Gekas fires up Frankfurt

Theofanis Gekas scored twice to give Eintracht Frankfurt their third straight victory by beating Kaiserslautern 3-0 on Sunday to move to seventh place on the table behind new leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Gekas struck in the 45th and 67th minutes and Alexander Meier made it 3-0 in the 83rd in Kaiserslautern to give Frankfurt 12 points from eight matches.

Hoffenheim were playing later Sunday against Borussia Moenchengladbach with the chance to move into fourth place.

League leaders remain Borussia Dortmund, who took over the lead from Mainz on Friday night with a 2-1 victory at Cologne thanks to Nuri Sahin’s winner a minute into stoppage time.

The victory – which was in doubt after Lukas Podolski equalised in the 82nd minute Jakub Blaszczykowski’s score after 20 minutes – was Dortmund’s seventh straight.

“It is amazing how aggressive the guys push forward looking for goals. It’s kind of scary from the sidelines,” said Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp.

On Saturday, Mainz lost their first game of the season with a 1-0 defeat at home against Hamburg on Paolo Guerrero’s winner in the 89th minute.

Mainz’s Marco Caligiuri and Ze Roberto of Hamburg both hit the goal framework and a Hamburg goal by Ruud van Nistelrooy was disallowed before Guerrero’s score.

After spending the national team break atop the Bundesliga, Mainz missed a chance for their eighth straight win to start the season, which would have eclipsed the mark by Bayern Munich in 1995-96 and Kaiserslautern in 2001-02.

“we kept shooting and it just wouldn’t go in. Now we need to forget about this game and look ahead,” added Mainz midfielder Lewis Holtby.

The loss leaves Mainz with 21 points in second place behind Dortmund, who have a 14 to 10 advantage on goal difference.

Hamburg’s second straight win pushed the team to fourth place with 14 points.

“The three points (two weekends ago) in Kaiserslautern were really important. And now the confidence is there with this win,” said Hamburg’s Ze Roberto.

“And now we want to stay near the top.”

Bayer Leverkusen are third with 15 points after substitute Simon Rolfes scored two of Leverkusen’s three goals within 11 minutes to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 victory at Wolfsburg (11 points).

In Munich, Mario Gomez was one of the few healthy Bayern Munich players available and he used his chance by scoring three goals in Bayern’s 3-0 win over Hanover 96.

Gomez, who admitted that he was inspired by the rescued Chilean miners – sharing the name of one – struck in the 21st, 77th and 90th minutes for his first goals in the Bundesliga in 13 matches since February 2010.

“I am very happy that Mario Gomez scored three goals because it’s very important for his confidence. And that is very important for Bayern,” said Bayern coach Louis van Gaal.

The Bayern boss came into the game with serious personnel concerns with injuries to captain Mark van Bommel, Franck Ribery, Miroslav Klose, Ivica Olic and Daniel van Buyten while Bastian Schweinsteiger started the game on the bench.

At the bottom of the table, Schalke 04 played to a 2-2 draw at home against VfB Stuttgart – a result which does not help either European club desperate to move up the standings.

Schalke have five points for 16th and Stuttgart are dead last with four points.

St. Pauli won their first game at home this season 3-2 against Nuremberg to jump to fifth place with 13 points.

Werder Bremen are 10th with 11 points after a 2-1 victory at home over Freiburg.