6 APRIL 2001
COTTBUS 0-0 WOLFSBURG
Labak had a huge chance already after 6 minutes but Reitmaier made a
terrific save. Sebescen saved on the line against Latoundji. Akpoborie
had the best chance for Wolfsburg when he missed the goal by inches
after coming on as a sub.
Attendance : 15,019
7 APRIL 2001
1860 MÜNCHEN 2-4 BOCHUM
Schröder 56 (og) Bastürk 37, 49
Borimirov 86 Reis 59
Schindzielorz 88
Schindzielorz destroyed Ehlers with a rude dummy but smacked his shot
straight at Jentzsch. Freier and Bastürk combined to give Bochum the
lead with a launching shot. Buckley wasted another huge chance on the
counter attack. Bastürk was the reason for another cold shower shortly
after the break, after nice interplay with Freier and Schindzielorz he
beat the 'keeper from outside the box with a left-footed shot doubling
the lead. Goals # 3 & 4 of the season for the Turkish U-21 playmaker,
all 4 of them in München (2 vs. Bayern, 2 vs. 1860 now).
Amateur Rouven Schröder brought 1860 back into the game with a
fantastic diving header...into his own net (cross Borimirov). Bastürk
once again humiliated Ehlers and Reis put away his centre with ease
to restore the 2 goal lead. Borimirov headed Tyce's corner at goal,
Schindzielorz cleared on the line...and the ref awarded a goal!
Gross error by the reffing team as the ball *never* crossed the line!
Bastürk whacked a stunning volley against the post from Colding's
cross, Schindzielorz tapped in the rebound against the helpless
Jentzsch to seal the more than deserved victory for the bottom of
the table team. Freier struck the crossbar in the dying minutes.
1860 München thus joins the relegation battle!
Attendance : 26,300
KÖLN 1-1 UNTERHACHING
Timm 11 Oberleitner 46
Timm powerfully headed in Keller's looping cross for his 1st goal since
extending his contract with Köln. Scherz missed a 1000% sitter wide open
and with only the 'keeper to beat after great work from Baranek shortly
before the break. 'Haching equalized only 35 seconds into the 2nd half:
Schwarz linked up with substitute Cizek in the box, spun around his
marker and fed Oberleitner who ripped a cracking shot past Pröll.
Attendance : 32,500
FREIBURG 0-0 HAMBURG
Barbarez had a regular goal disallowed for offside. Hoogma should have
been sent off for headbutting Kehl. Baya found Sellimi with an awesome
through pass over 40 meters, Sellimi got Iashvili into position with
a beautiful backheel flick but the Georgian attacker dragged his shot
over the bar. A helpless Hamburg needed to play ugly Catenaccio to
grind out a point here.
Attendance: 25,000 (sold out)
BREMEN 3-1 HERTHA
Pizarro 7, 65 Schmidt 49
Frings 87
Verlaat gifted Deisler the ball 30 meters in front of goal, Basti
instantly showed the (too) slow defender his heels but a poor 2nd
touch defused the huge chance. Claudio 'God' Pizarro fired Werder
into the lead with a diving header from Banovic's cross, his 25th
goal in his 50th Bundesliga game!
Rost made a tremendous save from Konstantinidis' shot. Aílton took
on the whole Hertha defense and won(!) but found his master in
Király who saved his too centrally struck shot. Pizarro had another
promising chance with a little help from the awful Van Burik who
turned the ball over in the box but his shot went just wide.
Herzog tore apart the Hertha "D" with a GIGANTIC through pass, Toni
had an open run at goal but only struck the post. Werder wasted far
too many 1000% chances in the first half so what had to happen
inevitably did take place after the break: Verlaat panically whacked
the ball against Dárdai while attempting to clear, the ball broke to
Schmidt who coolly placed it past the 'keeper with a flat shot.
Werder answered: Herzog released Aílton once more, Király parried
his shot but the ball fell to Pizarro who controlled it with his
thigh before lifting it over Sverrisson into the net. Deisler
clanged a 22 meter free kick against the post. Frings wrapped
things up with an ultra-rare goal after a nice solo.
Werder remains the most successful team in 2001 but the remaining
6 games (@ Bochum, VS. Wolfsburg, @ Stuttgart, VS. Unterhaching,
@ Köln and VS. Rostock) will show if their current run was only a
flash in the pan or if this teams' for real!
Attendance : 33,120
FRANKFURT 1-3 LEVERKUSEN
Yang 58 Kirsten 21
Lúcio 67, 82
Frankfurt had some half chances in the early minutes, then Rink won
the ball in midfield, crossed and Kirsten gave Leverkusen the lead
with a flying reverse scissor kick. Chen Yang wasted a huge chance
alone in front of goal after a capital blunder from Kovac. The soon
to be Bayern defender (has signed for the 2002-2003 season) then
received his marching orders for his 2nd bookable offence.
Nowotny made a massive headed save on the line from Juric's mock up.
Heldt had a free run at goal but decided to centre(!) instead of
shooting! Heinen made a great save from Neuville's drive after an
even greater Ballack through pass. On the counter attack Guié-Mien
and Heldt strung together 2 great passes which were enough to span
half the length of the pitch before Yang eqalized with a nice stroke
on which the 'keeper looked a little 'unfortunate' as well.
Lúcio headed in Rink's corner (Brasilian connection). Heinen made
another spectacular parade from Ballack's free kick. Lúcio decided
the game with a solo over 75(!) meters and against 4(!) Frankfurt
defenders, his 5th(!) goal in only 9 games (only to remind you :
the guy's a defender!) - Out Of This World!
Red Card : Kovac 36 (Leverkusen)
Attendance : 27,000
DORTMUND 1-1 BAYERN MÜNCHEN
Bobic 52 Santa Cruz 6
Bayern got the perfect start, with surprise man Santa Cruz, replacing
Jancker due to strong performances in training, getting the pass from
Lizarazu after the latter's run around Dortmund's right side, and
slotting it into the far corner below the arm of Dortmund 'keeper
Lehmann. So, 0-1 for Bayern, a perfect start. So why did all the
Bayern players so totally lose their cool ? But do that they did.
Stupid fouls after stupid fouls... Lizarazu with a hand ball and then
pulling Rosický down by the shirt for the yellow red. A couple of
others were lucky not to fly in the first half. And though emotions
were high on both sides, I must say it was Bayern that really lost it.
The lead was still intact at half though.
In the second half, more of the same. Countless free kicks for Dortmund
near the Bayern penalty area. Bobic was ripped off of the equaliser by
a (yet another) bad offsides call. Another goal was rightly called
offside. Then, at only 52' Bobic scored the equaliser. Effenberg got a
stupid red after elbowing his opponent in the stomach. Élber was lucky
not to see his second yellow after handing the ball down and putting it
into the net with an admittedly nice shot from steep angle. Rosický was
a giant, very narrowly missing two free kicks. Oliseh put a monster
shot from a nearly standing position while marked onto the crossbar.
Evanílson kicked Paulo Sergio's legs out from under him from the back
and saw red... the only real exception to a pretty fair effort on the
part of Dortmund. In all, 8 yellows for Bayern, two flew, while for
Dortmund it was two yellows and one flight.
Ugh ugh ugh. We were lucky to get this point, but I am not at all
satisfied how we got it. I really hope the professionalism this team is
capable of comes back. Maybe with four players missing against Schalke
next weekend, it just might do. Effenberg, Élber, Linke, and Lizarazu
can rest themselves for the return match against Man U on the 18th.
Oops, forgot, Lizarazu is banned from that one too (as is Salihamidzic).
But I must say that the referee also contributed to the mess by letting
the emotions get to his reactivity. He lost control of the match
despite his not very able efforts to maintain it. A man in over his
head... nevertheless, the Bayern players were in worse sorts than
Dortmund's regarding the emotions, which provides a control case
correcting for the role of the referee. I repeat my comment form last
week that the similarly weak referee was lucky not to have this level of
emotion in his match; the results might have been similar. I think the
league has to do something about this, and talking to the players is not
the only step they need to take.
Match review by Bruce Scott bds@ipp.mpg.de
Red Cards : Lizarazu* 35 and Effenberg* 55 (Bayern),
Evanílson 90 (Dortmund)
Yellow Cards: Addo, Oliseh (Dortmund), Kuffour, Élber (5th*), Jeremies,
Linke (5th*), Salihamidzic, Scholl, Kahn, Sagnol (Bayern)
* = misses crucial next game against Schalke
Attendance : 68,600 (sold out)
8 APRIL 2001
ROSTOCK 1-1 STUTTGART
Rydlewicz 88 (Pen) Balakov 72 (Pen)
A duel misery against poverty which would have clearly ended 0-0 wasn't
it for the ref who gave a penalty for Stuttgart when Thiam (attacker!)
fouled Oswald (defender!), Balakov converted and a consolation penalty
for Hansa 2 minutes from time when Soldo allegedly 'handballed' in the
box and Rydlewicz equalized from the spot.
Attendance : 15,500
SCHALKE 5-1 KAISERSLAUTERN
Waldoch 3, 9 Klose 72
Sand 55, 89
Mpenza 87
"Modern Day Hero" Micky Klose was left on the bench at the beginning of
this game. Waldoch headed in Möller's corner and Böhme's free kick to
give Schalke a comfortable 2 goal lead within the first 10 minutes, his
(headed) goals # 4 & 5 of the season. Lokvenc should have been sent off
for diving. Schalke's "3-Mann-Sturm" Mpenza, Sand & Asamoah wasted far
too many chances in the first half.
Still Sand headed in the 3-0 from Möller's cross after a great play
involving Mpenza, Asamoah & Nemec. Klose came on for 'red-suspect'
Grammozis in the 2nd half and headed one back for Kaiserslautern from
Hristov's cross. Mpenza beat 'keeper Koch to Sand's centre and the
Danish forward completed the disaster himself with a stunning first
time volley from Mpenza's lobbed pass.
Kaiserslautern were painfully shown their limits this week: 1-4 in
Dortmund, 1-5 in Alavés and now 1-5 at Schalke who take massive revenge
for being screwed out of a clear victory in the two teams' first clash
this season (Headword: Hristov dive).
Attendance : 51,129
Ciao,
Tim
[TL] = Tim Leidecker
http://milanmania.com
http://soccer-europe.com
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