As the German Bundesliga is taking a two-week break for national team duties, it is time to take another look at the situation. Six of 22 matches were played by all teams, yet the picture is only a little clearer:
ON TOP
1 Turbine Potsdam – 14 pts; since our last check-in, Potsdam improved their performances a lot. Bayer Leverkusen was beaten with an unexpectedly high scoreline of 5-1, and this past weekend VfL Wolfsburg was held to a 1-1 draw. The team is unpredictable right now with traditional scorer Genoveva Anomna and 17-year-old star Pauline Bremer sharing second in the striker stats with 4 goals each, even followed by defender Johanna Elsig at 3.
2 1.FFC Frankfurt – 14 pts; only the goal difference is keeping Frankfurt three strikes away from the top. Two wins followed lately – a very convincing 4-1 over Bayern München, before this weekend when underdog Jena almost held Frankfurt down. The team overcame a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2, but they lost keeper Desiree Schumann with a red card. With Celia Sasic (4 goals) getting in shape, Frankfurt has to be monitored closely
3 Bayern München – 13 pts; the Bavarians slipped in Frankfurt but they responded well. Sarah Hagen cared for a 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen and kept the team close to the top. Hagen and Amber Brooks lead the internal striker list with four strikes so far. If München stays constant against the lower ranked teams in the league, they are a team that could even land at the top.
4 VfL Wolfsburg – 12 pts; the defending champion still not at their best but they keep track in the top quartet. A 4-1 win over Hoffenheim was followed by the draw at Potsdam – next to Potsdam and Frankfurt they are still unbeaten, but they just won three of their six contests. A hypothetical question is where they would be without Martina Müller who leads the league with seven goals.
MID-TABLE
5 SC Freiburg – 9 pts; SCF even is in reach of Wolfsburg but the recent performances rather indicate that they go in the other direction. Two of the easier games were played and they came out with a close 1-0 win over Duisburg and now they surprisingly lost 2-3 to Hoffenheim. Freiburg’s plus is that they either win or lose, with a mediocre 3-0-3 record they are fifth.
6 SGS Essen – 8 pts; two of the easier games were played lately and SGS made the biggest jump since our last report, going from 10 to 6 at a 2-2-2 record. Underdog Sindelfingen was hammered away with a 8-0 score before Duisburg hosted Essen for the derby. While in former times Duisburg always was the big favorite, now has changed and Essen rallied to a 3-0 win making themselves the number one of the area.
7 FF USV Jena – 8 pts; the solid 2-2-2 record of Jena maybe is the biggest surprise of the season. They almost downed Frankfurt but gave up a 2-0 lead and lost 2-3. The week before they defeated Cloppenburg with a surprisingly high 3-0 scoreline. New Zealand’s Amber Hearn is the top striker of the team, with four goals she is the only one with four goals who does not play for a team of the upper third.
8 TSG Hoffenheim – 7 pts; Hoffenheim freed themselves a little with a surprising 3-2 win over Freiburg. The week before they had a 1-0 halftime lead at Wolfsburg but still lost 1-4. TSG still is a bit unpredictable, the benefit of a newly promoted team. The next few weeks will show where the road might go.
BOTTOM THIRD
9 Bayer Leverkusen –6 pts; Bayer had the toughest decline in the last two weeks going from 6 to 9. The reason is understandable when you consider that the opponents were Potsdam (1-5) and Munich (0-2). The loss against Potsdam still was a bit rough. Next opponent will be Wolfsburg and then it will be interesting to see how the young squad regroups for the important battles against opponents they have to win against.
10 BV Cloppenburg – 5 pts; that for sure is not the start BVC was dreaming of. They managed to jump off the relegation spots but this was everything but convincing. They first suffered a 0-3 defeat to Jena, a team that is not rated higher than BVC’s roster, before managing the first Bundesliga win in club history, a way too close 2-0 over sparring Sindelfingen. Cloppenburg has to hope that this win turned the switch.
11 FCR Duisburg – 3 pts; relegation spot after six games is the sad reality for the former powerhouse. A close 0-1 loss to Freiburg and a higher 0-3 derby loss to Essen show the problem: only Sindelfingen (1) has scored less goals than Duisburg (5). The next match against Cloppenburg almost turns into a must win game considering that the following opponents will be Frankfurt and Munich.
12 VfL Sindelfingen – 0 pts; 1-31 goals after six games make every comment superfluous.