Matchday Three; Lord have mercy

By: Scott | August 23rd, 2009

In Freiburg, should you ever have occasion to go, you will find a breath-taking example of Gothic architecture. The Freiburger Münster, a cathedral that only the least observant of sighted beings would be able to miss towering above the city, took 300 years to build and I’d encourage you to climb to the top of its 116-metre spire despite the daunting, narrow spiral staircase you’ll have to navigate to get there. And that’s about the only nice thing there will be said about Freiburg in this match report, since all other points of pride quite deservedly belong to Leverkusen.

0-5. Let’s look at that again. 0-5. Nice, isn’t it? Not only did it gain us three more points, but it allowed us to garner some much-needed ammunition in the goal differential column, landing us at the top of the table one goal ahead of the stumbling turn-coat Labbadia, who managed, today, to coach HSV to a win over Wolfsburg.

The match at Badenova-Stadion started slowly for the Werkself, and Heynckes says our side was lucky not to go down 2-0 as Freiburg kept tight control of the ball. But then they did nothing with it, wasting their shots-on-goal and leaving the Werkself to adjust their game. At the 35th minute Rolfes chipped to Kießling, who fired into the top corner of the Freiburg goal. The floodgate wasn’t yet open, but it was definitely being unlocked.

After the first 45, a stark change of play was needed, and the Werkself made it. The second half belonged entirely to us. Barnetta brought us up by another goal just two minutes into the half. A perfect Derdiyok free kick made it 0-3 at the 70th minute, and 6 minutes later, a sweet bit of play from Barnetta crushed all hopes for even the most delusional Freiburg supporter. Nonetheless, one more goal was in order and it came off a Rolfes header to Derdiyok just moments before the final whistle put Freiburg out of their misery for the day.

Behold and marvel;

While the match began with some problems gaining possession, the second half showed the Werkself to be a complete package of strong defensive play and fast, accurate finishing. Thank you! Next weekend we’ve got Bochum coming to admire our new, improved BayArena. Here’s to going into the qualifiers break with three more points.