Roundup below the fold
Friday
FC Augsburg 2 - 2 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Gladbach's Max Kruse class prevented Augsburg's supperior tactics from earning them 3 points. In seven league games he now has scored 4 times and assisted an additional 5 goals. He left Freiburg this summer for Gladbach for a measly €2.5 million, because of a buy-out clause. Augsburg started stronger and Stranzl got a yellow card in the fifth minute, for a foul just outside of the penalty area. Clearly destroying what would have been a clear cut chance. Dominguez being close enough to possible intervene prevented a red card. Augsburg's Andre Hahn opened scoring in the 27th minute. But that did not last long, because Max Kruse scored. In the 68th minute Branimir Hrgota replaced the largely ineffective Herrmann. Three minutes later he scored assisted by Max Kruse, of course. But Augsburg came back and this time it was their substitute Milik who scored in the 88th minute. Milik will most likely become Augsburg's main striker, since Mölders has not scored in any league game.
Saturday
FC Bayern Munich 1 - 0 VfL Wolfsburg
Bayern win their home games during the Oktoberfest, almost always. This time two substitutions were needed to do so. Wolfsburg was happy to let Bayern dominate possession, not that they had much of a choice. But they were very effective at pushing Bayern to the right wing (over 50 percent according to who scored), where Robben was unable to make anything happen. Ribery on the left wing also did not look very strong, but everything changed when in the 62nd minute Shaqiri and Kroos came on for Robben and Schweinsteiger. Robben was not happy with being subbed but not even a minute later, Müller, who now played on the right wing, converted a pass from Ribery. Kroos passed to Shaqiri, who found Ribery.
Borussia Dortmund 5 - 0 SC Freiburg
The Freiburg players knew they were in for an up-hill battle. They probably did not know that they would be only able to shote at the Dortmund goal twice. Once in the first and once in the second half. Dortmund was again wasteful with their chances and their first goal came was rather lucky. Baumann saved a Bender shot in the 35th minute, Lewandowski was fastest on the ball but could not get it past the Freiburg keeper. Reus converted the second deflection. Moments before the break Freiburgs Diagne fouled Lewandowski in the penalty area, he got a red card and Reus converted the penalty. After that it was all over for Streich's team, and Dortmund could have even score more goals.
1899 Hoffenheim 3 - 3 FC Schalke 04
Both Hoffenheim and Schalke already had several pretty high scoring matches before this one. In fact both had already played one game which ended 3-3, so everybody knew that we were in for some action and we weren't disappointed. Both Schalke strikers were injured so Boateng had to play striker while the only 18 years old Max Mayer had to fill the central attacking midfielder role. Both proved that the choice was correct in the 3rd minute, when Mayer set up for Boateng, who finished from central position. Schale was in complete control in the first half. 10 minutes after the first goal the center back Matip doubled the lead and even Hoffenheim's Modeste scoring a few minutes later could not break their dominance. That completely changed in the second half. Hoffenheim now looked in control, and in the end two horrible individual mistakes by Schalke almost gave the hometeam the victory. Firmino only hit the cross bar.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2 - 0 Hannover 96
There isn't much to say here. Leverkusen controlled the game. Sidney Sam shot a goal himself and assisted the other. The match was basically over after 37 minutes. Leverkusen play a 4-3-3 and one can be sure that one of them will score each game. Sidney Sam is now at 4 assists and 5 goals in the league and Stefan Kießling at 5 goals and 3 assists. Son is at one goal and his substitute Robbie Kruse has scored twice.
Hertha BSC Berlin 3 - 1 Mainz 05
Both Hertha and Mainz lost their cup ties during the week. Mainz had lost four games in a row before the game, so they were already in a bit of a crisis. Nicolai Müller scored for Mainz in the seventh minute. Hosoagai did not see him and Müller was able to steal the ball from the Hertha defender after a flank from the left. Other than that nothing much happened in the first half. Mainz did not look strengthened by their lead. The players made a lot of passing errors. Overal Mainz played without confidence, and so did Hertha in the first half. After the break Hertha brought on the former Mainz player Allagui and everything changed. Only three minutes later he scored after Okasaki once again lost the ball while going forward. In the 73rd minute he scored again and not even a minute later Ben Hatira sealed the game for Hertha.
Eintracht Frankfurt 2 - 2 Hamburger SV
The first game under van Marwijk for Hamburg did not look much different than the games under Fink. Frankfurt was the better team, Hamburg made many mistakes at the back and did not create many chances, but there was a key difference: they came back twice. Lasogga equalized shortly before the break. This illustrates just what has happened to the Bundesliga dinosaur. Lasogga is there on loan from Hertha who couldn't fit him into their team. In the 54th minute Flum was allowed to stand unmarked in the penalty area during a free kick. He got the ball, of course and with a bit of luck Russ got the Eintrach back in front. Jansen equalized four minutes before full time.
Werder Bremen 3 - 3 1. FC Nürnberg
Werder had a pretty good start this season but just like Nürnberg, they will have to fight hard to avoid relegation. The team is young and has potential. Elia has finally scored again; twice. Petersen did so last weekend. So they probably have a good chance to remain in the league.
Eintracht Braunschweig 0 - 4 VfB Stuttgart
Many Stuttgart fans have complained that new players look good for them the first few games and after that "adapted" to the mediocre game of the others; and they blamed the former manager Bruno Labadia for that. Alexandru Maxim is a prime example, who joined the squad in the winter. Now that Schneider has taken over from Labadia, he is actually looking much stronger and clearly was the man of the match this game. Ibrahima Traore on the right also had a excellent game. The Braunschweig fans are just amazing. They supported their team throughout the game even though they had no chance of even coming close to a draw or even a victory.
Seven matchdays are over and we haven't seen a single 0-0. Dortmund, Bayern and Leverkusen already six points (seven for the first two) ahead of the other teams. Nobody expected that Schalke would be so weak. And on the bottom Braunschweig is as of now the worst Bundesliga team ever (not even Tasmania Berlin had only one point after 7 matchdays). Neither Braunschweig nor Freiburg have benn able to win a game. In the mid table we just like last year that many teams are pretty much equally strong but non of them look good enough to have a chance at direct qualification for the Champions League.
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