Top two win
February 11, 2012
Borussia Dortmund defeated Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 at home on Saturday, keeping hold of top spot in the Bundesliga.
It was Japan's Shinji Kagawa who broke the ice in what had been a very tight match in the 45th minute, scoring an impressive individual goal.
His deft first touch of a pass from Jakub Blaszczykowski won him enough space to take the ball deep into the penalty area, where he cut back to his left boot and shot while slipping to the turf under pressure from Lars Bender.
The goal ended up as the winner in a match with relatively few offensive fireworks.
"A home match against Leverkusen is never easy," said coach Jürgen Klopp, "even when things aren't going perfectly for them at the moment."
Leverkusen have won just once in their last six league matches. Dortmund are unbeaten since September and lead the league with 46 points.
Keeping pace
FC Bayern Munich, meanwhile, collected a 2-0 home win over FC Kaiserslautern to remain just two points behind Dortmund.
Bayern began the match, as they had in their mid-week German Cup win over VfB Stuttgart, with Arjen Robben on the bench. And they wasted no time in showing the shake-up in their starting line-up had done them good, with Franck Ribery setting up Mario Gomez for a 5th-minute goal.
The Frenchman's cross found the striker unmarked in the six-yard box, and Gomez headed with such a force that Kaiserslauten keeper Kevin Trapp stayed frozen to his line.
With 18 goals so far this season, Gomez is the Bundesliga's leading goal scorer.
Thomas Müller extended Bayern's lead on the half-hour mark, heading home a Toni Kroos free kick to seal Bayern's win. It was Jupp Heynckes' 100th win for Bayern, a club he has led as coach on three occasions.
"It doesn't mean much to me," said Heynckes when asked about the milestone after the match.
The coach praised the 56th-minute substitute Robben for his professionalism, and said the Dutchman had showed a lot of "effort" and "energy" coming off the bench.
Foals rampant
In Saturday’s evening match, Borussia Mönchengladbach defeated Schalke 3-0. Lucien Favre’s team put on a devastating display of offensive power in the opening stages, going up two before the game was 15 minutes old.
Marco Reus scored the first on a lashing shot from the right wing that kissed the far post as it went in past a diving Lars Unnerstall. The second, from Mike Hanke, capped a stunning four-man, cross-field sequence of passes that were simply too much for Schalke’s defense to keep up with.
Just after the half-hour mark, Juan Arango struck an indirect free kick over the wall and off the underside of the crossbar to make it a three-goal margin. Schalke did little thereafter to dent the impression that a Gladbach win was as good as in the books.
“We played like kids in the first half,” said Schalke captain Benedikt Höwedes after the match. “There was no order, and Gladbach just had their way with us.”
The result meant Gladbach leapfrogged Schalke in the table, reclaiming third place after five weeks in fourth. The Foals are on 43 points, three points behind leaders Dortmund.
Tough draws
Mainz thought it had done all it needed to do to earn a win at home to Hanover 96, taking a 1-0 lead into the 89th minute before Artur Sobiech shocked them with a late goal.
Mohamed Zidan had put Mainz up early - in the seventh minute - as he notched his second goal in as many games since returning to the club with whom he made his name as a Bundesliga goal scorer five years ago.
In Bremen, Hoffenheim's coaching change appeared to pay immediate dividends, as the village club were up inside of five minutes through a Jannik Vestergaard header.
Bereft of leading scorer Claudio Pizarro, Werder's attack looked blunted in the first half, and the home side struggled to create chances. Their young midfield, moreover, looked overwhelmed by the energetic Hoffenheim, forced into errors by the men in blue performing for their new coach Markus Babbel for the first time.
In the second half, Werder coach Thomas Schaaf brought on Marko Marin for the disappointing Mehmet Ekici, and the team threw itself at the task of tying things up.
With just a minute left in normal time, Bremen got their reward - in scrappy style. Swedish striker Markus Rosenberg headed down a long ball out of the back and his strike partner Marko Arnautovic was there to knock it in and draw the match level.
Downward spiral
Hertha Berlin's woes continued on Saturday, as they were swept off the pitch in Stuttgart, going four goals and one man down in a hectic quarter of an hour in the first half.
It all started when Vedad Ibisevic scored his first goal in a Stuttgart shirt in the 24th minute; Martin Harnik then doubled the lead four minutes later. In the 30th minute, Hertha's Andreas Ottl earned a straight red for an ugly challenge from behind on Tamas Hajnal, and by the 40-minute mark Shinji Okazaki and Harnik had made it 4-0.
Hertha defender Levan Kobiashvili widened Stuttgart's winning margin to five in the second half with an own goal.
On Friday evening, VfL Wolfsburg had worsened SC Freiburg's chances of Bundesliga survival, beating the bottom club 3-2.
Author: Matt Hermann
Editor: Darren Mara