Thriller in Mannheim
Game of the day yesterday was the 4-4 draw in Mannheim, as home team Waldhof came back from 1-0, 2-1 and finally from 4-2 to secure a point against Türkgücü München, who are really enjoying their first season in professional football. After beating crisis hit FC Kaiserslautern last week (and thereby costing their opponents’ coach his job) 3-0, the side formed from the Turkish community in Munich looked to be on the way to securing another three points before Mannheim striker Joseph Boyamba scored twice in the last 20 minutes to grab a point following a breathless game. The late equaliser prevented a clean sweep for all four of the Munich based teams in the division over the weekend. On Friday night Bayern Munich II showed that last season’s title winning run was no fluke by disposing of relegated Dynamo Dresden 3-0, whilst yesterday Unterhaching ended Ingolstadt’s impressive start to the season by winning 1-0 away from home. Then 1860 Munich won 2-1 away at Zwickau, meaning Türkgücü were the only team to drop points, thanks to Boyamba’s late heroics. It is obviously very early days, but all four teams (three of whom call the Stadion an der Grunewalder Strasse home) are in the top eight of the 3.Liga table after the first three matches of the season. With Ingolstadt, who very narrowly missed out on promotion last season, sitting in fourth place, there is a very heavy air of Bavarian dominance in the standings thus far. With 1860 at home next Saturday afternoon, Türkgücü will host Wehen Wiesbaden at the Olympic Stadium, the first of the eight agreed matches at the former home FC Bayern Munich, which hasn’t hosted a league game since the Allianz Arena was completed in 2005.