar Rangelov, recently signed from Energie Cottbus, should give the team greater creativity while Argentinian attacker Lucas Barrios offers an alternative up top. 1-1 draws with Frankfurt and Stuttgart as well as an opening day defeat of Köln will give the management heart but the 1-4 reversal in Hamburg on day 2 was surely the stuff of Klopp’s worst nightmares. Up next is the visit of Bayern Munich to Signal Iduna Park before a more apt appraisal of their season may be drawn from their trip to Hannover the following week.

VfL Bochum

Having eventually come through a tumultuous campaign last time out relatively unscathed, Jo-Jo side Bochum will hope for an easier escape route from the drop this year. But with only striker Zlatko Dedic to show for an entire transfer window’s worth of work, and with the team presently on 14th in the standings, it seems set to be another season of struggle at the rewirpower Stadion. In one of the craziest kits seen in many a long year, so shocking in its design that it resembles Oxfam retail at its worst that has been through 1 too many washes, their home form has actually been encouraging. A high-scoring draw with Mönchengladbach and a 1-0 triumph over Hertha Berlin testify to this. Defeats at Schalke and Leverkusen seemed inevitable, though, and they now face a long journey to Hoffenheim before returning to the relative security of a home fixture with Mainz.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

This summer’s managerial merry-go-round took Michael Frontzeck from Arminia Bielefeld to Mönchengladbach in the wake of Hans Meier’s decision to step down after leading the club to safety, having taken over at the start of the calendar year with the club rock bottom. The turbulent times look to be behind Gladbach now as they reflect on a pleasing start to the season from the giddy heights of 5th place and a Europa League berth. Wins over Hertha and Mainz at Borussia Park and a 3-3 draw with Bochum in week 1 were offset by a 3-0 drubbing in Bremen but the squad largely assembled by Meier seems set up sufficiently to hold their own at this level. Games against Nürnberg and Hoffenheim will be a test of their temperament as the competition heats up in the autumn.

FSV Mainz 05

Serious injuries sustained by both 1st and 2nd choice goalkeepers against Mönchengladbach on Friday night dampened the mood at the end of what turned out to be a hugely productive and entertaining month for the supporters of Mainz. New manager Thomas Tuchel has had to contend with a tough early fixture list but his players have responded with a win and 2 draws from their opening 4 games. The highlight was undoubtedly their astonishing conquest of Bayern Munich on matchday 3, the 2-1 scoreline fully deserved by the home side and their fans now have a moment to savour from this season whatever happens in May. Draws with Leverkusen and Hannover also provided confidence before the setback versus Gladbach at the weekend. But the new boys should not be disheartened as they have played some scintillating stuff at times, with imposing Burkina Faso international striker Aristide Bance terrorizing defences on a regular basis and the club awaiting meetings with Hertha Berlin and Bochum from a comfortable 11th position.

1 FC Nürnberg

Nürnberg are back in the top tier of German football once again after a 1-year sojourn in the 2nd division but they have not started out in a particularly convincing manner. They lie 17th in the table and have just 2 draws to their name as of September 1st, the low point coming during a 0-2 home defeat to Hannover in week 3. The 46,000 sell-out crowd at the easyCredit-Stadion on day 1 were unfortunate to see their side go down 1-2 to Schalke after a spirited display but they would have been far less impressed with their side’s showing against Hannover, while draws with Frankfurt and Stuttgart have also failed to convince of the team’s ability to avoid slipping back down come May. It may be up to the experienced heads of players such as midfielder Marek Mintal and Greek forward Angelos Charisteas to negotiate a path to safety from now until then. Next up is Mönchengladbach where the passionate home support will expect a far better showing, before they travel to take on Bayern in Bavaria.

Hannover 96

The first managerial casualty of the season came in Hannover where Dieter Hecking parted company with the club just 2 games into the new campaign. Extended periods of pressure amid unrest within the squad and the stands seemed to have rendered his position untenable long before he was replaced by former youth team coach Andreas Bergmann, who has been appointed on a caretaker basis until the end of the season. Hannover were beaten in Berlin by a very average Hertha side before being held to a depressing draw with Mainz in front of their own fans immediately before Hecking walked. Since then the team has been reborn, led by the evergreen Jiri Stajner, and a marginal loss to Hoffenheim at the AWD-Arena was preceded by a justified 2-0 win in Nürnberg. Games against Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund are fast approaching, however, and the next crisis is never too far over the horizon in Hannover it seems.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

Last season’s Herbstmeister Hoffenheim built their early-season success of 2008 upon an unquenchable thirst for goals, Vedad Ibisevic grabbing 18 of their 42 in just 17 matches played before Christmas. Unforunately, having returned from over 6 months out with knee ligament damage, the Serbian centre forward has found more goals hard to come by, and his team have notched just 2 in their opening 4 fixtures. Coach Ralf Rangwick can still console himself by reflecting on the wise purchase of Timo Hildebrand in January, as the pressure on his side to find the back of the net has been eased considerably by the former German international stopper’s exploits between the sticks, in co-ordination with the efforts of new recruit from Hertha, Josip Simunic, in central defence. Having conceded just 1 goal so far has helped keep momentum going with the team poised in 10th amid a challenging set of fixtures, a point apiece gained from games against Bayern and Schalke, and defeat by the slightest of margins in Leverkusen rectified by a win over Hannover by the same scoreline 2 weeks later. Bochum and Gladbach are their next 2 opponents.

VfB Stuttgart

If Stuttgart had been offered 30 million euros for Mario Gomez a year ago they may well have bitten Bayern or anyone else’s arm clean off. However, after a run of form under Markus Babbel that saw the German international into the runner-up spot for Fußballer des Jahres, it was with some reluctance that they allowed their star striker to fly south in the summer. Babbel has put together a strong squad, though, and with Pavel Pogrebnyak signed from St. Petersburg along with the lesser-known Alessandro Riedle, 18, from Zurich, there is certainly hope for the future of the frontline. Add to that the big-match caliber of Alexander Hleb, back on loan from Barcelona to the club where he made his name, and the resurgent side who finished 3rd last time look ready to battle for big honours in 2010. Results have not been quite as complimentary, as injury to Hleb and the time required for Pogrebnyak to settle in have hampered Stuttgart, and since being outclassed by Wolfsburg on day 1, they have only beaten lowly Freiburg, with only draws having been taken from Dortmund and Nürnberg, and Köln and Hamburg next to come.

FC Bayern München

New coach Louis van Gaal’s exhilarating acquisition of countryman Arjen Robben from Real Madrid at the end of August should bolster Bayern’s attack and give an already top-heavy group even greater options going forward. “Robery” is the term being used to describe the relationship between Robben and Frenchman Franck Ribery and that is what it must feel like to many. Bayern now boast an attack of Miroslav Klose, Luca Toni, Mario Gomez (signed from Stuttgart), Ivica Olic (formerly of Hamburg), Alexander Baumjohann (ex-Mönchengladbach) and Thomas Müller (an exciting youth product) supplemented by Ribery, Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger and supported by new signings Anatoliy Tymoschchuk and Daniel Pranjic (from Zenit St. Petersburg and Heerenveen respectively). Therefore, when the Bavarians lost to Mainz the result was understandably met with great joy, as well as enthusiasm for another unpredictable Bundesliga season in which Bayern might, conceivably, not win it. Again.

That was before the recruitment of Robben. Within 17 minutes of his debut the Dutchman had come off the bench and scored twice to rubber-stamp a victory over Champions Wolfsburg (assisted by Ribery - another substitute) effectively nullifying the loss in Mainz as well as the two draws against Hoffenheim and Werder that preceded it and turning the season on its head. If Robben stays fit, and that is a big if, Munich could have the title wrapped up early enough to afford placing sole focus on the Champions League knockout stages in February. Dortmund away will be the next test for Robery and Bayern followed by Nürnberg at the Allianz Arena. Robben’s 1st contribution took them from 16th to 7th place. Who knows where the next one might lead?

Build-up to the Bundesliga

2009-08-04T09:35:00.000+02:00

The top teams in Germany geared up for this season’s big kick-off with the 1st round of the DFB-Pokal (German FA Cup) this week, with the holders putting in a 5-star performance in the capital.

Cup holders Werder Bremen visited newly promoted 2nd division outfit Eisern Union at their recently renovated Alte Försterei stadium in Berlin on Sunday, facing what appeared a tricky encounter. But any potential banana-skin was casually sidestepped as 3 goals in the opening half-hour put paid to their hosts’ hopes of making the game anything other than a stroll in the sun for Thomas Schaaf’s team.

1. FC Union Berlin vs Werder Bremen 2.8.09 im Stadion an der alten Försterei

After a slight delay caused by an avalanche of streamers threatening to engulf Bremen stopper Tim Wiese’s penalty area before kick-off, the boisterous home support was temporarily subdued as Werder took Union apart with 3 clinical first half finishes.

Ivory Coast international Boubacar Sanogo got the ball rolling in the 10th minute as he beat a man on the edge of the box and planted a shot that might have been saved between goalkeeper and post following great work from new signing Marko Marin in the middle.

A Thorsten Frings corner then created mayhem in the Berlin ranks, allowing Naldo to stab home the 2nd from close range on 20 minutes. And when Portuguese forward Hugo Almeida easily beat the offside trap and laid the ball square for his strike partner Sanogo to tap into an empty net for his 2nd and Werder’s 3rd the contest seemed well and truly over as we approached the half-hour mark.

Werder then took their foot off the pedal and were almost punished when Wiese was called into action early in the 2nd half, making a smart stop at the feet of star striker Karim Benyamina to preserve his clean sheet. Then, amid a flurry of late substitutions that stifled the football on show if not the atmosphere in the stands, neuzugang Marcelo Moreno opened his account for the club, forcing in a loose ball having rounded the keeper 5 minutes from the end, before duly doubling his tally in the closing moments by drilling home at the near post after being put through by the impressive Philipp Bargfrede to make it 5-0 and round off a pleasing afternoon for the visitors.

17 Bundesliga sides made it into the 2nd round relatively unscathed, although Hertha Berlin were taken to extra time by Preußen Münster and Hamburg even required penalty kicks to see off Fortuna Düsseldorf after a thrilling 3-3 draw on Monday night. Hannover 96 did succumb, however, 3-1 to lowly Eintracht Trier, who registered the biggest shock of the tournament so far on Sunday.

Here is a full run-down of the results from the 1st Hauptrunde (main round) of the 2009/10 DFB-Pokal:

VfL Osnabrück - Hansa Rostock 2:1
SV Babelsberg 03 - Bayer Leverkusen 0:1
VfB Lübeck - FSV Mainz 05 2:1 a.e.t
FC Ingolstadt - FC Augsburg 1:2
Eintr. Braunschweig - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:1
SV Wehen Wiesbaden - VfL Wolfsburg 1:4
Dynamo Dresden - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:3
SG S. Großaspach - VfB Stuttgart 1:4
SC Paderborn - 1860 München 0:1
SpVgg Weiden - Borussia Dortmund 1:3
SV Elversberg - SC Freiburg 0:2
FSV Frankfurt - Bor. Mönchengladbach 1:2
SpVgg Unterhaching - Arminia Bielefeld 0:3
Kickers Emden - 1. FC Köln 0:3
TSV G. Windeck - Schalke 04 0:4
1. FC Magdeburg - Energie Cottbus 1:3
Tennis Borussia Berlin - Karlsruher SC 0:2
Wacker Burghausen - Rot-Weiss Ahlen 5:6
Preußen Münster - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:3 a.e.t
1. FC Union Berlin - Werder Bremen 0:5
FC Oberneuland - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:2
FC 08 Villingen - FC St. Pauli 0:2 a.e.t
SC Conc. Hamburg - TuS Koblenz 0:4
VfB Speldorf - Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 0:3
Rot-Weiß Erfurt - MSV Duisburg 1:2
Wormatia Worms - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:1 a.e.t
Torgelower SV Greif - Alemannia Aachen 1:4
Eintracht Trier - Hannover 96 3:1
SpVgg Neckarelz - Bayern München 1:3
Kickers Offenbach - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:3
Sportfreunde Lotte - VfL Bochum 0:1
Fortuna Düsseldorf - Hamburger SV 3:3 Hamburg won 4-1 on pens

Blighty to the Bundesliga

2009-07-09T20:28:00.000+02:00

In light of the Premier League again being (unofficially) voted the world's best league this year, having been once more outscored by their 18-team equivalent from Germany, this report takes a closer look at the links between the top flights of two of football's superpowers.

Jens Lehmann has had an encouraging season between the Stuttgart sticks, keeping more clean sheets than anyone in the top-flight this term. The former Arsenal stopper shelved plans for his autobiography, “Warum eigentlich immer Mich?” (Why always me?) with sights set on regaining his German number 1 jersey before South Africa 2010 – part of the build-up to his 41st birthday celebrations. Those of you who remember the crazed, curly-haired keeper fondly despite the tantrums and histrionics will be pleased to hear he has forsaken none of these aspects of his game since his move back home. In fact, if anything he has nurtured them, becoming an ace of antagonists-a master of his trade.

There was an incident. Hoffenheim midfielder Sejad Salihovic lost his boot contesting a 50-50 inside the Mercedes Benz Arena centre-circle, but boldly adhered to the old adage of ‘playing to the whistle’ - unaware of the predator lurking in the shadows. Out of nowhere, Lehmann lurched forward, racing fully 40 yards to covertly obtain his fellow professional’s footwear, possibly on his tip-toes. All I can say for sure is that his actions went undetected by absolutely everyone. Replays show the German collecting the shoe, scuttling back with it and slinging it over his shoulder, onto the roof of his net, before ignoring his victim’s desperate search, which went on until long after the game had restarted.

Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangwick called it “the most unsporting thing I have ever seen”. And he cannot be too far wrong. But it was vintage Lehmann. To make matters worse, moments later Hoffenheim were awarded a penalty, Salihovic stepped up to take it, with the contest’s last kick. Guess who won the mental battle. The game finished 3-3.

Claudio Pizarro and Andriy Voronin are still employed by English clubs (at time of writing) but they have both experienced such extraordinary highs and lows this year, with Werder Bremen and Hertha Berlin respectively, that the Premeir League must seem a distant memory. Both have made impressive inroads into the Bundesliga goal-scoring charts, Pizarro notching an obscene 17 goals to Voronin’s equally disturbing 11. However, both have endured traumatic times, too – the Peruvian’s coming by way of extreme wastefulness and suspension for flailing arms, the Ukrainian’s in the form of a broken cheekbone suffered at John Terry’s hands at Wembley as well as a 3-match ban for crudely kicking out at an opponent in April.

Voronin, 29, hurtled from Hero to Zero, from being Hertha’s “Mann mit dem goldenen Zopf” (man with the golden ponytail) and commanding a 15m € price tag to being ruled out of a huge chunk of his side’s doomed run-in. 30-year-old Pizarro’s fall from grace, while equally dramatic, may have longer lasting consequences.

He shocked the world by scoring twice at the San Siro to send AC Milan crashing out of the UEFA Cup and although Werder lost the final he still faces a DFB Cup final vs Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday. But eyebrows were raised earlier this year when rumours of tax evasion and involvement in the player black market in Peru surfaced, the player allegedly having netted more than a scoring bonus for his part in bringing countryman Roberto Silva to Bremen back in 2001. This, added to previous reports of “flesh-fests” emanating from South America, may convince Werder to ditch the pitiful Peruvian this summer, whereas Voronin appears to be in demand both in Berlin and by former boss Rafael Benitez in Liverpool.

The ludicrously large representation of former Tottenham Hotspur players in the Bundesliga reflects the North London club’s revolving-door transfer policy. The likes of Paul Stalteri, Thimothee Atouba, Kevin Prince-Boateng and Gilberto have come and gone to the extent that no-one now really knows their whereabouts. We know they’re turning out for/captaining neglected XI’s somewhere. We’re just not sure whether it’s the second strings of a reserve team or a disabled team we should be searching. (Stalteri is, in fact, a valued member within the Borussia Mönchengladbach 1st team setup, but how he didn’t single-handedly take them down is beyond me.)

The team with the most Premier League input in Germany is Hannover 96, carrying 3 recruits – ex-Crystal Palace defender Valerian Ismael, his former team-mate, previously a Birmingham City employee and Chelsea supersub, Mikael Forssell and the recently retired Michael Tarnat. Up until this month the former Manchester City defender was the division’s oldest player at 39, 2 full weeks older than Jens Lehmann. When Sergio Pinto scored Hannover’s final goal of the campaign on Saturday he placed a number 18 shirt on the turf and bowed down before it in recognition of the services of Tarnat, who missed the match through injury.

Of those players registered in Germany currently being linked with sides in England, Wolfsburg’s Edin Dzeko, 23, seemed the best bet until the Bosnian striker stated his preference for a move to Serie A, perhaps to follow Brazilian Diego, who moves to Juventus next month for 29m € despite huge interest from English clubs. The most high-profile switch would be that of Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery to Manchester United but this would only take place in the event that Cristiano Ronaldo finally moves to Madrid this summer. The Frenchman would be a more than adequate replacement for he has half the speed but twice the trickery of the Portuguese and the temperament to boot.

Sami Hyypia will transfer to Bayer Leverkusen in July, as advertised by an Anfield crowd surprisingly saddedned, apparently suffering from their version of a slow news day, with nothing else left to play for this season. Otherwise, I have only come across one seemingly unsolvable jigsaw puzzle containing the pieces: “Glen Johnson”, “Bayern Munich”, “15 million” and “pounds Sterling”. It’s kept me up at night.

Other past Premiership players to have begun this season on the books of a Bundesliga outfit include: Werder Bremen’s Petri Pasanen (once of Portsmouth), Bayern Munich’s Daniel van Buyten (Manchester City), Bayer Leverkusen’s Vratislav Gresko (Blackburn Rovers), VfB Stuttgart’s Thomas Hitzlsperger (Aston Villa) and Khalid Boulahrouz (Chelsea), Hamburg’s Guy Demel (Arsenal), Hertha Berlin’s Jaroslav Drobny and FC Köln’s Pierre Wome (both Fulham), Eintracht Frankfurt’s Junichi Inamoto (Fulham, Arsenal, Cardiff City AND West Bromwich Albion) Arminia Bielefeld’s Nico Herzig (Wimbledon) as well as Köln’s Kevin Mckenna (formerly of Heart of Midlothian).

So, in case you were wondering, that's where they all are. And that's where i'll be come August - on the edge of my seat as always. See you next season.

Bye Bye Bundesliga (Week 34)

2009-05-23T18:14:00.000+02:00

With 4 teams immersed in the relegation dog-fight, 3 teams engrossed in the title race and 2 teams involved in the battle for the final Europa League spot, the Bundesliga promised to provide a tense finale to 1 of its more memorable campaigns. Never too tense to produce another torrent of goals, mind.

Die Meisterschale (The League Shield)

Vfl Wolfsburg 5 – 1 SV Werder Bremen (30,000)

“So sehen Sieger aus!“ (That’s how Champions look!) sang the Wolfsburg crowd at the final whistle as they came to terms with their club’s very 1st Bundesliga crown at the not-so-grand old age of 64 with a thumping win over Werder at the VW-Arena on Saturday. The city has no balcony from which the trophy can be held aloft, no room or even cabinet in which it can be stored but 8 big screens around town allowed them to witness “der Leitwolf” (lead wolf) Felix Magath become the 8th manager to win the German Championship with 2 clubs and strikers Grafite and Edin Dzeko beat the combined total of Gerd Müller and Uli Hoeneß to set a new combined seasonal goalscoring record, Grafite claiming the title of “Torschützenkönig” (King of goal scorers) with 28 from 25 appearances.
Zvjezdan Misimovic got them off and running in the 5th minute – fitting as he has been the catalyst for much of their all-conquering attacking play this season – and once Grafite was off the mark for the afternoon and Werder’s Sebastien Prödl had turned the Brazilian’s cross into his own net after 26 minutes, it was merely a matter of how many this team could conjure up in its bid to highlight the overwhelming supremacy it has recently enjoyed over the rest of the division.
Werder’s only consolation ahead of their DFB-Pokal Final against Leverkusen next Saturday was that Diego managed to mark his farewell Bundesliga appearance with a well-taken goal after Peruvian playboy Claudio Pizarro found his South-American counterpart in the box with a back-heel and Diego rolled it to his left before slipping it under the keeper with his right for his 12th of another mesmerising season.
But Wolfsburg were not to be outdone and further goals from Grafite and Dzeko sealed the shield by an emphatic margin to render events in Bavaria inconsequential.

FC Bayern München 2 – 1 Vfb Stuttgart (69,000)

So they had to settle for 2nd. But the Bavarians did their bit, beating Stuttgart at the Allianz Arena on Saturday to maintain an ounce of pressure on the boys above them. Goals came from Khalid Boulahrouz, the former Chelsea defender turning a Franck Ribery centre into his own net, and Mark van Bommel’s 2nd of a disappointing season for the Dutchman after Ribery nutmegged the hapless Boulahrouz and van Bommel did the same to Jens Lehmann with an hour played. Mario Gomez almost instantly hit back for the guests with his 24th of an incredible season and nearly produced an equalizer moments later only to see his effort drift agonizingly past the far post. The German international seems destined to make the Allianz his permanent home this summer as talks of a 30 million Euro switch have been welcomed by the striker.
There was still time this term for 1 more unsightly miss from Gomez’s opposite number Luca Toni. Boulahrouz seemingly tried to make the day worse for himself by air-kicking a slow pullback when attempting to clear and the ball fell at the feet of the inconceivably irritating Italian, who felt no need to control the ball but instead simply donkey kicked into the “Tribune” (stand) for one final dose of what we can all now safely refer to as “a Toni”.

Der Abstiegskampf (The Relegation Battle)

Karlsruher SC 4 – 0 Hertha BSC (30,600)

Relegation had loomed large for much of Karlsruhe’s campaign but though they finally bowed out they went down swinging on Saturday with a whopping win over Champions League chasing Hertha at the Wildpark Stadion. A win for the away side would have been enough to earn at least 3rd spot but they froze under pressure and forfeited their earlier gains in a meek surrender that cast them into the Europa League for 2009/10. Sebastien Freis and skipper Maik Franz made their mark on the scoresheet and Joshua Kennedy – arguably the least dangerous, least productive ‘striker’ to have graced this or any league this season – plundered a second half double to allow the hosts to leave the division with dignity intact.

DSC Arminia Bielefeld 2 – 2 Hannover 96 (27,300)

4 wins all season did for Bielefeld as their inability to turn chances into goals was again to be their undoing against Hannover at the Schüco Arena on Saturday. They went ahead as early as the 2nd minute through a Mario Eggimann own goal and when Hannover’s German number 1 Robert Enke went off bearing a shocking 15cm wound in his skull the Gods seemed to be with Arminia as they stood in 16th place in the ‘Live Table’. Then came a diving header from Jari Stajner and a Sergio Pinto strike, set up by Mikkael Forssell, which the Portuguese celebrated by taking the shirt of the missing Michael Tarnat, laying it on the turf and bowing before it, in honour of the retirement of the league’s oldest player to complete the comeback. At 1-1 deposed ‘King’ Artur Wichniarek missed a sitter and although the striker managed to equalize in stoppage time it proved too little too late as his side finished rock bottom of the table. Even in the wake of such a disastrous outcome the dismissal of interim manager Jörg Berger after just 1 game seemed harsh, as Arminia now contemplate life down under without a leader in tow.

Energie Cottbus 3 – 0 Bayer 04 Leverkusen (20,140)

With 3 attackers injured, Cottbus faced a tough task to obtain at least 16th place and merit a stay of execution against Cup Finalists Bayer Leverkusen at the Stadion der Freundschaft on Saturday, especially with Jiayi Shao squandering opportunities whenever called upon. Events turned when Bayer’s Arturo Vidal was dismissed for hacking an opponent wildly from behind when on a yellow just before the mid-point. This galvanized the home side and in particular Ervin Skela, who set up 2 Emil Jula goals and 1 for Stiven Rivic before skying a penalty that would have capped a fine performance from midfield. Energie must now face 3rd placed 2nd Bundesliga outfit 1. FC Nürnberg over 2 legs, taking place this Thursday and Sunday, to retain top-flight status for another year.

Borussia Mönchengladbach 1 – 1 Borussia Dortmund (54,067)

Gladbach coach Hans Meier is a veteran of events such as ‘Survival Saturday', as Sky would surely have called it, having saved his side before in 2003 and also rescued Nürnberg, as well as winning them the DFB Cup, in 2006. So he knew not to proclaim “mission accomplished” with his team mathematically insecure going into their clash with major rivals Dortmund at Borussia Park on Saturday. Dortmund had lost just 5 games all season – a tremendous testament to the team put together by trainer Jürgen Klopp – and a late surge had them within reach of a European place. Unfortunately, needing to match the result of Hamburg, they fell behind to a free header from Bonfim da Costa Dante approaching the hour mark and a Jakub Blaszczykowski leveler proved insufficient in their quest for European football next year. Gladbach, however, defied all odds to stay up in spite of having been bottom at Christmas thanks largely to the appointment and subsequent signings and input of the experienced Meier.

Eintracht Frankfurt 2 – 3 Hamburger SV (51,500)

Hamburg left it late to secure the last Europa League spot as they sought to amend the legacy of Ajax-bound “drei-viertel” (three-quarter) coach Martin Jol at the Commerzbank Arena on Saturday. David Jarolim’s drilled effort from outside the “Strafraum” (penalty box) and Ivica Olic’s last goal for the club before leaving for Bavaria seemed to have stopped the rot after 4 points from their last 5 games and 3 away defeats on the trot had undermined what had been an admirable campaign on all fronts up until the home straight. But when Alexander Meier and Caio demolished their side’s deficit within 4 2nd half minutes Dortmund were heading for Europe in Hamburg’s stead. It took a last minute Piotr Trochowski scorcher to regain 5th spot and spare Jol’s blushes as the nearly-man at least left the club looking forward to an impending continental adventure next season.

Schalke 04 2 – 3 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (61,673)

Sacked by Schalke 3 years ago, Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangwick had not been back to the Veltins Arena until last Saturday. When Demba Ba opened the scoring with his 14th of an immense season, particularly in the wake of the injury sustained by his strike partner Vedad Ibisevic in January, Rangwick must have wondered why he didn’t visit more often. The hosts rallied, though, to temporarily bring those bitter memories back to the surface, Mladen Krstajic and Jefferson Farfan goals turning the game on its head before the interval. Regrettably, the only good news for Schalke fans at the weekend came in the knowledge that the season is now over and that they can now regroup under the probable stewardship of Felix Magath over the summer. Carlos Eduardo hit back for the visitors in the 49th and 89th minutes, latterly from the spot with seconds remaining, to salvage a 7th placed finish from the wreckage of their season and end their opponents’ term on a dismal note.

FC Köln 1 – 1 VfL Bochum (50,000)

Having pulled clear of “das Schmutzige Grau der Tabelle” (the dirty grey end of the table) in recent weeks, VfL Bochum aimed to end their season on a high at Köln’s Rhein Energie Stadion at the weekend. Diego Klimowicz, one of the signings of the season regardless of an injury that kept him out during a key period, broke the deadlock with his 4th of the season in the 18th minute before his contribution was cancelled out by an Anthor Yahia own goal 6 minutes later. Both teams will be satisfied with safety as reward for their endeavours this term. Köln even afforded long-serving midfielder Matthias Scherz a 2nd half substitute appearance sporting the captain’s armband and the stalwart almost marked the occasion with a goal but had to settle for a standing ovation in memory of his 374 games and 82 goals spanning 10 years of loyal service to the club.

Squeaky Bum Bundesliga (Week 33)

2009-05-19T10:52:00.000+02:00

After the drama of “English Week” (1 in which midweek fixtures take place) Saturday’s matches went a long way towards deciding both the outcome of the Championship race and the order of relegation places in Germany with 1 round still to negotiate. While 4 teams remain mathematically capable of claiming the 1st Division crown, there is now a clear front-runner. At the other end only a statistical nightmare can drag those above the drop zone back into trouble but there is still everything to play for regarding the chance for redemption through the newly re-introduced relegation play-offs.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 2 – 2 FC Bayern München (30,150)

A scintillating 1st half saw all 4 of the afternoon’s goals scored and left Bayern in the daunting position of facing a trip to rivals Vfb Stuttgart next weekend knowing that if all goes well they could be Champions and if all else fails they can end up 4th. Hosts Hofffenheim were highly charged at the Rhein-Neckar Arena on Saturday, the ill-tempered reverse fixture having culminated in an ill-deserved point for the Bavarians in December to temporarily deny Hoffenheim the Winter Championship. Hoffenheim are now 7th but remain motivated under coach Ralf Rangwick and after going behind to a goal from the superb Franck Ribery on 16 minutes they clawed their way back into the contest firstly through Demba Ba’s 13th of the season and then Carlos Eduardo’s 28th minute effort to complete the turnaround. However, hearts were to be broken once again as Ribery teased a ball onto the head of Luca Toni, who equalised on the stroke of half-time.

Hannover 96 0 – 5 Vfl Wolfsburg (49,000)

The scoreline should really have read Grafite 2 Edin Dzeko 3 at the AWD-Arena as Wolfsburg’s frontline tore apart their hosts’ defence from 1st minute to last on Saturday. Records remain in freefall at the feet of the Wolves this season and the goalscoring feats of their front 2 represent the 1st time in Bundesliga history that 2 players from the same club have totaled more than 20 goals over a league campaign.
Grafite’s 25th and 26th of the season were both brought about by shoddy defending but were met with identically ice-cold finishes and while a pair of free headers were clinically dispatched by Dzeko in much the same fashion it was his 1st that was the most eye-catching, as he chested a whipped cross and executed a half-volley on the swivel that was in from the moment it had left the laces of his boot. He now has 25 to his name, an incredible 18 of them having come in the 2nd half of the season.
Wolfsburg’s biggest ever away win was witnessed by 8,000 travelling fans and leaves them on the brink of their 1st ever league title, requiring only a draw at home to Werder Bremen next Saturday to clinch the coveted shield. Their opponents may have other priorities as they will play cup finals either side of their game at the VW-Arena, although ironically Werder are the only side to have won in Wolfsburg this season, destroying Felix Magath’s team 5-2 in the DFB-Cup late last year.

Vfb Stuttgart 2 – 0 FC Energie Cottbus (55,500)

The last game at the Mercedes Benz Arena in its current format, before it undergoes wholesale changes in the summer, saw home skipper Thomas Hitzlsperger give his team the lead with just under 20 minutes on the clock before the injured Mario Gomez came off the bench to set up strike partner Cacau for the decisive second with 12 minutes to play and claim a well-earned 2-0 win over Cottbus, all but securing their opponents’ fate in the bottom 3. Had Jiayi Shao not hit the bar from the attack directly preceeding the second goal then the visitors may have snatched a dramatic draw but, as it stands, they can only hope for a place in the relegation play-offs after succumbing to a sucker-punch on Saturday. Stuttgart go into their final game at the Allianz Arena knowing that a win and a Wolfsburg slip-up could still hand them the title and enable them to present Markus Babbel as the leading candidate for Manager of the Year, having taken over in December with his side in 11th.

Hertha BSC 0 – 0 FC Schalke 04 (74,244)

For those unfamiliar with the concept of a “Stadion-Runde” (Stadium Round) it occurs when a player buys a beer for 74,000 people after losing a bet. Pal Dardai was the generous sole who paid for 55,000 litres of beer to be delivered as free alcohol was consumed and replica shirts dished out to 1 whole stand at the Olympiastadion on Saturday. The sell-out crowd would have been disappointed by the result, 1 which sees their side fall off the pace in their hunt for the title, all but ending their hopes of silverware for another year, but not by the performance. Hertha were attractive to watch, free-flowing and seemingly walking through the Schalke ranks at will in the 1st period. However, they could not break through despite their domination, deliverer Dardai cruelly wasting their clearest opportunity, and they must now win in Karlsruhe on the last day and hope that Bayern and Stuttgart draw in order to claim 2nd spot and thus an automatic Champions League berth.

Borussia Dortmund 6 – 0 DSC Arminia Bielefeld (80,200)

Dortmund have been ably supported this year by an average attendance of over 74,000 and yet another sell-out was richly rewarded with their biggest win in 13 years on Saturday. Opponents Bielefeld had missed a hatful of chances early on and were much the better side but once home skipper Sebastien Kehl had nicked in ahead of the onrushing Dennis Eilhoff to score the first of his 2 goals a minute before the break Arminia completely capitulated in the second period to almost certainly miss out on automatic survival come next weekend. They will aim to avoid another thrashing of this magnitude against Hannover on Saturday and retain their play-off place after additional goals from Tamas Hajnal, Nelson Valdez, Tinga and the pick of the bunch from substitute Mohamed Zidan condemned them to an embarrassing reversal at Signal Iduna Park. Dortmund are dreaming of Europe following another all-star display of attacking prowess from Jürgen Klopp’s men.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 5 – 0 Borussia Mönchengladbach (43,000)

Only a minor miracle can thwart Gladbach’s bid for safety next Saturday but by losing heavily in Dusseldorf last Saturday they went some way towards proving this eventuality could be less implausible than at first glance of the table. Bayer had claimed only 4 points from their 7 previous encounters at their temporary home but Stefan Kießling, Patrick Helmes, Gonzalo Castro, Michal Kadlec and a Dante Bonfim own goal all troubled the scorers against Gladbach to render this particular record a farce. Excitable away fans uprooted entire rows of seats in order to make more room for standing at their end as their raucousness was replaced with an ever-increasing air of dismay as each goal put their top-flight status further back into jeopardy, after back-to-back last minute winners in their 2 previous matches had seen them pull away from the danger area.

Vfl Bochum 2 – 0 Eintracht Frankfurt (30,420)

Officials have dished out a combined total of 146 yellow cards to these two sides this season and with death threats having been sent to Bochum players by their own fans prior to Saturday’s contest this promised to be a tense occasion all round. But Bochum shrugged off any sense of pressure to secure a position of safety with a comfortable win by a margin which could have been wider had it not been for visiting keeper Markus Proll who had an awesome day between the sticks despite conceding from Vahid Hashamian in the 1st half and the sorely missed Diego Klimowicz in the 2nd, ensuring “Jo-Jo Bochum” remain recoiled at the top end of their spectrum for another year.

SV Werder Bremen 1 – 3 Karlsruher SC (39,219)

The departure of arguably the league’s greatest player to Juventus this summer will undoubtedly be mourned by many, nowhere more so than in Bremen, where Diego made his final appearance at the Weserstadion against bottom club Karlsruher on Saturday. He failed to finish on a high despite delighting the crowd with some classic trickery in the 1st half, as his side somehow slumped to a heavy defeat at the hands of the league’s lowest ranked team. They were 2 down at half-time to a side who had scored just 21 goals all season and had not scored 3 times away in 11 years, and their number 1 Tim Wiese, “der Elfmeter-Töter” (the penalty-killer), had also turned away a spot-kick before Lars Stindl struck twice to double his tally for the season. Alexander Iashvili added another 10 minutes after the restart and Hugo Almeida pulled 1 back for the hosts but it all proved irrelevant to Karlsruher’s hopes of surviving without the need for a play-off, as news came in of the result from Bochum and the team who have been bottom for much of the season must now hope for a major turn-up at home to Hertha Berlin next week just to make the match against the 3rd best team in the Second Division.

HSV Hamburg 0 – 1 1. FC Köln (57,000)

Flowers were offered to Ivica Olic to mark his last appearance at the HSH Nordbank Arena to add to “Alles Gute” wishes from the fans in anticipation of his long-awaited move south to Bayern Munich next month. His sons should fit in seamlessly as they are remarkably named Luca and Toni, their father looking set to partner the infamously infantile Italian next term. Unfortunately his team-mates failed to give him a fitting send-off as their season continued to peter out by falling to Fabrice Ehret’s 3rd goal of the season for Köln in the 9th minute on Saturday.

Keeping Abreast of the Bundesliga (Week 31)

2009-05-15T11:44:00.000+02:00

Borussia Dortmund 4 – 0 Karlsruher SC 80,100

Statistics often fail to show the whole story but in the case of Karlsruhe they tell a tale of woe that is unlikely to twist and turn but bound for disappointment and demotion later this month. From 432 shots this season they have netted 21 times and an 18th scoreless outing was always on the cards at the sold-out Signal Iduna Park on Saturday. Dortmund have won 7 games running and, in doing so, have gained 2 points fewer than Karlsruhe have amassed all season. Goals from Nuri Sahin, Felipe Santana and Alexander Frei adding insult to injury following Jakub Blaszczykowski’s cracking near post volley opened the floodgates after 25 minutes.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2 – 2 DSC Arminia Bielefeld 23,150

After 390 days out injured Bernd Schneider, 35, took his place on the Bayer bench for the visit of Bielefeld but was powerless to prevent the guests taking a point from their temporary LTU Arena home in Düsseldorf, although a late Patrick Helmes strike did at least ensure a share of the spoils for the hosts on Friday night. Stefan Kießling had put Leverkusen in front before goals from Radim Kucera and Robert Tesche (all headers) had turned the game on its head.

Hertha BSC 2 – 0 Vfl Bochum 1848 71,323

“Das Runde muss durchs Eckige” (The round must go through the square) is the current battle cry of the Hertha fans in reference to the League Shield’s planned parade route through the Brandenburg Gate this month. Despite trainer Lucien Favre’s consistent refusal to get carried away it remains a distinct possibility. Bold tactics from the coach against Bochum at the Olympiastadion on Saturday were rewarded with scores from 2 out of the 3 selected strikers, Marko Pantelic notching his 7th of the campaign and Raffael his 6th to move Hertha into 3rd, keeping them right in the thick of the title race and Bochum immersed in a tense relegation battle.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 2 – 0 1. FC Köln 30,150

A stadium announcement and a post-match apology from Köln coach Christoph Daum were required at Hoffenheim’s Rhein Neckar Arena on Saturday after vicious taunts were directed at home team owner Dietmar Hopp. Hoffenheim had the last laugh, however, as a Sejad Salihovic set-piece special and a riproaring effort from Demba Ba gave the home side the points, although Boubacar Sanogo did put a late penalty woefully wide, Köln’s Youssef Mohammed having been sent off for the foul in the 78th minute.

Hannover 96 1 – 1 Eintracht Frankfurt 44,855

Referee Perl refused visitors Frankfurt a penalty (à la Florent Malouda vs Barcelona) at Hannover’s AWD Arena on Saturday to deny the guests all 3 points after Arnold Bruggink had given Hannover the lead with his 5th of the season to round off a lovely one-touch move started by Mikkael Forsell’s prodded through-pass on 9 minutes and Ümit Korkmaz’s diving header from a Martin Fenin cross had levelled the scores 3 minutes before the break.

Borussia Mönchengladbach 1 – 0 FC Schalke 04 54,067

If Schalke keep up their current bout of form they will miss out on European football for the first time since the 2000/01 season. They were hard done by at Borussia Park on Sunday, eventually going down to a last-minute Roberto Colautti strike, his 1st of the season, but could not say they had not been warned, having ridden their luck after Manuel Neuer had saved a 1st half Marko Marin spot-kick and Gladbach had wasted an opportunity from an indirect free-kick given for Neuer’s handling of a Halil Altintop back-pass in the 2nd.

SV Werder Bremen 2 – 0 Hamburger SV 42,100

Having been knocked out oft he DFB-Cup on penalties and beaten over 2 legs in the UEFA-Cup - both at the semi-final stage and both in their own back yard – Hamburg were put to the sword by local rivals Werder Bremen for the 4th time in 19 days to effectively rule them out of the title running for another year. Werder’s Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida grabbed both goals at the Weserstadion on Sunday, supported by match-winning performances from midfielders Thorsten Frings and Mesut Özil as the home fans sang “Finale, Whoa-oh-oah” (to the tune of “Vieira”). They also taunted their opponents by tossing around a giant replica of the paper ball thrown onto the field by a Hamburg fan during the UEFA-Cup semi-final 2nd leg on Thursday night, which inadvertently redirected a simple back-pass towards the by-line for a corner, from which Werder snatched the game’s winning goal.
While Hamburg have lost 3 of their last 5 league games in what striker Mladen Petric has called “the worst 2 weeks of my career”, Werder have won 4 home games running but were not helped by their awkward frontman Claudio Pizarro who, having started “auf der Bank” (on the bench) after somehow picking up a knock putting the balls back in the cupboard during training, came on to miss from 3 yards-thwarted by a terrific stop from Frank Rost and his own inability to find the corner from kissing distance.

FC Energie Cottbus 1 – 3 FC Bayern München 22,528

Highly rated 9m € signing from Estudiantes, Jose Ernesto Sosa, put Bayern ahead at the Stadion der Freundschaft on Saturday before Cottbus hit back when a superb Stanislav Angelov bicycle kick was brilliantly kept out by Bayern keeper Hans-Jörg Butt but parried into the path of Ivica Iliev, who rammed home the rebound for the “Ausgleichstreffer” (equaliser). However, the second half belonged to the Bavarians, Martin Demichaelis and Lukas Podolski making the points safe, and could even afford to carry a fluffed penalty from Franck Ribery which was saved well by Cottbus stopper Gerhard Tremmel.

Vfb Stuttgart 4 – 1 Vfl Wolfsburg 55,700

“Spitzenreiter” (Table-toppers) Wolfsburg were dealt a huge blow by up-and-coming Stuttgart at the Mercedes Benz Arena on Saturday, where Mario Gomez became the first man to score 4 in a game for Stuttgart since Jürgen Klinsmann in 1986.
The match had been billed as the “Duell der Topstürmer” (Dual of the top strikers) as Gomez had begun the day level alongside Edin Dzeko on 19 goals with the Bosnian’s team-mate Grafite out in front on 23. 4 Gomez goals – 2 with the head, 1 with the left foot, 1 with the right – later Gomez stood neck and neck with the Brazilian Grafite, Dzeko trailing with 20 after he tucked in what proved to be a consolation for the away team on 37 minutes.
It could have been so different had Cristian Zaccardo not produced yet another candidate for ‘Miss of the Season’ with the score at 2-1. Jens Lehmann spilled and, instead of mopping up from 2 yards, Zaccardo made an almighty mess of the finish to leave his side only a whisker ahead at the top as we enter ‘Squeaky Bum Time’ in the Bundesliga.

Bundesliga Laid Bare

2009-05-05T11:05:00.000+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fresh Batch of Bundesliga

2009-04-27T08:47:00.000+02:00

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.

Bask in the Bundesliga

2009-04-25T23:44:00.002+02:00

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.

Bundesliga Breached

2009-04-25T23:44:00.001+02:00

"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.

Bundesliga Briefing

2009-04-25T23:43:00.002+02:00

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.

Bookmark Bundesliga

2009-04-25T23:43:00.001+02:00

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.

Bite-size Bundesliga

2009-04-25T23:42:00.002+02:00

"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.

Bundesliga break down

2009-04-25T23:42:00.001+02:00

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.

Business end Bundesliga

2009-04-25T23:41:00.002+02:00

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.

Bundesliga review

2009-04-25T23:41:00.001+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bundesliga’s Back

2009-04-25T23:34:00.000+02:00

The Bundesliga was back with a bang this weekend after its annual hibernation period as there was the regular serving of goals, upsets and a large portion of poor finishing, mostly from the laughable Luca Toni. His Bayern Munich side remain annoyingly arrogant about retaining their title this season, despite falling to a narrow defeat at the hands of Hamburg, who temporarily topped the table on Friday night before being deposed by 'Autumn Champions' or 'Herbstmeister' Hoffenheim a day later.

Munich goalkeeper Michael Rensing was at fault for the visitors when he could only parry a tame long-range effort up in the air for Mladen Petric to head home the only goal of the game just before the break. Bayern then squandered a hatful of chances in the second half but Toni provided the pick of the bunch with around a quarter of the contest remaining. When a Miroslav Klose cross found him unmarked within kissing distance of the far post he was guilty of a quite monstrous miss when it seemed easier to allow his greasy, Tuncay-esque top-crop to cover his eyes and still score. He had already humiliated himself by marking a disallowed goal with his famous 'ringing in the ears' celebration, which had led to Hamburg stopper Frank Rost mocking him mercilessly by mimicking his trademark routine and remarking afterwards that perhaps it was all that ringing that had prevented him from hearing the referee's whistle. That result dropped the Bavarians to fourth place and leaves them a lot of work to do in the coming months to keep hold of their coveted shield.

Current 'Spitzenreiter' (league leaders) Hoffenheim found the going a little easier as they cruised to a 2-0 home win over Energie Cottbus. Goals from Demba Ba and new-boy Boubacar Sanogo, signed from Werder Bremen during the transfer window, allowed them to enjoy their first outing in their new 30,000 all-seater stadium without injured 'Torschützenkönig' (league's leading scorer) Vedad Ibisevic, who is, devastatingly for his team-mates, out for the season after damaging knee ligaments in a friendly last month. This result was also achieved without the injured Chinedu Obasi and Carlos Eduardo, who was banned after lashing out wildly with a fist at Ivica Olic in a friendly against Hamburg during the winter break. The new boys and table-toppers promise to be a force to be reckoned with once they have a fully-equipped squad at their disposal.

Heading the chasing pack is, somewhat surprisingly, Hertha Berlin. They recorded a 2-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt at the Olympiastadion on Saturday, thanks largely to the efforts of their rejuvenated talisman Marko Pantelic. Having been linked with a move away from the capital throughout the winterval, the number 9 netted a brace, the second a driven, well-placed long-range attempt that sealed the points. He also won a penalty that Brazilian midfielder Cicero, having taken over spot-kick duties from the Serbian earlier in the season after a well-publicised Pantelic miss had first caused speculation to arise regarding his future, contrived to miss woefully. Pantelic made a double dedication of his goals, firstly to his watching mother by outlining a big heart with his fingers and, secondly, to his pregnant wife by tucking the ball under his shirt in imitation of his expectant partner. Hertha now lie in second position and will hope that their centre forward can continue to keep all parties content from now until the campaign's culmination.

With the 3 H's (Hoffenheim, Hertha and Hamburg) setting a swift pace at the summit, Werder Bremen could have hoped for a better result than that which they achieved against Arminia Bielefeld at the Weserstadion on Sunday. Without suspended South-American duo Claudio Pizarro and Diego they relied on the strike-power of Hugo Almeida and although the Portuguese managed to fire home a free-kick to level the scores on the stroke of half-time after Thorben Marx had given the guests an early lead, the second half belonged to Bielefeld and 'King' Artur Wichniarek, whose 11th goal of the season (Bielefeld's 17th in total) proved enough to take the points and lift his side out of the relegation zone. Werder remain stranded in the bottom half, 12 points off the pace and with a mountain to climb in order to clinch a crucial Champions League spot.

6th took on 5th in Dortmund on Saturday as Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen's contest ended in stalemate. Alexander Frei put the hosts in front in the first period but Patrick Helmes equalised in the second to ensure Leverkusen remain above their rivals in the standings. With Ibisevic now out of the running for the Golden Boot this season, young German international Helmes, scorer of that farcical goal against England in November, may not be a bad bet to come out on top. However, he will almost certainly have to contend with Wolfsburg's Brazilian striker Grafite, 29, whose equaliser for the Wolves in Köln at the weekend, after a Sergiu Radu strike had put the home side ahead, took his tally to 15 and continued his rehabilitation from a serious neck injury sustained at the back end of the first half of the campaign that has seen him return to action looking hungry in more ways than one, having noticeably dropped several kilos over the holidays.

Another victim of an upset on matchday 18 was Schalke 04, who lost 1-0 away at Hannover 96 after dominating proceedings from start to finish. Even before Sergio Pinto's second goal of the season in the 7th minute, Schalke had looked threatening and controlled possession comfortably. The away side carved out so many chances it seemed a matter of time before their slim deficit was cancelled out. However, if Luca Toni's miss had seemed unthinkable, the opportunity wasted by Gerald Asamoah late on here simply went against all logic and patterns of human behaviour. In an identical situation to that faced by the Bayern bungler one day previously, the diminutive Ghanian, who is surely light years past his best now at 30, was presented with a header from even closer range, with the ball floated over even more delicately, and the chance presented even more invitingly, that it seemed impossible for an educated adult to miss the target. But somehow he did just that, and as other occasions opened and closed, Schalke faced up to the prospect of sitting in mid-table this morning, a long way from mounting any sort of title challenge and perhaps soon to be out of the running for Champions League football for yet another year.

Borussia Mönchengladbach stayed at the foot of the table despite the presence of a whole host of January signings made by veteran trainer Hans Meier, the oldest coach in the Bundesliga at 66, including Paul Stalteri, formerly of Tottenham Hotspur. Second-half goals, in the form of a Roel Brouwers own goal and a Mario Gomez tap-in, gave Stuttgart a deserved 3 points which left them in a much-improved 7th spot thanks to the arrival of new trainer Markus Babbel.

The other match on Sunday was played out between Vfl Bochum and Karlsruhe SC in a titanic clash in the Bundesliga basement. Christian Fuchs and new signing from Dortmund Diego Klimowicz secured a 2-0 win that allowed the hosts to leapfrog their opponents into the relative safety of 15th place, a solitary point from trouble. But all talk preceeding the game was of a certain Bochum player and his wife. An unnamed member of the Bochum playing staff was put on the transfer list recently after his wife's shocking revelation that they had fornicated on the Rewirpower Stadion pitch, leading to no small amount of embarassment for Bochum club officials.

Their response to said embarassment, though, was quite extraordinary, not to mention absolutely brilliant. The shield put up at the entrance to the ground was indeed daring, and I for one applaud them. Depicted were two couples partaking in acts of a sexual nature, "www." on one side and either ".com" or ".de" the other, with a large ring round them and line running through the ring, declaring that people will not be permitted to take up such positions on their football field. '.de' means a German website and the position with the woman on top is apparently proven to be the most popular in Germany).

On another note, Michael Ballack was awarded the prize for 'Tor des Jahres' or Goal of the Year 2008 for his stunning set-piece effort against Austria during Euro 2008. Thoroughly deserved I thought.

Oh, and Bayern now have Landon Donovan on their 'roster'. Klinsmann's obviously been doing his homework while living in the US. What a joker. That name reeks of disappointment.

Herbstmeister!

2009-04-25T23:31:00.002+02:00

The winter break has arrived in Germany and, judging by the level of both quality and animosity shown on matchday 17, it's come none too soon for players, staff and officials alike.

With 1899 Hoffenheim hosting Schalke 04 on Sunday, Bayern Munich had the chance to really exert some pressure on the league's 'new kids on the block' in their game in Stuttgart the day before. And with a minute remaining at the Mercedes-Benz Arena it looked as though they may have done just that. After Sami Khedira had given his side the lead on the stroke of half-time, the Bavarians had fought back, firstly through a Tim Borowski rebound and then via a 66th minute Luca Toni tap-in, to lead approaching the latter stages.

However, Stuttgart appear an entirely different proposition under former Bayern Munich player Markus Babbel and, having gained a numerical advantage due to what can only be described as a fly-kick to the face from Massimo Oddo, they levelled as the game entered its dying embers, as the impressive Khedira struck again. With Jens Lehmann up and the visitors hanging on by a thread, the striker unleashed an unstoppable volley past Michael Rensing for his fifth of the campaign to leave red-faced manager Uli Hoeness grumbling over the calendar, which somehow dared not to recognise the might of Munich and award them a Sunday fixture in this of all weeks.

That meant that Hoffenheim needed only a point from their meeting with Schalke on Sunday to be crowned 'Herbstmeister' or Autumn Champions (a meaningful accolade in German football). Unfortunately, deep into the second half of a ferocious encounter they trailed to a 40th minute Gerald Asamoah opener, and it seemed as if Bayern had recovered from their woeful start to the season and somehow done the impossible again.

But an explosive final quarter of the match saw Jermaine Jenas-clone Jermaine Jones and his midfield colleague Orlando Engelaar being given their marching orders, with right-back Rafinha extraordinarily escaping a deserved dismissal for a reckless lunge on Fejae Salihovic by the touchline, before substitute Selim Teber rammed home a free-kick with 15 minutes to play, to which Manuel Neuer got a strong hand, to equalise and claim the Herbstmeisterschaft on home soil. Hoffenheim trainer Ralf Rangnick downplayed the achievement after the game but to hold off the never-ending challenge of Bayern and get to the midway point on top was no mean feat and bodes extremely well for the rest of the season and any hopes of European football at the Rhein Neckar Stadion in 2009.

Outside of the top two, leading the chasing pack into the new year will be Hertha BSC. The boys from Berlin ended the first half of the campaign on a high note with a 4-0 home drubbing of lowly Karlsruhe. Although three goals came in the last quarter of an hour, it was the style of football on display that will surely have pleased Swiss coach Lucien Favre immensely and perhaps convinced him that the future remains bright, despite the seemingly impending departure of talisman and fans' hero Marko Pantelic, who appeared to be bidding farewell to his adoring public at the Olympiastadion on Saturday.

Despite being given a rare opportunity to play a full 90 minutes by his trainer against Karlsruhe he was unable to provide a fairytale finish to his time in the German capital. But this proved irrelevant to the result as an early Maximilian Nicu strike was kept company by superb goals from all three substitutes in the closing stages. First Valeri Domovchiyski climbed off the bench and latched onto a Jaroslav Drobny punt to emphasise the gulf in class on show with a well-taken shot from close range, then Fabian Lustenberger completed a sublime passage of play by tucking away at the second attempt and Raffael finished emphatically after another flowing move with a low drive into the far corner. The Karlsruhe captain kept his colleagues out on the pitch for a long time after the whistle - it looks like being a very long season for his weary warriors. For Hertha's young side, it seems, the sky's the limit this season, particularly if they are to win against all odds in Greece this Thursday and enter the knock-out stages of the UEFA Cup. Watch this space.

Fourth will be Martin Jol's Hamburg following an unconvincing 1-0 home victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. They were forced to rely upon a pin-point Piotr Trochowski centre finding the head of leading scorer Mladen Petric just before the hour mark to seal the points, the big Croat's downward header holding just enough power to find its way past the unfortunate Oka Nikolov in the Frankfurt goal. After their unspeakable capture of last week's award for 'Tor der Woche' (Goal of the Week) for an aforementioned free-kick from the touchline which the opposing keeper just got horribly wrong, it seems this will be the only thing that Frankfurt will be winning this season. More work is also required for Hamburg, one feels, if they are to challenge for big honours both at home and abroad come May.

In fifth place are Bayer Leverkusen after they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by struggling Energie Cottbus. They had originally led through Simon Rolfes' second goal of the season but having constantly threatened during the second half Cottbus eventually earned their share of the points by way of a last minute 'ausgleich' (equaliser) from unlikely hero Jiayi Shao. Oh yeah, you heard me. Jiayi Shao. Write that name down.

In the first half, Patrick Helmes was guilty of executing the most archetypal, straight-out-of-the-textbook version of a 'Toni' (That is, the trademark of the Italian idiot whereby he swings his favoured foot wildly at the ball without a whiff of technique or ability at an angle to goal from inside the area and manages to not only find row Z seat 54 with his wayward 'shot' but also finds himself flat on his arse - the same arse that has scored more times than his foot, favoured or otherwise, this term I would imagine) that I have ever had the displeasure of witnessing.

On Friday night the two 'Borussias' met, fittingly at Borussia Park, as Dortmund played host to Mönchengladbach in what would have been, in the 1980's, heading the bill this weekend. As it was, the only fixture of the day was more than memorable for the calibre of the goals scored as well as confrontations elsewhere. A sumptuous solo strike from Mohammed Zidan set the tone for a highly eventful evening, as he chested the ball down and unleashed a furious effort that soared high into the top corner of the net, but it was the basketball in the build-up from midfielder Tinga that would have caught the spectators’ eyes, if not those of the referee.

Tamas Hajnal was then sent off for Dortmund after leaving a gash the size of one of Paul Merson's lines above the knee of Gladbach keeper Christofer Heimroth for his second yellow card of the night and 18-year-old Tony Jantschke was stretchered off as a result of some rough treatment in the form of a leading elbow from Dortmund's Jakub Blaszczykowski, leaving him battered, bruised and more than a little groggy, before Dortmund trainer Jurgen Klopp reacted irately to a fan's treatment of one of his players to spark emotional scenes both on and off the pitch.

Substitute striker Nuri Sahin then confidently controlled the ball 12 yards from goal with his first touch and scored his first Bundesliga goal with his second to leave Borussia D firmly in charge. But the goal of the game was still to come. Johannes van den Bergh's strike mattered little in the end, but that won't stop me writing about it. As the ball was headed out to him via an ineffectual delivery from a corner, the defender let fly to score an absolute pearler from well outside the 18-yard box, and the youngster watched in disbelief with the rest of us as his left-footed volley nestled nicely in the top corner of the Dortmund goal. Dortmund will remain sixth over Christmas, Gladbach will be propping up them and the rest in 18th.

Having scored 5 and won against each of the top three teams this season (5-4 vs Hoffenheim (h); 5-2 vs Bayern (a); 5-1 vs Hertha (h)) Werder Bremen will feel a little aggrieved at entering the winterval (I'm trying it out) in only 8th position in the table. On the other hand, judging from their performances overall this season they should feel satisfied that they remain a mere 9 points behind the leaders after their worst first half performance in nearly a decade.

On Saturday they overcame Wolfsburg, who are badly missing the striking Brazilian neck-injury victim Grafite, by 2 goals to 1 at the Weserstadion to climb two places and end 2008 in the top half, which had seemed highly unlikely on numerous occasions this season. With Diego and Pizarro suspended (Diego was retrospectively given a bizarre 4-game ban for grabbing an opponent's throat last weekend), Baumann and Naldo relegated to the bench and a whole host of others unavailable, the commentator on their version of MOTD introduced the show by warning all viewers, including Werder fans, not to feel out of the loop for not recognising Said Husejinovic, Werder's makeshift striker partnering Markus Rosenberg for the afternoon. Apparently nobody knows him. Nobody. They're not even sure if the manager knows him, although coach Thomas Schaaf does have a Wenger-esque reputation in Germany for plucking precious gems from remote regions.

Despite Wolfsburg taking an alarmingly early lead through a tame near-post effort from Christian Gentner that Tim Wiese could only palm into his side-netting, Werder fought back with some impressive, high-tempo football and deservedly cancelled out the away side's opener with a glanced Per Mertesacker header in the 27th minute. The decisive stroke wasn't to come until well into the second half, though, after Wiese had again raised eyebrows by attempting to clear one through-ball using a mid-air scissor kick with which he failed to connect. A Mesut Ozil pull-back was met by the Wolves' leader Josue with half an hour to play and this found its way into the corner for the winner. The unknown Husejinovic celebrated the goal as if it was his own and at one point I thought he was audaciously claiming it, but I think he was just happy to have a job to do in these uncertain times.

In the spirit of injury crises requiring the presence of unknown entities, Hannover went into their game against Arminia Bielefeld at the AWD Arena on Saturday without the injured German number 1 Robert Enke as well as his understudy, Florian Fromlowitz, after he was sent off last week in Wolfsburg - a decision which led to midfielder Jan Rosenthal donning the keeper's jersey and promptly saving a penalty. Third-choice stopper Morten Jensen made his first Bundesliga appearance but was far less occupied than his opposite number, as a spate of chances for the home side finally created a break of the deadlock after half an hour when a Jiri Stajner header found the back of the net after a well-worked corner routine. But 'Wichniarminia' were not to be denied and 'King' Artur Wichniarek notched his 10th and his team's 15th goal of the current campaign to take a point. Both sides hover just above the drop-zone in 13th and 14th place respectively and will need to improve in the second half of the season if they wish to stay in the top flight for another year.

Lastly, (thought i'd let u know it was winding down) Vfl Bochum took on FC Köln at the rewirpower Stadion, also on Saturday. Bochum trainer Marcel Koller is not popular in Köln after taking charge of the Westerners for only four matches 5 years ago but contriving to extraordinarily take them down within that time-frame, and he now finds himself equally disliked at Bochum, where fans demonstrated against the trainer after a disappointing defeat rubbed salt into open wounds and highlighted the need for change at the club following 12 losses out of their 17 games played so far.

Both sides may quite reasonably have felt hard done by after the game due to a dismal refereeing performance. A poor decision on the brink of half-time led to Kevin Mckenna giving the visitors the lead with a bullet header, but there were really no excuses for Bochum's equaliser as Christoph Dabrowski's header sneaked past the keeper, as well as some comical defending on the line. Thomas Broich will point to an uneven bounce as the reason for his misjudgement of a weak effort on goal but frankly that would be unfair, not only to Dabrowski and Bochum, but to the reputation of football itself.

Then the fireworks began. With 7 minutes left on the clock the 'man' in the middle, who looked around 10 or 11 at most, bafflingly sent off Köln's Pedro Geromel for a well-timed challenge and booked Milivoje Novakovic for his protestations. Then, after the interception of a set-piece, Köln were allowed to run the length of the field and Manasseh Ishiaku was presented with a open goal from 5 yards that he couldn't miss. And finally, Novakovic was shown a second yellow card for diving, having run the pitch-length unopposed again and being bundled over by a very clumsy challenge, from behind, in the box, as he was about to pull the trigger and secure the win. I'm not twisting it, I'm not writing an opinion, that's just what happened. The ref was THAT good. Bochum stay in trouble and languish in 17th position while Köln sit comfortably in 11th as the Bundesliga goes into hibernation.

Here is the full run-down of results:

Dortmund 2-1 Gladbach
Bochum 1-2 Köln
Hamburg 1-0 Frankfurt
Hannover 1-1 Bielefeld
Hertha 4-0 Karlsruhe
Leverkusen 1-1 Cottbus
Stuttgart 2-2 Bayern
Werder 2-1 Wolfsburg
Hoffenheim 1-1 Schalke

Bundesliga Table at the half-way point of the 2008/9 season:

1. 1899 Hoffenheim 17 19 35
2. FC Bayern München 17 15 35
3. Hertha BSC Berlin 17 7 33
4. Hamburger SV 17 2 33
5. Bayer 04 Leverkusen 17 15 32
6. Borussia Dortmund 17 8 29
7. FC Schalke 04 17 8 27
8. Werder Bremen 17 11 26
9. Vfl Wolfsburg 17 10 26
10. Vfb Stuttgart 17 3 25
11. FC Köln 17 -6 22
12. Eintracht Frankfurt 17 -6 19
13. Hannover 96 17 -12 17
14. DSC Arminia Bielefeld 17 -12 14
15. Karlsruhe 17 -17 13
16. FC Energie Cottbus 17 -17 13
17. Vfl Bochum 17 -11 11
18. Borussia Mönchengladbach 17 -17 11

League action recommences January 30th and I for one am itching for it already.

Week 16 round-up

2009-04-25T23:31:00.001+02:00

Claudio Pizarro: From Zero to Hero to Zero (again).

Following his stunning hat-trick last week many, including myself, had been expecting the overgrown Americana to go from strength to strength in the Bundesliga and prove that his time in SW6 was a mere blip in what will go down as one of the more notable careers in South American football history.

We were wrong.

Against Karlsruhe at the Wildpark Stadion on Saturday, almost 5 minutes flew by before the lumbering, long-haired laugh-o-meter managed to spurn the game's opening opportunity. What made it worse was that it proceeded some quite brilliant football from Bremen. Diego initially threaded the ball through the eye of a needle, Aaron Hunt intuitively spotted the Peruvian's run towards the penalty spot and Pizarro instinctively took the ball onto his weaker foot and lifted the ball over the keeper and against the foot of the far post.

After dominating the early proceedings Werder were to let the team currently in the worst form in Germany back into the game. However, having relinquished the initiative, been disrupted by injury and consequently having lost control of the game, they were presented with another monumental chance to take the lead at the start of the second half. Unfortunately for the visitors that chance fell to their ferret-faced centre-forward, who stumbled beyond two players before again finding the outside of the far upright with a low drive. Pizarro was by no means the only culprit on a bad day for the boys from Bremen, but as always, his misses were the ones which stood out.

Having surrendered the initiative in both periods, Werder then surrendered the points to a 69th minute tap-in from the infamous Stefan Buck who, unsurprisingly, claimed his first goal of the season. Then they succumbed to agitation as the ignominy of losing to the league's lowest-ranked team kicked in. Pizarro was sent off during the closing stages for flailing an arm into the face of a defender who just happened to take exception to his outrageous and desperate dive inside the area, and Diego weighed in by grabbing another player's neck for good measure. His discretion will be dealt with in due course after the referee somehow chose to ignore the offence, which happened around about 6 inches from his whistle.

If Werder, with Pizarro at the spearhead, were the architects of their own downfall, Bayern Munich and their talisman Luca Toni were the incredibly fortunate recipients of what must surely have been an act of divine intervention the previous evening. Hoffenheim played them off the park at a packed Allianz Arena to such an extent that Germany coach Joachim Löw admitted his blueprint for the future of the national team to be a replica of that laid out before the Bavarians by the new boys on Friday night.

The visitors deservedly took the lead in the second half by way of the latest chapter in Vedad Ibisevic's top-scoring textbook, this week featuring a one-two, a cushioned first touch and a composed finish from eight yards that took his total to 18 from 16 appearances and silenced the home crowd just before the hour mark. But Bayern, as they so often do, found a way back into the match. Here it came through a run and deflected effort from full-back Philipp Lahm that evened up the contest, if only for its final quarter.
Luca Toni is, for reasons unknown, a coveted goalscorer. But after wasting three golden openings he was presented with one that even he, despite doing his very best, couldn't miss. He pounced (slowly) on a loose ball that had spewed from a well-executed tackle no more than 8 yards from goal and even though his shot was weak, aimed at a comfortable height and placed mere millimetres from the goalkeeper's sternum it somehow squirmed under him and found the back of the net, which led to the imbecilic Italian foregoing his regular and ridiculous “ringing in the ears” routine and 'shooting' down his team-mates with an imaginary gun two minutes into stoppage time.

A travesty of a result means that Bayern now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Hoffenheim at the Bundesliga summit, with the noses of the boys in blue in front due to a superior goal difference.

Schalke took the points in the weekend's other big head-to-head as Hertha were belatedly put to the sword at the Veltins Arena by a 65th minute Gerald Asamoah header - his first in the league this season. Lucien Favre's side are clearly suffering a hangover from their fruitless European exploits in midweek which leave them requiring an unlikely win in Greece to progress to the UEFA Cup's knockout stages. Fans' idol Marko Pantelic was again left to stew on the bench amid rumours of interest from Premier League clubs due to his availability at a reportedly knock-down 1.5m, and his colleagues couldn't muster a goal between them on Saturday, as the Berliners dropped to fourth place in the table.

On the lower rungs of the ladder, trainer Hans Meier slashed 7 players from last week's starting line-up but it had little effect as his Borussia Mönchengladbach side were outclassed by an efficient Bayer Leverkusen outfit. The defending that saw them embarassed by fellow strugglers Energie Cottbus in week 15 was again apparent, allowing their guests the freedom to walk through their rearguard at will. It was so bad that at one point technical director Christian Ziege tried to show them how it was done from the technical area. Except that he seemed to forget he was still recovering from foot surgery and, after his solitary touch on the sidelines, grimaced in pain and hobbled back to the dugout (probably to try a new brand of face cream). Goals from Stefan Kießling, who bagged a pair, and Patrick Helmes, who notched his 12th of the current campaign, saw off the home team, even though a goal from another man who I'm sure you will be aware of, Tony Jantschke (he's not even on the squad list) sparked a brief revival that came too late in the day to have any impact on the outcome.

Gladbach may be suffering from a lack of luck lately, but the defending has been absolutely terrifying at times. If this team do not go down, I for one will be astonished, mainly by the general standards in the German top flight.

Frankfurt easily dispatched Vfl Bochum at the Commerzbank Arena after the two goalkeepers exchanged nightmares. Firstly, Bochum stopper Daniel Fernandes earned the fastest dismissal for a keeper in Bundesliga history when his kick was charged down, he upended the onrushing striker and was given his marching orders inside 5 minutes. Then, having picked a Nikos Liberopoulos penalty out of the back of the net as his first order of duty, replacement goalie Rene Renno was powerless to prevent Franfurt registering three further times without reply, including a Markus Steinhöfer free kick which swerved and swirled all the way in from the touchline, to secure a much needed 4-0 victory.

However, this only came about after the home number 1, Oka Nikolov, provided a Gomes/James moment of his own. When a routine backpass was met with one of the sloppiest first touches in recent competitive memory with the score at 1-0, the visitors may have felt in line for a reprieve. However, Bochum found the old adage to be true that when you are down at the bottom, things often don't go for you, as the clueless keeper was bailed out by one of his worried defenders and Frankfurt escaped the episode unscathed to move clear of the danger zone.

Newly installed temporary/interim/caretaker/holding the fort for anyone with a phone Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel's honeymoon is not yet officially over after his selected eleven inflicted a heavy home defeat upon Energie Cottbus on Saturday to heap added pressure on their boss, Bojan Prasniker. After winning in Mönchengladbach the previous weekend the Slovenian must have been feeling at ease once more with his position at the helm of the endangered Eastern vessel. But the sea-sickness will be back this week after a terrific Roberto Hilbert drive created a 4th minute divide between the sides which the home team never seemed capable of bridging. If the effort was wonderfully well-executed, it was the manner in which the original opportunity was presented to the midfielder that will represent the coach's biggest worry.

On the other hand, following that early debacle Stuttgart were indebted to an impressive performance from the decaying Jens Lehmann and it wasn't until Andriy Voronin look-a-like Jan Simak struck with less than half an hour to play that the away side could feel totally comfortable, Sami Khedira wrapping up the points like an early Christmas present 5 minutes later with another pin-point finish from the edge of the 18-yard box. Stuttgart are now back in the top half of the table, while Cottbus remain in the relegation zone.

Arminia Bielefeld and Borussia Dortmund played out a goalless draw which owed as much to the heroics of Bielefeld keeper Dennis Eilhoff as it did to poor end product from the two teams. Two excellent saves from the visiting keeper denied Dortmund the points, but while he tried valliantly to keep the scoreline clear his opposite number, Roman Weidenfeller, was doing his utmost to soil the sheets. First he clearly and deliberately handled a backpass but avoided punishment by claiming he had controlled it with his chest (If he had I would go as far as to say he had a bigger chest than John Terry) and at the death he bewilderingly rampaged from his line and committed himself to a ball that he had no chance of winning, in doing so allowing home full back Danny Fuchs (that's right) to lift the ball over him...and find the side netting.

On Sunday, Martin Jol hit back at his critics after a strange tactical decision had led to his Hamburg team leaving Bochum last week with only a point. A brace from the in-form Mladen Petric at the Rhein Energie Stadion rendered Milivoje Novakovic's late goal for Köln a mere consolation as Hamburg clambered up into 5th place and back into contention in the league standings. Wolfsburg also overcame Hannover at the VW Arena on Sunday but not without a scare. Having taken the lead in the 3rd minute through 'World Cup Winner' Cristian Zaccardo, the hosts saw their advantage disappear as a Konstantin Rausch cross found the bald-headed Jiri Stajner lurking (as well he might) to bury an equaliser. Unfortunately for the bald eagle his hard work was undone just 4 minutes later as his calamitous own goal gave Wolfsburg the win that took them into 6th spot and left the visitors 6th from bottom and still in trouble.

Here's the full list of results:

Bayern 2-1 Hoffenheim
Bielefeld 0-0 Dortmund
Cottbus 0-3 Stuttgart
Frankfurt 4-0 Bochum
Karlsruhe 1-0 Werder
Gladbach 1-3 Leverkusen
Schalke 1-0 Hertha
Köln 1-2 Hamburg
Wolfsburg 2-1 Hannover

What you’ve been waiting for

2009-04-25T23:30:00.002+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The full run-down of results:

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

That time again

2009-04-25T23:30:00.001+02:00

Hello and welcome to another edition of 'Bulletin Bundesliga' - your host this week is Stuart Robinson.

Good afternoon. Buoyed by recent positive comments regarding this presentation from the well-renowned Mr. Khan, I shall be expanding my coverage of the German top division this week in order to commemorate a record-breaking matchday in Germany's top flight.

An unsurpassed 34 goals were scored over the 9 matches, cementing the Bundesliga's growing reputation as the division of dire defences. These proved to be even more impressive as it came about during the same weekend that saw 15 goals over 10 matches played in England, including 3 goalless draws, and was the first time that 'the Big Four' had all failed to score on one weekend since February 1993.

The biggest shock of matchday 14 came at the Schüco Arena, where Arminia Bielefeld outplayed league leaders Leverkusen to claim a 2-1 victory. On a pitch where orange markings aided spectators' vision in the snowy conditions, the deadlock wasn't broken until early in the second half, when 'King Artur' Wichniarek was put through on goal to grab his ninth goal of the season with a pin-point finish into the far bottom corner that German number 1 Rene Adler could not reach, despite his having successfully narrowed the angle.

Then, with just over 20 minutes to play, a howler to which the keeper readily owned up after the game compounded a miserable afternoon for Bayer when an anxious Adler could only palm a harmless cross into the path of Daniel Halfar, who notched his first goal of the campaign via a deflection. The home side then survived an 'Anschlusstreffer' (closing up goal - score that brings a team to within 1) from the in-form Patrick Helmes, beneficiary of that mix-up in Berlin in midweek, to secure the 3 points. The visitors, for whom a late dismissal and consequent kick-out at a nearby cone by midfielder Sascha Dum did little to assist their quest to gain a dramatic point, drop to second in the table.

Hoffenheim leap-frogged Leverkusen into top-spot with a 3-1 win in Köln. In a feisty encounter in front of 50,000 at the Rhein Energie Stadion which saw several bookings the deadly Vedad Ibisevic, who also occupies top place in the golden boot stakes, saw his tally for the season swell to 16 in just 14 games after Nemanja Vucicevic was guilty of one of the misses of the season so far. (I say so far because Claudio Pizarro seems to have shrugged off his early-season form and reverted back to his true self, so there is always a chance of it being bettered at some point.)

As the ball cannoned back off the post to the Köln striker after a decent attempt from strike partner and skipper Milivoje Novakovic all one could say is that it had come at him a little swiftly. In the same way perhaps that Heurelho Gomes might come for a corner. However, his captain could be seen holding his head in his hands and one had to wonder if this reaction was due to a feeling of nausea and dizziness at the sheer height that Vucicevic had managed to achieve in sending the ball over the crossbar from barely six yards out.

That was at 0-0. After that, the imposing Demba Ba celebrated his ninth of the season while home stopper Faryd Mondragon staged an outrageous protest to a legitimate goal by running fifty yards to confront the linesman on the grounds that the player was clearly level and should therefore give the opposition the benefit of the doubt. Kevin McKenna was then sent off for Köln in the 52nd minute and Luiz Gustavo saw red for Hoffenheim 4 minutes later, before Ibisevic plundered a second half brace to render Petit's deflected free-kick conversion meaningless as Hoffenheim continued to defy their critics.

Bayern Munich walked their way to victory over crisis club Energie Cottbus at the Allianz Arena without breaking sweat, even taking into account that they again fell behind at home, this time to a long-range Ervin Skela set-piece that evaded everybody and flew past keeper Michael Rensing into the back of the net. Goals included a terrific Franck Ribery free-kick - the Frenchman has scored in each of six outings since returning from injury - and a cushioned volley-cum-yeboah from Luca Toni, who is very much back in business having resembled the Italian Peter Crouch (without the acrobatics) a matter of weeks ago. Headers from Martin Demichelis and Miroslav Klose completed the rout as Bayern ran out 4-1 winners, confirming their title ambitions by cemening third place in the standings. Defeat leaves Cottbus stranded at the foot of the table in desperate need of an overhaul when January comes around.

Hertha Berlin are ranked just one place below the Bavarians following their impressive 3-2 win away to Vfl Bochum. Goals from Raffael, Gojko Kacar and Brazilian midfielder Cicero, top scorer for the Berliners this season after his summer arrival from Fluminense, set the guests on their way to holding a three-goal advantage over lowly Bochum at the rewirpower Stadion before a second-half fightback reduced the arrears as Hertha were made to work for the win. Their Swiss coach Lucien Favre's relieved 'got out of jail' expression at the final whistle told the story.

Sunday's showdown brought together two teams with similar ambitions who have endured very different experiences thus far. HSV, under former spurs boss Martin Jol's stewardship, had started superbly but come unstuck recently, resulting in a string of disappointing setbacks. Werder Bremen, on the other hand, suffered an awful introduction to their campaign (their worst in over a decade) and have only begun to see a reversal in their fortunes over the past month or so.

However, at Hamburg's HSH Nordbank Arena on Sunday evening, Werder were reminded of their shortcomings, firstly by a scrappy Paolo Guerrero effort that highlighted the lack of awareness at the heart of the Werder defence, as the striker was first to pounce on a rebound in the 10th minute. Then, after a Diego free kick that should really have been kept out by Frank Rost in the HSV goal, a late rocket from Ivica Olic found the top corner of Tim Wiese's goal and took the hosts clear of the boys from Bremen and into 5th place and leave Werder trailing in 9th.

Week 14 also marked the second managerial casualty of the Bundesliga season, as a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Wolfsburg did for Stuttgart's Armin Veh, who was relieved of his post early on Sunday morning, leaving former German international and Liverpool defender Markus Babbel in temporary charge. As for the game itself, beleaguered Stuttgart actually took the lead through midfielder Martin Lanig, resulting in Felix Magath haranguing the officials to the point where he was sent to the stands to watch the second period play out. He missed a memorable fightback as his side came from behind with two goals from Grafite, who's tally is now into double figures, and two from Bosnian Edin Dzeko, who scored his first 'Doppelpack' (double) of the season.

Elsewhere, Schalke earned a comfortable 3-1 win at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach, a clinical brace from the less famous Altintop brother, Halil, and a dinked penalty from Jefferson Farfan proving ample in seeing off the away team, for whom Rob Friend (pronounced the German way) snatched what turned out to be only a consolation. Eintracht Frankfurt easily overcame Hannover at the Commerzbank Arena through two goals either side of half-time, delivering a 4-0 scoreline that did not do justice to the extent to which they controlled proceedings from start to finish. There was controversy, though, when an absurd penalty decision was given in favour of Hannover with the score at 2-0 only for the man in the middle to consult the linesman and promptly correct his mistake. Karlsruhe were narrowly beaten at home by Borussia Dortmund in the only Friday fixture after Mohammed Zidan nipped in front of the keeper and prodded home with 20 minutes gone, handing the points to the visitors and propelling Dortmund into the top six.

Here is a full set of the weekend's results. A table should, in theory follow, but then again, I should (in theory) have better things to do:

Köln 1-3 Hoffenheim
Bayern 4-1 Cottbus
Bielefeld 2-1 Leverkusen
Bochum 2-3 Hertha
Schalke 3-1 Gladbach
Wolfsburg 4-1 Stuttgart
Frankfurt 4-0 Hannover
Karlsruhe 0-1 Dortmund
Hamburg 2-1 Werder

Belated Bundesliga update

2009-04-25T23:29:00.002+02:00

Not as many talking points this week i'm afraid - no racist banners, post-match red cards etc so i'll try to keep it brief.

The biggest game on paper took place at the BayArena on Saturday, where league leaders Leverkusen took on fifth-placed Schalke 04. First-half goals from strikers Stefan Kießling and the in-form Patrick Helmes (included in the squad to face England in Berlin) were enough to give the home side the points despite a red card to German under-21 international Gonzalo Castro and a late consolation from Kevin Kuranyi (not included in the squad for the visit of the English).

Traditionally, the weekend's most important fixture by far would have been the match played at Borussia-Park, home to Borussia Mönchengladbach, as Bayern Munich were the visitors on an eventful afternoon. Luca Toni instinctively prodded home in the 21st minute after excellent work in the inside left channel by Phillipe Lahm set-up his fifth of a so-far forgettable campaign for the Italian, and Bayern looked to be coasting. They were then, outrageously, denied a nailed-on penalty when Lahm's boot was actually mauled in a challenge from behind as the left back was about to pull the trigger, but the referee deemed there to have been no contact.

Early in the second period Bayern did get their penalty for a similarly crude challenge on Franck Ribery, the Frenchman picking himself up to coolly dispatch the spot-kick and thus mark his resurgence after a long-term absence through injury with a goal. That is how it stayed until eleven minutes from time, when Rob Friend diverted a set-piece into the far corner with a looping header. This instigated an onslaught upon the Munich goal, and following a first 45 in which he was repeatedly kicked, drawing fouls all over the pitch, young Marko Marin again stepped to the forefront for the hosts, as he enjoyed greater freedom amongst tired legs. His trickery began a move which resulted in the ball being cleverly floated to the back post, where Michael Bradley leapt to head home his first of the campaign with four minutes remaining to earn his side a highly unlikely point.

Hoffenheim kept pace with front-runners Leverkusen by holding off Felix Magath's Wolfsburg at the Rhein-Neckar-Stadion. They took the lead early on through this year's Torschützenkönig (king of the goal scorers) Vedad Ibisevic, who incredibly scored his 14th goal in 13 games to round off a flowing counter-attacking move. However, this strike was cancelled out by the Brazilian Grafite's ninth goal of an increasingly impressive season up until now and it was game on again. But when Carlos Eduardo scored a sumptuous free kick with seven minutes left of the first half, it seemed the hosts had weathered the storm. Not so, as Wolfsburg somehow managed to level before the break due to a real howler from the home keeper.

People have been sceptical of any title hopes Hoffenheim might have because of their apparent reliance upon their strikers, leading some to believe they lack the strength in depth required to mount a sustained challenge. However, trainer Ralf Rangnick alerts these cynics to the fact that, as his strikers have done so well up to this point, he hasn't had the chance to showcase some of his unknown talent. It was a substitute who changed this game, as the Bosnian Sejad Salihovic came on to release Chinedu Obasi, who neatly found the bottom corner for the winner. As in England, goal difference still separates the top two, with Bayern now trailing by three points.

In fourth place, unthinkably, are Hertha Berlin after they recorded successive home wins with a 2-1 victory over Hamburg at the Olympiastadion. They had to do it the hard way, as an exquisite bicycle kick from Mladen Petric gave Martin Jol's side the lead at the interval, but goals from Cicero and Valeri Domovchiyski at the start of the second half proved enough to take the Berliners up to their highest league position of the season.

Elsewhere, not even a Jens Lehmann nightmare was enough to bring a goal at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, where Stuttgart drew 0-0 with Arminia Bielefeld to stay in the bottom half of the table. Werder went into ninth position after they were comfortable winners at the Weser Stadion over a disappointing Köln side, a truly stunning strike from Hugo Almeida the highlight of a dour game that the hosts went on to win 3-1. Borussia Dortmund eased to an emphatic 4-0 scoreline over Eintracht Frankfurt at Signal Iduna Park, with two goals from centre back Neven Subotic making the game safe as houses and rendering the second half almost meaningless. They overtake Schalke in the standings, who drop to seventh.

The battle at the bottom this week was between Energie Cottbus and Karlsruhe at the Stadion der Freundschaft (Yes, that actually means the stadium of friendship) and a surprisingly energetic encounter eventually came to perhaps an even more surprisingly conclusion as Cottbus grabbed a late winner. Both sides were desperate for the win but despite their prayers being answered the home side remain stranded at the foot of the division on 9 points with Karlsuhe in 16th place, a solitary point above Cottbus.
Hannover were also held 1-1 by Vfl Bochum at the AWD-Arena on Friday night.

I think you know

2009-04-25T23:29:00.001+02:00

It's that time again. Bundesliga baby! (Not in a gay way)

Let’s start with werder as always, if only to get them out of the way early. They were involved in their first 0-0 scoreline in over 18 months (and the 1st there's been at all in the bundesliga in a good few weeks) vs bochum. Thrilling stuff. Mesut özil, their shining light thus far this season with diego in and out of the side due to constant niggling injuries, was sent off in a game marred by the neo-nazi element of bochum's fans attempting to unfurl an enormous flag bearing the 'Hakenkreuz' or swastika after the final whistle, prompting confrontations between fans all around the ground and several very public arrests being made. Martin Jol's hamburg edged out dortmund 2-1 at home with goals from their croatian contingent ivica olic and mladen petric to go back into the top four, while dortmund find themselves in more familiar territory following their fine early season form, lying in ninth position. This game was also overshadowed by confrontation, as dortmund trainer jurgen klopp marched onto the pitch at full time to complain to the referee regarding the amount of stoppage time allocated as his side were pressing for an equaliser, which led to robert kovac being dismissed after the final whistle had been blown. According to kovac himself, he referred to the ref as having 'shitted in his shirt' - a rough translation of a german expression meaning that the referee had bottled it. The big croat was somehow still baffled by the official's decision as he explained himself in the post-match interview.

Matchday 12 also saw cracking comebacks from both köln and karlsruhe, the first of whom came from a goal down to beat mikkael forssell's hannover in friday night's only fixture, forssell himself deflecting the winner into his own net. Karlsruhe's efforts were even more eye-catching. Following four consecutive 2-0 victories, bayer leverkusen looked to be homing in on an even greater triumph on saturday as they found themselves 3 goals to the good just 25 minutes into the game, having also had 1 perfectly legitimate goal disallowed for offside. But with 1 scrappy goal before the break and two slightly better-crafted efforts after the interval karlsruhe claimed an unlikely point.

The battle of the basement was fought in bielefeld between the home side and mönchengladbach, where a brace from promising young german international marko marin is really beginning to make a name for himself. If the second, decisive goal was fortunate not to be chalked off for offside during its build-up, this could not be said for the first - an emphatically struck free kick which was as perfectly placed as they come inside the goalkeeper's near top corner, caressing the post on its way over the line. However, the talented youngster was lucky not to have been sent off for a waist-high challenge mid-way through the first half.

The bundesliga's bottom team, energie cottbus were comfortably dispatched at Wolfsburg where brazilian striker grafite did the damage with a well-taken hat-trick, including the opener from the penalty spot. If there is any striker resembling didier drogba at his most menacing, albeit against inferior opposition, it is the sturdy grafite, apparently prononced 'graffich' by the German commentators.

The more interesting-looking games took place on sunday. Frankfurt were denied a crucial victory by a late mario gomez equaliser, which was controversially disallowed until the striker remonstrated with the official and convinced him to confer with his linesman, who in turn persuaded him to eventually give the goal. Gomez also missed a clear chance in the final seconds that would have given the visitors an unlikely victory, but stuttgart still returned home with a well-earned 2-2 draw.

Hertha vs hoffenheim promised to provide an entertaining spectacle for an impressive 58,000 crowd at the olympiastadion but unfortunately failed to deliver. Having dominated throughout the proceedings and created numerous chances league leaders hoffenheim succumbed to a sucker-punch from andriy voronin on 71 minutes to give the berliners all 3 points and knock the visitors off the top of the table on goal difference. Leverkusen are the new leaders, despite their surrender of a 3 goal lead in karlsruhe.

Schalke hosted bayern in the weekend's biggest match and there were early fireworks. Luca toni got the away side off to a flyer on his return from injury, knocking in a mark van bommel pull back to give bayern the lead after just 3 minutes. However, the hosts hit back within 2 minutes through a delightful finish from a tight angle by jefferson farfan, who found the far corner by nutmegging keeper rensing in the munich goal. Parity only lasted until just after the half-hour mark as frank ribery and re-energised makeshift left back ze roberto combined superbly and the frenchman instinctively knocked home from 10 yards. And that was how it stayed. Bayern have now eased, ominously, into third place, just two points behind the leaders on what was a very good day indeed for the bavarians. Schalke stay in the top six, well off the pace at the moment.

Another week of scintillating Bundesliga action

2009-04-25T23:28:00.000+02:00

Well, where to start this week...

Where else but at Werder Bremen vs. Hertha Berlin at the Weserstadion and the return of Claudio Pizarro. The Peruvian was electric, scoring an unstoppable second half brace as Werder ran all over their opponents from the capital. After a Kacar og (or Eigentor as they say over here) opened the scoring, the Berliners never looked like posing a threat to the boys from Bremen. The fault for the first goal must lie with 20-year-old keeper Christophe Gäng, who had one hell of a debut having been informed that he was playing mere hours before the kick off at the expense of the injured 'please drop me' Drobny. He came, he failed to connect, and he picked the ball out of the back of his net in the third minute. 1-0. There wasn't much he could do about the second though as Mesut Özil scooped a ball into Diego at the edge of the box, who controlled it on his chest with his back to goal and scored with a stunning overhead kick which looped up and over the watching Gäng. 2-0 and seemingly game over with less than quarter of an hour gone. If his confidence, and that of Hertha, didn't take a dip after that, they positively nosedived when a flighted ball from the right found Markus Rosenberg in acres of space inside the area (the logistics of which baffle me) to somehow bundle the ball home at the second attempt via the feet of the keeper and those of the defender on the line.

In the second period the man from Peru came into his own. First, a delicious angled through-ball from the brazilian Diego, who had controlled proceedings throughout, found Pizarro too eager, too hungry to get to the ball first and he easily converted low at the near post with the in-step. If that was good, his second was even better. After Cicero had claimed a consolation for the visitors just past the hour mark with a simple back-post header from a floated set-piece, Pizarro got on the end of a flowing Werder move, directed by Diego, and a cross from Frank Baumann found the big centre forward unmarked six yards out, from where he dutifully scored with a diving, glancing header into the far bottom corner. Debutant Gäng somewhat made amends for his earlier errors by denying Pizarro what would have been a memorable hat-trick, when an excellent one-handed parry kept out a beautifully executed right-foot volley by Pizarro from the edge of the box. Despite this minor setback, Pizarro is steadily climbing the goal scoring charts and though he is some way off surprise leaders' Hoffenheim's Ibisevic, who has an incredible tally of 13 goals from 11 games so far this campaign, the South-American stalwart has an impressive 7 goals to his name since his much-publicised loan move from West London.

Hoffenheim had to come from behind to claim victory over Karlsruhe yesterday, with a pair of pairs - one from Ibisevic and the other from Obasi - eventually giving the hosts a 4-1 win to go back to the Bundesliga summit. Bayern also creeped menacingly up into third place in the table after yet another scare at the Allianz arena, where there has been a quite remarkable average of 6 goals scored per game this season, against Bielefeld before a late Ribery goal and even later red card and penalty decisions allowed Munich to come out 3-1 winners. Martin Jol's Hamburg slipped to fifth following a shock 3-0 defeat at the home of Mikkael Forssell's Hannover, while Stuttgart fell into the bottom half of the table after succumbing to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Köln. Leverkusen comfortably overcame Felix Magath's Wolfsburg in the Friday night fixture and Schalke had to wait until the 80th minute before they finally broke the resistance of Cottbus and evidently their spirit, Jefferson Farfan dispatching a late rebound from his saved penalty to rubber-stamp the result.

With colossal match-ups coming up today, Bochum and Dortmund meeting in derby action and Borussia Mönchengladbach facing Frankfurt in a crunch clash at the foot of the league, expect more drama, and in particular more goals, from this division in the upcoming days and weeks.

The Lowdown

2009-04-25T23:26:00.000+02:00

Only 1 place to start and it's with the entertaining Werder Bremen, this time up against Borussia Dortmund. After nearly 87 mins of an absolutely appauling display from the home side receiving everything it deserved from a lively dortmund outfit, werder were trailing by 2 goals to 1, having only been brought back into the game following a triple substitution from coach Schaaf (or sheep to you and me). That was before a stunning Claudio Pizarro brace (ok a goal which doesn't do justice to the phrase 'tap-in' and a piece of neat footwork at the feet of the keeper 4 yards out) - the peruvian having been previously anonymous throughout - dragged werder to what seemed like victory from what was the claws of defeat to leave them 3-2 up in injury time. But before the goal of the month winner had finished celebrating Dortmund had gone down the other end and Mohammed Zidan, discarded by not only Hamburg and, at times this season, his current employers, but by Bremen as well earlier in his career, took advantage of a Tim Wiese slip to ram home into an unguarded net with the last kick of the game. Unbelievable. Werder are crazy-simple as that.
Hamburg went back to the top after a hard-fought home draw with rivals Schalke where the referee was berated for a full 10 minutes at the final whistle by both sets of players, most of whom refused to shake the official's hand. However, new boys Hoffenheim are hot on their heels in second place after a convincing comeback away to Hannover, a 5-2 scoreline not telling the full story, merely of the attacking prowess of the visitors, for whom Ibisevic is currently the league's top scorer with 9 goals in 8 matches. Bayern scraped a 1-0 win with a close-range Miroslav Klose finish with 3 minutes to play proving enough to overcome the extremely unfortunate Karlsruhe and go back up into 11th place, 1 spot behind Werder, as the Bundesliga maintains a distinctly unfamiliar feel as we approach the mid-way point in this first half of the season.
Oh, and in other hilarious news, Hertha Berlin newcomer (or neuzugang in German) Andriy Voronin sported a face mask during his side's win over Stuttgart after falling from the steps leading down from his flight back from international duty in midweek. He looked brilliant, as you might expect.
Well, i guess that's it. Expect more updates in due course, this league's just hotting up. The defences are awful but it just makes for great watching. I aint seen a nil-niler in weeks, and there were 3 in the prem at the weekend.

2009-04-22T15:01:00.001+02:00