The Bundesliga Is Bayern's To Lose
Posted by Pete in Bundesliga | 17 April 2006
This weekend's action finally brought some clarification to the Bundesliga table. Well. Soft of. Starting at the bottom, where Duisburg's chances of escaping relegation are mathematical at best. Cologne's admirable draw at Schalke means they are still six points off Mainz and Wolfsburg (14. and 15.) and three points behind Kaiserslautern, who remain the candidates with the best chance of dragging themselves out. With a couple of "6-pointer" fixtures still to play such as: Wolfsburg - Kaiserslautern, VfL Wolfsburg - Mainz and Duisburg - Mainz, it's still too early to say who will be the third team to be playing 2. Bundesliga games next season.
Further up the table, however, and the dust is beginning to settle on the UEFA Cup places. Hertha and Stuttgart's draws over the weekend, left Leverkusen with the opportunity to move into fifth. A close 2:1 win over 'Gladbach (their fourth in succession) was closer than it should've been. 'Gladbachs fiery Dutchman, Oude Kamphuis was off for an early bath within 37 minutes, yet it took Bayer until the 84th minute to score the winner through Rolfes.
So 'Gladbach lost any realistic chance of playing in Europe next season, while Leverkusen are in the driving seat for the second UEFA Cup spot. Stuttgart, a team very much in transition have seemingly fallen off, but with Hertha hosting Leverkusen in a fortnight, the Schwaben might yet sneak back into contention.
4. FC Schalke 04 54
5. Bayer Leverkusen 44
6. Hertha BSC 44
7. VfB Stuttgart 40
8. Borussia Dortmund 38
And so to the top. Bayern's straightforward, if somewhat workmanlike 2:0 win over Bielefeld and Hamburg's equally effortless win over Duisburg leaves the north Germans four points behind the Rekordmeister. All in all, a good week for Bayern, who beat St. Pauli, Hamburg's derby rivals, 3:0 on Wednesday to move into the DFB Cup final where they'll meet Eintracht Frankfurt in Berlin at the end of May.
In theory, Bayern should be able to cruise to their 20th league title, particularly as Hamburg have to play Bremen on the last day of the season, but they still have to travel to Mainz and Kaiserslautern, both of whom are still fighting to stay up. So perhaps everything isn't as cut and dried as people would have you think.
