By Rich
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Saturday is the last day of regular play for this Bundesliga season, and although Bayern won the league title weeks ago, much is at stake at both ends of the table.  Both Bayern and Schalke will be playing in the UEFA Champions League next season, and 5 other clubs still each have a mathematical chance of joining them.  4 Bundesliga teams are each guaranteed a spot, while the team finishing in 5th place qualifies for the UEFA Europa League group stage, and the team finishing in 6th place will look at entry in the 2nd qualifying round.  Should Bayern win against Eintracht Frankfurt in the DFB Pokal final on May 19th, the team that finishes in 7th place will enter the 2nd qualifying round and the 6th-place finisher will enter the group stage.  In the middle of the table, Hertha Berlin, Augsburg, Werder Bremen, Hannover, and Mainz cannot mathematically qualify for Europe play, but all are safe from relegation.  Cologne will finish the season in last place and are already relegated to the 2. Bundesliga next season.  Freiburg will remain in the 1. Bundesliga with a tie or win in Augsburg, or with a Wolfsburg loss to Cologne.  Should Freiburg lose to Augsburg and Wolfsburg win against Cologne, Freiburg will end the season in the relegation play-off slot.  Wolfsburg will need both a win over Cologne and a Freiburg loss to avoid relegation.  Otherwise, Wolfsburg can match Hamburg’s result to Gladbach to land in the relegation play-off spot, or a Wolfsburg draw and a Hamburg win under 10 goals will also land Wolfsburg in the relegation play-off.  But, if Wolfsburg loses and Hamburg wins, Wolfsburg will be relegated.  Hamburg can only avoid relegation on Saturday with a win against Gladbach, and even then only if Wolfsburg loses.  If Wolfsburg draws against Cologne, Hamburg will have to win by at least 10 goals.

On May 17th, the 16th-place finisher in the 1. Bundesliga will host the 3rd-place finisher in the 2. Bundesliga, and on May 21st, the 3rd-place finisher in the 2. Bundesliga will host the 16th-place finisher in the 1. Bundesliga.  Fortuna Düsseldorf and 1. FC Nürnberg have both already won promotion to the 1. Bundesliga next season, and Holstein Kiel is in the relegation playoffs on May 17th and 21st.

The FIFA World Cup begins on June 14th.  Germany will play Mexico on June 17th, Sweden on June 23rd, and South Korea on June 27th.

The 56th season of the Bundesliga will begin on August 24th, 2018.

By Rich
A hat trick from striker Andrej Kramaric allowed Hoffenheim to down visiting Hannover 3:1 on Friday.  Kramaric scored his 1st goal in the 16th minute off a pass from Serge Gnabry, and scored 2 further goals in the 50th minute and 86th minute, keeping them in the hunt for the Europa League and just 2 points behind Borussia Dortmund and 1 point ahead of Bayer 04 Leverkusen.  Hannover’s lone goal came in the 24th minute from Kenan Karaman, and it was his 1st goal of the season.  Kramaric’s goals were his 8th, 9th, and 10th goals since the beginning of 2018, placing him just behind Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski in goals scored this year.  Borussia Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin announced on Twitter that he has been accepted into a course at Harvard Business School, but plans to combine his studies with his BVB responsibilities.  Sahin is not the only Bundesliga player to get involved in academic activities recently:  Robert Lewandowski completed a course in 2017 in physical education with coaching and management at Warsaw’s School of Education in Sport, while Augsburg striker Alfre∂ Finnbogason and Hertha Berlin defender Jordan Torunarigha also completed courses of their own last year.  Cologne legend Lukas Podolski, who joined ​Japan’s Vissel Kobe last summer, wrote in an article for Germany’s Bild that he would love to play for his hometown club a third and final time before retiring.  Podolski, who is 32 now, joined 1. FC Köln at the age of 10 and ultimately scored 79 goals for the club in 169 league appearances.  If he returns, he could play alongside Jonas Hector and Timo Horn, who recently signed contract extensions that did not include release clauses they could have used in the event the club is relegated.  The big match on Saturday occurs when Eintracht Frankfurt travel to Munich to take on the league champions.  Frankfurt coach Niko Kovac won both of the season’s matches as a player in 2002-2003, and will take over as coach at Bayern next season.  The stats clearly point to a win for Bayern, as they have won the pair’s last 4 Bundesliga encounters and Bayern have not lost any of their last 37 Bundesliga home matches.  Frankfurt, on the other hand, have lost their last 5 away matches.  Looking ahead to Sunday, Schalke may move closer to securing a 2nd-place finish when they host Gladbach, while Gladbach are still in the hunt for a Europa League spot.  Schalke have won 13 of their last 17 home matches against the Foals.

By Rich
​Wolfsburg and visitors Augsburg played a scoreless 0:0 draw in a driving rain on Friday.  Wolfsburg played most of the 2nd half with an extra man, after Augsburg midfielder Jan Moravek was sent off for a 2nd offense in the 54th minute.  Both clubs sit in the bottom half of the table, with Wolfsburg just out of the relegation zone, although neither club has ever been relegated:  Wolfsburg joined the 1. Bundesliga in 1997, and Augsburg in 2011.  FC Bayern München, who clinched the league championship last weekend, will welcome a new coach on July 1st:  Eintracht Frankfurt boss Niko Kovac will replace Jupp Heynckes on a 3-year deal.  Kovac has overseen Eintracht since March 2016, where he saved them from relegation and led them to the DFB Cup final in his first full season.  Kovac also meets Bayern’s criterion of having a native German speaker in charge:  he was born in Berlin and played for Bayern as a midfielder from 2001 to 2003.  The club has also made deals with wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, offering them 1-year contracts.  Both stars were in the final months of their current contracts.  Hamburg has acquired David Bates from the Rangers F.C., where he has made 21 appearances this season.  Hamburg’s scouting director cited Bates’ height and speed in announcing the transfer, which is to occur this summer.  Should Hamburg extend his record of not being relegated at the end of the season, Bates would become the 18th Brit to play in the 1. Bundesliga.  The fastest man on the planet, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, has announced that he will return to Borussia Dortmund for 3 weeks of training at the club.  Bolt spent 2 days training with Dortmund last month.  On Saturday, Bayer Leverkusen player Kai Havertz is set to become the youngest player in Bundesliga history to make 50 appearances, when Leverkusen hosts Frankfurt.  Havertz became Leverkusen’s youngest top-flight player and goalscorer at the age of 17, and on Saturday will be just 18 years and 307 days old.  Looking ahead to Sunday, one of the league’s biggest rivalries will play out again, when Schalke hosts Dortmund: just 1 point separates the 2 clubs.  The teams played to a 4:4 draw in the 1st half of the season, and that was the 1st time a team had come back from a 4-goal deficit to draw.

By Rich
​Hannover 96 broke a 5-match losing streak on Friday with a 2:1 win over nearby rivals and visitors SV Werder Bremen.  The match’s first goal came in the 17th minute when former Bremen man Martin Harnik got the ball past goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka to score his 7th goal of the season and 1st of 2018.  Hannover extended their lead at the 42nd minute when Felix Klaus took advantage of a ricochet off the goal post to score his 4th goal of the season.  Bremen finally scored in the 74th minute Ishak Belfodil headed in a low cross from the right side just under the crossbar.  While the win does not change Hannover’ position in the table, it does put more space between them and the relegation zone.  The loss snaps Bremen’s 5-game unbeaten run, and Bremen have now failed to win their last 7 visits to Hannover.  This weekend’s biggest match is certainly the derby on Saturday in Bavaria, league leader FC Bayern München travel just 49 miles to Augsburg.  A win in Augsburg would give Bayern München their 6th straight Bundesliga championship, and the statistics are clearly in Bayern’s favor.  Striker Robert Lewandowski has scored more times against Augsburg than against any other club:  18 in total, 9 of which have come in just the last 4 matches.  Bayern’s Franck Ribery will be celebrating his 35th birthday, and a championship would leave him joining Philipp Lahm, Sebastian Schweinsteiger, Oliver Kahn, and Mehmet Scholl with 8 Bundesliga titles each.  His teammate David Alaba would become the 1st player in Bundesliga history to win 7 titles by the age of 25.  At the opposite end of the table, 2 of the clubs facing relegation will battle each other 1. FC Köln host nearby 1. FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday.  The Billy Goats are anticipating the return of both defender Frederik Sörenson and Captain Jonas Hector from injuries, and a win against Mainz would reduce the relegation gap to just 3 points with 5 rounds still to play.  Mainz, on the other hand, have not scored in their last 4 matches, have not won in their last 9 Bundesliga contests, and several of their 1st-squad players were still questionable this week with injuries.  Cologne currently has the worst home record in the Bundesliga this season, and Mainz has the 3rd-worst away record.