Friday's Games:

Bayer Leverkusen at Freiburg – I like B04 in this matchup. As the coach has said, the squad has been performing well in continentals but no where near what they should be doing in domestic. That said, I expect the B04 squad to come in fully ready to embarrass a Freiburg squad. They will be playing a solid front four of Sam, Ballack, Schürrle, and Kießling, with Derdiyok ready off the bench. And they will be ready to score on the worst defense in the Bundesliga. As for Freiburg, aside from Cissé, they don't really have all that much to look forward to. But I do expect Cissé to get one by Leno, who has cooled off from his excellent form at the beginning of the season. So I like B04 and the over and put this as either a 2-1 or 3-1 B04 victory.

St. Pauli at Union Berlin – Tough one to pick a winner, as both are in the promotion hunt along with Union great at home and St Pauli great on the road. If I had to guess, I'd go Union as they have been a fantastic 5-1 at home, but have only played the likes of Aachen, Ingolstadt, Bochum, and Karlsruhe lately. St. Pauli is usually a safe over bet at home, but on the road the give up less (4 road GA v. 11 home GA) and score less (9 away GF v. 16 home GF). But since Union is usually good for at least two at home and St. Pauli is usually good for one to two on the road, I'd say the over is a solid play. Both teams are basically playing their top squads as well. I like a 2-2 draw in this match.

Aachen at Bochum – I like Bochum to win this one simply because Alemannia Aachen is just simply a bad team. Also this should be low-scoring, as Aachen plays extremely low scoring on the road, as evidenced by their last for of 1-1, 0-2, 0-0, and 0-0. Bochum has hit a few overs, but mostly courtesy of a bunch of goals conceded, something Aachen isn't capable of. Aachen is sitting Radjabali-Fardi in favour of Falkenberg on defense, allowing with toying with their front six quite a bit looking for something to work for a squad that has scored 6 goals all season. Bochum is essentially playing their full squad. I like Bochum to win at home 1-0 or 2-0.

Cottbus at Hansa Rostock – Cottbus and Rangelov started off scoring a tonne in the early season, but have cooled off apparently remember Nils Peterson is now with Bayern. Cottbus has also lost four of their last five, and only won once in their last seven. What better way to turn it around than to play a poor Hansa Rostock squad? But this Rostock squad did beat 1860 at home a couple of weeks ago, so I'd be weary giving this one 100% to Cottbus. However, the under appears to be a very solid play with Rostock only scoring 4 and allowing 3 in six home games. And, in the last four meetings of the two teams, there have been three scoreless draws and one 2-0 victory. Rostock is also looking to start a squad with no true forward. But with both teams relatively healthy, I like this to be a low scorer, maybe Rangelov pots one for a 1-0 Cottbus win. But I could see this as a scoreless draw.

Play of the day is the Aachen/Bochum under, with the Cottbuss/Rostock under close behind.