A sold out Stadion an der Hamburger Straße witnessed the top clash between Braunschweig and Hertha. The leaders had a difficult time, as the Berliners largely outplayed them and controlled the match. Braunschwieg had almost zero chances, but grabbed one and took the lead. Berlin pressed, but for most of the match, the Lions defense held firm. In the 2nd period, Hertha became even more dominant, and eventually were rewarded with the deserved equalizer. Both clubs indicate that they’re serious about holding the two top promotion spots.

This is the Köln we’ve been expecting. The Kölners met fellow relegated side Kaiserslautern in wild match that was exciting for the whole 90 minutes. Whereas the guests have got their 2.Liga campaign rolling – remaining undefeated – the hosts have been struggling. This was a back and forth where both sides exhibited great spirit and fight, and in the end, it was a deserved draw. Since Köln has been sucking, this effort should serve as a boost to morale.

Big win for Cottbus. Energie has had trouble with 1860 – they haven’t even managed to score a goal in the last four outings (0:11 on goals). This time they started out furiously and grabbed an early lead. However this time it was clear that the Lions were toothless, so Cottbus was able to keep all the points without too much effort.

Ingolstadt has quietly snuck up the table, and Aalen has had a good start. In their match there was lots of fight, but mostly in midfield. Not much real offense going on. The Schanzer took the lead when Gross was left unmarked to head the ball home. This opened up the match, but Aalen was not capable of getting back.

Biatch-slap!! Aue laid down the hammer on hapless Bochum. It must be Bochum’s most disgraceful outing in 2.Liga history. I’m guessing they were preparing for the 3.Liga: The Sparkasse field was covered with snow, and this usually means the match is canceled in the 3.Liga. However Bundesliga/2.Liga clubs have heated fields, so the piles of snow were pushed aside, and the match went on. Bochum actually got an early penalty, which they wasted. Then Aue kicked them in the balls and the rout was on. Ronny König did most of the damage, with two goals and two assists. Bochum was so incompetant that the Auers felt sorry for them, so just before the whistle they kicked the ball into their own net so the visitors wouldn’t feel too bad on the train ride home.

St.Paul hasn’t given up, neither have their fans. The Millerntor was sold out as the Paulistas faced Dresden in a critical relegation battle. Dynamo was the better side early, with a strong, well organized concept that gave them a solid lead, but they dropped their concentration and gave up a goal just before half. New St.Pauli coach Michael Frontzeck had already improved things last week, and his home debut gave further indication of positive direction for the Paulistas. SP stormed out and grabbed the lead early after the restart, and a shocked Dresden never really recovered to get back in the match. Huge win that should steady the boot for St.Pauli, but Dynamo sinks into very dangerous waters.

Huge relegation win for Duisburg at Sandhausen. The Zebras would have lost contact with the other clubs with a loss. Instead they won the crappy match with a double by Sören Brandy. MSV remains at the bottom, but they’re only a point behind 4 clubs. Sandhausen showed nothing, so they really can’t complain.

Paderborn had a solid defensive performance against an improved Union Berlin. The hosts attacked, but SCP held together and grabbed the lead on a late counter.

Great win for FSV Frankfurt. The Bornheimer got a needed boost, despite captain Bjorn Schlicke getting his ass tossed for a nasty foul after 20 minutes. Although being a man down for 70 minutes, FSV outplayed a lame Regensburg, who never got off track. With their fine start, FSV looks in good shape to survive yet another 2.Liga campaign. Jahn looked crap, one of their worst performances.

Attendance this week was 130,602 (avg 14,511), but a clear differentiation between the have-have-nots. Snowy weather also might have had something to do with it.

1. FC Köln	      -    1. FC Kaiserslautern    3:3 (2:1)   44,601

                     0:1  Baumjohann (9., Idrissou)
                     1:1  Chihi (23., penalty, Ujah)
                     2:1  Clemens (43., Royer)
                     2:2  Idrissou (60., Jessen)
                     3:2  Royer (75., Bigalke)
                     3:3  Idrissou (88., Nsor)

FC Ingolstadt 04      -    VfR Aalen	           2:0 (0:0)    5,812

                     1:0  P. Groß (56., Schäfer)
                     2:0  Schäffler (90. + 2, Caiuby)

Energie Cottbus	      -    1860 München	           1:0 (1:0)    8,820

                     1:0  Banovic (12., Sanogo)

Eintr. Braunschweig   -    Hertha BSC	           1:1 (1:0)   21,645

                     1:0  Kruppke (25., Reichel)
                     1:1  Ramos (78., Ronny)

Erzgebirge Aue	      -    VfL Bochum	           6:1 (3:0)    6,500

                     1:0  Fa. Müller (7., Hochscheidt)
                     2:0  König (9., Hochscheidt)
                     3:0  Hochscheidt (10., König)
                     4:0  Hochscheidt (46., König)
                     5:0  König (49., Hochscheidt)
                     6:0  Paulus (59., penalty, Sylvestr)
                     6:1  Paulus (90., own goal, Tasaka)

SV Sandhausen	      -    MSV Duisburg	           0:2 (0:1)    3,500

                     0:1  Brandy (33., Berberovic)
                     0:2  Brandy (60., Sukalo)

FC St. Pauli	      -    Dynamo Dresden	   3:2 (1:2)   21,045

                     0:1  Ouali (18., Jungwirth)
                     0:2  Poté (28., Jänicke)
                     1:2  Boll (45., Gogia)
                     2:2  Avevor (49., Kringe)
                     3:2  Ginczek (55., Boll)

1. FC Union Berlin    -    SC Paderborn 07	   0:1 (0:0)   15,378

                     0:1  Naki (75., Vrancic)

FSV Frankfurt	      -    Jahn Regensburg	   3:1 (1:0)    3,301

                     1:0  Leckie (13., Y. Stark)
                     2:0  M. Görlitz (56., Teixeira)
                     2:1  Sembolo (84., Machado)
                     3:1  Bambara (90. + 1)


Attendance: 130,602 (avg 14,511)


 1  Eintracht Braunschweig	11    8   3   0    19:4   +15 	  27 
 2  Hertha BSC Berlin (A)	11    6   4   1    19:11  +8 	  22
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 3  1. FC Kaiserslautern (A)	11    5   6   0    21:14  +7 	  21
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 4  Energie Cottbus	  	11    6   3   2    16:10  +6 	  21 
 5  FC Ingolstadt 04	  	11    5   4   2    15:11  +4 	  19 
 6  FSV Frankfurt	  	11    5   3   3    16:13  +3 	  18
 7  1860 München	  	11    4   5   2    14:8   +6 	  17 
 8  VfR Aalen (N)	  	11    5   1   5    13:12  +1 	  16 
 9  SC Paderborn 07	  	11    4   3   4    17:13  +4 	  15 
10  1. FC Köln (A)	  	11    3   4   4    13:15  -2 	  13 
11  Erzgebirge Aue	  	11    3   3   5    14:14   0 	  12 
12  1. FC Union Berlin	  	11    3   3   5    14:16  -2 	  12 
13  FC St. Pauli	  	11    2   5   4    10:15  -5 	  11 
14  Dynamo Dresden	  	11    2   3   6    14:18  -4 	  9 
15  Jahn Regensburg (N)	  	11    3   0   8    12:16  -4 	  9
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16  SV Sandhausen (N)	  	11    2   3   6     9:19  -10 	  9
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17  VfL Bochum	  	        11    2   3   6     6:20  -14 	  9 
18  MSV Duisburg	  	11    2   2   7     8:21  -13 	  8



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