Bundesliga March Roundup By Thomas Meinders
It's getting kind of close again in the Bundesliga. After a weak period of front- runner Borussia Dortmund, Bayer 04 Leverkusen is only down by seven points. Defending champion Bayern Munich on his side has problems to get the important third rank from surprising team Hannover 96.
Borussia Dortmund received a late goal by FSV Mainz youngster Petar Slisk- ovic, just a minute before the final whistle to equalize the early 1-0 lead by German international defender Mats Hummels. There happened to be a big controversy about this goal afterwards, since Dortmund defender Neven Subotic lay on the field probably injured, but the Mainz team didn't sent the ball to the sideline. Nevertheless, Dortmund had many opportunities to score the second - probably deciding - goal before. The best one was missed by Nuri Sahin, whose penalty was saved by Mainz second-choice-keeper Christian Wetklo shortly after the lead.
Meanwhile Bayer Leverkusen achieved a safe 2-0 victory over FC Schalke 04. Swiss striker Eren Derdiyok with a 25-meters-hammershot and an own goal by former Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder decided the match early in the first half. It was the first and only Schalke match with Coach Seppo Eichkorn. The former assistant of Felix Magath, who was dismissed earlier the week, is going to be assistant again of the new coach, Ralf Rangnick, who had his first stint at Schalke six years ago.
Magath on his side was presented only two days after his dismissal at Schalke by his new and old club VfL Wolfsburg. The champion of 2009 - with Felix Magath - nowadays struggles to stay at the Bundesliga, ranking 17th out of 18 teams. Against VfB Stuttgart, it would have been a dream-start for Magath - but only nearly. Former top scorer Grafite, who announced to score eight goals out of the last eight games, made the first goal. But afterwards Wolfsburg missed out on many chances, so that Stuttgart defender Georg Niedermaier had the possibility to score the equalizer at the fourth minute of extra time.
Ivorian international Didier Ya Konan made his 12th goal of this year's season on the day of his comeback to score the opening goal at Hannover 96's 2-0 victory over 1899 Hoffenheim. Moroccan- descendant Norwegian striker Mohammed Abdellaoue added the second goal that saved Hannover the surprising third rank.
Still fourth is Bayern Munich. A few days after the catastrophic defeat against Inter Milan at the Champions League, Munich came to a lucky 2-1 win over SC Freiburg. Franck Ribéry scored the late winning-goal (88.) to save the record-champion the chance to displace Hannover from third
100
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102