Bundesliga, Week 7: Gladbach end Frankfurt’s unbeaten run in style

Matchday 7 in the 2012-13 Bundesliga campaign has come and gone. With the international break approaching and players away for two weeks, this was the last chance for clubs to make a statement about their intentions.

Move over Tasmania Berlin, the Bundesliga has a team fighting for the title of worst ever.

Vedad Ibisevic and Stefan Kießling had a shootout today in a 2-2 draw between Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen. The point moves Stuttgart out of the relegation zone and Leverkusen into 6th place.

It took Kießling 13 minutes to find the back of the net. He capitalized on a loose ball after Sven Ulreich spilled a shot by Karim Bellarabi. The forward beat Ulreich to the ball and beat Ulreich to make it 1-0.

Hannover earned a point with a late goal against Borussia Dortmund to keep their home unbeaten streak going at 22 matches. BVB have yet to win away from home this season.

BVB nearly cracked Hannover’s goal after 10 seconds, but Ron-Robert Zieler was on hand to save Marco Reus’ header. Roman Weidenfeller had to make his own save a few minutes later to keep out a shot from Artur Sobiech.

Borussia Mönchengladbach ended Eintracht Frankfurt’s unbeaten run with a 2-0 victory on Sunday. The win is Gladbach’s first since their opening match of the season.

Juan Arango celebrated his 100th Bundesliga appearance in style by giving Gladbach the early lead with an impressive strike from distance. He intercepted a pass from Olivier Occean in midfield before turning and unleashing a 25 yard blast into the top corner that Kevin Trapp had absolutely no chance at saving.

Borussia Mönchengladbach will be looking to finally get their Bundesliga campaign on track when they host unbeaten EIntracht Frankfurt. It’s not going to be easy for Gladbach. They’ve only managed one win this season, but that was all the way back in the first match. With nine goals conceded in the last two matches, Lucien Favre will be hoping that his defense finds the form they had last season. Frankfurt have five wins and one draw on the season, and the draw was a come-from-behind 3-3 shootout with Borussia Dortmund.

Luckily for Gladbach, they’re getting over the injury bug that struck the team in recent weeks. Luuk De Jong and Tony Jantschke have recovered from their foot injuries to rejoin the side, and Martin Stranzl returns from his suspension. Alvaro Dominguez also returns to the side after missing their Europa League match midweek against Fenerbahçe after taking a knock to the head in training. The big concern remains Patrick Herrmann. He also missed the Fenerbahçe match after straining his thigh in training. The midfielder may miss the contest.

The hosts will be without Leon Andreasen who tore his ACL against Nürnbergin Matchday 5. The Danish midfielder was off to a great start to the season before the injury bug stung again. Christian Pander continues to miss time, and Adrian Nikci was diagnosed this past week with viral meningitis. He won’t return until after the international break.

Dortmund will definitely be without İlkay Gündoğan after the midfielder suffered a back injury against Manchester City midweek. While Gündoğan has been fantastic as of late, Sven Bender and Sebastian Kehl can step in and replace him. The big question will be if Mats Hummels Is healthy enough to play. He picked up a hip injury midweek, but he did make the trip to Hannover. If Hummels cannot go, Felipe Santana will likely be partnered with Neven Subotic.

Hamburg picked up their third win in their last four matches with a 1-0 victory over Greuther Fürth.

Heung-Min Son scored his fourth goal of the season to continue his torrid streak as of late. He dribbled alone from midfield to the edge of the penalty area and ripped a shot past Max Grün for the lead after only 17 minutes.

Schalke picked up a big three points and doomed Wolfsburg to a place in the relegation zone with a 3-0 victory.

Jefferson Farfan, who had a big falling out with current Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath when he was the manager in Gelsenkirchen, opened the scoring for Schalke with an unmarked header on a cross by Christian Fuchs. Farfan made sure to let Magath know how excited he was scoring by celebrating in front of the Wolfsburg bench.

Freiburg took all of the points in an impressive 3-0 victory over Nürnberg on Saturday afternoon. The loss is Nürnberg’s fourth straight after a great start to the season.

Nürnberg battled back in the second half and thought they found the equalizer when Sebastian Polter beat Oliver Baumann, but Mensur Mujdza saved the hosts by clearing the ball off of the line.

Fortuna Düsseldorf gave up a goal in the 85th minute to lose their second straight match, this time a 1-0 loss to Mainz.

Before last weekend against Schalke, Düsseldorf had yet to concede a goal this season. They managed to fight back from two down to earn a draw against Schalke, but they weren’t as lucky this time.

Bayern Munich equaled the Bundesliga record for the most wins to start the season at seven with a 2-0 victory over Hoffenheim.

Müller was forced off shortly after the goal due to a collision with teammate Mario Mandzukic. Müller took the worst of the collision leaving with a gash on his face combined with a forming black eye.

Augsburg shocked everyone on Friday with an impressive 3-1 victory over Werder Bremen. After scoring only twice and picking up two points in their first six matches of the season, the offensive explosion against Bremen was not expected.

Zimbabwe international Knowledge Musona kept testing the Bremen defense with various runs across the backline. In the 32nd minute after a one-two with Stephan Hain, Musona played the forward in behind Bremen’s defense. Hain took a touch to pay himself clear before shooting to make it 2-1 Augsburg.

Augsburg vs Werder Bremen - 20:30 CET / 2:30 PM EDT

Bayern Munich vs Hoffenheim - 15:30 CET / 9:30 AM EDT