Steve Cherundolo and Hannover 96 outgunned title chasers Werder Bremen, Joe Enoch's Osnabrück downed the double yank power of 1860 Munich and Neven Subotić's Mainz climbed to second in the 2.Bundesliga.

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HANKE GUNS DOWN BREMEN
Steve Cherundolo and Hannover 96 moved to within eight points of league leaders Bayern Munich after a thrilling 4-3 win over title contenders Werder Bremen, thanks largely to a potent showing from summer buy Mike Hanke.

The former Schalke and Wolfsburg striker brought his season strike tally to eight, thanks to his first hat trick for the club.

Bremen opened the scoring in the 10th minute when former Ajax attacker Marcus Rosenberg slotted home after being picked out by Daniel Jensen. The goal, however, would fail to define the scoreline for more than two minutes as Hanke turned one in after an industrious set piece play.

In the 20th minute, Bremen defender Frank Baumann unfortunately kneed the ball into his own net after latching onto Hanke's driven cross for the 2-1 to Hannover. The in-form striker would garnish the goal celebration with his second of the night just one minute later, again profiting from Michael Tarnat's hard work.

Not to be outdone, Rosenberg would continue to pressure the hosts, forcing them to concede a penalty in the 41st minute, the result of which was coolly slotted home by rumored Real Madrid transfer target Diego.

The Swede leveled the scoreline with his second goal of the affair in the 54th minute, but Hanke was his better, rounding off his first hat trick in Die Röten colors with a 77th minute strike after having been picked out by a nice work from Tarnat and Jiří Štajner.

Next up for the Reds is a Friday away trip to Energie Cottbus, their last match before the Bundesliga winter break.

Scoring
WB - Markus Rosenberg 3 (Daniel Jensen) 10'
H96 - Mike Hanke 6 (Michael Tarnat) 12'
H96 - Own Goal (Frank Baumann) 20'
H96 - Mike Hanke 7 (Michael Tarnat) 21'
WB - Diego 8 (PK) 41'
WB - Markus Rosenberg 4 (Duško Tošić) 54'
H96 - Mike Hanke 8 (Jiří Štajner) 77'

Line-ups
H96 - Robert Enke; Steve Cherundolo, Vinicius, Thomas Kleine, Michael Tarnat, Hanno Balitsch (Jan Rosenthal 72'), Christian Schultz, Gaten Krebs (Jiří Štajner 69'), Sergio Pinto (Vahid Hashemian 84'), Szabolcs Huszti, Mike Hanke

WB - Tim Wiese; Petri Pasanen, Per Mertesacker (Aaron Hunt 46'), Naldo, Duško Tošić, Frank Baumann, Jurica Vranjes (Tim Borowski 79'), Daniel Jensen, Diego, Markus Rosenberg, Boubacar Sanogo (Hugo Almeida 80')

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BAYER DROWNS HARMLESS HANSA
Hansa Rostock was counter-sunk by a back-in-the-championship race Bayer Leverkusen, who rang up a 3-0 win without some key cogs.

Heath Pearce played the full 90 minutes in midfield for the visitors, but couldn't help avoid the defeat.

Leverkusen has never been one of Hansa's favorite opponents, but few expected the game to turn out as such a one-way duel.

Hansa's doom started in the fourth minute when Simon Rolfes scored with a low touch from five meters after a Tranqillo Barnetta corner.

The Hanseatic were shocked, producing not one decent play in the subsequent minutes, while Leverkusen became even more aggressive.

Hansa's first half-chance came in the 20th minute when captain Stefan Beinlich sent a free kick to Orestes, who headed from distance directly into the gloves of Bayer goalie René Adler.

After a rather boring close to the half, Hansa coach Frank Pagelsdorf responded by making a change. Victor Agali, who was deeply in danger of being sent off, remained in the clubhouse in favor of Sebastian Haehnge - but that didn't change much.

The offensive Bayer right-sider Paul Freier became the outstanding man in the second half. In the 55th minute, he passed to sidekick Barnetta, who was laid out by Marc Stein inside the penalty area. Freier executed the penalty kick himself to put the 2-0 on the scoreboard.

From then on, Leverkusen passed the ball safely around to control the game.

In the 72nd minute, Theofanis Gekas received a hail-mary from Adler to complete the final result.

Next Sunday, Hansa Rostock will welcome VfL Bochum for their last chance at a three-pointer in 2007.

Scoring
BL - Simon Rolfes 2 (Karim Haggui) 4'
BL - Paul Freier 2 (PK) 55'
BL - Theofanis Gekas 8 (René Adler) 72'

Line-ups
BL - René Adler; Hans Sarpei, Manuel Friedrich, Karim Haggui, Vratislav Gresko, Lukas Sinkiewicz, Gonzalo Castro (Ricardo Faty 84'), Simon Rolfes, Paul Freier, Tranquillo Barnetta (Sascha Dum 80'), Theofanis Gekas (Dmitri Bulykin 74')

HR - Joerg Hahnel; Dexter Langen (Kai Bülow 76'), Tim Sebastian, Orestes, Marc Stein, Tobias Rathgeb, Stefan Beinlich, Enrico Kern, Heath Pearce, Djordjije Cetkovic (Fin Bartels 76'), Victor Agali (Sebastian Hähnge 46')

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VIOLETS TAME LIONS
VfL Osnabrück claimed its fifth win of the campaign in a 3-0 romp over sixth place 1860 Munich at the Osnatel Arena.

The match offered a true yank versus yanks matchup, with defender Gregg Berhalter and former Kansas City Wizard Josh Wolff getting the opportunity to lock horns with longtime Violets leader Joe Enochs.

It took just nine minutes for last season's top goal-getter Thomas Reichenberger to break the deadlock as the veteran notched his eight league goal in confidence after being picked out in space by Gaetano Manno's well-weighted pass.

In the 34th minute, Sven Bender's clumsy foul on Paul Thomik forced a penalty, which was converted by Thomas Cichon.

Reichenberger headed home his second of the contest to round of the scoring in the 58th minute, after again being plucked out by Manno.

With the points in the bag, defensive task-master Enochs was given a short run out, starting in the 84th minute, to help lock up the spoils and protect the impressive win before next week's Friday bus ride to Kickers Offenbach.

Scoring
OSN - Thomas Reichenberger 8 (Gaetano Manno) 9'
OSN - Thomas Cichon 4 (Paul Thomik) 34'
OSN - Thomas Reichenberger 9 (Gaetano Manno) 58'

Line-ups
OSN - Freddy Gößling; Paul Thomik, Thomas Cichon, Jan Schanda, Andreas Schäfer, Matthias Heidrich, Henning Grieneisen, Mathias Surmann, Rouwen Hennings (Nico Frommer 73'), Gaetano Manno (Joe Enochs 84'), Thomas Reichenberger (Dominique Ndjeng 90')

1860 - Michael Hofmann; Fabian Johnson, Gregg Berhalter, Lars Bender, Torben Hoffmann, Danny Schwarz, Sven Bender (José Holebas 61'), Timo Gebhart, Daniel Bierofka, Antonio di Salvo (Josh Wolff 33'), Mustafa Kučuković

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MAINZ MOVE TO SECOND
Neven Subotić and FSV Mainz moved into second place in Germany's 2.Bundesliga with a 1-0 home victory over fourth place Cologne.

The American youth international defender helped record their fourth clean sheet of the season, playing out a full shift at the back.

Félix Borja missed a glorious chance in the 24th minute when FCK keeper Faryd Mondragón misjudged a clearance, but the able Mainz striker could do no more than slot hopelessly wide of the mark.

Tim Hoogland would, however, use his head to good effect, redirecting Daniel Gunkel's corner in the 59th minute to set the hosts up 1-0.

Germany international Patrick Helmes came near an equalizer in the 69th minute, but all three points remained destined for Jürgen Klopp's men.

On Friday, the Reds round off the first half of the season against Ian Joy's St. Pauli at the Millerntor Stadion.

Scoring
MNZ - Tim Hoogland 3 (Daniel Gunkel) 59'

Line-ups
MNZ - Daniel Ischdonat; Tim Hoogland, Neven Subotić, Nikolce Noveski, Christian Demirtas, Daniel Gunkel (Marco Rose 82'), Milorad Peković, Miroslav Karhan (Nejmeddin Daghfous 81'), Markus Feulner (Stefan Markolf 74'), Chadli Amri, Félix Borja

COL - Faryd Mondragón; Aleksandar Mitreski, Kevin McKenna, Youssef Mohamad, Ümit Özat, Fabrice Ehret, Roda Antar, Thomas Broich (André 77'), Nemanja Vucicevic (Adil Chihi 43'), Patrick Helmes, Milivoje Novakovič

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ON THE SIDELINE
Luis Robles was kept to the bench as Kaiserslautern succumbed to a 3-2 defeat against visting Carl Zeiss Jena.

Josh Grenier was an unused sub as TuS Koblenz played out a scoreless draw with Erzgebirge Aue.

Ian Joy missed out as St. Pauli grabbed a share of the points at Alemannia Aachen in a 2-2 result.