St Pauli 1-1 Ingolstadt

TWO goals in the space of a minute shortly after the start of the second half allowed this quality-lacking 2. Bundesliga contest between St Pauli and Ingolstadt to finish level. While the home side did most of the attacking, with Ingolstadt looking to play on the break, consistently terrible finishing and woeful passing in the final-third cost St Pauli any hope of winning this game. They fell behind in the 55th minute when the lively Caiuby crossed for Christian Eigler to score at the near post. A minute later, though, Ingolstadt ruined all the good work they had done defensively up to that point by allowing home debutant Florian Moht a free header to make it 1-1. Coach Tomas Oral seemingly played for a point at the Millerntor-Stadion, so will probably be happier than his opposite number André Schubert, who has already stated his intention to bring more quality players to St Pauli before the transfer window closes. His side and Oral’s have now drawn both of their 2012/13 2. Bundesliga games, and the two coaches will be hoping ties against regional sides in the cup next weekend will give their respective players a chance to sample what winning feels like.

Match preview here.

Starting formations

St Pauli (4-4-2, from right to left, brown shirts): Philipp Tschauner; Jan-Philipp Kalla, Florian Mohr, Markus Thorandt, Florian Kringe; Florian Bruns, Dennis Daube, Fabian Boll, Fin Bartels; Marius Ebbers, Lennart Thy

Ingolstadt (4-4-2, from right to left, white shirts): Ramazan Özcan; Danny da Costa, Marino Biliškov, Ralph Gunesch, Andreas Schäfer; Stefan Leitl, Marvin Matip, Pascal Groβ, Ümit Korkmaz; Caiuby, Christian Eigler

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St Pauli-Ingolstadt preview

INGOLSTADT will attempt to bounce back from throwing away a two-goal lead on the opening day of the 2012/13 2. Bundesliga season as they travel to St Pauli this weekend. Both teams have made significant changes to their squads over the summer, meaning that the scouts from either club will have had their work cut out preparing dossiers for their respective team’s coaches this weekend. Only four of the players who started in St Pauli’s final game of the 2011/12 season featured in last Friday’s 0-0 draw at Aue, for instance.

It was a familiar face, though, who fired Ingolstadt into a 2-0 lead against Energie Cottbus last weekend, as club stalwart Stefan Leitl’s brace gave his side what appeared to be an insurmountable cushion going into the final ten minutes. However, Boubacar Sanogo pounced twice in the closing stages to earn a point for Cottbus, amid some questionable defending from the home side.

Werder Bremen-Hamburg preview

Two sides who have made polar opposite starts to the new Bundesliga campaign square up tomorrow teatime in Germany’s most-played top-flight derby game. Whereas Werder Bremen are keeping pace with league leaders Bayern Munich, Hamburg can’t buy a win right now (and boy, has sporting director Frank Arnesen tried). Although those associated with HSV will insist that the club is in a transitional period, performances in the four games so far in the 2011/12 league season have been nothing short of disastrous. Coach Michael Oenning has looked well out of his depth, and his inexperience has shown. Thomas Schaaf, on the other hand, has brought all his experience to the fore, with Bremen making last season’s blunder-filled campaign a distant memory.

Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Werder Bremen

The general first half formations.

Robin Dutt finally won his first game as Bayer Leverkusen manager as the home side scored a late winner in what had been an even and entertaining game. These two attack-minded sides dominated one another in separate spells throughout the 90 minutes, with both goalkeepers on top form to keep the game scoreless. But a moment of brilliant athleticism by Simon Rolfes in the 86th minute saw the Bremen defence caught off-guard and a deserved point cruelly snatched from their grasp.

Match preview here.

Bremen, lining up with near enough the same 4-4-2 midfield diamond and players that contested the victory over Kaiserslautern last week, got us under way at the BayArena, where the hosts had made changes in goal, defence, midfield and up front. The opening stages were keenly and evenly contested, Stefan Kießling in particular embodying the home side’s fight; a quality lacking in recent weeks.

Chances at both ends were dictated by Bremen’s tactics in the opening ten minutes, as two examples from the eighth and ninth minutes respectively illustrated. During the former, Bremen started short, and Sebastian Prödl looked about as he brought the ball forward, eyeing up the six or so Bremen attackers bobbing centrally.