THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FRANKFURT — Andriy Voronin shot Hertha Berlin to the top of the Bundesliga when he scored both goals in a 2-1 victory over defending champion Bayern Munich on Saturday.
Hertha moved past Hoffenheim, which lost 4-1 on Friday at home to Bayer Leverkusen. Bayern, which lost its second in three games, dropped to third.
"We run, we fight, we are a unit," Hertha’s coach Lucien Favre said.
Voronin scored in each half of an entertaining match in Berlin, while Miroslav Klose notched Bayern’s only score, with an outstanding Jaroslav Drobny in Hertha’s goal.
Hertha had been winless against Bayern in their last 14 games. The last time it beat Bayern at home was in December 2001. The team from the German capital moved to the top for the first time since October 2006.
Bayern could drop even further if Hamburg beats Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday.
"My players made the wrong decisions at the key moments," Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann said.
Hertha has 40 points after 20 games, Hoffenheim 39, Bayern 38, Leverkusen 36 and Hamburg also 36.
In other matches Saturday, Bochum edged Schalke 2-1, Werder Bremen managed only a 1-1 draw at home to last-place Borussia Moenchengladbach, Hannover and Stuttgart played to a 3-3 draw, Wolfsburg won 2-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt and Cologne had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Karlsruhe.
Hertha went into the match at the Olympic stadium without top striker Marko Pantelic and midfielders Gojko Kacar and Cicero, all injured.
The home team allowed Bayern more possession and relied on counterattacks, a game plan that proved successful.
Bayern lost striker Luca Toni after 35 minutes to an ankle injury and he was replaced by Landon Donovan.
Voronin scored with a header in the 38th minute, after a long cross. The Ukraine striker, who is on loan from Liverpool, easily beat Christian Lell to the ball and headed past Michael Rensing.
Donovan had an excellent effort in the 54th when he connected with a header from Ze Roberto’s cross, but Drobny made a tremendous reflex, left-handed save on the line.
Drobny displayed his reflexes once again in the 61st, when he first parried a swerving shot from Lucio. Bastian Schweinsteiger fired a volley off the rebound from close range but Drobny again blocked the shot. He then slapped the loose ball away from Schweinsteiger’s foot but Klose beat Hertha’s defenders and headed into the net with Drobny on the ground.
Drobny foiled Schweinsteiger’s shot in the 67th, after good work by Franck Ribery. Donovan was then put through by Ribery and the American tried to slip the ball past Drobny, but the ‘keeper stretched his left leg and stopped the shot.
Maximilian Nicu eased some pressure on Hertha when he threatened with a volley that went wide of the far post.
But the next move produced the winning goal for Hertha, when Raffael fed Voronin in a fast counterattack and the striker slotted the ball inside the post past the advancing Rensing for his sixth goal of the season.
In Hannover, Stuttgart squandered a 2-0 lead and trailed 3-2 before Thomas Hitzlsperger scored late in the game to salvage the draw.
Schalke wasted a 1-0 lead to lose in Bochum.
Werder Bremen, runner-up last season, continued its miserable run, allowing Moenchengladbach’s American midfielder Michael Bradley to get the equalizer only minutes after Claudio Pizarro had put the home side ahead.
On Friday, Patrick Helmes scored two goals and set up one as Leverkusen dealt surprise Hoffenheim its first home defeat.