It’s way to early to draw many conclusions, especially for teams that have started poorly. But certainly Bayern looks like they’re in early good form – but of course last season they started well and then fell off the pace.
Bayern destroyed Stuttgart, and they hardly appear to be missing Mario Gomez. Mandzukic has fit in nicely. They’ve been scoring goals and all looks good. VfB took the lead, but then fell apart under sustained Bayern pressure. Stuttgart is off to a poor start and needs a couple of good results to straighten things out.
Schalke had a routine win against Augsburg, although FCA had some decent chances, which they wasted disgracefully. Big news was that Jefferson Farfan was considered questionable for the start, but the Peruvian winger showed he’s recovered, assisting on all three Schalke goals.
Nürnberg battled hard at home to champions Dortmund, and deserved their draw. The visitors had more of the play and pressed, but FCN showed a solid defense and enough counterplay to keep Dortmund on their toes.
Mainz was stunned at home by promoted Greuther Fürth. The hosts dominated most of the match, but could not break down the disciplined Greuther defense, and especially GK Max Grün. A rare counter led to a smash and grab win, their first ever in the top flight.
Hoffenheim was torn to shreds by promoted Frankfurt, but the result is a bit deceiving. The Kraisgauers were actually the better team ealry, and pressured Frankfurt with some pretty decent attacking play. But they were unable to get anything, perhaps more indication that they’re toothless up front. Frankfurt took the lead on a somewhat unfortunate Alex Meier shot that was deflected into the net, and Schwegler hammered in from distance to increase the deficit. Things then really fell apart in the 2nd half, when Salihovic came in as a sub and managed to get double yellow cards in about 4 minutes. The visitors then attacked and finished off Hopelessheim. Great win for Frankfurt, Hoffenheim has some major work to do…else Markus Babbel is getting his ass fired.
Bremen was clearly the better side in the Northern derby with HSV, but they were having a hard time. HSV GK Rene Adler saved Aaron Hunt’s penalty to preserve the scoreless draw into halftime, but another penalty he couldn’t stop, and Werder piled the pressure and finally broke down a rather feeble HSV. Their big news is that Rafael van der Vaart (and more importantly Sylvie van der Vaart) are returning to Hamburg, so hopefully things will be looking up. I’m not so sure, as the squad looks pretty toothless
Leverkusen looked like they needed Pepto-Bismol last week, as they basically slept through their opener. However, they looked alert and engaged in this one, and Freiburg barely had a chance. Sustained Aspirin pressure led to an easy win.
Düsseldorf and Gladbach battled in the Rhein-derby. Fortuna was “punished” by the DFB for the fan behaviour in the promotion playoffs against Hertha, so by order, only 50% of the seats were sold. Fortuna fought hard, but were clearly inferior technically to Gladbach. However, it didn’t really matter, since the Gladbachers looked tired, perhaps their CL qualifier in Kiev took too much out of them.
Hannover was vastly superior in the north derby with Wolfsburg, I believe only their 2nd win in VW-Stadt in ages. As has often been the case, the VW defense was a catastrophe, as Felix Magath still can’t seem to get things right. 96ers Hungarian midfielder Szabolcs Huszti was especially good, collecting assists on all four goals. Hannover has been unusually active scoring, as they’ve been more of a defensive oriented club. But after two in the opener with Schalke, and 10 in the Europaliga qualifiers against Wroclaw, followed by another four here, they’ve definitely raised some eyebrows.
1. FSV Mainz 05 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:1 (0:0) 28,237
0:1 Klaus (67., Azemi)
FC Schalke 04 - FC Augsburg 3:1 (1:0) 60,582
1:0 K. Papadopoulos (33., Farfan)
2:0 J. Jones (46., Farfan)
3:0 Huntelaar (72., Farfan)
3:1 Oehrl (79., Baier)
Bayer Leverkusen - SC Freiburg 2:0 (1:0) 23,635
1:0 Castro (8., Kießling)
2:0 Wollscheid (54., Castro)
Werder Bremen - Hamburger SV 2:0 (0:0) 42,100
1:0 Hunt (51., penalty, Petersen)
2:0 Petersen (67., penalty Hunt)
1. FC Nürnberg - Borussia Dortmund 1:1 (1:1) 50,000
1:0 Pekhart (31., Kiyotake)
1:1 Blaszczykowski (40., Perisic)
1899 Hoffenheim - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:4 (0:2) 29,650
0:1 Meier (39., Inui)
0:2 Schwegler (43.)
0:3 Meier (83., penalty, Oczipka)
0:4 Lanig (90., Oczipka)
Fortuna Düsseldorf - Borussia M'gladbach 0:0 (0:0) 30,000
Sunday:
VfL Wolfsburg - Hannover 96 0:4 (0:2) 29,451
0:1 Haggui (10., Huszti)
0:2 Sobiech (26., Huszti)
0:3 Andreasen (52., Huszti)
0:4 Sobiech (56., Huszti)
Bayern München - VfB Stuttgart 6:1 (3:1) 71,000
0:1 Harnik (25., Boka)
1:1 T. Müller (32.)
2:1 Kroos (33., Luiz Gustavo)
3:1 Luiz Gustavo (43., Lahm)
4:1 Mandzukic (47., T. Müller)
5:1 T. Müller (49., Mandzukic)
6:1 Schweinsteiger (51., T. Müller)
1 Bayern München 2 2 0 0 9:1 +8 6
2 Eintracht Frankfurt (N) 2 2 0 0 6:1 +5 6
3 Hannover 96 2 1 1 0 6:2 +4 4
4 FC Schalke 04 2 1 1 0 5:3 +2 4
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5 Fortuna Düsseldorf (N) 2 1 1 0 2:0 +2 4
6 Borussia Dortmund (M, P) 2 1 1 0 3:2 +1 4
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7 Borussia M'gladbach 2 1 1 0 2:1 +1 4
8 1. FC Nürnberg 2 1 1 0 2:1 +1 4
9 Werder Bremen 2 1 0 1 3:2 +1 3
10 Bayer Leverkusen 2 1 0 1 3:2 +1 3
11 VfL Wolfsburg 2 1 0 1 1:4 -3 3
12 SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N) 2 1 0 1 1:3 -2 3
13 1. FSV Mainz 05 2 0 1 1 1:2 -1 1
14 SC Freiburg 2 0 1 1 1:3 -2 1
16 Hamburger SV 2 0 0 2 0:3 -3 0
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17 FC Augsburg 2 0 0 2 1:5 -4 0
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18 1899 Hoffenheim 2 0 0 2 1:6 -5 0
15 VfB Stuttgart 2 0 0 2 1:7 -6 0