No matter what else happened this weekend, it’s Bayern losing that is the headline. For this first time in 53 Bundesliga matches, the champions went down – against Augsburg!!
Bayern of course didn’t start their A squad – they had 3 players from their youth setup in the lineup – but it was still a pretty strong team. Augsburg did their usual run-till-you-drop effort, and despite dominant possession from München, they kept things under control and withstood constant Bayern pressure after Sascha Mölders gave the Fuggers the lead. Overall, a great win for Augsburg, certainly their best campaign in club history. I suppose Bayern could give a hoot, looking ahead to Champions League matches. Still, it’s nice to see them stopped in the Bundesliga.
Hamburg got a critical win as they upended Leverkusen, who have been sinking fast. The Aspirin’s board took stock of their recent string of failures and fired coach Sami Hyypiä. Rene Adler had looked to throw away the win that HSV had fought so hard, as he let a shot bounce off him into the goal. HSV had been the better team until then, but the visitors smelled blood and went for the win. But veteran Heiko Westermann saved HSV by organizing the defense in the critical minutes, and then scored the winner himself at the end. Huge points, although Hamburg still remains in the relegation playoff. Leverkusen has now been passed by Gladbach for the Champions League, and have others breathing down their neck for even Europe.
Stuttgart got a huge win in a relegation battle in a regional derby with Freiburg. VfB had been total crap, but they came out strong in the 1st half. However, they got nothing, and SCF was beginning to take control in the 2nd period. The difference was when Romanian international Alex Maxim entered after an hour, as he quickly scored and then setup the decisive goal at the end.
Nürnberg dominated the first half against Gladbach. In fact, it was somewhat of an insult that the visitors had the lead. But der Club missed some promising chances and was in trouble. You might have expected them to try even harder after the restart, but instead they were oddly flat, and Borussia began to equalize the match. Max Kruse finished them off on a penalty, and a huge loss was sealed for Nürnberg.
Dortmund holds 2nd with a comeback win over Wolfsburg. It happened in a semi-tragic manner. VW GK Max Grün (in for the injured Benaglio) secured the ball off a cross, but his own defender ran into him, and the ball popped out. Marco Reus didn’t even bother to say “Dankeschön” and knocked in the garbage. Wolfsburg had totally outplayed the Neons in the first half, had a lead and even could have finished off the match – Olic hit the crossbar twice. But you waste, and you get punished. Dortmund re-grouped and laid siege to the visitors goal in the 2nd period. Wolfsburg probably deserved at least a draw. But you have to credit Dortmund for re-focusing. They looked shell-shocked from their ass-whupping in Madrid, and were getting run over on the autobahn by the Volkswagens. But they woke up in time to salvage the match and open up an advantage over Schalke.
Schalke was in a difficult match in Bremen. Werder can be total crap or quite decent. They were the latter today, and played a strong match. There really wasn’t much more to gain for Schalke, as the hosts fully deserved the point in this hard fought duel.
Frankfurt has probably done enough for salvation as they blanked Mainz in a regional derby. The Mainzers had been decent, but looked flat. Frankfurt heroes Joselu and Meier got the goals that give Eintracht some breathing space, a deserved victory.
The critical match on Sunday was the Niedersachsen derby between neighbors Braunschweig and Hannover. Braunschweig seized their last chance to stay around with a clear win, and Hannover falls back into the relegation mire. The Lions grabbed an early lead, and the 96ers were totally incompetant, so it ended up a relatively easy victory for Eintracht.
In the “who cares?” dept, Berlin and Hoffenheim played to a draw. It actually was a pretty good match, both sides showing initiative and eventually petering out to a draw.
Total attendance 429,079 (avg 47,675), sellouts in Bremen, Nürnberg, Augsburg, Dortmund and Braunschweig
Hamburger SV - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2:1 (1:0) 49,575
1:0 Calhanoglu (4., van der Vaart)
1:1 Brandt (58., Spahic)
2:1 Westermann (82., Diekmeier)
VfB Stuttgart - SC Freiburg 2:0 (0:0) 58,500
1:0 Maxim (69., Traoré)
2:0 Harnik (89., Maxim)
Werder Bremen - FC Schalke 04 1:1 (1:1) 42,100 *
1:0 di Santo (15., Elia)
1:1 Goretzka (33.)
1. FC Nürnberg - Bor. Mönchengladbach 0:2 (0:1) 50,000 *
0:1 Arango (18., direct freekick)
0:2 M. Kruse (79., penalty, M. Kruse)
FC Augsburg - Bayern München 1:0 (1:0) 30,660 *
1:0 Mölders (31., Baier)
Eintracht Frankfurt - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:0 (0:0) 50,400
1:0 Joselu (52., S. Jung)
2:0 Meier (85., Aigner)
Borussia Dortmund - VfL Wolfsburg 2:1 (0:1) 80,645 *
0:1 Olic (34., Junior Malanda)
1:1 Lewandowski (51., Reus)
2:1 Reus (77.)
Sunday:
Eintr Braunschweig - Hannover 96 3:0 (2:0) 23,325 *
1:0 Kumbela (14., Reichel)
2:0 Nielsen (21., Kessel)
3:0 Hochscheidt (89., Bellarabi)
Hertha BSC - 1899 Hoffenheim 1:1 (1:1) 43,874
1:0 Allagui (11., Skjelbred)
1:1 Polanski (30., Volland)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 29 25 3 1 82:17 +65 78
2 Borussia Dortmund 29 18 4 7 64:32 +32 58
3 FC Schalke 04 29 16 7 6 54:38 +16 55
4 Bor. Mönchengladbach 29 14 6 9 51:34 +17 48
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5 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 29 15 3 11 48:36 +12 48
6 VfL Wolfsburg 29 14 5 10 49:44 +5 47
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7 1. FSV Mainz 05 29 13 5 11 41:45 -4 44
8 FC Augsburg 29 12 6 11 41:43 -2 42
9 1899 Hoffenheim 29 9 10 10 64:63 +1 37
10 Hertha BSC Berlin (N) 29 10 7 12 37:40 -3 37
11 Eintracht Frankfurt 29 9 8 12 37:48 -11 35
12 Werder Bremen 29 8 9 12 34:55 -21 33
13 Hannover 96 29 8 5 16 36:54 -18 29
14 SC Freiburg 29 7 8 14 33:52 -19 29
15 VfB Stuttgart 29 7 6 16 44:57 -13 27
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16 Hamburger SV 29 7 6 16 45:60 -15 27
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17 1. FC Nürnberg 29 5 11 13 34:54 -20 26
18 Eintracht Braunschweig (N) 29 6 7 16 28:50 -22 25
1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga