Continued Success
October 18, 2008
Hoffenheim, who are in their first-ever season in Germany's top flight having gained promotion last season after spending just one season in the second division, took the lead in Hanover through Vedad Ibisevic after completely dominating the first half.
Hanover, however, came back strongly in the second half and went ahead through Christian Schulz and Jiri Stajner, but a goalkeeper mistake from Florian Fromlowitz, who was playing his first Bundesliga game for the injured Germany keeper Robert Enke gave Hoffenheim the chance to draw level.
Fromlowitz palmed a long range effort to the feet of Nigerian striker Chinedu Obasi, who made no mistake in the 70th minute. Two minutes later Sejad Salihovic put his side ahead.
Demba Ba and Ibisevic with his ninth goal of the season, which takes him to the top of the scorer charts, added to Hanover's misery, before Arnold Bruggink compounded the disaster for the home side with a red card shortly before the end of the game.
Bremen, Dortmund draw on late goals
Bayer Leverkusen moved to third in the table with 15 points -- one point behind Hoffenheim and SV Hamburg -- after winning 2-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt.
In Bremen, fans were treated to a pulsating 3-3 draw between Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund in which three goals were scored in the last two minutes. Alexander Frei's opened the scoring for the visitors with a second half penalty after a foul by Frank Baumann.
Baumann then equalized for Bremen, but Mats Hummels put Dortmund back in the lead in the 72nd minute. Two minutes from the end Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfelder gifted Bremen an equalizer through Claudio Pizarro.
The Peruvian international thought he had given his side the victory in injury time with a brilliant individual goal, but former Bremen player Nelson Valdez managed an equalizer for the visitors after a mistake by Bremen keeper Tim Wiese.
Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said he was hoping for a victory before the game.
"We should be upset about drawing a game in which you are winning 3-2 with less than a minute to go," the coach said. "The team was simply too passive in the end and we needed to have the strength to win."
Bayern eek out win
Germany striker Miroslav Klose gave Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann a reprieve from the calls for his head by scoring the only goal of Munich's match against Karlsruhe with just four minutes remaining in the game. It was Bayern's first win in four league matches.
Klose converted Italian defender Massimo Oddo's cross on 86 minutes to give the Bavarians three points despite another unimpressive performance.
"From our point of view, the result is gratifying -- of course it was important to get the three points," said Klinsmann. "Even if we had to wait a long, long time at least we got the result. We threatened with a goal earlier in the game and it was such a relief that someone finally got the ball over the line."
VfL Wolfsburg managed to beat Arminia Bielefeld 4-1 through goals by Zvjezdan Misimovic, who scored twice, Alexander Madlung and Grafite. Alexander Laas pulled one back for Bielefeld.
The final game of the round ended in a 2-1 victory for Hertha Berlin against VfB Stuttgart.
On Friday VfL Bochum drew 2-2 with Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Table toppers SV Hamburg can move back to the head of the standings on Sunday if they manage to beat Schalke 04 at home. A victory would take the team from northern Germany to 19 points and give them a three point advantage over Hoffenheim.