Düsseldorf oust Gladbach in Cup
October 31, 2012
The only match of Wednesday evening's second set of German Cup second round matches where a Bundesliga side was guaranteed to bow out went down to the wire, with Fortuna Düsseldorf scoring the only goal of the match in extra time to beat their local rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-0.
After a long slog of scoreless play during regulation, Düsseldorf were awarded a penalty when the ref whistled Juan Arango for a foul on Robbie Kruse in the area. Jens Langeneke took the kick for Düsseldorf, but his shot was expertly held by Gladbach keeper Marc Andre ter Stegen.
Yet ter Stegen had no chance against Nando Rafael - a former Gladbach player - in the 97th minute; he took a pass from Kruse and expertly slotted home the decisive goal, making Gladbach the only Bundesliga side to be eliminated in the second round.
Hannover's contest against second division Dynamo Dresden also went into extra time, tied at 1-1 after regulation. Thirty minutes later, the score stayed the same, and the two sides went to penalties.
Keeper Ron-Robert Zieler saved two penalties for Hannover, giving the home side a 4-3 win in the shootout.
Easy strolls for Stuttgart, Bayern
While Düsseldorf and Hannover fought tooth and nail for their wins, it only took 68 seconds for Stuttgart to put their contest with St. Pauli out of reach, as Ibrahim Traore and Vedad Ibisivic teamed up in the 21st and 22nd minutes to give the home side an untouchable lead. Tamas Hajnal added a third goal for Stuttgart before halftime, bringing the game to its final score of 3-0.
Fin Bartels saw the only big chance for St. Pauli snatched away just inches from the goal line by defender Antonio Rüdiger, who sprinted in and cleared the ball after Bartels beat Stuttgart keeper Sven Ulreich.
Stuttgart may have won handily, but the most convincing win went to - you guessed it - Bayern Munich, who easily beat second division Kaiserslautern 4-0. Arjen Robben, wearing the captain's armband on Bayern's team of mostly second-stringers, scored two of the goals, and Claudio Pizarro added two as well.
Leverkusen flirt with disaster
Third-division Bielefeld seriously courted an upset over Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, who are fresh from their Bundesliga upset against Bayern Munich this weekend. Bielefeld took the match to extra time before falling to Leverkusen 3-2.
Bielefeld, playing at home, struck first, with Sebastian Hille finishing a counterattack in the 11th minute.
Leverkusen came back 12 minutes later thanks to a goal from Jens Hegeler to tie the score, and went ahead in the 56th minute thanks to a header from Manuel Friedrich. Bielefeld tied it up once again in the 82nd minute thanks to a deflected free kick from Tom Schütz.
But Bielefeld were no match for German national team striker Andre Schürrle, whose solo run in the opening minutes of extra time resulted in the decisive 3-2 goal for Leverkusen.
The upsetting third league
There were two upsets on Wednesday evening, as teams from the third division managed to sent their second league opponents home with egg (or maybe Halloween pumpkin) on their faces.
Kickers Offenbach and Union Berlin played well over an hour of scoreless football before Offenbach's Mathias Fetsch put the third-division side on the board in the 75th minute. Eleven minutes later, an Offenbach free kick by Julius Reinhardt was perfectly placed for Stefan Vogler to nick it in with his head for a final score of 2-0.
Duisburg was on the losing end of the evening's other upset, falling 1-0 to Karlsruhe from the third division. Karlsruhe - utilizing a one-man advantage after Duisburg midfielder Goran Sukalo was sent off in the 80th minute for his second yellow card - picked up the winning goal eight minutes later courtesy of Dennis Kempe.
Karlsruhe, a Bundesliga side as recently as 2009, knocked out top-flight Hamburg in the first round of the cup.