Round 25, Mar 13-16
One thing about this season is that FC Ingolstadt has been consistently good and were riding towards the Bundesliga. The Audi backed side had built a strong lead, but it has been wittered down quite a bit, and now other clubs are within striking distance of the top spot. Karlsruhe came to town and played a clever game. They took the lead, but gave it up in injury time of the first half. In the second period FCI dominated and pressed for the lead, but KSC stood firm and then countered at the end to lay out the Schanzer with a couple of sucker punches.
The Lions still have some teeth! Well, maybe not, but 1860 found some decent denture cream and bit the Greuthers in a Bavarian derby. It really wasn’t much of a contest, as Fürth was total crap, and 1860 really just needed to convert their chances, which somehwat surprisingly they did, since they usually are also too bored to care. Both sides should be looking carefully over their shoulders, as a disastrous drop will definitely hit one “big” club, Greuther, 1860 or St.Pauli.
St.Pauli was unable to breech the disciplined FSV Frankfurt defense, and couldn’t get more than a point. The Hessians have proved to be an uncomfortable opponent for a lot of sides, and despite their tiny budget, are a solid mid-table side. The Paulistas have shown life, but they dug themselves a deep hole that is difficult to climb out of – epsecially if 1860 has indeed woken up.
Bochum showed that they can also bite. They’ve been dicking around, but this time they decided to show what they’re capable of and they ripped Heidenheim to shreds. They’re not going anywhere, but I guess you don’t want to provoke them. FCH still looks reasonbly solid to avoid getting into the relegation mire, which pretty much accomplishes their goal.
Darmstadt may actually be thinking that Bundesliga is a possibility. It could be an amazing march from oblivion into the top flight. The 98ers played their perhaps most impressive match as they assaulted visiting Union. The Berliners contributed to their demise by stupidity just before half: hospital pass, and Mohamed Amsif was forced into a late tackle, red card, penalty, game over. But Dramstadt smelled blood and furiously attacked in the 2nd period and racked up a great result.
Kaiserslautern remains in contention as the Devils downed visiting Nürnberg in a battle of giants. FCK was generally in control of the match and gets a deserved victory.
A cellar match in Aalen as VfR met Aue. And the home side easily got the win to move off the bottom. Erzgebirge was completely lame, not creating a single chance. Aalen got a couple of goals of standards and got all the points.
Braunschweig got an away win at Sandhausen, neither side too impressive. Overall, Eintracht was the better side and deserve the win, but they’ll need better efforts to climb back into the promotion race.
Total attendance 144,209 (avg 16,023), 63.7% capacity, sellout in Hamburg
SpVgg Greuther Fürth - 1860 München 0:3 (0:1) 13,370 0:1 Simon (34., Vollmann) 0:2 Vollmann (65., Kagelmacher) 0:3 Adlung (71., Bandowski) VfL Bochum - 1. FC Heidenheim 4:1 (2:1) 14,639 1:0 Terodde (11., Sestak) 2:0 Sestak (20., Losilla) 2:1 Leipertz (41., penalty, Niederlechner) 3:1 Sestak (70., Terrazzino) 4:1 Gregoritsch (74., Eisfeld) SV Darmstadt 98 - 1. FC Union Berlin 5:0 (2:0) 15,000 1:0 Balogun (34., Ivana) 2:0 Bregerie (45. + 2, penalty, Sailer) 3:0 Ivana (56., Sailer) 4:0 Sulu (80., Ivana) 5:0 Sulu (83., Ivana) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:1 (2:0) 35,830 1:0 Ring (15., Orban) 2:0 P. Hofmann (31., Löwe) 2:1 Schöpf (90., Mlapa) FC St. Pauli - FSV Frankfurt 1:1 (0:0) 22,884 * 1:0 Thy (46., Kalla) 1:1 Kauko (58., M. Engels) FC Ingolstadt 04 - Karlsruher SC 1:3 (1:1) 12,156 0:1 Gordon (33., Valentini) 1:1 Mo. Hartmann (45. + 2, P. Groß) 1:2 Hennings (82., Yamada) 1:3 Hennings (90. + 4, Yamada) VfR Aalen - Erzgebirge Aue 3:0 (1:0) 7,412 1:0 A. Hofmann (36., J. Gjasula) 2:0 Quaner (72., J. Gjasula) 3:0 Steinhöfer (88., G. Korte) SV Sandhausen - Eintr. Braunschweig 0:1 (0:0) 5,831 0:1 Omladic (77., direct freekick) RasenB. Leipzig - Fortuna Düsseldorf 3:1 (2:0) 17,087 1:0 Rodnei (7., D. Kaiser) 2:0 Kimmich (28.) 2:1 Pohjanpalo (59., da Silva Pinto) 3:1 Poulsen (71., Damari) 1 FC Ingolstadt 04 25 13 9 3 40:22 +18 48 2 SV Darmstadt 98 (N) 25 11 12 2 34:17 +17 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 1. FC Kaiserslautern 25 12 9 4 34:23 +11 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Karlsruher SC 25 11 10 4 34:19 +15 43 5 RasenBallsport Leipzig (N) 24 9 10 6 29:19 +10 37 6 Eintracht Braunschweig (A) 25 11 4 10 32:29 +3 37 7 Fortuna Düsseldorf 24 9 9 7 38:35 +3 36 8 1. FC Nürnberg (A) 25 10 4 11 30:36 -6 34 9 FSV Frankfurt 25 9 6 10 34:39 -5 33 10 VfL Bochum 25 6 14 5 41:38 +3 32 11 1. FC Heidenheim (N) 25 8 7 10 34:31 +3 31 12 SV Sandhausen 25 8 7 10 23:29 -6 31 13 1. FC Union Berlin 25 8 7 10 30:42 -12 31 14 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 25 6 10 9 25:30 -5 28 15 1860 München 25 6 7 12 34:39 -5 25 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 VfR Aalen 25 5 8 12 20:30 -10 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 FC St. Pauli 25 5 7 13 26:43 -17 22 18 Erzgebirge Aue 25 5 6 14 21:38 -17 21 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