
- © picture-alliance
It’s usually Stefan Reichart’s job to report about the Bundesliga on this blog, but since he’s on holiday, he asked me to take over. What I’ve been asking myself since he told me his holiday dates, though, is whether he decided to be away this week in particular because he expected HSV, the team he supports, to get beaten by Mainz and didn’t fancy having to write about it. If he did, mind you, there wasn’t much point, because as it turned out, HSV put a 1:0 stop to Mainz run of seven victories in a row.
Nevertheless, the fact that they lost doesn’t make it any less worthwhile taking a serious look at the revolutionary “Mainz Philosophy”. Certainly, both Mainz and Dortmund, who are currently joint top of the table, share certain characteristics, with Dortmund being coached by ex-Mainz man Jürgen Klopp and both playing in a similar, almost English way. It’s an attack-orientated way of playing, with the teams playing in fast-changing combinations, sticking to one-touch tactics and securing possessions wherever possible; there’s a visible hunger for success, and perhaps that’s partly to do with the fact that the teams are young, full of new, unknown players anxious to prove themselves. There’s Dortmund’s €350,000-bargain Shinji Kagawa from the Japanese second league, or Mainz’s Lewis Holtby, loaned from Schalke for just €100,000.
Borussia Dortmund won this weekend, going ahead in the final minutes against Cologne and taking this highly competitive and lively game 2:1. This pushes 1. FC Köln further down in the table, and their poor position is no surprise for me whatsoever. After all, giving your young talent a chance is all very well and good, but letting players of international calibre like Maniche and Wome transfer to other teams and then saying that there’s no chance of being relegated is just tempting fate!
Joining Cologne at the bottom of the table are two other teams who everyone would have expected to be higher up: Schalke and Stuttgart. Funnily enough, they played each other weekend – and 2:2 draw didn’t really help either of them. Meanwhile, Bayern München, who are underperforming somewhat too, managed to pull off a 3.0 victory after a poor start against Hannover, with Mario Gomez being the striker who put all three Bayern goals into the back of the net. Bremen, also expected to place highly and doing worse than predicted, managed to win 2:1 against Freiburg, and this gives them a little more breathing space. Leverkusen turned an approaching 0:2 defeat in Wolfsburg into a win and are consolidating their position, whilst the newly-promoted St. Pauli put Nürnberg even closer to being relegated than they already were, winning 3:2. Eintracht Frankfurt played Kaiserslautern, the other newly-promoted team this season, and won 3:0, whilst Hoffenheim carried the day against Mönchengladbach with a 3:2 win.
Next week, we can look forward to a classic grudge-match – the North-South classic that is Bayern München against Hamburg SV. I’m sure that Stefan will be back in time to write about that one, though!
Martin Orth/Brian Melican
Results Matchday 8:
1. FC Köln – Borussia Dortmund 1:2 (0:1)
Bayern München – Hannover 96 3:0 (1:0)
FC Schalke 04 – VfB Stuttgart 2:2 (1:1)
Werder Bremen – SC Freiburg 2:1 (1:0)
1. FSV Mainz 05 – Hamburger SV 0:1 (0:0)
FC St. Pauli – 1. FC Nürnberg 3:2 (1:0)
VfL Wolfsburg – Bayer Leverkusen 2:3 (1:0)
1. FC Kaiserslautern – Eintracht Frankfurt 0:3 (0:1)
1899 Hoffenheim – Borussia M’gladbach 3:2 (0:1)
Table
1 Borussia Dortmund 21 P
2 1. FSV Mainz 05 21 P
3 Bayer Leverkusen 15 P
4 1899 Hoffenheim 14 P
5 Hamburger SV 14 P
6 FC St. Pauli (N) 13 P
7 Hannover 96 13 P
8 Eintracht Frankfurt 12 P
9 SC Freiburg 12 P
10 Bayern München 11 P
11 Werder Bremen 11 P
12 VfL Wolfsburg 10 P
13 1. FC Nürnberg 9 P
14 1. FC Kaiserslautern 7P
15 Borussia M’gladbach 6P
16 FC Schalke 04 5P
17 1. FC Köln 5P
18 VfB Stuttgart 4P

