Matchday 13: Comebacks

By: Jan | November 27th, 2007

Ivan Klasnic Thirty goals spread out over nine matches made for an entertaining weekend, that nonetheless left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. Mostly because it lacked any real surprises or shake-ups in the table. Munich, Bremen and Hamburg all worked their way to victories. Hamburg’s 2-0 win over Rostock can probably be labelled ‘most confident performance’ compared to the others. Which means that Huub Stevens’ announcement to leave Hamburg for PSV Eindhoven at the end of the season, did little to disrupt the harmony in the team. Apart from the stalemate at the top of the table, the weekend saw a couple of remarkable or entertaining comebacks.

Karlsruhe (after being one goal down at home against Berlin)
Karlsruhe kicked off the matchday on Friday with a 2-1 victory over Berlin. The win manifests them as the surprise team of the season. They are ranked fourth and are close to achieving their goal of not getting relegated. Berlin at the same time missed to close in on the UEFA Cup spots. But then again, the club is by far not having the type of abysmal season, that pundits predicted for them.

Ivan Klasnic (after being two kidneys down)
Chris has written a long post about Ivan Klasnic’s remarkable comeback on the main page. Go check it out.

Stuttgart (after being one goal down away against Frankfurt)
Stuttgart cruised to a 4-1 victory against Frankfurt and have now won their last four Bundesliga matches. The team had been dubbed Junkgart and their title win was called a fluke, but a strong finish to the first half of the season sees them closing in on the UEFA Cup spots, and should they continue like this, they might even have a say about the Champions League places come next May. Their good form comes too late for the current Champions League season though, but a win against Rangers tonight would make their excuses, that it had all been about the injuries, sound more believable.

Schalke (after being one goal down away against Hanover)
Kevin Kuranyi celebrated his comeback and more importantly helped Schalke win the match. Yet another draw would have been ridiculous really. This one gets my prestigious ‘Best Match of the Weekend’ award.

Leverkusen (after being one goal down at home against Duisburg)
Leverkusen slept for most of the first half, went down a goal and then cruised to a victory 4-1 victory in the second half. Sergej Barbarez scored one goal and then celebrated with the fans and Rene Adler. The floodlights allowed for some pretty photos.