Club Haberleri

Gütersloh, who have been in the second division for many years, are coming off the back of a more than respectable pre-season that started with a 1-0 win against Bundesliga side Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of June. This was followed by further victories against SSV Rhade (5-1), 1. FC Köln’s and SGS Essen’s U-20’s (3-0 and 3-1, respectively), though some of the shine came off this with their 8-0 defeat away Twente Enschede a week and a half ago. To complete their preparations for the start of the season, FSV took part in a quick-fire tournament last weekend, which they won with victories against Hannover 96 (2-1) and Arminia Bielefeld (3-0).

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Golf, the Wolves and She-Wolves are swapping the logo of the club’s main sponsor for the lettering of the iconic Volkswagen model on the front of their shirts. The men’s team will wear their ‘new’ tops for the first time on Monday 19 August (18:00 CEST), when they travel to TuS Koblenz in the first round of the DFB Cup. The women’s team will get their turn in the Supercup against FC Bayern Munich on Sunday 25 August (18:15 CEST).

“I don’t want to judge myself,” said the FC Bayern manager at a recent press conference (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “I found a team that loves to learn. They care about football. Everyone is ready to put their ego aside. I found a very professional club. There’s a good atmosphere in here.”

After falling at the first hurdle of last year’s DFB-Pokal to SpVgg Unterhaching, FCA approached their cup clash at the Jahn-Sportpark with caution. New arrival Steve Mounié (illness) and Frederik Jensen (knock) were not included in the squad, while Marius Wolf was named on the bench.

Augsburg’s first competitive game of the 2024/25 season got off to the worst possible start, as the underdogs took the lead from a corner – Aidan Liu poked the ball over the line from short range to put the hosts in front. Dimitris Giannoulis had the chance to hit back for FCA, but the left-back was denied by a good reaction save from Viktoria keeper Florian Horenburg (9’). FCA had over 72% possession after going behind and started to up the ante in terms of chance creation. 

Phillip Tietz looked to equalise for FCA in the 24th minute, but his header from Mads Pedersen’s whipped ball into the box hit the post. Tietz turned creator shortly afterwards, bringing a cross from the right-hand side down and deftly laying the ball off to Elvis Rexhbecaj. The midfielder’s shot hit the back of the net via the inside of the post to level things up again at 1-1 (33’). Thorup’s side almost completed the turnaround before the interval, but another effort from Tietz was cleared off the line (42’).

Still, the game goes on. We have to hope that the team puts in a good effort on Saturday, making BVB work for their Bundesliga title.

Arne Maier: “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy against a Regionalliga side eager to cause an upset. When we went behind, though, we kept calm. That being said, we know that we can still improve. Of course, it was nice for me to be back playing here in Berlin and reach the next round of the Pokal. Last year, we got knocked out in the first round – this year, we did what we needed to do.”

“Bayern is still the best team we have in Germany. I can’t imagine them just giving up yet. Maybe I’m a bit naive, but I don’t think they’re as bad as it’s made out to be. Far too many negative things are being written for my liking,” Baumgart said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “The change of coach from Julian Nagelsmann to Thomas Tuchel came as a surprise. As a team there are always phases where things are going better and sometimes worse. Bayern are now in a phase, after a total of eleven years, in which things are going a little bit worse.”

“Everything that can go wrong went wrong for us this year,” the Chelsea FC forward told kicker in an interview earlier this month. “The season actually started relatively quietly. We had a change of ownership, which was a big change for the whole club. And then Thomas Tuchel was fired, which of course always makes a difference in a team like this, when you’ve been successful with a coach and then gets fired out of nowhere.”

After 93 days of pre-season, SV Werder Bremen are back. While the start of the Bundesliga gradually approaches, the Green-Whites’ first competitive fixture of the season will be a first-round DFB-Pokal clash against FC Energie Cottbus on Monday, 19th August at 18:00 CEST. It’s the second time in three years that SVW will play the Brandenburg side, who kicked off their 3. Liga campaign two weeks ago, in Germany’s domestic cup competition.

According to a report from Kicker journo Georg Holzner (as captured by Twitter account @iMiaSanMia), Mané and Gnabry are relaxed that they will be a Bayern player for the 2023/24 season given that they have contracts that run until 2025 and 2026, respectively.