Matchday 19: Kroos Control

Bayern spend another 24h in first place, but Bayer Leverkusen aren’t ready to end their long term relationship with the top of the table just yet. Dortmund meanwhile emerge as a dark horse candidate from the chasing pack.

Leverkusen. “Kroos is so good, he’s putting free kicks in spots where even Sami Hyypiä can score”, twittered our Bayern blogger during Leverkusen’s match against Hoffenheim. Vedad Ibisevic’s inability to mark the speedy old Finn helped too. A couple of “funny ideas” by Leverkusen’s players, as Manuel Friedrich put it, could have helped Hoffenheim back into the game at this point, but the villagers currently lack the sense of humor to take advantage. In the second half, Leverkusen eventually just had to go through the motions and win the game 3-0 without having to perform any kind of magic on the pitch. In fact, all they had to do was to wait until the ball falls to Toni Kroos, and then let the wunderkind find a way to put it into the back of the net. The brief period in the first half, where it looked as if the players weren’t fully in the match may give the other clubs hope, that at some point a team will emerge that will punish those rare moments of vulnerability, but for the time being, Leverkusen look set to enjoy the air of invincibility for a few more weekends.

Bayern. Bayern managed to keep the pressure on Leverkusen with a dominant yet close 3-2 victory over Werder Bremen. Had the game ended in a draw, you might have criticized the sloppy finishing that kept Bremen in the game, but as all is well that ends well, we’ll reserve that criticism until Bayern drops points again. Bremen once again look back at a winter with lots of contract and transfer speculations and very little results on the pitch. A rather familiar and depressing sight. The DFB-Pokal match against Hoffenheim now looks like an Europa League play-off for both clubs already.

Schalke. The small Revierderby between Schalke and Bochum was the meeting of this season’s comeback kings. As such, a 2-2 draw with Bochum coming back from being two goals down eight minutes from time sounds about right. Schalke’s players will still be a bit puzzled how they eventually threw away those two points. Bochum meanwhile are on a good run and pulled seven points clear of a direct relegation spot.

Dortmund. Dortmund’s run is even more impressive, as they won the last six games and are unbeaten in twelve. Equally impressive was their gritty performance against Hamburg (1-0), who were outmuscled and handed their first defeat in an away match this season. This Europa/Champions League six-pointer moved Dortmund up to fourth spot with Schalke and Bayern within three points. Hamburg meanwhile need to be careful not to lose too much ground to the top in the next few weeks, when most of their key players should return from injury. Otherwise even Ruuuuuud will only be able to put the finishing touches on yet another Europa League season.

Wolfsburg. A quick quote from my season preview: “Verdict: Kept the key players. Check. Added depth. Check. Ruin it all with the wrong coach. Maybe.” Make that a definitely maybe, as Veh has been given his marching orders, following another 90 minute session of comedy defending, resulting in a 3-2 victory for Cologne. While you can contemplate potential Veh successors, I’ll try to wrap my head around the fact that Cologne scored five goals in two matches, without both star strikers on the pitch. That’s half of Cologne’s goal total after the previous seventeen matches.

Stuttgart. Christian Gross will soon need to find a new way to motivate his players, as his passionate talks about a relegation battle sound more and more esoteric by the day. A comfortable 1-0 victory over Freiburg makes it three and a half wins out of three and a half games. The missing half can’t be blamed on Gross. Nobody can stop Lehmann’s divine interventions.

Hertha. Hertha fans had to curb their enthusiasm following a 0-0 draw with Mönchengladbach and got a taste of how a lot of teams will approach Hertha in the Rückrunde: by gambling on their desperation. In that respect Hertha actually played it cool, as they didn’t lose the game running into a stupid counter attack, but draws certainly won’t help their cause.

Results: Freiburg 0-1 Stuttgart, Bremen 2-3 Bayern, Bochum 2-2 Schalke, Mainz 1-0 Hannover, Nuremberg 1-1 Frankfurt, Hertha 0-0 Mönchengladbach, Dortmund 1-0 Hamburg, Wolfsburg 2-3 Cologne, Hoffenheim 0-3 Leverkusen

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Category: Bundesliga