Heiko Vogel, a former Champions League coach at FC Basel now managing the Borussia Mönchengladbach U-23s, was charged with “unsporting behavior” toward referees during a recent match. His so-called punishment might have been more offensive than the transgression itself.
For a while now, I have touted that college basketball and European soccer, despite an ocean between them, are very much two parallel sports.
The fervor of college basketball student sections, something not found at most professional sports games in the United States, is the closest facsimile to thousands of mad ultras at a European football match, making home advantage so important in each sport.
With a landmark goal against Werder Bremen, Robert Lewandowski scored a landmark goal #268. This goal put Lewandowski even with Klaus Fischer as 2nd all-time scorer in Bundesliga.
I know, it’s hard being a goalkeeper. They’re rarely praised for making game-changing saves and heavily criticized for any blunders they make. But Rune Jarstein’s effort on the Julian Brandt goal vs Hertha Berlin on Saturday left a lot to be desired.
Borussia Dortmund beat Hertha 2-0 thanks to Brandt’s long-range goal. It was a vital win for Borussia Dortmund, which has fallen out of the Champions League places in the Bundesliga and sits fifth but will likely end the weekend back in sixth.
BREMEN, Germany — Bayern Munich cruised to a 3-1 victory at Werder Bremen on Saturday with striker Robert Lewandowski climbing to second place in the Bundesliga's all-time scorers list as the champions opened up a five-point lead at the top.
The 32-year-old Lewandowski, the 2020 FIFA World Player, twice hit the woodwork early in the second half before tapping in for to make it 3-0 and join Klaus Fischer on 268 Bundesliga goals, second on the all-time scorers list only to Gerd Mueller and his astonishing 365-goal record.
On Saturday, ABC broadcast a Bundesliga match for the first time ever. Gone are the days of hoping you can find the Bundesliga on tape delay a day or two later as major broadcasters are giving the beautiful game the attention it deserves in the U.S., and not just for major Premier League matches. Now that the soccer TV ratings are out for the past weekend, we wanted to point out a few interesting facts about the viewership.
RB Leipzig went on top of the Bundesliga on Saturday after beating Freiburg. Borussia Dortmund went on top of Bayern Munich on Saturday after scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes. But as is usually the case in Germany, at the end of the day the Bavarians were on top of both Dortmund and the Bundesliga.
I was excited. For the first time ever, ABC was going to broadcast a Bundesliga match, and not even the absence of Gio Reyna could dampen the anticipation for the Bayern Munich-Borussia Dortmund rivalry. Well, maybe an outdoors show could.
As I turned my TV to ABC on Saturday morning, instead of my local Denver7 ABC network showing Der Klassiker, I was subjected to “Ocean Treks With Jeff Corwin.”
BERLIN — Borussia Dortmund suffered a major blow on Friday when Jadon Sancho, Raphael Guerreiro and Giovanni Reyna were ruled out of Saturday's Bundesliga game at champions Bayern Munich, the club said on Twitter.
Winger Sancho and midfielder Guerreiro had been taken off with minor muscle injuries in their midweek German Cup quarter-final win and have not fully recovered yet.
It was not clear why American teenager Reyna had not joined the squad on the trip to Munich.
American sports can be tacky at times (see cheerleaders, singing the national anthem and extensive commercial breaks), but one positive that has arisen from the heartland of this fine country is the extensive use of trophies.