Leverkusen 0-0 Dortmund. One of the better 0-0 matches

Hello again. Ok so similarly to last week's entry, I'll be focusing particularly on one game whilst also giving you a broad overview of how the league is looking at the end of Matchday 4. That's another good thing about having a league with only 18 teams - you don't have to wait until Monday night (only Monday afternoon!) to summarise the results, when the excitement of the weekend has already worn off.





At the weekend I was a very fortunate guest at the BayArena for Bayer Leverkusen's clash with champions Dortmund. Leverkusen is a strange club. They're bankrolled by pharmaceutical giants Bayer; they don't have that many fans (it seemd like the whole stadium was filled with Dortmund suporters); and the town of Leverkusen is a shell, except for having a stadium which hosts top-flight matches. Still, there was a great atmosphere in the stadium for a clash between these two big teams, and both sets of fans sung some pretty catchy songs, especially Leverkusen's. Mind you, for an Englishman, the cheese-on-toast factor is multiplied tenfold when you can understand the German lyrics (link attached below). I'm actually rather embarrassed to admit that it was my first live Bundesliga in a very long while, but as kick-off drew nearer, I knew this game had been a good choice (cheers to Damien Reeves!). Needless to say it was well worth the wait. I've watched a lot of Bundesliga action this season, but only on TV. Seeing Mario Götze's talent, and Stefan Kieβling's nose, in the flesh was an experience to savour.


It's been a rather up-and-down season for Bayer Leverkusen so far. Manager Robin Dutt is in his first season in charge of the Werkself and it's fair to say he got off to a rocky start. Before the first league game of the season, Bundesliga teams are in action in the first round of the German Cup. Bayer were one of four top-flight sides to be eliminated at the hands of lower-league opposition, and how. They were leading 0-3 at half-time away at Dynamo Dresden, recently promoted to the Bundesliga 2 after several seasons of regional league mediocrity and financial uncertainty. What followed was a giant-killing of epic proportions and a truly awful day for Bayer. After 63 minutes, Michael Ballack was introduced to the action in place of Simon Rolfes, taking over the captain's armband. Dynamo scored three unanswered goals to force the game into extra-time (no replays in this cup), and then sealed an incredible win on 117 minutes. The phrase 'the magic of the cup' springs to mind (Aufgeht's Dynamo! another team I quite like, seeing as I used to live there). Robin Dutt was under even more pressure after matchday 1 in the Bundesliga, losing 2-0 at Mainz. Since then, results, and performances have improved: an injury time winner saw them defeat Werder Bremen 1-0 and last week they ground out another 1-0 win away at Stuttgart. Dortmund at home was, however, their first big test of the season.


It was a top of the table clash and it finished 0-0. But this wasn't two good teams cancelling each other out; both sides had plenty of chances and played plenty of good football, and, without a referee who seemed to personify the phrase 'couldn't organise a p***up in a brewery', it could have been a classic. Chances came and went for both sides: André Schürrle, full of confidence after scoring for Germany against Brazil two weeks ago, missed a one-on-one on four minutes, while Sefan Reinartz was also denied by Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller. It was towards the end of the first half that the action came to be dominated by referee Wolfgang Stark. Two minutes of injury-time were due at the end of the first half; Stark blew up after one minute, quite needlessly, when Leverkusen were on the attack. Renato Augusto, hearing the half-time whistle, shot from the half-way line, which Stark took as a sign of petulance and booked him.


In the second half, Renato Augusto was running at pace at the Dortmund defence, and was brought down by Mats Hummels. Replays of the action are only shown at the end of the game, but it transpired that there was no contact was made by Hummels, despite Augusto writhing in agony on the floor. What would Stark do here, since both players were on a yellow card? To give a free-kick to Leverkusen would mean a second yellow for Hummels; had he known no contact had been made, Stark should have shown a second yellow to Augusto for simulation. In the end, Stark gave a free-kick to Leverkusen, but inexplicably didn't send Hummels off. Ten minutes later he showed a straight red to Michal Kadlec for a reckless challenge on Mario Götze, which much of the German press agreed with. I didn't however. He then showed a straight red to Götze for a mild offence which should have merited a second yellow, since Götze had already been booked. It was never a straight red card though, and now Dortmund are without their talisman for three games. Mats Hummels, who shouldn't have been on the pitch, later scored from a free-kick which the referee ordered to be taken again, despite him having blown his whistle to signal to Ilkay Güngogan that play had restarted. It was a chaotic second half from the referee in truth.


Leverkusen were kept in the game by a superb performance from 19-year-old keeper Bernd Leno, on loan from VfB Stuttgart. He made crucial late saves from Shinji Kagawa and Ivan Perisic, and Dortmund would have won but for the red card shown to Götze. With 10 against 10 the game fizzled out into a draw, but it had been an entertaining game nonetheless. Post-match reaction understandably centred on the referee's performance, as both sets of fans left the stadium feeling slightly frustrated. Ordinarily I would have approved of Wolfgang Stark's officiating a big game like this. He has international pedigree, has refereed Champions league finals and at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. German football website Kicker.de gave Stark a 4.5 rating (out of 6) for his performance, but I think that might be a bit generous.


After the international break, Dortmund return to Bundesliga action at home to Hertha BSC, while Leverkusen are up against another of the newly-promoted sides when they travel to FC Augsburg.


As per usual a brief look at the other results last weekend. Firstly, DIDN'T I SAY THAT KÖLN WOULD GET THEIR FIRST WIN UNDER STALE SOLBAKKEN AWAY TO HAMBURG?! I should have put some money on that really. Trailing 3-2 with six minutes of normal time to go, goals from Christian Clemens and Kevin McKenna gave Köln a dramatic win (much in the style of that brilliant West Ham 3-4 Tottenham Hotspur game in March 2007). So some of the pressure on Stale Solbakken is relieved, while it's mounting heavily on manager Michael Oennig and Sporting Director Frank Arnesen for his questionable transfer policy of signing half of Chelsea's youth team. Hannover 96 had another frustrating result at home to Mainz. The 1-1 draw means they are still the only team in the Bundesliga to remain unbeaten this season, but it was another missed opportunity to move top of the league. That position is currently filled by Bayern, who occupy top spot for the first time since May 2010 after a 3-0 away win at Kaiserslautern through a Mario Gomez hat-trick. Schalke move up to second with a 1-0 home win over Gladbach.


Results


Hertha BSC 1-0 Stuttgart


Hamburg 3-4 Köln


Nürnberg 1-0 Augsburg


Freiburg 3-0 Wolfsburg


Kaiserslautern 0-3 Bayern


Hoffenheim 1-2 Werder Bremen


Leverkusen 0-0 Dortmund


Hannover 1-1 Mainz


Schalke 1-0 M'Gladbach






Next week it's the international break as Germany host Austria in Gelsenkirchen on Friday September 2nd. Your next Bundesliga action is the weekend beginning the 9th September. The pick of that weekend's fixtures looks to me like Werder Bremen at home to Hamburg. I'm predicting a home win with a lot of goals. I haven't chosen a goal of the week, instead I chose a match of the week. Check out Hamburg against Köln, what a game!


http://www.footytube.com/video/hamburger-sv-1-koln-aug27-88755?ref=wv_next


Also check out this Leverkusen fansong - it made me chuckle!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-sRxJi5T4k






Hau rein,






Bernie