Bundesliga star check
Mean! Now Bayern are allowed to play with twelve men…
There was quite a bit of commotion on the sidelines when referee Christian Dingert, together with coach Julian Nagelsmann and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, got to the bottom of the matter with Bayern’s 12th field player
© Matthias Hangst / Getty Images
Actually a game day as always in the Bundesliga: Bayern wins, Dortmund sleeps, and even at Big City Club Hertha, despite coach Felix Magath, the trees are not growing to the sky. If there hadn’t been chaos at Bayern Bank for a few seconds…
This is how the 28th Bundesliga matchday went
All results of the 20th matchday, the table and statistics for reading can be found here stern-Ticker.
Game day excitement
No foul, no cup toss, no, a substitution this time provides the talk of the game day. Or should one say better: no substitution? What happened: When the game was actually decided at 3-1 for Bayern, coach Julian Nagelsmann commissioned team manager Kathleen Krüger with a double substitution. Marcel Sabitzer and Niklas Süle entered the field, but only Corentin Tolisso went down. Kingsley Coman didn’t feel addressed and stayed on the pitch. For a few moments, Bayern played with twelve men, which even a record champion is not allowed to do according to the DFB statutes.
Okay, the few seconds may not have been decisive for the game. But: Rules are rules. And the day after, it wasn’t really clear whether and how the matter might end at the DFB’s green table. After the game, coach Christian Streich took the position that Freiburg did not have to lodge a formal protest because the DFB rules would automatically provide something. But in the meantime it turns out: The DFB will not intervene on its own. So that the sports club is now faced with a moral dilemma: should one protest against a clearly lost game because of a petitesse and possibly be declared the – somehow – undeserved winner? On the other hand: what if 3 points were missing for a Champions League place? Maybe one or the other Breisgauer would bite their knee with anger…
Sports journalist Oliver Wurm made a charming suggestion on Twitter. The Bavarians themselves should protest. That would probably not change anything about the renewed championship. And suddenly they would even be masters of hearts. Inconceivably!
stick with it A huge opportunity for him @FC Bayern. / @Oliver Kahn and @J__Nagelsmann ask the @scfreiburgto file a protest. So that this is properly clarified. SC morally out of a bind. Score: 2:0 or 1:4. Bayern then DM and DM of FairPlay. FCB can only win. — Oliver Wurm (@oliverwurm) April 3, 2022
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Matchday Winner
Okay, there must have been a few goalkeepers that we’ve crowned as winners in this category over the course of the matchdays. This was usually the case when the keeper in question had decided the game for his team with brilliant saves, penalty kills or possibly even a goal. In the case of Bochum’s goalkeeper Manuel Riemann, the situation is that he has twice earned a scorer point with his actions. Both Bochum’s 1-0 through Takuma Asano prepared Riemann with a precise tee shot, only to place the ball quickly and precisely on the Bochum striker again in the second half, who then promptly scored the winning goal to make it 2-1 against Hoffenheim. Since Riemann is also considered a veritable penalty killer, the chances are not bad that we might run into him again in this category. Welcome already!
Game day loser
Actually, a man with that name can’t pass for a loser. Finally, in Greek mythology, Hector is considered the greatest hero of the Trojans. If you’re weak in history, you might want to take another look at Wolfgang Petersen’s feature film…
And yet Jonas Hector from Cologne, who was otherwise just as loyal as reliable, was the tragic figure in Friday’s game at the Alte Försterei. In a kick without real highlights, the ex-national player ultimately made the decision against his Rhinelanders with a dropout. Relatively unchallenged, Hector wanted to play a ball back to his keeper Marvin Schwäbe, but instead pushed it into the foot of Union striker Taiwo Awoniyi, who completed the 1-0 final without decoration.
Brave like his Trojan (almost) namesake, Hector faced the reporters after the end of the game and when asked why his team lost the game said: “Because I play the ball the way I play it.”
You should see this gate (again).
Sure, there were definitely nicer goals that day. Breel Embolo’s Gladbach 1-0 after a tikki-takka combination across the field. And it’s also worth mentioning that Leipzig’s Konrad Laimer, who his coach says “hits everything except the goal” when he shoots twice in Dortmund, deserves a mention here. And yet, if we are to determine which goal is particularly worth watching, we cannot ignore Niels Petersen from SC Freiburg. The 33-year-old striker, who has just renewed his contract, is preceded by the record joker’s reputation. Before the game against Bayern, Petersen had taken 99 shots in 231 competitive games, 31 of which came from substitutions.
And what can I say: Petersen cemented his unique selling proposition against Bayern. Just 17 seconds after he came on, exactly with his second touch of the ball, the striker Bayern shot goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to equalize 1:1 in the meantime.
The fact that the game then took a strange turn (see above) should not belittle Petersen’s goal. The guy is really crazy, and if the “Sportbild” with all their gimmicks ever get the idea of making a Bundesliga team from film characters, it is at least clear who will play the role of “Joker” from the “Batman” films takes over.
Game day picture It was a grand gesture, if perhaps for selfish reasons. Bielefeld striker Fabian Kloos was seriously injured in a collision. Because the paramedics were a bit too slow with the stretcher, Stuttgart striker Sasa Kalajdzic grabbed the stretcher and dragged it to his sports colleague at a run. It may have played a role that his team was under pressure and Kalajdzic suspected a time game. Does not matter. Bielefeld’s coach Frank Kramer gave a big thank you after the game: “Sasa just went too slowly. Since he probably felt superior to the paramedics in terms of speed, he accelerated it!” © Friso Gentsch / DPA
