BUNDESLIGA, Round 23

Bayern continues to rape and pillage…Bremen held out for about 20 minutes, and then the dam broke. Werder started out well, but Bayern’s pressure was overwhelming, and there was no stopping the leaders.

Dortmund looked fairly uninterested in the Borussen derby with Gladbach, and although the match was for the taking, perhaps they decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Gladbach managed to come back and grab a point, and seemed to be pretty happy with that.

Leverksuen couldn’t take advanatge and jump back into 2nd. The Aspirins banged their heads haplessly against a determined Greuther Fürth. The hosts know they’re going down – and they are the least talented club in the league, but they will give 100%, and it paid off. The Aspirins dominated but couldn’t break through, so a great point for the Greuther, under their new coach. (Greuther II coach Ludwig Preis took over from Mike Büskens. That really makes no sense, since it’s hardly Büskens fault that the Greuther have no talent).

Freiburg and Frankfurt delivered a tactical chess match, with Eintracht having the edge early. SCF then took over down the stretch, but neither club really deserved the win, so a draw is in order.

Mainz must be scratching their head on how they didn’t get a win against Wolfsburg. Not only did the hosts get a blitzstart, but the VWs were down a man for an hour as Madlung got his ass tossed. But Mainz evidently forgot that it’s not only pretty football, but goals that count, so Wolfsburg gets a point they hardly deserved.

A huge northern derby, Hannover ripped Hamburg’s ass. Perhaps the 96ers are relieved they stumbled out of Euroliga, and they came out guns blzing to rip HSV to pieces.

Stuttgart had plenty of chances to settle the match against Nürnberg, but they wasted them left and right. FCN struck when they had the chance and grabbed a point. VfB has nobody to blame but themselves.

The relegation zone is all about the 16th spot – and the playoff against the 2.Liga contender. It will take guts to hold on and survive, and one thing looks clear – Hoffenheim is the most gutless squad in the Bundesliga right now. Augsburg has little talent, but they wanted this critical match and dominated against listless Hoffenheim. A deserved win for the Fuggers, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that they couldn’t survive a playoff against Kaiserslautern or Köln. Hoffenheim is truly a sorry pack, more news on them later.

Total attendance was 375,674 (avg 41,742), with sellouts in München, Hannover, Schalke and Gladbach.

 	
SC Freiburg	       -   Eintracht Frankfurt	  0:0 (0:0)   23,400

Bayern München	       -   Werder Bremen	  6:1 (2:0)   71,000 *

                      1:0  Robben (25., Lahm)
                      2:0  Javi Martinez (29., KRobben)
                      3:0  Gebre Selassie (49., own goal, Gomez)
                      4:0  Gomez (51., Ribery)
                      4:1  de Bruyne (58., Ignjovski)
                      5:1  Ribery (86., Lahm)
                      6:1  Gomez (89., Robben)

VfB Stuttgart	       -   1. FC Nürnberg	  1:1 (0:0)   46,570

                      1:0  Traoré (51.,  Harnik)
                      1:1  Feulner (77., Chandler)

Hannover 96	       -   Hamburger SV	          5:1 (3:1)   49,000 *

                      1:0  M. Diouf (7., KHuszti)
                      1:1  van der Vaart (13., penalty, Aogo)
                      2:1  Huszti (39., penalty, da Silva Pinto)
                      3:1  Ya Konan (45.)
                      4:1  Ya Konan (68., Rausch)
                      5:1  Abdellaoue (85., Sobiech)

1. FSV Mainz 05	       -   VfL Wolfsburg	  1:1 (1:1)   27,175

                      1:0  Zimling (5., Szalai)
                      1:1  Naldo (15., Polak)

FC Augsburg	       -   1899 Hoffenheim	  2:1 (1:0)   28,211

                      1:0  Ji (45., Ostrzolek)
                      2:0  Mölders (79., Koo)
                      2:1  de Camargo (90. + 2, Joselu)

FC Schalke 04	       -   Fortuna Düsseldorf     2:1 (1:0)   61,673 *

                      1:0  Matip (29., J. Jones)
                      1:1  Bellinghausen (56., Lambertz)
                      2:1  Matip (81., Michel Bastos)

Sunday:

Borussia M'gladbach    -   Borussia Dortmund	  1:1 (0:1)   54,010 *

                      0:1  M. Götze (31., penalty, M. Götze)
                      1:1  Younes (67., Wendt)

SpVgg Greuther Fürth   -   Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  0:0 (0:0)   14,635


 1  Bayern München	  	23    19   3   1      63:8   +55     60 
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	23    12   7   4      51:27  +24     43 
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	23    12   6   5      43:30  +13     42
 4  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	23    11   5   7      38:34  +4      38
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 5  SC Freiburg	  	        23     9   8   6      29:22  +7      35 
 6  Hamburger SV	  	23    10   4   9      28:32  -4      34
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 7  Hannover 96	  	        23    10   3   10     46:42  +4      33 
 8  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	23     9   6   8      31:28  +3      33 
 9  FC Schalke 04	  	23     9   6   8      37:38  -1      33 
10  Borussia M'gladbach	  	23     7   10  6      32:34  -2      31 
11  VfB Stuttgart	  	23     8   5   10     25:40  -15     29 
12  Werder Bremen	  	23     8   4   11     39:47  -8      28 
13  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	23     7   6   10     28:31  -3      27 
14  1. FC Nürnberg	  	23     6   9   8      23:30  -7      27 
15  VfL Wolfsburg	  	23     7   6   10     23:33  -10     27
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16  FC Augsburg	  	        23     3   9   11     20:36  -16     18
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17  1899 Hoffenheim	  	23     4   4   15     27:48  -21     16 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	23     2   7   14     13:36  -23     13

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 23

  1. Interesting. If Schalke get the 4th CL spot, it will keep the Bundesliga ranking strong as they have been there so many times before, but it would also be interesting to see one of the smaller clubs (Freiburg / Mainz) get a go. The other interesting aspect for me would be seeing Eintracht promoted one year, playing CL the next, but whether they have the squad to get into the group stage remains to be seen. The unsung story here is HSV who have steadied the ship since Van der Vaart’s return. Besides a terrible game this weekend, they have been making steady improvements on the pitch and probably deserve a crack at CL or EL.

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