updates to follow soon…
Champions Bayern kept on track with a dominant win against Nürnberg, who only managed a couple of chances as they hunkered down to try and hold off the hosts. It took a while, and it was a rare header by Frank Ribery that finally opened things up. A few minutes later Arjen Robben had another of his high-speed slalom runs, and der Club was finished.
Dortmund kept pace, dominating Bremen. Werder tried to catenaccio their way to a point, giving up over 30 shots, but trying to survive. Lewandowski got the only goal, but the Neons could have easily scored a half-dozen
Bayer Leverkusen keeps things perfect with a win over Gladbach. The Aspirins were the better side, but lost concentration have way through and Gladbach got back in. However the home side still had enough in the tank to launch another winning attack. The combo of Stefan Kiessling and Sidney Sam turned out deadly, and Bayer deservedly gets the win.
Mainz is the early surprise, as they join the favorites with a perfect start. Wolfsburg was an even opponent, but Mainz took advantage of their chances, whereas the VWs were wasteful when it counted. Midfielder Nicolai Müller is off to a great start, with his fourth goal of the season, a nice blast into the top on the deciding break-away counter.
Schalke is in early crisis. They pretty much stunk again, losing at Hannover, largely because they went down a man early. The Knappen are also in trouble after they only drew 1-1 in the ChampionsLeague qualifier against Saloniki. High point of that was the police charging into the stands when Schalke fans raised a Macedonian flag to incite the Greeks. Maybe they should concentrate on football instead of politics, because if they go out, it’s about 20 million potential income down the drain. I suppose in that context they should be worried more about the rematch in Saloniki, but stinking in Hannover hardly gives too much faith. The 96ers really didn’t look like world beaters either, so they shouldn’t let this one go to their head.
Hoffenheim is certainly playing exciting football, but they might want to include defense in their offering in the future. Freiburg ran rampant through their feeble lines, but lucky the Hoppers showed some firepower of their own. The wild shootout ended in a fair draw to both sides.
Sunday’s matches were “desperation” struggles, as all involved started with double losses. Frankfurt won at Braunschweig in the battle of the Eintrachts. Overall, it was a pretty easy match for Frankfurt, as they were the dominant side, and Braunscwheig had will, but little talent on display.
Stuttgart must be headed for early season crisis again, as they pretty much stunk at Augsburg, getting played off the pitch for the most part. FCA figures to be in yet another struggle to stay up, but they keep on fighting. Stuttgart looked tired and ready to phone things in.
Total attendance 398,227 (avg 44,247), sellouts in Dortmund, München, Hannover and Braunschweig
Borussia Dortmund - Werder Bremen 1:0 (0:0) 80,645 *
1:0 Lewandowski (55., Reus)
Bayern München - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:0 (0:0) 71,000 *
1:0 Ribery (69., Lahm)
2:0 Robben (78., Lahm)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Bor. Mönchengladbach 4:2 (2:0) 29,432
1:0 Kießling (23., Hand penalty)
2:0 Sam (28., Kießling)
2:1 Stranzl (54., Herrmann)
2:2 Arango (57.)
3:2 Sam (61., Kießling)
4:2 Castro (72., Sam)
Hannover 96 - FC Schalke 04 2:1 (2:0) 49,000 *
1:0 Huszti (15., penalty, M. Diouf)
2:0 M. Diouf (42., Huszti)
2:1 Szalai (55., Neustädter)
1899 Hoffenheim - SC Freiburg 3:3 (2:2) 24,118
1:0 Salihovic (10., penalty, Volland)
1:1 Sorg (13., Schmid)
2:1 Volland (25., Vestergaard)
2:2 Guedé (29., Schuster)
2:3 Freis (65., Schmid)
3:3 Strobl (77.)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - VfL Wolfsburg 2:0 (0:0) 27,103
1:0 Choupo-Moting (61., Svensson)
2:0 N. Müller (78., Geis)
Hertha BSC - Hamburger SV 1:0 (0:0) 63,574
1:0 Ramos (74., N. Schulz)
Sunday:
Eintr. Braunschweig - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:2 (0:0) 23,325 *
0:1 Meier (52., Kadlec)
0:2 Aigner (62.)
FC Augsburg - VfB Stuttgart 2:1 (2:1) 30,030
1:0 Halil Altintop (6., Verhaegh)
2:0 Callsen-Bracker (36., Holzhauser)
2:1 Ibisevic (42., penalty, Maxim)
1 Borussia Dortmund 3 3 0 0 7:1 +6 9
2 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 3 3 0 0 8:3 +5 9
3 Bayern München (M, P) 3 3 0 0 6:1 +5 9
4 1. FSV Mainz 05 3 3 0 0 7:3 +4 9
-----------------------------------------------------------
5 Hertha BSC Berlin (N) 3 2 1 0 9:3 +6 7
6 Werder Bremen 3 2 0 1 2:1 +1 6
-----------------------------------------------------------
7 Hannover 96 3 2 0 1 4:4 0 6
8 1899 Hoffenheim 3 1 2 0 10:6 +4 5
9 VfL Wolfsburg 3 1 0 2 4:4 0 3
10 Bor. Mönchengladbach 3 1 0 2 6:7 -1 3
11 1. FC Nürnberg 3 0 2 1 4:6 -2 2
12 SC Freiburg 3 0 1 2 5:8 -3 1
13 Hamburger SV 3 0 1 2 4:9 -5 1
14 FC Schalke 04 3 0 1 2 4:9 -5 1
15 Eintracht Frankfurt 3 1 0 2 3:7 -4 3
-----------------------------------------------------------
16 FC Augsburg 3 1 0 2 2:6 -4 3
-----------------------------------------------------------
17 VfB Stuttgart 2 0 0 3 3:6 -3 0
18 Eintr. Braunschweig (N) 3 0 0 3 1:5 -4 0
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
I’m sorry but I have to correct you regarding the Macadonian flag at the Schalke game verses PAOK. A couple of the Schalke fan groups have a freindship with fans of Varder Skopje and the Macedonian flag is almost always on display at Schalke home games and was not put up to incite the PAOK fans.
However, PAOK seems to have a large hooligan following (hence the 3 game closed stadium order from UEFA) and they latched onto the flag as an excuse to cause trouble, threatening to storm the pitch if it was not removed. When the Schalke fans refused to remove the flag, saying it was alweays there and the police should be dealing with the troublemakers from Greece, the police decided to storm the peaceful nordkurve with 200 riot officers, spraying pepper spray and hitting fans indiscriminatory. The DRK was prevented from helping causualties, and indeed some of it’s members were also assualted by the police.
At the end of the day, the police were cowards who decided it was eaiser to attack women and children and deal with the real hooligans. The Schalke fans were not at fault and the Club, fans, DRK and Macedonain ambassador ahve all made complaints to the police. If UEFA has any sense, POAK should in fact be banned from European compition for several years, but as they are mostly spineless that wont happen.
As for Schalke on the pitch, we’ve been shit so far and if we don’t win on Tuesday, I don’t expect Jens Keller to still be there when I go to the game on Saturday!
Great post Adam, spot on.