By Otto

​Borussia Dortmund suffered another blow on Friday, with a 2:1 loss against host Stuttgart. The first goal of the match came in the 4th minute, when Stuttgart’s Chadrac Akolo scored his 4th Bundesliga goal. Dortmund evened the score at the end of the 1st half with a goal from Maximilian Philipp, but the tie was short-lived, as Stuttgart pulled ahead again in the 51st minute when Josip Brekalo fired a shot through the legs of Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Bürki. The win was Stuttgart’s 500th on home soil in the Bundesliga and Stuttgart remain undefeated at home this season, which also gives them this season’s best home record, and ties them with Augsburg just below the middle of the table going into Saturday’s matches. Dortmund played without standout Christian Pulisic, whose last-minute muscle complaint prevented him from making his 50th Bundesliga appearance. If he recovers in time, his 50th appearance will come in next week’s Revierderby against Schalke, where he would face off against fellow USA international Westen McKennie for the first time. Bayern will be looking to extend their lead at the top of the table when they host local rival Augsburg on Saturday, although they will be without Thiago (Alcantara), Thomas Müller, and Franck Ribery, and possibly without Jerome Boateng and David Alaba. Augsburg have lost each of their last 5 matches against Bayern, but are in 3rd place in the 1. Bundesliga in the number of goals conceded. Robert Lewandowski, who is in a tight race in the scorers’ table against Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, has scored more goals against Augsburg than against any other club: 16 in 12 games. Also on Saturday, Mainz will look to end a 3-game winless streak when they host league bottom-dweller Cologne. At this point in the season, no team has ever had fewer points, and all 3 teams with records as poor as Cologne’s were relegated. Cologne have also scored the fewest goals (4) and given up the most (22). One more match to watch on Saturday: Hoffenheim hosts Frankfurt, and Frankfurt are unbeaten in their last 6 matches and have the 3rd-best away record in the Bundesliga this season. A win against Hoffenheim would put them in 3rd place should Schalke fail to defeat Hamburg. The two recently promoted B2 teams Hanover and Stuttgart played to 1:1 draw in Hanover on Friday night

By Rich

Niklas Lomb is a 24-year-old goalkeeper who plays for Bayer Leverkusen. Lomb was born on July 28, 1993 in Cologne, Germany, and spent his youth career playing for SC West Köln and Bayer Leverkusen. His professional debut came on December 6, 2012 in a UEFA Europa League match against Rosenborg. Lomb was Leverkusen’s 3rd goalkeeper during the first half of the 2014-15 season, after which he was loaned to Hallescher SC to finish the season. He spent the 2015-16 season on loan to Preußen Münster before returning to Leverkusen. Lomb has credited the 2 seasons on loan to his further personal and athletic development

Jeremy Toljan is a 23-year-old right back for Borussia Dortmund. Toljan was born on August 8th, 1994 in Stuttgart, Germany, and began his youth career in 2004 playing for SV Grün-Weiss Sommerrain. His youth career continued at TSV Steinhaldenfeld, Stuttgarter Kickers, VfB Stuttgart, and 1899 Hoffenheim. He made his senior debut on October 5th, 2013 for Hoffenheim against 1. FSV Mainz 05, and played the full match. He joined Borussia Dortmund earlier this year, and also played on Germany’s squad during the 2016 Summer Olympics, where he played the full 90 minutes of every fixture and set up 3 goals, including the goal in the 1:0 defeat of Spain.

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Sebastian Haller scored a goal in the 89th minute on Friday to give the hosts a 2:1 victory over visiting Werder Bremen. Frankfurt’s other goal, and the first goal of the match, came from Ante Rebic in the 17th minute, and Bremen quickly tied the match in the 25th minute with a goal from Niklas Moisander. Bremen remains near the bottom of the table under new coach Niko Kovac, while the win lifts Eintracht into 5th place going into Saturday’s contests, and the club is now unbeaten in their last 10 Friday night games. The weekend’s top match will of course occur on Saturday when 2nd-place Dortmund hosts 1st-place Bayern, which also pits the league’s top 2 scorers against each other. Both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Robert Lewandowski have scored exactly 10 goals each so far this season. Lewandowski has scored 8 goals against Dortmund since arriving in Munich in the summer of 2014, but Aubameyang’s goal record has been improving with each season: from 16 to 25 to 31 in the past 3 years. Bayern will forego the services of defender Joshua Kimmich, who is suffering from an upset stomach, and have also been playing without Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Juan Bernat, and Franck Ribery. This will be the 96th Bundesliga encounter between the 2 clubs, and Bayern have won 43 times to Dortmund’s 24. Schalke’s 22-year-old midfielder Leon Goretzka, who may not appear on Saturday due to a muscle problem, is now just 1 match shy of 100 Bundesliga appearances, and his 4 goals for Schalke have contributed to the club’s surge through the table this season. A win against Freiburg on Saturday would place them in the Bundesliga’s top 4 teams, and although Freiburg has only won 1 match so far this season, they are also unbeaten in their last 9 matches at home. Schalke, conversely, have only won 2 matches on the road, and lost the other 2 without scoring. A win for Freiburg would also keep them out of the relegation zone. A study by DeporFinanza has revealed that Dortmund currently tops the 100-club list of average football attendances, ahead of English Premier League club Manchester United. Dortmund has been averaging more than 80,000 fans per game, while Bayern is in third place with 75,000, and 8 other Bundesliga clubs in the top 30.