It was a dreadful day for Giovanni Reyna as an injury forced him out of the game early for Borussia Dortmund, while Terrence Boyd scored a goal for promotion-chasing Kaiserslautern.
Stuttgart 0-2 Borussia Dortmund
Goals in both halves saw Borussia Dortmund come away with the shutout win over Stuttgart at the Mercedes Benz Arena to maintain a chance at catching the league leaders.
It was a good result, but it was bittersweet as Giovanni Reyna was forced off the field just minutes into the game with a hamstring injury. Replacing him would be Julian Brandt, who turned out to be the hero for the team.
The German scored the visitor’s first goal in the 12th minute when Erling Haaland sent a low cross into the six-yard box for the easy tap-in.
BVB doubled their lead in the 71st minute when Brandt and Marco Reus linked up before the sub fired the ball into the goal from distance.
The win leaves Dortmund in second place with 60 points, nine behind Bayern Munich.
Wolfsburg 4-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Wolfsburg snapped their three-game losing run with a big win over Arminia Bielefeld at the Volkswagen Arena to put some distance between them and the relegation zone.
John Brooks went the distance for the Wolves, completing 86 percent of his passes and winning four duels. Kevin Paredes played the final four minutes and change, while on the other side George Bello remained on the bench.
The hosts opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Lukas Nmecha ran onto the ball following a pass from Yannick Gerhardt to put his shot past Bielefeld goalkeeper Stefan Moreno. The two would link up again in the 38th minute with the Germans connecting through headers before putting the ball in the back of the net.
Wolfsburg kept rolling in the second half when Maximilian Arnold scored their third just minutes after the restart with a free-kick.
Max Kruse rounded out the scoring in the 53rd minute for the hosts when he headed in a cross from Ridle Baku.
The win leaves Wolfsburg in 13th place in the standings with 34 points.
Wurzburger Kickers 1-2 Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern cut the points gap to six on 3. Liga leaders Magdeburg as they were able to hold on for the win over Wurzburger Kickers at the Flyeralarm Arena.
It was a stellar day for the former U.S. national team player Terrence Boyd as he not only scored a goal but also added an assist for the team who look well on their way to promotion to the 2. Bundesliga.
The visitors opened the scoring after the half-hour mark when Boyd passed the ball to Mike Wunderlich who fired it into the back of the net from distance.
The roles would be reversed in the 57th minute as Wunderlich provided the assist for Boyd to grab his 14th goal of the season. A free-kick found the striker in the area to head the ball home.
Saliou Sane scored a consolation goal for Wurzburger Kickers in the 85th minute, but that’s all they could do as Kaiserslautern left with all three points.
Kaiserslautern remains in second place in the standings with 60 points.
Notes
In other Bundesliga action, first-half goals were enough for Joe Scally and Borussia Monchengladbach to come away with the 2-0 win over Julian Green, Timothy Tillman, and Greuther Furth.
Tyler Adams played the entire second half for RB Leipzig in their 3-0 win over Chris Richards, Justin Che, and Hoffenheim.
Ricardo Pepi came on to play 34 minutes for Augsburg as a late-game penalty saw them fall to league leaders Bayern Munich in a 1-0 defeat.
Tim Chandler watched all the action from the bench as Eintracht Frankfurt suffered a narrow 2-1 loss to Freiburg.
Down in the 3. Liga, Lennard Maloney played the full 90 minutes in Borussia Dortmund II’s 1-0 loss to Viktoria Berlin.
Justin Butler played the final 10 minutes for Waldhof Mannheim as they shared the points with Saarbrucken in a 0-0 draw.
