FEATURE | 2. Bundesliga Review – Week 5 | OneFootball

Game of the weekend – SG Dynamo Dresden (0) vs (3) SC Paderborn 07

The game of the weekend going into the matchday had to be the game at the Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion. Newly promoted highflyers Dynamo Dresden welcomed SC Paderborn to East Germany to play an early-season top-of-the-table clash. Dresden came into the game in second place without a defeat to their name and the same was for their visitors who started Sunday in third. Dresden had won three of their four matches, drawing the other one. While Paderborn had two in the win column and two draws. Both teams as well as Jahn Regensburg, Nürnberg and Karlsruher SC were the only teams left unbeaten in the 2. Bundesliga after matchday four.

The game started brightly for Dynamo Dresden as in the second minute, they forced Paderborn defender Uwe Hünemeier into a mistake which allowed a header from Julius Kade to find Greek winger Panagiotis Vlachodimos, whose cross was directed to striker Christoph Daferner, but he couldn’t react quickly enough to turn the ball home and the ball sat up for Paderborn goalkeeper Jannik Huth to gratefully grab into his chest.

It was Dresden that were doing all the attacking in the first seven minutes, but it was Paderborn that got the opening goal when Panagiotis Vlachodimos gifted possession to Paderborn’s Robin Yalcin who played a ball into the creative threat Julian Justvan. He then played an audacious lofted through ball with the outside of his boot into the path of the oncoming Sven Michel, whose header was expertly timed and expertly placed over the head of Dresden goalkeeper Kevin Broll to give the visitors the lead largely against the run of play.

The visitors then doubled their lead when a series of errors by both teams led to Michael Sollbauer being pressured by Kai Pröger into a mistake and that allowed the 29-year-old to get goal side of the Austrian defender and put through on goal. Pröger made no mistake with the chance that was presented to him, and his shot went across Broll’s goalmouth, hit the far post and went in to make it Dynamo Dresden 0-2 Paderborn in the 24th minute.

Then only two minutes later, a moment of brilliance from Paderborn turning defence into attack in such quick time. Paderborn were passing it around the back before the ball arrived at the feet of left-back Jamilu Collins. The Nigerian defender darted past Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer and played a lovely through ball into Pröger, who this time found himself up against the German defender Michael Akoto. Pröger danced his way past Akoto and took aim from just outside the area on the left-hand side of the area and found the far corner with precision. Pröger’s second of the afternoon and Paderborn’s third. The Black and Blues were running riot in the usually fortress-like Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion, and Dresden simply had no answer for them in the first half.

Dresden had attempts on Jannik Huth’s goal which included another chance for Daferner, again from another Vlachodimos cross. But the striker was not able to convert when the ball fell to him on the penalty spot. The pressure stayed on Paderborn as Dynamo tried again, a cross from Akoto was beyond everyone but the follow-up cross from Vlachodimos was headed out and the ball made its way to Chris Löwe, whose shot was too close to Huth.

The game was quite evenly spread for most of the 90 minutes, Dresden edged out Paderborn 52-48 on the possession statistic. While the shot count read 14 for the hosts and 10 for the visitors, 8/14 on target for Dresden and 5/10 on target for the SCP. Five of the 14 shots by Dynamo Dresden came from their striker Daferner, who many thought would have a great season and score a bucket-full of goals to keep Dresden up. But the 23-year-old fired blanks on Sunday and was unable to find a way past Huth and the Paderborn back line.

The game ended with a red card for Dynamo Dresden substitute Robin Becker, who was only on the pitch for a single minute before being shown a straight red card for a last man tackle on Paderborn substitute Marco Stiepermann. Paderborn jump up ahead of Dynamo Dresden into second place in the table making it three wins in a row against some very tough opposition in the form of Werder Bremen, St. Pauli and Dynamo Dresden. The home side drop down to third following all of the other results that took place over the weekend, after being handed their first loss of the new season.

1 |  Holstein Kiel and Ingolstadt notched up their first wins of the season against Erzgebirge Aue and Sandhausen respectively. It now leaves Aue as the only team in the division to have not yet picked up a win this season after their 3-0 defeat to The Storks. Goals from Finn Porath, Jan-Fiete Arp and Joshua Mees were enough for the promotion playoff side from last season to pick up their first win of the season in front of their home crowd. As for Die Schanzer, they played on Friday evening against Sandhausen at the BWT-Stadion am Hardtwald. Ingolstadt started the day in 17th on a single point with Sandhausen sitting in 14th with four points. The newly-promoted side got the better of the hosts when goals from Filip Bilbija and Fatih Kaya were enough to see off the challenge posed by the home side. Kiel jumped up to 15th place with the win and Ingolstadt rose from the bottom of the table to 16th place. These wins should kickstart their season, something which cannot be said for Erzgebirge Aue who remain bottom of the league without a win after their first 5 matches

2 | Hannover 96’s poor start to the new season continues. They got their first victory of the season last weekend with a 1-0 victory against Heidenheim but they were back to their losing form, and this one was a beatdown at the hands of Darmstadt. It was 2-0 half time, but at the full time whistle Hannover were taught a lesson by Torsten Lieberknecht’s side at the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor. First half goals from Luca Pfeiffer and Philipp Tietz gave the Lillies the two goal lead at half time but Hannover were given a lifeline thanks to the video assistant referee giving the 96 a penalty. Florent Muslija stepped up and saw his penalty saved by Marcel Schuhen and the misery kept getting piled on Hannover. Another two goals for Darmstadt, this time Fabian Schnellhardt and an own goal from Slovenian defender Luka Krajnc. A dominant display from Darmstadt left Hannover inside the drop zone thanks to their worser goal difference compared to those of Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hansa Rostock, SV Sandhausen, Holstein Kiel and FC Ingolstadt.

3 | FC St. Pauli returned to winning ways as the 100% side Jahn Regensburg tasted defeat for the first time this season. It was a 2-0 victory for the Boys in Brown over Die Jahnelf who were no longer 100% nor were they unbeaten. A double from Guido Burgstaller was enough to see St. Pauli return to their start of season form and pick up three points once more. The question coming out of last week was “could Jahn Regensburg carry on this incredible form?” Well, we found the answer on Sunday afternoon, as Andreas Albers and Joel Zwarts were given a 4.0 rating by Kicker- their ratings go from 1.0 to 5.0, the closer you are to 1.0 the better. The indicator from Kicker suggested that the two strikers had a bad day in front of goal whereas Guido Burgstaller had a 1.5 rating from Kicker thanks to his ‘Doppelpack’. St. Pauli moved back up to fourth while Jahn Regensburg remain in first place on 12 points ahead of Paderborn on 11 points.

4 | The 2. Bundesliga’s equivalent of Robert Lewandowski is now two goals away from reaching the 150-goal mark in the German second tier as Simon Terodde, who has gained the nickname ‘Torodde’, bagged another brace in Schalke colours in their 3-1 victory over Fortuna Düsseldorf at the VELTINS-Arena. Fortuna took the lead in the game through Shinta Appelkamp in the 11th minute. But Schalke responded within four minutes of going behind, thanks to their winger who was playing as a striker alongside Terodde, Marius Bülter. Just after the whistle blew to signify the start of the second half, Terodde scored goal number 147 in the 2. Bundesliga to give Schalke a 2-1 lead and the perfect start to the second half. The second period was quiet until right at the end when Terodde doubled his tally and trebled Schalke’s lead to 3-1 in Saturday night’s Topspiel game. Terodde is now on 148 goals in the 2. Bundesliga, 27 goals clear of the second best scorer in 2. Bundesliga history Sven Demandt. The goals from Terodde and Bülter sent Schalke up into the lofty heights of ninth place in the table with Düsseldorf dropping down the table into 12th place.

Jesvin Nellissery