VIDEO: St. Pauli Goalkeeper Tschauner scores a goal with his head!

Once in a while you see towards the end of a match the goalkeeper of the losing team come up as a last resort for a corner, but rarely do you see the keeper score. That happened last night at the 2.Bundesliga match between St. Pauli and Paderborn with Pauli keeper Philipp Tschauner heading in the 2-2 equaliser in injury time.

Bundesliga: Heading for an interesting finish

The 2010/11 German Bundesliga season is heading for an interesting finale at the top and bottom with three rounds to go. Match day 31 had some interesting surprises in store, which has opened up the table even more and things seem to be changing week by week.

A couple of weeks back Borussia Dortmund seemed to be losing the plot and Bayer 04 Leverkusen closing in to snatch the title away from them, then last week Leverkusen got trashed 5-1 by Bayern Munich and it seemed all over. This is how fast things can change in football.

Now this Saturday Dortmund lost the battles of the Borussia's against bottom placed Moenchengladbach to stay on 69 points and Leverkusen meanwhile had to work their way through to a 2-1 win against 1899 Hoffenheim to move to 64 points. And suddenly the gap has come down to only five points with nine points still to be played for. And some see the young Dortmund side feeling the pressure, while Leverkusen who are known as Vize-kusen (always finish second, but never first) could be in with a late chance.

The race for the third and final UEFA Champions League spot is even tighter. Last week FC Bayern Munich after the win against Leverkusen were a point ahead of Hannover 96 on 55 points, but a draw against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday after Hannover had won 3-1 at SC Freiburg on Thursday left the Bavarian giants one point behind their northern rivals.

There is also a fight for the fifth spot which would guarantee Europa League next season. And the two clubs fighting over the spot met earlier today in Nuremberg with 1.FC Nuremberg playing a goalless draw against FSV Mainz 05. Mainz now on 49 points stay two points clear of Nuremberg.

Down in the relegation zone things are slower getting clearer. It is now a matter of five and not eight/nine clubs who could get relegated. Currently FC St. Pauli and Borussia Moenchengladbach are at the back of the pack with 29 points, while VfL Wolfsburg with their first win under old-and-new coach Felix Magath by beating FC Cologne 4-1 are now on 32 points in the 16th playoff spot. Above them are Eintracht Frankfurt on 34 points, while FC Cologne are on 35 points.

All this guarantees an interesting three weeks until the Bundesliga season ends on May 14, but it will be interesting to see who wins the title, qualifies for Europe and gets relegated.

DFB over-turn St. Pauli's spectator ban

The German Football Association (DFB) on Thursday over-turned their own decision to force Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli to play behind closed doors after a plastic beer cup was thrown on an assistant referee. Under the new ruling the club will have to play the new first match of the new 2011/12 season, in which-ever division, at a ground which is at least 50 kilometres away from Hamburg with the capacity of the ground restricted to 13,750 spectators.

Club coach Holger Stanislawski said, "I have great respect for the DFB control board and the DFB sports court. This is called fair play from a sporting point of view and we very much appreciate that we can host the last two home games this season with the support of our fans."

The German Football Association (DFB) had earlier decided that FC St. Pauli will have to play their Round 31 Bundesliga home game against SV Werder Bremen on April 23 behind closed doors. The DFB had taken the decision following the abandonment of St. Pauli's match against FC Schalke 04 on April 1 after one of the assistant referees was hit by a full plastic beer cup.

The match was abandoned by referee Deniz Aytekin in the 87th minute after his assistant Thorsten Schiffner was struck by the plastic cup at the back of the neck, Schiffner went down but thereafter came back on his feet again to report to Aytekin what had happened. At the time of the incidence St. Pauli were trailing Schalke 0-2 and were down to nine men which had infuriated local St. Pauli fans.

Now the crucial North derby against SV Werder Bremen next weekend will go ahead as planned infront of a sell-out crowd and ensures the club also generates the expected revenues.

About the opening game of the next season St. Pauli will only think once this seasons relegation battle is over because only then will they know which division they will play next season which could be a deciding factor on where to play. The name of the city of Lübeck was mentioned as a potential host as it falls outside the 50 kilometre radius as its 17.500 seater stadium would fulfil the necessary Bundesliga criteria.

Germany's FC St. Pauli get stadium ban

The German Football Association (DFB) has decided that FC St. Pauli will have to play their Round 31 Bundesliga home game against SV Werder Bremen on April 23 behind closed doors. The DFB took the decision following the abandonment of St. Pauli's match against FC Schalke 04 last Friday after one of the assistant referees was hit by a full plastic beer cup.

The reason behind the decision is that the Hamburg based club had failed to protect match officials at their own home ground, the Millerntor Stadium. The beer cup was the climax of numerous objects which where being thrown onto the pitch over the duration of the match.

The match was abandoned by referee Deniz Aytekin in the 87th minute after his assistant Thorsten Schiffner was struck by the plastic cup at the back of the neck, Schiffner went down but thereafter came back on his feet again to report to Aytekin what had happened.

At the time of the incidence St. Pauli were trailing Schalke 0-2 and were down to nine men which had infuriated local St. Pauli fans; but such an incidence is simply unacceptable at a football ground and has deeply embarrassed St. Pauli officials and players.

The DFB disciplinary committee earlier in the week had ruled that the 2-0 result in favour of Schalke 04 would stand.


Here a video of what exactly happened during the game