Polo Win the Top Match, and Hamburg Take the Lot: Bundesliga Men, Sunday Results

All twelve points on offer in Hamburg stayed in Hamburg. That’s the short version of Bundesliga Sunday. All four of the city’s top-flight men’s teams won at home, and the biggest of the four wins came in the game that mattered most.

Polo 2-1 Mannheim: the top match goes to the leaders

Hamburger Polo beat Mannheimer HC 2-1 (1-0), and it felt bigger than three points. Mannheim went into the weekend top. They’ll start next week third.

Justus Weigand, who used to wear Mannheim’s shirt, put Polo in front in the 13th minute. John Dammertz made it 2-0 in the 39th, and the game looked done. It nearly turned. Tom Craig was penalised for blocking Marius Leser’s shot, Mannheim got a stroke in the 42nd minute, and Ben Hasbach put it too close to Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji, who saved it.

Hasbach fixed his mistake three minutes later, 2-1, and Mannheim had one late corner to level it. It came to nothing. And the man who might have taken it wasn’t there. Gonzalo Peillat, back in the squad on Saturday after his knee injury, wasn’t in Mannheim’s squad on Sunday. Knowing and stopping are different things, we said yesterday. Mannheim never got to test that theory.

Rot-Weiss Köln’s point at Crefeld was enough to jump them above Mannheim into second. Polo stay top, and they’ve now beaten their nearest rivals at home. That sticks in a dressing room.

Crefeld 3-3 Köln: levelled with 30 seconds left, then the shootout

Crefeld led this game three times and still didn’t win it. Paul Smith scored in the 3rd minute, Jakob Brilla equalised from a corner in the 6th. Lachlan Sharp made it 2-1 in the 22nd, Florian Adrians levelled again in the 32nd. When Jack Welch deflected Hans Neethling’s backhand in for 3-2 in the 55th, Crefeld thought they’d finally shaken Köln off.

They hadn’t. With 30 seconds left Köln got one last ball into the circle and Henrik Siegburg deflected it in. 3-3. Köln then took the extra point in the shootout, Hugo von Montgelas and Justus Warweg scoring against Tim Howard’s single reply. Fourth-placed Crefeld keep throwing leads away, and it’s becoming their story.

The Hamburg sweep: 7-1, 5-0 and a comeback

UHC Hamburg produced the day’s rout, 7-1 (2-0) against promoted Berliner HC. Benedikt Schwarzhaupt (3′, corner), Jonas Weidemüller (18′) and Leopold Harms (39′, corner) made it 3-0 before Nico Kirstein pulled one back for Berlin from a corner in the 44th. Then the old boys piled in. Florian Sperling (50′) and Liam Holdermann (60′), both former Berlin players, scored either side of an Elian Mazkour stroke (53′) and a Hannes Müller goal (55′). It’s UHC’s biggest win of the season and their third straight three points.

Harvestehuder were just as comfortable, 5-0 (3-0) against Münchner SC, a day after beating Berlin 5-1. Alec von Schwerin scored two corners (10′, 26′), Nqobile Ntuli scored twice from open play (20′, 51′) and Craig Marais added the other (41′). HTHC hold eighth; Munich stay eleventh.

Club an der Alster had to work hardest. They were 2-0 down at home to TSV Mannheim at half-time, Maico Casella (15′, corner) and Philipp Wossidlo (30′) scoring for the visitors. Till Brockmann (42′) and Calvin Davis (45′, corner) levelled it by the end of the third quarter, Lasse Mink gave Alster their first lead in the 59th, and when TSV pulled their keeper, Jeremy Hayward finished a counter with a corner in the 60th. 4-2. Alster jump above TSV into sixth.

The bottom: Mülheim breathe, DSD don’t

Uhlenhorst Mülheim won the relegation game 2-1 (0-0) against DSD Düsseldorf. Julius Strauder put the visitors in front in the 42nd minute and the lead lasted about a minute, Lukas Windfeder equalising from a corner in the 43rd. Captain Jan Schiffer won it from another corner in the 49th. Mülheim climb to ninth. DSD have lost seven of eight and sit last.

Sunday’s scores: Hamburger Polo 2-1 Mannheimer HC; Crefelder HTC 3-3 Rot-Weiss Köln (Köln won the shootout 2-1); UHC Hamburg 7-1 Berliner HC; Harvestehuder THC 5-0 Münchner SC; Club an der Alster 4-2 TSV Mannheim; Uhlenhorst Mülheim 2-1 DSD Düsseldorf.