So much for those of us who wanted some drama in Germany’s title race. Bayern Munich’s routine win over Heidenheim and Bayer Leverkusen’s draw with St. Pauli means that Bayern will now have to drop points in three of their last four games to even give the defending champions a chance to catch them. I don’t see that happening, but here’s what I did see over the weekend.
Bundesliga winners from Matchday 30
Serhou Guirassy
In the Battle of the Borussias, Dortmund’s striker scored one and also shot one off Gladbach goalkeeper Jonas Omlin that was headed in by Daniel Svensson for Dortmund’s 3-2 win. Following his hat trick against Barcelona in the middle of the week, he’s in a rich vein of form. Some striker-needy team (Arsenal? Chelsea? Liverpool?) will pay big bucks this summer for the goal-scorer from Guinea.
Freiburg
With the teams around them all earning draws, Freiburg was the only Champions League chaser that boosted their chances with a 3-2 win over Hoffenheim. Granted, they looked shaky conceding two set-piece goals in first-half stoppage time, but the Braunschweig team secured the three points that kept them ahead of Borussia Dortmund and vaulted them over Mainz.
Holstein Kiel
The team at the bottom of the standings played creditably in a 1-1 draw at RB Leipzig. The bottom three teams in the Bundesliga are basically playing for the 16th-place playoff spot against the 3rd-place team from the second division, and Kiel’s point against the Champions League squad keeps them three points behind that spot.
Bundesliga losers from Matchday 30
Lukas Hradecky
It was already a long shot for Bayer Leverkusen to catch Bayern Munich for the title, but when their goalkeeper spilled a free kick to Carlo Bukhalfa, it handed St. Pauli a 1-1 draw that has practically ended the title race.
Defenses
A surreal first half between Union Berlin and Stuttgart ended 4-4, the first time that any Bundesliga game had eight goals in one half. If you like defense, it was something to make you want to look away. I thought it was awesome, although sadly, there were no goals in the second half. Special mention should go to Stuttgart’s set piece defending, which conceded three of Berlin’s goals directly from free kicks.
Mainz
The ’05ers have had trouble scoring, so the week that they finally scored two goals, they threw away the lead by letting Denis Vavro head in a corner kick in the 89th minute for the draw. Their offense created numerous chances before that to put the game out of reach, too. That’s five straight games without a win, and this late-season fade looks like it will cost them.
Bochum
The 83rd-minute toe-poke by Mitchell Weiser (which was initially ruled offside) won the game for Werder Bremen and condemned the Blues to their fifth straight loss since that famous win over Bayern Munich. That result is now increasingly looking like a fluke.
Péter Gulácsi and David Zec
The Leipzig goalkeeper and the Holstein defender banged heads during a 50-50 ball outside of the penalty box, and both appeared to lose consciousness. Gulácsi did have to be stretchered off and taken to a hospital, which threw a pall over the 1-1 draw between the teams. Fortunately, both teams gave encouraging medical updates on their players, with the Hungarian netminder posting on social media from his hospital bed after needing stitches over his right ear. Get well soon, gentlemen.