Borussia Dortmund is in a near dead heat with Bayern Munich, Lucien Favre’s men trying to dethrone Bayern Munich, which has won the last six Bundesliga titles.
Archrival Schalke may have derailed BVB’s title hopes on Saturday after two identically boneheaded tackles by Dortmund players saw the home side reduced to nine men before suffering a 4-2 defeat at Signal Iduna Park.
When you’ve recently churned out talent like Marco Reus, Mario Götze and Christian Pulisic, people get a bit more interested in the next generation of young lads at the Hohenbuschei training ground in the quiet Dortmund suburb of Brackel.
Remember the name: Matheus Cunha.
The 19-year-old Brazilian arrived at RB Leipzig from FC Sion last June for $17.1 million, but he’s been brought along slowly in the Bundesliga with 15 of his 21 appearances coming from off the bench.
However, on Saturday, Cunha scored his second league goal of the season, and my word. The Brazil U-20 forward pulled off a ridiculous Zidane turn to eliminate two Bayer Leverkusen defenders before seamlessly transitioning into a delicate chip over Lukáš Hrádecký.
Hop into The18 time machine and travel back to Jan. 23, 2017, to see “Borussia Dortmund Beat Real Madrid To The Signing Of 17-Year-Old Swedish Phenom” Alexander Isak. After breaking through with AIK and scoring 10 goals during his debut Allsvenskan season, “the next Zlatan Ibrahimovic” made further waves by becoming Sweden’s youngest-ever international goalscorer.
What’re you doing on Saturday? Hold that thought, because I’m about to decide for you. At 12:30 p.m. ET, Bayern Munich hosts Borussia Dortmund in a meeting that’ll go a long way toward deciding the Bundesliga title. That match will be broadcast on FOX, and it’ll lead directly in to coverage of Wayne Rooney’s D.C. United hosting Carlos Vela’s Los Angeles FC.
Both of these games are truly captivating, and again, they’re being broadcast on national television!
Which team is the hottest in the Bundesliga right now? It’s certainly not Borussia Dortmund, despite a narrow win on Saturday, nor is it Bayern Munich, after a draw saw it lose its spot at the top of the table.
The hottest team in the Bundesliga right now is RB Leipzig. And 20-year-old American midfielder Tyler Adams is a massive reason why.
This summer, the International Champions Cup returns for the seventh straight year as the globe’s premier preseason competition.
For those of us that are old, we see a meeting between the Netherlands and Germany sans Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller and even more of our already decrepit existence goes to die.
Still, a meeting between Holland and Germany in Amsterdam remains on of the few fixtures on the international calendar that you’re innately drawn to, and today's exercise showed exactly why.
The German national team had a shambolic 2018. After losses to Mexico and South Korea knocked Die Mannschaft out of the World Cup at the group stage, a catastrophic performance in the UEFA Nations League saw them relegated to League B in the new competition.
Out of the 13 matches Germany played last year, only four of those were wins.
18-year-old Canadian phenom Alphonso Davies scored his first Bundesliga goal for Bayern Munich on Sunday, coming on as a substitute in the club’s 6-0 hammering of Mainz 05 at the Allianz Arena and completing the scoring.
A James Rodriguez hat-trick alongside goals from Robert Lewandowski and Kingsley Coman had given Bayern a 5-0 lead when Davies came on for David Alaba in the 59th minute.