Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez (R) scores goal during their German Bundesliga soccer match against 1.FC Kaiserslautern in Kaiserslautern August 27, 2011.THOMAS BOHLEN
Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez scored a hat-trick to give his team a 3-0 win at Kaiserslautern on Saturday and send the Bavarians top of the Bundesliga as champions Borussia Dortmund drew 0-0 at Bayer Leverkusen to stay two points off the pace.
Gomez, last season's Bundesliga top scorer, converted a 37th-minute penalty and added another 10 minutes after the restart, when goalkeeper Kevin Trapp saved the striker's second spot-kick before Gomez tapped in the rebound.
The Germany international completed his hat-trick by firing in from close range after a Thomas Mueller cross. Bayern, without the injured Arjen Robben, kept a clean sheet for the fifth consecutive game in all competitions.
"This was our best game this season," Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes told reporters. "But we must still improve the way we convert our chances. Defensively we did not allow anything and I liked to see that."
Dortmund endured more than an hour of Leverkusen superiority before Michal Kadlec was sent off, allowing the champions to press for a goal and force a handful of superb saves from 19-year-old keeper Bernd Leno.
Dortmund were also left with 10 men when Goetze was sent off for kicking Hanno Balitsch 13 minutes from time. Leverkusen and Dortmund both have seven points from four games.
Werder Bremen snatched a late 2-1 win at Hoffenheim thanks to a goal by Markus Rosenberg. They move to nine points, in second place behind Bayern on goal difference.
Freiburg piled misery on 2009 champions VfL Wolfsburg, beating them 3-0 for their third straight defeat. Wolfsburg are in 15th place with three points from four games.
Hamburg thought they had ended their own bad run when they led twice against Cologne, but they had to suffer their third loss in four games when the visitors grabbed an entertaining 4-3 victory with two goals in the final six minutes.
Bayern did not give Kaiserslautern time to find their footing in the game and, despite the absence of Robben, poured forward, mainly down the left wing with Philipp Lahm and Franck Ribery dictating play.
Kaiserslautern's Trapp was kept busy from the start but was well beaten in the ninth minute, when Lahm was sent through by Gomez only to curl his shot wide from 10 metres out.
Bayern, having fixed the defensive problems that plagued them last season, kept the hosts on the backfoot but needed a penalty to break the deadlock. Gomez sent Trapp the wrong way for the deserved lead just before the break.
It was another penalty 10 minutes after the restart that essentially sealed their third successive league win, when Trapp saved Gomez's effort but the striker was left unmarked to turn in the rebound.
With Kaiserslautern struggling, Gomez struck again, beating his marker to thunder in after Mueller had done all the work down the left wing.
Kaiserslautern were reduced to 10 men in the final minutes when Ivo Ilicevic was sent off for a hard foul on Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
"We must not think that everything now will happen by itself," said Gomez. "We have to work hard every week for our success and also think defensively because that way it will be very difficult to score a goal against us."
Borussia Moenchengladbach and Hanover 96, both on seven points, can reclaim top spot on Sunday with wins over Schalke 04 and Mainz respectively.