Top dogs

Borussia Dortmund's campaign this season just can't seem to get off the ground. The Bundesliga's defending champions suffered their third loss after just six games of the season.

This time it was Hanover that got the best of visiting Dortmund, although until the very end everything pointed towards a victory for the guests.

Japanese winger Shinji Kagawa put Dortmund 1-0 up but Hanover's Karim Haggui and Ya Konan both scored in the last three minutes of regular time to turn the tides. Dortmund are now a disappointing 11th place in the league, while Hannover is fifth.

Also on Sunday, Bayern Munich beat Schalke 2-0 and have reclaimed the top of the table. The Bavarian soccer giants are now two points clear at the top of the standings. Bayern's newest player, striker Nils Peterson, scored the first of the two goals in the 21st minute, while midfielder Thomas Mueller sealed the deal 15 minutes before the end.

On Saturday, Werder Bremen briefly climbed to the top of the table after drawing with Nuremberg 1-1. Although Bremen lost their goalkeeper Tim Wiese after he fouled Christian Eigler in the 17th minute of play, the club managed to keep Nuremberg at bay and score in the first half.

Nuremberg, however, came back to equalize after half-time when Philipp Wollscheid scored in the 62nd minute. Werder are now 2nd in the table, ahead of Mönchengladbach only on goal difference.

Igor de Camargo scored the winner for Mönchengladbach in a 1-0 defeat of bottom side Hamburg. The northern club has now lost five of their six opening matches and sports director Frank Arnesen already had to dismiss calls for coach Michael Oenning to be sacked.

Cologne thrash Leverkusen

Cologne, meanwhile, thrashed Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 on their opponents own turf at BayArena for the first time in 15 years. Having lost 2-0 to Chelsea in the opening Champions League match on Tuesday, Leverkusen were unable to live up to their expectations as being the clear favorites in the match.

German national striker Lukas Podolski scored twice in the local derby while Milivoje Novakovic and Mato Jajalo netted the other two goals for Cologne. Simon Rolfes scoring the one goal was little consolation for Leverkusen who on a good day should have been able to beat Cologne.

Hoffenheim managed to get a two-goal lead ahead of the break over Wolfsburg through Ryan Babel in the 20th minute and Roberto Firmino three minutes later. Wolfsburg's Ashkan Dejagah pulled one back in the second half but the wolves failed to properly come back. In the end, Hoffenheim won 3-1 with Firmino netting yet another goal.

Hertha Berlin did not manage to get more than a 2-2 draw against Augsburg at the capital's Olympic stadium. Both sides won promotion from the second division only last season and remain in the second half of the table.

Kaiserslautern came from behind to defeat Mainz 3-1 and snag their first win of the season, allowing them to move out of the bottom three. Although Mainz scored early, they helped their opponents catch up when goalkeeper Bo Svensson accidentally knocked the head shot of Kaiserslautern's Sukuta-Pasu into the net. The Israeli Itay Schechter and Christian Tiffert scored the subsequent two goals.

In Friday's football, Stuttgart were 2-1 winners at Freiburg.

Author: Spencer Kimball (dpa, Reuters)

Editor: Andreas Illmer