The Bundesliga re-started after the winterbreak, and it was with a huge bang: Leaders Bayern München went down in flames in Wolfsburg! And it wasn’t just any old loss, it was a rip. In fact, Bayern conceded the same amount of goals in this match as they did the *whole* first round of 17 matches!! The Wolfies jumped out right at the start and caught bayern with their pants down, and continued with aggressive, speedy counterattacks throughout the match. As usual, Bayern controlled the ball, but were sliced open by the well organized VWs. The possesion ball (some 68%) wasn’t enough to squeeze their opponents, and the champions couldn’t react quick enough. Indeed, the generally outstanding Max Arnold had several chances to add to the VWs goal tally.
The Wolfsburgers played a perfect game, and will certainly be looking forward to continuing their good run. The VWs pulled off a mini-coup as they signed Andreas Schürrle from Chelsea for 30 million euros, and look to be building a squad that can again be a force in the Bundesliga.
Of course, what does this all mean? Is there suddenly going to be a title race in the Bundesliga? Nope. It’s basically just an isolated result and it will probably be back to normal next week. But at least the fans can rejoice to see the arrogant Bavarians taken down a notch.
The other match everyone was interested in was Dortmund at Leverkusen. BVB being dead last is the real sensation of the Bundesliga season, so it was with keen interest that everybody wondered how Klopp’s troops would rebound after the winterbreak. The jury is still out. For one thing, a cleansheet away at Leverkusen isn’t really a bad result. In the first half, they would have made some idiotic defensive brain-fart and lost. But on the other hand, they didn’t really do much against an Aspirin side that has been wishy-washy as well. Overall, probably a step forward for the Neons. For Bayer, they really showed little of their attacking skill, so unless BVB is revealed to be back to old strength, it’s hardly a result to crow about.
Schalke struggled against Hannover and were somewhat fortunate to win. The 96ers had their chances, but wasted them. Schalke gets a win that allows them to hold a Champions League spot, but also Huntelaar got his ass tossed, so that means a ban down the road.
Mainz bounced back in a big way from recent ho-hum performances. They biatch-slapped newcomers Paderborn in a match they totally dominated. SCP looked hapless and clueless, which doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season. They’ll need to forget this one and get back to their scrappy ways immediately.
Freiburg is a veteran of relegation scrapes, and they showed that they’re primed for another. The Breisgauers overran Frankfurt, despite a shock start by Eintracht after only a few seconds. The outstanding figure was Nils Petersen, signed from Bremen over the winter-break, who came on in the 2nd half and debuted with a hat-trick! (Why did Werder let him go? It’s not as if they’ve scared anyone with their brilliant attacking form)
Bremen got a huge relegation battle win as they downed Hertha. It wasn’t a very enticing matchup, as both sides were pretty lame, but Werder didn’t make mistakes, and go out as deserved winner, lifting them off the relegation spots. Berlin slides further into the morass.
An interesting fact: don’t expect a scoreless draw when these guys play. The last scoreless bout between Werder and Hertha was in 1970.
Stuttgart was crap against Gladbach, wasting chances, and generally sucking. Gladbach didn’t play very well, but eventually noticed that VfB was ripe for the taking, so grabbed a winner on a counter. Nothing to boast about, but it’s a win in the books.
Hamburg was also lame at home, in a crucial battle with Köln. They hoped the return of Ivica Olic would jumpstart the offense, but no such luck. Köln looked relatively solid and were good for their win, which lifts them nicely above relegation. HSV clearly still has work to do. 9 goals in 18 matches, that sounds like relegation material.
Augsburg continues as one of the surprises, and this time they downed Hoffenheim. The match was ho-hum in the 1st half until things went crazy in the last few minutes before half, with the Fuggers grabbing the lead. The Hoppers then assaulted the FCA goal in the 2nd half, desperately seeking an equalizer. But the home side stood firm, their “fight-till-you-drop” style holding steady, and they finished off Hoffenheim with an injury time counter. You’ll note that Augsburg has now won more matches than any other team save Bayern and Wolfsburg.
Total attendance 342,500 (avg 38,056), sellouts in Wolfsburg, Freiburg and Leverkusen
VfL Wolfsburg - Bayern München 4:1 (2:0) 30,000 *
1:0 Dost (4., De Bruyne)
2:0 Dost (45. + 2, )
3:0 De Bruyne (53., Arnold)
3:1 Juan Bernat (55.)
4:1 De Bruyne (73., Arnold)
FC Schalke 04 - Hannover 96 1:0 (1:0) 61,646
1:0 Höger (32., Fuchs)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - SC Paderborn 07 5:0 (1:0) 27,114
1:0 Malli (6., de Blasis)
2:0 Malli (46., de Blasis)
3:0 de Blasis (69., Malli)
4:0 Allagui (82., Bengtsson)
5:0 Geis (87., penalty, Allagui)
SC Freiburg - Eintracht Frankfurt 4:1 (0:1) 24,000 *
0:1 Russ (1., Stendera)
1:1 Darida (62., penalty, C. Günter)
2:1 Petersen (64., Klaus)
3:1 Petersen (70., Frantz)
4:1 Petersen (88., Schmid)
VfB Stuttgart - Bor. Mönchengladbach 0:1 (0:0) 46,200
0:1 Herrmann (71., Hrgota)
Hamburger SV - 1. FC Köln 0:2 (0:0) 56,053
0:1 Risse (62., Peszko)
0:2 Risse (78., Ujah)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Borussia Dortmund 0:0 (0:0) 30,210 *
Werder Bremen - Hertha BSC 2:0 (1:0) 40,187
1:0 di Santo (43., Gebre Selassie)
2:0 di Santo (69., Fritz)
FC Augsburg - TSG Hoffenheim 3:1 (2:1) 27,090
1:0 Halil Altintop (39., Höjbjerg)
2:0 To. Werner (42., direct freekick)
2:1 Roberto Firmino (45., Schwegler)
3:1 Bobadilla (90. + 3, Kohr)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 18 14 3 1 42:8 +34 45
2 VfL Wolfsburg 18 11 4 3 37:18 +19 37
3 Bor. Mönchengladbach 18 8 6 4 26:16 +10 30
4 FC Schalke 04 18 9 3 6 29:21 +8 30
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5 FC Augsburg 18 10 0 8 25:22 +3 30
6 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 18 7 8 3 28:20 +8 29
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7 TSG Hoffenheim 18 7 5 6 30:28 +2 26
8 Hannover 96 18 7 3 8 21:27 -6 24
9 Eintracht Frankfurt 18 6 5 7 35:38 -3 23
10 1. FC Köln (N) 18 6 4 8 19:23 -4 22
11 1. FSV Mainz 05 18 4 9 5 24:23 +1 21
12 Werder Bremen 18 4 5 8 28:39 -11 20
13 SC Paderborn 07 (N) 18 4 7 7 21:31 -10 19
14 SC Freiburg 18 3 9 6 21:26 -5 18
15 Hertha BSC Berlin 18 5 3 10 24:37 -13 18
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16 Hamburger SV 18 4 5 9 9:21 -12 17
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17 VfB Stuttgart 18 4 5 9 20:33 -13 17
18 Borussia Dortmund 18 4 4 10 18:26 -8 16
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