In the battle of the American center-backs, it would be Chris Richards and Hoffenheim that would come out on top as they inflicted the first defeat for John Brooks and Wolfsburg.
Hoffenheim 3-1 Wolfsburg
Hoffenheim surrendered the first goal but they hit back hard to earn a comfortable win over Wolfsburg at the PreZero Arena.
Both Chris Richards and John Brooks started for their respective teams, with the Bayern Munich loanee completing 86 percent of his passes, winning three aerial battles, and registering an assist. Brooks completed 90 percent of his passes and won two aerial battles.
The Champions League participants had the early advantage and opened the scoring in the 25th minute in spectacular fashion when Ridle Baku sent a curling shot from outside the area to the back of the net.
The visitors should have headed to the locker room with the lead, but Hoffenheim found the equalizer in stoppage time when a corner kick found Richards in the area. He headed the ball through a crowd of green shirts and Andrej Kramaric would be on the spot to head the ball home.
The host would take the lead in the 73rd minute when Christoph Baumgartner was left unmarked to score. Pavel Kaderabek added an insurance goal eight minutes later to guarantee the win.
Hoffenheim sits in ninth place with eight points while Wolfsburg drops to third in the Bundesliga standings with 13 points.
Notes
In other Bundesliga action, a solitary goal in the first half was enough for Joe Scally and Borussia Monchengladbach to come away with the 1-0 win over Borussia Dortmund.
Both Julian Green and Timothy Tillman had a chance to get one over Bayern Munich, but the champions beat Greuther Furth 3-1 despite going down to 10 men.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Justin Butler played the final 15 minutes while Jalen Hawkins watched on from the bench for Ingolstadt in their 2-1 loss to Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Ryan Malone could only look on as Hansa Rostock fell to Schalke in a 2-0 loss.
Down in the 3. Liga, Terrence Boyd was on the scoresheet for Hallescher in their 3-2 win over Magdeburg.
Mael Corboz went the distance for Verl as they shared the points following a 1-1 draw with 1860 Munich.
Johan Gomez started for Zwickau while Maximilian Dieter had a spot on the bench for Freiburg II as they shared the spoils after a scoreless draw.
Andrew Wooten played the final 30 minutes for Osnabruck but could not make an impact as they fell to Kaiserslautern in a 2-0 defeat.
Bryang Kayo played the final 10 minutes for Viktoria Berlin as they were on the wrong end of a thrilling 4-3 defeat to Havelse.
Lennart Maloney had a spot on the bench as Borussia Dortmund II suffered a narrow 2-1 loss to Turkgucu Munich.
