BERLIN - Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart lost on his first appearance back in the Bundesliga with Hamburg yesterday as his 10-man team went down 3-2.
The three points put Frankfurt second in the table behind leaders Bayern Munich.
Frankfurt raced into a 2-0 lead after only 18 minutes as midfielder Takashi Inui, then Canadian striker Olivier Occean scored at the Frankfurter Arena. Hamburg pulled a goal back through defender Heiko Westermann, but the guests were reduced to 10 men when Petr Jiracek was shown a straight red two minutes into added time at the end of the first-half for a heavy challenge on Brazilian defender Anderson.