Bundesliga Matchday Eight, Hertha and Union: Relegation And Promotion?

Poor Jaroslav Drobny! From wherever he was, he had to look at Hertha's second choice keeper make a complete fool of himself. When the evergreen Arne Friedrich put Hertha in the lead, it seemed as if Hertha might be able to get something from the leaders. Instead, what they did was self-destruct.

An own goal by Kaka, and two lobs from David Jarolim and Ze Roberto after some horrible mistakes from the Berlin keeper won HSV the game 3-1. Looks like Hertha might get relegated and ironically be replaced by fierce city rivals Union in the Bundesliga.

Bayern and Koln played out a 0-0 draw, and from Koln's point of view, the reult was exactly what they wanted. All they did was defend and their counter attacks were in the best meaning of the word, poor. Schweinsteiger could have won the game but sent two headers wide, with the second deflecting off Klose's head. Some fans were seen sleeping at halftime during the game.

Bayer Leverkusen took the lead in the league by winning 4-0 against Nuremberg. The goals flowed from Eren Derdiyok, Stefan Kiessling and Simon Rolfes. However, the pick of the strikes came from Toni Kroos who curled a beautiful freekick into the top corner of the net.

Gladbach's poor run of form continued. They lost 1-0 to Dortmund, the sole goal being a long range effort from Argentine striker Lucas Barrois. Maybe Maradona should attend more Dortmund games.

Sofian Chahed and Arnold Bruggink gave Hanover a 2-0 lead but Freiburg fought back. Ivica Banovic scored but Karim Haggui restored the 2-0 advantage. Julian Schuster scored another for Freiburg with eight minutes left on the clock. However Didier Ya Konan and Sergio Pinto scored for Hanover to win their side the game. The final score was 5-2 to Hanover.

Bochum took a 1-0 lead against Wolfsburg through a Vahid Hashemian header. I am sure the name strikes a bell. However, this woke up Wolfsburg and Dzeko equalized after Shinji Ojo was sent off for Bochum.

Andreas Ivanschitz and Aristide Bance put Mainz into a 2-0 lead against Hoffenheim within the first fifteen minutes. Andreas Ibertsberger pulled one back for Hoffenheim in the 87th minute but it was too little too late for the Hoffe. Mainz could have a shot at Europe if they keep up this kind of form throughout the season.

Werder proved to have too much in their veins for Stutt-er-gart. Claudio Pizarro opened the scoring with a header while Aaron Hunt doubled the score to give Werder the 2-0 win.

Schalke on Friday recorded a 2-0 win against Frankfurt. Gerald Asamoah's first goal in ten months gave the Royal Blues a 1-0 lead. Jefferson Farfan added a second from the penalty spot.

Thus Bayer are now top on goal difference. HSV are second and Schalke are third. Werder and Hoffenheim occupy the final two European places respectively.

Mario Gomez has recently been complaining due to having to spend time on the bench. He has been told to shut up by the Bayern hierarchy. Looks like Mario is learning his lesson: In Bayern, pricetags have very little effect.