Details to follow…
Bayern München keeps their clean vest, but it wasn’t easy. Bayern dominated against hosts Bremen, but was unable to make it stick. Werder wasn’t particularily impressive, but managed to hold off the leaders till near the end. However subs by coach Jupp Heynckes – bringing on Manzukic and Shaqiri – proved to be the deciders, along with a nice blast from Luis Gustavo. Werder can’t really complain, as they showed only grit, never really being equal in the match.
Eintracht Frankfurt continues to amaze, and they pulled out a hard fought battle with Freiburg. Veteran Alex Meier, who I think is one of the most underrated attacking midifielders in the Bundesliga, was the match winner. On his first goal, he took the ball on left, spun aronud and blasted from the top of the box into the net with his right. Then he won the match with a solid header. Once again Eintracht demonstrated team will and hustled to the win. Freiburg put in a solid performance, but it wasn’t enough.
The battle of the Borussen turned lopsided after an early level playing field. In the usual packed Signal Iduna, Dortmund attacked furiously, but Gladbach was keeping pace. However ex-Gladbacher Marco Reus was brilliant, and when he opened the scoring for the Neons, the Horsies basically fell apart. Dortmund jumped all over them like rabid dogs, and it cut ugly as they ripped apart a collapsing Gladbach squad. After a couple of thrown away results, Dortmund served notice that they still have a fearsome bite.
Schalke became the first club to score on Düsseldorf, and the Blues seemingly had the game won. However, Fortuna shocked everyone – perhaps even themselves and their fans – by rising to the occasion and fighting back. Once again the hero is Dani Schahin, who like in Fortuna’s great victory at Augsburg, brought Düsseldorf a result. A great effort by the home side, but Schalke has to be kicking themselves for dropping points.
Leverkusen had an easy time against a harmless Greuther Fürth. The Aspirins toyed around and then wrapped up the match after about an hour, boring the fans with worthless kickabout for the remaining 30 minutes. With efforts like these, Fürth might as well get those season passes from Deutschebahn for the 2.Liga city tour next season.
Hamburg continues to elogize Rafael van der Vaart – OK, maybe wife Sylvie’s frequent lingerie shows – but they’re getting better and dumped Hannover in a Nord-derby. Actually, although HSV grabbed the lead with another vdv assist, it was brilliant form of GK Rene Adler that kept HSV ahead. The 96ers were dominant throughout the 2nd half, but were unable to convert.
Nürnberg choked, giving up a goal in the opening seconds through sleeping, and Stuttgart gladly accepted. VfB then proceeded to play a solid match, and come away with a deserved and surprisingly easy win. Perhaps FCN decided that their decent early season form would make things too easy for the fans, so they’ve embarked upon a sucking streak. First win for Stuttgart, perhaps they’ve stabilized.
Wolfsburg attacked most of the day against Mainz, but the visitors kept a clean head in front of goal and scored on their chances. The VWs basically stunk, and a good win for Mainz.
Horrible match in Hoffenheim, both teams deserving to lose on principal. I suppose Augsburg could be semi-happy, since they got an away point. The “highlight” of this was…wait, there were two highlights. In the 84th minute, Hoffenheim coach Markus Babbel couldn’t take it anymore, so to get out early and beat traffic, he insulted the ref and got sent out. Not to be outdone, Sejad Salihovic liked that idea, so he went beserk and chopped down a Fugger and got his ass sent off too. If this had been eastern Germany, at least the fans might have rioted, but this is Hoffenheim-wine-and-cheese-stadion, so no such show of emotion.
Fortuna Düsseldorf - FC Schalke 04 2:2 (0:2) 54,600
0:1 Huntelaar (13., Höwedes)
0:2 Matip (20., Fuchs)
1:2 Schahin (47., Voronin)
2:2 Schahin (77., Levels)
Bayer Leverkusen - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2:0 (0:0) 25,798
1:0 Sam (50., Schürrle)
2:0 Sam (62., Carvajal)
Werder Bremen - Bayern München 0:2 (0:0) 42,100
0:1 Luiz Gustavo (81., T. Müller)
0:2 Mandzukic (83., Shaqiri)
1. FC Nürnberg - VfB Stuttgart 0:2 (0:1) 43,018
0:1 Ibisevic (1.)
0:2 Harnik (75., Ibisevic)
1899 Hoffenheim - FC Augsburg 0:0 (0:0) 22,000
Hamburger SV - Hannover 96 1:0 (1:0) 57,000
1:0 Rudnevs (20., van der Vaart)
Borussia Dortmund - Borussia M'gladbach 5:0 (2:0) 80,645
1:0 Reus (35.)
2:0 Subotic (40., Blaszczykowski)
3:0 Reus (70., M. Götze)
4:0 Gündogan (79., Blaszczykowski)
5:0 Blaszczykowski (85., Gündogan)
Eintracht Frankfurt - SC Freiburg 2:1 (0:0) 49,300
0:1 M. Kruse (50., Freis)
1:1 Meier (68., Oczipka)
2:1 Meier (73., Oczipka)
VfL Wolfsburg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 0:2 (0:2) 23,795
0:1 Junior Diaz (27., Ivanschitz)
0:2 Szalai (37., Ivanschitz)
1 Bayern München 6 6 0 0 19:2 +17 18
2 Eintracht Frankfurt (N) 6 5 1 0 16:8 +8 16
3 Borussia Dortmund (M, P) 6 3 2 1 16:8 +8 11
4 FC Schalke 04 6 3 2 1 12:7 +5 11
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5 Hannover 96 6 3 1 2 14:9 +5 10
6 Fortuna Düsseldorf (N) 6 2 4 0 6:2 +4 10
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7 Bayer Leverkusen 6 3 1 2 9:7 +2 10
8 Werder Bremen 6 2 1 3 9:10 -1 7
9 1899 Hoffenheim 6 2 1 3 10:12 -2 7
10 Hamburger SV 6 2 1 3 8:10 -2 7
11 1. FSV Mainz 05 6 2 1 3 6:8 -2 7
12 1. FC Nürnberg 6 2 1 3 7:11 -4 7
13 Borussia M'gladbach 6 1 3 2 7:12 -5 6
14 SC Freiburg 6 1 2 3 8:10 -2 5
15 VfB Stuttgart 6 1 2 3 5:12 -7 5
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16 VfL Wolfsburg 6 1 2 3 2:10 -8 5
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17 SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N) 6 1 1 4 2:10 -8 4
18 FC Augsburg 6 0 2 4 2:10 -8 2