Bundesliga Match Day 14 Weekend Wrap-Up
- Chuck Smith
- Dec 10, 2018
- 4 min read
Werder Bremen was already leading by a goal when American starlet and Missouri native Josh Sargent was called in to make his debut.
And what a debut it was.
Entering the game in the 76th minute, Sargent promptly scored on his first touch in the 78th minute to put an exclamation point on what was a dream scenario. Sargent found himself all along as a loose ball was airborne and calmly deposited it into the back of the net.
Not lost in all of the hype surrounding Sargent was that Werder Bremen turned in a very solid overall effort. Taking an early lead on a goal from Kevin Mohwald (20'), Fortuna Düsseldorf's Dodi Lukebakio tied the game on a PK in the 43rd minute.
From there, however, it was all Werder Bremen. Martin Harnik, who also came on as a substitute, gave Die Werderaner the lead in the 71st minute before Sargent worked his magic.
Prediction: Werder Bremen 3, Fortuna Düsseldorf 1 (W)
Wolfsburg 2, Hoffenheim 2: The Wolves used a little luck and some solid play to earn a hard-fought draw with Hoffenheim. After Ishak Belfodil opened the scoring for Hoffenheim in the 4th minute, Wolfsburg used an own goal in the 28th minute and a Daniel Ginczek goal in the 32nd minute to take a 2-1 lead. Andrej Kramaric equalized the game in the 72nd minute for Hoffenheim, but neither side could dig deep enough to pull out a victory after that.
Prediction: Hoffenheim 2, Wolfsburg 1 (L)
Borussia Dortmund 2, Schalke 04 1: I was gambling on Schalke being able to rally enough to stun BVB and it almost happened....until Jadon Sancho once again stood tall for Dortmund. In the 74th minute, Sancho put home the game-winner of the Revierderby and kept BVB rolling atop the Bundesliga standings.
To its credit, Schalke did play Dortmund tough (as it should in this kind of rivalry). After Thomas Delaney opened the scoring in the 7th minute, Daniel Caligiuri knotted the contest for Die Königsblauen in the 61st minute on a penalty kick. Schalke must not dwell on this loss for long, however. Domenico Tedesco's boy have a LONG way to go and sulking over a derby loss won't help the long climb ahead to get up the table.
Prediction: Schalke 04 2, Borussia Dortmund 2 (L)
Bayern Munich 3, FC Nürnberg 0: Bayern appears to be rounding into form as a brace from Robert Lewandowski and a goal from Franck Ribery carried the offensive output. Aside of the scoring, Bayern received strong performances from the likes of Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Thomas Muller, and Serge Gnabry to help power the effort.
It was a extremely poor showing for Der Club, which will not be able to avoid relegation with many more performances as awful as that one.
Prediction: Bayern Munich 3, FC Nürnberg 0 (W)
SC Freiburg 3, RB Leipzig 0: This was surely the most stunning result of the weekend, but Christian Streich deserves a MASSIVE amount of credit for what he does with Breisgau-Brasilianer. Streich does not benefit from the deepest roster or an ownership group with the deepest pockets, but he somehow finds a way to keep Freiburg in the mix for an upset against any top-tier squad. He may be a mad genius of sorts, but whatever he does to prepare his team from week-to-week seems to have an extremely positive effect.
In this game, Streich used goals from Nils Petersen (12'), Gian-Luca Waldschmidt (PK - 45'+1), and Mike Frantz (52') to bolster the effort in front of goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow, who registered a clean sheet.
Prediction: RB Leipzig 4, SC Freiburg 2 (L)
Bayer Leverkusen 1, FC Augsburg 0: Lucas Alario enter the game in the 73rd minute and scored the game's only goal in the 75th minute. Not bad, eh? While neither team is quite clicking at this point. It's just not where either squad wants or needs to be.
Prediction: Bayer Leverkusen 3, FC Augsburg 1 (W)
Hertha Berlin 1, Eintracht Frankfurt 0: Speaking of not clicking, Die Adler has hit a bit of a bad spell, eh? Credit to Die Alte Dame, which captured three points behind a 40th minute tally from Marko Grujic. This was a much-needed win against an excellent opponent for Hertha Berlin, which seems to be waking up a bit after a drowsy spell of its own.
Eintracht Frankfurt can't have back-to-back sub-par efforts like this. Hopefully the dangerous and exciting squad we have become accustomed to returns next week.
Prediction: Eintracht Frankfurt 3, Hertha Berlin 2 (L)
Mainz 05 1, Hannover 96 1: We knew this would be a tight one, but thought Mainz would keep its run of solid play going. While it was solid, indeed, Mainz was not good enough to hold off Hannover. Hendrik Weydandt gave Hannover a 1-0 lead just 12 minutes into the game, but Mainz used an 89th minute PK from Daniel Brosinski to earn the draw.
Prediction: Mainz 2, Hannover 96 1 (L)
Borussia Monchengladbach 3, VfB Stuttgart 0: Ho-hum, just another excellent performance from M'Gladbach. The Foals used goals from Raffael and Florian Neuhaus, along with an own goal courtesy of Benjamin Pavard to pull away from Die Schwaben.
Yes, Stuttgart...it is time to panic.
Prediction: Borussia Monchengladbach 3, VfB Stuttgart 1
Weekly record: 4-5
Season record: 53-73
Note: Predicted ties count as a win if correct and as a loss if there is a winner; conversely if a game is predicted to have a winner but ends in a tie, it will count as a loss.
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