By Rich
Struggling FC Augsburg scored an upset 2:1 victory over visiting Borussia Dortmund on Friday. Augsburg striker Dong-won Ji scored both of his club’s goals, the first in the 24th minute off a pass from Dan-Axel Zagadou, and the second in the 68th minute off a poor defensive pass. Dortmund’s lone goal finally came in the 81st minute from substitute Paco Alcacer. The victory was Augsburg’s first-ever home win over Dortmund, in 9 meetings, and Dortmund’s 2nd defeat of the season - the first came at the hands of Fortuna Düsseldorf. Dortmund now holds only a 1-match lead in the league table over Bayern, who travel to Gladbach on Saturday. The 2 clubs were the league’s dominant competitors back in the 1970s, and earlier this season, Gladbach won 3:0 in the Allianz Arena on Matchday 7. Gladbach has struggled recently, however - the club has managed just 6 goals in 2019 and captain Lars Stindl has not scored a single goal since Matchday 12. A win for Bayern would tie them on points in the table with Borussia Dortmund, while club striker Robert Lewandowski is just 2 goals shy of Frankfurt’s Luka Jovic at the top of the scorers’ table. Eintracht Frankfurt is still clinging to 6th place - the last of the European qualifying berths - in the table, and are just 3 points ahead of Hoffenheim, their opponents on Saturday. Both clubs are doing well in 2019: Frankfurt are unbeaten in their first 6 Rückrunde matches, while Hoffenheim have lost just 1 of their last 16 Bundesliga matches. Also on Saturday, Leipzig will visit struggling Nürnberg, where a win could lift them into 3rd place in the league, if Gladbach fail to defeat Bayern. Club star Timo Werner, who has 11 goals so far this season, missed Monday’s 1:1 draw at Hoffenheim with a cold, but is expected to return on Saturday. For hosts Nürnberg, who have managed just 13 points for the season, relegation appears all but certain: no team with so few points at this point in the season has managed to avoid relegation. Looking ahead to Sunday, US international teammates John Brooks and Josh Sargent could line up on opposite sides for the first time when SV Werder Bremen travels to Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg have taken 10 points from their last 4 matches and hold a tenuous 5th-place position in the table, just 1 point ahead of Frankfurt. Bremen, for their part, are unbeaten so far in 2019, although they only managed a 1:1 draw against Stuttgart last week. Also on Sunday, 2 of the league’s bottom-dwellers, Stuttgart and Hannover, will face off in a bid to move out of relegation territory: neither club has ever before had so few points after 23 matches, with both clubs having suffered 15 defeats so far this season.
Struggling FC Augsburg scored an upset 2:1 victory over visiting Borussia Dortmund on Friday. Augsburg striker Dong-won Ji scored both of his club’s goals, the first in the 24th minute off a pass from Dan-Axel Zagadou, and the second in the 68th minute off a poor defensive pass. Dortmund’s lone goal finally came in the 81st minute from substitute Paco Alcacer. The victory was Augsburg’s first-ever home win over Dortmund, in 9 meetings, and Dortmund’s 2nd defeat of the season - the first came at the hands of Fortuna Düsseldorf. Dortmund now holds only a 1-match lead in the league table over Bayern, who travel to Gladbach on Saturday. The 2 clubs were the league’s dominant competitors back in the 1970s, and earlier this season, Gladbach won 3:0 in the Allianz Arena on Matchday 7. Gladbach has struggled recently, however - the club has managed just 6 goals in 2019 and captain Lars Stindl has not scored a single goal since Matchday 12. A win for Bayern would tie them on points in the table with Borussia Dortmund, while club striker Robert Lewandowski is just 2 goals shy of Frankfurt’s Luka Jovic at the top of the scorers’ table. Eintracht Frankfurt is still clinging to 6th place - the last of the European qualifying berths - in the table, and are just 3 points ahead of Hoffenheim, their opponents on Saturday. Both clubs are doing well in 2019: Frankfurt are unbeaten in their first 6 Rückrunde matches, while Hoffenheim have lost just 1 of their last 16 Bundesliga matches. Also on Saturday, Leipzig will visit struggling Nürnberg, where a win could lift them into 3rd place in the league, if Gladbach fail to defeat Bayern. Club star Timo Werner, who has 11 goals so far this season, missed Monday’s 1:1 draw at Hoffenheim with a cold, but is expected to return on Saturday. For hosts Nürnberg, who have managed just 13 points for the season, relegation appears all but certain: no team with so few points at this point in the season has managed to avoid relegation. Looking ahead to Sunday, US international teammates John Brooks and Josh Sargent could line up on opposite sides for the first time when SV Werder Bremen travels to Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg have taken 10 points from their last 4 matches and hold a tenuous 5th-place position in the table, just 1 point ahead of Frankfurt. Bremen, for their part, are unbeaten so far in 2019, although they only managed a 1:1 draw against Stuttgart last week. Also on Sunday, 2 of the league’s bottom-dwellers, Stuttgart and Hannover, will face off in a bid to move out of relegation territory: neither club has ever before had so few points after 23 matches, with both clubs having suffered 15 defeats so far this season.
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