Featured Game – Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-1 Bayern München
The 2020/21 Bundesliga season was certainly an entertaining one. Some teams excelled, reaching heights they had never before imagined. Others faltered, only dreaming of getting back to more successful times. However, a new campaign brings a fresh start with new possibilities for every team; although, the most pleasing thing to see in the first match-up of 2021/22 was the return of fans to Borussia-Park. Grounds may still be able to hold full capacity, but new rules mean that stands can be half-full for the return of German top-flight football and that means the return of the fantastic atmosphere of German supporters. They were sorely missed last season and the fact that goals will be cheered by real life people is one that will be appreciated by all followers of the Bundesliga.
As is customary, the champions kicked-off the campaign, but in a break of tradition, they travelled away to Mönchengladbach for their first game rather than hosting the season-opener. The champions are, of course, Bayern München who saw off the challenge of RB Leipzig last season to retain their Meisterschale and make it eight straight titles. However, there have been a number of long-serving players out the door during the summer, with Javi Martinez and World Cup winner Jerome Boateng both released and David Alaba jetting off to sunny Madrid to join Real on the expiry of his contract. Therefore, especially in defence, the Rekordmeister had something of a new look and the signing of French centre back Dayot Upamecano from Leipzig only shook things up further. The new number 2 was thrown into the starting eleven for an immediate debut. Perhaps a coach unfamiliar to a new acquisition may wait before giving them regular games, in order to learn how best to use them in the team. In this case though, Bayern boss Julian Nagelsmann is new to the club himself, also having arrived from RB Leipzig and as a result he already has a good understanding of Upamecano. That, combined with a current absence of a number of first team defenders due to injury, meant the £40m man lined up alongside Niklas Süle from the off.
And they definitely needed to be at the top of their game as well against a string Gladbach side who really took the game to their visitors right from the first whistle of the new season. Borussia’s one-club man Patrick Herrmann had the first clear-cut chance of the game, but he fired his left-footed effort wide. Herrmann was presented with another opportunity just moments later and this time with more time and space on his favoured right side. His decision to square the ball for a teammate was a poor none though, when a shot one-on-one with Manuel Neuer would surely have been the better option. His pass sideways was brilliantly cut out by young Josip Stanisic for Bayern and the danger was cleared. The hosts were relentless in the early stages though, and the away team’s respite was only momentary. The attacking intensity of Mönchengladbach had Bayern pinned back and their high press forced a mistake from Canadian Alphonso Davies on ten minutes. The rapid full-back lost possession in the middle of the field after being crowded out by three white shirts. Gladbach sprung the counterattack at lightning speed and when captain Lars Stindl played striker Alassane Plea in on goal, the Frenchman never looked like missing from twelve yards out. He slammed the ball home with his left foot to score the opening goal of the 2021/22 campaign and send the home crowd into raptures. The stadium sounded much more than just half full.
On the odd occasion a side will go ahead against Bayern, there is every chance that all the goal will do is anger the Bavarians into a period of attacking play of their own. That is exactly what happened in this one, as the game swiftly turned on its head, with the München side taking full control of possession and the course of the remainder of the first half. Although the champions’ play did not have the intensity of Borussia’s early on, their methodical dictation of proceedings allows them to sustain an offensive flow for large parts of the game and offer their opponents little reprieve. It soon became clear that the home side needed half time to come quickly. Keeper Yann Sommer was in his usual inspired form, but it was only a matter of time before one of the half-chances falling to the league’s top man Robert Lewandowski would be put away. His opportunities were limited to mainly first-time volleys that were difficult to really direct, and a number of shots ended up more or less straight at the Swiss shot stopper. Nonetheless, they required some quick reflexes from Sommer to deny Bayern, but even he could do nothing to prevent the eventual equalizer with three minutes to go before half time. A corner for the visitors was swung in, landing right onto the boot of Lewandowski. Regardless, volleying a fast-moving ball into the back of the net past one of the Bundesliga’s best goalkeepers would be far too hard a task for most. However, the Polish striker just came off the back of the best goal-scoring season Germany has ever seen, netting 41 league goals. He often defies the odds, turning almost impossible chances into goals, while tucking home all of the easy without seemingly breaking a sweat. When the opportunity presented itself in the 42nd minute, he swept his shot into the net to restore parity going into the break.
Although no more goals followed in the second period, the match continued to entertain, with both sides creating some very presentable situations. Sommer still looked unbeatable and pulled off a miraculous save to keep out a Lewandowski attempt soon after the restart that appeared to be arrowing into the corner of the goal, sticking out a right foot to divert it wide. Neuer was not untroubled at the other end though and had to be sharp to dive down to parry a fierce curling effort from Stindl on the hour mark. However, neither keeper was called into action for the last and arguably best opportunity of the second half. In the final minute of the five added on for stoppages at the end of the game, Kingsley Coman handed Joshua Kimmich with the chance to win the game after pulling the ball back from the by-line to the edge of the area, where the Germany international was waiting. Kimmich hit his effort first time, but the fact that it was on his weaker left foot told, as he steered the ball beyond the far post with the final kick of the game. Drama right until the end of the first match of the new Bundesliga season. There were good opportunities for both teams throughout the game and the high-paced feel to the football was typical of the German top tier. Perhaps the opening match would be too early for this kind of excitement with players still working their way back to top fitness and match sharpness, but if the 2021/22 Bundesliga follows the trend set by its first game, then we are going to be in for a real treat.
The Games Keep Coming
Mainz 1-0 RB Leipzig
After a poor start to last season, Mainz were arguably the form team when the campaign drew to a conclusion, having hauled themselves out of danger of relegation and up to a comfortable 12th place. This change was largely thanks to new coach Bo Svensson who instilled a fighting spirit in the team, as well as employing a system of rotation to keep players fresh – especially needed with the number of games fit in to such a compacted year of football. For Leipzig, the new campaign offered another go at the Bundesliga title. Their previous challenge on Bayern’s crown had fallen at the last hurdle; some late season slip-ups ultimately cost them, although the prospect of catching up to the league leaders was always a distant one, as it would have required a significant down-turn in form from the Rekordmeister. Nevertheless, with a host of new recruits both on the field of play and in the dugout, Leipzig were back and, one would have imagined, raring to go.
However, the team from the East were far from at the races on opening day. Mainz did pose a stern test and pulled off some defensive heroics at times, but a lack of attacking incisiveness persists for the Red Bulls. Goals were not exactly hard to come by for Leipzig last term, but they often played without a recognised number nine after losing Timo Werner to Chelsea in a big money transfer last summer. That meant the likes of Marcel Sabitzer and Emil Forsberg had to lead the line, vacating their attacking midfield roles where they thrive to try and make the forward movements that only come naturally to a born striker – clearly not getting the best out of these players. Therefore, a delve into the transfer market was required in the hope that a regularly scoring centre forward would be the major step to heaving RB onto par with Bayern München. As is seen frequently, bigger Bundesliga spenders often look to the less affluent clubs to nab their top performers, seeing them as fairly safe bets to reproduce the goods they did in the same league for their previous employers. In Leipzig’s case, it was a £20m swoop for Eintracht Frankfurt’s Andre Silva, scorer of 28 league goals in 2020/21. The signing caused much excitement for Leipzig supporters, feeling that Silva may just be the missing piece in the puzzle. Nonetheless, a fairly vacant first game for the Red Bulls showed that nothing can be taken for granted in the Bundesliga.
RB Leipzig tried and probed all game. Their dominant possession may have suggested a control on the game, but they never truly appeared on the verge of netting a goal at any point during proceedings. The pattern remained predictably similar, with any attempt at a shot or final pass from the away side blocked or cut out by a Mainz defender, heroically in some cases. The hosts’ desire to shut out their visitors was arguably spurred by the fact that they had something to hold onto from an early point in the game: a 12th minute goal from captain Moussa Niakhate. The home team’s lead had come about from a corner, initially headed towards goal by centre half Stefan Bell. However, after a ricochet, Nordi Mukiele had the chance to clear for the away side; his effort to do so was poor though, and his hooked clearance only looped up and landed right in the path of the Mainz skipper almost on the goal line. The Frenchman volleyed home the unmissable opportunity to give his team their first strike of the new season.
Another first was still to come though – their first win. In truth, the result was only ever going to go one way. Mainz appeared simply unwavering in their pursuit of the clean sheet, and they actually came closest to the game’s second goal. If it had not been for the fact that a second half corner had swung just out of play beyond the by-line before landing on the right foot of Stefan Bell, Mainz would have doubled their advantage. The big defender might have struck the sweetest ball of his entire career as he met the cross on the volley, hammering it into the back of the net past an unmoved RB Leipzig keeper, Peter Gulacsi. Unfortunately for Bell and Mainz, but perhaps fortunately for future goal of the season contenders, because this really was some strike, the goal was disallowed quite rightly and a goal kick was awarded. Nevertheless, the home side saw out the remainder of the game to pick up their first three points on opening day. A slow start, however, for RB Leipzig in the title race.
Borussia Dortmund 5-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
While it was Bayern and Leipzig who led the way last term, Borussia Dortmund will be hoping that the return of their passionate Yellow Wall of supporters to the Signal Iduna Park will be just the boost they need to mount a serious title challenge this time around. Undoubtedly, however, on the field they will look to their main man up top to continue providing the goals going into this new season. Erling Haaland managed an impressive 27 league goals in 2020/21. But with the departure of Jadon Sancho to Manchester United, his now former partner in crime in the Dortmund attack, Haaland may need to step up even further if Dortmund want to improve on their third placed Bundesliga finish.
That said, it certainly is not as if this is a one-man team. There are a host of other attacking talents left in the Gelbschwarzen’s ranks, including their talismanic club captain Marco Reus. He linked up well with Haaland to give the home faithful their first taste of a goal celebration in the stands for quite some time. Haaland picked up the ball in the centre of the pitch before driving with it and supplying a clean through ball for his skipper, whose low and precise shot zipped past Kevin Trapp in the Eintracht goal. As well as his knack for scoring them, Haaland has shown a tendency to assist them too for his teammates, as eight in the last campaign demonstrated. Nevertheless, it seems that new coach Marco Rose may have been working on a slightly different role for the big Norwegian, as he often found himself in deeper positions, getting on the ball more than he did last season under Edin Terzic where he was deployed almost exclusively as a player to run in behind.
Against Eintracht, he appeared the main creative outlet in the side, setting up a second Dortmund goal for Thorgan Hazard to regain the one-goal advantage, after a freak own goal by Felix Passlack had briefly levelled the scores. This time though, the hosts were not to be pegged back, and just two minutes later Haaland was doing what arguably comes most natural to him: smashing the ball past a Bundesliga goalkeeper. Needless to say, Trapp had no chance of denying the forward from just inside the penalty area on his venomous left foot and Haaland’s shot whistled past the German stopper with incredible force.
Dortmund did not relent in the second period. More swift attacking play was to follow; however, the fourth goal was a bit scrappier. As the hosts rushed forward, they almost went too quickly for their own good, and it seemed as if they were going to lose possession after neither Reus nor Haaland could manage the final killer pass. Instead, a ricochet fell back to Haaland whose miscued shot found teammate Gio Reyna on the left side of the penalty area. The American was left with a rather routine finish from just a few yards to put further gloss on the score line and help his Norwegian striker to a treble of assists, even if the third of those was unintentional. The Black and Yellows were not done yet though and Haaland decided that one goal and three assists would simply not be enough for a day’s work. He added his second goal and the home team’s fifth with a curling right footed effort, showcasing an ability to score on his weaker side too. Frightening capabilities from the 21-year-old. He nearly completed his hattrick too, but another attempt on the weaker foot was parried by Kevin Trapp. Okay, maybe he is human.
The main struggle for Dortmund last season was certainly not in finding the back of the opposition’s net, far from it. In contrast, keeping the ball out of their own goal was a much harder task. Therefore, Marco Rose may not have been able to quite celebrate as veraciously as some of the fans after netting five at home. Rather, the disappointment of conceding twice in his first game at the helm may have left a rather bitter taste in the mouth, especially concerning the ease with which Frankfurt added their second goal. An 87th minute corner was all too easily won by an Eintracht head and the following knock-down fell to new Eagles’ acquisition Jens Petter Hauge. The young winger, who was recently brought in from AC Milan, was afforded an amount of room inside the 18-yard box that would have been greatly worrying for the Dortmund coaches. He was under little pressure as he steered in a debut goal for his new club. Altogether, however, any concerns over a large creative void that may have been left by Sancho’s Dortmund exit quickly evaporated as the hosts continually surged forward throughout the game. With Haaland on fire, Borussia seem capable of reaching great heights this season, but the defensive frailty that was all to prevalent last season may just cost them again if not swiftly addressed. Asking for five goal involvements per game on a regular basis from their top striker to cope with a leaky back line does not sound sustainable.
Rest of the Round-Up
Union Berlin 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen
After an incredible second ever season in the Bundesliga that earned them a spot in the inaugural Europa Conference League, Union Berlin will be hoping to replicate such form. One move towards doing that was the club record signing of Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi, who spent last term on loan with the capital side from Liverpool. His transfer was made permanent this summer, and to celebrate he curled home a full debut goal within seven minutes of the new season. These two sides could not be split easily in the previous campaign, with Leverkusen finishing just a place above Union in the league standings. Moussa Diaby’s fantastic solo goal for the visitors ensured that the sides would start the new campaign in a similar vein.
Augsburg 0-4 Hoffenheim
Bavarian club Augsburg started the new season with a rather drastic change to their home kit. Their all-white strip of the previous campaign had been thrown aside and in came a brand spanking new red and green striped jersey – quite the switch. Not that it helped them in any way on opening day. They hosted Hoffenheim who, with their superstar Croatian Andrej Kramaric up front, always pose a threat. On Matchday 1 last season, Kramaric bagged himself a hattrick to race into the lead on the top goal scorers standings. This year though, he was in a more selfless mood and instead set up his teammates for a treble of assists. Hoffenheim youngster Georginio Rutter came on to rub further salt into the wounds of the home crowd, grabbing a goal and assist to make it a rather dismal 4-0 defeat at the WWK-Arena to start the season for Augsburg.
Arminia Bielefeld 0-0 Freiburg
Bielefeld’s resilient display last term has earned them another crack at the German top-flight. The team who only just avoided an immediate return to the 2. Bundesliga would have been underdogs going into this match against a Freiburg side who nearly reached European football last campaign. However, Arminia goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, who performed terrifically last year, appeared to have only improved his standards in his team’s opening match. He pulled off a number of astounding saves to undoubtedly earn one of the most deserved clean sheets this season.
Wolfsburg 1-0 Bochum
Life back in the Bundesliga potentially could not have got off to a worse start for second tier champions Bochum who, after a VAR review, had a penalty kick awarded against them for a handball on the goal line by midfielder Robert Tesche. Unsurprisingly, Tesche was also shown a straight red card for his denial of a certain goal with an illegal body part. This all happened before the fourth minute of the match. Some respite, however, for the new boys arrived through the poor resulting spot kick from Wolfsburg’s Wout Weghorst, which was saved easily by Bochum keeper Manuel Riemann. The damage was done though with such an early red card and Weghorst, who scored for the Netherlands at Euro 2020 this summer, was not to be denied for long, netting with a curling attempt on 22 minutes. Bochum could not mount much going forward with only ten men on the field after that and the game drew slowly to its seemingly inevitable 1-0 conclusion.
Stuttgart 5-1 Greuther Fürth
Bochum may have been unlucky with the manner of their loss on their return to the Bundesliga, but for Fürth the reality of making the step up to the top flight was all too real when they travelled to Stuttgart. The side pulled off near to a miracle to gain promotion, but they may need a divine intervention if they are to avoid the drop this campaign on the evidence of their first showing. They struggled to defend Stuttgart’s aerial attacks primarily, with top assist-provider from last season, Borna Sosa, at the heart of the hosts’ forward play. He set up his teammates with pinpoint crosses for three of their five goals including two deliveries from a corner, which were both headed home by defender Marc-Oliver Kempf for a very surprising maiden career brace. Fürth did give their fans something to cheer though, as Jamie Leweling bagged a 93rd minute consolation goal, but this may turn out to be a long old season for followers of the Bavarians.
Köln 3-1 Hertha Berlin
After both these sides’ struggles last campaign, neither will be wanting to be dragged into another relegation scrap this time around. Köln really flirted with the dreaded drop, surviving the nerve-wracking ordeal of a relegation play-off against second-tier Holstein Kiel. All the more incentive to perform in 2021/22, and they got off to flyer against Hertha. Although Stevan Jovetic did score on his Berlin debut inside five minutes, making him only the second player to have scored in all of Europe’s five major leagues, the home side hit back well and one-time Köln superstar Anthony Modeste netted his first goal for the Billy Goats since last June. Florian Kainz really stole the show though, as his brace after half time steered his team to victory on Matchday 1. However, the real reason for the fantastic Köln display was more likely to do with their returning mascot to the Rhein-Energie Stadion: real life goat Hannes the Ninth.
A Few Words On… Erling Haaland
There does not seem much left to be said about Dortmund’s super striker Erling Haaland, but five goal involvements on opening day may just be a sign that he is getting even better. If that is feasibly possible. That fact that he was able to be deployed in a slightly different role against Eintracht on Matchday 1 shows that he is on his way to becoming a more rounded forward, essential to any big team. The type of play that Robert Lewandowski shows for Bayern on top of his goal scoring makes his side that bit more efficient in attack – his tendency to drift wide and link up the play means more is got out of players like Serge Gnabry and Thomas Müller. This ability is arguably what Haaland was beginning to demonstrate at the weekend, with Hazard and Reyna the beneficiaries. Neither of them are regular scorers, but a new role for their main man might just hand them more opportunities to find the net, and apparently too not at the expense of Haaland’s own goal hunting ambitions. The Norwegian looked sharp and determined, perhaps stemming from an uneventful summer in comparison to many of his teammates, who were away on international duty primarily at either the European Championships or the Copa America. Therefore, the 21-year-old has come back rested and raring to go – a frightening sight for Bundesliga defenders. Especially for those already feeling the effects of a tough last season combined with little break in the summer, as was the case for Frankfurt’s Hinteregger and Ilsanker who were both at the Euros with Austria. The sight of Haaland running past you at top speed must be pretty disheartening, as, unless your name is Alphonso Davies, there would not be much you could do to stop him.
What to Look Forward to Next Matchday
RB Leipzig vs. Stuttgart
Hertha Berlin vs. Wolfsburg
Bochum vs. Mainz
Freiburg vs. Borussia Dortmund
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Augsburg
Greuther Fürth vs. Arminia Bielefeld
Bayer Leverkusen vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach
Hoffenheim vs. Union Berlin
Bayern München vs. Köln
No points on Matchday 1 would have been very frustrating for Leipzig’s new American manager Jesse Marsch. However, a win is far from guaranteed in their first home game of the new season either, as they welcome top of the table Stuttgart to the Red Bull Arena. It might be slightly premature to base expectations for games on the current Bundesliga standings, but a 5-1 thrashing of new boys Fürth signalled that Stuttgart would not be holding back anything in 2021/22.
A particularly interesting clash for very different reasons could be the one between Fürth and Bielefeld. The newly promoted side will be able to have the support of their home fans in the top flight for the first time in a number of years, as they will face the team who showed them just how to there despite limited resources. Arminia performed marvellously last season, beating the odds to earn a spot in the Bundesliga for consecutive years. Now they will hope to really show Fürth that life in the big league is not as easy as they may have made it seem.