Bundesliga leaders Schalke 04 suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at VfL Bochum on Friday, throwing the title race wide open.
Schalke, top since early February, have 62 points from 31 matches. Second-placed Werder Bremen (60) play their game in hand at Arminia Bielefeld today while VfB Stuttgart (58), in third spot, travelled to Borussia Moenchengladbach yesterday.
"We're still first and the others are going to have to win to get past us," said Schalke coach Mirko Slomka in a television interview. "But it is no longer in our hands."
"I don't expect we'll still be first by the end of the weekend but there's still a lot left in this season and we can't stop playing good football now. The other teams will have their hopes up but we're still in the fight," he said.
Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi put Schalke ahead in the ninth minute, outjumping his marker to head a free kick from Christian Pander past Bochum goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny.
Gerard Asamoah squandered a chance to make it 2-0 before Bochum equalized in the 33rd when Bosnia playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic nodded in a cross from Dennis Grote.
Greece striker Theofanis Gekas, watched by his international coach Otto Rehhagel, grabbed the winner four minutes from the interval when he tapped in a low cross from Marcel Maltritz for his 19th league goal of the season.
Schalke dominated the second period but were unable to find a way to break down Bochum's defense.
It was the seventh goal in seven matches for Gekas, the Bundesliga's top scorer.
His hot streak has helped Bochum, who have won four of their last six games, to rise from 16th to seventh.
"I'm a striker, it's my job to score goals," Gekas said. "We scored two lovely goals and won."
Schalke led the league late in the season twice in the previous five years before finishing poorly.
Slomka's team last won the championship in the pre-Bundesliga days of 1958.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS