Matchday Moments #1

Every Monday of the Bundesliga season we’ll look back on 8 of the biggest storylines from the past round of fixtures in the Bundesliga & Bundesliga 2.

Every Monday of the Bundesliga season we’ll look back on 8 of the biggest storylines from the past round of fixtures in the Bundesliga & Bundesliga 2. 

Today we feature the stellar reigning champions, a perfect Freiburg return, and the wild overachievers that are SV Jahn Regensburg.

Stellar FC Bayern, but can they sustain an entire season at this pace?

Yes, Eintracht Frankfurt looked like a shell of the side that won the Europa League last season, but let’s take nothing away from Bayern, their 6:1 opening day victory was brilliant.

The pressing was fabulous, the movement in the front line was in harmony, and the attention to detail was clear to see.

With so much going right then, the only thing to question is the sustainability of Naglesmann’s plan. The intense pressing and constant movement in possession requires a massive physical investment which will be hard to sustain over 90 minutes, let alone an entire season.

On Matchday 1 it may not have been an issue, but with Bayern facing 2 games almost every week leading up to the World Cup, sustaining this level over a loaded fixture list will be almost impossible throughout the year.

SV Sandhausen do an SV Sandhausen.

SV Sandhausen are the FC Augsburg of the Zweite Bundesliga - never good enough to play for anything meaningful, but also consistent and reliable so as to never end up in the relegation zone on matchday 34. On gameweek 3 of their 11th consecutive season in the Zweite Bundesliga, Sandhausen once again showed why the HardtwaldStadion has become such a dreary place for opposition teams to travel to.

Despite registering fewer shots, completing almost a quarter of the passes, and winning fewer duels than their opponents Fortuna Düsseldorf, a well-worked goal shortly after halftime was all it took for Sandhausen to register their second home win in just as many games this season.

6 points after 3 gameweeks is more than a good return for manager Alois Schwarz, and a trip to winless Karlsruher next weekend should hopefully see them go one step closer to prematurely cracking the glorious 40-point mark that guarantees safety.

Matthias Ginter’s Full-Circle Return

4 goals, a cleansheet, and 3 points to begin the Bundesliga season. Things couldn’t have gone much better for SC Freiburg and their returning star Matthias Ginter.

Over 3000 days after making his last appearance for Die Breisgauer, Ginter is back in the Black Forest. Just like on his debut in 2013, SC Freiburg took on FC Augsburg in a match which Die Breisgauer won and Ginter scored.

His fantastic volley for Freiburg’s 3rd shouldn’t be anything fans get too accustomed to, but his general performances was everything you could hope from a World Champion and 46 time German international.

In 90 minutes Ginter won all his tackles, made a team-high 5 clearances, and provided a vocal presence in the Freiburg backline. He may no longer be a talent like Nico Schlotterbeck, but the 28-year old is in the prime of his career, and showed on Saturday all that he is capable of.

Jahn Regensburg continue to defy the odds