German Bundesliga: Weekend Roundup and Results – Part 2
Werder Bremen gave a thrashing Borussia M’gladbach who are currently fighting a relegation battle. The final scoreline read 4-1 as Werder Bremen registered their first away victory of the campaign. The Foals home form though, has been nothing but awful this season, as they are yet to win a game at Borussia Park. It was a must win game for the Foals, but they found themselves two goals down within first fifteen minutes after Marko Marin and midfielder Wesley Beltrame put the Green-Whites in control of the match.
Soon after the start of the 2nd half, Aaron Hunt added a third before “Die Fohlen” briefly threatened a fight back, as Per Mertesacker’s own goal reduced the lead to two goals.
But just when the revival was beginning to be seen on the cards, came a telling blow; former Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro scored from Wesley’s cross with fifteen minutes to go, thus finishing the match with a 4-1 score line. Bremen totally dominated the match with more than 60% possession and seven shots on target.
The final game of Saturday saw SC Freiburg come from behind to overcome FC Kaiserslautern at Badenova-Stadion.
The away side took the lead in 8th minute, courtesy Jan Moravek who is currently on loan from Schalke. But Freiburg continued their good start to the season with a 35th and 60th minute goal from Senegalese forward Papiss Demba Cisse and midfielder Stefan Reisinger respectively. They are now just a point above Bremen and level with Hamburg with 15 points.
Sunday saw VfB Stuttgart recording a long overdue win against newly promoted St. Pauli and climbed off the bottom of the table. It was only their second win of the campaign so far and it came with the help of goals from defender Georg Niedermeier in the first half (19th minute) and Zdravko Kuzmanovic in the second half (79th minute).
The win could not have come at a better time as “Die Roten” leapt four places, and at the same time escaped the relegation zone. Their coach Christian Gross was sacked just 11 days earlier and this result was very important for the revival of their fortunes.
Borussia Dortmund and Mainz were also in action on Sunday; as it turned out Mainz were the biggest gainers of the week as Dortmund slipped and handed over the lead to their rivals.
It was Mainz that had arguably the tougher test, as they travelled to title challengers Bayer Leverkusen. It was a tight affair; both teams were ultimately separated by one goal that came from Mainz’s Austrian playmaker Andreas Ivanschitz.
Although Mainz got back on track after last week’s defeat, no one expected Dortmund to slipup at home to Hoffenheim. Making the title chase all more interesting, in the coming weeks, this seesaw will continue.
Up till now, Dortmund had enjoyed seven consecutive wins in the league, but they are themselves to blame. After Demba Ba had scored for the visitors just nine minutes into the match, it looked as if their winning streak looked unlikely to continue. The home side had an ideal chance to equalize after 15 minutes with a penalty, but the fans must be feeling hard done by as Nuri Sahin was forced to re-take the spot kick, only to miss it.
Despite more than 60% dominance in possession and pressure, Borussia Dortmund could not find clear cut chances. Maybe it was due to the midweek Europa League match that the players were tired, but that cannot be accepted an excuse.
It was only an eventful stoppage time period which also saw the referee book Hoffenheim’s Sejad Salihovic for a 2nd bookable offence and sent him for an early bath.
All in all, it was an incredible weekend - looking at the unpredictable nature of the Bundesliga we can expect anything in the coming weeks; the question that remains to be answered is that, will Bayern Munich overcome its horrible start of the season? If they don’t, they will certainly miss out on a Champions League spot, but that will also leave the door open for its star players leaving the club which will be an even bigger blow.
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