BUNDESLIGA FOOTBALL: Matchday 19

Vfb Stuttgart pulled off the result of Matchday 19 in the Bundesliga with a 4-2 away at Bayer Leverkusen. The game was played at the LTU Arena in Dusseldorf because the Bayer Arena is being extended and Leverkusen were not allowed to settle into their new temporary home as Mario Gomez scored in the second minute. The lead was doubled by former Aston Villa midfielder, Tomas Hitzlsperger, whose free-kick was clocked at 125 km/h. Gomez added his second after halftime, his 37th goal in 43 Budesliga games, and despite a Leverkusen fightback, Stuttgart took all three points back to Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Last season's second and third placed teams, Werder Bremen and Schalke respectively, met in Gelsenkirchen, with both managers under pressure because of their current mid-table predicaments. There were many chances for both sides; Bremen's centre-half Naldo had three good chances but it was Schalke came out on top, winning a tight game 1-0.

At the Borrussia Park in Mönchengladbach, top met bottom as Hoffenheim were the visitors. Mönchengladbach took a first-half lead through Alexander Baumjohann, who will move to Bayern Munich at the end of the season, and looked like they had won the game until Wellington nodded in a free-kick in the dying minutes.

Bayern Munich's first home game since the winter break was against Borussia Dortmund, who took an early lead through Valdez after a defensive slip from Demechelis. Brazillian Ze Roberto equalised but the game looked to be heading for a draw before German international Miroslav Klose found the net twice in the last few minutes to secure a 3-1 win for Bayern.

Elsewhere, second place Hertha Berlin could only manage a 1-1 draw at struggling Arminia Bielefeld with Liverpool's on loan striker Andrej Voronin scoring their goal. The shock of the round was at the Wildparkstadion, where former German international goalkeeper Oliver Kahn watched struggling Karlsruhe secure a 3-2 home win against Martin Jol's Hamburg. Frankfurt and Cologne drew 2-2 at the Commerzbank Arena while Wolfsburg secured a solid 2-0 home win over Vfl Bochum. Finally, Energie Cottbus secured a priceless home win over Hannover which drags them out of the relegation zone. Hannover, who have the worst away record in the Bundesliga lost 3-1 at the Stadion der Freundschaft.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	TSG Hoffenheim	19	8	2	0	23	6	4	1	4	22	18	21	39
2	Bayern Munich	19	6	2	1	27	17	5	3	2	15	9	16	38
3	Hertha Berlin	19	7	2	1	19	8	4	2	3	11	14	8	37
4	Hamburg	19	8	1	0	15	6	3	2	5	14	21	2	36
5	Bayer Leverkusen	19	5	1	4	20	14	5	2	2	19	12	13	33
6	VfB Stuttgart	19	6	2	2	18	9	3	2	4	14	16	7	31
7	Wolfsburg	19	8	1	0	25	6	0	5	5	13	20	12	30
8	Schalke 04	19	6	2	1	13	5	2	4	4	12	12	8	30
9	Borussia Dortmund	19	3	7	0	17	9	4	2	3	12	14	6	30
10	Werder Bremen	19	6	2	2	28	15	1	3	5	12	16	9	26
11	Cologne	19	3	2	4	8	12	4	1	5	14	16	-6	24
12	Eintracht Frankfurt	19	3	3	3	16	12	2	2	6	10	21	-7	20
13	Hannover 96	19	5	4	1	18	11	0	1	8	4	24	-13	20
14	Arminia Bielefeld	19	2	4	3	11	13	1	5	4	7	16	-11	18
15	Cottbus	19	2	1	6	8	16	2	3	5	7	16	-17	16
16	Karlsruhe	19	4	1	4	10	13	1	0	9	8	23	-18	16
17	VfL Bochum	19	2	4	4	15	16	0	4	5	6	16	-11	14
18	Borussia M'gladbach	19	2	2	6	12	19	1	1	7	7	19	-19	12

CRICKET: What todays multi-milion auction means...

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff hit the headlines again this morning, but unfortunately not for their performances in the First Test against the West Indies in Jamaica. Both have fetched approximately £1.1 million each in the second Indian Premier League auction in Goa. But what exactly does this mean?

The India Premier League will run for six weeks in April/May. It is a Twenty20 tournament of 8 franchised teams, which are based in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Therefore all players remain on contracts at the home clubs, in England or South Africa or Australia for instance, but their services are bought for the duration of the tournament, for a certain number of years. The players are auctioned to the highest bidder, but each franchise has a budget. Most players were auctioned last year, on contracts of more than one year. With a limit of ten foreign (non-Indian) players per squad, most franchises already had seven or eight such players.

Therefore, all the attention was on Freddie and KP, because no franchise was likely to take on a foreign player unless he was a world class player. However, the pair can only play for three weeks of the six-week tournament, so they only earn half of the auction fee: about £550,000. That is still over £180,000 a week; eat your heart out Robinho. However, because the players are released from their central contract with the England Cricket Board for those three weeks, they are technically contracted to their respective counties- Lancashire and Hampshire respectively- for that time. And the counties want compensation.

The compensation was set at 10% of their fee, which for Flintoff and Pietersen is £55,000 each. Not bad for missing one County Championship match. Paul Collingwood, the other centrally contracted England player, was bought for $275,000, so Durham can expect about £15,000. Collingwood was not the third most expensive England player though. All-rounder Ravi Bopara fetched $450,000. These are massive sums, so one can understand the English players scrambling to be part of it.

The IPL was exciting last year, and will undoubtedly be enhanced by Flintoff and Pietersen, as well as South African JP Duminy who has had a superb recent series against Australia and was auctioned for just shy of $1,000,000. What is more in doubt, is the preparedness of England's two best players for the First Test against the West Indies at Lords in May, after bashing the ball around in a Twenty20 tournament for three weeks. Is five days is long enough to get back into Test mode or does it not matter when you bat like Kevin Pietersen or Andrew Flintoff? Only time will tell.

BUNDESLIGA FOOTBALL: Matchday 18

The Bundesliga re-started on Friday after a 7 week winter break with champions Bayern Munich travelling to fourth placed Hamburg, coached by former Tottenham Hotspur boss, Martin Jol. Hamburg, who were unbeaten at home going into the game, more than matched the mighty Bayern.

The game was a truly end-to-end affair, with numerous chances for both sides; one of which, a Luca Toni effort in the 28th minute, seemed perfectly legitimate but was ruled out. Hamburg did get on the scoresheet just before halftime when Mladen Petric headed in after a save from Bayern goalkeeper Michael Rensing. Bayern pushed on in the second-half, despite Franck Ribery struggling to get in the game, and created chances but Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni were particularly culpable of squandering chances, and Hamburg held on for a 1-0 win.

League leaders TSG Hoffenheim welcomed Energie Cottbus to the new Rhein-Neckar Arena for the first Bundesliga game at the stadium. Despite the long-term injury of Vedad Ibisevic, who has 18 goals for the season, Hoffenheim won comfortably through goals from Demba Ba and Boubacar Sanogo. New signing Timo Hildebrand, the former Vfb Stuttgart goalkeeper, who was signed from Valencia in Spain, went off injured but it is expected to play next week.

In the capital, Hertha Berlin, after a superb year in 2008, began where they left off with a 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt at the Olympiastadion. Two goals from Marko Pantelic, who continues not to see eye-to-eye with coach Lucien Favre, were enough for Berlin despite sustained second-half pressure from Frankfurt which included Benjamin Köhler's strike.

Hannover 96 welcomed back German international goalkeeper Robert Enke after a four month lay-off, for the game against Schalke. Germany's number one was instrumental in rebuffing a number of efforts from Schalke as Hannover won a very open game by one goal to nil. Sergio Pinto scored the goal and Schalke forward Gerald Asamoah was particularly guilty of missing oppurtunites for the away side.

Elsewhere, Vfb Stuttgart beat bottom side Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Mercedes-Benz Arena with goals through Romanian international Ciprian Marica and German international Mario Gomez. Wolfsburg secured a draw on an absolutley awful pitch in Cologne, while Borrussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen managed the same result at the Signal Iduna Park, the biggest club stadium in Germany. Vfl Bochum had an important win at home to fellow strugglers Karlsruhe with goals through Fuchs and Klimowicz and Arminia Bielefeld cause the shock of the weekend, winning 2-1 against Champions League regulars Werder Bremen. Bremen badly missed the suspended Diego and Claudio Pizarro and find themselves in the bottom half of the league going into matchday 19.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	TSG Hoffenheim	18	8	2	0	23	6	4	0	4	21	17	21	38
2	Hertha Berlin	18	7	2	1	19	8	4	1	3	10	13	8	36
3	Hamburg	18	8	1	0	15	6	3	2	4	12	18	3	36
4	Bayern Munich	18	5	2	1	24	16	5	3	2	15	9	14	35
5	Bayer Leverkusen	18	5	1	3	18	10	5	2	2	19	12	15	33
6	Borussia Dortmund	18	3	7	0	17	9	4	2	2	11	11	8	30
7	VfB Stuttgart	18	6	2	2	18	9	2	2	4	10	14	5	28
8	Wolfsburg	18	7	1	0	23	6	0	5	5	13	20	10	27
9	Schalke 04	18	5	2	1	12	5	2	4	4	12	12	7	27
10	Werder Bremen	18	6	2	2	28	15	1	3	4	12	15	10	26
11	Cologne	18	3	2	4	8	12	4	0	5	12	14	-6	23
12	Hannover 96	18	5	4	1	18	11	0	1	7	3	21	-11	20
13	Eintracht Frankfurt	18	3	2	3	14	10	2	2	6	10	21	-7	19
14	Arminia Bielefeld	18	2	3	3	10	12	1	5	4	7	16	-11	17
15	VfL Bochum	18	2	4	4	15	16	0	4	4	6	14	-9	14
16	Karlsruhe	18	3	1	4	7	11	1	0	9	8	23	-19	13
17	Cottbus	18	1	1	6	5	15	2	3	5	7	16	-19	13
18	Borussia M'gladbach	18	2	1	6	11	18	1	1	7	7	19	-19	11

FOOTBALL: Newcastle 1-1 Sunderland (01.02.09): Black Cats feel agrieved after 'terrible' penalty decision

This was a game of two halves if ever there was one. Sunderland dominated the first-half, going ahead through a Djibril Cisse goal just after half an hour. Newcastle equalised in the second half, through a debatable penalty, but neither side showed the class to win the game.

Sunderland started brightly but had to wait until the 20th minute until they really threatened Steve Harper's goal. Kieron Richardson's 25 yard free-kick crashed against the left-hand post and rebounded eventually to Kenwyne Jones, whose shot was cleared off the line by debutant Kevin Nolan. Both players were in the news this week: Jones signing a lucrative new contract at the Stadium of Light, while Nolan was signed from Bolton Wanderers for £4 million.

The Magpies replied moments later, when Andy Carroll's looping header struck the top of the crossbar. Otherwise, the Sunderland midfield was linking up well and they made the pressure count in the 33rd minute, when Kenwyne Jones ducked under a Dean Whithead lob into the box and Djibril Cisse, who was just onside, saw his first shot saved by Steve Harper but steered the rebound into an empty net. Andy Carroll fired a shot just wide 5 minutes before half-time but Sunderland looked comfortable.

However, the Black Cats completely lost their way in the second-half as Newcastle dominated possession . Their poor play was typified by Steed Malbranque and Kieron Richardson's inability to keep the ball in midfield, after looking good before the break. Sunderland were not helped by the injury to goalscorer Djibril Cisse, who hobbled off after mistiming a tackle. Kenwyne Jones looked like he may be following his strike-partner down the tunnel, after a crunching tackle from Sebastien Bassong, who was superb in the Newcastle defence. But Jones stayed on.

Jonas Gutierrez ran his socks off for the Magpies, tormenting Sunderland full-back Phil Bardsley, who had picked up an early booking. Named man-of-the-match at the end, the Argentinian winger's purposeful runs and pressure culminated eventually in a Newcastle goal. Midway through the second-half, local boy Steven Taylor burst into the box shadowed by Steed Malbranque. Taylor appeared to stick out his left leg and cause the Frenchman to stumble, but in the referee Howard Webb's opinion, Malbranque's somewhat clumsy fall which knocked over the Newcastle number 27 was a foul, and the Premier League's top referee pointed to the spot. Shola Ameobi smashed in the penalty.

Despite the perceived injustice, Sunderland did not improve after the goal, continuing to give the ball away cheaply to Joe Kinnear's team. That said, Sunderland did almost snatch the game. In the 84th minute, substitute and former Newcastle man, Michael Chopra, stole the ball from Fabricio Coliccini and ran into the left-hand side of the box; Steve Harper and the goal beckoning. However, the man who scored for Newcastle against Sunderland in a Tyne-Wear derby a few seasons ago, attempted an unlikely cross to Kenwyne Jones and missed his target. The conspiracy theories started.

Sunderland could also have snatched it in the final minute of added time, when a poor Newcastle clearance fell to the feet of Andy Reid, another substitute, who took it down and volleyed just wide. It would have been the first time Sunderland have beaten Newcastle home and away in one season since 1967.

Ricky Sbragia is probably a little happier than Joe Kinnear with this result, especially as the Balck Cats began the game three points ahead of their local rivals in the league. But judging by Danny Collins comments after the game, labelling the penalty decision as "terrible," Sunderland feel that they should have made the short trip home with all three points.