Bundesliga final round, and Köln is relegated, Hertha will fight for survival…
1. FC Nürnberg - Bayer Leverkusen 1:4 (0:2) 48,548
0:1 Kießling (6., Reinartz)
0:2 Kießling (32., Schürrle)
1:2 Mak (58., Bunjaku)
1:3 Schürrle (77., Reinartz)
1:4 Kießling (89., M. Friedrich)
1. FC Köln - Bayern München 1:4 (0:1) 50,000
0:1 T. Müller (34., Ribery)
0:2 Geromel (52., own goal, Ribery)
0:3 Robben (54., Kroos)
1:3 Novakovic (63., Podolski)
1:4 T. Müller (85., Rafinha)
Werder Bremen - FC Schalke 04 2:3 (1:1) 42,100
0:1 Draxler (30., Huntelaar)
1:1 Pizarro (42., penalty, Hunt)
1:2 Huntelaar (65., Farfan)
1:3 Huntelaar (74., Höger)
2:3 Pizarro (82., Hunt)
FC Augsburg - Hamburger SV 1:0 (1:0) 30.660
1:0 Koo (34., Verhaegh)
Borussia Dortmund - SC Freiburg 4:0 (4:0) 80,720
1:0 Blaszczykowski (5., Gündogan)
2:0 Lewandowski (20., Subotic)
3:0 Lewandowski (27., Piszczek)
4:0 Blaszczykowski (39., Kagawa)
Hannover 96 - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2:1 (1:1) 49,000
0:1 De Wit (7., Kirch)
1:1 Bugera (38., own goal, Ya Konan)
2:1 Ya Konan (71., Stindl)
Hertha BSC - 1899 Hoffenheim 3:1 (1:0) 51,837
1:0 Ben-Hatira (14.)
2:0 Ben-Hatira (78., Ramos)
2:1 Compper (85., Braafheid)
3:1 Raffael (90. + 2)
VfB Stuttgart - VfL Wolfsburg 3:2 (0:1) 58,500
0:1 Helmes (28., Mandzukic)
0:2 Russ (60., Helmes)
1:2 Cacau (73., Delpierre)
2:2 Maza (77., Sakai)
3:2 Traoré (79., Sakai)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - Borussia M'gladbach 0:3 (0:1) 34,000
0:1 Reus (31., Daems)
0:2 Reus (62., Neustädter)
0:3 de Camargo (69., Reus)
1 Borussia Dortmund (M) 34 25 6 3 80:25 +55 81
2 Bayern München 34 23 4 7 77:22 +55 73
3 FC Schalke 04 (P) 34 20 4 10 74:44 +30 64
4 Borussia M'gladbach 34 17 9 8 49:24 +25 60
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5 Bayer Leverkusen 34 15 9 10 52:44 +8 54
6 VfB Stuttgart 34 15 8 11 63:46 +17 53
7 Hannover 96 34 12 12 10 41:45 -4 48
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8 VfL Wolfsburg 34 13 5 16 47:60 -13 44
9 Werder Bremen 34 11 9 14 49:58 -9 42
10 1. FC Nürnberg 34 12 6 16 38:49 -11 42
11 1899 Hoffenheim 34 10 11 13 41:47 -6 41
12 SC Freiburg 34 10 10 14 45:61 -16 40
13 1. FSV Mainz 05 34 9 12 13 47:51 -4 39
14 FC Augsburg (N) 34 8 14 12 36:49 -13 38
15 Hamburger SV 34 8 12 14 35:57 -22 36
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16 Hertha BSC Berlin (N) 34 7 10 17 38:64 -26 31
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17 1. FC Köln 34 8 6 20 39:75 -36 30
18 1. FC Kaiserslautern 34 4 11 19 24:54 -30 23
All matches were in sold-out stadiums, with the exception of Stuttgart and (surprise!) Berlin…445,365 in attendance, an average of 49,485 per match.
Köln went down in a heap against Bayern München. It as always going to be a tough assignment, but at least until Bayern opened the scoring, it was a pretty even match. Köln made up for lack of talent with effort, and especially Lukas Podolski (playing his last match for Köln) was up and down the field. But after Bayern took the lead, some of the air went out. At the same time, news trickled in that Hertha was winning. This meant that Köln would need a win. Geromel’s own goal sealed their fate, and relegation was reality. For Bayern, it was basically a stroll in the park.
Hertha BSC would only have a chance with a win. Luckily for them, their opponent was Hoffenheim, not exactly the most motivated opponent. Ben-Hatira’s free-kick gave Hertha the early lead, and then the Hopper’s Ryan Babel got his ass red carded just before half. This made things easier for nervous Hertha. Ben-Hatira scored late in the 2nd to calm things down, but Hoffenheim struck back, leaving a few anxious minutes. Now Hertha will have to face the 3rd place 2.Liga team in a home/away playoff for Bundesliga survival.
Champions Dortmund had no trouble with a lame Freiburg squad. SCF had done the heavy work earlier and saved themselves, so they decided to go on vacation earlier. The Neons could have scored a boat-load of goals, but settled for a simple rout. Since it was a party atmosphere, nobody seemed to mind. Dortmund sets a record for most points in a Bundesliga, passing the great Bayern teams of the early seventies (when re-calculated on 3 point scale).
Leverkusen had one of their best performances as they kicked Nürnberg’s ass. Actually the match was pretty even, but FCN dicked around in front of goal, and the Aspirins were deadly. It was an ex-FCN man, Stefan Kiessling who did all the damage. The Alka-Seltzers defend 5th place, which is automatic qualification into the group stages of the Europa-liga.
An exciting match in Bremen saw Schalke take the points. Werder has been in free-fall and blew their last chance for Europe. Schalke’s Huntelaar takes the scoring title, the first Dutch player to do so.
Stuttgart was taking a beating against Wolfsburg, but oldtimer Cacau ignited a stunning 6 minutes when VfB came roaring back and won the match.
Hannover was struggling against last place Kaiserslautern. Didier Ya-Konan then got the winner that sends Hannover back into Europe.
Augsburg capped a wonderful fighting season with a win against disappointing Hamburg. After the match, FCA’s Dutch coach Jos Luhukay resigned. My guess is that he’s figured he’s taken the Fuggers as far as they’re going to go and he doesn’t want to be around if they take a beating next season. Of course, given the great job he has done, he might be looking to move to a bigger club.
Gladbach kicked Mainz ass in a match with nothing on the line. Marco Reus says goodbye with another two goals for MG.