The second matchday of the Bundesliga season opened with Stuttgart’s 4-1 thrashing of Köln at home on Friday night. Saturday afternoon saw 10 teams in action.
Bayer Leverkusen hosted Union Berlin, Borussia Mönchengladbach faced newly promoted Elversberg, Hoffenheim played Borussia Dortmund, Paderborn faced Freiburg, and RB Leipzig travelled to Werder Bremen.
Here are the three things we learnt:
Elversberg can stay up:
After their impressive 3-2 win against Bayer Leverkusen last weekend, there was no way that lightning could strike twice for Elversberg and top last weekend’s win.
Well…
Away at Borussia Mönchengladbach, they were 3-1 down in the 60th minute, and it looked as if they were to be facing their first loss of the season. However, Maurice Krattenmacher would give Vincent Wagner’s side a lifeline as he made it 3-2.
Felix Keidel would then score a direct free-kick in the 80th minute to equalise. Then momentum was fully with Elversberg, and they completed their comeback in the 92nd minute when Krattenmacher scored his second of the game to make it 4-3.
The win puts Elversberg joint top of the Bundesliga table, and considering this is their first season ever in the Bundesliga, it makes it all the more impressive, and they are doing it in a way that is not sacrificing how they got into this position in the first place
It will also help head coach Wagner, who has said he will only go to their hairdresser if Elversberg lose a game. Let’s see if they can top this week when they travel to Bayern Munich.
While for Gladbach, they may be the first team to sack their head coach if things continue the way they are.
Borussia Dortmund don’t make it easy for themselves:
For the second time this season (the Super Cup), Borussia Dortmund made a game significantly harder on themselves before deciding to show up. In the season opener, they went 2-0 down to Bayern before they stepped up in the second half and nearly equalised right at the death.
Today, against Hoffenheim, they went 2-0 down, and you really got the feeling that this isn’t a Dortmund side and they are not much better than last season. However, unlike last season, where they probably would have, at best, drawn this game, today was different.
Serhou Guirassy and Fabio Silva scored twice in five minutes to equalise for Dortmund. Then in the 86th minute, an Ethan Nwaneri cross was deflected past Albian Hajdari to make it 3-2 to Niko Kovac’s side.
Is this trait sustainable for Dortmund? No.
If you continue to play with fire, you will get burnt, and that is what Dortmund are doing when they fall asleep for these periods of time and allow their opponent to take the lead.
The Bundesliga is more competitive this season:
While it has only been two matchdays, there are early signs that the Bundesliga seems to be more competitive this season. This can best be shown with Werder Bremen’s 3-1 win against RB Leipzig.
Daniel Thioune’s side put in a defensive shift to hold off Leipzig, whilst also being clinical in front of goal to score three times too, with the standout being Niclas Füllkrug scoring his first Bundesliga goal following his return on loan earlier this summer.
Elsewhere, Elversberg’s results show this too: Union Berlin drew with Eintracht Frankfurt but lost to Bayer Leverkusen today; Köln beat Hoffenheim but were convincingly beaten by Stuttgart yesterday. While I type this, too, Schalke are still level with Bayern Munich.
This isn’t to say that there will be a thrilling Bundesliga title race, but this indicates that the floor of the league has definitely risen over the summer, whether that be the quality of players the bottom sides have brought in or the type of football they play.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
