Hertha and Braunschweig continue their unstoppable march to the Bundesliga. While it will just be a short absence for the Berliners, the Niedersachsen Lions – an original Bundesliga founder in 1963 – have been away from the top flight since 1985.
Braunschweig did have a tough time facing down Dresden. Dynamo is desperate at the bottom, and they came out fighting. They stunned their hosts with an early lead and refused to concede an inch, despite increasing Lions pressure. Eventually Eintracht did break through, and no surprise it was Dominik Kumbela with his 17th goal that provided the win. Perhaps Dresden is a bit hard done by, but their finishing was weak, and eventually that cost them.
Hertha had no real problems as they immediately jumped out against Bochum and then dicked around. Since Bochum was totally incompetent up front, it was no issue. The Berliners then repeated the same after the re-start, essentially finishing off the game and enjoying an extra 44 minutes of thinking about some Berliner Weisse-Kindl that they would be imbibing soon. Bochum was hapless and need improvement, as they could easily get relegated.
Cottbus weakened their argument for promotion as they were without “Energie” and couldn’t defeat Aalen at home. A boring match, and the home side finally took the lead late, only to get pegged back immediately. Cottbus seems on again, off again. I wouldn’t put it past them to be knocking on the Bundesliga door again, but obviously not this seasaon. Aalen has been surprisingly good and should be satisfied with staying up in their inaugural campaign. However, Energie probably should have won this match.
On the other hand, 1860 has quietly crept into striking range, although one would expect that they should start sucking again to insult their fans after raising some minimal hopes. They got a tough away win at a desperate Aue, and it’s not easy to win at Erzgebirge. But with some luck, they got the points. Like I said however, it remains to be seen if 1860 is serious about making a late run. Aue remains in trouble.
Unlike some of their rivals, Duisburg seems to be taking the relegation battle seriously. The Zebras have gotten over their “disappointment” of not challenging for promotion and seem to have got down to business of avoiding relegation. They put in a strong effort to get all the points at Ingolstadt, where it’s not easy to win. They’re not completely out of the woods, but MSV looks likely to stay. Ingolstadt is unpredicatble as usual.
In later matches, 1. FC Köln is now officially all the way back from the dead – it truly looked impossible a few months ago. A lot of the credit needs to go to coach Holger Stanislawski. Nevertheless, despite the usual huge fan support, the Kölners struggled to make headway against a stubborn Regensburg side, but a late goal allowed them to get the win – and leap over Kaiserslautern into the important 3rd place. The visitors were clearly inferior, but were pesky enough and almost got the point they were hoping for.
Kaiserslautern again failed to impress, and for the first time in ages they’ve fallen out of promotion. It’s pretty amazing how they’ve just wittered away after a good season start. FCK dominated against a stubborn Sandhausen side, but failed to make much headway after taking the lead. SVS kept things close and got a point in front of a rare sell-out crowd, sorely needed in their desperate relegation battle. For Lautern, if they don’t raise their game and seize at least the playoff back from Köln, it will have to leave a bitter taste for their fans.
FSV Frankfurt showed Union Berlin who’s boss as they dominated the visitors. Both realistically are two weak to challenge for that 3rd spot, but the Bornheimers have pretty much ended any hopes the mini-Berliners had. It’s been a good campaign for FSV, as they were picked to be struggling against relegation, as usual. Union has been up and down all season.
On Monday, St.Pauli saved a point against Paderborn in dramatic fashion: GK Philip Tschauner went forward in desperation time and headed home to sqaure the match.
Total attendance this week 169,323 (avg 18,814), one sellout (Sandhausen)
Energie Cottbus - VfR Aalen 1:1 (0:0) 7,770
1:0 M. Schulze (74.)
1:1 Junglas (75., Lechleiter)
Erzgebirge Aue - 1860 München 0:1 (0:1) 9,300
0:1 Friend (14., Stoppelkamp)
Eintracht Braunschweig - Dynamo Dresden 2:1 (1:1) 21,175
0:1 Ouali (8.)
1:1 Bicakcic (31., Boland)
2:1 Kumbela (53., Ademi)
Hertha BSC - VfL Bochum 2:0 (1:0) 34,802
1:0 Ronny (4., direct free-kick)
2:0 Schulz (46., Kluge)
FC Ingolstadt 04 - MSV Duisburg 0:1 (0:1) 5,546
0:1 Jovanovic (16.)
Sunday:
1. FC Köln - Jahn Regensburg 2:1 (1:0) 45,600
1:0 McKenna (28., Strobl)
1:1 Djuricin (73., Sembolo)
2:1 Royer (87., Clemens)
FSV Frankfurt - 1. FC Union Berlin 3:0 (2:0) 4,852
1:0 Yelen (10., Y. Stark)
2:0 M. Görlitz (19., Gaus)
3:0 Yelen (49., Verhoek)
SV Sandhausen - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 1:1 (0:1) 12,000 *
0:1 Idrissou (18., Löwe)
1:1 Sippel (67., own goal, A. Riemann)
Monday:
FC St. Pauli - SC Paderborn 07 2:2 (0:0) 28,278
1:0 Ebbers (53., Schachten)
1:1 Yilmaz (56., Vrancic)
1:2 Saglik (84., Naki)
2:2 Tschauner (90., Daube)
1 Hertha BSC Berlin (A) 27 17 8 2 51:21 +30 59
2 Eintracht Braunschweig 27 17 7 3 44:22 +22 58
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3 1. FC Köln (A) 27 12 10 5 35:24 +11 46
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4 1. FC Kaiserslautern (A) 27 11 12 4 38:24 +14 45
5 1860 München 27 10 11 6 29:22 +7 41
6 FSV Frankfurt 27 12 4 11 40:34 +6 40
7 Energie Cottbus 27 10 9 8 32:29 +3 39
8 1. FC Union Berlin 27 10 8 9 44:40 +4 38
9 SC Paderborn 07 27 10 6 11 37:34 +3 36
10 FC Ingolstadt 04 27 8 11 8 30:32 -2 35
11 VfR Aalen (N) 27 8 9 10 28:31 -3 33
12 FC St. Pauli 27 8 9 10 30:35 -5 33
13 MSV Duisburg 27 9 6 12 29:42 -13 33
14 Erzgebirge Aue 27 7 7 13 31:40 -9 28
15 VfL Bochum 27 6 8 13 30:44 -14 26
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16 Dynamo Dresden 27 5 9 13 25:39 -14 24
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17 SV Sandhausen (N) 27 5 8 14 33:54 -21 23
18 Jahn Regensburg (N) 27 4 6 17 31:50 -19 18
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