BUNDESLIGA, Round 14, Englische Woche

Headlines in Germany on Tuesday have Bayern laughing all the way to the bank. We’ll see if their tune changes after their match at Freiburg, but right now, let’s trudge out the most famous Uli-Hoenessism for the umpteenth time “The other clubs are too dumb to win the title.”. Sure enough, the chasing clubs basically all sucked.

Dortmund was trying to be too clever, and paid for it. The Neons were dominating against a catenaccio-ed Fortuna, having a hard time. Nevertheless, just before half-time they managed to take the lead. Then Klopp’s troops decided to take the rest of the evening off and prepare for their match with Bayern on Saturday. Düsseldorf came out of their shell and got back in the game, eventually getting an equalizer and a crucial point. Dortmund? Too dumb…

Schalke expected to have an easy time in Hamburg, as HSV is all banged up and just lost Rafael van der Vaart and Korean Son, their top scorer. (He probably has a massive two goals, for all that HSV scores, but he’s still top). But lo and behold, HSV came out strong, dominating the match, presssing Schalke back. The Blues seemed taken aback, and couldn’t make any adjustments at half. Instead, HSV continued to press on after the restart, and were rewarded when Beister’s blast fooled GK Unnerstall. Then the Hamburgers overran Schalke, who tried to get back in the match, instead ending up losing. A great win for struggling HSV. Schalke? Too dumb…

Frankfurt admitted they were a bit worried before the derby against nearby Mainz. (Ha, in the old days, the Eintracht fans would have turned their noses at the very thought of a “derby” against lowly Mainz.) And with good reason, as the last time they met a couple of years ago in Frankfurt, Mainz kicked their ass 3-0 and a couple of rounds later, Eintracht went down. Still, this year’s Eintracht is made of sterner stuff, so…they went out and got kicked in the nuts again. Mainz was perfectly aligned, and youngster Shawn Parker made his first start, throwing the Frankfurt defense into total disarray. FSV dominated and did whatever they wanted, which apparently was to kick Frankfurt’s ass. So they built up a nice lead and coasted, although in the end they complimented their hosts by kicking one into their own net. Excellent win for Mainz. Frankfurt? Too dumb…

Hannover 96 was full of upbeat spirits after their 0-5 at Bayern last week. Afterall, they could have lost 0-8. The 96ers took it surprisingly well, their president actually making excuses that his club is stretched too thin from their almost historical good performances over the past couple of seasons. Nevertheless, the 96ers needed a win to remain on keel, and luckily Greuther Fürth was showing up.
Hannover jumped out to a quick lead and coasted. The Greuther played OK, but lacked any threat whatsoever to the 96ers, who basically relied on the visitors ability to make mistakes and gift them opportunities. So I guess Hannover is not too dumb, but they’re not a contender anyway…

UPDATE for Wednesday…

Bayern was not only laughing, they’ve were taking a leisurely vacation in the Breisgau. This game was over early, as Bayern went ahead, and then Freiburg’s Diakne got his ass tossed after only 19 minutes for a crap foul on Shaqiri. No way SCF was coming back. So the leaders dicked around for a while, and then finished off the game. They now are already the Herbstmeister (Fall champion)…with 3 games still remaining.

A fine bitch-slapping performance by the Aspirins, who are Bayern’s number 1 chaser…not that it apparently matters this year. Still, it might be a Vizekusen year. The visitors looked clearly better, and a double by Castro had them in front. Werder immediately responded, but their defensive holes were ripped apart by an efficient Leverkusen.

Gladbach was somewhat lucky to beat Wolfsburg, but they were cold-blooded when it came to converting their chances. The VWs were largely the dominant side, especially in the first half, but watched helplessly as Gladbach was ruthless in front of goal. The Wolfies never really got rolling in the 2nd half, so the hosts were able to glide to victory.

Stuttgart started brightly against Augsburg, but the visitors fought back and were able to grab an equalizer just before half. However VfB’s superiority began to weigh in the 2nd period, and they eventually came to win the match. Good effort by Augsburg, but they lack the talent to compete at this level.

Nürnberg wins a relegation 6 pointer against hapless-Hoffenheim, largely due a fine performance by Japanese import Hiroshi Kiyotake. (Asians, or at least Japanese and Koreans, seem to do best in Germany for some reason.) Der Club was clearly the better side, but seem nervous with an advantage, so they let the Hoppers get back in, even though they hardly deserved it.

Attendance for this “English week” was 382,913 (avg 42,546)

	
Borussia Dortmund     -   Fortuna Düsseldorf	 1:1 (1:0)   80,100

                     1:0  Blaszczykowski (43., Großkreutz)
                     1:1  Reisinger (78., Kruse)

Hannover 96	      -   SpVgg Greuther Fürth	 2:0 (1:0)   32,300

                     1:0  M. Diouf (5., Ya Konan)
                     2:0  Eggimann (69., Schlaudraff)
 
Hamburger SV	      -   FC Schalke 04	         3:1 (0:0)   52,000

                     1:0  Beister (52., Badelj)
                     2:0  Rudnevs (65., Diekmeier)
                     2:1  Huntelaar (80.)
                     3:1  Badelj (90. + 2, penalty, Aogo)

Eintracht Frankfurt   -   1. FSV Mainz 05	 1:3 (0:2)   47,800

                     0:1  Ivanschitz (18., S. Parker)
                     0:2  S. Parker (42., Polanski)
                     0:3  Noveski (52., N. Müller)
                     1:3  Szalai (55., own goal, Inui)


Wed:
Borussia M'gladbach   -   VfL Wolfsburg          2:0 (2:0)   40,145

                     1:0  Arango (11., Nordtveit)
                     2:0  Jantschke (44., Nordtveit)

VfB Stuttgart	      -   FC Augsburg            2:1 (1:1)   38,940

                     1:0  Traoré (11., Ibisevic)
                     1:1  Koo (44.)
                     2:1  Ibisevic (69., Traoré)

Werder Bremen	      -   Bayer Leverkusen       1:4 (0:1)   37,231

                     0:1  Castro (31., Carvajal)
                     0:2  Castro (52., L. Bender)
                     1:2  Petersen (54., Hunt)
                     1:3  Rolfes (74., Kießling)
                     1:4  Hegeler (79., Schürrle)

SC Freiburg	      -   Bayern München         0:2 (0:1)   24,000 *

                     0:1  T. Müller (12., penalty)
                     0:2  Tymoshchuk (79., Lahm)

1. FC Nürnberg	      -   1899 Hoffenheim        4:2 (2:1)   30,397

                     1:0  Kiyotake (6.)
                     1:1  Schipplock (33.,  Volland)
                     2:1  Nilsson (43., Gebhart)
                     3:1  Polter (69.)
                     3:2  Salihovic (81., penalty)
                     4:2  Kiyotake (86., Cohen)



 1  Bayern München	  	14   12   1   1   40:5 	 +35 	  37 
 2  Bayer Leverkusen	  	14    8   3   3   27:19  +8 	  27 
 3  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	14    7   5   2   29:15  +14 	  26 
 4  FC Schalke 04	  	14    7   3   4   24:18  +6 	  24
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	14    7   3   4   27:22  +5 	  24
 6  Hannover 96	  	        14    6   2   6   27:25  +2 	  20
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	14    6   2   6   19:17  +2 	  20 
 8  Hamburger SV	  	14    6   2   6   15:17  -2 	  20 
 9  Borussia M'gladbach	  	14    5   5   4   21:24  -3 	  20 
10  SC Freiburg	  	        14    5   4   5   19:16  +3 	  19 
11  VfB Stuttgart	  	14    5   4   5   16:24  -8 	  19 
12  Werder Bremen	  	14    5   3   6   22:23  -1 	  18 
13  1. FC Nürnberg	  	14    4   4   6   14:20  -6 	  16
14  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	14    3   6   5   14:19  -5 	  15 
15  VfL Wolfsburg	  	14    4   3   7   13:22  -9 	  15 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
16  1899 Hoffenheim	  	14    3   3   8   21:32  -11 	  12
--------------------------------------------------------------------
17  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	14    1   5   8   10:25  -15 	  8 
18  FC Augsburg	  	        14    1   4   9   10:25  -15 	  7

M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted

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

3 thoughts on “BUNDESLIGA, Round 14, Englische Woche

    • Theoretically not, there’s still a lot to play, blah-blah-blah…Yep, it’s hard to see Bayern blowing a lead like this.

      Nice name, better than Jürgen Mendieta… :)

  1. It’s not over until next week. If Dortmund can upset the applecart in Munich the who knows. If the gap opens again, then we all start watching Stuttgart and Gladbach to see if they can make it into the Europa knock out phase.

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