The preliminary round of the Bundesliga has been played. FC Bayern is at the top of the table, FC Schalke 04 holds the Red Lantern. These are the most important lessons from the first half of the season:
Bavaria is weak, as is the competition
When you’re at the top, it can really only go down. Last year, FC Bayern won everything there was to be won: Champions League, championship, DFB Cup, European and German Supercup. More was not possible. It is already clear that the Munich team will have to cut corners this season: they failed in the DFB Cup against the second division Holstein Kiel. In the Bundesliga, the team of coach Hansi Flick secured the so-called “autumn championship” with four points ahead of Leipzig – due to corona in winter. But the great sovereignty has been lost.
Lewandowski (r.) In Müller’s footsteps (l.)
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World footballer Robert Lewandowski continues to score as he wants and is now chasing Gerd Müller’s age-old season record (40 goals) with 22 goals. The Bayern defense was unusually vulnerable: With 24 goals they conceded ten more than the current best defense in the league from Leipzig (14). Nevertheless: Neither RB nor Leverkusen, runner-up Dortmund or Wolfsburg in the next places in the table show the necessary consistency to be able to really be dangerous to the record champions.
The popular figure is Christian Streich
Christian Streich, an original
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Christian Streich has been training SC Freiburg for nine years now. He is currently by far the longest-serving coach in the Bundesliga – and not for nothing. Because the 55-year-old is not only committed as ever, but also successful. After a moderate start to the season, Streich brought his Freiburgers, who chronically have to cope with a comparatively small budget, back on track.
As ninth in the table, his team does not have to worry about staying up, rather there is still something going up. Streich is top of the table on the sympathy scale: because he is an original, because he remains true to himself and cannot be bent. And because he also takes a stand on issues beyond football and often says clever things.
Hertha puts millions in the pond
Bruno Labbadia – satisfied is different
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“We lose our heads too quickly,” said Hertha coach Bruno Labbadia after the 3-0 home defeat at the first half of the season against Hoffenheim. This shortcoming ran through the entire first season aid. The self-proclaimed “Big City Club” has become the Berlin club, for which the capital must be ashamed. Instead of being able to keep up with the big ones, as longed for, Hertha BSC even has a lot of trouble surviving the little ones. Another fight against relegation threatens.
Investor Lars Windhorst has pumped more than 270 million euros into the club since summer 2019. In the past two transfer periods alone, Hertha has spent 110 million euros on new players – you could also say squandered. How long can manager Michael Preetz and trainer Labbadia continue to muddle around?
Union is becoming a favorite scare
1. FC Union Berlin clearly stole the show from Hertha. The “iron” are the surprise of the preliminary round. As sixth in the table, coach Urs Fischer’s team can even dream of the European Cup. Nevertheless, Fischer remains modest: “We are not through yet. The objective remains the same. That means: staying up.” The Swiss could drum a little louder.
BVB-Besieger Union
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After all, his team has earned a reputation as a favorite scare: 2: 1 against Dortmund, 1: 0 against Leverkusen, 1: 1 against Bayern and in Mönchengladbach. Union lost just 0: 1 in Leipzig on Wednesday. “It’s not easy to win against a team like that,” said RB goal scorer Emil Forsberg. “You did really well.” That applies to the entire first half of the season.
Young stars stir up the league
The next generation of players not only knock on the door of the Bundesliga, they have already set their foot in the door. For example Florian Wirtz and Youssoufa Moukoko. At the age of 17, Wirtz made it not only as a regular but also as a leading player at Bayer 04 Leverkusen, third in the table. Hardly anyone speaks in connection with the factory club about the fact that top talent Kai Havertz migrated to Chelsea at the beginning of the season. That actually says it all. Wirtz has almost effortlessly filled the gap with his creative, robust style of play.
Youssoufa Moukoko – professional and goalscorer, at 16
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In comparison, Moukoko is only just beginning. Immediately after his 16th birthday last November, the talented striker made his first division debut for Borussia Dortmund, making him the youngest Bundesliga professional of all time. With his goal in December to make it 1-1 at Union Berlin, Moukoko also became the youngest scorer in league history. Until then, the record was held by Florian Wirtz.
The clock for Schalke is running out
Only a football miracle can save FC Schalke 04 from falling into second class. The Royal Blues collected a measly seven points in the first half of the season. Never in the history of the Bundesliga has a team held the class with such a low yield. With 30 winless league games in a row across the seasons, the Schalke team barely missed the embarrassing, negative record of Tasmania Berlin (31 games without a win).
Long faces at Schalke
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But the 4-0 win against Hoffenheim did not turn things around either. After that, the team suffered two more defeats. After David Wagner, Manuel Baum and Huub Stevens, the Swiss Christian Gross is the fourth coach this season on the Schalke bench. Like his predecessors, Gross now seems at a loss. The last hopes now rest on returnees Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. But the best times of the 37-year-old striker from the Netherlands are far back – like those of FC Schalke 04.
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