Looking Around the League: Drama in the Relegation Fight as the Title Race Stagnates

This is a Dortmund blog, so I’ll start by addressing the elephant in the room: Dortmund’s failure to capitalize on their two goal lead against a 10-Man Stuttgart for 50 minutes. I’m disappointed and I won’t vent about it here too much, but I jumped and stubbed my toe so hard on my coffee table when Gio Reyna scored that I sat clutching my foot for the remainder of stoppage time and released more than a couple of expletives at VFB’s last-second equalizing goal. The last time I was this confident at halftime that Dortmund would win the game, was during that dreaded 4-4 against Schalke a few years ago. The only silver lining with this hapless BVB performance is that Bayern’s draw against Hoffenheim means the title race has only changed in the number of games remaining (Six). I still think that Bayern are favorites to win the title, but I wouldn't count Dortmund out yet. I think we got very lucky. Or did we?

Bayern have failed to win in their last two home matches now, with an away win in Freiburg and an embarrassing loss in Manchester City in between. Thomas Tuchel’s men have achieved two wins, two losses and a draw from his first five matches in charge. After making an abrupt managerial change to “keep the Treble hopes alive,” Bayern have been eliminated from the DFB Pokal and have to overturn a three goal deficit to advance in the Champions League. Then there’s the whole Mane punching Sane in the face incident along with Oliver Kahn’s wild comments whenever he speaks to the media. I’d say things are far from ‘fine’ in Munich. We can just hope this dumpster fire sees FC Hollywood drop additional points.

RB Leipzig were among the only top teams to come away victorious last weekend with 3-2 win over Augsburg, Timo Werner’s Brace helping the Energy Drinks overcome a resilient Augsburg side. Freiburg showed courage in their 2-1 comeback win over Werder Bremen. Lucas Höller and Roland Sallai demonstrated why Freiburg deserve to play in Europe after the two attacking players found the net. Borussia Monchengladbach were hoping to upset Frankfurt after Jonas Hoffman scored in the thirteenth minute. It wasn't enough however, as rising star Randal Kolo Muani equalized in the final ten minutes. Union Berlin played VFL Bochum to a 1-1 stalemate in which Union dropped vital points in the battle for Europe while Bochum will be satisfied to stay above the drop.

Results

Schalke 5-2 Hertha

Köln 1-1 Mainz

Bayern 1-1 Hoffenheim

Leipzig 3-2 Augsburg

Stuttgart 3-3 Dortmund

Frankfurt 1-1 Monchengladbach

Bremen 1-2 Freiburg

Union 1-1 Bochum

Wolfsburg 0-0Leverkusen

Standings

Schalke are in the Fight!

I may get some flack for this in the comments, but I’m rooting for Schalke these days. I still want to crush them every Derby, but do we really want another season without this iconic derby? The games between Dortmund and Schalke prove to be some of the best and most unpredictable matches and I’d hate to see our rivals relegated again.

Schalke No Fear are putting up a fight! They were 5-2 victors against Hertha Berlin, a battle between the league’s two bottom clubs. Yet the win has seen Schalke leapfrog Hertha into seventeenth place, level on points with Stuttgart thanks to Dortmund’s draw, and just three points shy of safety. This win should give our rivals a boost of confidence.

Your Thoughts?

Has anyone been following the second division? St. Pauli’s 10-match win streak came to an end with a home defeat against Eintracht Braunschweig. I think that Erling Harland kid broke another record at Man City last weekend.

Hopefully I’ll be a bit more excited after Dortmund’s next match.