Another exciting weekend of Bundesliga action has been completed with matchday 2 providing plenty of highpoints, but also disappointment for others. So, just who were the winners and losers from the latest round of action?
The winners
RB Leipzig
After losing their opener to Bayer Leverkusen and finding themselves 1-0 down at half time to VfB Stuttgart, an end result of 5-1 to Leipzig seemed a far and distant prospect. The visitors defended well for the first 45 minutes with a 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 when out of possession and Leipzig were finding it hard to make any headway and growing increasingly frustrated.
The equaliser when it came six minutes into the second period was somewhat fortunate, but nonetheless opened the floodgates. Benjamin Henrichs chased down a back pass from Dan-Axel Zagadou and the keeper’s clearance cannoned off him on into the net. A piece of genius from Dani Olmo made it 2-0 in the 63rd minute and the goals flowed from there. Lois Openda headed in his second in two games with Kevin Kampl and Xavi Simons adding the others.
This should be the signal for Leipzig to push on this season.
Jonas Wind
After opening the season with a brace last weekend against Heidenheim, Wolfsburg striker Jonas Wind repeated the feat with a double against Köln to take all three points for the visitors at the Rhein-Energie Stadion. A fine piece of control inside the area and a precise finish on the hour mark saw Wolfsburg equalise Luca Waldschmidt’s opener and his second ten minutes later proved to be the winner. He needed to attempts after Marvin Schwäbe had blocked his first effort, but he got there in the end.
The Dane scored six goals in the whole of last season, but already has five having also scored in the Wölfe’s Pokal win.
Union Berlin & Robin Gosens
It took a while for German international Robin Gosens to make his Bundesliga debut (nine years since his debut with Dordrecht), but when he did on Saturday he certainly made it count for Union Belin with two goals to help the Eisernen to a 4-1 win at the Böllenfalltor over Darmstadt.
His first was a great left foot finish in the third minute, while the second was a powerful header to restore the lead after the hosts had equalised. Union have now started the season with back to back wins and scored four goals in both matches.
Bayer Leverkusen & Victor Boniface
The Werkself showed that last week’s win over Leipzig was not beginners luck with an impressive second win of the season over Rhine rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach. Summer signing Victor Boniface scored twice to add to last week’s debut Bundesliga goal. Florian Wirtz pulled the strings for the visitors and the man signed from Union St. Gilloise looked like he was good for a hat trick. The optimism surrounding Leverkusen will only increase if they continue to put in performances like this.
Hoffenheim
The Sinsheimer took on the role of the party poopers on Saturday and they ruined Heidenheim’s first-ever home Bundesliga fixture with a great late comeback to steal the three points from the newcomers.
2-0 down with half an hour to play, things weren’t looking good for TSG, but as they say in football, a goal can change a game. 20-year-old Maximilian Beier’s first Bundesliga goal gave them hope on 77 minutes, before luck played a role in the equaliser three minutes later. Finn Ole Becker’s effort came off the post, hit keeper Kevin Müller before falling to Pavel Kaderabek to slot in.
A clumsy trip by Tim Siersleben on Beier handed the visitors a penalty which Andrej Kramaric dispatched only to told to retake it. The Croat kept his nerve on the second take to Panenka the ball in for the winner. Touch on Heidenheim, but this is the Bundesliga.
Maximilian Philipp
The script could not have been written more perfectly for Maximilian Philipp on Saturday. Having only rejoined Freiburg on loan days earlier, his return to the club after a six-year absence ended with a last-gasp goal to seal all three points against Werder Bremen. Noah Weißhaupt’s cross 96th minute was met perfectly on the volley by the substitute to roll back the years and make his return to the Black Forest a very happy one.
Harry Kane
As Public Enemy once sang ‘Don’t believe the hype’, but in the case of Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane the hype should very much be believed. On his highly anticipated home Bundesliga debut, the England captain bagged two goals.
His first came via the penalty spot with a very assured spot kick, while he second was a sublime finish to take his tally to three goals in two games.
The losers
Borussia Dortmund
All the talk pre-match was of needing a better performance than the one produced last week when they were lucky to beat Köln with more energy and drive required. BVB however produced another flat display and only emerged from the Vonovia Ruhrstadion with a point against local rivals Bochum.
The home side were hungrier, more competitive and looked like the team that wanted to win more with Edin Terzic and his players once again left having to explain a second below-par display. Yes, it is still early in the season, and yes Dortmund are unbeaten, but the levels being reached at the moment are far below expectations and if the Schwarzgelben are going to launch another serious title challenge, they need to buck up their ideas pronto.
Brenden Aaronson
Union may have won 4-1 to claim a second win, but it was an afternoon to forget for US midfielder Brenden Aaronson, who was sent off after just 21 minutes after collecting two yellow cards from referee Pattrick Ittrich. The first was a very cheap one for needlessly kicking the ball away at a Darmstadt free-kick, while the second came after a raised boot caught Fabian Nürnberger near the touchline.
Alexander Nübel
The thing is with goalkeepers is that no matter how many great saves you make, it’s always the blunders people remember and that will be the case with Alexander Nübel tonight. He made a number of top saves at point-blank range to deny goals (Willi Orban and Lois Openda), but his error led to the equaliser and he was very fortunate that a second even bigger howler saw him saved by VAR when he fumbled Yussuf Poulsen’s cross and Openda fired in.
The newcomers
After starting with away defeats on the opening weekend, both Heidenheim and Darmstadt had home games this weekend as they looked to kick-start their Bundesliga seasons. Both however suffered a second defeat as they discover that after the elation of last season, the reality of the new campaign is already coming to the fore.
History was made at the Voith Arena as Heidenheim staged their first-ever Bundesliga match, but after taking a 2-0 lead over Hoffenheim, they imploded and allowed the Sinsheimer to score three goals in a fifteen-minute spell to snatch the points. Darmstadt’s first game at the Böllenfalltor saw them taken apart by a rampant Union Berlin, who had to play 70 minutes with only ten men. The first points still elude both promoted sides.
Kevin Trapp & Ansgar Knauff
Eintracht Frankfurt snatched a point from their trip to Mainz with a late goal from Omar Marmoush, but they had shot themselves in the foot earlier in the game with both Kevin Trapp and Ansgar Knauff making stupid errors to give them an uphill task.
First keeper Trapp flapped at a cross and crashed into Hrvoje Smolcic allowing Jae-Sung Lee an easy finish to give the hosts the lead. Knauff then got himself booked twice by referee Bastian Dankert to make life even tougher for the Adler. The duo have Egyptian striker Marmoush to thank for getting them out of a hole.
