By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
FC Bayern München are hot on the heels of surprise Bundesliga leaders 1. FC Union Berlin. Can TSG 1899 Hoffenheim halt the record champions’ charge on Matchday 11?
Bayern rose to the challenge on Super Sunday, brushing aside SC Freiburg to the tune of 5-0 to climb up to second in the table. They’re now four points behind Union, with five rounds of fixtures still to play before the club football calendar goes on hiatus for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Union will remain top no matter how many goals Bayern scores against Hoffenheim over the weekend, meaning the team from the capital will be leading Germany’s top soccer division for at least six consecutive weekends.
It’s a remarkable achievement for a club that was only promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in 2019 and has seen its top performers leave in every transfer window for better-paying rivals.
Union’s only target for its fourth season in the topflight was to avoid relegation.
Sadio Mane was one of five different scorers against Freiburg, the Senegal star helping himself to his fifth Bundesliga goal. A good week just got even better for the 30-year-old forward, whose charitable efforts closer to home were recognised with the inaugural Socrates Award at the 2022 Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris.
Stopping Mane and Co. is no easy task, but Hoffenheim have toppled Bayern before, winning three and drawing one of their last six home games against the men in red. The Sinsheim club know Julian Nagelsmann all too well from his breakout stint at the helm, where he made history as the Bundesliga’s youngest ever full-time coach.
Nagelsmann was in charge when Hoffenheim picked up 20 points from the first 10 matches of 2016/17, ultimately finishing fourth to seal a milestone UEFA Champions League play-off berth. Only Ralf Rangnick (22 points in 2008) has fared better, with Andre Breitenreiter’s current crop on 17, and only two points behind Bayern.
Union are one of five teams to have taken points off Bayern in 2022/23. Die Eisernen claimed the scalp of Borussia Dortmund last time out, underlining their title credentials with a comfortable 2-0 win. They go to rock-bottom VfL Bochum 1848 on Sunday – a banana skin UEFA Europa League holders Eintracht Frankfurt slipped up on just a week after becoming the only Bundesliga team to beat Union this season.
Defeat to Union means Dortmund are winless in three Bundesliga matches for the first time since January 2021. VfB Stuttgart are the visitors to the Signal Iduna Park on Saturday afternoon, fresh from a morale-boosting victory over Bochum, but winless away from home since December 2021.
Elsewhere, there’s a meeting between two former Bundesliga winners in Xabi Alonso and Niko Kovac. Champions as players – and as a coach in Kovac’s case – those glory days must feel like a distant memory, with Alonso’s Bayer 04 Leverkusen third from bottom, and Kovac’s VfL Wolfsburg only three points better off in mid table.
Freiburg entertain promoted SV Werder Bremen, who are unbeaten on the road in 2022/23, while FC Augsburg host hot-and-cold RB Leipzig. Augsburg lost 3-2 to 1. FC Köln a week ago, but remain second to Union for form across the last five matches.
Köln are away to 1. FSV Mainz 05 in what’s set to be a vibrant curtain-raiser between the Bundesliga’s two carnival clubs. The Matchday 11 action concludes on Sunday, when Hertha Berlin take on FC Schalke 04 in a game that smacks of relegation six-pointer.
There’s also the little matter of Saturday’s standalone late fixture between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Frankfurt, in sixth and fifth respectively. Fireworks are to be expected – but only the good kind. Gladbach have committed the fewest fouls in this season’s Bundesliga; Frankfurt have conceded the least number of yellow cards. We can’t say fairer than that, can we?
In Bundesliga 2, new leaders SV Darmstadt 98 have a chance to extend their twopo int advantage at the top when they host Holstein Kiel on Friday night. SC Paderborn 07 are up to second and take on in-form Eintracht Braunschweig on Saturday before deposed table-toppers Hamburger SV begin their new assault on the summit at home to promoted 1. FC Magdeburg on Sunday.