Neven Subotić was the only happy American in the top two flights of German professional soccer as Heath Pearce, Steven Cherundolo and Gregg Berhalter each lost with their respective teams this weekend.

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ROSTOCK DROP INTO RELEGATION ZONE
US international Heath Pearce went the distance for Hansa Rostock for the first time since December in their 1-0 loss at Schalke on Saturday.

It did not look early as though Rostock would lose to the Miners. They defended deep and kept it tight right from the starting whistle, resulting in many Schalke turnovers. 

But at this level, defending alone does not pay as Hansa did not manage to create any strong scoring chances whatsoever in the first half. Neither did last year's runners up, by the way, except by means of set plays. Schalke skipper Marcelo Bordon, Albert Streit and Jermaine Jones were either denied by a Rostock defender or their own aim.

The sold out Veltins Arena crowd was close to regretting their attendance when it a Halil Altintop header sent them into sheer pandemonium seven minutes past halftime. The Turkey international scored seven minutes into the second half on a Streit cross.

Rostock gave up their stonewalling and came close to equalizing. Manuel Neuer saved Gledson's header at the hour mark and an Addy Waku-Menga shot was cleared off the line by a Schalke defender 10 minutes later. 

In the closing minutes of the game, it was Hansa's half-baked attacks that left Schalke space on the break. Kevin Kuranyi had several chances on the stroke of full time, but was denied on each of those by a magnificent Stefan Wächter.

Hansa is winless in seven games and will try to end that streak next Saturday at fellow promoted team Karlsruhe.

Scoring
SCH - Halil Altintop 5 (Albert Streit) 52'

Line-ups
SCH - Manuel Neuer; Heiko Westermann, Marcelo Bordon, Mladen Krstajic, Christian Pander, Fabian Ernst, Jermaine Jones, Albert Streit (Gerald Asamoah 76'), Vicente Sanchez (Peter Lövenkrands 71'), Halil Altintop, Sören Larsen (Kevin Kuranyi 60')

HR - Stefan Wächter; Dexter Langen, Gledson, Tim Sebastian, Heath Pearce, Kai Bülow, Tobias Rathgeb, Fin Bartels (Djordjije Cetkovic 82'), Christian Rahn (Zafer Yelen 67'), Enrico Kern, Amir Shapourzadeh (Addy-Waku Menga 53')

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REELING REDS FALL AT WOLFSBURG
Steve Cherundolo saw 51 minutes of action in a spirited 3-2 loss at Wolfsburg on Saturday.

Both teams were everything but in a foul mood despite foul weather in Lower Saxony, and with 20 minutes played, it was Germany Under-21 international Ashkan Dejagah who opened the floodgates in the name of the hosts.

Die Roten retaliated seven minutes later when Arnold Bruggink headed home from a Huszti cross. Hannover's cheers were short-lived as Marcelinho scored in turn two minutes later. 

Wolfsburg got off to a better start after the break when they created several chances, but could not get past 96 keeper Robert Enke. 

The game went Wolfsburg's way when Dejagah scored his second goal of the afternoon with 20 minutes to go in the game. Edin Dzeko sent him off with a fine through pass after winning the ball from Christian Schulz.

Jiří Štajner's goal with 11 minutes to play raised the visiting side's hope for at least one point, but it was too little and too late for Hannover.

The 96'ers will try to rack up a victory next Saturday when they host Eintracht Frankfurt.

Scoring
WOLF - Ashkan Dejagah 6 (Edin Dzeko) 20'
H96 - Arnold Bruggink 3 (Szabolcs Huszti) 27'
WOLF - Marcelinho 5 (Ashkan Dejagah) 29'
WOLF - Ashkan Dejagah 7 (Edin Dzeko) 71'
H96 - Jiří Štajner 4 79'

Line-ups
WOLF - Diego Benaglio; Sascha Riether (Makoto Hasebe 46'), Ricardo Costa, Alexander Madlung (Jan Simunek 21'), Marcel Schäfer, Christian Gentner, Josué, Jonathan Santana, Marcelinho (Alexander Laas 90'), Edin Dzeko, Ashkan Dejagah

H96 - Robert Enke; Steve Cherundolo (Christian Schulz 51'), Valérien Ismaël, Frank Fahrenhorst, Vinicius, Altin Lala, Hanno Balitsch (Vahid Hashemian 79'), Sergio Pinto, Arnold Bruggink (Benjamin Lauth 57'), Szabolcs Huszti, Jiří Štajner

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MAINZ UNDERLINE PROMOTION PURSUIT
Mainz 05 won the Rhineland-Palatinate derby against SV Wehen/Wiesbaden in superior 3-0 style and are right back in promotion contention.

The home side was in control right from kickoff. Their dominance paid out when Tim Hoogland led off with a superb finish on a Miroslav Karhan volley pass.

Four minutes later, it was Karhan himself who put Mainz up by two with his third goal in to games. He scored on a breakaway pass from Srdjan Baljak.

Mainz slowed down the pace after the break and it took them 15 minutes to put their home crowd into a frenzy again. Markus Feulner broke through on the left side to set up Daniel Gunkel, whose effort beat Wehen/Wiesbaden goalie Thomas Richter but not defender Ales Kokot.

Even Kokot was not able to prevent Mainz' final strike with four minutes to go as Isaac Boakye centered to Gunkel, who would not fail on the finish this time.

Mainz 05 will now hit the road to relegation-threatened FC Augsburg on Friday.

Scoring
MNZ - Tim Hoogland 5 (Miroslav Karhan) 28'
MNZ - Miroslav Karhan 5 (Srdjan Baljak) 32'
MNZ - Daniel Gunkel 9 (Isaac Boakye) 86'

Line-ups
MNZ - Dimo Wache; Tim Hoogland, Neven Subotić, Nikolce Noveski, Marco Rose, Miroslav Karhan, Daniel Gunkel, Milorad Peković, Markus Feulner (Nejmeddin Daghfous 89'), Srdjan Baljak (Elkin Soto 73'), Félix Borja (Isaac Boakye 64')

WW - Thomas Richter; Torge Hollmann, Dajan Simac, Kristjan Glibo, Ales Kokot, Sandro Schwarz, Patrick Bick (Robert Paul 49'), Benjamin Siegert (Enis Alushi 81'), Maximilian Nicu, Dennis Schmidt (Valentine Atem 68'), Bakary Diakité

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FÜRTH KEEP 1860 SINKING
1860 Munich are winless in eight league games after suffering a 3-1 loss at Greuther Fürth on Friday night.

Gregg Berhalter went the distance for the Lions, while Josh Wolff did not take part.

With Munich only scoring five times in the second half of the campaign and Fürth only having something to be delighted at once in their last three games, this match-up seemed bound to bore the pants off of everybody watching.

However, both sides made it clear that they wanted to win this derby right form the kickoff. Fürth, though, was more alert, nimbler and full of a certain joy they had lacked in previous games.

This would soon result in their first lead of the game. In minute five, Timo Achenbach forced his way through Munich's shaky back four and had the eye for Stefan Reisinger, who put away from close range.

Greuther Fürth was constantly on the offensive, but it was 1860 who scored next when a Benjamin Schwarz cross found an unmarked Daniel Bierofka in the six-yard box.

Shortly before the halftime whistle, Markus Thorandt who was sent off after a tactical foul, dropping the visitors to 10 men.

Fürth used their man advantage to regain the lead in the second half. Former Lions striker Reisinger made use of yet another Munich blooper and scored his third brace of the campaign. 

The Kleeblatt created several further chances, but were not able to wrap things up until Cidimar finally sealed the deal in injury time.

1860 Munich will try to scale Offenbach's Bieberer Berg next Sunday.

Scoring
GF - Stefan Reisinger 11 (Timo Achenbach) 5'
1860 - Daniel Bierofka 5 (Benjamin Schwarz) 25'
GF - Stefan Reisinger 12 (Daniel Felgenhauer) 55'
GF - Cidimar 4 (Stefan Reisinger) 93'

Line-ups
GF - Sascha Krischstein; Daniel Felgenhauer, Marino Biliskov, Jan Mauersberger, Timo Achenbach, Juri Judt, Daniel Adlung (Sascha Boller 87'), Thorsten Burkhardt, Ivo Ilicevic (Stephan Schröck 60'), Aleksandar Kotuljac (Cidimar 79'), Stefan Reisinger

1860 - Phillip Tschauner; Torben Hoffmann (Lukasz Szukala 46'), Markus Thorandt, Gregg Berhalter, Benjamin Schwarz, Julian Baumgartlinger (Timo Gebhart 64'), Danny Schwarz, Daniel Bierofka, Berkant Göktan, José Holebas (Fabian Johnson 46'), Antonio di Salvo
 
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ON THE SIDELINE
Bryan Arguez did not dress as Hertha BSC Berlin lost their homer against Werder Bremen 2-1.

Koblenz' face-off with Kickers Offenbach ended in a 1-1 draw, with Josh Grenier watching from the stands.

Luis Robles was sidelined as Kaiserslautern went down to Hoffenheim.