Borussia Dortmund was kept to a 1-1 draw against neighborhood rivals Bochum on Saturday thanks to a goal from Donyell Malen in the second half.
Dortmund got off to a slow start as Bochum’s Kevin Stoeger fired a rocket from the outside of the box, surprising the visitors defense.
Early in the second half, Malen equalized the score with his third goal in his last three games.
Dortmund was motivated by the goal, but Bochum resisted. Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, an English youngster, had a last-second opportunity to win it for the visitors but he missed from close range.
Edin Terzic, the coach of Dortmund, is left with additional doubts after the tie despite his team earning a point, since his team’s offensive prowess up front was ineffective.
In another match, Germany international Robin Gosens scored twice as Union Berlin cruised to a 4-1 victory away at Darmstadt despite losing a player early.
After 21 minutes, American midfielder Brenden Aaronson received a second caution, with Union leading the promoted team 1-0 thanks to an early Gosens goal.
Three minutes later, Darmstadt scored an equalizer, but the outnumbered guests rallied, scoring headers from Gosens and Kevin Behrens to give Union a 3-1 lead at the break.
traveling center-back In the middle of the second half, Danilho Doekhi scored a fourth goal, this time with his head.
It was the first time in the top division that Union won its first two games of the year.
Andrej Kramaric scored a penalty in extra time to give Hoffenheim a 3-2 victory against newly promoted minnows Heidenheim, who blew a 2-0 lead.
Jan-Niklas Beste of Heidenheim missed a penalty after just 16 minutes, but he soon made up for it by curling in a free kick from an unbelievable angle to score the team’s first-ever top division goal.
Midway through the second half, the home team’s attacker Marvin Pieringer seemed to have put the game away with a goal, but Hoffenheim scored three goals in the last 13 minutes to turn the game around.
Maximilian Philipp of Freiburg scored in the sixth minute of added time to give his team a 1-0 victory against a faltering Werder Bremen at home.
Wolfsburg overcame a 55-minute deficit to defeat Cologne 2-1 thanks to two second-half goals from Jonas Wind. The home team had taken the lead thanks to a Luca Waldschmidt goal.
Wind has now scored all of his team’s goals in the Bundesliga this year after scoring twice in Wolfsburg’s 2-0 home victory against Hoffenheim last weekend.
Borussia Moenchengladbach plays host to Bayer Leverkusen in the late game on Saturday.
On Sunday, when Mainz play Frankfurt, Bayern Munich will visit Augsburg with their 100 million euro attacker Harry Kane.