by Olaf Goldbecker
T-shirt weather in Germany was one week ago. Within seven days the late summer weather turned into a first winter weekend. Minus degrees and in the southern half even snow, led to the game between Munich and Gütersloh being cancelled. Bitter for the visitors: they travelled with the bus to Munich, started Saturday 8 am, only to hear on Sunday that the game has to be postponed while the team spent the weekend on the Autobahn travelling 750 miles in vain. The annoyed Gütersloh Coach Markus Graskamp called it “the most expensive snow ball battle ever”. The other five games were played as follows:
1.FFC Frankfurt v SC Freiburg 1:0 (1:0)
Frankfurt continues to offer little to their fans but they still win. The key player today was Ana Maria Crnogorcevic who scored the lonely goal of the day after 21 minutes, and was ejected after 73 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. The referee noted “spitting at an opponent”, which will certainly cause several weeks break for the Swiss forward. Bitter for the team that isn’t bolstered with offense players: while Lira Bajramaj is out with ACL, also forward alternative Silvana Chojnowski was ejected in the reserves team game today for unsportsmanlike conduct. Seems like Sandrine Bretigny will be Frankfurt’s lonely forward in the next weeks.
VfL Wolfsburg v FCR Duisburg 4:0 (2:0)
Prior to the season Wolfsburg inked Alex Popp and Luisa Wensing from Duisburg but those two were not the key players in today’s match. Conny Pohlers was the factor today, the veteran scored three goals in the win, leaving Zsanett Jakabfi the second goal of the day to complete the result.
SG Essen-Schönebeck v Bayer Leverkusen 0:0
A weak game was played in Essen that stays undefeated in their new stadium. Today they required some luck. Not that Leverkusen played a convincing game but they had the bigger of the few chances. Both teams had one chance prior to half time – Essen with a 30 m free kick to the crossbar and Leverkusen a sitter which rather ended as pass back to the goalkeeper. In period two Lisa Weiss saved a penalty kick by Susanne Kasperczyk. Essen failed with a double chance, first Charline Hartmann’s solo was stopped by the keeper and when Sarah Freutel picked up the rebound she nearly had an empty net in front of her but hit a defender. The last scene belonged to the visitors again when Eunice Beckmann excellently lifted the ball over the defense to be alone in front of Weiss, but instead of choosing the left or right corner she hammered the ball to the third story.
FF USV Jena v Turbine Potsdam 0:3 (0:0)
East derby in Jena and Potsdam traditionally has problems in this one. Jena managed to keep a scoreless draw in period 1, but they could not stop Turbine over the full 90 minutes. Lisa Evans marked the lead ten minutes after halftime and Sara Doorsou-Khajeh increased a quarter hour later to seal the deal. At the end of the game Yuki Ogimi cared for the final score.
SC 07 Bad Neuenahr v VfL Sindelfingen 0:0
Surprising and not surprising at the same time that Sindelfingen was able to get a point at Bad Neuenahr. Sure the home team was the big favorite in this one but already before it got obvious that the team depends on their top star Celia Okoyino da Mbabi. She got injured on the national team trip to the USA and missed the game today and without their key player Bad Neuenahr was not able to overcome Sindelfingen’s defense.
Situation: [in brackets the number of games the team with less than the full number of seven games played]: Frankfurt still leads the standings with 16 points, Turbine Potsdam (6) follows one point behind. Also in reach is Wolfsburg (5) being three points behind the top seed. Essen and Bad Neuenahr (6) lead the midfield at 9 points, ahead of Freiburg (6), Gütersloh (5) and Duisburg with 7. Bayern Munich (4) sits at 7 points ahead of Jena with 5. The relegation spots are still occupied by Leverkusen and Sindelfingen at 4 pts each.