Relegation Craziness

In one respect, the Bundesliga has followed its normal pattern this season. With six games left, a handful of teams are fighting for the title while a couple of others are in the hunt for international competitions.

But the top clubs have actually under-performed -- with 56 points, table-toppers Schalke would have only been in fourth place at this point last year. And points lost at the top get redistributed down to the Bundesliga's lower rungs.

The result is huge mass of mediocrity and an intriguing situation. The relegation candidates -- defined as any team two games or fewer away from the bottom three -- now starts at seventh in the table.

This unprecedented constellation may give the lie to the old adage that relegation fights are won and lost as a team. Although collective willingness to fight remains crucial, individual creativity -- or blundering -- could determine who gets to remain in the first division.

From flop to top in ten minutes

Case in point: the team that currently occupies the seventh spot in the table -- Wolfsburg.

In their last match, Wolfsburg were behind 2-1, and opponents Mainz were riding out what appeared to be a safe victory against a relegation rival.

Then in the 80th minute, the Wolves' eccentric Brazilian playmaker Marcelinho fired an out-of-the-blue blast from just outside of the box into the upper left-hand corner of goal.

Not content with having salvaged a point, Marcelinho scored a nearly identical goal seven minutes later from 20 meters out to secure the unlikely 3-2 win.

Two individual moments of brilliance dramatically altered the table. Without Marcelinho's goals, Wolfsburg would be 14th and Mainz, currently next-to-last, 13th in the standings.

The headlines after the match summed it up: "Marcelinho saves the Wolves."

To err is stupid

What applies to genius holds equally true for individual acts of foolishness, frustration, incompetence or just plain bad luck.

Hamburg had been on a hot streak, but in their last match, at home to Stuttgart, a referee overlooked a foul that led to the visitors' first goal. But defender Änis Ben-Hatira sealed a bad loss for the hosts, when he was red-carded for a challenge that was reckless in anyone's book. Now Hamburg are only two points clear of the drop zone.

In a similar vein, defender Joe Simunic got sent off just seconds after Hertha had tied the score in their last game against Bielefeld, which subsequently ended in a draw. A win would have lifted Berlin from the thick of the fray.

Mistakes by opponents can also help teams avoid relegation. In Leverkusen's last match, defender Karim Haggui scored an own goal and set up another for opponents Bochum with an awful back pass. The result: Bochum moved out of the bottom three.

In none of these game-changing moments did teamwork play much of a role. So it will be interesting to follow which players emerge as heroes and which as goats in the wild weeks remaining this season.