Saturday’s fixtures in the Bundesliga saw Bayern Munich dominate Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund get back to their winning ways.
German Bundesliga, Matchday 3: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund Pick Up Victories
FC Augsburg vs 1899 Hoffenheim
Ryan Babel knocked in his first goal of the season in the 5th minute to get The Hoff rolling to their second straight victory. Babel and Fabian Johnson played a nice one-two and Babel beat his defender to the ball to put it in the back of the net. Augsburg finally got into gear in the second half and were rewarded for their efforts when Axel Bellinghausen was fouled by Andreas Beck in the penalty area. Sascha Mölders stepped up to take the spot kick, but Tom Starke guess right and made the save. Hoffenheim won a penalty with minutes remaining and Sejad Salihovic made no mistake blasting his penalty up the middle giving his side a 2-0 victory.
VfB Stuttgart vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen got their second straight victory with a rather unconvincing victory in Stuttgart. The match got off to a slow start as both sides played fairly conservative at the kickoff. In the 28th minute Stuttgart goalkeeper Sven Ulreich was only able to parry a shot by Michael Kadlec. The ball ended up at the feet of Stefan Kießling, and he was able to poke the ball home.
FC Bayern München vs Hamburger SV
Bayern put the sword to Hamburg for the second straight time at the Allianz Arena. In March Bayern won 6-0, and they made sure they also got off to a great start this time. Daniel van Buyten received his first start at centerback over Jerome Boateng and rewarded Jupp Heynckes by heading home an Arjen Robben free kick in the 13th minute. Just minutes later Franck Ribery would collect a ball from Thomas Müller and finish making the score 2-0. Robben would make it 3-0 in the 34th minute with a brilliant piece of individual skill. Forwards Mario Gomez and Ivica Olic would each grab a goal in the second half to end the demolition of Hamburg.
Borussia Dortmund vs 1. FC Nürnberg
Dortmund got back to their winning ways with a 2-0 defeat of Nürnberg. Robert Lewandowski and Kevin Großkreutz found their way onto the score sheet, while Neven Subotic and Marcel Schmelzer returned to the starting eleven after missing time due to injuries. Some interplay between Mario Götze and Lukasz Piszczek allowed Götze to get to the endline and lay the ball off to Lewandowski to blast into the roof of the net. Großkreutz saw his long distance effort deflect off of defender Tim Klose and luckily go over the head of goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky. The result is big for Dortmund as they were able to put last week’s disappointment against Hoffenheim behind them.
SV Werder Bremen vs SC Freiburg
Freiburg wasted no time getting on the score sheet when Papiss Cisse put the visitors ahead in only the 7th minute. Clemens Fritz equalized for Bremen in the 30th minute when he headed home a cross from Lukas Schmitz. Claudio Pizarro would give the hosts the lead just four minutes later scoring on his first start of the season. Cisse would bring the visitors level at 2-2 just after halftime finishing a pass from substitute Daniel Caligiuri. Marko Marin would terrorize the Freiburg defense and cross a ball in to Marko Arnautovic, and he finished with his head to give the lead back to Bremen. Cisse struck again in the 84th minute but his header was saved by Time Wiese. The rebound fell to the feet of Stefan Reisinger which he confidently finished to make the score 3-3. Bremen were not done however, and Aaron Hunt would give the hosts the lead on a penalty after Mehmet Ekici was fouled in the area. As Freiburg were pushing for an equalizer in the dying moments, Wesley would beat the defense and calmly finish giving his side the 5-3 victory.
1. FC Köln vs 1. FC Kaiserslautern
Going into the match both sides were bottom of the table and neither can be happy with today’s result. Kaiserslautern’s Ivo Ilicevic scored a brilliant volley in the 17th minute, but Mato Jajalo leveled the score just minutes later. Neither side were up to the task in the second half, and poor finishing from both allowed the score to end 1-1.
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