Bundesliga, Week 1: Schalke and Hamburg entertain in six-goal draw

Three months after stealing the spotlight with an all Bundesliga Champions League final, the league took its place back in the center of the football world. They were the first major league to start their season, and made sure to put on a show with 37 goals in nine matches.

Leon Andreasen got Hannover’s off to the right start with a 17th minute goal before Szabolcs Huszti sealed their three points with a late goal to put things out of reach. But in reality, the match was over much earlier because Maximilian Arnold was sent off in the 32nd minute after a collision and Timm Klose saw red for his second yellow card in the 52nd minute. With nine men, Wolfsburg had no chance to mount a comeback and Hannover cruised to three points.

Timo Hildebrand and Rene Adler hardly covered themselves in glory on Sunday, allowing three goals apiece in a 3-3 draw between Schalke and Hamburg. While the goals weren’t all down to goalkeeping errors, the poor play of both keepers was a bigger story than any brilliant attacking by either team.

Just before the halftime break, Huntelaar completed an impressive play for his own equalizer. He got on the end of a cross that came during a well-worked short corner and hit a header past Adler from 15 yards out.

Despite a couple of nervy moments that make the match look a lot closer than it actually was, Bayer Leverkusen ran out comfortable 3-1 winners over Freiburg on Saturday. The visitors found a goal just before the halftime break and went on to win a penalty in the second half, but couldn’t convert from the spot or do anything to slow down Bayer’s counter attack.

Freiburg did very little in response, but managed to score with their first real chance of the game in the 40th minute. Mike Hanke finished off the chance, scoring on his league debut for Freiburg by poking in a through ball by Jonathan Schmid to level the match. Freiburg went into the half level, but they didn’t stay there very long.

The first half began explosively, with Robert Lewandowski and Andre Hahn both grabbing chances in the first minute, but then the game settled down. It wasn’t the pattern most would have been expecting, however -- much of the action was taking place in the visitors’ half, with sloppy play the order of the day from Dortmund.

When the team as a whole is struggling, moments of magic can save the day, and that’s exactly what happened in the 24th minute. Marcel Schmelzer went on an adventurous run up the left and sent in a wonderful, swerving cross. Lewandowski peeled away, removing Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker from the equation and allowing Aubameyang to meet the delivery with a diving header. Mohamed Amsif had no chance, and BVB were 1-0 up.

Borussia Mönchengladbach starting lineup (4-4-1-1): Marc Andre ter Stegen; Filip Daems, Alvaro Dominguez, Martin Stranzl, Tony Jantschke; Juan Arango, Granit Xhaka, Cristoph Kramer, Patrick Herrmann; Max Kruse; Luuk de Jong

Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 p.m. local time in Munich. You can catch the game on GolTV in the United States and ESPN in the U.K.