Running Commentary: Bundesliga Matchday 23

A running commentary of the weekend’s Bundesliga action. Feel free to share your thoughts via the comments. This weekend all times will be Pacific Standard Time (PST, CET -9h) to help Landon Donovan get used to life in Los Angeles again.

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Friday

[22.00] Schalke 1-0 Cologne
Schalke scored a brilliantly strung together team goal. Schalke played 90 minutes of football, which at no point suggested that the team has the ability to score such a great goal. Cologne was on the pitch as well and had decided that long balls and free kicks ought to be enough for the night. In the last 10 minutes they eventually realized how nervous, inapt and insecure their opponent actually was and tried a little harder to equalize – which they almost did. All things considered it was an abysmal match.

What was far more interesting than the action on the pitch was the reaction of the Schalke fans in the stands. It took only 20 minutes until the fans were at the end of their tether and started booing their team. After 28 minutes Jermaine Jones scored the lead, which calmed the crowd down a little bit. For the rest of the match eerie silence took turns with occasional boos and more pronounced boos (i.e. during substitutions). It was a good night for Kevin Kuranyi though, as he wasn’t booed individually but only as part of the team. When the game had finished the Schalke players reacted by skipping their obligatory visit to the curve. Well, Schalke are probably the only team in the league who wished they had more away games.

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Saturday

[02.15] Match reports of the Friday night game are up: Schalke Offisde – Cologne Offside.

[02.35] A couple of previews for today’s matches: Hoffenheim Offside vs Bremen Offside, Mönchengladbach Offside vs Hamburg Offside, Bayern Offside vs Hanover Offside, blogless Cottbus vs Hertha Offside, Wolfsburg Offside vs blogless Karlsruhe and Stuttgart Offside vs Dortmund Offside.

[03.00] Countdown: whoever scores first today will have scored the 43000th goal in the history of the Bundesliga.

[06.00] Franck Ribery is out injured today. We’ll have to make do with this singing/jumpsuit wearing performance for our fix of Ribery entertainment this weekend.

[06.40] Drumroll: goal number 43000 has been scored by Stuttgart’s Brazilian midfielder Élson.

[08.35] A double debacle for the Bundesliga’s HSVs and no new team at the top of the table (and no new team at the top of table next week either)…

Cottbus 1-3 Hertha
Cottbus lived up to their bogey team tag in the first half. They put Hertha under pressure and a Drobny blunder worthy of only happening against a bogey team gave them the lead. Cottbus seemed to be on a good way to continue their success story against Hertha. But this season things are just a little bit different. Cottbus had the chances, Hertha converted theirs. And by half-time Hertha (aka Andriy Voronin) had turned the match around. As we by now expect from Hertha, they kept the game open until almost the last minute before Voronin completed his hat trick with a great solo goal.

Bayern 5-1 Hanover
Another crisis at Bayern countered with five goals, but because it’s such a cherished Bundesliga tradition this season, they let the guests score first. Hanover looked like a contender for worst ever team at defending corners and free kicks. The title for worst ever away side is already theirs. Lo and behold: Lukas Podolski played from the beginning and scored a goal. This was HSV debacle number 1.

Mönchengladbach 4-1 Hamburg
And here is HSV debacle number 2. Hamburg probably shouldn’t have shown such a pronounced interest in Marko Marin in the winter, because he felt like giving a job interview today. Instrumental in setting up two goals, scored one himself from the spot and generally ran the show for Mönchengladbach. Frank Rost said about his team’s performance in the midweek cup game against Wiesbaden, that they won’t have a chance against Gladbach if they play like that again – he was right. Big win for Mönchengladbach, who will now go into a relegation triple header with games against Cologne, Bochum and Karlsruhe coming up. After those matches we’ll probably have an idea, whether they can stage a great escape or not.

[09.00] And here’s what happened elsewhere in Germany:

Hoffenheim 0-0 Bremen
This game could have just as well ended with nine goals like the first game between the two teams six months ago. Bremen are still waiting for their first win in the Bundesliga this year. Hoffenheim haven’t won since January.

Wolfsburg 1-0 Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe have been Wolfsburg’s bogey team, but VW’s millions have finally bought them their first ever victory against the leagues new worst team. Karlsruhe weren’t the worse side today, but even as the better team they couldn’t convert their chances.

Stuttgart 2-1 Dortmund
The 43000th goal in the history of the Bundesliga and Mario Gomez’ 43000th goal for Stuttgart seal the victory for a yet unbeaten Markus Babbel – in the Bundesliga; let’s better forget about the club’s performances in the DFB and UEFA Cup.

[09.30] And this is how the table currently looks like (ripped from here):

Props to Hamburg for their goal difference of +/- 0. In a way that’s quite an achievement. Oh, and a small correction to the above table: Bayern and Hoffenheim are joined second.

[09.50] The photo of the weekend straight from the Allianz Arena and beautifully open to interpretation.

[10.50] Two more match reports are up: Bayern Offside and Mönchengladbach Offside.

[13.50] Another drumroll for the DFB-Pokal semi-final draw:
Hamburg vs Bremen
Leverkusen vs Mainz
There goes my Northern Derby for the final, but a Northern Derby after all. Leverkusen look like a sure bet for the final. Mainz are a good side – fighting for promotion to the Bundesliga – but without home advantage it’ll be very difficult to stage an upset.

***
Sunday

[11.30] Time to wrap up matchday 23.

Leverkusen 1-1 Bochum
After their impressive DFB-Pokal victory over Bayern, I predicted: “Now that they played so well again, another nosedive in the league can be expected pretty soon.” All my wrong predictions meanwhile will of course remain hidden deep in the archives of this blog. Leverkusen again looked impressive on paper – i.e. possession and shots on target stats, but on the pitch they needed a stupid handball + penalty to at least draw the match. Bochum continue their fine form this year.

Bielefeld 0-0 Frankfurt
A good result for Mönchengladnach is all I can say about this match.

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Category: Bundesliga