By Rich

Dominik Kohr is a 28-year-old midfielder for 1. FSV Mainz 05. Kohr was born on January 31, 1994 in Trier, Germany, and spent his youth career playing for TuS Issel from 2000 to 2008, and Bayer 04 Leverkusen from 2008 to 2012. In January 2012, he was called up to Leverkusen’s first team in the club’s winter break, and made his Bundesliga debut on April 21, 2012 in 1:0 win over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, as a substitute for André Schürrle. He remained with Leverkusen until being loaned to FC Augsburg in 2014, then resumed playing for Leverkusen from 2017 to 2019. He then played for Eintracht Frankfurt from 2017 to 2022 before joining his current club. Kohr also made 31 appearances for Germany’s U18, U19, U20, and U21 squads from 2011 to 2017. Kohr’s father, Harald, scored 46 goals in 97 Bundesliga matches for Kaiserslautern (1986-9) and Wattenscheid (1990-1).

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.