Club Haberleri

Monday Bebou successfully operated Bundesliga football club TSG Hoffenheim will be without striker Ihlas Bebou for...

The starting XI

Avidly watching and supporting Germany at the 2014 World Cup affirmed my love for players such as Thomas Muller, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Phillip Lahm. Whilst Pep Guardiola’s dominating squad led me to develop further connections for the club.

Want to wake up in the morning and hear the latest information about TSG Hoffenheim on the radio? It’s possible on Tuesday thanks to Radio Regenbogen. Grischa Prömel will appear as a guest on the morning show from 7:30 CEST and talk about TSG with presenter Jens Schneider.

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.”