Klose cheers wild victory, Cologne avoids crashed misfiring
Miroslav Klose Celebrates His First Win as a Coach in German Professional Football: On the 2nd Matchday of the 2nd Bundesliga, 1. FC Nuremberg Turns a Deficit into a Win Against Schalke 04. 1. FC Cologne Barely Avoids a Complete False Start.
1. FC Nuremberg - FC Schalke 04 3:1 (0:1)
First taste of success for Miroslav Klose: The coach celebrated with 1. FC Nuremberg a 3:1 (0:1) win against Schalke 04 in the 2nd Bundesliga. Despite leading by two goals in Karlsruhe, the club still lost their season opener.
After going behind through Ibrahima Cisse (45.+1), Lukas Schleimer (47.) and Caspar Jander (56.) turned the game around during a period of numerical superiority. Rafael Lubach (77.) sealed the victory.
Schalke's Ron Schallenberg received an unjustified yellow-red card (45.+4) towards the end of the first half. Both teams finished the match with equal numbers after Jander's yellow-red card (67.). After winning their opener against Braunschweig, Schalke suffered their first setback.
The visitors controlled the game and looked for gaps in Nuremberg's defense. Kenan Karaman (21.) missed the first good chance, then Janik Bachmann missed a header from close range against goalkeeper Jan Reichert (27.).
The hosts offered little offensively, and they were punished in added time of the first half. After a free-kick cross, U17 World Cup winner Finn Jeltsch didn't react, and Cisse scored from close range. The joy didn't last long, as Schallenberg was shown the yellow-red card after a challenge with Caspar Jander - a wrong decision.
In numerical superiority, the club took advantage of their first chance of the game to equalize. Schleimer headed in unchallenged from close range. Nine minutes later, Jander turned the game with his goal. With equal numbers, Schalke pushed for an equalizer, but Lubach scored.
SV Elversberg - 1. FC Cologne 2:2 (0:1)
Relegated 1. FC Cologne barely avoided a disastrous start, drawing 2:2 (1:0) late against SV Elversberg and earning their first point under new coach Gerhard Struber. After a strong first half with a lead through Denis Huseinbasic (21.), the Rhinelanders collapsed in the second half, but Timo Hübers (84.) secured the draw.
With one point from two games, Cologne is already playing catch-up in the season. Elversberg's coach Horst Steffen proved to have a golden touch, bringing on goal scorers Fisnik Asllani (46.) and Frederik Schmahl (62.) respectively at half-time. The Saarlanders made a solid start to the season with two points.
The Rhinelanders started strongly in front of 9,502 spectators. Damion Downs (5.) and Linton Maina (15.) missed good chances before Huseinbasic put the ball away from the edge of the box. Afterwards, the deep-lying Elversberg defense gained more control, but they struggled to create chances on the counter. Instead, Hübers and Lemperle missed a double chance (40.).
Steffen woke up his team with two substitutions at halftime, with Asllani scoring after a pass from Robin Fellhauer just 37 seconds in. The game then developed into an open exchange with chances on both sides. Downs shot alone in front of the goal Kristof (58.), before the also substituted Schmahl pushed a cross from Asllani over the line. Cologne's substitute Mark Uth had to leave the field injured after just five minutes of play, before Hübers scored from a corner.
Fortuna Düsseldorf - Karlsruhe SC 0:0
Fortuna Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe SC missed their chance to start the season with a six-point win. After victories last week, the two former Bundesliga teams drew 0:0 in a summer-like game without major excitement and are currently in the mix at the top.
"Ready for new moments" was written large in the choreography of the Fortuna fans - that fit the first home game after the relegation drama in May against VfL Bochum. However, the KSC showed why they are the best second division team of the year: they dominated the game and had the first big chance through captain Marvin Wanitzek, who hit the crossbar with a free kick (20.).
Fortuna had a hard time playing forward in front of 36,103 spectators without their sold top scorer Christos Tzolis. There was a lack of pace and ideas to break down the compact KSC. A 20-meter shot from Felix Klaus (39.) was the best chance of the first half for Düsseldorf.
It only became really dangerous through former KSC striker Tim Rossmann and Matthias Zimmermann (both 52.). Fortuna became more active, Zimmermann came free to head the ball (62.). Karlsruhe, on the other hand, waited for the opportunity to decide the game in their favor.
Following their disappointing season opener, Schalke 04 faced a tough challenge against 1. FC Nuremberg in the 2nd Bundesliga, but their soccer luck didn't improve. On the contrary, they suffered their first setback, losing 3:1 to the newly victorious team coached by Miroslav Klose.
Despite a strong push to secure an equalizer, even after going down to 10 men, Cologne struggled against SV Elversberg in their second match, eventually settling for a 2:2 draw. They are now playing catch-up in their quest for a successful return to the Bundesliga.
