15:30 Kickoffs: BVB falter as Can sees red, another draw for Leverkusen, Burke lifts Werder late

The poor away form of Nuri Sahin’s Borussia Dortmund continues after Westphalia’s “Schwarzgelben” have now suffered their fourth defeat through ten rounds of the current Bundesliga season. Sahin’s team paid a visit to Bo Henriksen’s FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday afternoon. BVB captain Emré Can’s 27th-minute red card rendered matters very difficult for Dortmund at the MEWA Arena. In a result surely to re-ignite the uncomfortable debates over Can, Germany’s second wealthiest club’s regular goal of finishing in the top-four looks to be in increasing peril. 

Sahin made one change to the team that defeated Sturm Graz on Tuesday. Luckily for the BVB, Julian Ryerson was fit enough to slot in for the suspended Ramy Bensebaini at left-back. Henriksen had one forced change to make. With central defender Maxim Leitsch unable to go due to a muscle injury, veteran Danny da Costa slid into the back three. 

Both sides appeared comfortable and fluid in open play during an optically pleasing opening quarter-of-an-hour. Despite the pleasant aesthetics, a real scoring chance didn’t emerge until the 18th. Nadiem Amiri played Jonathan Burkardt into the box neatly, but the FSV captain spurned the opportunity by shooting over. The hosts continued to gain in confidence. 

Dortmund were soon chasing shadows as the Rheinhessen piled on the pressure. BVB skipper Can then made a fatal error in the 27th, clearing Jae Sung-Lee in the box with a studs-up ankle tackle. Can didn’t protest his straight red card, immediately leaving the pitch dejected. Mainz happily seized control of the game. Within nine minutes they had capitalized on the man advantage. 

Felix Nmecha couldn’t execute a clearance pressed by multiple FSV actors in the 36th. Lee headed home the 1-0. In a wild turn-of-events three minutes later, however, Mainz’s South Korean goal-scorer allowed Dortmund back into the game. Lee hauled down Guirassy in the box in the 39th. The BVB’s lead striker quickly strode to the spot to convert the 1-1 himself. 

Lee managed to redeem himself just before half-time, involving himself in an excellent team attacking sequence that ultimately saw Burkardt emphatically finish off a da Costa cross at 45+3. Burkardt’s 2-1 – scored from an exceptionally challenging angle – remained very much a goal worth seeing. Matters got worse for the understaffed guests after the break. Nico Schlotterbeck deflected in a Paul Nebel effort on the 54th-minute 3-1. 

Mainz’s third goal essentially took the air out of proceedings and the match wrapped up in a largely uneventful fashion. Dortmund seemed largely resigned to their fate and tried little. Schlotterbeck missed one decent chance off a free-kick not long before the end of normal time. The loss snaps a three-game BVB on-the-spin winning-streak. 

Elsewhere in the Bundesliga’s 15:30 kickoffs:

Bochum-Leverkusen

Xabi Alonso’s Bayer 04 Leverkusen traveled to the Vonovia Ruhrstadion on the Castroper Straße for a meeting with newly appointed VfL Bochum trainer Dieter Hecking. Unsurprisingly enough, Hecking’s new-look VfL played matters conservatively against the defending champs. The hosts held their own defensively for a time until Leverkusen opened up the scoring off a dead-ball in the 18th. A simple, yet elegant, piece of artistry from Florian Wirtz enabled Patrik Schick to net the 1-0. Some noticeably better defending from the hosts kept the scoreline level at the break. 

The heavy underdogs then put up a decent fight in the second 45. Both sides traded chances in a genuinely entertaining tit-for-tat affair. New Bundesliga “speed demon” Gerrit Holtmann came within a hair’s breadth of scoring two goals, one for his own team and another on near own-goal. Bochum genuinely surprised with their grit down the stretch. Ultimately, highly touted summer acquisition Koji Miyoshi – on as a well-placed substitute – scored a very much deserved equalizer in the 89th. Again, there would be no “Later-kusen” magic from Xabi’s side. Die Werkself have now drawn three straight in the league. 

St. Pauli-Bayern

Up north in Hamburg’s Millerntor stadium, newly promoted St. Pauli hosted German record champs FC Bayern München. A heavily-rotated Bayern squad – which included an unexpected midfield reunion for double-six partners Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich – dominated the Kiezkicker over the course of the first half. Traffic ran one-way, though committed defending from Alexander Blessin’s Kiezkicker kept chances at a premium and the scoreline low. A very worthy goal from Jamal Musiala remained the difference at the half.  

Blessin’s Kiezkicker had little choice but to concentrate on defending in the second-half. At no point did it really appear as if St. Pauli could manage to score their first goal in their home stadium thus far this season. Bayern themselves appeared stuck in low-gear until Vincent Kompany’s men woke up for the final 15 minutes. A second goal for the Bavarians would have been richly deserved, but did not come. In the end, the FCB prevailed by the same scoreline as in the Champions’ League on Wednesday via the same goal-scorer.

Bremen-Kiel

Marcel Rapp’s storks were in action at the other match taking place in one of Germany’s northern Hanseatic city-states. After last week’s historic first-ever Bundesliga win, Rapp trusted the exact same XI away at Bremen. Ole Werner’s SV Werder were bolstered by the return of recent hat-trick hero Jens Stage. It was indeed the Dane who put Bremen ahead in the first half. A marvelous assist from Stage a couple minutes later might have seen the hosts pull away, but a Romano Schmid goal was disallowed for a handball in the build-up. 

Kiel made the most of the fact that Bremen could only muster a slender advantage. Holstein striker Phil Harres – one of the more interesting stories in German football to unfold over the past week – netted the equalizer shortly after the restart. A second consecutive win for the newly promoted side appeared very much within reach until the ever unpredictable late Werder wild card Oliver Burke scored the winner seemingly out of nowhere in the 89th. The Scotsman supplied a perfect header off a Keke Topp cross to deliver Bremen their first home win of the season.