The Bundesliga was back after the hangover of European qualifiers, in which Germany did quite poorly. They started with the first loss *ever* against Poland, although basically they had more than enough chances to win the game easily. Still the Poles took their few chances and get the historic victory. Then another horrible result against the Republic of Ireland, giving up a tie in the last minute. Under normal circumstances, you might expect the press to be at fever pitch, but clearly as World Champions, Joggi Löw is going to get quite a bit of slack. I mean, would you rather have wins in ho-hum qualifiers or win the WorldCup? Still, it’s clear that the DFB squad is going to need some re-focus and rebuilding.
Turning back to the Bundesliga, I’m not sure you can draw too many conslusions just yet. Aside of course that bayern is going to defend their title easily (although most probably would have said so even before any matches were played). But the matches seem to going as predicted, at least as far as teh champions are concerned: A walk in the park in München as Bayern ripped hapless Bremen to shreds. Luckily the hosts took their foot off the gas in the 2nd period, otherwise it could have easily been double digits. Werder was shockingly horrible, and desperately need to do something quickly before the situation becomes hopeless.
Perhaps Gladbach is one team that might at least “challenge”, i.e. become runner up. They traveled to Hannover for a big match, and did quite well. The 96ers ran around a lot, but Borussia was clinical and beat them silly. MG remains unbeaten, and looks like they could contend for 2nd place.
Leverkusen looks like a challenger, but only part time. The Aspirins showed why they will always fail when it counts. They built up a huge lead at Stuttgart, and in fact could have easily inflicted a record loss on their hosts. But then in the 2nd half, they evidently forgot how to play football, and Stuttgart came roaring back. Overall, it was a fair result, but obviously much better for VfB, since they showed they still have some bite.
Mainz continues as a surprise unbeaten side. They defeated Augsburg in a tough match. The hosts jumped out early, and although Augsburg had sustained pressure, they only got back into the match too late.
Hoffenheim also has quietly remained unbeaten. The Hoppers faced a stiff challenge at Hamburg, as HSV under Zinnbauer at least shows fight in every match now. The hosts pressed hard, but Hoffenheim was up to the challenge and come away with a fair point. It’s a bit of a surprise they’re unbeaten, but they seem solid, if not impressive. HSV basically needs to solve their goal scoring (or rather “lack of…”) problem. If they can do that, they actually seem to be in better shape than the lucky escapee from last season.
Köln got a huge victory against Dortmund. The hosts were clearly technically inferior, but made it up with a lot of effort. BVB is clearly a squad in crisis, and probably shouldn’t have lost this one – but they found a way to lose. This time veteran GK Roman Weidenfeller basically just missed a lazy cross into the box and a surprised Simon Zoller tapped into the empty net for the winner. For Dortmund, the real highpoint was the return of Ilkay Gündogan after his long injury layoff, and he had a promising match. Still, Jürgen Klopp has a lot of work to do to get BVB straightened out. For Köln, every point is precious, so they’ve got to be pretty happy.
Schalke could perhaps make a run at things. They got off to a poor start and finally canned Jens Keller, so this was Roberto Di Matteo’s debut. He was probably happy with the win, and a solid defensive effort. He can’t be too happy about his midfield though, as it was Hertha that controlled most of the match. A fortunate second goal gave Schalke to edge to withstand, and Berlin was unable to come back. So can Schalke make a run? If RDM can sort things out in midfield perhaps. And of course the defense will have to continue their recent improvement. Berlin isn’t very far above the relegation zone, but Hertha looks like they have enough skill to float above.
Paderborn is back to their surprisingly good start. The match with Frankfurt was a snoozer, but then the guests made the mistake of taking the lead :). This seemed to galvanzie SCP, and they ran around leaving Eintracht in the dust. They might have been slightly fortunate, but the visitors defense was full of holes, and they got owned. Great win for SCP, who have certainly given indication that they might be able to stay up. Frankfurt could have become “a team to watch” if they had won, but I guess now you can continue to ignore them.
Perhaps Wolfsburg is going to grow into a “watchable team”. They won at struggling Freiburg on a double by ex-Freiburger Daniel Caligiuri. They’ll need to notch up a few more wins before they can be taken seriously. SCF is certainly in trouble, having yet to register a win, so something else that they have in common with the other great suckitude this season, Werder Bremen.
Total attendance 388,063 (avg 43,118), sellouts in München, Hannover, Köln, Schalke and Paderborn
Bayern München - Werder Bremen 6:0 (4:0) 71,000 *
1:0 Lahm (20., T. Müller)
2:0 Xabi Alonso (27., direct free kick)
3:0 T. Müller (43., penalty, T. Müller)
4:0 M. Götze (45., Alaba)
5:0 Lahm (79., Shaqiri)
6:0 M. Götze (86.)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - FC Augsburg 2:1 (2:0) 27,687
1:0 Hofmann (20.)
2:0 Jairo (23.)
2:1 To. Werner (78., Baba)
Hannover 96 - Bor. Mönchengladbach 0:3 (0:1) 49,000 *
0:1 M. Kruse (14., Alvaro Dominguez)
0:2 G. Xhaka (49., direct free kick)
0:3 M. Kruse (90., Hazard)
SC Freiburg - VfL Wolfsburg 1:2 (0:1) 23,500
0:1 D. Caligiuri (8., De Bruyne)
0:2 D. Caligiuri (66., De Bruyne)
1:2 Kerk (90. + 1)
VfB Stuttgart - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 3:3 (0:3) 40,900
0:1 Son (4.)
0:2 Son (9.)
0:3 Bellarabi (41., Son)
1:3 Ti. Werner (57., Klein)
2:3 Klein (67.)
3:3 Harnik (76., Kostic)
1. FC Köln - Borussia Dortmund 2:1 (1:0) 50,000 *
1:0 Vogt (40., Risse)
1:1 Immobile (48., Reus)
2:1 Zoller (74., Osako)
FC Schalke 04 - Hertha BSC 2:0 (1:0) 61,973 *
1:0 Huntelaar (19., Draxler)
2:0 Draxler (65.)
Hamburger SV - TSG Hoffenheim 1:1 (1:1) 49,003
0:1 Modeste (15., Schwegler)
1:1 Lasogga (34., Arslan)
SC Paderborn 07 - Eintracht Frankfurt 3:1 (0:0) 15,000 *
0:1 Meier (57., Inui)
1:1 Ducksch (66., Kutschke)
2:1 Hünemeier (79., Vrancic)
3:1 Kutschke (85., Koc)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 8 6 2 0 21:2 +19 20
2 Bor. Mönchengladbach 8 4 4 0 12:4 +8 16
3 TSG Hoffenheim 8 3 5 0 12:7 +5 14
4 1. FSV Mainz 05 8 3 5 0 12:7 +5 14
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5 VfL Wolfsburg 8 4 2 2 13:9 +4 14
6 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 8 3 4 1 16:14 +2 13
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7 SC Paderborn 07 (N) 8 3 3 2 13:11 +2 12
8 Eintracht Frankfurt 8 3 3 2 13:13 0 12
9 FC Schalke 04 8 3 2 3 13:12 +1 11
10 Hannover 96 8 3 1 4 5:11 -6 10
11 1. FC Köln (N) 8 2 3 3 6:7 -1 9
12 FC Augsburg 8 3 0 5 9:11 -2 9
13 Hertha BSC Berlin 8 2 2 4 11:16 -5 8
14 Borussia Dortmund 8 2 1 5 10:14 -4 7
15 VfB Stuttgart 8 1 3 4 9:15 -6 6
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16 Hamburger SV 8 1 3 4 3:9 -6 6
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17 SC Freiburg 8 0 5 3 8:12 -4 5
18 Werder Bremen 8 0 4 4 10:22 -12 4
1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga
M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokalsieger, Cup winner
N = Neuling, just promoted