From super Suttgart’s second half raise to table toppers Dortmund and Munich dropping points this is your weekend Bundesliga roundup for match day 20.
Saturday was dominated by Fox broadcasting the Topspiel match to American audiences as Bayer Leverkusen held league leading Bayern Munich to a 0–0 draw. Roger Schmidt saw the dominance of Bayern this year as a challenge to tactically out think Pep Guardiola and his Bavarian’s. In the end the high pressing of both space and ball by the hosts was disruptive to the point that the halftime stats of Munich were the lowest of the season for the reigning champions.
Coming from this match a future star of Germany might be starting to push through and making a name for himself in Jonathan Tah. He hardly placed a foot wrong and at 19 he has been making the stet up to the top division after spending a year with Fortuna Dusseldorf in the second division. Should Jerome Boatang be still out by May then the young Bayer defender could find himself on a plane to Russia and the European Championships.
John Anthony Brooks
Battle between Champions League teams as as Dortmund looked to spoil the party of a sellout crowd at the Olympiastadion against first half surprise club Herta BSC. This match again had the makings of a real barn burner as on match day three BVB came away 3–1 winners at the Westfalenstadion. But it was not to be.
American John Anthony Brooks, who recently signed a new contract until 2019, came close in the 20th minute in a rather dull first half. At 70th minute Herta came close again on the counter attack as St Louis raised Bosnian Vadad Ibisevic came close only to put the ball wide of the net and his penalty shout was waved off by the referee. In the end Dortmund failed to gain a point again when Bayern dropped points keeping the distance at eight.
Friday was a match that really kicked off the weekend in style as Borussia Monchengladbach welcomed Werder Bremen to the carnival like atmosphere of Borussia Park. The hosts made a statement to all those chasing the Champions League places that not having knockout European football will only help them soar up the table as they defeated the Green-Whites 5–1.
American Fabian Johnson has been a crucial member of the raise of the Foals but his 90 minute shift wasn’t supremely needed as Lars Stindl scored in the 12th, Andreas Christensen, loanee from Chelsea scored twice, Havard Nordtveit scored once and Raffael scored a spot kick. Bremen only moment to smile was when Claudio Pizarro converted his penalty in the 56th, tying him with Ulf Kirsten for fifth on the all time Bundesliga scoring charts.
VfB Stuttgart celebrate goal
Both hosts Frankfurt and Stuttgart were entering Saturday undefeated in 2016 but it was the visitors who made the most of the day as they came away with a massive 4–2 victory giving them full nine points from their three games in 2016.
Frankfurt coach Armin Veh has not been able to find a consistent winning solution with the Eagles and against his former club where he won the 2006–07 Bundesliga title the VfB were out of the gate first with a Christian Gentner goal fed on the run by Lukas Rupp. Frankfurt’s shout out for a penalty soon after on Stuttgart Gentner was waived off though replays show that it was handled. Daniel Didavi scored as the half ended off a corner kick to put the visitors up two. The talisman Alex Meier got one back for Eintracht in the 52nd but not long after Georg Niedermeier scored to make a comeback near nonexistent. Both teams had players sent off and additional goals to round off an exciting game for the neutral.
Klass Jan Huntelaar
News around Schalke 04 always seems to be doom and gloom but against VfL Wolfsburg and former Royal Blue Julian Draxler it was anything but as the Miners romped to a convincing 3–0 victory against the hapless Wolves.
Captain Klaas-Jan Huntelaar started what would be yet another poor showing by Dieter Hecking’s Lower Saxony side as the Europa League knockout round participants exposed the Champions League knockout round participants. Johannes Geis’ free kick and a second half strike from Alessandro Schopf took Andre Breitenreiter’s side into the fourth and the much desired Champions League places.
Elsewhere Hannover 96 was unable to capitalize playing at home to Mainz losing 1–0 and relegating the Lower Saxony club to continue to languish at the bottom of the table on goal difference. FC Koln and HSV played to a hard fought draw. Darmstadt defeated Hoffenheim and kept the faith that the Lilies will survive while Huub Stevens looks to try and survive the drop for the first time in his long career in the Bundesliga. And a Bavarian derby between Ingolstadt and Augsburg ended 2–1 to the recently promoted FC Ingolstadt who won by way of a soft penalty in the 85th minute, American Alfredo Morales coming off the bench to provide 30 minutes of hard work.
Player of the week: Christian Gentner, take him out of the Stuttgart line up and the smash in the mouth of Frankfurt against his former manager the Swabian captain was in exceptional form and has been a key part in the rise of the southern club as they have now won four in a row for the first time in five seasons.
Week Day business: Quarterfinals of the DFB-Pokal has Bayer Leverkusen v Werder Bremen(bet Bayer), Stuttgart v Borussia Dortmund(bet Stuttgart), third division Heidenheim v Herta Berlin(bet Berlin), and second division Bochum v Bayern Munich(bet Munich).
Biggest talking point of the quarterfinals is the price of the away tickets at Stuttgart which has the BVB fans up in arms and formally protesting the expensive tickets, 70 Euros, and even the club has put out an angry statement in support of their fans. Not just England is a victim of ticket gauging.
Fun Fussball words: Ruckrunde-the name for the second half of the season
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