German Bundesliga 2011, Week 13: Mario Götze Gives Der BVB A Vital Win

In the middle of February this year, Die Fohlen were rooted at the bottom of the Bundesliga with a seven-point gap between them and safety, as Head coach Michael Frontzeck was deservedly shown the exit door by Sporting director Max Eberl. Frontzeck’s Borussia Mönchengladbach were on course to be relegated with just 16 points from 22 matches under the 47-year-old, who made over 200 appearances for ‘the Foals’ in his playing career.

With many of the Gladbach faithful busy entertaining their partners on Valentine’s Day, the club took a quick step to restoring stability at Borussia-Park by appointing 54-year-old Lucien Favre on a two-year-deal. It would prove to be a masterstroke by Eberl with Gladbach winning seven and drawing three of their next 14 games to secure their safety in the Bundesliga, which included a nail-biting relegation play-off against VfL Bochum.

In a tense, enthralling encounter at the Allianz Arena, Borussia Dortmund showed that their early-season issues were well and truly behind them by beating leaders Bayern Munich 1-0, cutting their hosts’ lead, which had looked unassailable as recently as three weeks ago, to a mere two points. It wasn’t the prettiest football – the defending won the day here – but it was a lot of fun to watch, especially after Bayern threw absolutely everything forward following Mario Goetze’s second-half goal.

There were only two minutes of stoppage time for Dortmund to navigate and the visitors just about managed it, beating one of the best teams in Europe – admittedly while they were missing Bastien Schweinsteiger – for the third time on the trot. Jurgen Klopp celebrated with the best fist-pump ever.

This are getting exceptionally frenetic in Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund, a game which has just seen visiting Dortmund take the lead through the figure of transfer rumour darling Mario Goetze. Bayern’s response has been very strong - they’re doing their level best to blast straight through the heart of Roman Weidenfeller’s defence, but it’s actually been Dortmund who’ve come closest to scoring a second.

It’s still 1-0 here, but if things keep going like this, I wouldn’t put that much money on it staying that way.

However, it wasn’t a proper clearance and Goetze had continued his run, twisting Boateng around as he burst into the penalty area. In a rather fortunate twist, Badstuber’s interference caused the ball to land perfectly at Goetze’s feet, and he was able to take a touch before sidefooting home past a helpless Neuer. So, it’s 1-0 Dortmund and now this game is going to get even crazier. Fun times await.

PS: The announcer’s response to that goal was priceless: ‘Oh, they are soooo going to buy him’

So, yeah, this is one of those fun 0-0 games.

Bayern Munich are starting to pile on the pressure now, with Borussia Dortmund having to defend for their lives as the hosts attempt to turn the screw. A Franck Ribery-inspired attack ends up with the ball ricocheting around Roman Weidenfeller’s area until the visitors were finally able to clear and launch an attack of their own, which is eventually thwarted when Shinji Kagawa inadvertently blocked Kevin Grosskreutz’s cross.

Most teams going up against Bayern, especially away from home, wouldn’t attack like crazy rabid badgers, but Dortmund clearly feel that they can get three points from this match and so are pouring forward whenever they can. So far, it’s worked well enough - Bayern have edged proceedings so far but still haven’t scored, nor have the come particularly close to doing so. The longer the match goes scoreless, the more likely that Dortmund can nick a goal (and maybe all three points) on the break.

Anyway, we’re 20 minutes into the match now and we still haven’t seen a shot of note from either the hosts or Borussia Dortmund, which is slightly noteworthy because most teams coming to the Allianz Arena have already shipped three by now. In fact, despite the frenetic pace of play, we haven’t really seen a shot of any real note, and Thomas Muller doesn’t help matters by dallying for far too long on the edge of the box and allowing himself to be dispossessed. Still 0-0 here.

Both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are looking dangerous going forward here, but so far the defences have held out reasonably well and no clear-cut chances have been created. We’ve had some impressive play, of course, but so far nothing that quite justifies the hype, which ESPN’s announcer has gotten rather carried away with, describing this match as ‘the best defence vs. the best defence, the best goalscoring lineup vs. the best goal scoring... err’.

Bayern Munich Lineup (4-2-3-1): Neuer; Lahm, Badstuber, Boateng, Rafinha; Luis Gustavo, Kroos; Müller, Ribery, Robben; Gomez

Borussia Dortmund Lineup (4-2-3-1): Weidenfeller; Schmelzer, Santana, Hummels, Piszczek; Bender, Kehl; Grosskreutz, Kagawa, Götze; Lewandowski

We’re underway at the Allianz Arena, and it took less than ten seconds for the first free kick in what looks sure to be a pulsating encounter between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the two top teams in the Bundesliga. It’s Bayern on the attack to start, but Frank Ribery’s cheeky foul broke that up and then Dortmund responded, weaving intricate patterns through the midfield before Shinji Kagawa’s low cross was cleared behind for a corner, which ultimately came to nothing.

Both sides are attacking and are going to try to win this, which comes as little surprise - if Bayern can earn three points here they’ll be in (an even more) commanding position at the top of the table, while defending champions Dortmund desperately need to close the gap with a win here. From the early exchanges, it doesn’t look to be beyond them, no matter how fearsome Bayern at at home.

The Bundesliga fixture between FC Köln and Mainz 05, scheduled to kick off at 9:30 am ET, has been called off and will have to be rescheduled for a later date, due to unfortunate events unrelated to football. Match referee Babak Rafati was reportedly discovered in his hotel room after a suicide attempt, according to a report from Sky television in Germany, now confirmed by news.de. Rafati survived, but the league did not feel that it was appropriate to continue with the fixture.

Obviously, what’s important here is Rafati’s health and our thoughts are with his family. Rafati’s colleagues were reportedly stunned when they heard the news and found themselves unable to take over and referee the fixture. Fans and stadium staff were apparently not informed of the news in a timely fashion, and fans were being let into the stadium for the match as late as 8:45 am ET, 2:45 pm local time, 45 minutes before the scheduled kickoff.

Kaiserslautern were undone by a pair of their old boys as Bayer Leverkusen dispatched them 2-0 at the Fritz Walter Stadium. Although the match was closely contested until the restart, Leverkusen scored quickly through Michael Ballack in the second half and then Sidney Sam - a key figure in their promotion chase in the 2009/10 season - finished the hosts off with a 70th minute strike.

With the goal, the defence crumbled. Sidney Sam’s neat finish sealed things off fifteen minutes later, but the second-half scoreline probably flattered the hosts, who played fairly miserably. Bernd Leno was limited to a few easy saves, and Leverkusen ultimately cruised to all three points.