Hoffenheim destroyed Werder Bremen 4-1 on Saturday in a potent start to their Bundesliga season, with three goals in six first-half minutes proving decisive.
“We were extremely bitter about conceding the early penalty and it could have led to gloomy thoughts,” Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangnick said.
“The team was totally unfazed by the penalty and to lead 4-1 at half-time is just fantastic, in the second-half we went off the boil, but the game was won,” he said.
Fresh from their 3-1 win over Sampdoria on Thursday in the Champions League qualifier, Bremen were humbled as the home side blitzed their hosts in the first 45 minutes.
Bremen took the lead when captain Torsten Frings slotted home an early penalty after a Hoffenheim handball, but it was then all downhill for Werder.
Hoffenheim drew level when Senegal striker Demba Ba netted in the 20th minute, but things got surreal when Hoffenheim netted three goals in six minutes.
The rout started when teenager Peniel Mlapa slotted coolly past Bremen’s Germany goalkeeper Tim Wiese on 37 minutes.
Striker Vedad Ibisevic then made it 3-1 when Frings was robbed of possession by Brazilian midfielder Luiz Gustavo, who sprinted downfield and put in a superb pass for his Bosnian teammate to convert on 41 minutes.
Bremen’s misery was compounded just two minutes later when Sejad Salihovic curled in a free-kick which left the Werder goalkeeper stranded as it finished 4-1 at the break and stayed that way.
A late goal by Ruud van Nistelrooy gave Hamburg three points and sealed a 2-1 win over 10-man Schalke 04 on Saturday night after Royal Blues defender Benedikt Hoewedes was sent off after an hour.
Van Nistelrooy scored either side of half-time, including a late winner after Schalke’s Jefferson Farfan had equalized on 80 minutes.
Earlier, Bundesliga history was made in Cologne as Lebanon defender Youssef Mohamad earned the fastest ever red card when he was sent off just 92 seconds into the new season in the 3-1 defeat against newly promoted Kaiserslautern.
After Austrian striker Erwin Hoffer got around the back of the Cologne defense, Mohamad was the last defender and when he brought down Hoffer, referee Felix Brych showed him a straight red card.
In the other results, Moenchengladbach drew 1-1 at home to Nuremberg as striker Mohamadou Idrissou equalized for the hosts.
Hanover beat Frankfurt 2-1 while newly promoted St Pauli won 3-1 at Freiburg.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB