Bundesliga Roundup - Iranian shines in Bundesliga

It wasn't Mehdi Mahdavikia with a brilliant game for Frankfurt. Mehdi was out injured in the 1-1 draw against Bochum. It wasn't Vahid Hashemian who warmed Hannover's bench in the 2-0 defeat. It wasn't Ashkan Dejagah, who missed in Wolfsburg's win. It was Babak Rafati!

You may ask, "Babak who?". Babak Rafati is one of the better referees in Germany and he showed great refereeing on Friday in the Hertha Berlin game against Dortmund, the sort of refereeing that deserves an award. In the 54th minute, Pantelic committed apparently a foul and Rafati was quick to show the red card. Pantelic couldn't believe it, his coach Favre neither and thus he was jumping up and down the sideline and cussing at Babak in his "Schwyzerdütsch" Swiss-German, nobody should have understood. However, Rafati sensing that something should be wrong in his assesment consulted with his linesman, the linesman told him that it wasn't a red card as Pantelic didn't do anything and thus Rafati overruled his decision, cleared Pantelic of the red card and, what I haven't seen any referee do yet, said sorry to Pantelic for the red card and shook his hand.

Now, it hardly happens that a referee admits a mistake, but admitting a mistake and then saying sorry, that takes greatness and hence, as sad as this might sound to many, I will say that this was the greatest performance of any Iranian in the Bundesliga this season. Rafati showed greatness and he is on his way to become a great referee.

In other news, after the thrilling and hugely entertaining 6-3 win of Stuttgart over Bremen, starring a superb Super Mario Gomez and another excellent performance by King Franck Ribery, Bayern should have won the title for good now. The race is now for which team to make it to the Champions League, as Schalke on 5th and Bremen 2nd are only seperated by 5 points.


Bayer Leverkusen 2 Hannover 96 0

Nurnberg 0 Hamburg 0

Arminia Bielefeld 0 Schalke 04 2

Bayern Munich 2 Karlsruhe 0

Eintracht Frankfurt 1 VfL Bochum 1

MSV Duisburg 1 Hansa Rostock 1

VfB Stuttgart 6 Werder Bremen 3

Wolfsburg 3 Cottbus 0

Borussia Dortmund 1 Hertha Berlin 1