Cup runneth over…

Quarterfinals of the DFB Cup had no real surprises, if you haven’t seen the results already.

Bayern München defeated Borussia Dortmund 1-0, to erase the memory of last year’s crushing defeat. Arjen Robben got the only goal, and he seems to have played himself into decent form. There was intense interest in the match, yet another sell-out in the Allainz. The leaders were the better team, and although the Neons had some solid moments, Bayern deserved the victory. There seems little to stand in their way of a domestic double now.

VfB Stuttgart beat VfL Bochum 2-0. This was a ho-hum match, nobody really cared, as evidenced by the half-empty stadium. Stuttgart was clearly better, but were largely dicking around. Bochum gave a decent effort, but since they have no talent, the loss was inevitable.

A wild match in Mainz, where Freiburg won 3-2 in overtime. SCF looked to have an edge, but it took an injury time penalty to equalize, and the Breisgauer went on to win.

And finally, the dream ends, as Kickers Offenbach loses 1-2 to VfL Wolfsburg. The 3.Liga side gave a good account of themselves, but the VWs were far superior. However, it took quite a while for them to beat down their hosts.

So the likely Cup winner will end up being Bayern München, since it’s unlikely that any of the remaining clubs have a breath of a chance if Bayern is interested in winning. What it does mean however is that the losing finalist will qualify for Europe, so Stuttgart and Wolfsburg could end up in a good spot if the draw favors them; Freiburg has a real good chance to qualify anyway, so no advantage there.

Talking points

(Random thoughts on recent events)

The Bundesliga gets a mixed bag for Euro competition, as some of the riff-raff drop out. Obviously the Champions League is the most important, and with Bayern München dominating Arsenal 3-1, the leaders are in good shape for the return. bayern truly controlled the match in London, and probably should have scored a few more. They should be able to waltz into the next round, as it’s hard to envision a scenario where they get taken up the Arse at home. Borussia Dortmund got a decent 2-2 draw at Shaktar Donetzk, putting them in a good position. Schalke also got a result, 1-1 at Galatasaray. So at least in the first leg, the Bundesliga did well.

In the Euroliga, it’s another story. Now despite this being a competition for “lusers”, you might as well get results here and get some payoff. Stuttgart advanced easily enough against Genk, but that’s ho-hum. Hannover got dumped by Anzhi Machachkala by only drawing 1-1 at home. Not a huge disappointment, although in general I think those Russian League teams are crap and should be beaten. The 96ers were decent at least. Gladbach was disgraceful and lose 0-2 at Lazio. I suppose Lazy-o is fairly decent, but this is a tie that could have been won as well. Finally, Leverkusen bowed out 1-2 at Benfica, not a shock either, but the Aspirins need to make up their minds whether they want to be considered elite or not.

Hopp-hopp-hopping along…

With Bayern running away in the Bundesliga, the only interesting race is who’s getting the Euro spots for next season. Ideally, 3.Liga Kickers should win the Cup and get a spot :). It’s pretty open, as Frankfurt has a tenuous hold on 4th. Actually, it would be funny if Jupp Heynckes not only sets a new Bundesliga record and wins the Champions League – only since he’s “retiring” and Pep Guardiola is taking over. Of course, after it was announced Heynckes was retiring and Guardiola was coming, Heynckes announced he really wasn’t retiring. It’s like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” – “Bring out your dead!” – “Hey, I’m not dead yet, I’m feeling better” – “No you’re not” – THUMP!…(well you get the idea, if not google it for youtube…)

The other issue is relegation, and it appears that Hoffenheim will sink to the 2.Liga in a truly gutless-witless campaign. Augsburg shows fight, and should keep that playoff spot. The Hoppers is an interesting case of what happens when a moneybags owner sticks his nose in something he doesn’t know about. You see it in the EPL a lot, but Germany is different since there really is no owner. But Dietmar Hopp’s money gave Hoffenheim the boost they needed. However I think it’s pretty clear that the real architect was Ralf Rangnick. He installed an up-tempo, attacking style in 2008 when the Hoppers took the Bundesliga by storm. (Now several clubs do the same, like Dortmund or Mainz). Hopp’s money helped Rangnick buy good players, but I think once the criticism started coming in, Hopp got over sensitive and started the force the sale of players to “balance” the books. When talented Luis Gustavo was sold, Rangnick had had enough, and quit. The Hoppers have been on a downward spiral ever since and look hopeless. But not “Hoppless”, as Hopp is still around, insisting that he wanted to promote youth players, but of course Hoffenheim is probably the only Bundesliga squad where zero homegrown youth players have entered the squad. Still, now Hoffenheim is criticized for lacking a “Konzept”, i.e. having no clue what they are doing, as basically all the purchases since Rangnick left have been total flops and waste of money. Their demise this season is unlikely to elicit much sympathy from German football fans, despite some “celebrity” followers like Franziska Van Almsick, ex-star swimmer and now full-time “celebrity”.

BUNDESLIGA, Round 23

Bayern continues to rape and pillage…Bremen held out for about 20 minutes, and then the dam broke. Werder started out well, but Bayern’s pressure was overwhelming, and there was no stopping the leaders.

Dortmund looked fairly uninterested in the Borussen derby with Gladbach, and although the match was for the taking, perhaps they decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Gladbach managed to come back and grab a point, and seemed to be pretty happy with that.

Leverksuen couldn’t take advanatge and jump back into 2nd. The Aspirins banged their heads haplessly against a determined Greuther Fürth. The hosts know they’re going down – and they are the least talented club in the league, but they will give 100%, and it paid off. The Aspirins dominated but couldn’t break through, so a great point for the Greuther, under their new coach. (Greuther II coach Ludwig Preis took over from Mike Büskens. That really makes no sense, since it’s hardly Büskens fault that the Greuther have no talent).

Freiburg and Frankfurt delivered a tactical chess match, with Eintracht having the edge early. SCF then took over down the stretch, but neither club really deserved the win, so a draw is in order.

Mainz must be scratching their head on how they didn’t get a win against Wolfsburg. Not only did the hosts get a blitzstart, but the VWs were down a man for an hour as Madlung got his ass tossed. But Mainz evidently forgot that it’s not only pretty football, but goals that count, so Wolfsburg gets a point they hardly deserved.

A huge northern derby, Hannover ripped Hamburg’s ass. Perhaps the 96ers are relieved they stumbled out of Euroliga, and they came out guns blzing to rip HSV to pieces.

Stuttgart had plenty of chances to settle the match against Nürnberg, but they wasted them left and right. FCN struck when they had the chance and grabbed a point. VfB has nobody to blame but themselves.

The relegation zone is all about the 16th spot – and the playoff against the 2.Liga contender. It will take guts to hold on and survive, and one thing looks clear – Hoffenheim is the most gutless squad in the Bundesliga right now. Augsburg has little talent, but they wanted this critical match and dominated against listless Hoffenheim. A deserved win for the Fuggers, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that they couldn’t survive a playoff against Kaiserslautern or Köln. Hoffenheim is truly a sorry pack, more news on them later.

Total attendance was 375,674 (avg 41,742), with sellouts in München, Hannover, Schalke and Gladbach.

 	
SC Freiburg	       -   Eintracht Frankfurt	  0:0 (0:0)   23,400

Bayern München	       -   Werder Bremen	  6:1 (2:0)   71,000 *

                      1:0  Robben (25., Lahm)
                      2:0  Javi Martinez (29., KRobben)
                      3:0  Gebre Selassie (49., own goal, Gomez)
                      4:0  Gomez (51., Ribery)
                      4:1  de Bruyne (58., Ignjovski)
                      5:1  Ribery (86., Lahm)
                      6:1  Gomez (89., Robben)

VfB Stuttgart	       -   1. FC Nürnberg	  1:1 (0:0)   46,570

                      1:0  Traoré (51.,  Harnik)
                      1:1  Feulner (77., Chandler)

Hannover 96	       -   Hamburger SV	          5:1 (3:1)   49,000 *

                      1:0  M. Diouf (7., KHuszti)
                      1:1  van der Vaart (13., penalty, Aogo)
                      2:1  Huszti (39., penalty, da Silva Pinto)
                      3:1  Ya Konan (45.)
                      4:1  Ya Konan (68., Rausch)
                      5:1  Abdellaoue (85., Sobiech)

1. FSV Mainz 05	       -   VfL Wolfsburg	  1:1 (1:1)   27,175

                      1:0  Zimling (5., Szalai)
                      1:1  Naldo (15., Polak)

FC Augsburg	       -   1899 Hoffenheim	  2:1 (1:0)   28,211

                      1:0  Ji (45., Ostrzolek)
                      2:0  Mölders (79., Koo)
                      2:1  de Camargo (90. + 2, Joselu)

FC Schalke 04	       -   Fortuna Düsseldorf     2:1 (1:0)   61,673 *

                      1:0  Matip (29., J. Jones)
                      1:1  Bellinghausen (56., Lambertz)
                      2:1  Matip (81., Michel Bastos)

Sunday:

Borussia M'gladbach    -   Borussia Dortmund	  1:1 (0:1)   54,010 *

                      0:1  M. Götze (31., penalty, M. Götze)
                      1:1  Younes (67., Wendt)

SpVgg Greuther Fürth   -   Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  0:0 (0:0)   14,635


 1  Bayern München	  	23    19   3   1      63:8   +55     60 
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	23    12   7   4      51:27  +24     43 
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	23    12   6   5      43:30  +13     42
 4  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	23    11   5   7      38:34  +4      38
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  SC Freiburg	  	        23     9   8   6      29:22  +7      35 
 6  Hamburger SV	  	23    10   4   9      28:32  -4      34
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Hannover 96	  	        23    10   3   10     46:42  +4      33 
 8  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	23     9   6   8      31:28  +3      33 
 9  FC Schalke 04	  	23     9   6   8      37:38  -1      33 
10  Borussia M'gladbach	  	23     7   10  6      32:34  -2      31 
11  VfB Stuttgart	  	23     8   5   10     25:40  -15     29 
12  Werder Bremen	  	23     8   4   11     39:47  -8      28 
13  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	23     7   6   10     28:31  -3      27 
14  1. FC Nürnberg	  	23     6   9   8      23:30  -7      27 
15  VfL Wolfsburg	  	23     7   6   10     23:33  -10     27
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  FC Augsburg	  	        23     3   9   11     20:36  -16     18
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  1899 Hoffenheim	  	23     4   4   15     27:48  -21     16 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	23     2   7   14     13:36  -23     13

M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted

1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga

2.Liga, Round 23

A stunning result in Braunschweig, as 1860 managed to inflict EB’s first home loss – and only second defeat overall. And even more surprising, it wasn’t a total fluke, as the Müncheners played quite well. The leaders had the edge and pressured, but 1860 had decent counterplay. When Braunschwieg finally took the lead, it looked like it might be over as they continued to press. But the southern Lions came roaring back to stun their northern cousins…

Hertha grabbed the lead, beating Kaiserslautern on Monday. The Berliners weren’t particularily impressive, but dominated the match, especially since Alex Baumjohann got his ass tossed after only 33 minutes. Down a man a generally sucking over the past several weeks, it was pretty clear that FCK would not hold out. They may be finally feeling some breath on the back of their neck as well.

Is Köln relevant this season? They’ve truly sucked, but quietly snuck up the table and could inject themselves into the race if Kaiserslautern is not careful. They controlled the match against Union and have got within striking distance of Lautern.

St.Pauli has been floundering, sinking into the relegation zone, but Daniel Ginczek stopped the rot with a hat-trick as the Paulistas whupped FSV Frankfurt.

It’s hard to think of more disappointing clubs than Bochum and Duisburg, but for a local derby both sides decided to play, and the result was a hard fought entertaining draw.

Aue had most of the play, but Aalen was clever enough to grab a point. Erzgebirge probably should have won, but perhaps they were concerned about other things. Dynamo Dresden had decided not to sell any tickets to their own fans as “punishment” for bad behaviour for their upcoming match in Aue, but Erzgebirge has decided to sell tickets to away fans anyway – they need the money.

Ingolstadt was the better team against Dresden, but after taking the early lead, the Schanzer completely lost the thread and dicked around. Dynamo was pretty hapless, but realized at the end they could get something, and struck late to grab a point. This keeps them a win from either direction – safety or direct relegation, and things remain in crisis mode.

Sandhausen looked like they might be able to get a result, but visiting Paderborn showed their superiority in the 2nd half and waltzed home with the win. They certainly could have used the points.

Cottbus looked total crap against Regensburg, and were only able to get a draw.

This weekend’s total attendance was 160,919 (avg 17,880).

 	
FC St. Pauli	         -   FSV Frankfurt	    3:0 (1:0)   26,398

                        1:0  Ginczek (28., Kalla)
                        2:0  Ginczek (52.)
                        3:0  Ginczek (76., Buchtmann)

VfL Bochum	         -   MSV Duisburg	    2:2 (0:1)   14,127

                        0:1  Exslager (37., Koch)
                        1:1  Sinkiewicz (51., Rzatkowski)
                        2:1  Kramer (56.)
                        2:2  Perthel (89., Koch)

Erzgebirge Aue	         -   VfR Aalen	            1:1 (1:0)    5,500

                        1:0  Hensel (10., Kastrati)
                        1:1  Klauß (62., Abe)

1. FC Köln	         -   1. FC Union Berlin	    2:0 (1:0)   42,000

                        1:0  McKenna (18., M. Lehmann)
                        2:0  Maierhofer (52., Maroh)

FC Ingolstadt 04	 -   Dynamo Dresden	    1:1 (1:0)    6,300

                        1:0  Mo. Hartmann (14.)
                        1:1  Ouali (83., Müller)

Sunday:
 	
Eintracht Braunschweig	 -   1860 München	    1:2 (0:0)   20,455

                        1:0  Kumbela (56., Reichel)
                        1:1  Friend (77., Kamara)
                        1:2  Lauth (85., Stoppelkamp)

Energie Cottbus	         -   Jahn Regensburg	    1:1 (0:1)    6,492

                        0:1  Carlinhos (17., Machado)
                        1:1  M. Schulze (65., Adlung)

SV Sandhausen	         -   SC Paderborn 07	    1:3 (1:0)    2,300

                        1:0  Löning (5., Pischorn)
                        1:1  Brückner (56., Kachunga)
                        1:2  Vrancic (66.)
                        1:3  P. Hofmann (90., Vrancic)


Monday:
Hertha BSC Berlin	 -   1. FC Kaiserslautern   1:0 (0:0)   37,347

                        1:0  Kluge (68., Lasogga)


	
 1  Hertha BSC Berlin (A)	23    15   7   1      45:18  +27    52
 2  Eintracht Braunschweig	23    15   6   2      40:19  +21    51 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern (A)	23    10   9   4      33:22  +11    39
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Köln (A)	  	23     9   9   5      27:22  +5     36 
 5  1860 München	  	23     8   9   6      26:21  +5     33 
 6  FSV Frankfurt	  	23    10   3   10     30:29  +1     33 
 7  SC Paderborn 07	  	23     9   5   9      32:28  +4     32 
 8  1. FC Union Berlin	  	23     8   8   7      36:33  +3     32 
 9  VfR Aalen (N)	  	23     8   7   8      24:21  +3     31 
10  Energie Cottbus	  	23     8   8   7      27:25  +2     32 
11  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	23     7   10  6      27:26  +1     31 
12  FC St. Pauli	  	23     6   8   9      22:27  -5     26 
13  VfL Bochum	  	        23     6   7   10     29:39  -10    25
14  Erzgebirge Aue	  	23     6   6   11     29:35  -6     24 
15  MSV Duisburg	  	23     6   6   11     23:37  -14    24
----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Dynamo Dresden	  	23     4   9   10     23:34  -11    21
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  SV Sandhausen (N)	  	23     4   6   13     27:49  -22    18 
18  Jahn Regensburg (N)	  	23     4   5   14     26:41  -15    17

A = Absteiger just Relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

1st line: Promotion to Bundesliga
2nd line: Playoff with 16th Bundesliga
3rd line: Playoff with no.3 of 3.Liga
4th line: Relegation to 3.Liga

3.Liga, Round 27

Osnabrück struggled, but did enough against desperate Babelsberg to get the win and re-take the leadership over Karlsruhe. KSC stubbed their toe in a open match at Saarbrücken that somewhat surprisingly ended scoreless. FCS hit the post twice, but their defense also cleared off the line at least 3 times, so a draw is probably in order. Heidenheim thumped Darmstadt to remain in the hunt, but the relegation threatened 98ers did themselves no favors in the tight match as Benjamin Gorka insulted the ref and got his ass tossed, making a close match soon an FCH runaway. Münster was snowed out, but both PM and Bielefeld have a game in hand to potentially shake things up at the top.

Bielefeld was a big winner as they ripped Unterhaching, creeping closer.

A hard fought eastern derby in Halle. It looked like only a matter of time before a superior Chemnitz side would win the match, but HFC fought them off and then grabbed the lead. Then near the end they scored again to secure the points against relegation and leave the visitors with zilch for the season.

Also of note was Aachen kicking Stuttgart's ass. Admirable how Alemannia continues to battle on, trying to avoid relegation on the field, even though it will take a miracle to avoid the drop financially. 

This weekend saw total attendance of 43,736 (avg 6,248) 
 	
Borussia Dortmund II   -   Rot-Weiß Erfurt        canceled
VfB Stuttgart II       -   Preußen Münster        canceled
Wacker Burghausen      -   Kickers Offenbach      canceled
SV Wehen Wiesbaden     -   Hansa Rostock	  2:1 (1:1)    2,500
VfL Osnabrück	       -   SV Babelsberg 03	  1:0 (0:0)    7,700
Arminia Bielefeld      -   SpVgg Unterhaching	  3:0 (2:0)    7,037
Alemannia Aachen       -   Stuttgarter Kickers	  3:0 (0:0)    7,788
1. FC Saarbrücken      -   Karlsruher SC	  0:0 (0:0)    5,130
1. FC Heidenheim       -   SV Darmstadt 98	  3:0 (1:0)    6,000
Hallescher FC	       -   Chemnitzer FC	  2:0 (0:0)    7,581


 1  VfL Osnabrück	  	27    17   5   5      45:20  +25     56 
 2  Karlsruher SC (A)	  	27    15   9   3      47:16  +31     54
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Arminia Bielefeld	  	26    15   7   4      45:24  +21     52
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Preußen Münster	  	26    14   8   4      43:20  +23     50 
 5  1. FC Heidenheim	  	27    15   4   8      51:38  +13     49 
 6  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	26    11   6   9      38:38   0      39 
 7  Chemnitzer FC	  	26    10   7   9      36:33  +3      37 
 8  Wacker Burghausen	  	24    10   4   10     31:33  -2      34 
 9  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	27     6   15   6     31:33  -2      33 
10  VfB Stuttgart II	  	23     9   5   9      28:28   0      32 
11  Hallescher FC (N)	  	27     8   7   12     25:36  -11     31 
12  Kickers Offenbach	  	25     8   6   11     34:34   0      30 
13  Hansa Rostock (A)	  	24     8   5   11     24:33  -9      29 
14  Stuttgarter Kickers (N)	26     7   6   13     28:32  -4      27 
15  Alemannia Aachen (A)	25     6   9   10     26:35  -9      27 
16  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	27     7   6   14     34:48  -14     27 
17  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	24     6   7   11     28:42  -14     25
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
18  SV Babelsberg 03	  	25     6   6   13     19:33 -14      24 
19  SV Darmstadt 98	  	25     4   9   12     19:36 -17      21 
20  Borussia Dortmund II (N)	25     4   9   12     24:44 -20      21

A = Absteiger just Relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

1st line: Promotion to 2.Liga
2nd line: Promotion Playoff with 2.Liga 16th place
3rd line: Relegation to Regionalliga

Alemannia Aachen basically relegated due to pending insolvency.

BUNDESLIGA, Round 22

Well, the title is decided, and really the relegation also. The interesting races surround the European spots, which are still wide open. Obviously Bayern, but also Dortmund and Leverkusen look to have CL sewn up, however Frankfurt has a tenuous hold on the 4th spot. And both Euroliga positions are up for grabs, even 12th place Stuttgart might think it’s achieveable….

Bayern really had no problems in Wolfsburg, as they easily fended off the VW efforts to get back in the match. It was really only a question of time, and ex-WOlfie Mandzukic scored to give Bayern the lead. They left it late to decide the match, but in reality the leaders were coasting and never really in trouble.

Dortmund bowed out from any hope of catching Bayern, but at least showed that they intend to run out the season and grab 2nd and a CL spot for next year. The Neons dominated against Frankfurt, despite the fact Julian Schieber got a double card and tossed out after 30 minutes. Marco Reus grabbed a hat-trick, and the Dortmund attack was clicking despite being down a man and a continual flu epidemic in Neon-land.

Leverkusen had some resistance from Augsburg, but their win was never really in question. In form Stefan Kiessling was enough to give the Aspirins the points and stop Augsburg’s mini-revival.

Mainz had the edge against Schalke, and missed several chances to get the deciding 3rd goal. Schalke played reasonably well in the first half, and has to be happy with new signing Michel Bastos, who seems like the only Blue that can score. They were somewhat fortunate, so should be happy with a point.

Wild match in Bremen, and Freiburg comes away with the deserved win. For SCF, it’s their first win against Werder in 12 tries. Bremen showed fight and came back on two occasions, but the Breisgauer had enough in their tank to grab the win.

HSV would be challenged against Gladbach, especially since top GK Rene Adler was out with injury. But Jaroslav Drobny filled in nicely, and Rafael van der Vaart grabbed the only score. Gladbach really didn’t do enough to get anything, and continue to drift aimlessly.

Fortuna Düsseldorf won a critical match against fellow promotee Greuther Fürth. Both teams wasted chances and looked like 2.Liga clubs at times, but Fortuna was better overall and deserves the win, which looks to ensure their survival. Looks pretty hopeless for the Greuther at this point.

Nürnberg showed great spirit in coming back against Hannover, getting a draw in injury time. The 96ers played well and looked to end their away drought, but overall FCN deserved a split.

Stuttgart pretty much put to rest any thoughts of relegation with a deserved win at Hoffenheim. The match was pretty crappy, but VfB did the minimum to win. The Hoppers look like they’ve given up. Their only option now is to hold on to 16th and try and win the playoff against the 2.Liga contender (likely to be Kaiserslautern). In any case, it seems fan interest is fading, as they couldn’t even sell out for essentially a regional derby.

 	
VfL Wolfsburg	     -   Bayern München	        0:2 (0:1)   30,000 *

                    0:1  Mandzukic (36., Schweinsteiger)
                    0:2  Robben (90. + 2, T. Müller)
 
Bayer 04 Leverkusen  -   FC Augsburg	        2:1 (1:0)   22,784

                    1:0  Kießling (26., Castro)
                    2:0  L. Bender (75., Kießling)
                    2:1  Mölders (89., Hahn)

Werder Bremen	     -   SC Freiburg	        2:3 (1:1)   38,498

                    0:1  M. Kruse (36., Linksschuss, Rosenthal)
                    1:1  Petersen (39., Linksschuss, de Bruyne)
                    1:2  D. Caligiuri (55., penalty)
                    2:2  Petersen (64.)
                    2:3  Ginter (70.)

1. FSV Mainz 05	     -   FC Schalke 04	        2:2 (1:1)   34,000 *

                    1:0  Ivanschitz (27., N. Müller)
                    1:1  Michel Bastos (41., L Raffael)
                    2:1  Pospech (63., Ivanschitz)
                    2:2  Michel Bastos (82., Meyer)

Hamburger SV	     -   Borussia M'gladbach	1:0 (1:0)   54,588

                    1:0  van der Vaart (24., Rudnevs)

Fortuna Düsseldorf   -   SpVgg Greuther Fürth	1:0 (1:0)   37,378

                    1:0  Bellinghausen (18., Giefer)

Borussia Dortmund    -   Eintracht Frankfurt	3:0 (2:0)   80,500

                    1:0  Reus (8., M. Götze)
                    2:0  Reus (10., Hummels)
                    3:0  Reus (65., M. Götze)

Sunday:

1. FC Nürnberg	     -   Hannover 96            2:2 (0:1)   36,101

                    0:1  Huszti (41., da Silva Pinto)
                    1:1  Klose (53., Kiyotake)
                    1:2  Ya Konan (68., Abdellaoue)
                    2:2  Polter (90. + 2, Chandler)

1899 Hoffenheim	     -   VfB Stuttgart          0:1 (0:1)   28,750

                    0:1  Harnik (3., Kopfball, Traoré)



 1  Bayern München	  	22    18   3   1      57:7   +50    57 
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	22    12   6   4      50:26  +24    42 
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	22    12   5   5      43:30  +13    41
 4  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	22    11   4   7      38:34  +4     37
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  SC Freiburg	  	        22     9   7   6      29:22  +7     34 
 6  Hamburger SV	  	22    10   4   8      27:27   0     34
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	22     9   5   8      30:27  +3     32 
 8  Hannover 96	  	        22     9   3   10     41:41   0     30 
 9  FC Schalke 04	  	22     8   6   8      35:37  -2     30 
10  Borussia M'gladbach	  	22     7   9   6      31:33  -2     30 
11  Werder Bremen	  	22     8   4   10     38:41  -3     28 
12  VfB Stuttgart	  	22     8   4   10     24:39  -15    28
13  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	22     7   6   9      27:29  -2     27 
14  1. FC Nürnberg	  	22     6   8   8      22:29  -7     26 
15  VfL Wolfsburg	  	22     7   5   10     22:32  -10    26 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  1899 Hoffenheim	  	22     4   4   14     26:46  -20    16
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  FC Augsburg	  	        22     2   9   11     18:35  -17    15 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	22     2   6   14     13:36  -23    12


M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted


1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga

2.Liga, Round 22

Both Braunschwieg and Hertha managed tight road victories to keep running away in the promotion sweepstakes. The leaders got an early goal and coasted, despite Regensburg trying really hard, EB easily controlled the match and got out of town. Hertha faced a tougher opponent in Aalen, but brought home the same result. Aalen proved to be a tough opponent, but Hertha did enough to win.

Duisburg fought Kaiserslautern to a standstill. FSV Frankfurt continues to punch above weight as they upended Cottbus.

Union doesn’t like the role of “contender”, and they struggled at home to Ingolstadt. In fact, they were lucky they didn’t lose, as the Schanzers Micanski put a penlaty off the crossbar in injury time.

Battle of lame squads in München, as 1860 continues their brilliant streak against Bochum: no wins in 10 tries. This was particularily crap, as Bochum scored on a hand ball, but made up for it by Eyolfsson getting his ass tossed after only 17 minutes. But 1860 dicked around and Bochum managed to get the win. Both sides should be ashamed of themselves….

Paderborn easily defeated Aue to prevent any thoughts of splipping into the relegation mire.

Köln continued their unimpressive improvement with a bare-bones win at troubled St.Pauli. Neither side showed much, although the Paulistas did manage to get two red cards, albeit one was in injury time. The only happy guy was probably ex-St.Pauli boss Holger Stanislawski, who now has Köln in theoretcial striking distance.

Total attendance wasn’t too impressive, 115,201 (avg 12,800), with one sellout (St.Pauli).

 	
SC Paderborn 07	     -   Erzgebirge Aue	        2:0 (2:0)    5,617

                    1:0  Feisthammel (28., Meha)
                    2:0  Meha (40., penalty, Saglik)

1860 München	     -   VfL Bochum	        0:1 (0:1)   14,100

                    0:1 Scheidhauer (10., Rzatkowski)

Jahn Regensburg	     -   Eintr. Braunschweig	0:1 (0:1)    6,289

                    0:1  Kumbela (15., Elabdellaoui)


1. FC Union Berlin   -   FC Ingolstadt 04	1:1 (0:0)   15,461
 
                    0:1  F. Heller (66., Lappe)
                    1:1  Nemec (85., Kopplin)


VfR Aalen	     -   Hertha BSC	        0:1 (0:0)    8,119

                    0:1  M. Ndjeng (76., Ramos)

Sunday:
 	
Dynamo Dresden	     -   SV Sandhausen	        3:1 (1:0)   19,444

                    1:0  Kitambala (7., Ouali)
                    1:1  Wooten (57., Löning)
                    2:1  Müller (71., Poté)
                    3:1  Müller (75.)

MSV Duisburg	     -   1. FC Kaiserslautern	0:0 (0:0)   13,725

FSV Frankfurt	     -   Energie Cottbus	1:0 (1:0)    3,383

                    1:0  Jönsson (39., Rechtsschuss, Gaus)


Monday:
FC St. Pauli	     -   1. FC Köln             0:1 (0:0)   29,063 *

                    0:1  Clemens (3.)



 1  Eintracht Braunschweig	22    15   6   1     39:17  +22     51 
 2  Hertha BSC Berlin (A)	22    14   7   1     44:18  +26     49
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern (A)	22    10   9   3     33:21  +12     39
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  FSV Frankfurt	  	22    10   3   9     30:26  +4 	    33 
 5  1. FC Köln (A)	  	22     8   9   5     25:22  +3 	    33 
 6  1. FC Union Berlin	  	22     8   8   6     36:31  +5 	    32 
 7  Energie Cottbus	  	22     8   7   7     26:24  +2 	    31 
 8  1860 München	  	22     7   9   6     24:20  +4 	    30 
 9  VfR Aalen (N)	  	22     8   6   8     23:20  +3 	    30 
10  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	22     7   9   6     26:25  +1 	    30
11  SC Paderborn 07	  	22     8   5   9     29:27  +2 	    29 
12  VfL Bochum	  	        22     6   6   10    27:37  -10     24 
13  Erzgebirge Aue	  	22     6   5   11    28:34  -6 	    23 
14  FC St. Pauli	  	22     5   8   9     19:27  -8 	    23 
15  MSV Duisburg	  	22     6   5   11    21:35  -14     23
----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Dynamo Dresden	  	22     4   8   10    22:33  -11     20 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  SV Sandhausen (N)	  	22     4   6   12    26:46  -20     18
18  Jahn Regensburg (N)	  	22     4   4   14    25:40  -15     16

A = Absteiger just Relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

1st line: Promotion to Bundesliga
2nd line: Playoff with 16th Bundesliga
3rd line: Playoff with no.3 of 3.Liga
4th line: Relegation to 3.Liga

3.Liga, Round 26

Several “snow-outs” thsi weekend, but most of the top clubs got wins. Big loser was actually Heidenheim, which after hard work getting back into contention, dropped the points in Chemnitz. FCH looked to escape with a split, scoring very late, but then an injury time goal gave CFC the win.

Unterhaching put in strong effort, but Osnabrück was clearly better, and thus really didn’t have a difficult time bringing home the bacon. A similar stpry as Preußen Münster defeated Halle, the home side making chances count and gliding to a routine win. It was hard to tell who was the leader and who was the bottom feeder, but Karlsruhe did enough to stay on top against Dortmund’s B. They grabbed the lead right at the start and then coasted, now unbeaten in 16 matches. BVB actually looked fairly decent, but weren’t really strong enough to threaten KSC, who were obviously doing the minimal necessary and saving the breath for the pub later…

On Sunday, Elton da Costa grabbed the only goal as Darmstadt got an absolutely crucial win against the draw kings from Wehen. First win in ages for the 98ers, and it gives them hope for an escape from relegation. Both teams fought hard, but Darmstadt created better chances and probably deserves the 3 points.

Weekend attendance was 33,523 (avg 5,587), with 4 matches re-scheduled due to unplayable pitch.

SpVgg Unterhaching   -   VfL Osnabrück	        0:2 (0:2)    1,450
Preußen Münster	     -   Hallescher FC	        2:0 (1:0)    7,078
Chemnitzer FC	     -   1. FC Heidenheim	2:1 (1:0)    4,250
Kickers Offenbach    -   1. FC Saarbrücken	2:0 (2:0)    4,948
Karlsruher SC	     -   Borussia Dortmund II	1:0 (1:0)   11,917

Rot-Weiß Erfurt	     -   Alemannia Aachen	canceled
Stuttgarter Kickers  -   Arminia Bielefeld	canceled		 
Hansa Rostock	     -   Wacker Burghausen      canceled
SV Babelsberg 03     -   VfB Stuttgart II       canceled
 
Sunday:	
SV Darmstadt 98	     -   SV Wehen Wiesbaden     1:0 (0:0)    3,880
	

 1  Karlsruher SC (A)	  	26    15   8   3      47:16  +31    53 
 2  VfL Osnabrück	  	26    16   5   5      44:20  +24    53
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Preußen Münster	  	26    14   8   4      43:20  +23    50
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Arminia Bielefeld	  	24    13   7   4      38:22  +16    46 
 5  1. FC Heidenheim	  	26    14   4   8      48:38  +10    46 
 6  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	25    11   6   8      38:35  +3     39 
 7  Chemnitzer FC	  	25    10   7   8      36:31  +5     37 
 8  Wacker Burghausen	  	24    10   4   10     31:33  -2     34 
 9  VfB Stuttgart II	  	23     9   5   9      28:28   0     32 
10  Kickers Offenbach	  	25     8   6   11     34:34   0     30 
11  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	26     5   15  6      29:32  -3     30 
12  Hansa Rostock (A)	  	23     8   5   10     23:31  -8     29 
13  Hallescher FC (N)	  	26     7   7   12     23:36  -13    28 
14  Stuttgarter Kickers (N)	25     7   6   12     28:29  -1     27 
15  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	25     7   5   13     32:44  -12    26 
16  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	24     6   7   11     28:42  -14    25 
17  Alemannia Aachen (A)	24     5   9   10     23:35  -12    24
----------------------------------------------------------------------
18  SV Babelsberg 03	  	24     6   6   12     19:32  -13    24 
19  SV Darmstadt 98	  	24     4   9   11     19:33  -14    21
20  Borussia Dortmund II (N)	25     4   9   12     24:44  -20    21 

A = Absteiger just Relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

1st line: Promotion to 2.Liga
2nd line: Promotion Playoff with 2.Liga 16th place
3rd line: Relegation to Regionalliga

Alemannia Aachen basically relegated due to pending insolvency.

BUNDESLIGA, Round 21

” Bi-atch….SLAP!

If you were hoping that Dortmund might mount a miracle run and at least challenge Bayern, well, guess that’s an ix-nay. The Neons got slapped silly by Hamburg, and the “race” is over.

Things started brightly enough for the Neons, as they applied pressure and Lewandowski duly grabbed the lead. But then things just fell apart. HSV launched immediate counters and stunningly took the lead. Then Lewandowski went amok and got a straight red. The Neons basically totally fell apart, as HSV cleverly managed the match and kicked Dortmund in the balls on further counters.

Meanwhile, Bayern was having a walk in the park against hopeless Schalke. The leaders were expected to have an easy time against the Hühnerhaufen that is the Blues, and they weren’t disappointed. So they toyed around, scored a few goals and then went out and grabbed a few beers, secure in the notion that a now 15 point lead is really insurmountable.
Schalke is probably looking for someone to fire or hire, but probably nobody wants the job. Perhaps it’s time to bring in Michael Skibbe, hehehe…

A wild shootout in a Rheinderby between Gladbach and Leverkusen. Just when the Aspirins seemed to have finally beat down their hosts, a late run was rewarded, and Gladbach grabbed a deserved draw.

Nürnberg put in a solid performance, and actually had the edge in Frankfurt. The hosts had more possesion, but der Club had better chances, and their dangerous counters probably would have won the match, except Frankfurt GK Kevin Trapp (one of the relevations of the season, yet another outstanding young GK) was in top form. Good point actually for both sides, although obviously FCN needed it more.

Continuing the biatch-slapping theme, Stuttgart was the recipient against Bremen. VfB looked horrible, and Werder obliged by kicking them in the balls and running up the score. Good win for Werder, don’t be surprised if Labbadia gets his ass fired pretty soon.

Hoffenheim actually put in a suprisingly decent performance, and pushed host Hannover against the wall. But that wall was GK Ron-Robert Zieler, and he was sharp, preventing the Hoppers front getting anything. Somewhat of a surprise how the 96ers looked to be phoning it end, but perhaps they knew that a single goal would be enough.

Augsburg continues to show some improvement but you have to get the “W”. Mainz had taken the lead, but youngster Shawn Parker got a straight red just before half. FCA then attacked furiously in the 2nd half, getting an equalizer, but they wanted more. Unfortunately, the Fuggers are too crap, so they only get a point. Not enough to make a dent on the deficit. Still the relegation battle is all about the playoff spot, so they have snuck closer to Happlessheim…

On the other hand, Greuther Fürth still has a lot of work to do. After their great result at Schalke, the Cloverleafs needed to follow up with a win in a relegation battle. Instead they got kicked in the nuts. The Greuther ran around a lot, but the VWs had Diego pulling the strings, and a Dost goal was enough for Wolfsburg to grab the win.

Freiburg dominated in the 1st half against Düsseldorf, but was unable to breach Fortuna’s defense. In the 2nd half, the visitors opened up and actually created some good chances of their own. The game looked to peter out to a draw, but in the closing moments SCF grabbed an unexpected late win.

Total attendance this weekend 381,241 (avg 42,360), with sellouts in Dortmund and München.


 	
Borussia Dortmund      -   Hamburger SV	          1:4 (1:2)   80,645 *

                      1:0  Lewandowski (17., Hummels)
                      1:1  Rudnevs (18., Aogo)
                      1:2  Son (26., Bruma)
                      1:3  Rudnevs (62., van der Vaart)
                      1:4  Son (89., Jansen)

Borussia M'gladbach    -   Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  3:3 (1:0)   46,010

                      1:0  Stranzl (44., Nordtveit)
                      1:1  Sam (52., Kießling)
                      2:1  L. de Jong (58., Arango)
                      2:2  Kießling (60., Boenisch)
                      2:3  Schürrle (64., Castro)
                      3:3  Herrmann (86., Brouwers)

VfB Stuttgart	       -   Werder Bremen	  1:4 (0:1)   41,200

                      0:1  Ekici (34., de Bruyne)
                      1:1  Traoré (50., Gentner)
                      1:2  Hunt (60., Petersen)
                      1:3  Ekici (74.)
                      1:4  de Bruyne (90. + 2, Gebre Selassie)

Hannover 96	       -   1899 Hoffenheim	  1:0 (1:0)   35,200

                      1:0  M. Diouf (8., Huszti)

SpVgg Greuther Fürth   -   VfL Wolfsburg	  0:1 (0:1)   15,045

                      0:1  Dost (23., Vieirinha)

Eintracht Frankfurt    -   1. FC Nürnberg	  0:0 (0:0)   45,400

Bayern München	       -   FC Schalke 04	  4:0 (2:0)   71,000 *

                      1:0  Alaba (19., penalty, Ribery)
                      2:0  Schweinsteiger (32.)
                      3:0  Alaba (51., Gomez)
                      4:0  Gomez (63., Robben)


Sunday:
FC Augsburg	       -   1. FSV Mainz 05	  1:1 (0:1)   25,541

                      0:1  Szalai (43., Junior Diaz)
                      1:1  Mölders (57., de Jong)

SC Freiburg	       -   Fortuna Düsseldorf	  1:0 (0:0)   21,200

                      1:0  Krmas (87., M. Kruse)



 1  Bayern München	  	21    17   3 	1      55:7   +48     54 
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	21    11   6 	4      47:26  +21     39 
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	21    11   5 	5      41:29  +12     38
 4  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	21    11   4 	6      38:31  +7      37
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  SC Freiburg	  	        21     8   7 	6      26:20  +6      31 
 6  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	21     9   4 	8      28:25  +3      31
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Hamburger SV	  	21     9   4 	8      26:27  -1      31 
 8  Borussia M'gladbach	  	21     7   9 	5      31:32  -1      30 
 9  Hannover 96	  	        21     9   2 	10     39:39   0      29 
10  FC Schalke 04	  	21     8   5 	8      33:35  -2      29 
11  Werder Bremen	  	21     8   4 	9      36:38  -2      28 
12  VfL Wolfsburg	  	21     7   5 	9      22:30  -8      26 
13  1. FC Nürnberg	  	21     6   7 	8      20:27  -7      25 
14  VfB Stuttgart	  	21     7   4 	10     23:39  -16     25 
15  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	21     6   6 	9      26:29  -3      24
------------------------------------------------------------------------
16  1899 Hoffenheim	  	21     4   4 	13     26:45  -19     16
------------------------------------------------------------------------
17  FC Augsburg	  	        21     2   9 	10     17:33  -16     15 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	21     2   6 	13     13:35  -22     12

M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted


1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga

2.Liga, Round 21

Leaders Braunschweig had a difficult match against a determined Aalen. The visitors packed the defense and rarely crossed midfield, but made things difficult for the Lions to adavance even a millimeter. Nevertheless, Braunschweig continued to press, and saved the match near the end.

Kaiserslautern kept on track with a solid win over Dresden. Dynamo was almost equal for much of the match, but FCK had better skill when it counted and eventually ended up with an easy win. More pressure on Dynamo in the relegation battle to come…

Cottbus had a slight edge against 1. FC Köln, but it really wasn’t enough to be worthy of a win. So the match basically fizzled to a scoreless draw…

Duisburg had shown signs of improvement, but they got slapped by 1860. The Zebras took and early lead, and then had a golden chance to renew it just before half, but Kiraly stopped Brosinski’s penalty. Then in injury time 1860 actually took the lead, and the Zebras basically had nothing in the 2nd half.

Heavy snow in Aue, but the battle was fierce between Erzgebirge and FSV Frankfurt. The Bornheimer took a lead, and Aue then blew their chance, missing a penalty. On the counter the visitors then finished off the match, although near the end Teixeira got his ass tossed for a nasty foul.

Sunday matches saw an uprising from the bottom clubs.

Regensburg put in a solid performance against a disappointing Bochum side. The hosts totally sucked in the 1st half, crowned when Dabrowski got his ass tossed for a dirty foul. Jahn realized this match was for the taking and grabbed an early lead after restart, and held on bravely as Bochum ran around aimlessly.

Sandhausen was even better as they overran a desolate St.Pauli. The villagers totally dominated and kicked Pauli’s ass in the first half, then coasted. This win moves them into the relegation playoff spot and gives them hope. Stunning how crap St.Pauli is…

Paderborn had hoped to challenge for promotion, but their season has gone down the toilet as they sunkinto sight of relegation. However at ONgolstadt they put things together and grab a win that probably stops the rot. FCI has been a tough opponent throughout, but were largely pushed back by SCP. The Schanzer did press hard to regain the equalizer, but then fell apart in the end as Paderborn grabbed some important points.

Huge Berliner derby on Monday…and Union was on the verge of a historic win. A sellout crowd watched as Union almost had the match in grip, but Hertha came roaring back and snatched a point at the end thanks to a freekick by Brazilian Ronny, who has been one of Hertha’s reasons for a decent campaign. Union was very strong early, but was lacking the skill level that Hertha showed when chasing the lead. Overall, a fair result, and it keeps both sides in their expected positions.

Total weekend attendance was 177,233 (avg 19,693), with one sellout (Berlin)


Eintracht Braunschweig   -   VfR Aalen	        1:1 (0:1)   19,850

                        0:1  Valentini (45. + 1, penalty, Haller)
                        1:1  Merkel (86., Elabdellaoui)

Erzgebirge Aue	         -   FSV Frankfurt	0:2 (0:0)    6,500

                        0:1  Verhoek (62., M. Görlitz)
                        0:2  Y. Stark (77.)

1. FC Kaiserslautern	 -   Dynamo Dresden	3:0 (2:0)   32,925

                        1:0  Karl (24., Baumjohann)
                        2:0  Idrissou (40., Baumjohann)
                        3:0  Hoffer (81., Köhler)

MSV Duisburg	         -   1860 München	1:3 (1:2)   11,207

                        1:0  Jovanovic (9., R. Müller)
                        1:1  Wood (15., Kamara)
                        1:2  Bülow (45. + 2, D. Halfar)
                        1:3  Stoppelkamp (81., Wood)

Energie Cottbus	         -   1. FC Köln	        0:0 (0:0)   10,201

Sunday: 	
VfL Bochum	         -   Jahn Regensburg	0:2 (0:0)   10,685

                        0:1  Djuricin (47., C. Rahn)
                        0:2  Djuricin (87., Wießmeier)

FC Ingolstadt 04	 -   SC Paderborn 07	1:3 (0:1)    4,021

                        0:1  Kachunga (27., Saglik)
                        1:1  Micanski (68., Mo. Hartmann)
                        1:2  Bertels (84., Brückner)
                        1:3  Meha (87., Yilmaz)
   

SV Sandhausen	         -   FC St. Pauli	4:1 (3:0)    7,600

                        1:0  Löning (3., Schauerte)
                        2:0  Ulm (29., penalty, Wooten)
                        3:0  Löning (39., Schauerte)
                        4:0  Mäkelä (49., Wooten)
                        4:1  Kringe (74., penalty, Bruns)

Monday:
Hertha BSC Berlin	 -   1. FC Union Berlin	 2:2 (0:1)   74,244 *
	
                        0:1  Terodde (9., Mattuschka)
                        0:2  Nemec (49., Mattuschka)
                        1:2  Ramos (73., Ronny)
                        2:2  Ronny (86.)
		 



 1  Eintracht Braunschweig	21    14   6   1      38:17  +21     48 
 2  Hertha BSC Berlin (A)	21    13   7   1      43:18  +25     46
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern (A)	21    10   8   3      33:21  +12     38
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Union Berlin	  	21     8   7   6      35:30  +5      31 
 5  Energie Cottbus	  	21     8   7   6      26:23  +3      31 
 6  1860 München	  	21     7   9   5      24:19  +5      30 
 7  VfR Aalen (N)	  	21     8   6   7      23:19  +4      30 
 8  FSV Frankfurt	  	21     9   3   9      29:26  +3      30 
 9  1. FC Köln (A)	  	21     7   9   5      24:22  +2      30 
10  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	21     7   8   6      25:24  +1      29 
11  SC Paderborn 07	  	21     7   5   9      27:27   0      26 
12  Erzgebirge Aue	  	21     6   5   10     28:32  -4      23 
13  FC St. Pauli	  	21     5   8   8      19:26  -7      23 
14  MSV Duisburg	  	21     6   4   11     21:35  -14     22 
15  VfL Bochum	  	        21     5   6   10     26:37  -11     21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  SV Sandhausen (N)	  	21     4   6   11     25:43  -18     18 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  Dynamo Dresden	  	21     3   8   10     19:32  -13     17
18  Jahn Regensburg (N)	  	21     4   4   13     25:39  -14     16


A = Absteiger just Relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

1st line: Promotion to Bundesliga
2nd line: Playoff with 16th Bundesliga
3rd line: Playoff with no.3 of 3.Liga
4th line: Relegation to 3.Liga