Pretty decent crowd by Cottbus standards watched Energie and Union battle out to a scoreless draw. Not too many chances, lots of tackling and hard, albeit fair, play. Overall, no doubt this is a reasonable result, and enough to send Union to top of the table, at least for the weekend.
Aalen ripped Bielefeld, continuing their improvement. The match was largely equal, but Arminia fell apart when Aalen scored first.
Believe it or nuts, there was some interest in Sandhausen’s match with Dresden, both sides desperately needing points against relegation. The match itself, although bereft of talent, was quite exciting, both sides having huge chances. Perhaps though not being able to score is a true reflection of their problems, and neither side really helped themselves with the scoreless draw.
Paderborn gave themselves some life as they stomped FSV Frankfurt. A deserved result, SCP playing hard and charging forwards for the victory. FSV has conituned to amaze the pundits, but were out of their zone in this one. In interesting side news, FSV had announced earlier that their budget for the whole squad was only 5 million euros, which is pretty tiny, as there are 4th division clubs that are within that reaching range.
Bochum continues in crisis. They looked like they might be turning it around, as they grabbed an early lead at Aue and dominated till half. But Erzgebirge came out breathing fire after the restart, and the Bochumers folded like a tent…
St.Pauli ran rings around their hosts Greuther Fürth, a somewhat surprising result, as the Greuther are one of the clear favorites, and have been playing pretty well. The Paulistas are very inconsistent, but showed what they’re capable of when they’re on point. SP was aggressive in attack, and took the match to the hosts, and ended up with a deserved victory. It’s too early to say whether St.Pauli will contend, let’s see what they are up to in the next few games. Most likely this won’t impact Greuther Fürth too drastically.
Kaiserslautern laid an egg when they let Karlsruhe escape with a point. The home side dominated the match, taking the lead twice. But KSC hit back and managed to secure a point, much to the dismay of the large FCK crowd. Results like this cost Lautern last season, and if they want a secure promotion, they can’t be dropping points like this. Obviously a good result for KSC.
Düsseldorf continues to suck, but have quietly moved up into respectability, and if they could get some “Fortuna”, they could actually contend. They had a hard time early going against Ingolstadt, who despite propping up the table, still remain a difficult opponent. But another double from new Dutch striker Charlison Benschop got Düsseldorf the win, so they can’t complain. Overall, it was deserved, as they were the better team. The main question is whether they have straightened out the ship after their poor start. It will be hard to see Ingolstadt putting together enough wins to avoid the drop, although with several clubs sucking, it’s not out of possibility.
On Monday, Köln faces 1860, a battle of two traditionals (and original Bundesliga members). The Kölners dominated, and had several chances, but ultimately blew it, hitting the woodwork and missing a penalty.
Total attendance 157,071 (avg 17,452)
Energie Cottbus - 1. FC Union Berlin 0:0 (0:0) 16,491
VfR Aalen - Arminia Bielefeld 3:0 (0:0) 5,904
1:0 A. Hofmann (61., Linksschuss, Junglas)
2:0 Junglas (70., Kopfball, Leandro)
3:0 Lechleiter (81., Rechtsschuss, Reichwein)
SC Paderborn 07 - FSV Frankfurt 4:2 (1:1) 6,593
0:1 Leckie (22., Huber)
1:1 Saglik (29., Krösche)
2:1 Wurtz (49., Saglik)
3:1 Saglik (51., Kachunga)
3:2 Kapllani (52., M. Görlitz)
4:2 Meha (53., Wemmer)
SV Sandhausen - Dynamo Dresden 0:0 (0:0) 6,500
Erzgebirge Aue - VfL Bochum 2:1 (0:1) 7,500
0:1 Sukuta-Pasu (3., Tiffert)
1:1 Kocer (48., Schröder)
2:1 Kocer (50., Janjic)
SpVgg Greuther Fürth - FC St. Pauli 2:4 (1:1) 14,110
0:1 Maier (12., Bartels)
1:1 Fürstner (24.)
1:2 Schindler (50.)
1:3 Schindler (58., Nöthe)
2:3 Trinks (77., Stieber)
2:4 Bartels (90. + 5, Buchtmann)
1. FC Kaiserslautern - Karlsruher SC 2:2 (1:1) 45,293
1:0 Simunek (20., Matmour)
1:1 Torres (40.)
2:1 Orban (62., Torrejon)
2:2 van der Biezen (74., Yabo)
FC Ingolstadt 04 - Fortuna Düsseldorf 1:2 (0:0) 6,380
0:1 Benschop (50.)
0:2 Benschop (63., O. Fink)
1:2 Matip (90. + 1, Mo. Hartmann)
Monday:
1. FC Köln - 1860 München 0:0 (0:0) 48,300
1 1. FC Köln 11 5 6 0 16:5 +11 21
2 1. FC Union Berlin 11 6 3 2 20:12 +8 21
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3 SpVgg Greuther Fürth (A) 11 6 2 3 20:13 +7 20
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4 1. FC Kaiserslautern 11 5 3 3 17:13 +4 18
5 FC St. Pauli 11 5 3 3 17:14 +3 18
6 Fortuna Düsseldorf (A) 11 4 4 3 13:13 0 16
7 FSV Frankfurt 11 4 3 4 17:13 +4 15
8 1860 München 11 4 3 4 8:10 -2 15
9 VfR Aalen 11 4 3 4 12:12 0 15
10 Erzgebirge Aue 11 5 0 6 14:18 -4 15
11 SC Paderborn 07 11 4 3 4 16:21 -5 15
12 Arminia Bielefeld (N) 11 4 2 5 17:22 -5 14
13 Energie Cottbus 11 3 4 4 18:16 +2 13
14 Karlsruher SC (N) 11 3 4 4 11:12 -1 13
15 SV Sandhausen 11 3 4 4 8:11 -3 13
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16 VfL Bochum 11 3 2 6 13:14 -1 11
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17 Dynamo Dresden 11 1 6 4 10:18 -8 9
18 FC Ingolstadt 04 11 2 1 8 10:20 -10 7
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