Matchday 18 Match of the Week - FSV Mainz vs. RB Leipzig

The Rückrunde [second half] of the Bundesliga began this week.  Bayern Munich is at the top of the standings with 39 points, leading RB Leipzig by four.  At the other end of the table, Mainz sits in the relegation zone with Schalke, both teams with a paltry seven points.  It’s been a difficult season for Mainz. They are on their fourth head coach of the season, Bo Svensson.  This has been their worst season in recent memory.  But Mainz have shown some signs of life as of late.  Last week, the fought Borussia Dortmund to a 1-1 draw.  On Matchday 14 they led Bayern Munich 2-0 at the half before Bayern woke up to beat them 5-2.  On the other hand, Leipzig tend to struggle against teams in the top one-third of the table [they lost to Borussia Dortmund 3-1 on Matchday 15], while they are ruthless against the lesser teams like Mainz.  For different reasons, this game was a “must win” for both teams.  Leipzig won the first meeting between the two teams on Matchday 1 in Leipzig, 3-1.  But Mainz made them work for it.  Could Mainz return the favor to open the Rückrunde?  Mainz have lost the last three meetings with Leipzig to an aggregate score of 16-1, while Leipzig have lost just one of those nine meetings with Mainz (W6, D2, L1), with their sole defeat coming at the Opel Arena in April 2018's 3-0 loss.  Mainz have lost their last four home games.  It hasn’t been an easy season for them.

Leipzig drew first blood at the fifteen-minute mark when American Tyler Adams scored his first Bundesliga goal after thirty-eight games.  Leipzig midfielder Marcel Sabitzer launched a rocket at the Mainz goal, only to see it hit the crossbar.  But Mainz left Adams unmarked and tapped in an easy rebound.  Given their recent futility against Leipzig, one wouldn’t blame Mainz for thinking “here we go again.”  Only three minutes later Mainz striker Robin Quaison headed a ball just over Leipzig’s goal, so it was clear that Mainz weren’t going to go away quietly.  At twenty-four minutes, Leipzig conceded from a set piece for the first time this season: Leipzig defender Marcel Hastenberg had committed a hard foul against Mainz midfielder Leandro Barreiro, resulting in a free kick from Mainz.  Moussa Niakhate smashed the ball home after Dominik Kohr - making his Mainz debut - had seen his header saved by Leipzig goalie Peter Gulacsi.  It was only the fourth time Mainz had scored from a set piece.

Halstenberg made up for his hard foul by scoring at thirty minutes.  He had plenty of time to take a deflection from the Mainz defense, and tucked the ball away in the back of the net.  There was nobody marking Halstenberg.  It was an easy goal.  Leipzig led 2-1, but Mainz pushed back.  They had two corner kicks in rapid succession, the second of which resulted in another goal from Moussa Niakhate, a defender (!).  With his second goal of the game, Niakhate became Mainz’s leading scorer of the season [3].  Until today, Niakhate scored twice in eighty-one Bundesliga games.  He doubled his tally today.  For a team that has been weak on scoring from set piece plays, Mainz scored twice from set pieces.  Perhaps Bo Svensson has had the team working on them in practice.  The score remained tied at 2-2 until halftime.  Mainz just refused to go away.

Once play resumed in the second half, Leipzig almost caught Mainz napping but failed to score.  Four minutes in, Danny DaCosta [newly arrived on loan from Frankfurt] streaked down the left side of the Leipzig defense, getting almost to the touch line.  He found Leandro Barreiro, who beat Peter Gulacsi to the ball and tipped it into Leipzig’s net for a 3-2 lead.  It was Barreiro’s first Bundesliga goal, and it was a beauty.  That goal came from nowhere.  Mainz had scored three at home for the first time this season but continued to push on for more, while Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann made early changes to try and rescue the game. Leipzig began to pile on the pressure with midfielder Christopher Nkunku forcing a fine save from Mainz goalie Robin Zentner with a curling strike just after the hour mark. Mainz never sat back, though, and continued to make life difficult for Leipzig.  Mainz striker Karim Onisiwo almost headed beyond Gulacsi while Stefan Bell also fired a shot narrowly over the crossbar as Mainz held on to record just their second win of the season.  Mainz are still in the relegation zone, but if they keep playing like this they won’t be there for long.  Leipzig need Schalke [a huge underdog] to beat Bayern to stay within reach of the top. Otherwise, they’ll drop to seven points behind the record champions.

I would be lying if I said I thought Mainz had a chance in this game.  They proved a lot of folks wrong today.  When the match started, I figured Leipzig would run Mainz out of the building, but that didn’t happen.  There was no “luck” involved here – Mainz were the better team today.  Mainz worked hard today.

 

Matchday 7 Match of the Week - Der Klassiker!

Today’s edition of Der Klassiker lived up to its name today, with Bayern Munich edging past Borussia Dortmund in a 3-2 thriller at Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park.  It was the clichéd “irresistible force against the immovable object” – the Bayern scoring machine [24 goals in six games] against the Bundesliga’s top defense [only two goals (none at home) allowed so far]. Commentator Derek Rae called this the game that captures the zeitgeist of German football.  The two teams began the match tied at the top of the table with 15 points each. Bayern had the edge on goal difference [+15 for Bayern, +11 for Dortmund].

Bayern were without Alphonso Davies [out with an ankle injury until January], Niklas Süle [one COVID-positive test], and Benjamin Pavard [muscle injury in training]. Dortmund defender Mats Hummels [hamstring] was a game-time decision, but he got the start.

Bayern came storming out the game immediately. Robert Lewandowski nearly got on the board in the first minute, but his shot from the left side while inside the penalty area went wide left. Dortmund’s attack showed much promise. Bayern likes to play a high line, but they are vulnerable to the counterattack.  Dortmund showed they could exploit this but couldn’t quite finish.  Jadon Sancho and Gio Reyna showed they could stretch Bayern’s defense, and Erling Haaland is always dangerous in the middle. That big Norwegian kid is good!  At the 14^th minute, only a great save from Dortmund goalie Roman Bürki from a Leon Goretzka header off a corner kick kept the game tied at 0-0. Seven minutes later Gio Reyna and Haaland found themselves on the counter, the Haaland was one-on-one against Bayern goalie Manuel Neuer.  Neuer made himself big enough to force Haaland’s shot on goal to just barely go wide-right.  It was a fantastic counterattack from Dortmund, exactly the kind of play that anyone needs to keep level with Bayern, but Neuer made the difference.

At the 24^th minute, it looked as if Bayern got on the board first.  After stopping Dortmund deep in Bayern territory, Jérôme Boateng mad a superb long outlet pass to Kingsley Coman, who passed to Serge Gnabry, who took it to the Dortmund penalty area.  He mad a cross from the left and found a streaking Lewandowski coming down the middle. Lewandowski put the ball in Dortmund’s net, but the Video Assisted Referee [VAR] had Lewandowski offside by mere inches.  It was an extremely tight call. No goal – game still tied at 0-0.

At thirty-five minutes, Joshua Kimmich injured his right knee in a collision with Erling Haaland. Kimmich received a yellow card on the play, as he injured himself while fouling Haaland, who recovered and broke away with the ball.  The big Norwegian was too big for Kimmich, who had to be helped off the field with a knee injury.  He was replaced immediately by French teammate Corentin Tolisso. Kimmich had been the hero the last two times Bayern squared off against Dortmund, scoring the winning goals in both contests. With Kimmich gone, someone else had to be Bayern’s hero. Kimmich’ departure did have a consequence.

Dortmund opened the scoring “on the cusp of halftime” [thank you, Derek Rae] when longtime BVB man Marco Reus fired high and hard into the top corner after being picked out by a Raphael Guerreiro pull-back in the middle of the box. Kimmich had shut down Reus for the better part of the first half. After he left, Reus scored. This was Reus’s eighth goal against Bayern, leading all active Bundesliga players in that regard.  Dortmund’s lead was short-lived.  Bayern didn’t have to chase the game for long.  Three minutes of stoppage time [due to the Kimmich injury] were added onto the first half.  Bayern hit back with just seconds remaining in the half from a well-worked set piece from the top of the box. After a few quick touches to change the launching point, David Alaba fired a missile past the wall and Roman Bürki to tie the game. AlaBOOM indeed. That had to be a big boost for Bayern going into halftime.  Alaba’s goal was a MASSIVE answer to Reus’s goal. Here’s a little bit of trivia – Alaba’s goal was the 100^th scored by Bayern since Hansi Flick took over as coach a year ago.

Having given up their lead so shortly before halftime, one had to wonder where Dortmund’s collective head was.  Would they bounce back early in the second half, or would Bayern show their killer instinct that has served them well these past twelve months?  We had our answer shortly after the second-half kickoff.  Bayern took the lead almost immediately after the restart thanks to a poacher's goal from Robert Lewandowski -- the Poland international cutting in front of his marker and heading expertly into the net from a Lucas Hernandez cross on the left in the 48th minute.  Hernandez had a nightmarish first season with Bayern last year, but this season he has shown top form.  He’s getting assists [not bad for a defender] and scored his first goal for Bayern last week in the Champion’s League game against RB Salzburg.  Kingsley Coman nearly made it 3-1 three minutes later, but his shot hit the woodwork.

Both sides made key substitutions.  After Bayern took the lead, Dortmund subbed Jude Bellingham for Thomas Delaney.  Bayern subbed on Leroy Sané and Javi Martinez for Kingsley Coman and Jérôme Boateng, respectively.  Bellingham breathed new life into Dortmund’s attack.  Accordingly, Manuel Neuer had to earn his pay – he was no spectator today. Bayern went two goals ahead with around 10 minutes remaining with a ruthless counter-attack from a dispossession deep in their own half. Leroy Sané fired hard and low into the far corner after cutting inside on his left foot – shades of Arjen Robben.  Bayern showed they could flip a game on its head in the blink of an eye.  Leon Goretzka forced a Dortmund turnover deep in Bayern’s end, and two passes later Sané had his goal.  Dortmund immediately struck back through Erling Haaland, who settled a lobbed Guerreiro through ball to beat the offside trap, rounded Manuel Neuer and slotted home into an empty net. Lewandowski looked to have given Bayern a fourth goal in stoppage time with a first-time lob in the area, but VAR raised its head again and denied the goal.

The win gives Bayern a two-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga [RB Leipzig in second], while Dortmund settled in third, three points behind after seven games played.

PS. After the game, Gio Reyna and Erling Haaland were asked about the difference in the game.  Without hesitation, Haaland said he had to do better with the chances he was provided.  This kid is only 20, but he's holding himself accountable.  The more I see him, the more I like him. 

 

Matchday 6 Match of the Week

This week’s Match of the Week saw league leaders RB Leipzig visiting sixth-place Borussia Mönchengladbach [BMG]. Earlier this week, Leipzig received a 5-0 thrashing against Manchester United in UEFA Champions League play, while BMG settled a 2-2 draw against La Liga champions Real Madrid after leading 2-0, also in UCL play. Last year, BMG were one of the few teams to beat Bayern Munich after Hansi Flick took the helm.  They are not a team to be taken lightly. Commentator extraordinaire Phil Bonney called today’s game.

Having seen Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich both overtake them earlier on Saturday, Leipzig came out fighting and Yussuf Poulsen was looking particularly sharp, assisted well by an enterprising Alexander Sorlorth. The Dane brought a fine one-handed save out of BMG goalie Yann Sommer with the first big chance of the game. Sorloth nearly teed up Poulsen midway through the first half, but the ball passed just beyond of the Dane's outstretched right boot, as Leipzig continued to set the tone. BMG posed a considerable threat on the break, though, and offside decisions against Breel Embolo and Alassane Plea – the latter finding the back of the net before the offside flag was raised – prevented Leipzig from falling behind.

Leipzig's Scandinavian strikers continued to spy out chances for the guests as the game entered the second half, but it was BMG, donning special edition black shirts to mark their 120th anniversary, who drew first blood. Patrick Herrmann deftly touched Plea's cross back for Hannes Wolf to score his first Bundesliga goal, against his parent club, with a well-placed finish into the far corner. It was one of the few times during the match that Plea made a correct decision.  He usually shoots when he should pass, and pass when he should shoot.  That’s the story of his time at BMG.  He did take a shot on goal at the 67^th minute, and it was a rocket – but it bounced off the woodwork.  Pity – it would have been a great score.  Leipzig brought on striker Emil Forsberg for midfielder Dani Olmo, midfielder Amadou Haidara for midfielder Kevin Kampl, and striker Hee-Chan Hwang for Poulsen.  Despite the setback, Leipzig refused to relent and Amadou Haidara tested Sommer before Sorloth saw a shot deflected over the crossbar. Leipzig continued to knock and knock on the Foals' barn door, but they could not force it down, with Wolf's goal proved to be enough. That was the story of Leipzig’s night – lots of misses by just inches.

The result lifted BMG to fourth on 11 points after six games, with Leipzig dropping to third on 13, two behind new leaders Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.  Leipzig lost to BMG for the first time ever.

Next week – Bayern Munich visit Borussia Dortmund – a first vs. second in another round of Der Klassiker.

 

 

Matchday 5 Match of the Week

There was no Match of the Week for Matchday 4.  I didn't see a game worth writing about.  

At the start of Mainz’s match with visiting Borussia Mönchengladbach [BMG], they stood at the bottom of the Bundesliga with zero points.  hey had scored only two goals while giving up twelve. They began the season with two losses to RB Leipzig [3-1] and VfB Stuttgart [4-1] on Bundesliga Matchdays 1 and 2 respectively.  These poor results cost head coach Achim Beierlorzer his job.  Beierlorzer was the second Bundesliga coach to be fired this season [Schalke coach David Wagner got the sack earlier the same week].   Mainz replaced Four games into the new season, Mainz are already staring relegation in the face.

BMG took the early lead when team captain Lars Stindl turned in a neat knock-down from striker Breel Embolo from close range. Mainz could have been forgiven for thinking “here we go again,” but Mainz striker Jean-Philippe Mateta teed up midfielder Jean-Paul Boetius for a golden opportunity to equalize soon after – though he placed a weak shot straight at BMG goalie Yann Sommer. In a case of being in the right place at the right time, at the 23-minute mark Mateta brought them level with their next opportunity, converting the rebound after striker Robin Quaison hit the post. At the half-hour mark, BMG striker Patrick Herrmann bounced a volley onto the top of the crossbar, it was the hosts who struck next. Mateta managed to hold off four defenders before turning and driving a low shot into the bottom corner of Sommer's goal. Mainz goalie Robin Zentner then preserved Mainz's lead until the break, most notably from another Herrmann effort.  For once, the Fußballgötter were smiling on Mainz.

Zentner was given some early work to do in the second half too, turning away Herrmann's shot before defender Moussa Niakhate covered behind him to clear Embolo's shot on the rebound off the line. BMG coach Marco Rose reacted by making four substitutions, with strikers Marcus Thuram and Alassane Plea both sent on [a net addition of one striker], and the tactical tinkering eventually paid off with Thuram earning a penalty when his shot was handled by Niakhate. Fellow substitute Hofmann sent Zentner the wrong way from the spot, and the speed with which he fished the ball out of the back of the net emphasized how keen BMG were on getting more than just a point. BMG grabbed the win thanks to a flying header from defender Matthias Ginter seven minutes from full time. Mainz are still dwelling in the cellar with five straight defeats, while BMG moved up to eighth place with eight points.   RB Leipzig continue to lead with thirteen points, with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund close behind with twelve each.

 

 

Matchday 3 Match of the Week

This week there weren’t very many competitive games to choose from.  Dortmund rebounded from their defeat in the German Super Cup to Bayern Munich by thrashing SC Freiburg 4-0.  RB Leipzig did likewise, adding to Schalke’s misery of a season by winning 4-0.  Borussia Mönchengladbach defeated FC Köln 3-1.  Werder Bremen, who escaped relegation last season, recorded their second win of the season, defeating Arminia Bielefeld 1-0.  Stuttgart and Leverkusen shared the spoils with a 1-1 draw.

Last week, Hoffenheim scored one on their best victories ever by beating Bayern Munich 4-1.  They stopped the defending Bundesliga and UCL champions 33-game undefeated run with an impressive victory.  They were trying to add to their great start to this season with a third win in as many games.  They finished last week at the top of the Bundesliga first division table.  Eintracht Frankfurt have had a solid start to their season as well, having drawn with Bielefeld on MD 1 and earning a convincing win against Hertha Berlin last week.  Both teams have had unbeaten starts to the new season.  Last season, Frankfurt swept both games against Hoffenheim.

Frankfurt nearly got on the board first.  Dutch forward Bas Dost began the attack with a quick outlet pass to defender Almany Touré running down the right side. Touré passed it back to Dost, who was centered in the Hoffenheim penalty area. Dost headed the ball to forward André Silva, but the two didn’t connect.  Touré’s pass to Dost was on the money, but Dost couldn’t seal it.  A good effort, but no score. For the next ten minutes, Frankfurt kept pressing Hoffenheim’s defense but couldn’t quite find the mark.  Despite all of Frankfurt’s pressure, it was Hoffenheim who struck first at the eighteenth minute. After a free kick, Croatian forward Andrej Kramarić found himself inside the Frankfurt penalty area to the right of the goalie, and he curled it inside the left post just out of reach of Frankfurt keeper Kevin Trapp.  It was Kramarić’s sixth goal of the season, his first career goal against Frankfurt. Kramarić’s goal was the only score of the first half.

Frankfurt finally even the score at the 54th minute when they finally cracked open Hoffenheim’s defense.  Ex-Hoffenheim midfielder Steven Zuber, substituting for the injured Filip Kostić, whipped a stunning ball into the Hoffenheim box, where a waiting Bas Dost flicked it to midfielder Daichi Kamada, who put the ball past Hoffenheim keeper Oliver Baumann.  Score tied, 1-1.  On the ensuing kickoff, sloppy Hoffenheim play almost resulted in a second Frankfurt score in two minutes.  Luckily for Hoffenheim Zuber and Touré couldn’t quite connect in the box.  There was miscommunication on Hoffenheim’s defense.

I don’t know what Frankfurt coach Adi Hütter said to his players at halftime, but whatever it was it worked.  Frankfurt’s attack was relentless.  After they scored the equalizer, Frankfurt didn’t let Hoffenheim settle into any kind of offensive rhythm.  Hoffenheim keeper Oliver Baumann was screaming at his defense for much of the second half.  Frankfurt often had Hoffenheim on their back foot, but Hoffenheim refused to go away.  They managed to mount a challenge to Frankfurt’s defense, but at the 71^st Frankfurt scored again on a counterattack.  Things got a bit crowded in front of Hoffenheim’s net, but Bas Dost was able to make sense of the chaos and scored, putting Frankfurt in front 2-1. It was Dost’s sixth career goal against Hoffenheim.  The score stood at 2-1 when the referee blew the final whistle.

Postscript

I wrote this on Saturday thinking “there won’t be a better game than this tomorrow.  Not for the first time, I was wrong.  I was traveling today and didn’t watch anything live today.  I kept an eye on the Augsburg-Wolfsburg match, which ended on a goalless draw.  “So far, good”. Then Bayern Munich played Hertha Berlin at the Allianz Arena in Munich.  Hertha always gives Bayern a good game.  Last year on Matchday 1, Hertha drew with Bayern, which began Niko Kovač’s slide toward unemployment.  What did I miss? Not much, just a 7-goal thriller that was decided by a Robert Lewandowski penalty kick in stoppage time.  Lewandowski scored all four of Bayern’s goals today.  What else did I miss? Bayern coach Hansi Flick smiled today. 😊

Matchday 2 Match of the Week - Augsburg vs Dortmund

This weekend, ESPN didn’t show any Bundesliga games on television.  Every game was on ESPN+.  I woke up on Saturday and scanned the day’s final results.  One result popped out at me – Augsburg defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0.  That one held some promise.  I’ve never seen Augsburg beat Dortmund.  Then I found out that my favorite Bundesliga announcer, Phil Bonney, called the game.  That’s my benchmark – when in doubt, watch the games called by either Phil Bonney or Derek Rae.  These guys know the Bundesliga.

One expects to see Dortmund score a lot of goals against Augsburg.  Four Dortmund players that I know of have gotten hat tricks against them – Robert Lewandowski did it, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did it, as did Paco Alcacer and most recently Erling Haaland. Last year, Dortmund won both games with an aggregate score of 10-4 – 5-1 on the first day of last season, and 5-3 on the first game of 2020.  They’ve surrendered more goals to Dortmund than any team in the Bundesliga.  But that was then, this is now.  As Phil Bonney put it, that’s the thing about a new season. There’s always the chance to something you’ve never done before.  Augsburg started the game with a 4-5-1 formation.  They clogged up the middle of the field, which is where Dortmund is strongest.  If Dortmund was to score, they’d have to put pressure on the wings and crack open Augsburg’s defense that way.  With Jadon Sancho, Axel Witsel and Thomas Meunier, they’ve got the talent to do that.  Erling Haaland is a beast in the middle.

For the first ten minutes, Dortmund had possession of the ball 75 percent of the time.  But right at ten minutes, Augsburg showed Dortmund they could get the ball behind Dortmund’s defensive line in the final third.  Lack of any deep runs hurt the Dortmund attack.  They played their typical possession-oriented game, put just couldn’t finish.  Augsburg didn’t get their first free kick until the 40^th minute, and when they did, they made it count.  Augsburg were without their free-kick specialist Phillip Max, but they had Daniel Caligiuri.  Augsburg striker Michael Gregoritsch took an elbow to the face from Dortmund defender Imre Can, resulting in a yellow card for Can.  A recent acquisition on a free transfer from Schalke, Galiguiri is no stranger to Dortmund.  Galiguiri took the free kick and found defender Felix Uduokhai, who headed the ball home and gave Augsburg the lead. Augsburg was executing their game plan perfectly – keep the defense compact in the middle, make Dortmund attack from the wings, and when Dortmund gives you an opportunity, seize it. In last year’s games, both had low-scoring first halves with much of the scoring coming in the second half.  The fixture in Augsburg saw the home team take a 3-1 lead into halftime, only to see Erling Haaland get his hat trick in the second half.  Would this year be a repeat?  Consider this – although Dortmund had significantly more possession time, Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Bürki had more to do than Augsburg keeper Rafał Gikiewicz.  That was the difference in the first half.

While most of the first half was in Augsburg’s half of the field, there was more back-and-forth to start the second half.  Augsburg striker Florian Niederlechner, who had gotten through Dortmund’s defense three times only to be called offside each time, play the ball at midfield to a streaking Daniel Caligiuri, who raced past Thomas Meunier, beat Roman Bürki and scored the game’s second goal. Dortmund almost responded immediately when Gio Reyna was brought down in the penalty area by Rani Khedira. Was it a penalty? One look at the replay showed that Khedira got “all ball” and didn’t foul Reyna.  Reyna left his feet just a little too early. The referee made the correct call.  Shortly thereafter, Dortmund brought on some fresh attacking legs in Julian Brandt and Marco Reus, while defender Raphaël Guerreiro and midfielder Jude Bellingham.  Augsburg swapped out Niederlechner for Icelandic international Alfred Finnbogason, English midfielder Reece Oxford for Khedira, and Finnish midfielder Hans Jensen for Gregoritsch.  Would Dortmund pull another rabbit out of the hat as they usually do in these situations? One got the feeling that if Dortmund got a goal back that it would be an entirely different game. Conversely, if Augsburg got a third goal, it was “game over”. Uduokhai nearly got that third goal in the 68^th minute, with a shot just barely over the crossbar. In the 69^th minute, Dortmund swapped Meunier for Brazilian midfielder Reinier.  Dortmund changed their offensive attack from the wings to beef up their attack in the middle.  Credit to Augsburg – they didn’t wilt against Dortmund’s continuous pressure.  It just didn’t click for Dortmund today. Augsburg had too many defenders in the box. Augsburg didn’t let it slip away this time.

In his 300^th Bundesliga game Caligiuri had his hand in both Augsburg goals – assisting the first, scoring the second. Augsburg keeper Rafał Gikiewicz got a clean sheet against Dortmund – no easy feat there. He came up huge when he needed to. Augsburg have won their first two Bundesliga games of the season for the first time in their history. Augsburg were resilient, they were focused, they were disciplined.  They didn’t crack under Dortmund’s pressure.  It’s only Matchday 2, but Augsburg future for this season looks bright. 

Next up for Dortmund – the German Super Cup against Bayern in Munich next week, then a match against FC Freiburg.  For Augsburg, they have Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig to look forward to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matchday 1 Match of the Week – FC Köln v TSG Hoffenheim

It’s the beginning of a new Bundesliga season.  Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this season had a later beginning than usual.  Each season usually begins in August, but because the 2019-20 season was suspended for two months, the beginning of this season was pushed back.  With the new season comes a new broadcast partner for the Bundesliga.  For the past several years, Fox Sports held the US broadcast rights.  That deal expired this year.  The new broadcast partner is ESPN.  That’s both good and bad.  The bad part is that ESPN will broadcast only one Bundesliga game every weekend on television.  Fox would broadcast five. The good part is that all Bundesliga games will be on demand via ESPN+.  Although Fox broadcast more games, sometimes they wouldn’t broadcast the best, most competitive games. I like to see games with lots of goals. This week’s Bayern Munich vs. Schalke 04 match had many goals, but they were all scored by Bayern.  Blowouts like that tend to get a bit boring.  Low-scoring draws [1-1 or 0-0] are usually equally dull.  This week there were two games that saw plenty of goals.  One such game was FC Köln v Hoffenheim 1899.  The other was SC Freiburg v Stuttgart.  Both had a final score of 3-2, but my choice for this week’s game of the week is FC Köln v Hoffenheim 1899.

SC Freiburg v Stuttgart was a good game.  SC Freiburg jumped out to a 2-0 lead and held it until halftime.  Two minutes after the half, they extended their lead to 3-0.  It had the prospect of being a blowout.  SC Freiburg is a mainstay of the Bundesliga first division, although they usually finish every year in the middle of the pack.  Stuttgart is an up-and-down team.  For the past several seasons they flirted with relegation to the second division.  Last year they played in the second division, having been relegated by Union Berlin in a two-game home-and-home playoff after the 2018-19 season.  This year they’re back in the first division with many young players, most of whom are not yet 22.  Given that Stuttgart is a young team and newly-promoted to the first division, one would expect them to be disheartened by going down 3-0 to the more-experienced Freiburg.  Not so this week.  Stuttgart finally got on the board at the 71^st, and got their second goal ten minutes later.  They had momentum on their side, and the home crowd of 8,000 fans [who sounded like 24,000 – they were that loud] rooted them on.  SC Freiburg withstood charge after charge from Stuttgart until the final whistle six minutes into stoppage time, but they hung on for the win.  Stuttgart didn’t roll over and play dead.

The FC Köln v TSG Hoffenheim game was a bit more dramatic.  Hoffenheim got on the board first when Croatian international Andrej Kramaric scored just four minutes into the contest.  Köln goalie Timo Horn made a fairly lackadaisical pass to defender Jonas Hector to begin the Köln attack.  Hector didn’t know Kramaric was behind him, and when Hector made a lazy pass back to Horn, Kramaric intercepted the pass and got an easy goal.  Luckily for Köln, Swedish international Sebastian Andersson evened the score eighteen minutes later with a header from a beautiful cross from Jan Thielmann.  Andersson was just signed only five days ago from Union Berlin.  He showed his worth to Köln almost immediately. All was tied until just before halftime.  Austrian midfielder Christoph Baumgartner was brought down in the penalty area.  After several minutes of review via the Video Assisted Referee [VAR], Hoffenheim were awarded the penalty shot, which Andrej Kramaric converted in the last play of the first half.

Almost immediately after the start of the second half, Andersson nearly equalized for Köln, but was denied from point-blank range by Hoffenheim goalie Oliver Baumann.  The score stood with Hoffenheim leading 2-1 until Köln midfielder Dominick Drexler received a header from Sebastian Andersson and buried it in the back of Hoffenheim’s net for the equalizer at the 86^th minute.  With one goal and one assist, it wasn’t a bad day’s work for new signee Andersson, and it appeared that Köln and Hoffenheim would share the spoils with a 2-2 draw.  But Hoffenheim weren’t done.  With two minutes into stoppage time, Andrej Kramaric got the hat trick after deceiving numerous Köln defenders.  The game’s outcome was decided at the very last minute.  Wins like these are thrilling for the winners, and agonizing for the losers.  Since the outcome of the game wasn’t decided until very late, FC Köln v TSG Hoffenheim is my “match of the week”.