2.Liga, Round 11: Die Schanzer in charge

Last week we asked “Who’s in charge?!” and now the answer: Ingolstadt!! The Schanzer are the anti-thesis of RedBull Leipzig, a small budget side tearing up the league. They’ve already built out a lead to 5 points, and still remain unbeaten. They did face a tough challenge from Heidenheim, as the newcomers are very much like Ingolstadt. It was a tough, rather drab kickabout, but FCI gets the win. You have to consider them a Bundesliga promotion contender, and really are a team of nobodies. The only familiar name for me is perhaps Marvin Matip, who I believe is the brother of Schalke’s Joel Matip. Aside from matip’s 1 cap for Cameroon, other internationals are Aussie Matthew Leckie (15), Austrians Lukas Hinterseer (4) and GK Ramazan Özcan (2)
Hinterseer (41., Linksschuss, Mo. Hartmann), American Alfredo Morales (4) – hardly household names. Not bad for a club only formed about 10 years ago from a fusion of MTV and ESV…Heidenheim showed their usual toughness, expect them to continue to be a thorn in everyone’s side.

Certainly more was expected in the top clash where Kaiserslautern hosted Fortuna Düsseldorf, just like in old bundesliga days. But Fortuna decided just to play defensively, and FCK was given free reign on the field. The hosts attacked, but couldn’t achieve anything. Then Fortuna stunned the crowd with a late counter, and their plan seemed to work. Luckily FCK launched some furious, desperate attacks and were rewarded in injury time. I suppose a draw is a fair result, as Fortuna’s plan worked to perfection, but you really expect more from a leader.

Bochum continues to fall part, 5 straight matches now without a win. This time they lost in Leipzig, although they could have hardly helped when their coach Peter Neururer stated that “Leipzig makes him want to barf” because he didn’t like the RedBull money invasion, since they weren’t a “tradition” club like either VfB or Sachsen (Hey Peter, who are back to “Lok” and “Chemie”, so get your traditions straightened out, hehehe). Anyway, if the insults were expected to be motivators for VfL, it backfired, as they promptly opened with an own-goal and then proceeded to lose. Bochum didn’t play badly, but showed nothing on offense, and the Rasenballsportler were just a bit better, and deserved the win.

Stunning match in Fürth, where the heavily favored Greuther expected to romp against last place FSV Frankfurt. Instead they ran into a veritable Bornheimer hurricane. The ringleader was Vicenzo Grifo. The German-born Italian was unstoppable. After the hosts went in front early, he equalized almost immediately with a direct free kick. He then ran over to celebrate at the Frankfurt bench, and was handed a 10 euro note. Whether he won a bet or this was his salary, I don’t know. In any case, the rest of FSV was suitably impressed with the prospect of some major funds (FSV has by far the tiniest 2.Liga budget) and they went nuts, fiercely attacking their hosts. The stunned Greuthers tried fighting back, but were no match for the rabid Bornheimers, and Grifo proceeded to knock in a couple of others. An amazing win for FSV, getting them off the bottom, and a bitter defeat for the host’s promotion ambitions.

Karlsruhe ripped St.Pauli, completely outplaying their hosts. SCP started brightly, but teh cold shower of KSC goals basically ended the match. The visitors then kicked the ball around until the end when they decided to insult their hosts by banging in a couple more. The Paulistas now fall into a relegation spot with this crap performance, while Karlsruhe breaks their recent unsuccessful run and are back on track.

Union Berlin continues their recovery with a tough win in Aalen. Both sides desperately wanted the points, and it was Soren Brandy who decided the game with a nice scissors-kick-volley to give Union the points. They seem to have stabilized, but even though Aalen has dropped into relegation, they remain a tough opponent.

The battle of the Lions (both 1860 and Braunschweig are known as “Löwen”) was more like a meowing from kitty-kats. Both sides have been horrible all season, and it continued along these lines in the match, where both sides looked lame. Obviously things went a bit better for Eintracht, who got their first road victory in over a year. I think they still have some bite, but they lack the will power that they showed last season (despite their Bundesliga relegation)

An alternate headline could have been “Der Club gets biatch-slapped!!!”, because thats basically what happened on Montagnachtfussball. Darmstadt was all over Nürnberg like white on rice. Well, actually FCN controlled most of the game, basically because the 98ers wanted to rely on counters. They launched them whenever they felt like scoring a goal, and der Club bumbled around aimlessly the rest of the time. The result was an emphatic Darmstadt win, perhaps their biggest win since the 1982 Bundesliga season. (Well, their biggest recent win was a couple years ago when Kickers Offenbach’s bookkeepers were shown the red card by the DFB Finance committee). Nürnberg looks pretty confused, as their mini-revival comes to a screaching halt.

Total attendance 159,767 (avg 17,752), sellout in Darmstadt

 	
SpVgg Greuther Fürth  -   FSV Frankfurt	        2:5 (2:3)    9,805

                     1:0  Sukalo (10., Weilandt)
                     1:1  Grifo (15., direct freekick)
                     1:2  Beugelsdijk (21., M. Engels)
                     2:2  Sukalo (30., Gießelmann)
                     2:3  Grifo (33., M. Engels)
                     2:4  Dedic (59., Huber)
                     2:5  Grifo (88., penalty, Grifo)

VfR Aalen	      -   1. FC Union Berlin	1:2 (1:0)    5,435

                     1:0  Hainault (39., Mockenhaupt)
                     1:1  Leistner (62., Köhler)
                     1:2  Brandy (70., M. Thiel)

RB Leipzig	      -   VfL Bochum	        2:0 (2:0)   30,194

                     1:0  Holthaus (7., own goal, D. Kaiser)
                     2:0  Frahn (33.)

1. FC Kaiserslautern  -   Fortuna Düsseldorf	1:1 (0:0)   36,282

                     0:1  Pohjanpalo (77., Liendl)
                     1:1  Gaus (90. + 2, Löwe)

FC St. Pauli	      -   Karlsruher SC	        0:4 (0:2)   28,029

                     0:1  Yamada (18., Kempe)
                     0:2  Hennings (31., Kempe)
                     0:3  Alibaz (80., Hennings)
                     0:4  Yamada (89.)

1860 München	      -   Eintr. Braunschweig	1:2 (1:1)   20,300

                     0:1  Zuck (18., Hedenstad)
                     1:1  Schindler (38., Adlung)
                     1:2  R. Korte (49.)

FC Ingolstadt 04      -   1. FC Heidenheim	1:0 (1:0)    9,156

                     1:0  Hinterseer (41., Mo. Hartmann)

SV Sandhausen	      -   Erzgebirge Aue	1:1 (0:0)    4,066

                     0:1  Kortzorg (57., Löning)
                     1:1  F. Hübner (64., Paqarada)

SV Darmstadt 98	      -   1. FC Nürnberg	3:0 (1:0)   16,500 *

                     1:0  Stroh-Engel (39., Heller)
                     2:0  Balogun (70., Kempe)
                     3:0  Kempe (82., Gondorf)
			 


 1  FC Ingolstadt 04 	  	11    7  4  0 	  18:6 	 +12 	  25 
 2  Fortuna Düsseldorf 	  	11    5  5  1 	  20:12  +8 	  20
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 3  RasenBallsport Leipzig (N) 	11    5  4  2 	  16:8 	 +8 	  19
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 7  SV Darmstadt 98 (N) 	11    5  4  2 	  18:11  +7 	  19
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern 	11    5  4  2 	  17:13  +4 	  19 
 5  1. FC Heidenheim (N) 	11    4  4  3 	  20:14  +6 	  16 
 6  Karlsruher SC 	  	11    4  4  3 	  15:10  +5 	  16 
 8  VfL Bochum 	  	        11    3  6  2 	  18:16  +2 	  15 
 9  SpVgg Greuther Fürth 	11    4  3  4 	  18:16  +2 	  15 
10  Eintracht Braunschweig (A) 	11    4  2  5 	  16:15  +1 	  14 
11  1. FC Union Berlin	  	11    3  4  4 	  11:17  -6 	  13 		
12  1. FC Nürnberg (A)	  	11    4  1  6 	  11:20  -9 	  13 
13  FSV Frankfurt 	  	11    3  2  6 	  16:21  -5 	  11 
14  Erzgebirge Aue 	  	11    3  2  6 	  11:17  -6 	  11 
15  SV Sandhausen 	  	11    3  2  6 	   8:16  -8 	  11
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16  FC St. Pauli 	  	11    3  2  6 	  11:20  -9 	  11
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17  VfR Aalen 	  	        11    2  4  5 	   9:13  -4 	  10 
18  1860 München 	  	11    2  3  6 	  12:20  -8 	  9


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

A = Absteiger just relegated 
N = Neuling just promoted

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