By Rich
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Robin Knoche is a 28-year-old center back for VfL Wolfsburg. Knoche was born on May 22, 1992 in Braunschweig, Germany, and spent his youth career playing for Germania Lamme from 1996 to 2002, Olympia Braunschweig from 2002 to 2005, and VfL Wolfsburg from 2005 to 2010. His senior career continued at VfL Wolfsburg II in the Regionalliga Nord, where he ultimately made 69 appearances and scored 2 goals between 2010 and 2015. His first team debut came in 2011, and he was part of the squad that won the 2015 DFB Pokal against Borussia Dortmund and the 2015 DFL Supercup against Bayern München. Overall, Knoche has made 180 appearances for Wolfsburg’s senior squad, scoring 12 goals. Knoche also made 16 appearances for Germany’s U20 and U21 squads from 2012 to 2015, scoring 1 goal.

By Rich

​Kai Havertz became on Friday the first player in Bundesliga history to score 35 goals before turning 21 years old, in a 1:0 Bayer Leverkusen victory over hosts Sport-Club Freiburg. Havertz’ goal came in the 61st minute of the match, and it was also his first goal or assist in 7 matches against Freiburg. Havertz had to leave the match just a few minutes later, however, due to injury. The win puts Leverkusen into a momentary 3rd place in the league table going into the rest of the weekend’s matches, 1 point behind Dortmund and 1 point ahead of Leipzig. At the other end of the table, the battle to avoid relegation will continue on Saturday and Sunday. Bremen, still 5 points out of the relegation playoff spot, will travel to Gelsenkirchen on Saturday to face a club that seems to be in free fall. One combination of circumstances, however, could bring Bremen out of the automatic relegation zone for the first time since Matchday 21: a win against Schalke, combined with a Düsseldorf loss to Bayern and a Mainz loss against Hoffenheim. It is worth remembering, however, that Düsseldorf held Bayern to a 3:3 draw in 1 match last season, which was their best outing against Bayern in 30 years. And under coach Uwe Rösler, Düsseldorf has succeeded in claiming points in each of their last 6 outings, including a come-from-behind win over Schalke earlier in the week. Yet while Rouwen Hennings has led the scoring for Düsseldorf, not 1 of his 12 goals this season has come against any of the teams at the top of the table. The outcome of the Mainz-Hoffenheim match is anything but certain, because although 11 points separate the 2 clubs in the table, Mainz are unbeaten in their last 3 games against Hoffenheim, and their biggest win this season, 5:1, came in the reverse fixture earlier this season. On Sunday, Paderborn will face an uphill battle when they host Borussia Dortmund, but the reverse fixture earlier this season showed what Paderborn can do: the club was up 3:0 against Dortmund at half-time, with 2 goals from Streli Mamba and 1 goal from Gerrit Holtmann, before Dortmund retaliated in the 2nd half with goals from Jadon Sancho, Axel Witsel, and Marco Reus. Although Dortmund are coming off a poor showing against Bayern earlier in the week, they have never lost a competitive match against Paderborn. Looking ahead to Monday, watch 2 of the league’s top scorers, Jhon Cordoba and Timo Werner, compete to see who can find the net first.