Bundesliga in the star check
Of misses, dream goals and record series
Off into the evening sky: Bochum’s goalkeeper Manuel Riemann loads Hoffenheim’s goalkeeper Oliver Baumann, but shoots the ball far over the goal.
© Lukas Schulze / Getty Images
A goalkeeper misses a penalty, a substitute becomes a noble joker and Greuther Fürth competes with Tasmania Berlin. Of the star-Bundesliga check.
That’s how the game day went
All results of the 11th match day, the table and statistics for reading can be found here in star-Ticker.
Excitement of the game day
Bochum against Hoffenheim doesn’t necessarily sound like an exciting game. But what the newcomer from the Dortmund neighborhood delivered in the second half drove the Hoffenheim to the edge of madness. After a balanced first half, Hoffenheim, who came with European ambitions, was literally demonstrated by the Bochumers – and they were lucky that goalkeeper Oliver Baumann prevented a deficit several times. Until VfL coach Thomas Reis had a brilliant idea and Soma Novotny and Dejan Pantovic came on. Less than two minutes later, the hosts were in the lead, Novothny met Pantovic.
But the excitement was to follow: five minutes after the Bochum opening goal, the Hoffenheim made the next dropout: Florian Grillitsch fouled Novothny rather clumsily away from the actual game in his own penalty area. Bochum’s goalkeeper Manuel Riemann moved in for the penalty that was due. In the DFB Cup, Riemann converted the decisive penalty and once also pocketed a penalty against Oliver Kahn. Maybe a little too much head water for Riemann, who pushed the ball towards the Ruhr. And something else for fans of statistics: It was VfL Bochum’s first missed penalty in the Bundesliga since the 2002/2003 season.
But that’s not all of the excitement. In stoppage time, Hoffenheim was a corner of its own to doom. Pantovic got the ball in front of his own penalty area, went a few meters and hit the orphaned Hoffenheim goal from over 60 meters. For Bochum it was the third victory in the fourth game.
Loser of the game day
What is the other newcomer actually doing, the Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth? After ten games, the Franks had a single point in their account. With Arminia Bielefeld’s victory in Stuttgart, they are the only Bundesliga team that is still waiting for a win this season. In the cellar duel against Eintracht Frankfurt, the Fürth confirmed their reputation as relegation candidate number one. Although the Franks were committed and would have earned the lead in the first half against staid Hessians alone, there was again a lack of quality in front of the opponent’s goal. The Fürthern managed to equalize in stoppage time, but only to concede a goal in direct return and leave the field as a loser. As the first team in Bundesliga history, the Fürth team remain without a win in the first eleven games of the season. In this condition, the path should lead directly back to the second division. One point after eleven games – no team in the top European leagues is that bad. Tasmania Berlin is starting to worry about the Bundesliga negative record.
Match day winner
Actually, Wolfsburg’s attacker Lukas Nmecha would have offered himself here. The 22-year-old has had a wonderful week. He scored the opening goal in the 2-0 win in Leverkusen last weekend, scored the winning goal against RB Salzburg in the Champions League, Hansi Flick called him into the national team for the first time on Friday and on Saturday he scored the only goal in the win against Augsburg . A perfect week for Nmecha and Wolfsburg’s new trainer Florian Kohfeldt.
But equality in professional football is also a winner. In the duel between TSV Havelse and Halleschen FC in the third division, a trio of women led a men’s game in German professional football for the first time. Referee Riem Hussein, recently awarded referee of the year 2021, was supported by the two linesmen Katrin Rafalski and Christina Biehl and the trio did their job flawlessly. Gladly more of it!
The series end of the game day
Now SC Freiburg has also been hit. At the top game in Munich, the Breisgauer conceded their first defeat of the season. The team around cult coach Christian Streich was the only undefeated team in the Bundesliga to date. In the European top leagues only SSC Napoli and AC Milan are still unbeaten, while Liverpool FC lost 3-2 to West Ham United on Sunday for the first time this season.
The picture of the game day
The weekend actually went perfectly for Bayern Munich. Won the top game against Freiburg, pursuer Dortmund leaves feathers in Leipzig. Bayern are on their way to their ninth championship in a row. Actually everything was perfect if it weren’t for the annoying fans who used the game to protest against Bayern’s partnership with World Cup host Qatar and the airline Qatar Airways. “For money we wash everything clean,” read a large banner that was shown a few minutes after the kick-off of the second half of the game in the south curve. The chairman of the board, Oliver Kahn, and the club’s president, Herbert Hainer, could be seen. The Bayern bosses shouldn’t have liked it, but this will certainly be forgotten by the next training camp in Qatar. © Sascha Walther / Eibner-Pressefoto / DPA