WSV Blog: Oberliga Niederrhein final

The Oberliga Niederrhein (or is it the Niederliga Oberrhein?) didn’t end up with promotion for Wuppertal, but of course after going into voluntary administration and relegation, that wasn’t really the plan. The idea was to stabilize the club and start sorting out the finances, and it seems things are moving in the correct direction. Life in the 5th division is rough at the box-office, although actually renewed fan interest gave WSV numbers about the same as previous Regionalliga campaign. (Certainly there was more season ticket purchase). WSV did decently in other areas though. The “A-Jugend”, the U18 squad, were in the U18-Bundesliga-West, and the last match drew 6,600 for the game against Schalke’s U18. This set a national record for the youth leagues.

Nevertheless, it was largely disappointing on the field in the sense that WSV was very inconsistent, and that the samll number of WSV Hooligans caused problems that made all the smaller clubs fear Wuppertal showing up, despite the increased gate. (And of course in Homberg the idiots cost the match, as by throwing crap on the field the league penalized WSV with a loss).

The champions, from the ex-nuclear reactor villages of Hönnepel-Niedermörmter, were the best team in the league, and deservedly get promoted. Most of the other teams you’ve never even heard of, the exception being Schwarz-Weiss Essen and perhaps the another Essen squad, FC Kray.

 
 1  SV Hönnepel-Niedermörmter	38   24   8   6    80:39  +41 	  80
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  FC Kray (A)	  	        38   22   8   8    88:56  +32 	  74 
 3  Wuppertaler SV (A)	  	38   21   8   9    76:54  +22 	  71 
 4  TV Jahn Hiesfeld	  	38   19  12   7    69:43  +26 	  69 
 5  MSV Duisburg II (A)	  	38   20   8  10    84:49  +35 	  68 
 6  Rot-Weiß Oberhausen II	38   20   7  11    82:62  +20 	  67 
 7  Schwarz-Weiß Essen	  	38   18   9  11    67:42  +25 	  63 
 8  TuRU Düsseldorf	  	38   19   5  14    86:60  +26 	  62 
 9  VfB Homberg	  	        38   16  12  10    62:58  +4 	  60 
10  SC Kapellen-Erft	  	38   15  12  11    68:53  +15 	  57 
11  TuS Bösinghoven	  	38   14   9  15    70:76  -6 	  51 
12  Rot-Weiss Essen II (N)	38   13  11  14    69:74  -5 	  50 
13  VfB Hilden (N)	  	38   13  10  15    81:64  +17 	  49 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
14  Sportfreunde Baumberg	38   13  10  15    76:68  +8 	  49 
15  Ratinger SV	  	        38   13  10  15    57:60  -3 	  49 
16  SV Sonsbeck	  	        38   11  10  17    56:77  -21 	  43
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  VfL Rhede	  	        38    9   6  23    46:82  -36 	  33 
18  VfB Speldorf	  	38    7   5  26    41:87  -46 	  26 
19  SV Uedesheim	  	38    4   7  27    39:95  -56 	  19 
20  PSV Wesel-Lackhausen (N)	38    3   5  30    32:130 -98 	  14

Champion is promoted to Regionalliga West.
Bottom 4 are relegated
14-16 could be relegated depending on Regionalliga West results:
Looks like Velbert coming down, so Sonsbeck is in trouble.
Uerdingen also likely down, which means Ratingen could drop as well


Top goal scorers:

29 - Andre Trienenjost (Hönnepel-Niedermörmter	
28 - Gökan Lekesiz     (MSV Duisburg II)
27 - Kevin Dauser      (Bösinghoven)	
25 - Timur Karagülmez  (FC Kray)
24 - Marvin Ellmann    (Wuppertal)

Attendance:

WSv dominated here. The league drew 125,373 fans (avg 330). 
The largest crowd was 3,110 when WSV hosted Hönnepel-Niedermörmter, 
and then 3,025 for WSV-Kray. 

All the other top matches were WSV games as well.


01  Wuppertaler SV           1,869
02  FC Kray                    374
03  SC Kapellen-Erft           339
04  ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen     329
05  SV Sonsbeck                326
06  TV Jahn Hiesfeld           296
07  SV Hönnepel-Niedermörmter  292
08  VfB Homberg                289
09  PSV Wesel-Lackhausen       282
10  VfB 03 Hilden              268
11  Germania Ratingen 04/19    254
12  TuRU Düsseldorf            248
13  VfL Rhede                  236
14  TUS 64 Bösinghoven         233
15  VfB Speldorf               208
16  MSV Duisburg II            207
17  Rot-Weiss Essen II         205
18  Sportfreunde Baumberg      191
19  SV Uedesheim               175
20  Rot-Weiß Oberhausen II     136

WSV was the biggest road-draw, averaging 900+ per away-game.

BUNDESLIGA: Season Review

1 Bayern München (M, P) 34 29 3 2 94:23 +71 90
GRADE: A+

At first, I was tempted to mark them down, as they disgraced themselves in the Champions League, and would fail to repeat last season’s results. But really it’s about how they do in German football, and Bayern basically had a most dominant Bundesliga performance, so it would be pretty hard to mark them down at all.

Coach: Pep Guardiola. Overall, he did well. Coming after Heynckes wonder season, it would be pretty hard to top, but aside from the fiasco against Real Madrid, Guardiola was on his way to actually improving the record. On the other hand, just about anybody with a pulse could probably have walked away with the title with this lineup.

Best Player: Arjen Robben. Obviously there were a lot of superb performances, but the Dutchman had a sort of revival and even outdid perennial candidate Frank Ribery. Youngster Thiago was very impressive in his appearances.

Worst Player: Daniel van Buyten. A bit harsh. He’s at the end of fine career at Bayern, and he didn’t play much. But he was totally ineffectual when he did. Compare with oldtimer Claudio Pizarro, who scored 10 times in only 17 appearances and looked sharp, and van Buyten was not up to snuff.

There will probably be some changes in the off season as the sting of the Champions League exit weighs heavily. Another failure probably means Guardiola is out, and so is the tiki-taka.

Outlook: There will probably be some changes in the off season as the sting of the Champions League exit weighs heavily. Another failure probably means Guardiola is out, and so is the tiki-taka. Obviously they figure to win the title again, although perhaps not as easily. They’ll be judged really on how they do in Europe.

2 Borussia Dortmund 34 22 5 7 80:38 +42 71
GRADE: B

Dortmund basically had too many injuries, otherwise they probably could have stayed closer to Bayern (although not enough to win the title). That might have raised their grade to an “A”.

Coach: Jürgen Klopp. Still one of Germany’s best.

Best: Marco Reus was outstanding, also had 16 goals. Robert Lewandowski played hard despite knowing he would leave. He was solid and won the scoring title. Oldie Sebastian Kehl was strong when he played, and Mats Hummels very good when not injured.

Worst: Maybe the coach, if he’s responsible for players going down like flies. Pierre Aubameyang was/is supposed to replace Lewandowski, but although he scored 13, he wasn’t up to snuff.

Outlook: This is still a good team, at least when not in the hospital. Ilkay Gundogan is hopefully back from injury, and that should give Dortmund one of the best midfields in Europe. The big question is who can replace Lewandowski. Adrian Ramos is supposedly coming in, but he doesn’t offer the same skill-set.

3 FC Schalke 04 34 19 7 8 63:43 +20 64
GRADE: A-

Schalke was very shaky early, and looked overmatched at times in Europe. Ironically an embarrassing 1-6 thrashing by Real Madrid may have actually turned out to be the turning point. In general from that point on, the Blues were quite solid.

Coach: Jens Keller did a decent job in the revolving chair that is Schalke managers.

Best: Max Meyer. The 18 yr old midfielder has emerged as the latest young talent. Last year’s sensation was Julian Draxler, who had another good season. And Schalke added Leon Goretzka (19), another midfielder who did well. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was excellent after recovering from injury, with 12 goals in only 18 appearances. Farfan was very good when he played, but was also injured a lot. Ralf Fährmann is the no.1 GK, and with competition coming in from Düsseldorf’s Fabian Giefer, it looks like Timo Hildebrand can get dumped.

Worst: Hard to pick one player. I think getting rid of Jermaine Jones was a good move, since he was too disruptive and apt to do something stupid. Overall, the defense was disappointing. Howedes and Matip were OK, but Hoogland mediocre, and Felipe Santana, the big hope, also had a rather poor season.

Outlook: Pretty decent. Schalke has good youth talent that has been blooded and done well. Consistency is always a problem, and when Huntelaar is injured, they don’t have a killer instinct.

4 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 34 19 4 11 60:41 +19 61
GRADE: B

Leverkusen was strong throughout the season, but rarely spectacular. They can consistently grind out results, but then will play unspired football and fall back.

Coach: Sami Hyypiä, Sascha Lewandowski. The team under Hyypiä was clearly drifting. Management made the right move as they were worried about the Aspirins missing out on the Champions League, so they promoted the assistant to the top, and were rewarded: 4 wins and a draw.

Best: Bernd Leno. The GK was perhaps the very best in the Bundesliga this year, which traditionally has fine keepers all over the place. Honorable mention goes defender Ömer Toprak, who joined the elite of the league with a fine season. Forward Stefan Kiessling was generally good, with 15 goals. Midfielders Simon Rolfes and Sidney Sam were also strong

Worst: Eren Derdiyok was supposed to complement Kiessling up front, but sucked. 1 goal in 18 matches. Also disappointing was Mexican defender Andres Guardado (who used to be a forward), who came in with high hopes and was horrible in his few outings.

Outlook: Expect more of the same next season, as long as the coaching situation gets sorted out. They’ve got reasonable talent.

5 VfL Wolfsburg 34 18 6 10 63:50 +13 60
GRADE: B+

The VWs were somewhat of a surprise. They’d been mediocre ever since they won the title in 2009, and were basically shedding many of their high-priced hangovers from the Magath era.

Coach: Dieter Hecking did a good job. He put together a pretty solid squad that began to believe in itself.

Best: The defenders. Naldo, Ricardo Rodriguez and youngster Robin Knoche all had fine seasons. Another young player given a chance by Hecking, Max Arnold was solid and showed flashes of brilliance in midfield. He looks to be one of Germany’s future stars. Oldie Ivica Olic was serviceable, with 14 goals.

Worst: Nobody really stunk. Forward Bas Dost was hyped up, but was disappointment. Didn’t really suck, but was largely invisible.

Outlook: Wolfsburg could go either direction. They seem to have an exciting mix of young and veterans that could be something. But a lot will depend on whether Hecking can take them to the next level.

6 Bor. Mönchengladbach 34 16 7 11 59:43 +16 55
GRADE: B

Gladbach was expected to do a lot, but they waffled. Some of their issue was they were really relying on a lot of youngsters.

Coach: Lucien Favre eventually got things right, but it’s still not clear he’s the right man. He hasn’t done well in the transfer market, but he has promoted youngsters into the squad who have largely delivered.

Best: Midfielder Raffael led the team with 14 goals, versatile Max Kruse added 12. MF Christoph Kramer had a fine season. Austrian veteran defender Martin Stranzl was excellent. Of course Marc ter Stegen is one of the better GKs, and is now on his way to Barcelona. Young defender Tony Jantschke looked good, and was the only one that isn’t already thinking about his pension.

Worst: Inconsistency was the coach’s problem. But they couldn’t find a partner for Kruse up front. Hrgota (3o games, 2 goal) was often worst player on the pitch. The defense is old and slow.

Outlook: The team has some good young talent. However some of the veterans like Juan Arango who have carried the club for years are now ready for Social Security checks.

7 1. FSV Mainz 05 34 16 5 13 52:54 -2 53
GRADE: A-

Mainz was consistently fighting and always knocking on the door for Europe. Through determination and good coaching they actually snuck in. So you have to consider this a massively decent season.

Coach: Thomas Tuchel is considered one of the brilliant younger minds, but apparently he has feuded with management and is now out.

Best: Young MF Johannes Geis in unknown outside Mainz, but was excellent. Nicolai Müller scored a bunch early, but tailed off. Forward Eric Choupo-Moting was superb, and paired nicely with Shinji Okazaki, would led with 15 goals.
Oldimters Pospech and Nikolce were rocks on defense, but they need new blood at the back.

Worst: Colombian international Elkin Soto was a disappointment in midfield. Defender Malik Fatih has two caps for Germany, but rarely showed that form.

Outlook: Who will replace Tuchel? The same question when Klopp left. Maybe they can pull in another clever mind.
Mainz could fall apart. With the exception of Geis, none of the youngsters were huge impact players, and they relied a lot on veterans and players in near the end of their prime. So there will be a lot of work to do.

8 FC Augsburg 34 15 7 12 47:47 0 52
GRADE: A

These Fuggers were a major surprise. They’ve proven that they can survive in the league, and have actually gotten better. And they were the first team to stop Bayern, a tremendous result for them in what was probably the best in club history.

Coach: Markus Weinzierl should be coach of the year. He has a “talent-challenged” squad believing that if they just run hard and give it all for 90 minutes, they’ll get points. And he was proven right.

Best: Andre Hahn. The MF has come out of nowhere and even jumped into the national team. He was very good, and even led the team with 12 goals. But the strongest consistent performances came from fellow midfielder Daniel Baier, a journeyman who had a great season. But the rest of the midfield regulars, Halil Altintop (10 goals), Kevin Vogt and Tobias Werner were also solid.

Worst: Anyone playing up front. The attack was outscored 32-8 by the midfield. Molders, Milik, Bobadilla might have been invisible in front of goal. But even they left everything on the field…

Outlook: Every season will probably be a challenge for FCA. Obviously you can expect more of the same, but sometimes you have to wonder whether the 110% effort is sustainable over the long haul.

9 1899 Hoffenheim 34 11 11 12 72:70 +2 44
GRADE: B

They can score. They can’t defend. As a result, they are quite entertaining, but destined for midtable at best, which is where they ended.

Coach: Markus Gisdol deserves kudos for saving Hoffenheim last season, and turning them into an exciting squad. And he’s doing it without the heavy resources his predecessors had, as the money spigot is largely shut off.

Best: Brazilian Roberto Firmino was superb in midfield and led with 16 goals. Kevin Volland proved to be brilliant up front; scoring 11, the youngster has already been capped by Germany and seems to have a bright future. Anthony Modeste was inconsistent but scored 12. Sejad Salihovic, perhaps one of the few remainders from the moneybags years, scored 11 and was a leader. A young defender (19) Niklas Süle looks to have a bright future, and also scored 4. See a pattern?

Worst: Well, they gave up 70 goals, so take a guess. Andreas Beck is the veteran that needed to lead the back, but wasn’t doing it. None of the youngsters they blooded turned out special. Dutchman Edson Braafheid never even played, but was once considered a catch, given both Oranje caps and a Bayern pedigree.

Outlook: Clearly something has to be done on defense. The new direction is to promote young players, which is fine, but they may need to spend some money for a couple of veterans to patch things up – just make sure they’re the right ones.

10 Hannover 96 34 12 6 16 46:59 -13 42
GRADE: C

Zzzzzz. The 96ers have gone from being a breath of fresh air to being snoozers.

Coach: Tayfun Korkut, Mirko Slomka. Slomka basically lost his touch, having really done well initially with the 96ers. He was dumped midseason, and Korkut at least steadied the ship, playing .500 ball and at least avoiding any problems.

Best: Mame Diouf came on strong under Korkut and scored 8, but will likely leave. GK Ron-Robert Zieler was generally solid at the back. Lars Stindl was reliable in midfield.

Worst: Leonardo Bittencourt is a young talent but widely inconsistent. Szabolcs Huszti started out hot but then disappeared. He led the team with 10 goals, but otherwise did squat. A lot of players were tried on defense and basically all stunk.

Outlook: There needs to be some serious soul searching and the squad needs to be strengthened. Korkut looks to be a promising coach, but things could fall apart quickly unless some changes happen.

11 Hertha BSC Berlin (N) 34 11 8 15 40:48 -8 41
GRADE: B-

It was a tale of two halves for Hertha. The promoted side was quite good in the first half of the season, and then slapped silly after the winterbreak. They were getting brushed aside, and if the season had lasted longer, they could have even entered the relegation zone. But they did great work early, even knocking on Europe, and that set the stage for a solid result.

Coach: Jos Luhukay. He did a good job. He got them promoted, and his emphasis on energetic play carried them early. Next season he’ll need to re-think though, as the 2nd half slide is cause for worry.

Best player: Adrian Ramos. The Colombian forward netted 16 times. Of course, he’s leaving the club. Defender Sebastian Langkammp was good as well, and GK Thomas Kraft was decent.

Worst player: Sandro Wagner. 2 goals in 25 appearances is pretty sorry for a striker, although you can still be effectual and not score. But his overall play was also not up to snuff.

Mentionable: Brazilian M/F Ronny had a disappointing season, but it seemed to me it was largely because he had fallen out of favor with the coach. In the promotion season, he was Hertha’s best player, but he didn’t live up to that, and seemingly his role had changed and he no longer really fits.

Outlook: Look for Hertha to perhaps struggle next season. They do get back Lassogga from loan to HSV, but he’ll probably want to leave.

12 Werder Bremen 34 10 9 15 42:66 -24 39
GRADE: C-

Because so many teams sucked this year, Werder climbs to “respectable” 12th, but they could have easily been relegated. At times they looked completely bewildered. Luckily, everyonce in a while, they fought real hard and saved points that eventually steared them to safety.

Coach: Robin Dutt. Was clearly unable to get anything going. Let me get this straight, you forced legend Thomas Schaaf out after admittedly poor campaign last season, but replace him with a dud.

Best: Aaron Hunt was good in midfield and led the team in scoring. Two problems: he only scored 7 and he’s leaving the club.

Worst: Where to start? Defense sucked, midfield crap, attack the worst. All players that had been “promising” have seemingly regressed. Journeyman midfielder Cedric Makiadi showed why he’s a journeyman, but the forwards were worse. Elia, di Santo, Kobylanski, Petersen were generally horrible. Goal keeping was generally weak too.

Outlook: Now what? Supposedly jettisoning Schaaf was the new beginning. Unless something changes dramatically, they will struggle again next season.

13 Eintracht Frankfurt 34 9 9 16 40:57 -17 36
GRADE: C-

Frankfurt really has regressed

Coach: Armin Veh. Looked largely hapless. Just didn’t connect this season and everythig fell apart.

Best: Nobody. Maybe GK Kevin Trapp, very good. Joselu was mostly crap, but scored a bunch late to help save the club and ended leader with 9. Certainly has potential.

Worst: Everybody. Even pillar Alex Meier, slowed by injuries, was largely ineffective, although he did manage 8 goals.

Outlook: Eintracht made a bold move in hiring Thomas Schaaf as soon as the season ended.

14 SC Freiburg 34 9 9 16 43:61 -18 36
GRADE: B-

This is a team of nobodies, you probably can’t even mention one player. Maybe even their fans can’t mention anyone.
But they were preapred for a hard relegation battle and kept their spirits up, and were rewarded with safety. A job well done.

Coach: Christian Streich. Did a great job rallying the troops and willing their way to salvation. Unfortunately he is unlikely to be rewarded with any more talent.

Best: Swiss forward Admir Memehdi scored 12 crucial goals and led the attack. The other players were basically unnoticeable.

Worst: Nobody stepped up to a leadership role, but this is a young team, most players in their early 20s.

Outlook: It will be tough next season. The only way to stay alive is if some of the young players blooded this season can step up into leadership roles or have breakout years.

15 VfB Stuttgart 34 8 8 18 49:62 -13 32
GRADE: D

They won a couple of games when they needed to, and since the teams below them were too busy sucking, it would have taken something extraordinary for them to go down.

Coach: Huub Stevens, Thomas Schneider, Bruno Labbadia. Blechhhh…They fired Lab after only 3 games, and that was probably right. But Schneider couldn’t motivate and they continued to slide. Stevens was a desperation punt, and I suppose he did “save” them, but it was less than .500, and since the rivals sucked more, he hardly deserves much credit.

Best: GK Sven Ulreich was excellent. MF Christian Gentner was good.

Worst: Almost the whole defense was bad. Striker Vedad Ibisevic was usually horrible, although he did score 10.

Outlook: House-cleaning and new leadership. This seems like a common theme with Stuttgart. In the past they’ve gotten a little boost by firing their coach, but had no effect this season.

16 Hamburger SV 34 7 6 21 51:75 -24 27
GRADE: F

There’s no other way to put things, this season was a disaster. OK, they saved the Bundesliga as they squeaked by Greuther Fürth in the playoff, but they should be whipped even for that. In fact, it’s disgraceful and they should accept voluntary relegation.

Coach: Mirko Slomka, Bert van Maarwijk, Thorsten Fink. Fink was fired early when HSV was drifting aimlessly, and then van Maarwijk stoked the coals of the fire. Slomka threw gasoline on it. In other words, they really sucked. Although frankly, they weren’t sucking as much under Fink, and I think they probably would have survived a bit easier under him.

Best: Pierre Lassogga, who scored 13 goals in only 20 matches and is a rising star. Of course, he’s on loan from Hertha, but could be coming back permanently. Also, this was Hakan Cahanoglu’s first full season and he had some excellent performances, scoring 11.

Worst: Rafael van der Vaart. The captain was expected to be the saviour, but often disappeared. He did score 7 goals, and had some critical assists, but he needed to lead the team and couldn’t.

The board certainly deserves a lot of the blame. They replaced Fink with even worse coaches, although based on track-record, one might have expected better. The fact is that down the stretch HSV was generally totally gutless, almost wanting to get relegated, but since Nürnberg and Braunschweig were more incompetent, they survived.

Outlook: Who knows? I can’t fathom HSV sucking as much as this season, so I expect a new coach and a house-cleaning should at least make them better than now. They have some talent that could be decent when motivated.

17 1. FC Nürnberg 34 5 11 18 37:70 -33 26
GRADE: F

Der Club sucked. There is no other way to put it. They started weak and finished crap. They were the first Bundesliga club ever not to win in the1st half of season.

Coach: Michael Wiesinger, Gert Verbeek, Roger Prinzen. They all sucked. Wiesinger couldn’t win, Verbeek was hapless and Prinzen couldn’t get anything done.

Best: Josip Drmic. It would be tempting to say everybody sucked, but at least he did what he was supposed to do – he scored. 17 goals is an excellent tally on any team. Honorable mention to midfielder Markus Feulner. GK Raphael Schäfer was also good.

Worst: I would put it on the coaches. There was enough talent on the squad to at least stay up. But if I had to pick, the Czech duo of MF Adam Hlousek and F Tomas Pekhart were really disappointing.

Outlook: The talent is there for re-promotion – and Nürnberg is used to it, as the Bundesliga’s most relegated club. If they get the right coach, they could bounce back, but they could easily implode.

18 Eintracht Braunschweig (N) 34 6 7 21 29:60 -31 25
GRADE: C
It’s a bit hard to rate Braunschweig down too much. Yes, they finished last and were relegated, but you have to consider what they had to work with, which was basically 2.Liga talent that tried really hard. And if by some miracle they had won their last game, they might have actually stayed up.

Coach: Torsten Lieberknecht, did the best he could with what he had.

Best: GK Daniel Divari was generally solid, although not a top keeper

Worst: None really, although forward Daniel Kruppke was generally terrible when he played

Forward Dominic Kumbela scored 9 goals to lead the team, so you get an idea why they got relegated. He had a couple of real good matches though, so he might have a future with another club.

Outlook: If they keep most of their players, they should challenge in the 2.Liga. But the better ones will probably have a chance somewhere else.

Darmstadt does the impossible!

The unbelievable happened in the 2.Liga playoff as 3.division Darmstadt pulled the sensational upset and defeated Arminia Bielefeld in extra-time, gaining promotion to the 2.Liga and sending Bielefeld down.

Bielfeld had won the match in Darmstadt with a solid 3-1 result, so this match in Bielefeld was supposed just to be a celebration of Zweite Liga status. But apparently nobody told Darmstadt, and the Lilies struck hard and pulled off an amazing comeback that nobody – perhaps no even themselves – thought possible.

The guests came out attacking, as expected, but Arminia seemed to have things in control. Even when goal machine Dominik Stroh-Engel put Darmstadt in the lead, things still seemed pretty stable. Indeed, Bielefeld had a slight advantage and kept the 98ers away from goal. In the second period things started heating up. Darmstadt grabbed another goal quickly, but they were barely done celebrating when the hosts scored, gaining the advantage. The guests needed to press forward, and they did. A hammer by midfielder Gondorf gave them a 3-1 advantage and equalized the global mark. They had a few other chances to finish things off, as Bielefeld seemed shell-shocked.

In overtime, both teams relaxed a bit, but soon Darmstadt started to press for the winner. They came close a couple of times, but instead got kicked in the balls: an Arminia counter led to a blast by Przybylko and Bielefeld looked to have survived. In desperation Darmstadt through in everything, including the keeper and kitchen sink. The hero was da Costa, who had only come on for the last assault in the 2nd period of injury time. He fired from 20 meters, and it looked like it bounced off another player into the net. An injury time goal that meant everything! But it wasn’t over. In the last gasp attack before the whistle, Bielefeld’s Feick headed against the post.

With this sensational 4-2, the overall stand was 5-5, but Darmstadt wins on away goals and is promoted to the 2.Liga. Arminia is probably still in shock, but when they revive, they’ll be back down in the 3rd division…


ARMINIA BIELEFELD:

Ortega - 
Strifler, Burmeister, Salger, Feick - 
Schütz - 
K. Przybylko, C. Müller, Riese, Sahar - 
Klos            

Subs:
17. Schönfeld for C. Müller
72. Hille for Sahar
87. Appiah for Klos


SV DARMSTADT 98:

Zimmermann - 
Sirigu, Sulu, Gorka, Stegmayer - 
Behrens, Gondorf - 
M. Heller, Ivana - 
Sailer - 
Stroh-Engel        

Subs:
70. Landeka for Ivana
98. Berzel for Sirigu
112. da Costa for Gondorf

Scoring:


0:1  Stroh-Engel (23., Gondorf)
0:2  Behrens (51., Ivana)
1:2  Burmeister (53., Schütz)
1:3  Gondorf (79., Sailer)
2:3  K. Przybylko (110., Strifler)
2:4  da Costa (120. + 2)

Attendance: 26,200 - Schüco-Arena, Bielefeld (sold-out)

HSV survives!

The promotion second leg ended in a 1-1 draw betweem Hamburger SV and SpVgg Greuther Fürth. The match was the 2nd leg after a 0-0 in Hamburg, and was played in the Trolli-Arena (aka Ronhof) in Fürth in front of a rare sellout of 18,000.

HSV started well against a nervous host, and largely controlled the game. They only needed a goal to get the advantage and Lassogga got it after only 14 minutes on an assist from van der Vaart. This seemed to relax the Hamburgers and they seemed ready to glide through, knowing the Greuthers now had to actually win. And it really didn’t look like it.

Things continued in the 2nd half, but then surprisingly the hosts struck: Fürstner equalized after an hour. This was the signal of a huge performance surge by the Greuther, who now smelled a chance for victory. They pressed hard, and with Hamburg running out of gas, looked close to getting the win. They had a couple of huge chances at the end, Azemi could have squared the ball for an empty net tap-in, but missed it. And a wide open header by Sukalo at the death was way too inaccurate, so HSV survived.

As a result, HSV stays up in the Bundesliga on away goals, and the “Bundesliga clock” in Hamburg continues to run, as they remain the only founding member of the Bundesliga never to get relegated.

SpVgg Greuther Fürth:

Hesl     - 
Brosinski, Mavraj, B. Röcker, Baba - 
Fürstner, Sparv -
Stieber , Weilandt - 
Djurdjic, Azemi

Subs:
72. Füllkrug for Djurdjic
78. Sukalo for Sparv
88. Mudrinski for Brosinski


HAMBURGER SV:

Drobny - 
Diekmeier, Djourou, Westermann, Jiracek - 
Badelj, Arslan - 
Calhanoglu, van der Vaart, Jansen - 
Lasogga    

subs:
31. Mancienne for Djourou
64. Rincon for Arslan
75. Tesche for van der Vaart

Scoring:

0:1  Lasogga (14., header, assist from van der Vaart)
1:1  Fürstner (59., right footed shot, assist from Stieber)

Attendance: 18,000 (sold-out)

Survival playoffs: First leg

Things are *really* beginning to look grim for Hamburger SV. The Bundesliga dinosaur has one foot in the 2. Liga. In the first leg of the Bundesliga playoff, HSV could only reach a 0-0 draw at home against SpVgg Greuther Fürth. This puts the 2.Liga contender in the driver seat of playing at home for all the marbles. The Imtach-Arena was sold out, with 56,479 in attendance (about 1,500 Fürthers made the trip). What they witnessed was a largely drab first half, with the visitors actually having some decent chances to score. HSV raised their game a bit in the 2nd period, controlling the ball, but it was really nothing that bothered the Greuther too much. They were bending, but didn’t break.

Naturally the rematch on Sunday will have all Germany watching, as 50+ years of uninterrupted Bundesliga is clearly at stake. HSV needs to score a goal, pure and simple. That would at least put pressure on the Greuther to win the match.

The 2.Lifga playoff is just about over. Darmstadt laid an egg against Bielefeld, losing at home 1-3. This pretty much means that Arminia will survive another season in the 2.Liga, and Darmstadt’s fine season is for naught. (Well, not really, as they were on wonder time anyway, as they should have been relegated out of the 3.Liga last season, but got a last minute reprieve when Offenbach failed Accountancy 101. However the luck ran out for the 98ers, who started fast in front of 16,500 at the Bollenfalltor. But the energetic start didn’t translate into goals, and Bielefeld was merciless as they struck twice in the first half, and then resisted as Darmstadt attacked desperately after the restart. Basically, unless a disaster happens, the rematch in Bielefeld on Monday should have Arminia staying up in the 2.Liga…

2.Liga, Round 34: FINAL

Paderborn completed the dream season and gain promotion to the Bundesliga, and at the bottom, Bielefeld stunned Dresden and make the relegation playoff, sending Dynamo down.

Paderborn started out nervous and soon was behind against Aalen, who had nothing to play for. The homeside quickly established control and the lead, but Aalen remained pesky throughout the match. SCP however managed to carry it through to victory, thereby gaining an incredible promotion to the Bundesliga.

Greuther Fürth was hoping for a Paderborn slip up, but had theirn hands full with Sandhausen. The Greuther eventually did their job, the victory at least assuring that they get the playoff against Hamburg for a chance to go up.

Düsseldorf overpowered Kaiserslautern in the 2nd half, ending the devils hope of sneaking into 3rd.

A wild match in Dresden, winner fights another day. Bielefeld was quite surprising, pressing back host Dynamo, and generally having the upper hand. Stefan Klos gave them a lead before half-time, and then doubled things after an hour. At that point, the Dresden crowd was furious, and bombarded the field with rockets and fire/pyrotechnics. The match was interrupted for 15 minutes as order was restored. When the match restarted, Dynamo was fast out of the gates and quickly equalized the match. But Arminia was up to the task, and immediately regained the lead. The remaining 20 minutes should have been a desperate Dynamo assault, but instead Arminia easily turned away any attacks, and in fact could have finished off the match themselves. But they achieved their goal by winning, the bitter defeat sending Dresden down. Bielefeld will face off with Darmstadt for the 2.Liga spot

Champions Köln took the day off and was beaten by FSV Frankfurt, in a rare sellout for the Bornheimers.

Total attendance 188,113 (avg 20,901), sellouts in Frankfurt, Berlin, Paderborn and Dresden.

Fortuna Düsseldorf    -   1. FC Kaiserslautern	4:2 (2:2)   45,077

                     1:0  Hoffer (2., Golley)
                     2:0  Halloran (9.)
                     2:1  Matmour (33., Zimmer)
                     2:2  Idrissou (40., Stöger)
                     3:2  Liendl (69., Bolly)
                     4:2  Benschop (87., C. Weber)

SpVgg Greuther Fürth  -   SV Sandhausen	        2:0 (0:0)   16,165

                     1:0  Azemi (52., Stieber)
                     2:0  Stieber (83., Brosinski)

FSV Frankfurt	      -   1. FC Köln	        2:0 (0:0)   12,542 *

                     1:0  Kapllani (65.
                     2:0  Leckie (71., M. Görlitz)

1. FC Union Berlin    -   1860 München	        1:1 (0:1)   21,717 *

                     0:1  Wojtkowiak (17., Stoppelkamp)
                     1:1  Kohlmann (49., Mattuschka)

FC St. Pauli	      -   Erzgebirge Aue	2:2 (2:1)   27,856

                     1:0  Nöthe (14., Maier)
                     1:1  Kocer (28.)
                     2:1  Maier (38., Thy)
                     2:2  Sylvestr (62., Diring)

SC Paderborn 07	      -   VfR Aalen	        2:1 (2:1)   15,000 *

                     0:1  Pohjanpalo (9., Buballa)
                     1:1  Vucinovic (14., Vrancic)
                     2:1  Vrancic (21., Saglik)

FC Ingolstadt 04      -   Energie Cottbus	2:0 (1:0)    5,866

                     1:0  Mo. Hartmann (44., P. Groß)
                     2:0  P. Hofmann (68., P. Groß)

VfL Bochum	      -   Karlsruher SC	        1:0 (0:0)   14,282

                     1:0  Zahirovic (62., Gulden)

Dynamo Dresden	      -   Arminia Bielefeld	2:3 (0:1)   29,608 *

                     0:1  Klos (41., K. Przybylko)
                     0:2  Klos (63., K. Przybylko)
                     1:2  Poté (64., Koch)
                     2:2  Koch (70., Poté)
                     2:3  K. Przybylko (71., Feick)



 1  1. FC Köln	  	        34   19  11  4 	   53:20  +33 	  68 
 2  SC Paderborn 07	  	34   18  8   8 	   63:48  +15 	  62
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (A)	34   17  9   8 	   64:38  +26 	  60
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern        34   15  9   10    55:39  +16 	  54 
 5  Karlsruher SC (N)	  	34   12  14  8 	   47:34  +13 	  50 
 6  Fortuna Düsseldorf (A)	34   13  11  10    45:44  +1 	  50 
 7  1860 München	  	34   13  9   12    38:41  -3 	  48 
 8  FC St. Pauli	  	34   13  9   12    44:49  -5 	  48 
 9  1. FC Union Berlin	  	34   11  11  12    48:47  +1 	  44 
10  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	34   11  11  12    34:33  +1 	  44 
11  VfR Aalen	  	        34   11  11  12    36:39  -3 	  44 
12  SV Sandhausen	  	34   12  8   14    29:35  -6 	  44 
13  FSV Frankfurt	  	34   11  8   15    46:51  -5 	  41 
14  Erzgebirge Aue	  	34   11  8   15    42:54  -12 	  41 
15  VfL Bochum	  	        34   11  7   16    30:43  -13 	  40
--------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Arminia Bielefeld (N)	34    9  8   17    40:58  -18 	  35
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  Dynamo Dresden	  	34    5  17  12    36:53  -17 	  32 
18  Energie Cottbus	  	34    6  7   21    35:59  -24 	  25


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

Top goal scorers:

15 - Jakub Sylvestr	   (Erzgebirge Aue)
15 - Mahir Saglik	   (SC Paderborn 07)
14 - Ilir Azemi	           (SpVgg Greuther Fürth)
13 - Mohammadou Idrissou   (1. FC Kaiserslautern)
13 - Simon Zoller	   (1. FC Kaiserslautern)
12 - Alban Meha	           (SC Paderborn 07)
12 - Patrick Helmes	   (1. FC Köln)
12 - Charlison Benschop	   (Fortuna Düsseldorf)
12 - Torsten Mattuschka	   (1. FC Union Berlin)


Attendance:

5.225.944 (avg 17,078)

 1  1. FC Köln            43,550
 2  Fortuna Düsseldorf    33,268
 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern  29,529
 4  FC St. Pauli          28,403
 5  Dynamo Dresden        26,842
 6  1. FC Union Berlin    19,681
 7  TSV 1860 München      19,094
 8  Arminia Bielefeld     16,961
 9  VfL Bochum            16,284
10  Karlsruher SC         16,145
11  SpVgg Greuther Fürth  11,645
12  SC Paderborn 07       10,748
13  Energie Cottbus        9,647
14  Erzgebirge Aue         9,406
15  VfR Aalen              7,317
16  FC Ingolstadt 04       6,828
17  FSV Frankfurt          5,897
18  SV Sandhausen          5,554

BUNDESLIGA, Round 34: FINAL

No surprises here either. Nürnberg and Braunschweig suck and get relegated. Hamburg sucks less and can save themselves in the relegation playoff.

One might have expected the relegation trio to go all out, but they were all basically flat. Schalke showed to their “fan-allies” Nürnberg, and kicked their ass, so that was that. Hoffenheim also played with honor and went for the jugular against Braunschweig, getting an easy win. The Braunschweigers would have had to attack, and were completely unable. HSV actually did the best, and for at least the first half managed to square off evenly against Mainz. However the hosts needed a win to assure they could hold off Augsburg for Europe. They pressed harded, and perhaps HSV knew at that time that their result was irrelevant, and Mainz broke through for the win. The Hamburgers now have to worry about the playoff with the 2.Liga’s Greuther Fürth.

Champions Bayern München dicked around for most of the match, with oldtimer Claudio Pizzarro finally getting the win in injury time.

Dortmund went out in style, ripping Berlin’s ass. Also, Robert Lewandowski finished his Neon career with a couple of goals, which gave him the Bundesliga’s top goal scorer title.

Leverkusen had a rough time with Bremen, but managed to pull out a win to hold on to the last Champions League spot. Wolfsburg was hoping for the Aspirins to slip up. The VWs played a strong match against Gladbach, but their victory still left them in 5th place, outside of the big league.

Augsburg capped off a fine season with a hard fought win over Frankfurt. The Fuggers kept the pressure on Mainz for the last Euro spot, and although they fell short, they finished with their best campaign ever.

Total attendance was good on the final day, even though there was hardly anything to play for. 412,790 (avg 45,866), and the only venues *not* sold out was Hannover! (Almost, about 98% full)

	
Bayern München	     -   VfB Stuttgart	        1:0 (0:0)   71,000 *

                    1:0  Pizarro (90. + 2)

FC Schalke 04	     -   1. FC Nürnberg	        4:1 (2:0)   61,973 *

                    1:0  Matip (6., M. Meyer)
                    2:0  Neustädter (45.)
                    3:0  Draxler (75.)
                    3:1  Drmic (90. + 1, Angha)
                    4:1  Obasi (90. + 2)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen  -   Werder Bremen	        2:1 (1:1)   30,210 *

                    0:1  Gebre Selassie (21., Hunt)
                    1:1  Toprak (34., Can)
                    2:1  Son (53., Derdiyok)

Hannover 96	     -   SC Freiburg	        3:2 (1:0)   48,600

                    1:0  Huszti (45., direct free kick)
                    1:1  Schmid (50., Darida)
                    2:1  Rudnevs (65., Bittencourt)
                    2:2  Zulechner (78., Darida)
                    3:2  Prib (80., Rudnevs)

VfL Wolfsburg	     -   Bor. Mönchengladbach	3:1 (1:0)   30,000 *

                    1:0  de Bruyne (30., Knoche)
                    1:1  Kramer (64., Raffael)
                    2:1  Perisic (68., Olic)
                    3:1  Knoche (81., Rodriguez)

1899 Hoffenheim	     -   Eintracht Braunschweig	3:1 (1:0)   30,150 *

                    1:0  Rudy (15., Beck)
                    2:0  Roberto Firmino (64., Strobl)
                    3:0  Volland (70., F. Johnson)
                    3:1  Hochscheidt (88., Davari)

1. FSV Mainz 05	     -   Hamburger SV	        3:2 (1:1)   34,000 *

                    1:0  Soto (7.)
                    1:1  Lasogga (12., van der Vaart)
                    2:1  Malli (65., Koo)
                    3:1  Okazaki (82., Malli)
                    3:2  Ilicevic (84., Jiracek)

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

                    0:1  Joselu (15., S. Jung)
                    1:1  Klavan (29., To. Werner)
                    2:1  Hahn (80., Ostrzolek)

Hertha BSC	     -   Borussia Dortmund	0:4 (0:2)   76,197 *

                    0:1  Lewandowski (41., Hummels)
                    0:2  Jojic (44.)
                    0:3  Lewandowski (80., direct freekick)
                    0:4  H. Mkhitaryan (82., Aubameyang)



 1  Bayern München (M, P)	34   29  3  2 	  94:23  +71 	  90 
 2  Borussia Dortmund	  	34   22  5  7 	  80:38  +42 	  71 
 3  FC Schalke 04	  	34   19  7  8 	  63:43  +20 	  64
 4  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	34   19  4  11 	  60:41  +19 	  61
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  VfL Wolfsburg	  	34   18  6  10 	  63:50  +13 	  60 
 6  Bor. Mönchengladbach	34   16  7  11 	  59:43  +16 	  55 
 7  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	34   16  5  13 	  52:54  -2 	  53
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 8  FC Augsburg	  	        34   15  7  12 	  47:47   0 	  52 
 9  1899 Hoffenheim	  	34   11  11 12 	  72:70  +2 	  44 
10  Hannover 96	  	        34   12  6  16 	  46:59  -13 	  42 
11  Hertha BSC Berlin (N)	34   11  8  15 	  40:48  -8 	  41 
12  Werder Bremen	  	34   10  9  15 	  42:66  -24 	  39 
13  Eintracht Frankfurt	  	34    9  9  16 	  40:57  -17 	  36 
14  SC Freiburg	  	        34    9  9  16 	  43:61  -18 	  36 
15  VfB Stuttgart	  	34    8  8  18 	  49:62  -13 	  32
--------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Hamburger SV	  	34    7  6  21 	  51:75  -24 	  27
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  1. FC Nürnberg	  	34    5 11  18 	  37:70  -33 	  26 
18  Eintracht Braunschweig (N)	34    6  7  21 	  29:60  -31 	  25


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

3.Liga, Round 38: FINAL

No surprises. Heidenheim won the title with a solid win over Unterhaching. They led pretty much wire to wire, but slacked off after promotion was assured. Still, a deserved champion. Elversberg is relegated, as they got owned in Dortmund. Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered, as Kiel got an impressive win at Dramstadt, who will had nothing to play for. Since Osnabrück was unable to win, Wehen held to the 4th spot for DFB Cup qualification.

Actually there still is a bit of drama. The DFL, which regulates the Bundesliga and 2.Liga, has declared that RB Leipzig must meet certain requirements for the 2.Liga. Among them are changing the club logo. In Germany, clubs cannot be wholly owned by a company or individual (Bayer Leverksuen is an exception, grandfathered in, but they started back in 1904.) Among other things, the club logo cannot be commercial. (It’s OK as a *sponsor* on the jersey, but not the club logo). And the company cannot name the club. Of course, Red Bull owns RB Leipzig, and they get around the regulation by being officially “Rasenballsport”. This has been tried before, notably with LR Ahlen (“Leichtathletik und Rasensport Ahlen e.V.”, although owned by the LR cosmetics company until bankruptcy, now simply “Rot-Weiss Ahlen”). Anyway, the DFL stated that the regulations will be enforced. Red Bull has stated that they won’t comply, even it means they have to withdraw from the 2.Liga (Haha, what a bunch of wankers. I’d like to see them do that!). Most likely there will be some court cases, and we’ll see what happens. But in an extreme case, all clubs would get moved up a notch, which means direct promotion for Darmstadt, playoffs for Wehen and perhaps direct DFB Cup qualification for Osnabrück.

Total attendance 73,536 (avg 7,354)

 	
1. FC Heidenheim     -   SpVgg Unterhaching	2:0 (2:0)   12,600 
Jahn Regensburg	     -   VfL Osnabrück	        0:0 (0:0)    3,156
Chemnitzer FC	     -   VfB Stuttgart II	0:0 (0:0)    4,562
Borussia Dortmund II -   SV Elversberg	        3:0 (2:0)    1,350
SV Darmstadt 98	     -   Holstein Kiel	        1:3 (1:2)   12,500
Hansa Rostock	     -   SV Wehen Wiesbaden	1:1 (0:1)    8,100
1. FC Saarbrücken    -   Rot Weiß Erfurt	0:1 (0:0)    2,728
Stuttgarter Kickers  -   RasenBallsport Leipzig	1:3 (0:2)    5,800
Hallescher FC	     -   Wacker Burghausen	2:4 (1:1)    8,278
MSV Duisburg	     -   Preußen Münster	0:1 (0:1)   14,462 


 1  1. FC Heidenheim	  	38   23  10 5 	   59:25  +34 	  79 
 2  RasenBallsport Leipzig (N)	38   24  7 7 	   65:34  +31 	  79
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  SV Darmstadt 98	  	38   21   9  8 	   58:29  +29 	  72
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  SV Wehen Wiesbaden	  	38   15  11  12    43:44  -1 	  56 
 5  VfL Osnabrück	  	38   15  10  13    50:39  +11 	  55 
 6  Preußen Münster	  	38   13  14  11    55:50  +5 	  53 
 7  MSV Duisburg (A)	  	38   13  13  12    43:43   0 	  52 
 8  Stuttgarter Kickers	  	38   13  12  13    45:46  -1 	  51 
 9  Hallescher FC	  	38   14   9  15    50:55  -5 	  51 
10  Rot Weiß Erfurt	  	38   14   8  16    53:49  +4 	  50 
11  Jahn Regensburg (A)	  	38   12  13  13    51:51   0 	  49 
12  Chemnitzer FC	  	38   12  13  13    43:46  -3 	  49 
13  Hansa Rostock	  	38   13  10  15    45:55  -10 	  49 
14  Borussia Dortmund II	38   12  10  16    47:55  -8 	  46 
15  VfB Stuttgart II	  	38   12  10  16    45:54  -9 	  46 
16  Holstein Kiel (N)	  	38   10  15  13    42:38  +4 	  45 
17  SpVgg Unterhaching	  	38   11  10  17    50:65  -15 	  43
--------------------------------------------------------------------
18  SV Elversberg (N)	  	38   10  10  18    32:54  -22 	  40 
19  Wacker Burghausen	  	38    9  10  19    39:58  -19 	  37 
20  1. FC Saarbrücken	  	38    8   8  22    38:63  -25 	  32

A = Absteiger just relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

1st line: Promotion to 2.Liga
2nd line: Promotion Playoff with 2.Liga 16th place (Darmstadt defeats Bielefeld)
3rd line: Relegation to Regionalliga


Goal scorers

27 - Dominik Stroh-Engel (SV Darmstadt 98)
19 - Daniel Frahn        (RasenBallsport Leipzig)
14 - Kingsley Onuegbu    (MSV Duisburg)
13 - Marc Schnatterer    (1. FC Heidenheim)
13 - Dominik Kaiser      (RasenBallsport Leipzig)
12 - Timo Furuholm       (Hallescher FC)
12 - Anton Fink          (Chemnitzer FC)
12 - Vincenzo Marchese   (Stuttgarter Kickers)
12 - Marvin Ducksch      (Borussia Dortmund II)
12 - Adriano Grimaldi    (VfL Osnabrück)


Attendance
Total attendance 2,302,045 (avg 6,058)

 1  RasenBallsport Leipzig  16,734
 2  MSV Duisburg            12,599
 3  Hansa Rostock            9,989
 4  1. FC Heidenheim         8,803
 5  VfL Osnabrück            8,634
 6  Preußen Münster          8,057
 7  Hallescher FC            7,999
 8  SV Darmstadt 98          7,069
 9  Rot-Weiß Erfurt          5,903
10  Holstein Kiel            5,374
11  Chemnitzer FC            5,142
12  1. FC Saarbrücken        4,697
13  Stuttgarter Kickers      3,993
14  SSV Jahn Regensburg      3,480
15  SV Wehen Wiesbaden       3,282
16  Borussia Dortmund II     2,413
17  SpVgg Unterhaching       2,211
18  Wacker Burghausen        2,144
19  SV 07 Elversberg         1,606
20  VfB Stuttgart II         1,029


2.Liga, Round 33: Last week to decide

Paderborn put in a solid performance at Aue, and has one foot in the Bundesliga. They met with strong resistance from Erzgebirge, but were generally in complete control throughout the match. This means a win next week at home against in-form Aalen sends the Westfalen up to the top, which is certainly something nobody has really seriously thought about except in fantasy football.

Greuther Fürth ripped Cottbus in preparation for promotion. The Greuther figure to defeat Sandhausen at home next week, so they will get direct promotion if Paderborn falters, or will be in the playoff. Energie put up token resistance, but had no chance. This is probably the worst home defeat for Cottbus in 17 years of 1st/2nd division play that I can remember.

Kaiserslautern kept their slight promotion hopes alive by spanking Dresden, who are desperately holding on to the last chance to avoid relegation. Dynamo dug their own grave early, and eventually got rolled. FCK has to hope for Fürth to lose next week (unlikely) to have a chance. However Dresden will face off against Bielefeld next week: loser is automatically relegated, winner is in a playoff with Darmstadt for the 2.Liga spot.

Bielefeld had a chance to improve their position, but were held to a scoreless tie at home against FSV Frankfurt. This point means that FSV survives again, and that Arminia travels to Dresden needing a win, pure and simple.

Champions Köln held a promotion party and beat up their guest St.Pauli, winning easily.

1860 easily beat Bochum, with veteran Benny Lauth scoring in his fair-well to home fans. Lauth is the Lions all-time leading scorer in the 2.Liga.

Aalen beat the stuffing out of Union Berlin, who really collapsed down the home stretch.

Total attendance 178,934 (avg 19,882), sellout in Köln

 	
1. FC Kaiserslautern  -   Dynamo Dresden	4:0 (1:0)   30,360

                     1:0  Leistner (6., own goal, Matmour)
                     2:0  Idrissou (64., penalty, Linksschuss, Matmour)
                     3:0  Idrissou (84., Zimmer)
                     4:0  Stöger (90. + 2, Dick)

1. FC Köln	      -   FC St. Pauli          4:0 (3:0)   50,000 *

                     1:0  Ujah (13., Nagasawa)
                     2:0  Kalla (39., own goal, Risse)
                     3:0  Helmes (43., D. Halfar)
                     4:0  Bigalke (61., M. Lehmann)

1860 München	      -   VfL Bochum	        2:0 (1:0)   20,600

                     1:0  Osako (31., Wood)
                     2:0  Lauth (90. + 1,  Osako)

Energie Cottbus	      -   SpVgg Greuther Fürth	0:6 (0:2)    8,497

                     0:1  Fürstner (34., Djurdjic)
                     0:2  Azemi (44.)
                     0:3  Djurdjic (69., Brosinski)
                     0:4  Sukalo (74., Gießelmann)
                     0:5  Azemi (84., Gießelmann)
                     0:6  Djurdjic (85., Azemi)

VfR Aalen	      -   1. FC Union Berlin	3:0 (1:0)    7,579

                     1:0  Pohjanpalo (8., Lechleiter)
                     2:0  Pohjanpalo (68., Klauß)
                     3:0  Buballa (79., Junglas)

SV Sandhausen	      -   FC Ingolstadt 04	0:2 (0:2)    5,450

                     0:1  Caiuby (25., penalty, Lex)
                     0:2  P. Hofmann (37., Caiuby)

Erzgebirge Aue	      -   SC Paderborn 07	0:2 (0:1)   12,350

                     0:1  Meha (35.)
                     0:2  Vrancic (66., Saglik)

Karlsruher SC	      -   Fortuna Düsseldorf	2:2 (1:2)   21,907

                     0:1  Hoffer (18., Levels)
                     1:1  Hennings (22., Klingmann)
                     1:2  Bodzek (44., Liendl)
                     2:2  Hennings (68., penalty, Torres)

Arminia Bielefeld     -   FSV Frankfurt	        0:0 (0:0)   22,191


 1  1. FC Köln	  	        33   19  11  3 	  53:18  +35 	  68 
 2  SC Paderborn 07	  	33   17  8   8 	  61:47  +14 	  59
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (A)    33   16  9   8 	  62:38  +24 	  57
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern	33   15  9   9 	  53:35  +18 	  54 
 5  Karlsruher SC (N)	  	33   12  14  7 	  47:33  +14 	  50 
 6  Fortuna Düsseldorf (A)	33   12  11 10 	  41:42  -1 	  47 
 7  1860 München	  	33   13  8  12 	  37:40  -3 	  47 
 8  FC St. Pauli	  	33   13  8  12 	  42:47  -5 	  47 
 9  VfR Aalen	  	        33   11  11 11 	  35:37  -2 	  44 
10  SV Sandhausen	  	33   12  8  13 	  29:33  -4 	  44 
11  1. FC Union Berlin	  	33   11  10 12 	  47:46  +1 	  43 
12  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	33   10  11 12 	  32:33  -1 	  41 
13  Erzgebirge Aue	  	33   11  7  15 	  40:52  -12 	  40 
14  FSV Frankfurt	  	33   10  8  15 	  44:51  -7 	  38 
15  VfL Bochum	  	        33   10  7  16 	  29:43  -14 	  37
--------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Dynamo Dresden	  	33    5  17 11 	  34:50  -16 	  32
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  Arminia Bielefeld (N)	33    8  8  17 	  37:56  -19 	  32 
18  Energie Cottbus	  	33    6  7  20 	  35:57  -22 	  25

	

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

BUNDESLIGA, Round 33: Who still has hope?

The only thing really left is who will have a chance to survive via the relegation playoff.

Hamburg, Nürnberg and Braunschweig all sucked and lost at home. But they all still have a chance to finish 16th and thereby keep one last hope in the playoff. The likely opponent will be last year’s relegated squad, SpVgg Greuther Fürth (now that would be an intense Franken-derby if it turns out to be Nürnberg, as the two cities are neighbors). All three clubs are on the road next week. Hamburg as a tough assignment, at Mainz. Mainz needs to win to assure that they qualify for Europe, so they’ll certainly be motivated. Nürnberg is at Schalke, who need a point to assure 3rd place. But if Schalke gets that point, Nürnberg is down. There is a “traditional” friendship between the two clubs supporters, but I wouldn’t expect that to play much of a role. Perhaps the Schalke fans will sing a sad goodbye song if der Club goes down. Ironically, Braunschweig has the “easiest” assignment: they’re at Hoffenheim. The Hoppers have nothing to play for, but in fairness, they’ve been playing pretty hard recently. And they score a lot of goals, which isn’t good for Braunschweig.

HSV was without a chance as they faced Bayern München, who were embarrassed mid-week by Real Madrid, perhaps in a mini-crisis. But they didn’t show much of it against Hamburg, who fought hard early, but were lost once they fell behind. Bayern showed little mercy in ripping their hosts.

Nürnberg was completely lame against Hannover. The 96ers didn’t seem too interested in winning, as they were already safe. But a crap Nürnberg was too good to turn down, so the visitors grabbed a couple of goals and take all the points. Really, a disaster for der Club, who really needed to get these points.

Braunschweig is unfortunate to not hold a point, although it really doesn’t matter too much. They would still need to win at Hoffenheim to have a chance. Augsburg got a late injury time goal to keep the pressure on Mainz for the last Euro spot. Overall the Fuggers probably deserved the win.

Stuttgart actually lost at home to Wolfsburg, but since the others lost, they are now officially safe. They only have to ponder why they have sucked so much, but at least they can figure out what to do next season. This keeps Wolfsburg’s hope of sneaking into the Champions League if Leverkusen should slip next week. However the Aspirins looked pretty solid with a strong performance winning at Frankfurt.

Schalke assured a Champions League spot with a win at Freiburg. They would like to hold 3rd, which is direct qualification, but they are guaranteed at least the playoff. It was a solid performance, similar to their Euro clinching win last year at Freiburg.

Dortmund said goodbye to Robert Lewandowski in an entertaining match with Hoffenheim. Neither side had much to play for, but both teams went for the win.

Total attendance 434,924 (avg 48,325), sellouts in Dortmund, Gladbach, Bremen, Freiburg, Hamburg, Frankfurt

 	
Borussia Dortmund     -   1899 Hoffenheim	3:2 (3:1)   80,200 *

                     0:1  Roberto Firmino (5.)
                     1:1  Großkreutz (29., Jojic)
                     2:1  H. Mkhitaryan (31., Reus)
                     3:1  Piszczek (34.)
                     3:2  Süle (66.)

Bor. Mönchengladbach  -   1. FSV Mainz 05	3:1 (1:0)   54,010 *

                     1:0  Stranzl (22., Alvaro Dominguez)
                     2:0  M. Kruse (54.)
                     2:1  Choupo-Moting (65., Pospech)
                     3:1  Kramer (77., M. Kruse)

VfB Stuttgart	      -   VfL Wolfsburg	        1:2 (0:1)   58,000

                     0:1  de Bruyne (13.)
                     1:1  Gentner (62., Cacau)
                     1:2  Olic (90. + 1, Vieirinha)

Werder Bremen	      -   Hertha BSC	        2:0 (0:0)   42,100 *

                     1:0  Hunt (48., di Santo)
                     2:0  Hunt (90. + 1, Fritz)

1. FC Nürnberg	      -   Hannover 96	        0:2 (0:1)   46,014

                     0:1  Huszti (5., Rudnevs)
                     0:2  Schmiedebach (51., Rudnevs)

SC Freiburg	      -   FC Schalke 04	        0:2 (0:1)   24,000 *

                     0:1  Ayhan (13.)
                     0:2  Huntelaar (65.)

Hamburger SV	      -   Bayern München	1:4 (0:1)   57,000 *

                     0:1  M. Götze (32., Robben)
                     0:2  T. Müller (55., M. Götze)
                     0:3  M. Götze (70., T. Müller)
                     1:3  Calhanoglu (72., Demirbay)
                     1:4  Pizarro (75.)

Eintr. Braunschweig   -   FC Augsburg	        0:1 (0:0)   22,600

                     0:1  Bobadilla (90. + 4, Hahn)

Eintracht Frankfurt   -   Bayer 04 Leverkusen	0:2 (0:2)   51,000 *

                     0:1  Castro (27., Derdiyok)
                     0:2  Can (36., Brandt)
	


 1  Bayern München (M, P)	33   28  3  2 	  93:23  +70 	  87 
 2  Borussia Dortmund	  	33   21  5  7 	  76:38  +38 	  68 
 3  FC Schalke 04	  	33   18  7  8 	  59:42  +17 	  61
 4  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	33   18  4  11 	  58:40  +18 	  58
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  VfL Wolfsburg	  	33   17  6  10 	  60:49  +11 	  57 
 6  Bor. Mönchengladbach	33   16  7  10 	  58:40  +18 	  55 
 7  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	33   15  5  13 	  49:52  -3 	  50
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 8  FC Augsburg	  	        33   14  7  12 	  45:46  -1 	  49 
 9  1899 Hoffenheim	  	33   10  11 12 	  69:69   0 	  41 
10  Hertha BSC Berlin (N)	33   11  8  14 	  40:44  -4 	  41 
11  Hannover 96	  	        33   11  6  16 	  43:57  -14 	  39 
12  Werder Bremen	  	33   10  9  14 	  41:64  -23 	  39 
13  Eintracht Frankfurt	  	33    9  9  15 	  39:55  -16 	  36 
14  SC Freiburg	  	        33    9  9  15 	  41:58  -17 	  36 
15  VfB Stuttgart	  	33    8  8  17 	  49:61  -12 	  32
--------------------------------------------------------------------
16  Hamburger SV	  	33    7  6  20 	  49:72  -23 	  27
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  1. FC Nürnberg	  	33    5  11 17 	  36:66  -30 	  26 
18  Eintracht Braunschweig (N)	33    6  7  20 	  28:57  -29 	  25


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