Controversial Penalty
October 16, 2006
Hosts Nuremberg were left shaking their heads on Sunday after a poor decision by referee Markus Merk helped Bielefeld earn a 1-all draw. Jörg Böhme put the guests up 1-nil from the penalty spot in the 25th minute, after Bielefeld striker Artur Wichniarek went down in the box. Video replays showed little evidence of contact between Wichniarek and Nuremberg keeper Raphael Schäfer.
Nuremberg knotted things up a goal by Jan Polak in the 39th minute but couldn't decide the match in their favor.
"You have to want to give a penalty like that -- otherwise you just don't award it," said Nuremberg coach Hans Meyer.
Upon viewing replays Merk agreed he'd made a mistake. The draw dropped Nuremberg to sixth place in the table.
Sunday's other match between hosts Cottbus and Dortmund got off to a furious start with both sides scoring in the first three minutes. Dortmund then took command on goals by Markus Brzenska and Alexander Frei. Cottbus got one back on a late penalty, but that was little more than window dressing. Dortmund's 3-2 win moves them up to seventh in the standings, while in Cottbus the fight against relegation is underway.
On Saturday, Bremen moved atop the league with a 6-0 hammering of Bochum on Saturday while Hertha Berlin crashed 4-2 to champions Bayern Munich.
Bremen playmaker Diego was the man of that first match, scoring the fourth himself in the 77th and feeding Aaron Hunt (eighth), Jurica Vranjes (75th) and Clemens Fritz (88th). Michael Schulz and Naldo scored the other Bremen goals in the 60th and 90th, respectively.
German international Lukas Podolski finally scored for Munich in the win over Hertha. Roy Makaay, Claudio Pizarro and Willy Sagnol staked the hosts to a 3-nil lead before Hertha's Malik Fathi and Marco Pantelic drew Hertha close. Podolski's match clincher was his first league goal since a summer move from Cologne.
"It was great to see how the forwards were playing," said Munich coach Felix Magath. "You could see that the three can play together. It was a joy to watch the team over certain periods."
But last season's champions still trail Bremen on goal-difference in the standings as both have 13 points along with Schalke. Hertha, who had led the league before the weekend, drop back to nineth in the table.
Schalke won 2-1 against 10-man Hamburg, continuing the early collapse of what many thought would be one of the teams to watch this season and increasing the pressure on Hamburg trainer Thomas Doll to get the team out of 17th place soon.
Stuttgart got their first home victory of the season, 3-0 over 10-man Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach defeated Wolfsburg 3-1. Eintracht Frankfurt got their fourth 1-1 draw in as many away games, at Hanover. And on Friday Aachen beat Mainz 3-1.