By Rich

​Wolfsburg extended their unbeaten start to the season to 9 matches with a goal-laden victory at the Volkswagen Arena over Bremen, with a final score of 5:3. Wolfsburg’s goals came from Ridle Baku in the 22nd minute, John Brooks in the 25th minute, Wout Weghorst in the 37th and 76th minutes, and Bartosz Bialek in the 4th minute of extra time, while Bremen’s goals came from Leonardo Bittencourt in the 13th minute, Kevin Möhwald in the 36th minute, and Wolfsburg’s John Brooks who committed an own goal in the 47th minute. Although the 5 goals scored in the first half is a league high during the current season, Wolfsburg have scored 11 of their 12 league goals before the end of each first half, and Weghorst has now scored 6 goals in his last 6 Bundesliga contests. The victory over Bremen now puts Wolfsburg momentarily in 5th place going into Saturday’s matches, tied on points with Leipzig, 1 point behind Leverkusen and Dortmund, and 2 points behind Bayern. Each of those clubs has a good chance of picking up another 3 points later in the weekend, as each will host a club that is struggling in the lower half of the table. Dortmund will host Köln on Saturday, and while Dortmund’s Erling Haaland is on a scoring streak, with goals in 7 consecutive matches, Köln are without a win this season and will be without captain Jonas Hector. Hector has not appeared for the club since Matchday 2 while recovering from whiplash, and his club have now gone 17 Bundesliga matches without a win. Also on Saturday, Leipzig will host Bielefeld, and while Leipzig have alternated between wins and losses recently, Bielefeld have lost 6 matches since a draw with Frankfurt and a win over Cologne at the beginning of the season. Bayern will travel to Stuttgart on Saturday, where the hosts will be without the services of striker Nicolas Gonzalez, who suffered a knee injury. Stuttgart have only lost once so far this season, but have had a run of 4 straight draws, while Bayern continue to benefit from the scoring prowess of Robert Lewandowski, who has scored 14 goals this season in all competitions. On Sunday, Leverkusen will host Hertha in the early match, and Leverkusen is currently the most in-form club in the league. Striker Lucas Alario scored 3 successive braces and 7 in his last 5 matches. Hertha have been inconsistent this season, losing most recently to Dortmund while defeating Augsburg. Hertha’s best hopes lie perhaps with Matheus Cunha, who has found the net 4 times in his last 3 Bundesliga outings.

By Rich

​Bundesliga competition resumes on Saturday following November’s international break, as the top of the table remains highly competitive. Bayern will host Bremen on Saturday, when Robert Lewandowski and Josh Sargent will lead the attacks of their respective teams. Lewandowski, of course, has been central to Bayern’s efforts so far this season, equalling his own record of 11 goals in the first 7 matches of the season. Bayern are without the services of Joshua Kimmich, whose knee surgery will keep him off the pitch for the rest of 2020. Bremen’s Josh Sargent has started in all 8 of Bremen’s competitive fixtures of the current season, and has 2 goals and 1 assist. Bremen have gone undefeated ever since their loss to Hertha Berlin on Matchday 1, but their last 4 fixtures have ended in 1:1 draws. This encounter between the 2 clubs will be their 109th, a Bundesliga record, and Bremen’s last win over Bayern was all the way back in September 2008. Also on Saturday, Leipzig will travel to Frankfurt, fresh off a victory over Freiburg and just 2 points behind Bayern. Leipzig are, in fact, enjoying their best-ever start to a season after 7 games played, with 5 victories and just 4 goals conceded. Frankfurt are unbeaten at home against Leipzig this calendar year, having won 2:0 in league play back in January, followed a few days later by a 3:1 DFB Cup victory. Frankfurt’s André Silva has scored 5 goals in 7 matchdays, and is behind only Bayern’s Lewandowski in league goals since the resumption of play after this past spring’s lockdown. Borussia Dortmund will travel to Berlin later on Saturday to face off against Hertha. Poland striker Krzysztof Piatek’s goal and assist against Augsburg ended Hertha’s 5-match winless streak prior to the international break, and is expected to start again. Hertha’s defeat over Augsburg was trainer Labbadia’s 100th win as a coach, and only Lucien Favre has more (151) among current managers. Dortmund is just 1 point behind Leipzig and 3 points behind Bayern in the table, and have benefited from the scoring prowess of Erling Haaland, who has notched 27 goals in 29 appearances for the club since his January arrival from Salzburg. Looking ahead to Sunday, Mainz will travel south to Freiburg, and will look to Jean-Philippe Mateta to keep them alive in the league. Mainz have managed just 7 goals so far this season, and 4 of them have come from Mateta. This may be Mainz’ best chance for a win yet, as Mateta has scored 5 goals in 3 meetings with Freiburg. He will face Freiburg’s Nils Petersen, who has scored 3 goals in 7 matches, and his club now has their encounters with Dortmund, Leipzig, and Leverkusen behind them. Finally on Sunday, Köln will host 5th-place Union Berlin.

By Rich

Cologne’s winless streak increased to 17 Bundesliga matches on Friday with a 1:1 draw against hosts SV Werder Bremen. The first goal of the match finally came in the 68th minute and was an own-goal on the part of Niklas Moisander, and the second goal came in the 82nd minute from former Billy Goat Leonardo Bittencourt on a penalty kick. The penalty kick was the 5th such goal conceded by Cologne so far this season, which is a league high, while Moisander’s own goal was Bremen’s 62nd in the Bundesliga, another league high. Should Cologne fail to win in their next league encounter, on November 22nd at home against Union Berlin, they will tie their club record of 18 Bundesliga matches without a victory. The big match this weekend is, of course, Der Klassiker on Saturday, when Borussia Dortmund host FC Bayern München, so let’s dig into some of the statistics going into what could be one of the most competitive contests of this half of the season. Dortmund and Bayern climbed into the top 2 positions just in time for this encounter, and both clubs are tied on points. Dortmund have conceded just 2 goals all season, while Bayern have scored 24: both statistics are league-best. Bayern’s 24 goals is an all-time record for any club after just 6 matchdays. Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland has scored his 5 goals so far this season at a rate of 1 every 77 minutes, while Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski has scored his 10 goals so far this season at a rate of 1 every 37 minutes. Additionally, Lewandowski has scored 16 goals in 12 matches for Bayern against his former club Dortmund., and his opponent Mats Hummels has also played for both sides. The last 2 encounters between the 2 clubs, however, was decided by Joshua Kimmich, who scored the winning goal for Bayern in Dortmund on Matchday 28 last season, and again in their 3:2 Supercup victory in September. Both teams are also playing at near-full strength. Dortmund will be without only Marcel Schmelzer and Dan-Axel Zagadou, who both have knee injuries. Bayern will be without Alphonso Davies (ankle injury), Tanguy Nianzou (thigh injury), Niklas Süle (Corona infection), and Joshua Zirkzee. Also this weekend, don’t miss the fixture on Sunday between Leverkusen and Gladbach. The 2 clubs are separated by just 1 point in the upper ranks of the table, and this fixture has not ended without a goal since April 2004, 30 Bundesliga meetings ago, when Gladbach were still playing in their old stadium.

By Rich

​Stuttgart’s Nicolas Gonzalez scored his first Bundesliga goal of the season on Friday, on a penalty kick in the 56th minute to force a 1:1 draw against hosts FC Schalke 04. Schalke’s Malick Thiaw scored the match’s first goal, and Thiaw’s first-ever Bundesliga goal, in the 30th minute off a free kick from Amine Harit, and it was the first time this season that Schalke took the lead in any of their matches. With the draw, Schalke are now winless in 22 consecutive Bundesliga matches. Saturday’s most competitive match is likely to be that between hosts Eintracht Frankfurt and visitors SV Werder Bremen, who are tied in the standings with 8 points each. Eintracht suffered a 5-goal defeat last weekend against Bayern, but have earned a respectable spot in the league table, thanks to the scoring duo of Andre Silva and Bas Dost, who are responsible for 5 of the club’s 7 goals so far this season. Dost, in particular, appears to love playing against Bremen: he has notched 5 goals and 3 assists in 4 matches against the club. Bremen are unbeaten in 4 consecutive matches, having lost to Hertha Berlin on the first matchday of the season before going on to defeat Schalke and Bielefeld and drawing with Freiburg and Hoffenheim. Although Bremen will have to do without the services of Niclas Füllkrug, who is out for several weeks with a calf injury, he has a fine replacement in USMNT striker Josh Sargent. Later on Saturday, Leipzig will have the chance to maintain their 1-point lead over Bayern when Leipzig travel to Gladbach. Although Gladbach suffered a 3:0 defeat against Borussia Dortmund on opening weekend, they have gone unbeaten in 6 competitive outings, thanks in part to Jonas Hofmann, who has achieved 4 goals and 5 assists in 8 appearances. Leipzig are unbeaten so far this season in the Bundesliga, but suffered a 5:0 defeat in the Champions League against Manchester United. Leipzig have never lost to Gladbach and are also unbeaten in their 9 away matches in the Bundesliga - 10 would be a new club record. Berlin’s 2 clubs in the Bundesliga will have to wait until Sunday and Monday to compete, when Hertha host nearby Wolfsburg and Union Berlin travel down south to Hoffenheim. Arsenal loanee Matteo Guendouzi is set to make his debut for Hertha, following injury and illness that kept him idle in October.