2.Liga: Round 25

Things remain tight at the top.

2.Liga - Round 25

SC Paderborn 07	        -    VfL Bochum	         0:0 (0:0)    13,202

1. FC Union Berlin	-    MSV Duisburg	 1:1 (0:0)    15,076

                       0:1  Exslager (62., Gjasula)
                       1:1  Terodde (90. + 1, Silvio)

SpVgg Greuther Fürth	-    Alemannia Aachen	 1:0 (1:0)    11,301

                       1:0  Occean (29., Mavraj)

Fortuna Düsseldorf	-    Erzgebirge Aue	 3:1 (1:1)    30,237

                       0:1  Kocer (4., Hochscheidt)
                       1:1  Beister (22., Rösler)
                       2:1  Ilsö (65., J. van den Bergh)
                       3:1  Bröker (72., Rösler)

FSV Frankfurt	        -    1860 München	 3:1 (2:1)     6,019

                       0:1  Bülow (15., )
                       1:1  M. Görlitz (24., Teixeira)
                       2:1  Gaus (42., Y. Stark)
                       3:1  Chrisantus (85., Yun)

Hansa Rostock	        -    Eintracht Frankfurt    1:5 (0:2)    13,300

                       0:1  Köhler (13., S. Jung)
                       0:2  Schildenfeld (42., Köhler)
                       1:2  R. Müller (63., Mintal)
                       1:3  Kittel (77., Köhler)
                       1:4  Rode (84., Idrissou)
                       1:5  Idrissou (87., Butscher)

Dynamo Dresden	        -    FC Ingolstadt 04	    0:0 (0:0)   0 (yes)

Energie Cottbus	        -    Eintr. Braunschweig    1:1 (0:1)   8,870

                       0:1  Bicakcic (40., Kruppke)
                       1:1  Banovic (69., Hünemeier)

FC St. Pauli	        -    Karlsruher SC          1:0 (1:0)  23,254

                       1:0  Volz (40.)



 1  SpVgg Greuther Fürth	25    16    5 	 4    56:20  +36    53
 2  Eintracht Frankfurt (A)     25    15    7 	 3    58:27  +31    52
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 3  Fortuna Düsseldorf	 	25    14    9 	 2    54:25  +29    51
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 5  FC St. Pauli (A)	  	25    15    5 	 5    44:25  +19    50
 4  SC Paderborn 07	  	25    14    8 	 3    42:26  +16    50
 6  1860 München	  	24    13    3 	 8    47:33  +14    42
 7 Eintr. Braunschweig (N)  	25     9    9 	 7    31:28  +3     36
 8  1. FC Union Berlin	  	25    10    6 	 9    42:41  +1     36
 9  Dynamo Dresden (N)	  	25     9    6 	10    42:41  +1     33
10  VfL Bochum	  	        25     9    4 	12    34:42  -8     31
11  Energie Cottbus	  	25     7    7 	11    24:37  -13    28
12  FSV Frankfurt	  	25     5    9 	11    30:50  -20    24
13  Erzgebirge Aue	  	24     5    8 	11    23:42  -19    23
14  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	25     4   10 	11    28:45  -17    22
15  MSV Duisburg	  	25     5    6 	14    28:39  -11    21
----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Alemannia Aachen	  	25     3   12 	10    20:32  -12    21
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  Karlsruher SC	  	25     5    4 	16    24:52  -28    19
18  Hansa Rostock (N)	  	25     2   10 	13    22:44  -22    16

Leaders Greuther Fürth remain at the top, but it wasn’t all roses against Aachen. The visitors were pretty timid at the start, so Greuther Fürth was good for the lead, with Canadian Oliver Occean notching again. In the 2nd half, Alemannia was much improved, but really didn’t garner much of a threat. Despite having less from the match, the Greuther probably could have won by a larger margin, but Aachen’s defense and GK Boy Waterman were pretty sharp. Still, the loss means that Aachen is now firmly in the relegation zone.

Paderborn might be in trouble with top scorer Nick Proschwitz out injured. SCP needed a win against a crap Bochum, but overall it was a lame kickabout with the goalkeepers free to make runs to the pub, since nothing was happening.

Fortuna Düsseldorf dominated the whole match against Aue, but had a rough time breaking through. Erzgebirge took an early lead, and Fortuna was chasing for the whole match. Eventually they were able to break through, but it should have been easier.

Eintracht Frankfurt had a ho-hum performance, but it was more than enough to kick hapless Hansa. Rostock was total crap, so Frankfurt just waltzed through and basically acted like it was a training match. Rostock launched a comeback in the 2nd half and got close, so Eintracht then turned it up a bit and finished them off.

Meanwhile, 1860 München was stunned in Bornheim against lowly FSV Frankfurt. The Lions have been one of the in form teams, but may have been dealt a fatal blow in their efforts to return to the top flight. 1860 started out brightly, and grabbed an early lead. However FSV soon began to realize that the emperors were without clothes, and increasingly brought the visitors under pressure, equalizing and then taking the lead. 1860 lacked fighting spirit and
cleverness in the 2nd half, only dangerous on set pieces. This is a big win for FSV, struggling – as usual – against relegation.

Union Berlin expected all points against crap Duisburg, and dominated the game. However unlike most of the season, the Zebras played with purpose, and GK Felix Wiedwald was brilliant, Union and their fans crying with frustration. It wasn’t until injury time that Simon Terodde manage to salvage a draw, which was obviously deserved.

Dresden was the location of a soon to be famous “Geisterspiel” (ghost match). Dynamo was banned for previous fan behaviour, so the stadium was ordered shut and only the teams played. Ingolstadt took advantage and played hard, earning a precious away point. However, the more interesting aspect was that despite the ban, the match was in fact sold out, as over 26,000 unusable tickets were purchased by Dynamo fans in support of their club.

Cottbus struggled against Braunschweig. Traditionally, the Stadion der Freundschaft has been a bulwark for Energie, but this match was anything but. Cottbus ran around like chickens with their head cut off, and Braunschweig looked like a winner. Energie managed to get a goal late, but even then looked very nervous and the possibility of giving up another goal was high. As a result, Energie has to be statisfied with a draw, and if Braunschweig was more ambitious, they could have taken all 3 points.

On the Monday night match, St.Pauli remained on pace as they upended Karlsruhe. The Paulistas were uninspired and had a hard time breaking down KSC’s defense. It took a nice effort by England veteran Moritz Volz, who stole the ball and lifted over the KSC keeper, who was too far off his line. Not pretty, but Pauli just wanted the points. KSC at least isn’t sucking, but they’ll need to show more if they want to avoid relegation.

WSV: If only you did this every game…

Wuppertal once again never ceases to amaze. They get into a pattern of crappiness, and then suddenly turn out a good result. This one was a shock, as WSV blasted leaders Borussia Mönchengladbach II 3-0.

And it was a deserved win. WSV was unrecognizable from the team that has stunk up the league in the last few outings, and thoroughly dominated the Regionalliga West leaders. Christian Knappman was in form again, notching two goals (17 and 18). Gladbach started brightly, but WSV quickly seized the initiative and launched strong attacks against the visitors. A header from Knappmann was the reward, after a perfect cross from Maciej Zieba. The 2nd half proved more of the same, as Wuppertal amazed the miniscule crowd (remember even the revised Zoo Stadion holds around 26,000 and in old days you could pack in 35,000), but in the end even the suffering fans were impressed and gave a standing ovation. Gladbach II had been on a good run, but this loss forced them to cede leadership back to Lotte.

Of course, the season is beyond salvation, but it’s nice to get a win, probably the best performance of the season. Let’s hope it carries over into next week, for the traditional derby against Rot-Weiss Essen.

Wuppertaler SV - Borussia M'gladbach II 3:0 (1:0)

Attendance: 916 (Stadion Am Zoo)
Scoring:
1:0 Knappmann (38.)
2:0 Zieba (48.)
3:0 Knappmann (70.) 

WUPPERTAL:

Semmler -
El Hammouchi , Fleßers, Schlieter , Flottmann -
Landers, Zieba, F. Haas , Moosmayer -
Quotschalla , Knappmann        

Subs:
Meier  (75., Fleßers)
Zimmermann (75., Landers)
Herzenbruch (83., Zieba)

Trainer: Bruns

GLADBACH II:
Blaswich -
M. Zimmermann, Dams, Heubach, Odenthal -
Bastürk, Korb    -
Dowidat, Cigerci, Bieler    -
Podszus

Subs:
Platzek (46., Korb)
Tobor (60., Bieler)
Schumacher (77., Bastürk)

Trainer: Demandt

Regionalliga West

 1  Sportfreunde Lotte	  	24   15    7 	2     46:20  +26    52
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Borussia M'gladbach II  	24   15    5 	4     47:30  +17    50
 3  Borussia Dortmund II  	22   12    4 	6     43:24  +19    40
 4  Eintracht Trier	  	22   12    4 	6     33:20  +13    40
 5  1. FC Kaiserslautern II  	24    9    9 	6     37:35  +2     36
 6  Fortuna Köln (N)	  	23   10    6 	7     35:34  +1     36
 7  1. FC Köln II	  	25    9    8 	8     40:35  +5     35
 8  Wuppertaler SV Bor.	  	23    9    6 	8     37:30  +7     33
 9  1. FSV Mainz 05 II	  	25    8    5 	12    34:33  +1     29
10  SC Wiedenbrück 2000	  	22    8    5 	9     28:33  -5     29
11  SC Verl      	  	23    8    4 	11    25:29  -4     28
12  FC Schalke 04 II	  	22    8    4 	10    29:37  -8     28
13  VfL Bochum II	  	24    7    7 	10    30:43  -13    28
14  Rot-Weiss Essen (N)	  	22    8    3 	11    32:40  -8     27
15  SV Elversberg	  	23    7    6 	10    26:34  -8     27
16  Bayer Leverkusen II	  	26    6    9 	11    26:35  -9     27
17  Fortuna Düsseldorf II  	25    4   11 	10    27:34  -7     23
18  SC Idar-Oberstein (N)  	22    5    5 	12    23:44  -21    20
19  TuS Koblenz (A)	  	23    3   10 	10    21:29  -8     19

Bundesliga, Round 25: BVB slowed down

Dortmund stubbed their toe, and Bayern made up for their poor performances. More updates on Sunday…

BUNDESLIGA - Round 25

VfB Stuttgart	      -    1. FC Kaiserslautern	  0:0 (0:0)    50,100

VfL Wolfsburg	      -    Bayer Leverkusen	  3:2 (2:1)    26,112

                     0:1  Kießling (3., Schürrle)
                     1:1  Helmes (32., Hasebe)
                     2:1  Dejagah (45., Mandzukic)
                     3:1  Kadlec (61., own goal, Dejagah)
                     3:2  Derdiyok (90. + 1, Castro)

1. FSV Mainz 05	      -    1. FC Nürnberg	  2:1 (2:0)    34,000

                     1:0  N. Müller (1., Choupo-Moting)
                     2:0  Zidan (22.)
                     2:1  Didavi (64., Maroh)

Borussia M'gladbach   -    SC Freiburg	          0:0 (0:0)    52,207

Bayern München	      -    1899 Hoffenheim	  7:1 (5:0)    69,000

                     1:0  Gomez (5., T. Müller)
                     2:0  Robben (12., penalty, Lahm)
                     3:0  Kroos (18., Ribery)
                     4:0  Robben (29., Ribery)
                     5:0  Gomez (35., Ribery)
                     6:0  Gomez (48., Robben)
                     7:0  Ribery (58., Robben)
                     7:1  Luiz Gustavo (85., own goal, Babel)

1. FC Köln	      -    Hertha BSC Berlin	  1:0 (1:0)    48,000

                     1:0  Clemens (36., Brecko)

FC Augsburg	      -    Borussia Dortmund	  0:0 (0:0)    30,660

Sunday:
Werder Bremen	      -    Hannover 96	          3:0 (1:0)    41,500

                     1:0  Pizarro (31., Ekici)
                     2:0  Prödl (49., Ekici)
                     3:0  Rosenberg (56., Pizarro)

FC Schalke 04	      -    Hamburger SV	          -:- (-:-)

 1  Borussia Dortmund (M)   25 	  17 	5     3     52:16  +36 	    56
 2  Bayern München	    25 	  16 	3     6     58:17  +41 	    51
 3  Borussia M'gladbach	    25 	  14 	6     5     37:15  +22 	    48
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FC Schalke 04 (P)	    25 	  15 	2     8     54:33  +21 	    47
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  Bayer Leverkusen	    25 	  11 	7     7     38:32  +6 	    40
 6  Werder Bremen	    25 	  11 	6     8     40:38  +2 	    39
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Hannover 96	  	    25 	  8 	11    6     30:35  -5 	    35
 8  VfB Stuttgart	    25 	  9 	6    10     41:33  +8 	    33
 9  1. FC Nürnberg	    25 	  9 	4    12     24:34  -10 	    31
10  VfL Wolfsburg	    25 	  9 	4    12     31:46  -15 	    31
11  1. FSV Mainz 05	    25 	  7 	9     9     37:39  -2 	    30
12  1899 Hoffenheim	    25 	  7 	9     9     28:35  -7 	    30
13  1. FC Köln              25 	  8 	4    13     32:46  -14 	    28
14  Hamburger SV            25 	  6 	9    10     29:45  -16 	    27
15  FC Augsburg (N)	    25 	  4 	11   10     25:39  -14 	    23
----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Hertha BSC Berlin (N)   25 	  5 	8    12     26:41  -15 	    23
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  SC Freiburg             25 	  5 	7    13     30:52  -22 	    22
18  1. FC Kaiserslautern    25 	  3 	11   11     16:32  -16 	    20

Things started slowly with a crappy match on Friday night. Stuttgart has been scoring recently, and Kaiserslautern has constipation, so you’d expect a rout. Instead, it was a boring match and evidently VfB decided to take the weekend off. FCK did little, but defended well and were happy with the point.

Bayern München was expected to put out against Hoffenheim, given all the recent poor outings. And the ass-kicking from Heynckes and the board must have had an effect, as Bayern attacked furiously and beat the crap out of the Hoppers. “Robbery” was in full force, as Ribery and Robben combined for 3 goals and 5 assists, and Mario Gomez must have taken some suppositories for his contstipation, as he banged in 3 goals. Hopelessheim was total crap, but they did manage a score a goal, Luiz Gustavo getting the consolation goal. Oh snap, they sold Gustavo to Bayern, but Luiz did an own goal probably from sympathy to his former club.

Dortmund was suprisingly lame at Augsburg. Whilst the Neons were cumbersome and slow, their passing game not working at all, the homeside Fuggers were engaged and fought for every inch. Naturally they don’t have the talent to compete with Dortmund, but held their own for a deserved draw.

Gladbach couldn’t break through against a packed Freiburg defense and a superb GK Oliver Baumann. As a result, another poor outing for the youngsters, but a huge point for SCF.

Wolfsburg for once actually put in a good performance. In the battle of company teams, VW fought hard and upended the Aspirins, still smarting from their disgraceful loss at Barcelona. The Alka-Seltzers did start sprightly, but were taken aback by an engaged Wolfsburg side that for once looked like they wanted to win.

Mainz has been playing well since winterbreak, when Mohamed Zidan returned to his old club after an unsuccessful stint at Dortmund. Well, certainly he’s had an impact, scoring in every game, now the streak is at 6. After a blitz start to go up 2-0, Mainz set back and allowed der Club to take over. FCN began to control the match and pressed hard for an equalizer, but lacked the skill to break through. Somewhat fortunate for Mainz to grab all the points.

1. FC Köln won an ugly relegation battle against Hertha. The homeside was dominant in the 1st half and deserved their lead, but the match degenerated into a niggling foulfest in the 2nd half, and in fact two Kölners (Jajalo and Podolski) got their asses red carded. The recipient of their friendly foul was veteran Georgian Levan Kobiashvili, who also managed to get ass tossed as well. Kobiashvili has played some 400 matches in Germany, well over 300 in the Bundesliga, grabbed Podolski by the neck, so Poldi retaliated by Bitch slapping him. OK, I might have taken some artistic license (he just shoved him away), but you get the drift, crap match, lame red, but big points for Köln.

The northern derby was expected to be close, as Bremen has sucked recently and Hannover has been playing pretty well, including their midweek match in Belgium for the Europa-Liga. But Werder dominated and kicked ass…well, not quite. The 96ers actually played well and looked the better team, but they couldn’t score. Werder showed a lot of the weakness they’ve demonstrated all season, but in one area, they came to play: cold blooded scoring goals. So Werder got the goals and 96ers wonder how they lost. The answer is simple: Claudio Pizarro makes things happen for Bremen and he did again…

Schalke put together a decent performance and essentially wrapped things up quickly. After Finnish international Teemu Pukki scored quickly in one of his rare starts, the Blues dicked around a bit, but then realized that HSV was lame and struck again to wrap things up after only about half and hour. The rest of the match was really just waiting for the final whistle and then head to the pub…

3.Liga: Round 29

Sandhausen is back on top as Heidenheim downs Aalen in a regional derby.

3.Liga - Round 29

1. FC Heidenheim	-    VfR Aalen	          3:1 (2:0)   10,000
Kickers Offenbach	-    VfL Osnabrück	  3:0 (0:0)    5,849
SpVgg Unterhaching	-    VfB Stuttgart II     4:0 (2:0)    1,200
Rot-Weiß Oberhausen	-    SV Babelsberg 03     1:0 (0:0)    3,087
SV Sandhausen	        -    Carl Zeiss Jena	  1:0 (0:0)    2,050
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	        -    Jahn Regensburg	  2:2 (1:2)    4,968
Wacker Burghausen	-    SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  2:2 (0:1)    2,500
1. FC Saarbrücken	-    Arminia Bielefeld	  2:4 (1:1)    4,118
Preußen Münster	        -    SV Darmstadt 98	  1:2 (1:0)    5,572

Sunday
Chemnitzer FC	 -  	Werder Bremen II	-:- (-:-) 	

 1  SV Sandhausen	  	29   15     8    6    43:31  +12     53
 2  VfR Aalen	  	        28   15     7    6    37:25  +12     52
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  1. FC Heidenheim	  	28   12     9    7    35:25  +10     45
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Jahn Regensburg	  	27   11    11    5    43:27  +16     44
 5  Wacker Burghausen	  	29   10    14    5    46:38  +8      44
 6  Chemnitzer FC (N)	  	28   11     8    9    37:32  +5      41
 7  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	28   10    11    7    35:30  +5      41
 8  Kickers Offenbach	  	27   11     7    9    34:27  +7      40
 9  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	28    8    12    8    44:39  +5      36
10  VfL Osnabrück (A)	  	27    8    12    7    28:25  +3      36
11  Arminia Bielefeld (A)	29    8    12    9    40:44  -4      36
12  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	28   10     5   13    46:43  +3      35
13  VfB Stuttgart II	  	28    8    11    9    29:37  -8      35
14  SV Darmstadt 98 (N)	  	27    9     7   11    35:36  -1      34
15  SV Babelsberg 03	  	28    8     9   11    35:43  -8      33
16  Preußen Münster (N)	  	26    7    11    8    26:29  -3      32
17  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	29    7    10   12    29:39  -10     31
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
18  Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (A)     28    5    11   12    25:35  -10     26
19  Carl Zeiss Jena	  	27    5    9    13    27:45  -18     24
20  Werder Bremen II	  	27    3   10    14    25:49  -24     19

Sandhausen struggled against crap Jena, but snatched a goal near the end to reclaim the top spot. Meanwhile, the “Ostalderby” saw Heidenheim beat down Aalen in a hotly contested match.
Heidenheim moves ahead of Regensburg for the coveted playoff spot. Jahn had a rough time in Erfurt, but was able to hold off the ex-commies. Heidenheim’s win establishes them as a truw contender for promotion, in a hotly contested struggle for 3rd place.

A hard fought match in Offenbach looked to peter out to a draw until Kickers scored 3 goals in the last 5 minutes or so. Osnabrück pretty much is finished from any contention now, but the Kickers still can hold out hope.

Oberhausen managed a win against Regensburg, but it may be too late for RWO to save their ass, since they still have a steep hill to climb.

Euro: Mixed bag

In the (relatively) worthless Europa-League, there was a mixed bag of results for the Bundesliga sides.

Schalke lost 0-1 at Dutch side FC Twente. Overall, it was probably deserved, since the Dutch side had more of the play and Schalke wasn’t interested in actually trying to win the match. But despite having an edge, Twente didn’t really look like scoring, but they got a laughable penalty which made the difference, and Matip got red carded as well. Nevertheless, at least in the rematch in Gelsenkirchen, the Blues have a decent chance to advance.

Hannover 96 did better, drawing 2-2 with Standard Liege (Lüttich for you German speakers) The 96ers actually drew first blood in the match played in Belgium, but fell behind before squaring things. Stindl and Diouf got the goals for Hannover, who now have a favorable position for the rematch at home.

One last word about the Bayer Leverkusen’s disgraceful ass-whupping at the hands of Barcelona. Not that it means anything, but it’s supposed to be the Champions League, not the “we-couldn’t-win-the-title-but-got-in-anyway-because-we-finished-in-the-top 3-this-year-and-maybe-4-when-UEFA-revises-coefficients” League. Luserkusen doesn’t belong in the Champions League because they’re not a champion of anything.

3.Liga: Sandhausen stumbles

There were a couple of midweek makeup games in the 2.Liga SanHausen was whupped at home by a rising Chemnitz squad. Although SVS had an edge in play, the Easterners were well organized in defense and counterattack. The result allows the promoted side to keep an eye on the playoff spot.
Burghausen was impressive getting a deserved 3 points. Unterhaching did themselves a favor, bumping off Offenbach. That probably ends any relegation fears that might have lurking in the Munich suburbs. Wacker pulls even with Regensburg, but at least Jahn have a couple of games in hand so they can still make their move.

3.Liga - makeup 

SV Sandhausen	         -    Chemnitzer FC	  0:3 (0:1)   2,200
SpVgg Unterhaching	 -    Kickers Offenbach	  2:0 (0:0)   1,200
Wacker Burghausen	 -    VfL Osnabrück	  2:0 (0:0)   2,480

 1  VfR Aalen	  	        27   15    7 	 5    36:22  +14     52
 2  SV Sandhausen	  	28   14    8 	 6    42:31  +11     50
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Jahn Regensburg	  	26   11   10 	 5    41:25  +16     43
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Wacker Burghausen	  	28   10   13 	 5    44:36  +8      43
 5  1. FC Heidenheim	  	27   11    9 	 7    32:24  +8      42
 6  Chemnitzer FC (N)	  	28   11    8 	 9    37:32  +5      41
 7  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	27   10   10 	 7    33:28  +5      40
 8  Kickers Offenbach	  	26   10    7 	 9    31:27  +4      37
 9  1. FC Saarbrücken	        27    8   12 	 7    42:35  +7      36
10  VfL Osnabrück (A)	  	26    8   12     6    28:22  +6      36
11  VfB Stuttgart II	  	27    8   11 	 8    29:33  -4      35
12  Arminia Bielefeld (A)	28    7   12 	 9    36:42  -6      33
13  SV Babelsberg 03	        27    8    9 	10    35:42  -7      33
14  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	27    9    5 	13    42:43  -1      32
15  Preußen Münster (N)	  	25    7   11 	 7    25:27  -2      32
16  SV Darmstadt 98 (N)	  	26    8    7 	11    33:35  -2      31
17  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	28    7    9 	12    27:37  -10     30
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
18  Carl Zeiss Jena	    	26    5    9 	12    27:44  -17     24
19  Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (A)	27    4   11 	12    24:35  -11     23
20  Werder Bremen II            27    3   10 	14    25:49  -24     19

Euro: Bayer gets reamed

Bayer Leverkusen suffered one of the most disgraceful outings in the history of German football as they were bitch-slapped 1-7 by Barcelona in the Champions League return match. Of course, having lost 1-3 at home, the Aspirins wre all but eliminated, but this gutless performance was certainly one for the ages. No one expected them to win, but at least they could have given a decent account of themselves. Instead, Barca, or more specifically Leonel Messi, did whatever he wanted (and I guess he wanted 5 goals), as the 80,000 in the Nou Camp watched the dismantling of Bayer. Xavi and Iniesta basically got the second half off. Leverkusen’s attempts were so infantil, it reminds one of a bad high school team. The Alka-Seltzers scored in injury time for the “consolation” goal. In fact, it would have been better if they hadn’t scored just to reinforce their suckitude. Coach Robin Dutt should be fired immediately and all the players involved should be horse-whipped.

Misc Bundesliga news

Stuttgart GM Fredi Bobic made the news as he accused the Serbian federation of money grubbing. That’s because VfB’s Serbian forward Zdravko Kuzmanovic played some 180 minutes in back-back-back matches for Serbia in a “mini-tournament” against Armenia and Cyprus. The former German star was outraged and stated that he hoped that Serbian media would contact him “so I can cuss them out in their mother tongue”. Bobic, who has half Slovenian and half Croatian moved to Germany when he was a boy.

Schalke has tendered a new contract offer to Spanish legend Raul, certainly one of the most inspirational and popular players in the Schalke squad. However, the 34 year old Spaniard is thought to be toying with the idea of returning to Spain. To be honest, it must be because he doesn’t like the weather or food, because he’s fit in nicely with Schalke and it’s hard to imagine a scenario in La Liga where he would be more successful. Schalke also has to decide whether they can afford to keep Peruvian winger Jefferson Farfan. He’s been one of the best Schalker’s over the past few seasons, but it will cost to keep him.

HSV announced they are letting Croatian forward Mladen Petric go at the end of the season. His contract expires and will not be renewed. Petric has been a trooper, scoring 60 goals in approx 127 matches for Hamburg, but he was looking for a longer term deal. HSV decided they would rather go with youth, so both sides decided to part ways. Keeping with HSV, forward Paolo Guerrero will probably receive a 8 match suspension for his wanker move in the 0-4 to Stuttgart. The Peruvian ran 50 yards and slid in two-footed, studs up into the backside of VfB keeper Sven Ullreich – at the corner flag no less.  HSV management apologized and mumbled only that they feel the punishment should only be 3 matches, because of “similar” cases involving other players. Actually, the DFB was considering a 6 month ban, so the punk is getting off easy. Guerrero did apologize and basically admitted he didn’t know what he was thinking. But then he went on to state “I don’t see what everybody is all excited about, after all, the goalie stood up and was able to play on.”…

 

 

Montag Nacht Fussball: 2.Liga

The 2.Liga’s attractive match between 1860 and St.Pauli ended in a 1-1 draw. 1860 dominated the match in the first half, but found themselves behind as they gave up a penalty. 1860 reacted with even more furious attacks. The same pattern was visible in the 2nd half, but St.Pauli dispalyed a well-organized defense that seemed to blunt the increasingly desperate attacks from the Lions. Nevertheless in the end, 1860 was able to grab a deserved point as St.Pauli failed on a clearance and Volland was on hand to knock home.

1860 probably felt they should have won this game, but the disciplined Paulistas probably felt they should have held out. The Müncheners could have cut the distance to the promotion spot, but they’ll have to wait another round to sneak up. St.Pauli remains in the middle of things, only 2 points off the pace.

In other 2.Liga news, Dynamo Dresden’s fans are finally creating some positive news. Dynamo has been in trouble since their fans rioted after getting stuffed by Dortmund in the Cup last year. The DFB takes such behavior seriously, and fined the club 100,000 euros. They also banned all Dynamo fans from the away match against Eintracht Frankfurt and most importantly ordered the upcoming match against Ingolstadt to be played in an empty stadium. The Dynamo fan clubs have taken an action to helpt the club out by buying “ghost tickets”, basically purchasing tickets for the match despite the fact that no one is allowed in the park. So far, some 6,000 tickets, at prices between 5-20 euros have been sold. (Note: By Thursday the sales had risen to almost 19,000 tickets!)

In a surprise move, Union Berlin‘s Colombian forward John Jairo Mosquera has had his contract dissolved. Mosquera is moving immediately to the Chinese league, with FC Changchun Yatai. In 81 matches with the Berliners, he had scored 21 times.

WSV: Another disgraceful loss

Wuppertal continues to suck. After a slight improvement after winterbreak, WSV is back to their old shenanigans and are stinking up the Regionalliga. This Sunday was yet another disgraceful outing, losing 0-1 at SC Verl. Was it worse than last week’s turd losing by the same score to last-place Koblenz? Doesn’t seem possible, but obviously WSV was willing to try…

Only 545 fans showed up in Verl’s “Stadion and der Poststrasse”, and they were treated to a rather lame match. Guess they could smell a bad one miles away and most stayed away. Neither side did anything, (except get 4 yellow cards in the initial 5 minutes) and it’s questionable whether the level was even worthy of 4th division. Then after 40 minutes, WSV defender Raschid El-Hammouchi commited an idiotic foul on Verl’s loan striker Matthias Haeder, and David Lauretta put home from the spot.

The second half was even worse, WSV stinking even more, if that were even possible. Verl was pretty crap too, and if their forwards could hit the side of a barn they probably could have banged in a few more.

So WSV drops another spot down to 8th. Well, they’re only 19 points off the pace, so I suppose they could still get promoted, hehehe…

SC VERL:

Kampe - 
J. Schmidt , Saur , Bertram , Kaminski    - 
Bömer-Schulte , Brinker - 
Arifi, Lauretta, Großeschallau       - 
Haeder

Subs:
L. Schröder (59., Lauretta)
Rasp (84., Arifi)
Martinovic (87., Großeschallau)

Trainer: Bertels

WUPPERTALER SV:

Semmler - 
El Hammouchi, Schlieter, Flottmann, Herzenbruch    - 
Meier , F. Haas    - 
Zieba , Quotschalla, Moosmayer    - 
Knappmann

Subs:
Landers  (46., Herzenbruch)
van den Bergh (69., El Hammouchi)
Baltes (75., F. Haas)

Trainer: Bruns

Scoring:
1:0 Lauretta (41., penalty)

Yellow cards:
Verl: Kaminski (5.), Großeschallau (3.)
WSV: Quotschalla (1.),	Moosmayer (3.)