As surprising as it may seem, Ingolstadt is well on it’s way to the Bundesliga. If nothing else, they’ll be leading at the half-way mark. Unheralded teams seem to be popping up on a regular basis in recent years, with clubs like Augsburg, Fürth and Paderborn popping up, and die Schanzer are in a good position to continue the streak. This time they travelled to moneybags Leipzig and came away with a hard-fought win. An early goal and robust defense was what was needed, and FCI was solid throughout the match.

Kaiserslautern had no problems kicking Aue’s butt. They were pretty much in control from the start, and decided to take the 2nd half off. Erzgebirge had some good chances to equalize, but when they blew them, FCK pounced and essentially ended the match.

Karslruhe has moved into 3rd by downing Braunschweig. Both teams have been doing well recently,. KSC unbeaten in 6th – with only giving up a single goal, and EB having won 5 in a row. The hosts looked the better team and came away with an important win.

Well, last week Düsseldorf stubbed their toe, this week they got rammed with a cattle prod up their…whatever, you get the idea. An it wasn’t bad luck, as visiting Sandhausen was simply the better side. The lower ranked team looked ready to play, and Fortuna was tired and disorganized.

Heidenheim was stunned by Aalen in a local derby, but they can’t complain too much. Hard-fought, but Aalen was generally better and FCH acted confused. The visitors actually missed a penalty early, but Heidenheim’s Kraus got his ass tossed just before half, and that gave the visitors a permanent upper hand. Huge points for them, and FCH’s run has been slowed.

Two rudderless ships met in Bochum, as St.Pauli actually put together a decent match, taking the lead three times. However the Hamburgers have the worst defense and Bochum is among the best in scoring, so not surprisingly StP wasn’t able to hold on. Still, a good effort for the struggling visitors and a crucial away point. Bochum remains in disarray, despite the comebacks.

Darmstadt and Greuther Fürth played a cautious battle, seemingly mostly in the midway circle and lacking much goal action.

Union Berlin got some important points as they got a deserved win over FSV Frankfurt. The visitors had been hot on the road, but they’ve never done well in Berlin, and were outplayed for most of the match.

Monday night a Bavarian derby between Nürnberg and 1860. Normally this would be big, but both teams have been sucking.

 	
Fortuna Düsseldorf    -   SV Sandhausen	        1:3 (1:1)   27,274

                     0:1  Bouhaddouz (4., Thiede)
                     1:1  Halloran (23., Pohjanpalo)
                     1:2  Olajengbesi (66., Kübler)
                     1:3  Bouhaddouz (77., Adler)

VfL Bochum	      -   FC St. Pauli	        3:3 (1:2)   17,134

                     0:1  Verhoek (33., Buballa)
                     1:1  Ziereis (38., own goal, Terodde)
                     1:2  Daube (40., Maier)
                     2:2  Sestak (58., Celozzi)
                     2:3  Maier (69., Thy)
                     3:3  Weis (81., Terodde)

1. FC Heidenheim      -   VfR Aalen	        0:1 (0:0)   13,000 *

                     0:1  Drexler (50.)
 
1. FC Kaiserslautern  -   Erzgebirge Aue	3:0 (3:0)   23,418

                     1:0  Orban (7., Demirbay)
                     2:0  Zimmer (27., Jenssen)
                     3:0  Orban (41., Lakic)

SV Darmstadt 98	      -   SpVgg Greuther Fürth	0:0 (0:0)   11,200
	 	
Karlsruher SC	      -   Eintr. Braunschweig	1:0 (1:0)   13,113

                     1:0  Torres (39., Yamada)

1. FC Union Berlin    -   FSV Frankfurt  	2:1 (0:0)   15,802

                     1:0  Skrzybski (47., Polter)
                     2:0  M. Thiel (71., Skrzybski)
                     2:1  Kapllani (90. + 2, Grifo)


RasenBall Leipzig     -   FC Ingolstadt 04	0:1 (0:1)   23,985

                     0:1  P. Groß (9., Leckie)

Monday:
1. FC Nürnberg	      -   1860 München	        2:1 (2:1)   31,079

                     1:0  Schöpf (14., Füllkrug)
                     2:0  Sylvestr (17., Schöpf)
                     2:1  Mössmer (28., own goal, Wittek)
	


 1  FC Ingolstadt 04 	  	16    9  6  1 	  26:11  +15 	  33 
 2  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	16    7  7  2 	  25:16  +9 	  28
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 3  Karlsruher SC 	  	16    7  6  3 	  21:11  +10 	  27
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 4  SV Darmstadt 98 (N) 	16    6  8  2 	  20:12  +8 	  26 
 5  Eintracht Braunschweig (A) 	16    8  2  6 	  24:18  +6 	  26 
 6  Fortuna Düsseldorf	  	16    6  7  3 	  25:20  +5 	  25 
 7  1. FC Heidenheim (N) 	16    6  6  4 	  27:16  +11 	  24 
 8  RasenBallsport Leipzig (N)	16    6  6  4 	  20:11  +9 	  24 
 9  SpVgg Greuther Fürth 	16    5  6  5 	  22:22   0 	  21 
10  VfL Bochum 	  	        16    4  8  4 	  27:27   0 	  20 
11  1. FC Union Berlin	  	16    5  5  6 	  19:27  -8 	  20 
12  1. FC Nürnberg (A) 	  	16    6  2  8 	  18:27  -9 	  20 
13  SV Sandhausen 	  	16    5  4  7 	  14:22  -8 	  19 
14  FSV Frankfurt 	  	16    5  3  8 	  21:27  -6 	  18 
15  VfR Aalen 	  	        16    4  4  8 	  13:20  -7 	  16
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16  1860 München 	  	16    4  3  9 	  20:26  -6 	  15
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17  FC St. Pauli 	  	16    3  4  9 	  18:35  -17 	  13 
18  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	16    3  3  10 	  14:26  -12 	  12


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

A = Absteiger just relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

Bielefeld defended the lead with a routine win against Mainz-II. Not much to say except Arminia always looked like the winner, and only did enough to secure the points.

Münster keeps pace with an away win at Rostock, who are in terrible circumstances. Actually, I’m a bit surprised that they haven’t fired coach Peter Vollmann. It seems like even the vocal Rostock support is losing steam, as they had a tiny crowd for an attractive opponent.

Duisburg stayed relevant with a ho-hum win against tailpipe Regensburg.

Stuttgarter Kickers pushed Wehen further down with a goal deep into injury time. Overall, it was probably deserved, as they had more of the play, but couldn’t score till late…and then Wehen equalized only a couple minutes later.

Kiel hasn’t given up a goal in 6 straight matches, but Unterhaching put an end to that. However the Holsteiners aren’t heartbroken, as they are still unbeaten in 11, a fine run for them. Another critical point for haching to remain above the relegation mess.

Fortuna Köln was dominant in the duel between promoted sides against Sonnenhof Großaspach. They’ve done a decent job and are well on their way to securing their spot in the 3.Liga. They looked strong on both sides of the ball. The only disappointment is the lame support given by the Köln fan base. Even if 1.FCK rules the city (who played and lost at home), you’d think there would be at least a measly couple thousand that would be willing to watch Fortuna.

Chemnitz now has officially fallen out of the race. An early pace-setter, CFC has been drowning, and neighbors Halle basically just completed it by holding their heads under the surface. Of course with things being so tight, they could bounce right back with a few wins, but certainly haven’t been showing anything recently.

 	
Arminia Bielefeld    -   1. FSV Mainz 05 II	2:0 (1:0)    9,641
Fortuna Köln	     -   SG Sonhf. Großaspach	4:0 (1:0)      948
MSV Duisburg	     -   Jahn Regensburg	2:0 (1:0)   10,081
Stuttgarter Kickers  -   SV Wehen Wiesbaden	2:1 (0:0)    2,155
SpVgg Unterhaching   -   Holstein Kiel	        1:1 (1:0)    1,600
Borussia Dortmund II -   Rot-Weiß Erfurt	0:0 (0:0)    2,080
Hansa Rostock	     -   Preußen Münster	0:2 (0:1)    5,600
Chemnitzer FC	     -   Hallescher FC	        0:2 (0:2)    5,603
Energie Cottbus	     -   VfL Osnabrück	        -:- (-:-) 
VfB Stuttgart II     -   Dynamo Dresden	        -:- (-:-) 


 1  Arminia Bielefeld (A)	20   11  4  5 	  37:23  +14 	  37 
 2  Preußen Münster 	  	20   10  6  4 	  31:22  +9 	  36
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 3  MSV Duisburg 	  	20    9  7  4 	  28:19  +9 	  34
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Energie Cottbus (A) 	19    9  6  4 	  22:16  +6 	  33 
 5  Stuttgarter Kickers 	20    8  8  4 	  31:24  +7 	  32 
 6  Dynamo Dresden (A) 	  	19    8  7  4 	  27:23  +4 	  31 
 7  VfL Osnabrück 	  	19    9  4  6 	  31:28  +3 	  31 
 8  Holstein Kiel 	  	20    7  9  4 	  22:14  +8 	  30 
 9  SV Wehen Wiesbaden 	  	20    9  3  8 	  32:26  +6 	  30 
10  Rot-Weiß Erfurt 	  	20    8  6  6 	  27:27   0 	  30 
11  Fortuna Köln (N) 	  	20    8  4  8 	  23:18  +5 	  28 
12  Chemnitzer FC 	  	20    8  4  8 	  20:16  +4 	  28 
13  Hallescher FC 	  	20    8  4  8 	  25:25   0 	  28 
14  VfB Stuttgart II 	  	19    7  3  9 	  25:32  -7 	  24 
15  SpVgg Unterhaching 	  	20    6  5  9 	  30:35  -5 	  23 
16  SG Sonnenhof Großaspach (N) 20    5  5  10 	  21:36  -15 	  20 
17  1. FSV Mainz 05 II (N) 	20    5  4  11 	  22:32  -10 	  19
--------------------------------------------------------------------
18  Borussia Dortmund II 	20    3  9  8 	  22:28  -6 	  18 
19  Hansa Rostock 	  	20    4  5  11 	  27:38  -11 	  17 
20  Jahn Regensburg 	  	20    3  3  14 	  17:38  -21 	  12


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