Bundesliga action round-up - Week 11 - October 30 - November 1, 2009

By Alex Hendrikson

Wednesday 04 November 2009

At long last there is daylight at the top of the Bundesliga, as Bayer Leverkusen’s hard earned point at Schalke put them clear of Hamburg who suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of Borussia Monchengladbach in a weekend which saw just one of the top eight teams manage a win. It was first against third at the Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen as Bayer Leverkusen leapt into a two goal first half lead through Toni Kroos and Stefan Kiesling’s seventh of the campaign. With both sides knowing a victory would send them top of the table, Shalke’s Kevin Kuranyi put the home side back in the game with an 83rd minute close range effort following a frantic goalmouth scramble. Five minutes later, Vicente Sanchez equalized for Schalke and the scoreline remained at 2-2, prompting a furious Bayer manager, Rudi Voller, to describe the result as a 2-2 defeat.

The result meant that Hamburg had a chance to go clear at the top of the table, yet they surprisingly squandered their opportunity with a 3-2 defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach - this much needed victory lifting them five places to twelfth. Hamburg were in front twice during the game, first of all when Piotr Trochowski put them in front after 13 minutes. Marco Reus canceled this goal out at the end of the first period, yet early in the second half the home team were back in the lead through Ze Roberto. Borussia rallied and two goals in the last fifteen minutes from Dante and Rob Friend gave them an unlikely and dramatic win over Bruno Labbadia’s side, who drop to third.

This in turn offered Werder Bremen the chance to leap over three clubs and end the weekend on top spot, yet they also failed to capitalize on these favorable results, only managing a point at Nurnberg. Nurnberg were 2-0 up after 33 minutes with goals from Christian Eigler and Albert Bunjaku and managed to hold on for much of the game. Two late goals from Aaron Hunt earned a point for Bremen however and the young German forward, who is also eligible to play for England, is reportedly being coveted by Fabio Capello. With Bayern Munich’s 0-0 draw against lowly Stuttgart, Hoffenheim were only one of two sides in the top half of the table to manage a win, with a 1-0 win at Freiburg thanks to a first half Maicosuel strike.

The other top half victors were Eintracht Frankfurt with a 2-1 win over Bochum - Caio netting the first then Maik Franz effectively canceling out his own first half own-goal early in the second period. The weekend’s highest scoring encounter was a 3-3 draw played out between Wolfsburg and Mainz, with Obefemi Martins putting the champions into an early two goal lead before Mainz pegged them onto level terms before the break. The Wolves went ahead again midway through the second half but Tim Hoogland’s late equalizer earned the newly promoted club another impressive result. Jan Rosenthal’s first half goal was enough to give Hannover a win at Cologne and Hertha Berlin remain routed to the bottom of the table, following their ninth defeat in 10 games to Borussia Dortmund.

Full Results

Friday October 30, 2009
Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Hertha Berlin

Saturday October 31, 2009
Cologne 0-1 Hannover
Hamburg 2-3 Borussia Monchengladbach
Nurnberg 2-2 Werder Bremen
Schalke 04 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen
Stuttgart 0-0 Bayern Munich
Wolfsburg 3-3 Mainz

Sunday November 1, 2009
Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 Bochum
Freiburg 0-1 Hoffenheim