BUNDESLIGA, Round 4

This was a week of redemption for several clubs that had been wavering with indifferent performances.

Bayern got an early start, and rested some of their starters. The result was dropped points at Freiburg, who never gave up despite being outplayed. However the Bayern bosses probably weren’t too ypsets, as they also defeated Chelsea – albeit on penalties – to take the Euro Super Cup. That’s pretty worthless, but I suppose you can claim more silverware. The champs had several opportunities to close out the match, but were wasteful. Freiburg was rewarded with a late goal and a nice point.

Gladbach looked vastly improved and pressured Bremen throughout. Werder’s defense seemed to holdup, and even when the hosts took the lead, they had hard-going. However in the end the Gladbachers continued pressing took it’s toll and Breemn collapsed, getting routed.

Mainz had looked great in previous matches, and despite the end-result, they weren’t terrible in hannover either. In fact, they started off well, Nicolai Müller scoring yet again. However unlike some other wishy-washy 96ers outings, the homeside was prepared and came roaring back. The difference was the Hannover forwards were ruthless with their chances, and therefore the win, albeit a little too high, is legit.

Wolfsburg completely dominated Hertha, showing the Berliners that it’s not going to be easy staying up. The Vws could have got more goals, as the Hertha defense was somewhat shaky all afternoon, but they were somewhat wasteful, showing that they themselves have a lot of work to do too.

Augsburg gets a key road win against Nürnberg. It was a crap game, and FCN looked especially terrible. The Fuggers were obviously crap as well, but at least they exhibited enough pulse to take a lot of shots in the hope that one would go in. Not sure what der Club’s plan was, the fans would have been better off at der Pub. FCA was rewarded with a late goal, but 0 points for both teams wouldn’t have been an unfair result.

Hamburg and Braunschweig revived the northern derby after a few decades, but it was pretty one-sided. HSV had started the season horribly, so a dose of “silent brown” (get it? lame joke) was just what der Doktor ordered. Eintracht tried to play, but they just weren’t good enough and were disorganized to boot, which meant easy pickings for HSV.

This could have been a disaster week for Schalke, but now things are looking up. First, the Blues travelled to Greece and defeated PAOK 3-2, gaining qualification to the Champions League. That means some big euros that are desperately needed. They’ve been pretty lame in the Bundesliga, but despite facing in form Leverkusen, they also got the job done, although it was a tough win against the Aspirins. Another interest bit of Schalke news was that they signed Kevin-Prince Boateng from AC Milan. The German born Ghana international- his brother Jerome from Bayern is a DFB squad player – should be a big boost and went straight into the starting lineup. KP is arguably much better than Jerome, but he is somewhat of an asshole, and now Schalke has him and Jermaine Jones, so the Blues automatically move to the top in the red card sweepstakes with the betting oddsmaker. Still, a good week for Schalke, who needed it. Bayer just neds some Alka-Seltzer and forget this match.

Stuttgart was another struggling team that figured things out. VfB was all over Hoffenheim, and although the play on the field wasn’t as one-sided as the score indicates, the Hopper defense was chaotic and Stuttgart took ruthless advantage to blast their neighbors.

Dortmund is now the only team with a perfect start, but they were pushed to the limit by Frankfurt. The Neons were dominant in the 1st half, but neglected to gain the decisive advantage. Eintracht began to take control of the match in the 2nd period, but ironically took one in the shorts, and they weren’t able to pull it back. They can draw some positives from their overall strong performance, but that’s about it. Dortmund of course is now top of table, another indication to Bayern that the Neons are serious about wresting the title from them.

Total attendance 388,757 (avg 43,195), sellouts in Freiburg and Frankfurt

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

                     0:1  Shaqiri (33., T. Müller)
                     1:1  Höfler (86., Freis)

Bor. Mönchengladbach  -   Werder Bremen	          4:1 (1:0)   54,010

                     1:0  Arango (36., G. Xhaka)
                     2:0  Raffael (53., Jantschke)
                     2:1  Nordtveit (69., own goal, Junuzovic)
                     3:1  M. Kruse (74., Herrmann)
                     4:1  Herrmann (85.,  M. Kruse)

Hannover 96	      -   1. FSV Mainz 05	  4:1 (2:1)   38,600

                     0:1  N. Müller (12., Pospech)
                     1:1  M. Diouf (31., Prib)
                     2:1  A. Sobiech (37.,  Stindl)
                     3:1  Ya Konan (80., Bittencourt)
                     4:1  Prib (82., Andreasen)

VfL Wolfsburg	      -   Hertha BSC	          2:0 (2:0)   25,000

                     1:0  Olic (42., Naldo)
                     2:0  Diego (45. + 2, Diego)


1. FC Nürnberg	      -   FC Augsburg	          0:1 (0:0)   37,239

                     0:1  Vogt (84., To. Werner)

Hamburger SV	      -   Eintracht Braunschweig  4:0 (2:0)   54,958

                     1:0  van der Vaart (7., Beister)
                     2:0  Zoua (17., Beister)
                     3:0  Calhanoglu (80.)
                     4:0  Calhanoglu (90. + 1, direct freekick)

FC Schalke 04	      -   Bayer 04 Leverkusen  	  2:0 (1:0)   61,000

                     1:0  Höger (30., Farfan)
                     2:0  Farfan (83., penalty, Farfan)

VfB Stuttgart	      -   1899 Hoffenheim	  6:2 (3:1)   42,450

                     1:0  Rüdiger (12., Maxim)
                     2:0  Ibisevic (19., Maxim)
                     2:1  Volland (26., Elyounoussi)
                     3:1  Maxim (28., Ti. Werner)
                     4:1  Ibisevic (47., G. Sakai)
                     5:1  Maxim (55., Gentner)
                     6:1  Ibisevic (63., Ti. Werner)
                     6:2  Roberto Firmino (87., Herdling)

Eintracht Frankfurt   -   Borussia Dortmund	  1:2 (1:1)   51,500 *

                     0:1  H. Mkhitaryan (10., schuss, Blaszczykowski)
                     1:1  Kadlec (36., Aigner)
                     1:2  H. Mkhitaryan (56., Großkreutz)



 1  Borussia Dortmund	  	4    4 	0  0    9:2  +7    12 
 2  Bayern München (M, P)	4    3 	1  0    7:2  +5    10 
 3  Hannover 96	  	        4    3 	0  1    8:5  +3     9		
 4  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	4    3 	0  1    8:5  +3     9
-------------------------------------------------------------
 5  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	4    3 	0  1    8:7  +1     9 
 6  Hertha BSC Berlin (N)	4    2 	1  1    9:5  +4     7
-------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Bor. Mönchengladbach	4    2 	0  2   10:8  +2     6 
 8  VfL Wolfsburg	  	4    2 	0  2    6:4  +2     6 
 9  Werder Bremen	  	4    2 	0  2    3:5  -2     6 
10  FC Augsburg	  	        4    2 	0  2    3:6  -3     6 
11  1899 Hoffenheim	  	4    1 	2  1   12:12  0     5 
12  Hamburger SV	  	4    1 	1  2    8:9  -1     4 
13  FC Schalke 04	        4    1 	1  2    6:9  -3     4 
14  VfB Stuttgart	        4    0 	0  3    9:8  +1     3 
15  Eintracht Frankfurt	        4    1 	0  3    4:9  -5     3 
-------------------------------------------------------------
16  SC Freiburg	                4    0 	2  2    6:9  -3     2
-------------------------------------------------------------
16  1. FC Nürnberg	        4    0 	2  2    4:7  -3     2
18  Eintr. Braunschweig (N)     4    0 	0  4    1:9  -8     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

3 thoughts on “BUNDESLIGA, Round 4

  1. Good to see Stuttgart getting back in the points. I’ve never been a fan of Bruno Labbadia as his career shows moderate success followed by dramatic failure at every Bundesliga Club he’s coached – Leverkusen, HSV and VfB. Don’t know much about Thomas Schneider, but a good turnaround for the season so far.

    I yearn for the day that the big clubs are all back in serious contention – Werder, HSV, VfB, Gladbach and Eintracht as well as the regulars of Bayer, Bayern, Schalke and BVB. It’s the regular success of the big clubs that gets Germany points in the league rankings and would dearly love to see Germany overtake the EPL.

    • Not sure about that. St Pauli don’t actually feature in the European rankings, so going to be a little difficult for them to pass HSV. :-)

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