By Rich

Hosts 1. FSV Mainz 05 picked up a point on Friday with a 1:1 draw against visitors Hertha BSC, thanks to a late equalizer from Anthony Caci. The match’s first goal came in the 30th minute, when Lucas Tousart headed the ball off a cross from Chidera Ejuke. Caci’s equalizer came in the 4th minute of stoppage time, when he volleyed in a loose header at the back post. Tousart’s goal for Hertha was his first of the season, and 3 of the 4 goals he has scored for the club have put Hertha up 1:0. Caci’s goal was his first in Germany, as he just joined Mainz from Strasbourg over the summer. The draw means that Mainz are unbeaten in 7 Bundesliga meetings with Hertha, with 4 wins and 3 draws. All eyes will turn to the Ruhrpott on Saturday for one of the league’s biggest derbies, when Schalke travel to nearby Dortmund for the Revierderby. Jude Bellingham is set to make his 100th competitive appearance for the hosts, and he has not missed a game so far this season. If he can propel his club to a win on Saturday, Dortmund could return, at least temporarily, to the top of the table. Schalke have collected 6 points from 6 games so far this season, and are coming off a 3:1 derby win over Bochum. Dortmund have won the last 3 derbies, but haven’t won 4 consecutive derbies since the 1960s. While Schalke are without a goal in their last 3 meetings with Dortmund, not 1 of Dortmund’s last 99 Bundesliga matches have ended goalless. Another derby will take place in the south of the country on Saturday when Augsburg host nearby Bayern München. Augsburg picked up their second win of the season last weekend when they collected 3 points against newly promoted Bremen, but the club has lost 3 matches at home this season. Bayern are coming off a 2:0 win over Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League earlier this week, and are now unbeaten in all competitions in 10 matches. Saturday’s late game will be that between 8th-place Gladbach and 10th-place Leipzig, who are separated by just 2 points in the table. Gladbach’s position in the upper half of the table is due in no small part to the goalkeeping talent of Yann Sommer, who is in 2nd place league-wide for the most saves, half of which he made against Bayern on Matchday 4. Gladbach are also benefiting from the league’s second-best defense, after Union Berlin. Looking ahead to Sunday, Union will look to preserve their position at the top of the table when they host Wolfsburg - will the visitors be able to hold off Bundesliga Player of the Month Sheraldo Becker?

By Rich

​Augsburg picked up their second win of the season on Friday with a 1:0 victory over hosts Bremen. The game’s only goal came from Ermedin Demirovic in the 63rd minute, when he finished a near-post cross from Mergim Berisha. The match was also Augsburg’s first clean sheet of the season, which is an even bigger disappointment for Bremen, who had scored at least twice in every Bundesliga fixture. Leadership at the top of the table remains tight going into Saturday’s matches, as just 2 points separate the league’s top 5 clubs, and just 3 points separate the league’s top 7. Bayern will look to return to their winning ways on Saturday when they host Stuttgart. Although Bayern’s Sadio Mané scored 3 times across his first 3 Bundesliga appearances, he has now gone 2 games without a goal. Bayern’s 1:1 draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach last weekend was their second such draw this season, but remain unbeaten in 8 competitive matches into 2022/3. Stuttgart collected 1 point in their last trip to Bayern, and have drawn 4 of 5 matches in the current campaign. The other match was a loss at home to Freiburg, meaning that Stuttgart are 1 of 4 clubs still without a win in the current season. Also on Saturday, Dortmund will travel to Leipzig in what is likely to be a competitive fixture. Leipzig have had an especially tough week, with defeats to Eintracht Frankfurt and Shakhtar Donetsk having cost trainer Domenico Tedesco his job. He has been replaced by former Dortmund head coach Marco Rose. Dortmund finished in second place last season under Rose, 8 points behind Bayern, and are coming into the weekend level on points with Freiburg. While Dortmund have the second-best defense in the league, with 4 goals conceded, their 8 goals so far are their lowest tally in 8 years. At the other end of the table, Saturday’s late match will be that between hosts Schalke and visitors Bochum. Both clubs are still winless this season, and Bochum are also without a single point. Schalke have won their last 5 home meetings with neighboring Bochum, and a win on Saturday would likely lift them out of the relegation zone. Looking ahead to Sunday, you will not want to miss either the contest between hosts Köln and visitors Union Berlin, or the contest between hosts Freiburg and visitors Gladbach. All 4 clubs are enjoying positions in the table’s upper half, and Cologne and Freiburg are 2 of the league’s 3 unbeaten clubs - Dortmund is the other.

By Rich

Vincenzo Grifo scored his 3rd goal of the season on Friday to drive hosts Sport-Club Freiburg to a 1:0 victory over visitors VfL Bochum 1848. Grifo’s goal came in the 48th minute, immediately following a failed penalty kick and a failed rebound. Grifo is Freiburg’s leading goalscorer this season, despite missing 2 of the last 5 penalties he has taken in the Bundesliga. This season’s start, with 9 points collected in 4 matches, is Freiburg’s best-ever start to a season. Despite featuring just 1 goal, Friday’s match featured the most goal attempts of any fixture so far this season, with 43. The biggest match this weekend, though, is certainly Saturday’s between hosts FC Bayern München and visitors Borussia Mönchengladbach. Bayern are coming off a 7:0 thrashing of Bochum last weekend, and 2 of those 7 goals came from Sadio Mane, who scored his first Bundesliga brace. Bayern have scored 21 goals and conceded just 4 across their first competitive matches this season. The visitors are also unbeaten so far this season, starting off with a 9:1 DFB Pokal victory over Oberarchern, followed by a 3:2 win over Hoffenheim, a 2:2 draw with Schalke, and a 1:0 win over Hertha. Gladbach’s scoring has been distributed among Jonas Hofmann, Alassane Plea, and Marcus Thuram, and will eventually see the return of Lars Stindl, who has been struggling with a hamstring problem. No other club has won anything close to as many points over Bayern as Gladbach have over the last 11 years: 31 from a possible 66. One other match of note on Saturday is that between hosts RB Leipzig and visitors VfL Wolfsburg. The 2 clubs are tied on points, and still each looking for their first win of the season. Striker Timo Werner marked his return to Leipzig this season with a goal in the 2:2 draw with Cologne, but was unable to prevent a 2:1 loss to Union Berlin last weekend. The club’s last win came back in May, when they defeated Freiburg on penalties in the 2021/22 DFB Pokal final. Wolfsburg are competing without Danish forward Jonas Wind and summer signing Patrick Wimmer, and are coming off a scoreless draw with Schalke last weekend. Wolfsburg have won just 2 of their 10 visits to Leipzig, and are winless in their last 7 such trips. Looking ahead to Sunday, Frankfurt will travel to Bremen to close out the weekend, after Köln host Stuttgart. Bremen are still unbeaten this season, and are coming off a stunning 3:2 win last weekend, after having been down 2:0. Eintracht have gone 11 top-flight matches without a victory, but have historically won more top-flight games, 36, against Bremen than against any other club.

By Rich

Alassane Plea’s goal on a penalty kick in the 34th minute was enough for Borussia Mönchengladbach to win at home on Friday against visitors Hertha Berlin. Plea has now scored 4 goals in 8 meetings with Hertha, and has converted his last 4 Bundesliga penalty kicks. Friday’s match was the first time this season when Gladbach took a lead, and Hertha have now lost 8 of their last 10 Bundesliga matches with Gladbach. Although the win on Friday gives Gladbach a slender 1-point lead in the table, several clubs are likely to overtake or tie them by the end of the weekend. On Saturday, Dortmund will host Bremen in what may be one of the most-watched contests on this matchday. Both clubs are among the league’s giants and founder members, and both teams are off to unbeaten starts this season. The teams have met 106 times since the league’s founding, and together hold 9 Bundesliga titles. Although Dortmund’s 56 Bundesliga seasons are just behind Bremen’s 58 campaigns, Dortmund have collected 46 wins against Bremen, while Bremen have collected 41 wins against Dortmund. Those 46 wins include Dortmund’s victory when the teams last met in April 2021. Later on Saturday, Leipzig will look for its first win of the season when they travel to Berlin to take on Union. It was Leipzig who embarrassed Union 4:0 on the latter’s introduction to the top flight back in August 2019, but the hosts have since managed to qualify for Europe in each of the past 2 seasons. Union are currently enjoying their best-ever start to a Bundesliga season, are unbeaten in a club-record 9 top-flight matches, and have won their last 3 league meetings with Leipzig, each time by a score of 2:1. Leipzig have now welcomed back striker Timo Werner, who has 96 goals in 160 games for the club, and who the club needs following draws in the first 2 matchdays and a DFB Pokal loss to Bayern. One other match to watch on Saturday will be the derby between hosts Stuttgart and nearby Freiburg: while Freiburg are unbeaten in their last 6 Bundesliga meetings with Stuttgart, the hosts may benefit from the reunion of Sasa Kalajdzic and Borna Sosa. Looking ahead to Sunday, Köln will look to preserve their spot in the league’s top third when they travel to Frankfurt. The hosts are still looking for their first win of the season, although new signing and 2014 World Cup hero Mario Götze featured in a 4:0 win over Magdeburg in the DFB Pokal. Köln were eliminated from the Pokal in penalties against Regensburg, but are 1 of 6 unbeaten Bundesliga teams heading into Matchday 3.