By Heiko Lutkehus
La Liga, the Premier League and the Serie A. Famous names, indeed, but even more stunning is the current situation in the German Bundesliga, which thrills Europe with exciting matches and unbelievable results. This weekend the 18 teams scored altogether 39 goals in 9 matches. Want some examples?
On Friday, returnee 1 FC Kaiserslautern crushed giant Bayern Munich with an incredible 2-0 victory. The Betzenberg stadium went crazy after four long years of Bundesliga absence. The crucial point must have been the missed chance of shooting star Thomas Muller in the 24th minute to finish the ball in off the post. Just two minutes of missing concentration finally broke the neck of the team of Louis van Gaal. Ilicevic (36.) and Lakic (37.) made full use of the confused Munich defense. Team manager Nerlinger must consider last-minute transfers to strengthen the central defense.
Saturday afternoon, Hannover 96 caused a sensation with the unexpected 2-1 victory against Champions League participant Schalke 04. No doubts that it was a well-deserved win for Hannover. It is obvious that Schalke coach and team manager Felix Magath has made conspicuous mistakes in team selection. Contrary to this Hannover coach Slomka proved his ability to motivate his team and established his position after weeks of negative rumors.
Werder Bremen was in cruise control for 90 minutes against 1 FC Köln and by the help of new striker Arnautovic finished off with a 4-2 victory. Arnautovic proved doubters wrong with a tremendous performance.
You might haven’t seen a match like Wolfsburg against Mainz 05 in a long, long time. With new superstar Diego on their side, Wolfsburg sprinted out of the gate and took a 3-0 lead after two goals of Edin Dzeko and the first score of Diego. Wolfsburg coach Steve McClaren didn’t expect what happened right after that. With unique cohesion, Mainz 05 turned the whole game around and left the Wolfsburg supporters finally shocked with the final result 3-4.
Hamburger SV (3-1 against Frankfurt) and Hoffenheim (1-0 against St.Pauli) both took the second victory in a row to establish at the top of the league. Moreover, SC Freiburg surprised 1 FC Nürnberg by winning 2-1.
Borussia Dortmund managed to mend matters against VFB Stuttgart on Sunday after a disappointing performance against Leverkusen one week ago. The young team of hothead-coach Klopp never got into a fix and won 3-1.
Most exciting on the past weekend was the epic game Bayer Leverkusen against Mönchengladbach. The squad of German superstar Michael Ballack (photo) seemed to strike a bad patch. Indeed the Bayer defense had to concede 6 goals – unbelievable if you remind yourself of the fact that Liverpool legend Samy Hyypiä and German national team defenders Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Reinartz formed the defense. The final score was 3-6 (!). Usually such a result happens just once in an entire season, so there is much time left for more goal-fests. That’s why German football fans can hope for more overwhelming games in the upcoming weeks!
