By Rich

Luis Hartwig is a 19-year-old center-forward for VfL Bochum 1848. Hartwig was born on November 23, 2002 in Germany and spent his youth career playing for SV Bommern 05 until 2015, and VfL Bochum from 2015 to 2021. He made his professional debut for Bochum in the 2. Bundesliga on January 24, 2021, coming on as a substitute in the 83rd minute for Simon Zoller against SV Sandhausen, and the match ended in a 1:1 draw. Hartwig’s father, Knut, was also a professional footballer who spent his professional career playing for VfL Bochum II, Wuppertal SV, SC Preußen Münster, Rot-Weiss Essen, and Borussia Wuppertal between 1988 and 2005.

By Rich

DSC Arminia Bielefeld climbed out of the relegation zone on Friday with an impressive 2:0 win over hosts Eintracht Frankfurt. Patrick Wimmer scored the first goal of the match just 5 minutes in, then assisted in the match’s second goal in the 27th minute, thanks to the finish from Alessandro Schöpf. The win means that Bielefeld are now unbeaten away from home in 3 consecutive matches for the first time in their Bundesliga history. Wimmer has become Bielefeld’s leading source of assists with 5 this season, and Schöpf ended a run of 70 Bundesliga matches without a goal: his last prior goal was back in September 2018. One of the league’s biggest derbies takes place on Saturday when Freiburg host nearby Stuttgart. Freiburg are coming off a stunning 5:1 defeat at Dortmund last weekend, a loss that cost Freiburg their position in the league’s top 4 clubs, while Stuttgart fell into the bottom 2 last weekend with a 2:0 loss at home to RB Leipzig. Stuttgart are without a win in their last 5 meetings with Freiburg, including 3 consecutive losses most recently. Later on Saturday, Bochum will host nearby Köln as both clubs look to come back from defeats last weekend. Although Bochum fell to Mainz in Bundesliga competition that weekend, they immediately obtained revenge earlier this week with a 3:1 win in the teams’ DFB Pokal contest. Köln lost 4:0 to Bayern last weekend and were then eliminated from DFB Pokal contention in penalties against Hamburg earlier this week. Bochum are winless in 3 consecutive home games for the first time this season, and Köln are unbeaten in their previous 5 Bundesliga meetings with Bochum, having won 3 of them. One thing is sure this weekend: the clubs occupying the table’s first and second positions will not change regardless of their matches’ outcomes. Bayern currently enjoys a 6-point lead over second-place Dortmund, who in turn hold an 8-point lead over third-place Leverkusen. Things are much different at the other end of the table: while Fürth face near-certain relegation at the end of the season, just 4 points separate the next 6 clubs. Augsburg currently occupy the league relegation playoff spot, but have to face Leverkusen away on Saturday. Leverkusen not only won 4:1 in the reverse fixture in the first half of the season, but have never lost to Augsburg in the Bundesliga. Two of the other clubs still in danger, Wolfsburg and Hertha, must play against Leipzig and Bayern respectively. Across the last 8 rounds of fixtures, no team has collected fewer points than Wolfsburg’s 2.

By Rich

Marco Meyerhöfer is a 26-year-old right-back for SpVgg Greuther Fürth. Meyerhöfer was born on November 18, 1995 in Bad Homburg, Germany, and spent his youth career playing for FSG Burg-Gräfenrode from 2001 to 2006 and Eintracht Frankfurt from 2006 to 2014. His senior career began at 1. FC Saarbrücken in 2014, where Meyerhöfer made 47 appearances between 2014 and 2017, scoring 2 goals. He then played for Waldhof Mannheim from 2017 to 2019, scoring 3 goals in 65 appearances. He joined his current club in 2019, and made his debut for Fürth on July 28, 2019, starting in a home match against Erzgebirge Aue in a 0:2 loss.