by Olaf Goldbecker
The top game of matchday 21 took place in Potsdam where Turbine hosted the designated champion VfL Wolfsburg. Unofficially the Wolves clinched the championship already last week due to their superior goal difference but one point was still missing for the official title. Potsdam desperately needed a win in the top game to keep the Champions League spot chances alive. A crowd of 3,720 saw Potsdam clinch a relatively easy 2-0 win. Natasa Andonova and Pauline Bremer, two relatively unknown players, scored the goals in the first half.
This forced Frankfurt to win their game at Bad Neuenahr to stay on top of Potsdam in the race for the lucrative Champions League spot. They made their fans wait long but on a 72nd minute goal FFC won 1-0. As often in the last weeks former NT player Kerstin Garefrekes was the one who relieved her team.
Out of the race for rank 2 is Bayern Munich. A disappointing 2-2 draw v Duisburg was not enough to fulfill their own demands but due to the other scores they would have been out of the race anyway. In other meaningless games Jena lost 1-2 to Freiburg, Leverkusen beat Gütersloh 3-0, and Essen won 2-1 vs Sindelfingen.
Prior to the final matchday Wolfsburg leads the standings three points ahead of Frankfurt. Next to the three points Frankfurt would have to make up a deficit of 24 goals, so Wolfsburg can prepare the celebrations. Frankfurt rather has to watch out for Potsdam as there only is a one point gap and Turbine would win the tiebreaker in case that both teams end up with the same number of points. Potsdam is expected to gain an easy win at relegated Gütersloh, while Frankfurt hosts Munich in a very difficult matchup – Munich won the last three games
Most other positions are already set. Munich will finish fourth. Freiburg, Bad Neuenahr and Essen will battle out positions 5 to 7, while Leverkusen finishes on rank 8. Jena and Duisburg determine spots 9 and 10. Sindelfingen relegates as 11th and Gütersloh as last place team.