Hoffenheim finish the year as league leaders after coming from behind to seal a 1-1 draw with nine-man Schalke 04 on Sunday as the village team from southwest Germany continue the Bundesliga fairytale.
A superb second-half direct free-kick from midfielder Selim Teber canceled out a first-half strike from Schalke’s Gerald Asamoah to put Hoffenheim back on top in their first season in Germany’s top flight.
But tempers boiled over as Schalke had both midfielder Jermaine Jones and Orlando Engelaar sent off in the second half.
PHOTO: AP
The single point was enough for Hoffenheim to take over from Bayern Munich as league leaders and having only been promoted last year, the home side enter the winter break as leaders.
The match was a bad tempered affair and Germany midfielder Jones picked up an early yellow card after just 23 minutes when he body checked Nigeria striker Chinedu Obasi.
Hoffenheim’s defense then had only themselves to blame when Schalke striker Halil Altintop slid a pass through to Asamoah and the former Germany forward smashed his shot past goalkeeper Daniel Haas on 40 minutes.
The home side squandered a string of chances to equalize, but the game degenerated after the break with a flurry of yellow cards.
Trouble started in earnest when Schalke’s Brazilian midfielder Rafinha bundled Hoffenheim’s Sejad Salihovic over the sidelines and picked up a yellow card on 52 minutes.
Just four minutes later, both Asamoah and midfielder Selim Teber both picked up yellows after a tussle which sucked in the majority of both sides.
Jones then allowed his suspect temper to get the better of him when he hacked down Hoffenheim substitute Luiz Gustavo Dias on 59 minutes and was shown his second yellow card and the automatic red.
Jones was so incensed he had to be restrained by Schalke coaches as he remonstrated with the Hoffenheim bench on his way to the dressing room and left his side a man down with 30 minutes left.
Hoffenheim then got the deserved equalizer when Teber curled in a superb free-kick on 71 minutes.
Schalke lost another man when Engelaar was shown his second yellow on 80 minutes for yet another heavy challenge.
German Bundesliga
Team | P | GD | PTS | |
1 | TSG Hoffenheim | 17 | 19 | 35 |
2 | Bayern Munich | 17 | 15 | 35 |
3 | Hertha Berlin | 17 | 7 | 33 |
4 | Hamburg | 17 | 2 | 33 |
5 | Bayer Leverkusen | 17 | 15 | 32 |
6 | Borussia Dortmund | 17 | 8 | 29 |
7 | Schalke 04 | 17 | 8 | 27 |
8 | Werder Bremen | 17 | 11 | 26 |
9 | Wolfsburg | 17 | 10 | 26 |
10 | VfB Stuttgart | 17 | 3 | 25 |
11 | Cologne | 17 | -6 | 22 |
12 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 17 | -6 | 19 |
13 | Hannover 96 | 17 | -12 | 17 |
14 | Arminia Bielefeld | 17 | -12 | 14 |
15 | Karlsruhe | 17 | -17 | 13 |
16 | Cottbus | 17 | -17 | 13 |
17 | VfL Bochum | 17 | -11 | 11 |
18 | Borussia M’gladbach | 17 | -17 | 11 |
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but