Matchday 24: Destruction Derbies

Bayern did not need to wait 110 years to reclaim the top spot of the table, but it probably felt like 110 years to a Bayern fan. Elsewhere it was derby time, claiming a jaw bone, title dreams and Bundesliga survival as victims.

Schalke. The 135th Revierderby kicked off the Bundesliga weekend on Friday. This being the big one might have fooled the Kindergarten All-Stars on both sides, that they would just need to move along with the flow and a proper derby would evolve, resulting in 45 forgettable minutes. A penalty against Schalke and a goal for Dortmund early in the second half, then kicked off proceedings, at least in terms of intensity and physicality. Something that eventually landed Roman Weidenfeller’s gloved fists in Mats Hummels face, with further direction given via a gentle push by Kevin Kuranyi. The resulting fractured jaw-bone will keep Mats Hummels out of action for four weeks. Four weeks during which Hummels can contemplate Jogi Löw’s reasoning behind calling up Arne Friedrich, while choosing what soup he’s going to have for dinner. Felix Magath got to see Hummels unfortunate injury between four to five times through various slow motion replays, before deciding to go a bit mental and storm out of the TV studio. Following up his derby victory discussing fouls by his players only, wasn’t the way Magath envisioned his post match analysis. He would have preferred to see the odd replay of Benedikt Höwedes’ equalizer or Ivan Rakitic’s excellent winning goal instead.

Leverkusen. For some Leverkusen is just a town near Cologne. Düsseldorf is the real rival. Mönchengladbach is the real derby. But, Cologne and Leverkusen are neighbors after all, or rather the players, who are all living in Cologne and not near the giant chemical plant. So, there was some heat in the game, plenty of spirit and destructive effort by Cologne and otherwise more derby anti-climax and no goals. Leverkusen remain invincible, but the draw was not enough to remain at the top of the table.

Hannover. It was derby time in Hannover as well. And had potential relegation not been the front page news, someone might have pointed out that the real derby is against Brunswick and that Wolfsburg is just the nearby car factory. In their battle against relegation, Hannover have finally reached a point, where they are no longer hopelessly collapsing. Instead, they are at a point where they are playing a good game and still lose the game due to a late Misimovic tap in. The problem is that Hannover’s competitors have been at this point months ago, and have moved on to grinding out a point or three here and then. Mirko Slomka needs to speed up this process and get those three points against Freiburg next weekend.

Bayern. Anyone hoping that Bayern and Hamburg would conclude the weekend with a match living up to expectations, was disappointed again. Someone who was just in it to celebrate Bayern’s 110th birthday bash with a return to the top of German football probably couldn’t care less. Ruud van Nistelrooy was in Hamburg nursing an injury. Franck Ribery, much to everybody’s surprise, was on the pitch for once and scored the winning goal, reminding Hamburg that Hesl is not the one to follow in Frank Rost’s footsteps when he retires.

Bremen. Bremen followed in Hamburg’s and Hertha’s footsteps and played two matches within 48h, thanks to the DFLs and UEFAs lack of flexibility. Different to their fellow Europa League strugglers, Bremen found a way to be successful nonetheless. They simply played against ten men for the majority of the match, and hung on to a slim 2-1 lead.

Stuttgart. Stuttgart followed up their Champions League performance with a less impressive match, but the right result against Frankfurt (2-1). It would be interesting to compile a club ranking based on how many goals Stuttgart’s striker Cacau can score against them. In this ranking Frankfurt (2) would be somewhere between Cologne (4) and Barcelona (1). It would be equally interesting to update this ranking, once Cacau signed a new contract with Stuttgart. For the moment, his goals are definitely helping Stuttgart’s annual second half climb up the table. Christian Gross side is now just five points away from European football.

Hertha. Fuzzy warm memories where all around at the Olympiastadion as a team with two shots on goal and two goals, one coming from a last minute counter attack, claimed all three points. Unfortunately for the capital it was the village that picked up all three points this way this time, while Hertha were still looking for something resembling a game plan.

Freiburg. Following some much needed winter transfer activity by their competitors, it’s safe to say that Freiburg have the worst squad of any Bundesliga team. But they had far from the worst Hinrunde, and the resulting points cushion sees Freiburg still hanging on to their safe 15th place. A 1-1 draw here and then, where Freiburg won’t necessarily know how they got it and where Mönchengladbach don’t necessarily know how they didn’t score five or more goals, might do the trick to extend Freiburg’s Bundesliga stay for another season.

Bochum. Bochum fought out a scoreless draw with Nuremberg. Our Bochum blogger nicely summed up the match, by posting a goal from French amateur football instead. Nuremberg sneak up to the relegation play-off spot.

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

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Category: Bundesliga