Borussia Dortmund’s sobering 3-1 home defeat to Bayern Munich on Saturday contained only two redeeming qualities according to BVB manager Peter Bosz: the support of the club’s famous Yellow Wall and the play of 19-year-old American attacker Christian Pulisic.
Borussia Dortmund lost to Bayern Munich in Der Klassiker Saturday, 3-1. However, that one for Dortmund was set up by intrepid American hero Christian Pulisic nutmegging Arjen Robben inside-out.
The Bartra finish was pretty, but how about that nutmeg by Pulisic?? https://t.co/LWEH30eLva
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 4, 2017
Bobby Wood spent an anonymous 56 minutes on the pitch last weekend in Hamburg’s 2-1 defeat to Hertha Berlin, consigning the club to 16th in the 18-team Bundesliga and opening Wood to fierce criticism from manager Markus Gisdol. Wood has started nine league matches for Hamburg this term, but he’s only managed a single goal. That was back in August.
Huddersfield Town coach David Wagner violated the first rule of giving a good best man speech at a wedding. While many things go into an appropriate, meaningful and still funny best man speech, it is absolutely vital that one remain relatively sober during the discourse. At Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp’s wedding in 2005, Wagner did not heed this advice.
There’s a little Ralph Wiggum in all of us. From the doofus who plays soccer with basketball shoes on to one of the best coaches in Europe, we can all relate to the rotund dimwit from The Simpsons from time to time. Jupp Heynckes should listen to the sage advice from one Ralph Wiggum: “My doctor said I wouldn’t have so many nosebleeds if I kept my finger out of there.”
Borussia Dortmund’s Raphaël Guerreiro made a return to the pitch after four months on Tuesday in the DFB Pokal, coming on in the 63rd minute of a 5-0 rout of FC Magdeberg. But he did something more incredible during training on Wednesday.
Apparently happy to be back and playing after breaking his foot in the Confederations Cup with Portugal in June, Guerreiro scored a whimsical, pirouetting goal with his heel that somehow found the upper 90 during practice.
Martin Schmidt has a new secret weapon, and he has his team undefeated since taking over as Wolfsburg coach last month. Some post-match tooth brushing rituals have turned the Bundesliga club’s fortunes around, resulting in a four-match unbeaten run, including a 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich.
The #TakeAKnee movement has crossed the Atlantic and into Germany. Hertha Berlin players took a knee in a show of solidarity with similar protests in the United States ahead of their match with Schalke on Saturday.
Jupp, he’s back, again. Jupp Heynckes was appointed to be the new Bayern Munich coach through the end of the season on Friday, the German’s fourth stint with the club dating back to 1987. Heynckes replaces Carlo Ancelotti, who was canned in September after a 3-0 hiding from Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League combined with a slow start in the Bundesliga.
With Germany needing just a point from its match against Northern Ireland in Belfast, it was never really a question of if, but when. The answer was less than two minutes into the match. Sebastian Rudy hit a stunning long-range strike less than 80 seconds into the game and a relaxed Germany coasted to a 3-1 win over Northern Ireland to book its spot in next summer’s World Cup on Thursday.