Germany

The Bundesliga returned from its winter break on Friday, and Bayern Munich defeated Freiburg after Robert Lewandowski blatantly cheated to score in the 91st minute. 

He trapped the ball with his chest, which wasn’t fair, juggled it, which was a clear foul, and rolled a shot in off the post, which should earn him a lifetime ban. Poor Freiburg, they didn’t deserve to lose, not like this.

How did he do that?

According to reports from German weekly sports magazine Sport Bild, Bayern Munich midfielder and Spanish legend Xabi Alonso is planning to retire at the end of the season. Alonso, who still plays a key role for the Bavarian club in the center of the park, is said to have informed the club of his decision to hang up his boots at the conclusion of this season.

Christian Pulisic scored another goal for Borussia Dortmund in a friendly over the Bundesliga winter break, notching the opener in his sides 3-0 victory over Belgium’s Standard Liege.

For Pulisic, it was his second goal in two games following his strike against PSV Eindhoven last weekend. 

I know what you're thinking and no, Thomas Muller was not dressed up in a disguise or protected by a security guard.

So how did the Bayern Munich player successfully avoid the awaiting press contingent at the airport? All he did was talk on the phone!

The funny thing is...his phone was really his passport. Take a look at the video:

Einfach überragend - Typisch Thomas Müller pic.twitter.com/ZXicXRWDrw

Christian Pulisic’s 2017 is off to a fine start after the 18-year-old American scored in Borussia Dortmund’s friendly victory over PSV Eindhoven during the Bundesliga’s winter break.

Yeah, it was only a friendly, but scoring a goal against Champions League opposition still probably means more than taking it to the Colorado Rapids. 

Pulisic scored off a Andre Schurrle cutback for Dortmund’s fourth goal in their 4-1 victory.

People in Germany are very mad about RB Leipzig because, to them, RB Leipzig are everything that is wrong with a soccer world that is growing increasingly corporate.

Basically, Red Bull bought a lower-division German club and put a bunch of money into it, turning it into a monster overnight. Oh, and they renamed it after their company. That club now sits second in the Bundesliga and gets called soulless by fans who form the T-Mobile logo in the stands during home games.

No one saw RB Leipzig's season coming. The newly-promoted, corporation-owned club found themselves level on points with mighty Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga heading into their match Wednesday.

After three years with Bayern Munich, and one on loan at Hamburger SV, Julian Green is set to leave the Bavarian giants in January with the hopes of becoming a first-team regular at Stuttgart.