Bundesbag Week 8: Fashion Rebels

According to his Wikipedia page, Hertha Berlin's Gojko Kacar is from a family of Olympian boxers. There was a Kasar at the Moscow and Montreal games. Gojko himself played for the Serbian national team earlier in the year in Beijing. Kacar also enjoys the distinction of being Hertha's top scorer this season with three goals - not bad for a 21-year-old defensive midfielder.

His latest was last Saturday in the 87th minute against Stuttgart. His fine shot sealed Berlin's fourth win of the season and has moved them surreptitiously into fourth in the Bundesliga table. In fairness, Hertha haven't had to play any of the early season pace-setters or championship contenders (unless you count Bayern of course). However, the Bundesbag often gives a passing mention to the team from the capital so credit where its due. Next month they have to play Bremen, Hoffenheim and Hamburg so there's no call for getting too excited.

Speaking of Hamburg, they were held by Schalke in a top-of-the-table clash on Sunday, Benedikt Howedes cancelling out an equaliser from the conqueror of Wales, Piotr Trochowski. An anti-climactic draw was the final score and while the result kept Hamburg top, Schalke now find themselves down in sixth.

Leverkusen won 2-0 at Frankfurt who are rock bottom of the table and must fear for the furure. The game was marked by yet another goal from Patrick Helmes. That's his eighth in eight games - truly the Bundesliga's Amir Zaki.

At least he would be were it not for Vedad Ibisevic of Hoffenheim. The Bosnian former Aachen player has scored 9 (nine) goals in eight games. He was on the mark again at the weekend in a 5-2 win against Hannover. Each goal represents another inch of armour plating on Dietmar Hopp's car.

There were more goals at Wolfsburg. Misimovic bagged a brace against Bielefeld as the Volkswagen group notched up an emphatic 4-1 victory. The result was also notable in that it means a rare instance of the Bundesbag not mentioning Artur Wichniarek for Bielefeld.

And there were even more gaols at the Weserstadion between Bremen and Dortmund. The action didn't get going until the 59th minute when Alex Frei scored from the spot for BVB. Bremen skipper Frank Baumann levelled things up on 68 minutes only for Mats Hummels to restore the lead four minutes later.

Into the dying minutes then, and it's still 2-1. Then Pizzaro sent the home crowd into rapture and any watching Englishman into bafflement by scoring twice in the 88th and 90th minute to seal the points... not really because a few seconds later Mohamed Zidan's right foot snatched an equaliser at the death plus time added on. What a way to stick it to your old club.

Elsewhere, there was a mid-table clash between Karlsruhe and Bayern. Just the one goal was required by Klose in the 86th minute to have Edmund Becker tearing up his notes in frustration. Koln made it three wins in three with a 1-0 win over Cottbus who had a man sent off.

Let's finish at the beginning with Bochum who welcomed local rivals 'Gladbach on Friday. Borussia, in need of a win to boost their confidence, had to settle for a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw. Caretaker coach Christian Ziege would have been happy enough with the result but not as happy as the Bundesbag was to find that he has adopted the trend among some Bundesliga head coaches to wear jeans and a sweater on the touchline.

We wholeheartedly approve of this sartorial leap by German coaches and look forward to the day when it is adopted in England. Perhaps by one of those forward-thinking managers like Phil Brown. We should not be surprised by such innovation for when it comes to fashion and football, the Germans are more than ready to follow there own path as this YouTube clip amply demonstrates.



Thats it. Results and table here.