SC Freiburg

SC were drawn against last year’s Conference League winners, West Ham United, from Pot 1. The British side from London’s East End have started the season strongly and are second in the Premier League with seven points from the first three matchdays. 

Travelling to Stuttgart with Höler

Please take note for the journey there: The Stutenseer Allee is closed at the moment for vehicles but entrance to the GRENKE Stadion is possible via the normal entrance. Parking spaces are available along the Adenauerring.

Head coach Christian Streich made three changes to his starting XI, as Nicolas Höfler returned following his suspension. Ritsu Doan replaced Michael Gregoritsch in attack, with Kiliann Sildillia coming in for the injury Christian Günter. After undergoing surgery on a broken arm previously, the captain re-broke the same arm during training this week and will be sidelined for the foreseeable future. Vincenzo Grifo donned the armband in his stead, as SC kept the opponents busy with several chances from Roland Sallai, Doan and Grifo.

The upcoming opponents, Bremen, did not have such a good start to the season. Werder lost their opening game of the 60th Bundesliga season 4-0 to FC Bayern and went out in the opening round of the DFB-Pokal. However, the Green-Whites are optimistic about their first away game: “We know that it will be difficult in Freiburg because they have a very flexible squad,” emphasised Marvin Ducksch. “But, if we play our best football, we will have an even game.”

“Keven is a good guy who gave his all during preseason. Since the likelihood of regular game time here hasn’t changed, we wanted to give Keven this opportunity,” says chairman Jochen Saier. “With his loan move to Bochum, Keven is returning to a familiar environment and won’t need any time to get up to speed. We wish him as much success as possible and hope he has a great time working at Castroper Straße.”

Philipp moved to Borussia Dortmund in 2017/18 and featured 51 times for BVB in the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal, the Europa League and the Champions League. Following his time with Dortmund, the attacker had spells with Russian side Dynamo Moscow and then VfL Wolfsburg. The 29-year-old spent the second half of last season on loan at SV Werder Bremen and actually scored against Freiburg.

Like in the DFB-Pokal game, Merlin Röhl got a start in midfield, while Hoffenheim’s new signing Weghorst was not in the host’s squad due to injury. The game began with a headed opportunity for Hoffenheim (3‘), but Grischa Prömels’ attempt went well wide of Noah Atubolu’s goal. The hosts maintained this pressure and had three shots in close succession after five minutes, with SC unable to effectively clear the ball. Atubolu was unable to hold on to one of these shots and Andrej Kramaric was in the right place to tap it home. The home fans celebrated, but the Croatia international was in an offside position.

The same question will be posed to both teams as before every other opening matchday: Are the team in good shape, and how do the opposition compare? How well are the new signings being integrated into the squad? Christian Streich explained where the focus lies on the first game of the season: “We haven’t had a match for a few weeks, and every team starts with zero points. We want to get the ball rolling immediately and increase our points tally as much as possible. The start of the season is always a bit tense, but if we start strong and maintain a high morale, this should soon ease off.”

With the Nordtribüne full of SC fans creating a great atmosphere chanting “away win”, SC got their first competitive game of the new season underway. As usual this was in the DFB-Pokal, a competition that SC have enjoyed success in in the last two seasons and which Streich described as an “excellent competition.” As expected, SC played with a high line, Matthias Ginter was the furthest player back standing on the halfway line, but Oberachern defended diligently and when they won the ball back they didn’t just play directly forward immediately, but tried to play with the ball on the ground, exactly as Streich predicted. After an error in build-up from SC, it was the fifth-division side that had the first chance, with Maximilian Eggestein just able to prevent a shot (7’). Oberachern played with a lot of courage and didn’t shy away from any challenges.