Bundesliga, Week 2: BVB struggle, win against Braunschweig; Kiyotake rescues a point for Nürnberg

It took over an hour, but Borussia Dortmund finally figured out how to break down Eintracht Braunschweig and went on to win 2-1. The win moves them back on top of the Bundesliga table on goal difference over four other clubs.

Jurgen Klopp started Henrikh Mkhitaryan in place of Marco Reus Sunday to give the Armenian international his debut. The €25 million man from Shakhtar Donetsk has a lot of pressure on him this season as a replacement for Mario Götze.

Nürnberg needed a brilliant free kick in the dying seconds to secure a point at home against Hertha Berlin, but they got it and earned a 2-2 draw. The results puts Nürnberg on two points and Hertha on four points after two games.

After last week’s huge win by Hertha over Frankfurt, they were bubbling with confidence early in the match, but they weren’t able to really threaten the Nürnberg goal. The first real opportunity came for the hosts, when Daniel Ginczek smashed a header off the post from a Hiroshi Kiyotake free kick. Javier Pinola was also unable to beat Thomas Kraft in the Hertha goal.

Eintracht Braunschweig will travel the Signal Iduna Park on Sunday afternoon to get their first taste of away football back in the Bundesliga. It’s not a great place to get that experience.

Jurgen Klopp’s men put on a show last week in their 4-0 victory over Augsburg. One man stood out more than the rest, and that was new signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The speedy forward from Gabon scored a hat trick on his competitive debut for the club.

Mehmet Ekici powered Werder to its second straight win with a goal in the 23rd minute. Werder now has six points out of six, while Augsburg is sitting on zero points. Augsburg kept attacking for a goal of its own through Sascha Mölders, but he couldn’t find the back of the net. It controlled possession in the match, but it were unable to do anything productive with it.

It was an hour of feeling each other, but both sides finally came out of their shell in the 64th minute thanks to a goal by Mainz’s Niki Zimling. The goal came when Johannes Geis crossed the ball to the right side where Zimling met it with a header. Four minutes later Nicolai Müller continued his fantastic play and made it 2-0 by outracing his opponents to the ball and finishing past Oliver Baumann. It wasn’t long before Freiburg cut the lead to 2-1. Gelson Fernandes played in Sebastian Freis, and the forward scored to pull one back. The final minutes of the match saw Mainz come closer to increasing its lead than Freiburg actually leveling the score. The two clubs sit polar opposite after today’s game. Mainz are riding high on six points, while Freiburg have zero points after the first two games.

Bayer Leverkusen made it two in a row to start the season with a 1-0 victory over Stuttgart on Saturday. The loss is Stuttgart’s second in as many games and keeps it with zero points on the season.

Both sides exchanged chances midway through the first half. Sam and Kießling brought out a couple of good saves from Ulreich. Sam then struck the post, while Vedad Ibisevic’s shot was ineffective on the other end.

Wolfsburg and Schalke were attempting to put in a better performance this week after both sides put in disappointing performances in Week 1 of the Bundesliga. Today’s match at the Volkswagen Arena turned into nothing but punishment for Schalke when the second half came to it’s conclusion.

There weren’t a lot of chances throughout the first half for either side. The only early opportunities were a volley from Julian Draxler that was blocked and a free kick from Naldo that brought out a decent save from Timo Hildebrand. Wolfsburg had three opportunities to go on top, but Ivica Olic, Vieirinha, and Naldo all missed the target. Klaas Jan Huntelaar almost gave Schalke the lead before the end of the first half, but his shot struck the post and went wide.

Bayern nearly had the second just after the half hour mark, but Kevin Trapp made a fantastic save to deny Dante. Bayern controlled the first half allowing only the occasional counterattack from Frankfurt to truly threaten. Unlike last week against Gladbach, Bayern did well to get bodies back to stifle the majority of Frankfurt’s attacks.

Frankfurt came close to an equalizer just before the end of the first half. Alexander Meier put the ball into the back of the net after a pass from Johannes Flum. However, it was blown dead for offside. The replay was inconclusive to say the least.

Two of the disappointments on Matchday 1 were the performances of Wolfsburg in their 2-0 loss to Hannover and Schalke in their 3-3 draw with Hamburg. They’ll get the quick opportunity to make things better this weekend, when they play each other at the Volkswagen Arena.

Dieter Hecking’s side collapsed after an early goal by Leon Andreasen and then threw all discipline completely out of the window. Maximilian Arnold was sent off for a straight red card before the first half was out, and Timm Klose followed him shortly after halftime after picking up his second yellow. Nine-man Wolfsburg didn’t stand a chance against a quality side like Hannover, and Die Roten grabbed a second goal in the second half to put the match away.

How long will the adjustment take? Who knows, at this point. When they’re in possession, Bayern nearly look otherworldly. The speed at which the players pass the ball among themselves is something to behold. However, once they lose possession, at least against quality teams, the trouble starts. With five pure attacking players on the field at once time, it usually leaves Schweinsteiger stranded to slow down a quick counterattack before the opposition is running full speed at the defense.

Luckily for Bayern, Frankfurt aren’t quite as good on the counter as Gladbach. Last week they fell victim to Hertha Berlin’s “Welcome back to the Bundesliga” party, but I don’t think they received the memo. When the final seconds ticked off the clock they were losing 6-1 and suffering an embarrassing defeat. They did have the possession advantage over Hertha but were repeatedly caught on the break. Against Bayern, they’ll have to adjust to being the side playing on the break, and that’s where their opportunities will come from in the contest.

Time & Location: 15:30 Local / 9:30 AM ET; Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart

Prediction: Stuttgart 1 - 2 Bayer Leverkusen