THE PERFECT FOOTBALL WEEKEND

Dear Bundesliga followers,

I apologize for the heavy delay of reviews for last weekends
Bundesliga matches, but I can explain everything (no, really!):
On Saturday I was in Bremen to witness my Boys in Green end
Leverkusen's unbeaten run.

After a HUGE celebration with the folks from the Werder Fan Club
I made my way back to Berlin early on Sunday just in time to attend
the big 2. Bundesliga relegation bowl between my local club SV
Babelsberg 03 and FC Schweinfurt.

Après I joined fellow r.s.s regulars Bruce and Bert at the Olympic
Stadium as Hertha BSC made it's first big point of the season vs.
"World Champions" FC Bayern. And last but definitely not least
English alternative rockers Bush were at the Columbiahalle yesterday...

As a little compensation I will also include a match report of the
Babelsberg match... ;)

But enough words already, let's go straight to the action!

* = Werder won, Babelsberg won (after losing 5 straight, finally!)
    and Milan won as well after coming from behind (even though it
    was a little fishy...)

All match reviews by Tim Leidecker <tim@milanmania.com> unless
otherwise stated.


2 DECEMBER 2001

HERTHA				2-1		BAYERN MÜNCHEN
Neuendorf 71					N Kovac 46
Dárdai 84

The Intercontinental Cup Winners' were the better team in the early
minutes which were capped off by a great shot from 1st time captain
Élber which was saved equally brilliant by Fiedler though. Zickler
proceeded to smash Paulo Sergio's centre against the crossbar at
around 15'. Wessels, in goal for the injured Kahn, made a great save
from Man of the Match Marcelinho Paraíba's left-footed drive (the
blond Brasilian was truly *everywhere* in this game: in attack, at
the back, on the left, the right, in the middle, *everywhere*!).

Berlin-Wedding born Niko Kovac headed in Sforza's free kick at the
beginning of the 2nd half to give Bayern the not undeserved lead.
"Locomotive" Marcelinho Paraíba had a cross dip onto the crossbar.
Neuendorf replaced Maas and suddenly the capitals' midfield gained
the advantage through tireless pressing and sharp passing. Then
Marcelinho went past Kovac & Kuffour but was denied by the great
Wessels (not even Kahn could have saved better in this game!) and
Zickler wasted a great opportunity on the direct counter attack.

Marcelinho (who else?) set up Goor who ran through the FCB defense
but Preetz was too slow to connect with his centre. Neuendorf
finally gave Hertha the now much deserved equalizer with a turn
around shot from close distance. Daei missed a sitter shortly after
courtesy of Sagnol's hospital pass but made up for his mistake when
he headed Preetz' cross into the run of Dárdai (who was on Bayern's
wishlist in 2000 but extended with Hertha instead which should tell
you just *how* good he is!) who poked the ball past Wessels for the
game-winner!

Assists: Sforza, Tretschok, Daei
Attendance: 52,000 (sold out)


HAMBURG			4-3		ST. PAULI
Meijer 4						Meggle 47
Fukal 8						Trulsen 79, 83
Benjamin 45
Barbarez 52

Meijer gave Hamburg the lead from Albertz' through pass following a
string of accidents. Fukal made it 2-0 with a header from Tøfting's
free kick and youngster Benjamin increased the lead even more with
a copy of Meijer's goal, the only difference was that he lobbed the
'keeper, again Albertz providing the pass. HSV up 3-0 at halftime.

Pauli hit back after the break: Meggle powerfully headed in future
HSVer (and again Zweitligaspieler?) Rahn's cross. Barbarez broke
the little city rival's neck by turning in Benjamin's centre. Still
the underdog didn't give up and added two more goals through old
warhorse Trulsen, the first a header from Rahn's free kick, the 2nd
a penalty after Meggle was kicked by Albertz.

Assists: Albertz (x2), Tøfting, Rahn (x2), Benjamin, Meggle
Attendance: 54,800


1 DECEMBER 2001

BREMEN				2-1		LEVERKUSEN
Bode 39						Schneider 38
Verlaat 58

Only 48 hours after the 3rd attempt of Juventus - Leverkusen (in front
of whopping 3,500 fans at the ugly concrete bowl Delle Alpi...) Bayer
had to prove whether they had recovered from their first crucial loss
of the season physically but also more important mentally.

After having his first attempt blocked, Ballack smashed a low centre
across goal, Schneider picked the ball up and sold Skripnik a rude
dummy before hitting a left-footed drive past Rost for the surprise
0-1. It was the first time Bayer had taken the lead in their past 5
games in which they always came from behind to win...

Only 52 seconds later though, Skripnik pressed Schneider into turning
the ball over and Aílton set up Bode for the equalizer, his 98th goal
for Werder thus surpassing Rudi Völler and Frank Neubarth to become
Werder's all-time topscorer!

13 minutes into the 2nd half Lisztes floated a perfectly curled free
kick into the box (his delivery from set pieces is truly excellent,
as is his tracking back if you take into account, that he's supposed
to be the playmaker...) and Verlaat towered above the opposition to
head in the eventual game-winner.

Rost made a crucial save 1-on-1 against Neuville and then Aílton got
Nowotny sent off with a dive to break Bayer's spirit and virtually
decide the game with 20 minutes to go.

Werder has now taken 9 points from the games against last seasons'
Top 3 (Bayern, Schalke and Leverkusen). If the team continues its'
tradition of being the "Robin Hood" of the league (i.e. winning vs.
the big clubs and losing to the small ones...) Werder will lose at
St. Pauli next weekend before taking another 3 points off Dortmund
the week after. :)

Leverkusen however, suffers its' first defeat of the season thus
stopping their historic unbeaten run at 14 games.

Assists: Ballack, Aílton, Lisztes
Red Card: Nowotny 70 (Leverkusen)
Attendance: 32,100


KÖLN				0-2		DORTMUND
						Amoroso 17 (Pen)
						Ewerthon 42

Reeb made an outrageous double mistake to start the scoring: First
he "cleared" the ball straight against Keller's...ahem..."behind"
from where it bounced to Ricken, then he floored Dortmund's n°18
who made his 200th Bundesliga appearance to give away a penalty
which Amoroso cleverly converted for his 10th goal of the season.

Ewerthon bounced Koller's headed pass off his chest and in one
smooth motion volleyed just wide -- beautiful move! Ricken picked
out Rosický with a superb longball, he headed (!) into the path of
Ewerthon who swept the ball past Pröll for the 0-2. Substitute
Sørensen ballooned a sitter from Ewerthon's inch-perfect centre.

Borussia is back in the title picture after their club record 5th
straight win.

Assists: Ricken, Rosický
Attendance: 42,000 (sold out)


KAISERSLAUTERN			3-0		FREIBURG
Klose 31, 52
Ramzy 47

Malz swapped passes with Lincoln, Golz parried his shot but Klose
was on hand to tap in the rebound. Ramzy seemed to have half the
area for himself as he uncontestedly directed Basler's cross under
the crossbar. Klose pounced onto Lincoln's through pass and rounded
Golz who was out of his goal before once again tapping into an empty
net, his 4th career "Double Pack".

Assists: Basler, Lincoln
Attendance: 38,248


STUTTGART			1-1		MÖNCHENGLADBACH
Wenzel 48					Küntzel 89

Wenzel, defense boss in Bordon's absence, headed in Balakov's cross.
Adhemar collected a pass at the edge of the box, it looked like a poor
first touch made the ball bounce but the Brasilian attacker did that
intentionally to sting Stiel's palms with a ferocious half volley!

A minute before the end Van Lent plugged through ex-Babelsberg
"Fußballgott" Marco Küntzel who transferred to the "Fohlen" in the
offseason after helping 03 in two consecutive successful promotion
campaigns and "Kü" stole a point for his new club with a beautiful
shot from an acute angle.

Assists: Balakov, Van Lent
Attendance: 31,000


NÜRNBERG			0-3		SCHALKE
						Hajto 61 (Pen)
						Sand 91, 93

Terrible ref Strampe added some "life" to a typical 0-0 when he dreamed
up a penalty for Schalke because of 'handball' and sent off Nürnberg's
problem child Marek Nikl because of the incident, Hajto made matters
even worse by slotting in the spot kick. Strampe reduced the Club even
further by sending off captain Kos with double yellow (he didn't even
remember having given him yellow before!).

Kampa made a great save 1-on-1 with Asamoah! Sanneh could have given
his side a 89th minute equalizer but Reck, playing his 450th Bundesliga
game parried his too centrally struck shot. Then Sand put things out of
reach for Nürnberg with two goals in injury time, the first after Kampa
spilled Möller's centre, the second after a nice solo over half the
length of the pitch.

Strampe's refereeing was truly inept, unbelievably he's even a
FIFA referee! Thank goodness it's his last season, at least at the
international stage, in the Bundesliga we'll have to endure him for
two more seasons unless the DFB shows some consideration...

Assist: Hajto
Red Cards: Nikl 61 and Kos 68 (Nürnberg)
Attendance: 40,000


1860 MÜNCHEN			1-0		COTTBUS
Max 71

1998 World Cup Topscorer Davor Šuker made his Bundesliga debut for
the "Löwen". Da Silva (Brasilian, as you might guess!) gifted Max
the ball at the edge of the box with a totally wretched 1st touch,
then chopped the 1860 attacker down for a straight red card!

Häßler hammered the resulting free kick against the underside of
the crossbar as his set piece scoring slump continues. Max repeated
the trick only minutes later when he headed Cerny's cross against
the woodwork but finally broke the spell with another header from
Schroth's cross for the game-winner.

Assist: Schroth
Red Card: Da Silva 53 (Cottbus)
Attendance: 18,600


ROSTOCK			1-2		WOLFSBURG
Beierle 89					Maric 32, 65


Hill first won the ball with a sliding tackle but then didn't know
what to do with it so he gave it away to Munteanu who sent Petrov
into the box, the pacey Bulgarian cut to the touchline and pulled
the ball back across goal for Maric to tap-in. WOB's attacker n°4
who was sought after by 'Haching during the past couple of weeks
easily scored his 2nd of the game shortly after the hour mark by
squeezing Karhan's cross past Schober at the near post. Beierle
pulled one back after Schnoor candled a throw-in.

Hansa coach Funkel was sacked after the game.

Assists: Petrov, Karhan, Jakobsson
Attendance: 11,000


BONUS PICK

BABELSBERG			3-1		SCHWEINFURT
Kampf 36, 71					Popovic 87
Gatti 90

First half didn't offer much except for a first time volley into the
side netting from former Hansa and 1860 playmaker Jens Dowe and the
1-0 through "Baby Jancker" Lars Kampf who got a rare start instead
of 03's regular starter Enrico Röver. Defense boss Björn Laars sent
a lob into Schweinfurt's box, 'keeper Scherbaum and defender Gröger
were undecided who should clear the ball so Kampf splashed between
them, rounded the 'keeper and tapped into an empty net.

After the half time break and one of the best fried sausages in
Germany, no, the World, Härtel had the first chance after Dowe's
quickly executed free kick but took ages to shoot so the 'keeper
was able to clear. "Milo" Milovanovic sold a rude dummy to Gröger
on the wing and floated a cross into the box which Kampf headed
past Scherbaum for the relieving 2-0.

Substitute Popovic pulled one back for the Bavarians but only 3
minutes later former St. Pauli man and arguably Babelsberg's best
field player this season Martino Gatti made sure the points stayed
at the "Karli" when he won the ball in the middle of the pitch,
dribbled two defenders, clobbered a third and headed towards the
goal with maybe six defenders trailing him before smashing the ball
past the 'keeper for the decisive 3-1.

The sympathetic newly promoted team from the heart of Potsdam (on
the edge of Berlin) is still in 16th place but now only 1 point
out of the relegation ranks (15-18) anymore. Go 03!

Assists: Laars, Milovanovic
Attendance: 3,028




Ciao,

Tim

tim@milanmania.com
http://milanmania.com
http://soccer-europe.com