Hat trick powers Dortmund over Augsburg

Leverkusen’s Son Heung-min, left, celebrates with Sidney Sam after scoring his first goal of the season against SC Freiburg in Leverkusen, Germany, Saturday. [AP/NEWSIS]

BERLIN - Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat trick on his Bundesliga debut to give Borussia Dortmund a 4-0 win at Augsburg in the opening round of the German league on Saturday.

Gabon international Aubameyang - a 13 million euro ($17 million) offseason signing from French side Saint-Etienne - opened the scoring in the 24th minute, made the game safe in the 66th, and added another in the 79th before Robert Lewandowski scored from a penalty kick with four minutes remaining.

“We got great goals and finished the game with confidence. Not many win 4-0 here. That makes me proud,” Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said.

Hertha Berlin celebrated its return to the Bundesliga with a 6-1 rout of visiting Eintracht Frankfurt, thanks to two goals each from Adrian Ramos and Sami Allagui and one each from Ronny and German-American defender John Anthony Brooks.

Bayer Leverkusen won, 3-1, at home over Freiburg, Hannover beat nine-man Wolfsburg, 2-0, at home, and Nuremberg drew, 2-2, at Hoffenheim.

Despite the scoreline, Dortmund found it hard to break down the stubborn home side.

Augsburg might have equalized in the first half but for a goal-line clearance from Sven Bender, while reserve goalkeeper Mitch Langerak pulled off a great save from Raphael Holzhauser.

Langerak maintained his record of 11 wins from 11 competitive games for Dortmund.

“Of course we’re disappointed. We imagined and hoped for it to go a little differently,” said Augsburg coach Markus Weinzierl. “Our mistakes were punished ruthlessly.”

Ramos scored Hertha’s first goal back in the Bundesliga following a well-worked counterattack in the 18th, and Brooks made it 2-0 by shooting through a host of players in the 32nd.

Alexander Meier pulled one back from the penalty spot five minutes later, but Allagui scored twice in as many minutes to decide the game with half an hour remaining, before Ramos and then Ronny completed the rout.

“The performance was sensational. Now we have the first three points, we can enjoy the game a little bit. But we’ll be back in everyday life very quickly. We can still improve,” Hertha coach Jos Luhukay said.

It was the first time since December 2004 that Hertha scored six goals in a Bundesliga game. The home side also hit the crossbar three times in the first half.

“It’s hard for me to analyze such a game,” Frankfurt coach Armin Veh said.

Freiburg striker Mike Hanke cancelled out Stefan Kiessling’s opening goal for Leverkusen, but Son Heung-min scored his first Bundesliga goal for Leverkusen just after the break and Sidney Sam secured the win in the 52nd.

Leon Andreasen and Szabolcs Huszti scored for Hannover, either side of the sending off of Maximilian Arnold and Timm Klose for Wolfsburg.

Mike Frantz and Daniel Ginczek drew Nuremberg level at Hoffenheim, which had gone ahead through David Abraham and Anthony Modeste.

The home side was left to rue a goal that wasn’t given in first half injury time, when the ball came back out over the line due to the spin from Kevin Volland’s lob over the goalkeeper.

“It’s annoying that such a goal was ‘stolen’ but I don’t want to accuse anyone. It’s hard for the linesman to see. It was hard for me to see,” Volland said.

Referee Thorsten Kinhoefer said the match officials realized the mistake at halftime.

“Where people judge, mistakes happen. It’s very annoying that we made this mistake today,” Kinhoefer said.

The defending champions, Bayern Munich, launched their season with a 3-1 win over Borussia Monchengladbach on Friday.

AP