A sensational result in Heidenheim, where Bochum visited. VfL has been one of the more impressive sides early, looking to live up to their favorite status, and generally playing quite well. Newly promoted Heidenheim has been quite good, but most pundits figured they would be happy with a point against their famous opponent. Instead, the visiting side was stunned by FCH’s high tempo attack, and despite being one of the better road teams, were completely overrun in a brilliant display. Heidenheim jumped on Bochum and didn’t let up, wrapping up the match in 40 minutes of brilliant football. The 2nd half was a continued show, although the stunned Bochumers perhaps did benefit from their hosts pegging back a gear.
Ingolstadt has been one of the early season surprises. Over the past couple of season, they’ve proven to be an unpleasant opponent, especially at home, always ready to give you a tough match. But the Schanzer would often leave points on the table. This season they are grabbing thos points, and have been challenging at the top. Karlsruhe looked to have gotten on board with their promotion challenge, but seems to have stepped back. A tense match that they could never get control of, and FCI probably deserves all the points.
Promoted side Darmstadt is living the dream, only one season removed from potential 4th division, they’re now a contender for the Bundesliga. Union expected to challenge, but has hit a rough start. The visitors showed confidence and got increasingly better as the match went on. In fact, when they grabbed a lead, it looked like they might actually get a huge road win. But teh Berliners roused themselves and fought back to get a point.
Exciting match in Düsseldorf, as Fortuna battled Leipzig. The hosts were the pressing side, but wasted some early chances to gain a clear advantage. Leipzig was compact and clever, and constantly had Fortuna chasing their tail. Overall, a draw is the correct result, obviously better for the visiting side.
The relegated Bundesligist Braunschweig has found the 2.Liga return to be pretty rough, and their opponent Sandhausen has been grinding out results recently, so it was hard to say what would happen. Braunschweig did manage to keep the game under control, although the visitors threatened at various times to break up the match. In the end the Lions held on to get an important win to steady the ship.
The Bavarian derby between 1860 and Greuther Fürth deserves bigger attendance, but it was mostly 1860 fans that couldn’t get into the Lowenbrau tent at the Oktoberfest. The home side had just fired their caoch Ricardo Minz and installed Markus von Ahlen, and it showed up positively. 1860 was engaged and wanted the win. Greuther Fürth on the other hand, well, they wanted to be at the Oktoberfest. They were shockingly weak, so 1860 had an easy time getting the points. So instead of a statement match against a contender, the win is kinda ho-hum.
After their crap start, Aue desperately needs points, and they continued their mini-revival with a critical win against Aalen. This is the type of club they *have* to beat if they want to stay up, and they got the job done, but it wasn’t easy. Not that Aalen played very well, but Erzgebirge was overly nervous and struggled. But they got their 3rd positive in a row, so it’s been a great “English” week for the Easterners.
A wild match in Bornheim. FSV Frankfurt and St.Pauli looked to be locked into a drab relegation battle, and when the Paulistas took teh lead, it looked like FSV was cooked. But the hosts re-organized and threw everything into attack, and pulled things back to take the lead. St.Pauli was however to shift gears as well just in time and salvage a draw in what turned out to be a riveting match.
Monday night was an abosultely critical match as Nürnberg hosted Kaiserslautern. A defeat for FCN would have been disastrous. Der Club did however do enough to get the points. Kaiserslautern wasted chances, and FCN used counters to build up a huge lead. Since they are still crap, they weren’t able to sail home though. Kaiserslautern got back into the match and there were nervous minutes until the final whistle.
Eintr. Braunschweig - SV Sandhausen 2:1 (1:0) 20,680
1:0 Kessel (38., R. Korte)
2:0 Bakenga (54., R. Korte)
2:1 Wooten (90. + 2, Hand penalty)
1860 München - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2:0 (1:0) 18,300
1:0 Okotie (6., Adlung)
2:0 Sanchez (74., Rodri)
Erzgebirge Aue - VfR Aalen 1:0 (0:0) 7,000
1:0 Fa. Müller (77., Kortzorg)
Karlsruher SC - FC Ingolstadt 04 0:1 (0:1) 12,000
0:1 Gordon (40., own goal, P. Groß)
1. FC Union Berlin - SV Darmstadt 98 1:1 (0:0) 18,124
0:1 Heller (73., Kempe)
1:1 Quiring (85., Schönheim)
Fortuna Düsseldorf - RB Leipzig 2:2 (0:1) 30,477
0:1 Teigl (18., Morys)
1:1 Pohjanpalo (60., Tah)
1:2 Teigl (61., Demme)
2:2 Benschop (86., Bolly)
FSV Frankfurt - FC St. Pauli 3:3 (1:2) 8,106
0:1 Nöthe (32., penalty, L. Sobiech)
0:2 Rzatkowski (35., Daube)
1:2 Kauko (44., oshi)
2:2 Ziereis (58., own goal, Huber)
3:2 Grifo (62.)
3:3 Daube (86., Maier)
1. FC Heidenheim - VfL Bochum 5:0 (4:0) 11,500
1:0 Mayer (9., Schnatterer)
2:0 Schnatterer (20., penalty, Mayer)
3:0 Schnatterer (28., Niederlechner)
4:0 Niederlechner (39., K. Kraus)
5:0 Leipertz (77., Heise)
1. FC Nürnberg - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 3:2 (2:0) 25,130
1:0 Candeias (24., Schöpf)
2:0 Schöpf (41.)
3:0 Schöpf (51.)
3:1 Ring (62., Löwe)
3:2 Löwe (71., Zimmer)
1 FC Ingolstadt 04 8 4 4 0 15:6 +9 16
2 SV Darmstadt 98 (N) 8 4 3 1 13:6 +7 15
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3 RasenBallsport Leipzig (N) 8 4 3 1 13:6 +7 15
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4 1. FC Heidenheim (N) 8 4 2 2 18:11 +7 14
5 1. FC Kaiserslautern 8 4 2 2 13:11 +2 14
6 VfL Bochum 8 3 4 1 16:12 +4 13
7 Fortuna Düsseldorf 8 3 4 1 14:10 +4 13
8 Karlsruher SC 8 3 3 2 11:8 +3 12
9 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 8 3 2 3 12:9 +3 11
10 Eintracht Braunschweig (A) 8 3 1 4 12:11 +1 10
11 SV Sandhausen 8 3 1 4 6:9 -3 10
12 1860 München 8 2 3 3 10:12 -2 9
13 1. FC Nürnberg (A) 8 3 0 5 9:16 -7 9
14 FC St. Pauli 8 2 2 4 8:15 -7 8
15 1. FC Union Berlin 8 1 4 3 6:12 -6 7
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16 Erzgebirge Aue 8 2 1 5 6:13 -7 7
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17 VfR Aalen 8 1 3 4 6:11 -5 6
18 FSV Frankfurt 8 1 2 5 8:18 -10 5
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