Several midweek makeup matches, many with relegation implications. However the “big” winner was Preußen Münster, which played a decent match and seized control of the important 3rd spot. Heidenheim could only gain a draw at Halle, so they fall behind in the race, and with Osnabrück now trail the Münsteraner by a full 4 points.

Babelsberg got an usually large crowd for an eastern derby against Rostock, and importantly got the win as well. The Potsdamers are a point above the relegation line, so this was huge. Erfurt got a win against Aachen that just about assures their 3rd level position for next season. Alemannia isn’t mathematically eliminated, but are just about done. Dortmund got another point in their fine comeback. Darmstadt lost ground, as although they gained a point against Chemnitz, they were up a man for almost 30 minutes.

Now only two makeup matches remain, both with BVB II: they’ll face Erfurt and Babelsberg with critical relegation points at stake.

 	
VfB Stuttgart II       -   Preußen Münster	 0:1 (0:0)      710
SV Babelsberg 03       -   Hansa Rostock	 2:1 (2:1)    9,032
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	       -   Alemannia Aachen	 3:1 (3:0)    4,198
Hallescher FC	       -   1. FC Heidenheim	 0:0 (0:0)    6,081
Borussia Dortmund II   -   Kickers Offenbach	 0:0 (0:0)    2,054  
SV Darmstadt 98	       -   Chemnitzer FC	 1:1 (1:1)    4,300


 1  Karlsruher SC (A)	  	33    20   9 	4      58:21  +37     69
 2  Arminia Bielefeld	  	33    19   10 	4      55:27  +28     67
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Preußen Münster	  	33    18   11 	4      56:26  +30     65
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  VfL Osnabrück	  	33    18   7 	8      55:33  +22     61 
 5  1. FC Heidenheim	  	33    18   7 	8      60:43  +17     61 
 6  Chemnitzer FC	  	33    13   9 	11     46:40  +6      48 
 7  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	33    13   8 	12     42:43  -1      47 
 8  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	33     8   18 	7      41:42  -1      42 
 9  VfB Stuttgart II	  	33    11   9 	13     33:34  -1      42 
10  Wacker Burghausen	  	33    11   8 	14     37:43  -6      41 
11  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	33    11   8 	14     46:53  -7      41 
12  Hallescher FC (N)	  	33    10   9 	14     30:43  -13     39
13  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	32    10   8 	14     35:47  -12     38 
14  Kickers Offenbach	  	33    10   9 	14     38:38   0      37 
15  Hansa Rostock (A)	  	33    10   7 	16     33:48  -15     37 
16  SV Babelsberg 03	  	32     8   8 	16     25:41  -16     32 
17  Borussia Dortmund II (N)	31     7   11 	13     28:46  -18     32
------------------------------------------------------------------------
18  Stuttgarter Kickers (N)	33     8   7 	18     33:44  -11     31 
19  SV Darmstadt 98	  	33     6   13 	14     24:40  -16     31 
20  Alemannia Aachen (A)	33     6   10 	17     33:56  -23     26


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

Aachen and Offenbach deducted two points for financial shenanigans
Aachen is also basically relegated due to pending insolvency. 

Champions Bayern and followers Dortmund evidently wanted to show Barcelona and Real Madrid that they mean business in the Champions League semi-finals. Both clubs destroyed their opposition. bayern’s win was probably more impressive, as Nürnberg has been in good form recently. The Bavarian derby was one-sided, as the Müncheners showed who’s boss and blitzed der Club in the first half, kicking their ass all over the field.

Up north in the Frankenland, it was even worse, as der Club’s neighbor Greuther Fürth got em-“bare”-assed by Dortmund at home. A desolate performance by the Greuther, dortmund id whatever they wanted. In fact, the Neons evidently felt sorry and basically went into holding pattern in the 2nd half. Jose Mourinho of Real Madrid was in the stands, but given that Fürth sucked so bad, he probably didn’t get any insight except “don’t suck”.

A fierce battle for Champions League in Gelsenkirchen. Visiting Leverkusen looked just about to have things wrapped up, as the Aspirins were just a lot more composed and clever than the desperate Schalkers. However Finnish striker Teemu Pukki came on as a sub, and managed to turn things around and salvage a point. The draw is probably fair, as although Leverkusen probably was better, the Schalke effort deserved a reward. Bayer sits with one leg in the CL, but Schalke really needs to look over their shoulder.

Freiburg is knocking on the door of the Champions League. The Breisgauer largely outplayed Hannover, although the 96ers certainly contributed to their own demise. SCF deserves the win, and they seemed to have gotten over a brief period of off-form.

Hamburg has been sucking, but Mainz hasn’t exactly set the world on fire recently. Both hope to sneak into Europe, so results are needed. Suprisingly it was HSV that showed more in front of a sold-out Mainz crowd. It was the return of Korean Son, whose double gave Hamburg the huge victory. Mainz didn’t show enough, especially with a disorganized offense, so their ball possesion edge didn’t get anything.

Two struggling teams met in Düsseldorf, both Fortuna and Werder have been sinking. Although the draw doesn’t really resolve anything, both teams have to be somewhat satisfied with their effort. Fortuna came out quickly in both halves to grab leads, but Bremen battled back and fully deserved the point. Considering how both have been pushed around like biatches recently, a definite improvement was shown.

Hoffenheim is showing life. Wolfsburg was dominant, grabbed the lead and seemed to be sailing, But perhaps that was the problem, as the VWs started dicking around and the Hoppers got back into the match. The visitors even took the lead, and it took a late goal by oldie Naldo to save Wolfsburg’s ass from defeat. 6 points behind Fortuna is probably too much, but the new coach Markus Gisdol seems to be whipping the Hoppers into shape, so a playoff could result in survival, and a drop to the 2.Liga might not even be disastrous, as it looks like Hoffenheim would be a contender for immediate comeback.

Augsburg however wants to stay up as well. The Fuggers put in a strong effort to defeat fading Frankfurt and keep the playoff spot. In addition, they now pose a serious threat to Fortuna Düsseldorf, who could easily continue sinking into oblivion.

Total attendance was 370,530 (avg 41,170), sellouts in München, Fürth, Mainz, Düsseldorf and Augsburg

 	
SC Freiburg	       -    Hannover 96	          3:1 (2:1)   23,000

                      1:0  C. Schulz (25., own goal, Schmid)
                      1:1  Rausch (36., M. Diouf)
                      2:1  M. Kruse (44., Schmid)
                      3:1  Schmid (73., Santini)

Bayern München	       -    1. FC Nürnberg	  4:0 (3:0)   71,000 *

                      1:0  Boateng (5.)
                      2:0  Gomez (17., Boateng)
                      3:0  Rafinha (24., Pizarro)
                      4:0  Shaqiri (56., Ribery)

VfL Wolfsburg	       -    1899 Hoffenheim	  2:2 (1:1)   24,221

                      1:0  Arnold (13., Rodriguez)
                      1:1  Salihovic (35., penalty, Schipplock)
                      1:2  Beck (63., Weis)
                      2:2  Naldo (86., Rodriguez)

1. FSV Mainz 05	       -    Hamburger SV	  1:2 (0:0)   34,000 *

                      0:1  Son (61., van der Vaart)
                      0:2  Son (81., Badelj)
                      1:2  S. Parker (86., Junior Diaz)

SpVgg Greuther Fürth   -    Borussia Dortmund	  1:6 (0:5)   18,000 *

                      0:1  M. Götze (12., Kehl)
                      0:2  Gündogan (15., Blaszczykowski)
                      0:3  Blaszczykowski (29., M. Götze)
                      0:4  Gündogan (33., Blaszczykowski)
                      0:5  M. Götze (45., Großkreutz)
                      1:5  Prib (71., Pledl)
                      1:6  Lewandowski (80., Blaszczykowski)

Fortuna Düsseldorf     -    Werder Bremen	  2:2 (1:1)   54,600 *

                      1:0  Reisinger (2., Kruse)
                      1:1  Junuzovic (16., de Bruyne)
                      2:1  Reisinger (48., Lambertz)
                      2:2  Latka (70., own goal, Arnautovic)

FC Schalke 04	       -    Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  2:2 (0:1)   61,619

                      0:1  Rolfes (39., L. Bender)
                      0:2  Kießling (58., Kadlec)
                      1:2  Pukki (71., Michel Bastos)
                      2:2  Raffael (87., penalty, Pukki)


Sunday:
VfB Stuttgart	       -    Borussia M'gladbach	  2:0 (2:0)   53,430

                      1:0  Alvaro Dominguez (28., own goal)
                      2:0  Gentner (34.)

FC Augsburg	       -    Eintracht Frankfurt	  2:0 (1:0)   30,660 *

                      1:0  Ji (27., Moravek)
                      2:0  Ji (55., Moravek)
 	



 1  Bayern München	  	29    25   3   1      83:13  +70     78 
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	29    17   7   5      72:35  +37     58 
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	29    14   8   7      53:38  +15     50
 4  FC Schalke 04	  	29    13   7   9      50:45  +5      46
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  SC Freiburg	  	        29    12   9   8      39:34  +5      45 
 6  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	28    12   6   10     42:40  +2      42
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Borussia M'gladbach	  	29    10   11  8      36:39  -3      41 
 8  Hamburger SV	  	29    12   5   12     34:45  -11     41 
 9  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	29    10   9   10     36:34  +2      39 
10  Hannover 96	  	        29    11   5   13     50:49  +1      38 
11  1. FC Nürnberg	  	29     9   11  9      33:39  -6      38 
12  VfB Stuttgart	  	29    10   6   13     31:46  -15     36 
13  VfL Wolfsburg	  	29     8   10  11     35:45  -10     34 
14  Werder Bremen	  	29     8   8   13     45:56  -11     32 
15  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	29     7   9   13     35:45  -10     30
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  FC Augsburg	  	        29     6   9   14     27:44  -17     27 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  1899 Hoffenheim	  	29     6   6   17     35:54  -19     24
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	29     2   9   18     19:52  -33     15


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

Braunschweig crept closer to leaders Hertha, Köln keeps the pressure on Kaiserslautern.

Lautern truly stubbed their toe against pesky Aue. FCK was up 1-0 and generally in control, but was unable to get the “W”. Even though Erzgebirge tried to help out: Klingbeil got his ass tossed on a straight red, and then Pezzoni got double yellowed, so Aue was down 2 players with only 15 minutes left. And yet the homeside managed to score and gain a draw!! If Kaiserslautern eventually loses out to Köln in the playoffs, this has certainly got to be a major milestone.

Hertha slipped up slightly at Ingolstadt, who proved to be less than a gracious host. Instead the Schanzer pressed Berlin into the defensive, and probably should have had a greater lead. Hertha woke up in the second half, but had to fight hard to get a point.

Sandhausen hasn’t beaten Braunschweg in 8 previous tries. make that 9. The visitors controlled from the start and easily sailed to an away win at the elegation threatened villagers.

Köln hardly covered themselves with glory. They got biatch-slapped in the showdown at Lautern last week, and desperately needed a result to stay relevant. And they came out breathing fire, encouraged by the customary large crowd. Aalen defended with everything, but looked to get overwhelmed. However the ball would simply not go into the net. Unbelievably the match looked to end scoreless, until a Köln sub knocked one in at the 3rd minute of injury time for a crucial win.

Union kept Dynamo under pressure for the whole match in an ex-GDR derby. The Berliners did have an edge, but their knife was rather blunt. Dresden only made offensive forays in the 1st half, and then battened down the hatches to hold onto a point. Overall, a fair result and apparently a good point for Dynamo.

However, Dresden really needs to get more. That’s because Bochum has a new lease on life with new boss Peter Neururer. The Blues didn’t have a brilliant performance, but were solid and patient. Host Cottbus ran around a lot, especially in the 1st half. But then an early 2nd half own goal took their wind out, and Bochum had little trouble nursing the lead and then adding insult to injury by kicking Energie in the balls in injury time for an important away win.

St.Pauli has pretty much ended any drop worries as they outplayed 1860 at home. The Paulistas were sailing along to a rather boring win, although a flurry of goals led to a bit of excitement. As predicted, after looking like they might sneak into the pomotion race, 1860 has now laid two consecutive eggs and have disappeared again.

FSV-MSV, a somewhat fortunate point for the visiting Duisburg side. The Bornheim Frankfurters dominated the match, but were frustrated by the bold Zebras defense but also the incompetant referee, who denied the home side at least one clear penalty. Frustration boiled over and goal scorer Gaus eventually got his ass red carded near the end of the game. Frankfurt probably should have won, but Duisburg gets another point that assures their 2.Liga presence.

A nice little effort by Regensburg. Paderborn expected an easy win, but played like crap. Jahn was missing several starters, and even was down a man for almost 40 minutes. But they held firm and got a scoreless draw. Good effort, not that it matters. SCP must be embarassed.

1. FC Union Berlin    -    Dynamo Dresden        0:0 (0:0)    21,244 *
FC Ingolstadt 04      -    Hertha BSC	         1:1 (1:0)     9,167

                     1:0  Caiuby (14., Matip)
                     1:1  Ben-Hatira (64., Lasogga)

SV Sandhausen	      -    Eintr. Braunschweig   1:3 (0:2)    6,300

                     0:1  Kumbela (4., Vrancic)
                     0:2  Kumbela (39., Kessel)
                     1:2  Mäkelä (51., Schauerte)
                     1:3  Kruppke (86., Vrancic)

FC St. Pauli	      -    1860 München	         3:1 (1:0)   28,892

                     1:0  Ginczek (34., Daube)
                     2:0  Bartels (70., Daube)
                     2:1  Friend (73., Stoppelkamp)
                     3:1  Bartels (74., Schachten)

FSV Frankfurt	      -    MSV Duisburg	         1:1 (1:1)    5,429

                     0:1  Brosinski (13., Koch)
                     1:1  Gaus (23.)

Sunday:
1. FC Köln	      -    VfR Aalen	         1:0 (0:0)   44,100

                     1:0  Przybylko (90. + 3, Brecko)

SC Paderborn 07	      -    Jahn Regensburg	 0:0 (0:0)    6,290

Energie Cottbus	      -    VfL Bochum	         0:2 (0:0)    8,555

                     0:1  Banovic (49., own goal, Rzatkowski)
                     0:2  Dedic (90. + 2, Goretzka)


Monday:
Erzgebirge Aue	      -    1. FC Kaiserslautern	 1:1 (0:1)    8,300 	

                     0:1  Baumjohann (22.)
                     1:1  Schlitte (83., Paulus)



 1  Hertha BSC Berlin (A)	29    18   9   2      55:22  +33     63 
 2  Eintracht Braunschweig	29    18   7   4      47:26  +21     61
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern (A)	29    12   13  4      42:25  +17     49
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Köln (A)	  	29    13   10  6      36:27  +9      49 
 5  FSV Frankfurt	  	29    13   5   11     45:36  +9      44 
 6  1860 München	  	29    10   12  7      31:26  +5      42 
 7  1. FC Union Berlin	  	29    10   10  9      45:41  +4      40 
 8  Energie Cottbus	  	29    10   10  9      33:32  +1      40 
 9  SC Paderborn 07	  	29    10   8   11     38:35  +3      38 
10  MSV Duisburg	  	29    10   7   12     32:44  -12     37 
11  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	29     8   12  9      32:35  -3      36 
12  VfR Aalen (N)	  	29     9   9   11     30:32  -3      36 
13  FC St. Pauli	  	29     9   9   11     35:39  -4      36 
14  Erzgebirge Aue	  	29     8   8   13     35:41  -6      32 
16  VfL Bochum	  	        29     7   8   14     32:47  -15     29
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
15  Dynamo Dresden	  	29     6   10  13     28:41  -13     28
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  SV Sandhausen (N)	  	29     5   8   16     35:59  -24     23 
18  Jahn Regensburg (N)	  	29     4   7   18     32:54  -22     19


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

Some clarity at the top – Karlsruhe and Bielefeld have seized control of the automatic promotion spots and threaten to leave the competition in the dust. It wasn’t easy however, as KSC needed a late goal to beat down a desperately battling Babelsberg. Arminia also had a tough assignment, but finally overpowered the difficult Wehen squad (Note that Wehen has lost fewer games than anybody but the top 3). The Bielefeld Alm exploded in cheers when Arminia finally took control, as Wehen gave no quarter throughout the match.

Preußen Münster is in control of the playoff spot, a difficult effort at Offenbach gives them the critical 3 points.

The biggest “loser” is probably Osnabrück. They faced off in a critical battle with Heidenheim, and the hard fought match ended up breaking the soul of the Vfl fans, as FCH scored the equalizer in injury time. The resulting draw means that VfL drops further behind, and unlike their competition, they have no makeup games to potentially gain points. Obviously a decent result for Heidenheim.

The relegation battle is if anything even hotter than the promotion race. Erfurt got a huge win against Haching to save slightly above the morass. Dortmund II is making a late charge, and they got a great win over Darmstadt in a direct relegation battle. This allows the junior BVBers to move out of a relegation spot for the first time in ages.

Hansa Rostock probably ended worries about teh drop with a wild shootout at Aachen, who despite assured relegation is still giving decent effort.

Stuttgarter Kickers also got a great result at Burghausen, under their new coach Massimo Morales. Marco Grüttner (17 goals) turned the game with a 2nd half hat-trick, giving the Kickers critical points.

Upcoming midweek are a a bunch of makeup matches.

Total attendance this round was 59,531 (avg 5,953)

 	
Alemannia Aachen        -   Hansa Rostock	 3:4 (2:1)    9,323
Karlsruher SC	        -   SV Babelsberg 03	 2:1 (1:0)   12,102
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	        -   SpVgg Unterhaching	 1:0 (0:0)    4,245
Wacker Burghausen	-   Stuttgarter Kickers	 1:4 (1:1)    2,200
VfB Stuttgart II	-   Hallescher FC	 3:0 (0:0)      680
VfL Osnabrück	        -   1. FC Heidenheim	 2:2 (1:1)    9,600
Arminia Bielefeld	-   SV Wehen Wiesbaden	 3:1 (1:1)   10,399
Borussia Dortmund II    -   SV Darmstadt 98	 1:0 (0:0)    1,108
1. FC Saarbrücken       -   Chemnitzer FC	 2:0 (1:0)    3,711
Kickers Offenbach       -   Preußen Münster	 0:1 (0:0)    6,163	


 1  Karlsruher SC (A)	  	33    20   9 	4     58:21  +37     69 
 2  Arminia Bielefeld	  	33    19   10 	4     55:27  +28     67
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Preußen Münster	  	32    17   11 	4     55:26  +29     62
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  VfL Osnabrück	  	33    18   7 	8     55:33  +22     61 
 5  1. FC Heidenheim	  	32    18   6 	8     60:43  +17     60 
 6  Chemnitzer FC	  	32    13   8   11     45:39  +6      47 
 7  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	33    13   8   12     42:43  -1      47 
 8  VfB Stuttgart II	  	32    11   9   12     33:33   0      42 
 9  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	33     8   18 	7     41:42  -1      42 
10  Wacker Burghausen	  	33    11   8   14     37:43  -6      41 
11  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	33    11   8   14     46:53  -7      41 
12  Hallescher FC (N)	  	32    10   8   14     30:43  -13     38 
13  Hansa Rostock (A)	  	32    10   7   15     32:46  -14     37 
14  Kickers Offenbach	  	32    10   8   14     38:38   0      36 
15  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	31     9   8   14     32:46  -14     35 
16  Stuttgarter Kickers (N)	33     8   7   18     33:44  -11     31 
17  Borussia Dortmund II (N)	30     7   10  13     28:46  -18     31
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
18  SV Darmstadt 98	  	32     6   12  14     23:39  -16     30 
19  SV Babelsberg 03	  	31     7   8 	16    23:40  -17     29 
20  Alemannia Aachen (A)	32     6   10 	16    32:53  -21     26

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

Aachen and Offenbach deducted two points for financial shenanigans
Aachen is also basically relegated due to pending insolvency. 

3 games midweek as makeup matches begin to get things caught up. KSC regains the leadership, and Dortmund II gets a big relegation battle win that keeps their hopes alive.

RW Erfurt 	   - 	Karlsruhe       	0:1 (0:1)    4,958
Babelsberg 	   - 	VfB Stuttgart II 	0:0 (0:0)    2,038
Stuttg. Kickers    - 	Dortmund II     	0:1 (0:1)    3,100


Updated standings:

 1  Karlsruher SC (A)	  	32    19   9 	4      56:20  +36     66
 2  Arminia Bielefeld	  	32    18   10 	4      52:26  +26     64
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  VfL Osnabrück	  	32    18   6 	8      53:31  +22     60
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Preußen Münster	  	31    16   11 	4      54:26  +28     59 
 5  1. FC Heidenheim	  	31    18   5 	8      58:41  +17     59 
 6  Chemnitzer FC	  	31    13   8 	10     45:37  +8      47 
 7  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	32    13   8 	11     42:42   0      47 
 8  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	32     8   18 	6      40:39  +1      42 
 9  Wacker Burghausen	  	32    11   8 	13     36:39  -3      41
10  VfB Stuttgart II	  	31    10   9 	12     30:33  -3      39 
11  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	32    10   8 	14     44:53  -9      38 
12  Hallescher FC (N)	  	31    10   8 	13     30:40  -10     38 
13  Kickers Offenbach	  	31    10   8 	13     38:37  +1      36 
14  Hansa Rostock (A)	  	31     9   7 	15     28:43  -15     34 
15  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	30     8   8 	14     31:46  -15     32 
16  SV Darmstadt 98	  	31     6   12 	13     23:38  -15     30
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
17  SV Babelsberg 03	  	30     7   8 	15     22:38  -16     29
18  Stuttgarter Kickers (N)	32     7   7 	18     29:43  -14     28 
19  Borussia Dortmund II (N)	29     6   10 	13     27:46  -19     28 
20  Alemannia Aachen (A)	31     6   10 	15     29:49  -20     26

For the first time ever, two Bundesliga clubs are in the semi-finals of the Champions League, which will (eventually) be a Germany vs. Spain matchup. Bayern completed their dominance of Juventus by winning 2-0 in Torino, a solid performance all the way around, the Italians lucky they didn’t receive a severe hiding. Borussia Dortmund almost came to rue their wastefulness, as they were losing 1-2 at home to Malaga going into injury time. But they miraculously scored twice to get the win.

Since Real Madrid had an easy time with Galatasaray, and Barcelona suffered but survived against PSG, only La Liga and Bundesliga remain in the competition. So they will face off either in the semis or the finals.

Bayern München wrapped another title, clinching in record time: 6 games to spare. Not really surprising, as they went to town this season and dominated. Jupp Heynckes fielded a full strength squad (except Ribery) at Frankfurt, and the Eintracht countered with a defensive unit, as some of their keys like Alex Meier were out. Bayern dominated, missed chances (Alaba missing penalty), but eventually took the lead. At that point, Frankfurt came out of their shell and pressed, GK Manuel Neuer came up with some good saves to preserve the win and clinching the title.

Dortmund maintains their 2nd spot, despite resting 7 players from the starting lineup that played at Malaga in the Champions League. However a desperate Augsburg squad gave everything, so some of the starters came off the bench to make sure that the Neons got all the points. It wasn’t easy, but eventually they beat down their opposition.

Leverkusen dominated Wolfsburg, the Aspirins peppering GK Benaglio’s goal. But the Swiss international was sharp and stopped just about everything, and the VWs ended up stealing a point after some cleverness from Diego. The Brazilian isn’t what he was with Bremen, but after dumping Magath, the Wolfies are getting what they paid for, a very good playmaker.

A solid performance and Schalke gets the points in Bremen. Not too long ago the Blues were in crisis, but they’ve been getting results and are pushing for Champions League. Julian Draxler is already making folks forget Lewis Holtby. The german press is making a lot of noise about Werder’s crisis, but aside from the fact that their squad basically sucks, I don’t really see much of a problem. It’s hard to blame it all on Thomas Schaaf, since Werder cleaned house to save money in the offseason. And this talk about Bremen maybe going down? More drivel. They’ve got 7 points on the relegation playoff spot, and if they can’t hold that, then they deserve to go down.

Gladbach played poorly against Greuther Fürth but still came up with a win. The Greuthers gave a good effort, but it was ruined when Zimmermann got his ass tossed for a second yellow. A few minutes later Gladbach scored the winner.

After their desolate “performance” at Bayern last week, the HSV fans expected something better. Ix-nay: Hamburg continues to suck. They ran around a lot against Freiburg, who were way to clever for them. When the Breisgauers grabbed the lead, HSV fell apart and was worthless. Good points for Freiburg, keeping them in Euro contention.

New manager Markus Gisdol starts off in style as Hopeless Hoffenheim thumps Fortuna Düsseldorf and gets back into the relegation battle. This really was a must-win, and the Hoppers showed some spirit in grabbing it. They still trail Augsburg, but they have a reasonable chance of catching them.

Nürnberg continues their improvement with another win, dealing a blow to Mainz’ Euro aspirations. With some lucky results, FCN could even dream of sneaking in. They’ve now gone 9 games without defeat, so interim coach Michael Wiesinger certainly is improving his chances for the permanent position.

Hannover and Stuttgart played a snoozer that helps neither team.

Total attendance: 415,597 (avg 46,177), sellouts in Frankfurt, Bremen

 	
1899 Hoffenheim	       -    Fortuna Düsseldorf	    3:0 (1:0)   28,000

                      1:0  Roberto Firmino (11., Schipplock)
                      2:0  Lambertz (75., own goal, Salihovic)
                      3:0  Volland (90. + 4, Salihovic)

Borussia Dortmund      -    FC Augsburg	            4:2 (1:2)   80,400

                      1:0  Schieber (22., Bittencourt)
                      1:1  Baier (43.)
                      1:2  Vogt (45., Werner)
                      2:2  Schieber (52., Hofmann)
                      3:2  Subotic (64., M. Götze)
                      4:2  Lewandowski (90. + 2, M. Götze)

Borussia M'gladbach    -    SpVgg Greuther Fürth    1:0 (0:0)   50,206

                      1:0  L. de Jong (74., Wendt)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen    -    VfL Wolfsburg	    1:1 (1:0)   29,288

                      1:0  Schürrle (12., L. Bender)
                      1:1  Kjaer (70., Rodriguez)

Werder Bremen	       -    FC Schalke 04	    0:2 (0:0)   42,100 *

                      0:1  Draxler (51., Marica)
                      0:2  Marica (69., Raffael)

Eintracht Frankfurt    -    Bayern München	    0:1 (0:0)   51,500 *

                      0:1  Schweinsteiger (52., Lahm)

Hamburger SV	       -    SC Freiburg	            0:1 (0:0)   53,021

                      0:1  Schmid (68., Mujdza)


Sunday:
1. FC Nürnberg	       -    1. FSV Mainz 05	    2:1 (0:0)   35,082

                      1:0  Nilsson (54., Kiyotake)
                      1:1  N. Müller (60., Kirchhoff)
                      2:1  Nilsson (69., Balitsch)

Hannover 96	       -    VfB Stuttgart	    0:0 (0:0)   46,000



 1  Bayern München	  	28    24   3 	1     79:13  +66     75
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	28    16   7 	5     66:34  +32     55
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	28    14   7 	7     51:36  +15     49
 4  FC Schalke 04	  	28    13   6 	9     48:43  +5      45
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  SC Freiburg	  	        28    11   9 	8     36:33  +3      42
 6  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	28    12   6   10     42:40  +2      42
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Borussia M'gladbach	  	28    10   11   7     36:37  -1      41
 8  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	28    10   9    9     35:32  +3      39 
 9  Hannover 96	  	        28    11   5   12     49:46  +3      38 
10  1. FC Nürnberg	  	28     9   11   8     33:35  -2      38 
11  Hamburger SV	  	28    11   5   12     32:44  -12     38 
12  VfL Wolfsburg	  	28     8   9   11     33:43  -10     33 
13  VfB Stuttgart	  	28     9   6   13     29:46  -17     33 
14  Werder Bremen	  	28     8   7   13     43:54  -11     31 
15  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	28     7   8   13     33:43  -10     29
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  FC Augsburg	  	        28     5   9   14     25:44  -19     24
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  1899 Hoffenheim	  	28     6   5   17     33:52  -19     23 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	28     2   9   17     18:46  -28     15


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

In *the* key battle of the season, Kaiserslautern biatch-slapped Köln to grab the critical 3rd place. The home side dominated the match would a strong display, and despite some moments, the visitors couldn’t keep up. This defeat stops Köln’s 15 match unbeaten streak. Of course despite the strong statement, Kaiserslautern could compeletely undo everything by sucking next week.

Crunching win for Aue at Bochum, a huge relegation result. Erzgebirge came ready to play, and the hosts looked like they didn’t want to be there. So Aue kicked their ass and grab critical points in the relegation battle. Bochum reacted by firing their manager and bringing in re-tread Peter Neururer to save the club. He’s bounced around all over Germany, with moderate success, but usually not more than two years at one place. Ironically, his longest stay was at Bochum in 2001-2004, with 49 wins, 42 losses, 30 draws.

Dresden look to be dead against St.Pauli, but a Filip Trojan bicycle-kick fueld a furious comeback and Dynamo pulled out an incredible win. St.Pauli is a tough opponent and seems to have secured their 2.Liga status, and pressed for a win. Dresden had a hard time getting going, but the decent crowd certainly helped getting things on track. This win allows them to leapfrog Bochum out of relegation. It’s still not over, but this will be looked as a critical turning point if they stay up.

Duisburg also continues to improve, and their hard-fought win over Sandhausen probably is the final nail in securing their 2.Liga status. 10 points up, so the Zebras seem to have done enough to avoid any relegation thoughts, and certainly they’ve improved over their lackluster midseason form. Sandhausen could still catch Bochum and get the survival playoff spot, but they’re essentially 4 points back.

Difficult victory for Aalen over Ingolstadt, especially the last half hour when the hosts had to fend off desperate FCI attacks. A good season for Aalen, looking the only promoted side to survive. As usual, Ingolstadt proves to be a tough opponent, but they end up with nothing to show.

The lights are pretty much out in Regensburg, they’re going down. Visiting FSV Frankfurt had little trouble pushing them around and getting the points.

Paderborn dominated the whole match against Union Berlin, but was staring at defeat. A Berlin win would have been highway robbery, kind of like putting your savings in a Cyprus bank, but luckily SCP at least managed the equalizer in injury time.

What did I tell you? As soon as 1860 even started to make some rumblings about going somewhere, they’d suck and disappoint their fans. So for something like the 6th time in a row, they were unable to win at home, this time against Cottbus. The Lions could have crept closer to the promotion spot, but were unable to get the job done…big surprise.

Monday night saw Hertha and Braunschweig decide who gets promoted as 2.Liga champion, and the answer seems to be Hertha. The Berliners dominated and kicked Braunschweig in the balls, winning clearly with a gala performance by their Brazilian attacking forward Ronny. Good news for Hertha was also that Ronny (16 goals) also extended his contract to 2017.

1. FC Kaiserslautern   -    1. FC Köln	         3:0 (1:0)   49,780 *

                      1:0  Idrissou (41., Baumjohann)
                      2:0  Simunek (50., Baumjohann)
                      3:0  Idrissou (79., Weiser)
 
VfL Bochum	       -    Erzgebirge Aue       0:3 (0:3)   13,133

                      0:1  Klingbeil (8., Hochscheidt)
                      0:2  Nickenig (29.)
                      0:3  Fa. Müller (37., Sylvestr)

VfR Aalen	       -    FC Ingolstadt 04     2:1 (1:1)   10,784

                      1:0  Reichwein (20., Leandro)
                      1:1  Caiuby (25., penalty, Mo. Hartmann)
                      2:1  Dausch (54., penalty, Buballa)

Dynamo Dresden	       -    FC St. Pauli	 3:2 (0:0)   29,193

                      0:1  Mohr (50., Bartels)
                      0:2  Ginczek (53., Gyau)
                      1:2  Trojan (62., Müller)
                      2:2  Losilla (66., LFiel)
                      3:2  Schuppan (77.)

Jahn Regensburg	       -    FSV Frankfurt        1:4 (0:0)    7,300

                      0:1  Y. Stark (56.)
                      0:2  Yelen (72., Gaus)
                      1:2  Hein (78., penalty, Amachaibou)
                      1:3  Kapllani (84., Leckie)
                      1:4  Kapllani (88., penalty, Leckie)


Sunday
 	
SC Paderborn 07	       -    1. FC Union Berlin	 1:1 (0:1)    7,590

                      0:1  Nemec (27., Mattuschka)
                      1:1  Strohdiek (90. + 2, Vrancic)

1860 München	       -    Energie Cottbus	 1:1 (0:0)   18,200

                      1:0  D. Halfar (58., Friend)
                      1:1  Bittroff (70., Stiepermann)

MSV Duisburg	       -    SV Sandhausen	 2:1 (1:1)   11,354

                      1:0  Perthel (31., Brosinski)
                      1:1  Fießer (34., Kandziora)
                      2:1  Bajic (65., penalty, Jovanovic)


Monday:
Hertha BSC	       -   Eintracht Braunschweig  3:0 (1:0)   51,029

                      1:0  Ronny (34., direct freekick)
                      2:0  Ramos (55., Rechtsschuss, Ronny)
                      3:0  Ronny (76., direct freekick)



 1  Hertha BSC Berlin (A)	28    18   8   2      54:21  +33    62
 2  Eintracht Braunschweig	28    17   7   4      44:22  +22    58
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern (A)	28    12   12  4      41:24  +17    48
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Köln (A)	  	28    12   10  6      35:27  +8     46
 5  FSV Frankfurt	  	28    13   4   11     44:35  +9     43
 6  1860 München	  	28    10   12  6      30:23  +7     42
 7  Energie Cottbus	  	28    10   10  8      33:30  +3     40
 8  1. FC Union Berlin	  	28    10   9   9      45:41  +4     39
 9  SC Paderborn 07	  	28    10   7   11     38:35  +3     37
10  VfR Aalen (N)	  	28     9   9   10     30:32  -2     36
11  MSV Duisburg	  	28    10   6   12     31:43  -12    36
12  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	28     8   11  9      31:34  -3     35 
13  FC St. Pauli	  	28     8   9   11     32:38  -6     33 
14  Erzgebirge Aue	  	28     8   7   13     34:40  -6     31 
15  Dynamo Dresden	  	28     6   9   13     28:41  -13    27
----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  VfL Bochum	  	        28     6   8   14     30:47  -17    26
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  SV Sandhausen (N)	  	28     5   8   15     34:56  -22    23
18  Jahn Regensburg (N)	  	28     4   6   18     32:54  -22    18


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

Another exciting round leading to some changes.

Karlsruhe was outplayed at Unterhaching, and despite a late charge, had to take a loss. This allowed Bielefeld to grab first place with a solid performance at troubled Rostock. The Arminen played a well organized defense and took their chances with ice in their veins. Hansa ran around a lot but are left with nothing but rioting fans.

Wehen has been “got enough to draw”, but they put in a great effort to beat down Osnabrück, Despite playing in nearby Wiesbaden, the villagers get no love, despite playing fairly decent football. Of course I can’t think of a more worthless football town in Germany than Wiesbaden (perhaps Heidelberg? – Readers: Vote for the most worthless football town in Germany!), so I guess no surprise. VfL suffers a painful defeat that leaves their fans on edge.

Preußen Münster should have been the major benefactor of the top teams struggles. Preußen was sailing along at home against Saarbrücken 3-0, the game in the bag after an hour. But suddenly FCS turned things around and the hosts were like chickens running around with their heads cut off. The visitors fought back and might have even won the match.

Heidenheim had a rough time, but got the needed win to stay in the promotion hunt.

In the equally nerve-racking relegation battles, Erfurt got a huge win at Stuttgarter Kickers, and although Darmstadt got another critical point against Aachen, they are probably disappointed they couldn’t get a win.

Total attendance 53,440 (avg 5,344)

 	
SV Darmstadt 98	      -   Alemannia Aachen	 0:0 (0:0)    5,800
Hallescher FC	      -   Wacker Burghausen	 0:0 (0:0)    5,488
SV Wehen Wiesbaden    -   VfL Osnabrück	         3:2 (1:1)    3,049
1. FC Heidenheim      -   VfB Stuttgart II	 1:0 (0:0)    8,000
Stuttgarter Kickers   -   Rot-Weiß Erfurt	 0:1 (0:0)    3,875
SpVgg Unterhaching    -   Karlsruher SC	         2:1 (1:0)    3,400
SV Babelsberg 03      -   Kickers Offenbach	 0:0 (0:0)    2,174
Preußen Münster       -   1. FC Saarbrücken	 3:3 (1:0)    8,554
Chemnitzer FC	      -   Borussia Dortmund II	 1:0 (0:0)    4,100
Hansa Rostock	      -   Arminia Bielefeld	 0:2 (0:0)    9,000


 1  Arminia Bielefeld	  	32    18   10 	4     52:26  +26     64 
 2  Karlsruher SC (A)	  	31    18   9 	4     55:20  +35     63
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  VfL Osnabrück	  	32    18   6 	8     53:31  +22     60
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Preußen Münster	  	31    16   11   4     54:26  +28     59 
 5  1. FC Heidenheim	  	31    18   5    8     58:41  +17     59 
 6  Chemnitzer FC	  	31    13   8   10     45:37  +8      47 
 7  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	32    13   8   11     42:42   0      47 
 8  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	32     8   18   6     40:39  +1      42 
 9  Wacker Burghausen	  	32    11   8   13     36:39  -3      41 
10  VfB Stuttgart II	  	30    10   8   12     30:33  -3      38 
11  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	32    10   8   14     44:53  -9      38 
12  Hallescher FC (N)	  	31    10   8   13     30:40  -10     38 
13  Kickers Offenbach	  	31    10   8   13     38:37  +1      36 
14  Hansa Rostock (A)	  	31     9   7   15     28:43  -15     34 
15  Rot-Weiß Erfurt	  	29     8   8   13     31:45  -14     32 
16  SV Darmstadt 98	  	31     6   12  13     23:38  -15     30 
17  Stuttgarter Kickers (N)	31     7   7   17     29:42  -13     28
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
18  SV Babelsberg 03	  	29     7   7   15     22:38  -16     28 
19  Alemannia Aachen (A)	31     6   10  15     29:49  -20     26 
20  Borussia Dortmund II (N)	28     5   10  13     26:46  -20     25



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

Aachen and Offenbach deducted two points for financial shenanigans
Aachen is also basically relegated due to pending insolvency. 

The Bundesliga reps had a decent start in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals – however it should have been better. Bayern München dominated against Juventus, and really should have won more than 2-0. Bayern had several clear cut chances to turn this into a rout and end this pairing immediately. Instead wasteful finishing means that the Italian side has a chance to regroup. Borussia Dortmund got a scoreless draw away to Malaga, but again, the Neons had a multitude of chances to win outright and basically end this tie. Dortmund will of course be heavily favored at the rematch in Germany, but wasting chances for a knockout is never a good idea.

Overall, one would expect that both Bayern and BVB advance at this point, but they could have made it easier on themselves. Real Madrid already has one foot in the semis, and it seems like Barcelona will be heavily favored to advance against PSG, so there will likely be an attractive Germany vs. Spain clash in the cards for the semis or final.

In news closer to home, in the 3.Liga makeup matches, VfB Stuttgart II defeat Rot-Weiss Erfurt 1-0, and SV Wehen upended Halle FC 2-0. The only implication is that things are still grim for Erfurt, barely treading above relegation.

Speaking of relegation, Bundesliga side Hoffenheim fired their coach again, giving the short-shrift to Marco Kurz (haha) and appointing Markus Gisdol. Who? you might ask…Actually Gisdol is one of the few leftovers from the successful Rangnick regime, he coached the Hoffenheim II squad.