S04 TOP, HERTHA HAMMERED BY LEVERKUSEN

Frankfurt has their home fortress Waldstadion stormed by Wolfsburg.
Freiburg put five past relegation candidate n°1 Bochum. 1860 München
finally snap their losing streak against harmless Hansa. Dortmund
manage their first convincing home victory of the season against
Unterhaching.

Schalke leave it late against an all-improved VfB which may have a
new coach before Christmas. Favorable refereeing helps Bayern to a
flattering point in Kaiserslautern. 10 Bremer turn the game around
against Köln. Hertha gets 'four' again. Floored HSV barely beats
away compulsory exercise Cottbus.


8 DECEMBER 2000

FRANKFURT			1-2		WOLFSBURG
Gebhardt 13					Juskowiak 52
						Maric 75

Sobotzik clobbered Weiser with a simple turn-around-and-go-by,
Reichenberger and Branco let his centre run through their legs,
Gebhardt connected and fired into the top-right corner.
Houbtchev made a great save for his already beaten 'keeper.

Kutschera tapped the ball straight into Biliskov's path and the
Croatian defender fed wide open big bum Juskowiak who couldn't
help but score the equalizer. Biliskov then had a regular goal
of his own disallowed for offside.

Still Wolfsburg took all the points off an Eintracht which was
desolate in the 2nd half, Lösch as last man complete missed a
routine clearance, his old Kickers buddy Maric pounced onto the
ball and took it all the way before firing past Heinen.
[TL]

Attendance :  19,300


9 DECEMBER 2000

FREIBURG			5-0		BOCHUM
Diarra 21
Sellimi 48
Iashvili 51
Baya 66
Sundermann 76 (og)

Kobiashvili headed a corner back across goal and Boubacar Diarra,
one of the Top 10 defenders in the league IMO, nodded in at the
far post. Van Duijnhoven made a great save against Kehl. With no
'keeper in anymore Iashvili took ages to shoot before fumbling
the ball away.

The Georgian attacker then took Ristau & Buckley to school on the
wing, Sellimi chested down his long cross (grave positional error
by Freier) and literally "walked" the ball across the line.
Ramdane left the whole VfL defense standing like slalom poles, cut
to the baseline, Iashvili had a field day tapping in his centre.

Drincic was sent off for following up against Kehl, harsh decision.
Kehl's deflected shot then fell to the feet of Baya who made it 4-0
with a solid stroke from mid-range. Freiburg untiringly kept on
attacking, Baya put through Iashvili with an outrageous backheel,
Sundermann turned his shot/centre into his own net.
[TL]

Red Card:  Drincic 65 (Bochum)
Attendance:  24,500


1860 MÜNCHEN			2-1		ROSTOCK
Max 21, 68					Agali 66

Max fired 60 into the lead from Riseth's centre. Arvidsson had a
huge chance whistled off when Pfuderer as last man collapsed with
no influence by the Swedish striker. Brand flicked on a cross out
of midfield, Agali splashed between the Lions defense and lifted
the ball over Hofmann into the net to mark the equalizer.

Häßler curled a free kick against the woodwork. Bierofka split
the Hansa defense with a great pass on the counter attack and
last years' Bundesliga Topscorer Max slid in his second of the
afternoon to win the match. Schröder deflected another Häßler
free kick against the crossbar and Hofmann denied Baumgart with
a tremendous save as 60 hung on to very important 3 points.
 [TL]

Attendance:  20,300


DORTMUND			3-0		UNTERHACHING
Stevic 16
Bobic 30
Reina 40

Stevic headed in Dedê's cross, his first headed goal in 8(!) years.
Wörns struck the post after Ricken flicked on a corner. Bobic let
Ricken's cross bounce to Reina who excellently killed it with his
thigh but ripped his shot inches wide.

Ricken then bounced Evanílsons's huge throw-in off his chest to
Bobic who fired in from close range. The 3-0 was a genuine textbook
counter attack:  Stevic won the ball deep in his own half, released
Ricken on the wing who centred for Reina, Billy breezed past Bucher
und fired into the far corner.

Dortmund had at least six more 100% chances and could have easily
doubled their lead with a little more concentrated finishing. 
[TL]

Attendance:  60,500


SCHALKE			2-1		WOLFSBURG
Latal 22						Ganea 47
Waldoch 90

Latal brought S04 into the lead with a blast from the edge of the box
against the flow of the game. Böhme's wickedly curled shot dipped onto
the crossbar. Ganea equalized with a violent shot past Reck after Seitz
stopped Carnell's centre for him.

Balakov was sent off for an everyday bodycheck against Nemec after he
was already booked for diving. Asamoah shot high into the sky wide open
in front of the goal. Waldoch headed in Möller's corner in the very last
minute. These are goals Championships are made of ?
 [TL]

Red Card:  Balakov 58 (Stuttgart)

Attendance:  31,281


KAISERSLAUTERN			0-0		BAYERN MÜNCHEN

Bayern looked the more tired side although it was Kaiserslautern who
had to play just 45 hours before this match. I am guessing this is
because the people off on long term injuries aren't fully fit yet,
especially Effenberg, Élber, and Sergio. Bayern were much like in
the first half in London, but 'Lautern's attack is not like Arsenal's.

Bayern had the better opportunities in the first 20 minutes but a major
judgment error by Fink saw him shooting (!) rather than passing to the
left to a wide open Scholl. This should have been the 0-1 for Bayern,
and it was to become our best chance. 'Lautern woke up about this time
and started taking over.

A goal was disallowed when an attacker fouled Kahn in the keeper's box,
and then another one by Hristov was disallowed on an offsides call which
was very bad. Bayern most certainly lucked out here. Another diagonal
shot from the right side by Lokvenc saw Kahn stretching all the way out
to keep it out of the lower far corner. Another header by Lokvenc hit
the side of the post.

In the second half it was mostly 'Lautern, the best two chances coming
on solo moves by Djorkaeff, both hitting the left outside net just past
the post. Zickler came on for Bayern but didn't do much, still way off
his pre-season, pre-injury form. Effenberg didn't have his usual
strength in the 50-50 balls in midfield.

All in all, a favorable point for Bayern, who nevertheless slip to 5th
following victories by Schalke and Dortmund. 'Lautern missed a big
chance to jump into contention for a Champions League place, although
they are a good side and should challenge for a place in the top 4 at
least. Bayern don't look championship material at the moment but are
still only 4 points adrift.
[BS]

Attendance:  41,500 (sold out)


10 DECEMBER 2000

BREMEN				2-1		KÖLN
Bogdanovic 73, 84				Arveladze 68

Pizarro wasted a great chance courtesy of Sichone's hospital pass.
Stalteri was sent off for 2 yellow cards within 3 minutes (donkey!).
Aílton was lucky not to be sent off as well when the ref didn't
see him kicking Keller. Dziwior flicked on Cullmann's long throw-in,
Arveladze killed the ball, turned around and poked it in.

Pizarro clobbered two FC defenders, drove to the baseline and pulled
the ball back to Bogdanovic who only came on 150 seconds before and
tapped in. Bode headed a Frings corner against Cullmann's head from
where it crashed against the crossbar. Super Rade then turned the
game around completely with a header from Herzog's free kick.

Werder fought extremely well (even playmaker Andy Herzog was all
over the place, even winning key tackles in defense !!!) but only
when Bogdanovic came on they had the firepower to break down the
packed Cologne defense.

I have been saying all along that even though Pizarro is the complete
package and Aílton the perfect striker for the counter attack it is
Bogdanovic who is Werder's best pure finisher.
 [TL]

Red Card:  Stalteri 39 (Bremen)
Attendance:  29,144


LEVERKUSEN			4-0		HERTHA
Neuville 7, 19
Ramelow 67
Rink 82 (Pen)

Dárdai turned the ball over to Ramelow in his own box, the blond
midfielder centred and Neuville tapped in. "Little Olli" added a
2nd from Kirsten's excellent cross pass on the counter attack.
Ramelow unhinderedly played give-and-go with Nowotny substitute
(successor ?) Vranjes before firing under Király.

Alex Alves was sent off for a tussle with Robert Kovac (the hot
headed Brazilian doesn't seem to get along very well with the
Kovac brothers -- in a preseason League Cup game against Hamburg
he was sent off as well for punching Robert's brother Nico).

Király caused a penalty with a Kung Fu kick against Kovac, flipped
both his middle fingers to the crowd and then saved Kirsten's weak
spot kick (his first blown in the Bundesliga, before he was perfect
11/11). Wosz caused another penalty by emergency braking Vranjes
(Dariusz was lucky not to be sent off here) and Rink cooly converted.
[TL]

Red Card:  Alex Alves 70 (Hertha)
Attendance:  22,500 (sold out)


HAMBURG			2-1		COTTBUS
Barbarez 72					Reghecampf 42
Heinz 78

Cottbus was the weakest opponent I've seen here for a long time (I
didn't see Freiburg)... They started defensively, but made a blunder
in defence after the other, so we came to 4 or 5 good chances in the
first 15 minutes, the best was after a Kette freekick from the right
side when Barbarez seemed to head it in but Piplica made a brilliant
save, Hoogma got the rebound but couldn't kick it past the keeper
from 2m in the first try and 1m in the second.

>From then on Cottbus started to sort there defence out and they got
more control of the game while our chances got fewer. After about one
our Cottbus started there first serious attack but their striker missed
the goal from a very close angle on the left and the ball went out on
the other side of the pitch. About 10 minutes later they started their
second attack, played a little give and go until one of their players
was alone in front of Butt and passed it to the completely free
Reghecampf who converted easily.

At this time their lead was completely undeserved as HSV made the
game and had far more chances, but it was not surprising at all as
Cottbus got more and more control and the weakness of our defence
is well known. In the second half the game started like the first:  HSV
pressing, getting chances and wasting them... As we pressed more than
in the first half and our players are still far from their best physically
Cottbus got 2 or 3 chances from counter-attacks but wasted them, too.

After 70 mins Präger came in and immediately missed a header from
2 or 3 meters - this seemed to be the 'kick-off' for our last offence. This
was surprising as the team was clearly exhausted, but as Cottbus played
defensively through the entire game instead of doing what any decent
team would have done (try to get a better goal difference) it was
Cottbus own fault. *g*

Soon after this chance Töfting kicked something between a cross and a
long ball into the area and Barbie headed it past Piplica. It was just
his 5th or 6th opportunity... *g* A few minutes later HSV played a nice
piece of football and Barbie passed a fine pass to Trixi who shot it
under Piplica into the net. After a few minutes more our infamous last
minutes angst got through and gave Cottbus some half chances:  2 shots
from about 20m and 3 headers in the area (one shot was saved from
Butt - IIRC his only save in the whole game - while the rest missed the
goal).

There also was an attack from Barbie on a Cottbus player near the edge
of our area (a high jump for the ball but he just got his opponent and
not the ball) - I couldn't see it clearly, but it was _very_ close to
our area and maybe in it...

All in all a deserved victory against a very weak opponent:  Cottbus was
the better team for just about 15 mins, but gave away the control of the
game and then the lucky lead by defensive play against an opponent
who was physically much weaker and who should never have been able
to win this game in the last 20 minutes. I'm very proud now of my
fighting team. ;-))
[SM]

Attendance:  39,600


Ciao,

Tim

[TL] = Tim Leidecker
[SM] = Sven Mischkies
[BS] = Bruce Scott 

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