Germany

World soccer's governing body FIFA has asked competition organizers to use "common sense" with players who show messages of protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody in the United States.

The move, which marks a change from a previous strong line against players displaying messages on the field, came as athletes and sports figures around the world made their views on the situation in the United States clear.

After a scoreless first half, Borussia Dortmund shifted through the gears in the second 45 to overwhelm Paderborn 6-1 on Sunday. The match featured a couple of historic firsts for Dortmund: 20-year-old English phenom Jadon Sancho notched his first professional hat-trick, and 17-year-old American prodigy Giovanni Reyna registered his first Bundesliga assist.

Gladbach took care of business against Union Berlin on Sunday with a comfortable 4-1 victory. The biggest talking point of the match came in the 41st minute, when Alassane Pléa found Marcus Thuram for a well-placed header and the Frenchman quietly celebrated in a powerful way.

Alassane Pléa → Marcus Thuram@borussia_en's French connection strikes again pic.twitter.com/33rXCHv7nc

German-American coach David Wagner saw his Schalke side fall to a fourth consecutive defeat with a 1-0 result against Werder Bremen on Saturday.

Hertha BSC secured a 2-0 victory over Augsburg in front of a haunting, empty Olympiastadion on Saturday. 

Hertha went ahead in the first half through Javairo Dilrosun. The team found itself on the back foot for much of the second half as Augsburg pushed constantly for an equalizer, but Krzysztof Piatek sealed the win with a goal on the counterattack in stoppage time. 

Don't sleep on @HerthaBSC_EN  

The well-worn cliché in England states that league titles are captured by winning games on your worst days. In Germany, Bayern Munich claims titles by demoralizing opponents on its best days.

Bayern looked well on its way to an eighth straight Bundesliga championship with a 5-0 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday at Allianz Arena. The German giants never let up the pressure against relegation-threatened Fortuna, squeezing the life out of the visitors for 90 minutes.

After protests erupted across the U.S. this past week, Schalke’s American midfielder Weston McKennie has joined in from Germany. The 21-year-old Texas native wore a “Justice for George” armband during Saturday’s match with Werder Bremen, showing support for George Floyd, who died in police hands on Monday in Minneapolis.

Lucien Favre's Dortmund has been unable to catch a break on the injury front of late. 

Having already lost captain Marco Reus to ongoing fitness issues and center back Dan-Axel Zagadou to a ruptured ligament, Favre has now had to rule out midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud for the rest of the campaign as well.

As much as those in England are obsessed with the talents of Jadon Sancho, the most exciting young attacker in the Bundesliga is not British, Norwegian or Canadian. He’s as German as they come.

A crucial game beckons in the 2. Bundesliga's race for promotion as second-place Hamburg takes on third-place Stuttgart on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. EST. 

Dieter Hecking's Hamburg holds a one-point lead over New Jersey native Pellegrino Matarazzo's Stuttgart in the second and final automatic-promotion spot. Neither side has been in great form of late; stretching back to before the pandemic-enforced shutdown, Hamburg has just one win in six games while Stuttgart is on a winless run of four games.