The Bundesliga returns this weekend with some interesting storylines to follow in Dortmund, Munich and Sinsheim.
There are ninety minutes in a match, and Köln learned that lesson emphatically on Saturday at the hands of Schalke.
Things started brightly for The Billy Goats. Schalke defender Atsuto Uchida cleared an attempt by Milivoje Novakovic from a Lukas Podolski corner. Just a minute later, Marco Höger was caught in possession around midfield. Novakovic fed the ball to Podolski who dribbled to the edge of the area and his shot ripped the back of the net past Lars Unnerstall. The clock was showing four minutes past and Köln were leading Schalke 1-0.
Schalke pressed forward looking for goals that were sure to come. They maintained a decent shape wary of Köln's quick counter ability. Schalke were caught out again before the half, but Podolski's shot missed high.
With Raul out for today's match, Huub Stevens decided to put his faith in Romanian forward Ciprian Marica to replace him. His first hour on the pitch was nothing to remember, however this changed quickly. Christian Fuchs broke down the left sideline and played an inch-perfect cross, and Marica rose to meet it. Schalke found their equalizer. The route was on.
Twelve minutes later, Chinedu Obasi played a cross to the head of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. The Hunter saw his head smash against the post, but Marica was behind him to put in the rebound.
Huntelaar got his goal minutes later on a penalty that was drawn by Julian Draxler. The Dutch international now has 16 goals on the season, just one behind Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez.
Höger was able to make amends for his error leading the the lone Köln goal with just minutes remaning. He played the ball out wide to Jose Jurado Jurado before making a run into the box. Jurado fed the ball back to him in the perfect location unmarked in the six yard box, and the defender slotted it home to complete the 4-1 victory.
The win pulls Schalke level on points with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, but they sit in third in the table due to goal differential.
Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund maintained their positions as 1 and 2 in the Bundesliga table with victories on Saturday.
Felix Magath's side put up a good challenge, but Bayern Munich received a goal from Mario Gomez and Arjen Robben to seal a 2-0 victory in the Allianz Arena. The win sees Bayern maintain their first position in the table.
The first half was a peculiar one for Bayern. Gomez missed a sure goal from six yards out when he completely missed the ball. Toward the end of the half, Franck Ribery was obviously fouled in the area by Ricardo Rodriguez, but the referee did not award the penalty.
Bayern finally were rewarded in 60th minute when Gomez finished a loose ball in the box following a corner kick. The goal is his 17th of the year. This was Mario's 200th appearance in the Bundesliga, and he did it without putting a hair out of place.
The final goal would be scored in stoppage time when Toni Kroos played a ball into open space on the left side of the pitch. Ivica Olic chipped the on-rushing Diego Benaglio, and the ball looked like it was going in the net. Wolfsburg defender Felipe Lopes cleared the ball off of the line, but his clearance smacked right into Robben who was standing right behind him.
Die Borussen handled their business in front of packed Westfalenstadion crowd. The brilliant Shinji Kagawa scored two goals, and the three points pushes Borussia Dortmund back to the top of the table level on points with Bayern Munich.
Dortmund opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Sebastian Kehl stole the ball in the middle of the park from Sebastian Rudy and fed Kagawa. The Japanese international found his way into the box and beat Tom Starke to make it 1-0.
Their lead was doubled in the 31st minute when Kagawa took the ball from Edson Braafheid. After some passing with Jakub Blaszczykowski, the Polish international crossed it to Kevin Großkreutz who found the back of the net. The third goal came in the second half when Braafheid once again coughed the ball up to Kagawa. He played the ball deep to Großkreutz who did a simple backheel that Kagawa planted into the net to give Dortmund a seemingly insurmountable lead.
Hoffenheim would get a consolation goal in the 63rd minute thanks to USA international Fabian Johnson.
It was a relegation six pointer, but both clubs come away sharing only one point in a disappointing result. Canadian international Marcel De Jong started the scoring in the 5th minute when his free kick deflected off of the wall and into the net.
Kaiserslautern equalized in the 25th minute and then went into the lead in the 48th thanks to Florian Dick. Both goals came from set pieces which have been a weak point for Augsburg all season long. The hosts would find a goal from Stephan Hain to level the score in the 66th minute just minutes after he was substituted onto the pitch.
Augsburg will feel like they should've taken all three points in this match, but two golden opportunities from Sascha Mölders would miss the target.
The draw means that both clubs remain in the relegation zone.
Hertha haven't won in their last eight matches after a 2-1 loss at home to Hamburg. Thorsten Fink's side rebounded brilliantly from the crushing defeat suffered at the hands of Borussia Dortmund last week.
Marcell Jansen opened the scoring int he 24th minute firing home a cross from Dennis Diekmeier. They doubled their lead in first half stoppage time when Mladen Petric headed a cross from Diekmeier past Thomas Kraft.
Hertha pulled one back in the 82nd minute when Pierre-Michel Lasogga headed in a cross from Levan Kobiashvili. Lasogga nearly found an equalizer minutes later, but Jaroslav Drobny made a brilliant save to preserve the victory.
Since Michael Skibbe took over Hertha, they have looked quite poor and have yet to pick up a point. It's going to be an difficult stretch of three matches coming up for Hertha against Hannover 96, Stuttgart, and Borussia Dortmund.
With both sides looking for a win to pull closer to a Champions League place for next season, Bremen and Leverkusen played to a 1-1 draw.
Claudio Pizarro opened the scoring for Bremen in the 29th minute. Mehmet Ekici played a ball out wide to Tom Trybull, and he played a cross to Pizarro in the middle of the park. The Peruvian forward brought the ball down off of his chest and put it past Bernd Leno to give Bremen a deserved 1-0 lead.
Leverkusen were able to find an equalizer in the 57th minute from Stefan Reinartz's header from a cross by Michal Kadlec.
Bremen nearly found the winner in the 82nd minute, but Markus Rosenborg's shot struck the post.
A statement was made by Leverkusen manager Robin Dutt with club captain Michael Ballack not making it off of the bench for the match in Bremen. Ballack's been in poor form all season long and has been dogged with rumors surrounding his future at the club. His contract expires at the end of the season.
Hannover 96 got their first win in more than three months Friday evening with a 1-0 victory over Nürnberg. The there points are extremely valuable to a club that's drawn it's previous five matches.
Moa Abdellaoue volleyed a cross from Lars Stindl into the back of the net during the 18th minute to give the 96ers a much needed victory. Their last victory came on October 23, 2011 when they shockingly defeated Bayern Munich. That's a stretch of six draws and two losses and spans 96 days.
The match had started brightly for Hannover, and they started creating chances early thanks to Abdellaoue. The Norwegian international had the first chance of the match, but he saw his shot go just over the cross bar. Nürnberg goalkeeper Raphael Schäfer needed a very good save to keep out a shot a few minutes later from Sergio Pinto. The next time Schäfer went for the ball he was picking it out of his own net.
The remainder of the first half continued in similar fashion with most of the traffic heading directly toward the Nürnberg goal. Schäfer was called on once against just before the half to turn away a Jan Schlaudraff shot.
Nürnberg finally started to come into the match in the second half with the introduction of Tomas Pekhart to the side. They pushed for the equalizer as the clock ticked toward 90:00, but Ron-Robert Zieler was up to every challenge in the Hannover net.
The victory is a massive result for Mirko Slomka's side. Hannover now solidifies their 7th position in table before the remaining matches this weekend.
The loss for Nürnberg is another poor result to add to the season's worth of poor results they have accumulated already. They currently sit in twelfth place, but if a few results go against them this weekend they could drop to fifteenth.
The Bundesliga returns for week 19, and there are some key things to keep an eye on.
Borussia Dortmund announced this week that midfielder Mario Götze will be out until mid-March with a serious injury. The loss of Götze likely won't effect the club as much as one would think. Dortmund have an amazing amount of depth in the attacking midfield position. Shinji Kagawa, Kevin Großkreutz, Ivan Perisic, Jakub Blaszczykowski, and if necessary Antonio da Silva. Not many clubs can boast that amount of quality depth.
If you look at Dortmund's schedule through the middle of March, they manage to avoid their direct competitors for a Champions League place in Bayern Munich, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Schalke. Four of the eight matches in this period are against teams in the bottom half of the table. They should manage to maintain their position around the top of the table until they're back at full strength.
Kuba has continued to prove over the years that he is a quality player and can step in at any time and perform at a top level. His game against Hamburg last week was a prime example of this. I expect Jürgen Klopp will give Dortmund opponents a healthy dose of Kuba over the next copy of weeks.
Bosnian international Vedad Ibisevic was sold by Hoffenheim to Stuttgart this week. Ibisevic wore the Hoffenheim jersey since the 2007-2008 when the club was in the 2.Bundesliga, and he has been the club's best player ever since. This season Ibisevic has 5 goals through only 11 games and is the club's leading goalscorer.
It's no secret that Hoffenheim has struggled to find the back of the net this season. Only lowly Kaiserslautern and Augsburg have scored less than The Hoff this season. To make matters worse, those goals have only been scored by four different players: Ibisevic, Robert Firmino, Ryan Babel, and Sejad Salihović.
They've been rather stout defensively so far this season with only Bayern, Dortmund, and Gladbach conceding less. For Hoffenheim to maintain their mid-table position, they're going to have to find another goalscorer and find him quick.
Bayern suffered a thorough beating at the hands of Borussia Mönchengladbach last week. Manuel Neuer put in his worst performance of the season, and the offense seemed to have no idea how to break down a solid Gladbach defense.
Adding to their misery, starting centerback Daniel Van Buyten fractured a metatarsal and is expected to be out of action for six weeks. They're expected to move Jerome Boateng to centerback and start Rafinha at right back. Van Buyten was excellent for the first half of this season and replacing him will not be easy.
Bastian Schweinsteiger's return to the first eleven in a competitive fixture was always going to take some adjusting, but the midfielder showed flashes of his world class ability last week. I expect we'll see him begin to be even more dynamic this week. Jupp Heynckes will need to figure out what to do with Toni Kroos this week. The young German international was playing excellent in Schweinsteiger's absence earlier this year, and he's too important a piece to relegate to the bench.
I really wouldn't want to be Felix Magath's side this weekend.
Friday, January 27
Hannover 96 vs Nürnberg
Saturday, January 28
Bayern Munich vs Wolfsburg
Werder Bremen vs Bayer Leverkusen
Hertha Berlin vs Hamburg
Augsburg vs Kaiserslautern
Borussia Dortmund vs Hoffenheim
Köln vs Schalke
Sunday, January 29
Mainz vs Freiburg
Stuttgart vs Borussia Mönchengladbach
Bundesliga, Week 19, Sunday Scores: Borussia Monchengladbach, Mainz Cruise To Easy Wins
Mainz vs. SC Freiburg
Mainz came out of the gates with all guns blazing against Freiburg and never really had to worry about the match after a crazy 17-minute period following the kickoff which saw the hosts notch three goals. A neat third-minute through pass found Maxim Choupo-Moting for the opening goal, and things quickly went from bad to worse for last place Freiburg when Fallou Diagne fouled Adam Szalai in the box, earning himself a red card to go along with the penalty, which was slotted in by Eugen Polanski. Choupo-Moting got the third ten minutes later, and Mainz cruised through the rest of the match, allowing Freiburg a second-half consolation but little else as they ran out 3-1 winners.
Stuttgart vs. Borussia Monchengladbach
Stuttgart's problems continued as Borussia Monchengladbach dished out a 3-0 victory at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion.The scoreline, however, implies that the defeat was heavier than it really was - Gladbach were the better side but they were made to work hard throughout, and it wasn't until Marco Reus added a second goal in the 81st minute that the visitors could relax. The other goalscorers in a relatively unimpressive display for the fourth-place side were Mike Hanke with a header and substitute Igor de Camargo with a tap-in.
Jan 29 1:48p by Graham MacAree - 1 comment