Bayern 2-0 Hoffenheim
Hannover 0-3 Hertha
Monchengladbach 1-2 Bochum
Leverkusen 4-2 Mainz
Eintracht 1-0 Bremen
Hamburg 2-0 Freiburg
Stuttgart 3-1 Wolfsburg
Schalke 1-0 Nurnberg
Cologne 2-3 Dortmund
Starting 2010 in what was very much last place, Hertha had a dream start to the new year. They were comfortable winners away at Hannover and even had the luxury of missing a late penalty, Cicero the guilty man. They were 3-0 up by that point after Lukasz Piszczek and Raffael handing them a first half lead and Theofanis Gekas adding a third ten minutes from time. Reality bites though, and the current season began in similar fashion before turning into the disaster that saw them finish the first half of the season so far adrift. Even with this win, they're nine points adrift of safety, but it's a good start.
Leverkusen, Schalke and Bayern all won, leaving the status quo intact at the top of the table. Bayern saw off Hoffenheim with ease on Friday, the unsettled Martin Demichelis putting the Bavarians ahead and a late strike from Miroslav Klose sealing the points. The Royal Blues needed just the one goal, the resurgent Kevin Kuranyi with his ninth of the season enough to beat struggling Nurnberg. Leverkusen were involved in a terrific game against Mainz that wasn't settled until two minutes from time. Tim Hoogland put Mainz ahead on eight minutes, but a Tranquilo Barnetta-inspired Leverkusen hit the newly promoted side with three in quarter of an hour. Michal Kadlec, Barnetta and the influential Toni Kroos turned that one-goal deficit into a 3-1 half-time lead. Niko Bungert pulled one back and Mainz went in search of an equaliser until a beautiful move from back to front on the counter attack ended with Barnetta crossing for Eren Derdiyok to stab home from close range.
Marcell Janssen and Mladen Petric struck for Hamburg as they beat Freiburg to stay in touch at the top. The return of Petric will be huge relief to Bruno Labbadia who had gone three months without a recognised striker and will hopefully signal a return to form and a concerted push to keep this race interesting. Dortmund ended 2009 in terrific form and picked up where they left off, Mats Hummels scoring twice in a one-sided first half in Cologne. The hosts came back strongly after the break with Slovenian international Milivoje Novakovic a constant threat. Eight minutes remained when Kevin McKenna pulled one back and just two when Youssef Mohamad equalised. Just when they thought they'd done enough to grab a point, Kevin Grosskreutz broke their hearts. While the points were welcome, a nasty knee injury to goalkeeper and captain Roman Weidenfeller wasn't what Dortmund needed, but substitute Marc Ziegler won't let BvB down.
Wolfsburg's year starts with defeat, the champions not making a great fist of the defence of their title. Roberto Hilbert and Pavel Pogrebnyak put the Swabians two up before Edin Dzeko pulled one back, but Stuttgart added a third through Timo Gebhart to leave the champions in ninth place, fully 14 points off the pace. Bremen also lost more ground, losing in Frankfurt to a Marco Russ goal. This comes a week after coach Michael Skibbe outlined his exit strategy from the club, bemoaning the club's lack of ambition. Bochum won a vital relegation battle against Gladbach, Stanislav Sestak and Zlatko Dedic putting them two up before Fabian Backer's late goal set up a tense last ten minutes that the Ruhr side just about hung onto.
Four points now cover the top four with Dortmund, unbeaten in eight now, coming up fast on the rails. This is not over by a long shot.
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