Bundesliga Matchday 12 by the Numbers

1-2-3 – Current ranking of Bochum, Cottbus, and Bielefeld on the “Anti-Fair-Play Table.” Here Bochum has a commanding lead thanks to their 33(!) yellows in 12 games. This trio tops another table as well, but this one’s about “Anti-Results.” All three are currently in the relegation zone. Coincidence? Probably not considering Anti-Fair-Play cellar dwellers Leverkusen and Hoffenheim top the real table.

4 – Times I’ve inadvertently clicked on a link about a “WM” (Weltmeisterschaft – any world championship, really, but also the World Cup) only to discover, yet again, that it’s chess. And while it’s the third largest sporting event this year, host Germany has no shot or so I’ve read. Just be glad I haven’t mixed up my Chess Bundesliga with, well, our Bundesliga: “Arsenal snap up young Norwegian attacking starlet Magnus Carlsen from Bundesliga-leading OSG Baden-Baden.” Oh dear.

7 – Players suspended for the next matchday. Robert Tesche, Jiri Stajner, Robert Kovac and Mesut Özil all will begin 3 game suspensions for red cards. Nico Herzig, Patrick Ochs, and Hanno Balitsch have accumulated 5 yellows which entitles them to a one game vacation.

9 – Points Franck Ribery has directly earned for Bayern from 3 Game-winning goals since returning to the starting lineup against Bochum on October 4th. Including the game against Schalke, he’s been directly responsible for wins against Bielefeld (with the decisive second goal, Podolski’s effort later on just beautified the scoreline) and Frankfurt. They’ve won 16 of 18 possible points with Ribery back from injury and shot up the table to a respectable position.

13 – Goals that Hoffenheim’s Ibisevic scored this season, even after drawing a blank in 1-0 defeat to Hertha on Sunday. What’s so impressive about that? Beyond the 13:12 goals-to-games ratio, it’s where he’d rank among the top goalscorers of seasons past. After about a third of the season, here’s where he’d finish among the last 10 season’s final goalscorers table:

07/08 – 6th
06/07 – 9th
05/06 – 8th
04/05 – 10th
03/04 – 10th
02/03 – 10th
01/02 – 8th
00/01 – 8th
99/00 – 5th
98/99 – 5th

45 – Minutes that Köln wishes games would last. If they only played the first half, they’d be sitting pretty in 2nd place. Cottbus, though, would stand to gain even more. They’d move all the way up to 7th! A game of two halves indeed…

47 – Hoffenheim’s current position on the Bundesliga’s eternal table. Barring a complete meltdown they’ll almost certainly finish highest among one-season participants. They’ll almost certainly top a few two-season teams as well. The question is, where will they end? It’s highly improbable, but not impossible, that they could pull ahead of SpVgg Unterhaching or Stuttgarter Kickers who have 79 and 77 points all-time in the Bundesliga. Assuming they manage this feat they’d have moved up 10 spots and 20% of the table in one season.

398 – Minutes that Leverkusen went without conceding a goal until Antonio da Silva’s 37th minute strike on Saturday. Not only was this his first league goal of the campaign, but it marks the first time in more than a month that Rene Adler has had to fish the ball out of his own net (although he got more practice on the day). In fact, Leverkusen were only a few moments away from not conceding a goal the entire month of October. Only Voronin, with an 89th minute game-winner back on the 4th, infiltrated an otherwise vigilant Leverkusen rearguard.

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Has it really been that long since I’ve posted? Well, for that I apologize. But living in Washington, DC around election time is both exciting and hectic. This isn’t my first election in the city, but it is the most enthusiastically received one I’ve seen here. It’s easy to get caught up in things.