BAYER LEVERKUSEN, AUTUMN CHAMPS!

Bayer Leverkusen clinched the unofficial "Autumn Championship" (which is
basically worthless, even though 2/3 of all "Autumn Champions" have also
gone all the way eventually...) despite going down 1-2 at the hands of
Hertha because their only rival, the yellow and black Borussia also only
managed a 1-1 draw at Bremen.

Meanwhile, Bayern made it 0 wins from their past 5 matches with another
late (almost last second) road defeat in Rostock. Both relegation bowls
(Nürnberg - St. Pauli and Köln - Cottbus) ended in goalless draws while
on Sunday Stuttgart snatched a valuable point from Kaiserslautern and
Wolfsburg closed the first half of the season in style with a 3-1 win
over "Königsblau".


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

16 DECEMBER 2001

KAISERSLAUTERN			2-2		STUTTGART
Ratinho 4					Meißner 32
Lokvenc 63					Kuranyi 87

Fourth minute, Lincoln centred, Klose boxed out Rui Marques and Ratinho
gave 'Lautern the lead with his first Bundesliga goal after 2½ years!
Hildebrand made a great save from a ferocious 30 meter Basler strike.
Adhemar, last years' 3x scorer against FCK, wasted a couple of great
chances, then Georg Koch spilled Carnell's shot and Meißner put away
the rebound.

Adhemar, playing for Ganea and playing like Ganea wasted a couple more
chances, then shocking defending gifted the home side the 2-1: Harry
"Adonis" Koch floated a long cross into the box, Rui Marques completely
missed it so Lokvenc had an easy time killing it with his chest before
smashing a first time volley past Hildebrand.

And the game continued within the same pattern, Adhemar...you know...
then 19-year-old German/Brasilian striker Kevin Kuranyi came on for
Rui Marques who again was pushed to limits he clearly couldn't handle
and after 2 goals against Elversberg in the Regionalliga only 24 hours
earlier he headed in Balakov's cross to give the first team a point
as well.

Assists: Klose, H Koch, Balakov
Attendance: 38,500


WOLFSBURG			3-1		SCHALKE
Nemec 51 (og)					Wilmots 65
Maric 61, 74 (Pen)

Thomas Rytter made his debut for Wolfsburg at right back. Schalke
dominated the first half but couldn't capitalize on a couple of
good scoring chances, Sand & Wilmots being the main culprits.
After the half time tea Nemec unluckily turned Kühbauer's cross
past his own 'keeper.

The 2-0 fell only 10 minutes later: Petrov crossed, Waldoch slipped,
"Crazy Hair" Maric ran into the box and fired past Reck. Wilmots
pulled one back from Oude Kamphuis' pass. The white hot Maric then
made the game safe from the spot, his 7th goal from the last 4 games,
after Klimowicz was bowled over in the area.

Assists: Kühbauer, Petrov, Oude Kamphuis, Klimowicz
Attendance: 18,000


15 DECEMBER 2001

HERTHA				2-1		LEVERKUSEN
Neuendorf 19					Neuville 37
Dárdai 62

Tretschok sent a huge (!) 60 meter pass to Hartmann down the pitch,
Lúcio completely missed it, Hardy swung a cross into the box, Preetz
completely missed that one as well (he's a goalgetter, you know ;)
but ex-Bayer-man "Zecke" Neuendorf was waiting at the far post to
whack it in. 3 minutes later Marcelinho dribbled Nowotny and Ballack
(!) but his shot went just wide.

Fiedler, still in goal for Király, made a good save from Neuville.
Ramelow had a rare offensive brainwave and sent a deflected through
pass into the area, white-hot Neuville sprung onto it and poked past
Hertha's #12 at the near post. Into the second half: Tretschok with
a short free kick to Dárdai and my man Pál drove a huge 25-meter
rocket past Butt for his 2nd consecutive home game winner (he also
scored the 2-1 against Bayern 2 weeks ago)!

Hertha: 7 home wins in a row (among them games against Bremen, Bayern
and Leverkusen)! Had they not dropped so many points against teams
like St. Pauli, Freiburg, Cottbus at the start of the season they'd
be right up there with Leverkusen and Dortmund as planned.

Still it looks like coach Röber won't get another contract extension.
With their candidate of desire, Arsene Wenger, signing a new contract
with Arsenal just recently, I'm not sure if they have another option
aside keeping JR...

Assists: Preetz, Ramelow, Tretschok
Attendance: 34,635


BREMEN				1-1		DORTMUND
Frings 40					Ewerthon 56

Werder MVP Torsten Frings swapped passes with "Rashi" Tjikuzu before
giving the raging home side the deserved lead with a deflected shot
from just inside the box 5 minutes before half time, his first goal
of the season! After the break Ewerthon had a great chance 1-on-1
with Rost but the 'keeper prevailed.

But Borussia Dortmund became much stronger in the second half and
capped that when Rosický made his way through/past 4 defenders,
fed Ewerthon with a no-look pass and the skinny Brasilian smashed
in the equalizer with a perfectly struck shot right into the top
left corner.

Bode once again wasted a gazillion chances. If Werder still had
Pizarro, they'd firmly be on top of the table looking down at the
opposition.

Assists: Tjikuzu, Rosický
Attendance: 35,000 (sold out)


ROSTOCK			1-0		BAYERN MÜNCHEN
Hirsch 86

Kahn and Effe were back for Bayern. Élber had the first chance when
he volleyed Robert Kovac's cross just wide. Kahn was called into
action for the first time in the second half when he had to make a
tremendous handball save from Jakobsson's powerful free kick.

A few semi-chances on both sides later, still 0-0 with 10 minutes to
go. In the 83rd minute Dietmar Hirsch comes on for Yasser. In the 86th
minute Rydlewicz hits a corner into the box, Beierle flicks onto it
and Hirsch emerges from a ruck of players to tap-in the game-winner.

Assist: Beierle
Attendance: 29,500 (sold out)


1860 MÜNCHEN			2-2		MÖNCHENGLADBACH
Max 23, 42					Korzynietz 22
						Van Lent 26

Minus seven degrees centigrade in the freezer Olympiastadion, frozen
pitch, brrrrr... The visitors too the lead through (former) U-21 winger
Bernd Korzynietz who hit a deflected shot past Jentzsch after Ehlers
weakly headed out a cross. Max headed the equalizer over Stiel with a
looping header from Wiesinger's quickly-executed free kick.

Again Gladbach came back, Van Lent rediscovered his scoring touch
after a 3-month long "transmission break" heading in Münch's free kick
to make it 1-2. Stiel made a mistake spilling Häßler's admittedly
well-struck free kick, Max was on hand to punish it hitting the rebound
high into the net.

Jentzsch stopped and hold on to a weakly-struck Van Lent penalty early
in the 2nd half as this game ended in a deserved 2-2 draw. Thus 1860's
winning streak snaps after 3 consecutive wins in a row while Gladbach
has now gone without victory for 7 games (last win: Saturday 10/21/01
@Nürnberg).

Assists: Wiesinger, Münch
Attendance: 19,700


HAMBURG			1-1		FREIBURG
Präger 30					Müller 69

Hamburg's goal was the teamwork of two workmen and one artist:
Hollerbach crossed, so deep from midfield it was almost in his
own half, Meijer headed the ball across goal and Präger finished
the action with a spectacular falling overhead kick!

Midway through the 2nd half Kobiashvili brought in a corner and
defender Stefan Müller unchallengedly strolled through not one,
not two, not three, not four but five defenders (!) before
stumbling the ball into the net for the much-needed equalizer!

On the lighter side: "I'm not a Figo but still I can help HSV."
Raphaël Wicky

Assists: Meijer, Kobiashvili
Attendance: 35,012


NÜRNBERG			0-0		ST. PAULI

Nikl had the best chance of the game when he headed onto the
crossbar. Former Babelsberger Nico Patschinski had the game
winner for Pauli on his head but Kampa who has recovered from
his desastrous performance in Leverkusen saved. The only other
observation worth of notice from this game: Rahn's delvery from
set pieces and crosses is truly excellent!

Attendance: 20,000


KÖLN				0-0		COTTBUS

Energie have snatched multiple reject and failure Markus Feldhoff
from Wolfsburg for 600,000 DM in an act of pure desperation. He
started in this match and as you might guess did nothing. Köln had
a nice chance early on after Reich set up Timm with a heel flick
but Piplica saved.

Cottbus should have been awarded a penalty when Song handballed
shortly before the break. Energie had two major chances on the
counter attack through "Chancentod" Labak and Kobylanski but
Pröll was up to the task with good saves.

A poor game in the first half rapidly decreased after the break.

Attendance: 29,000


Ciao,

Tim

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