Bundesliga Recap: Matchday 5

The Bundesliga storylines keep getting better and better each and every week. Borussia Mönchengladbach remain at the bottom of the table, causing Lucien Favre to step down. After bringing the Foals to the Champions League it is quite sad to see.

Bayern and Dortmund continue to fly high atop the Bundesliga. Their clash on October 4 will prove to be a real classic with title implications. Stuttgart still can’t grab a win and Ingolstadt would be in Europe if the season ended today. Here are some of the big headlines coming out of Matchday 5.

Borussia Woes

As mentioned earlier, Borussia Mönchengladbach are sitting at the bottom of the Bundesliga. They lost their game on Saturday to local rivals FC Köln. Cologne grabbed their winner in the 64th minute through new man Anthony Modeste, who is looking for a French call up as he has nicked four goals in five games to start this season off on fire. The loss comes as even more bitter as no Gladbach player or fan wants to lose the Rhine derby. A fierce rivalry that really came about in the 1970s when both Cologne and Gladbach were top teams in the Bundesliga. The win sees Cologne sitting in fifth place on 10 points.

Ingolstadt Continue to Surprise

Ingolstadt left it late against Werder Bremen but they got the job done. A late penalty kick awarded to Ingolstadt let Mortitz Hartmann slot home in the 93rd minute. The Bavarian club were in this game all the way through and were not out played by any means. Werder enjoyed a little bit more possession but the newly promoted side kept up with some good chances. Ingolstadt have won all three of their games away from home, an impressive feat for a freshly promoted team. They are currently sitting in sixth and are flying high at the moment. Will the honeymoon phase ever be over with Ingolstadt?

Bayern and Dortmund Dominate

A familiar sight from recent years is Bayern and Dortmund sitting first and second in the table. The Bavarian giants from Munich continued their unbeaten streak with a 3-0 win away to Darmstadt, even without the likes of Robert Lewandowski leading the line. New boys from Juventus, Kingsley Coman and Arturo Vidal both nabbed goals for Bayern, with Sebastian Rode adding another one late on. Douglas Costa continued his great form with two assists.

Dortmund beat Champions League side Bayer Leverkusen 3-0. Leverkusen looked tired and worn out; their pressing style has really come back to hurt them. Dortmund played superbly and this game could’ve easily been 6-0. BVB was buzzing all game and Jonas Hofman, Shinji Kagawa, and Pierre-Emerik Aubameyang scoring the goals for the schwarz-gelb.

Welcome to the Yunus Malli Show

On Friday, a mid table clash between Hoffenheim and Mainz turned into something really special when Yunus Malli scored three spectacular goals. Hoffenheim opened up the scoring 13 minutes in through new signing Jonathan Schmid. Things seemed to going well for Hoffenheim, but four minutes later, the German international from Kassel slotted home beautifully to tie things up. Malli added two more goals in the second half, including a marvelous curling effort from the edge of the box, to give Mainz a comfortable 3-1 win. Hoffenheim remain winless on the year.

Stuttgart Stumble

There were higher expectations on VfB Stuttgart than sitting in the regulation zone. Stuttgart brought in a wealth of new signings and were poised to make a run for Europe. That has not happened and the club from Baden-Württemberg are sitting winless after five games. Stuttgart got vastly outplayed by Schalke in a 1-0 loss. Schalke have continued their form after a 3-0 win against APOEL in the Europa league mid-week. Leroy Sané’s 53rd minute strike was all it took to take down Stuttgart. Stuttgart pushed late on but some superb goalkeeping from Ralf Fährmann helped the Gelsenkirchen side seal the victory.