Those of us waking up Saturday morning hoping to see some more rampaging action from Christian Pulisic were disappointed when the American was pulled out of the Chelsea lineup late with an injury suffered during warmups. Fortunately, Josh Sargent filled the void admirably, scoring his first Bundesliga goal of the season with a well-taken strike.
Julian Nagelsmann and first-place RB Leipzig will head to North Rhine-Westphalia to take on Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday.
DORTMUND, Germany — Borussia Dortmund cantered to a 3-0 win over Schalke 04 in the Ruhr valley derby on Saturday to pile on the misery for their neighbours who have now gone 21 Bundesliga games without a win.
Schalke, one off the bottom of the table, managed to keep Dortmund at bay for 55 minutes until Manuel Akanji broke their resistance.
Erling Haaland, with his fifth league goal of the season, then added a second and Mats Hummels completed the scoring.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Thursday he is not interested in a European Super League amid reports that some elite clubs were in talks to set up a breakaway competition with the backing of the global soccer body.
In an interview published by German-language newspaper Aargauer Zeitung and other regional Swiss media, Infantino said FIFA was focused on the success of the revamped Club World Cup, which will feature 24 teams and be held for the first time in China in 2022.
Schalke 04 on Sunday apologized to 15-year-old Borussia Dortmund player Youssoufa Moukoko after their fans hurled abuse at the teenager following his hat-trick in the Under-19 Ruhr derby.
"We can only apologize to Youssoufa Moukoko for what fans shouted during the Under-19 game," Schalke said on Twitter. "Putting emotions of a derby aside, we fully condemn such insults and reject them. We will take the necessary measures together with the Schalke fan department."
BERLIN — RB Leipzig muscled past Augsburg 2-0 on Saturday to stay top of the Bundesliga after four matches while fellow title contenders Borussia Dortmund needed a second-half goal by substitute Marco Reus to beat hosts Hoffenheim 1-0.
Leipzig struggled throughout the first half but scored on the stroke of halftime when Angelino drilled in a header at the far post from a perfectly-floated Dani Olmo cross.
Bayern Munich opened the defense of its DFB Pokal crown on Thursday against FC Düren. For those keeping track at home, Düren is in Germany’s fifth tier, so the final score of 3-0 Bayern wasn’t unexpected, but honestly slightly flattered the title holders.
Bayern’s win wasn’t really ever in doubt, but Düren held its own — the players can go home proud of the fact they fared better against the European champions than Barcelona.
In a way, it can be a bit exhausting following all the young American stars in Europe these days. As soon as we get used to Weston McKennie playing for Italy’s most famous club, Sergiño Dest moves to Barcelona. As soon as we finish gushing over a performance from Tyler Adams, Giovanni Reyna does something like he did on Saturday. It might just be a golden age for Americans abroad, and we’re not going to complain, nor are we going to stop celebrating these Americans, because everyone who grew up in the 90s or earlier can really appreciate just how special this moment in time is.
The biggest matchup in Germany will see its latest edition play out on Tuesday as Bayern Munich will take on Borussia Dortmund with the German Supercup on the line.
Bring on the Supercup
FC Bayern
Supercup
9/30/20
2:30 PM ET / 19:30 BST / 20:30 CEST
Allianz Arena pic.twitter.com/WpywCSUPYm— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) September 29, 2020
Daniel Thioune's Hamburg completed a successful comeback late on to secure a 4-3 victory over Paderborn in the 2. Bundesliga on Monday.
After narrowly missing out on promotion back to the top flight last season following a late collapse, Hamburg has won its first two games of the new campaign. It had gone up 2-0 after 24 minutes thanks to goals from Manuel Wintzheimer and Simone Terrode, but Hamburg squandered the lead and found itself down 3-2 all before halftime.