Bundesliga preview: Once upon a time there was a top game

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Page 1 — Once upon a time there was a great game

Page 2 — The national team is fun again

Who plays against whom and when?

Which game should you definitely not miss?

Bayern against Dortmund. Time and again in this duel, which was denigrated as a German Clásico, the championship was decided (always in favor of Bayern). This year there isn’t much left of the sporting appeal. Once upon a time it was a top game. The championship seems decided, Bayern are 10 points behind Leverkusen and BVB 20. In the first leg, Bayern beat BVB 4-0 in their stadium. On Easter Saturday BVB is waiting for a resurrection. Fourth place is far too little for a club with its potential; missing out on the Champions League would be a catastrophe. We’ll still take a look, because let’s be honest: the Bundesliga doesn’t have much better to offer.

Which game can you safely miss?

Stuttgart against Heidenheim. Not because we have anything against the two surprise teams of the season. But because they just won’t stop arguing at VfB Stuttgart. As usual, it’s about President Claus Vogt. He was voted out of office as chairman of the supervisory board of VfB Stuttgart 1893 AG a good two weeks ago. It later emerged that the new investor Porsche had made Vogt’s deselection a condition. Vogt publicly asked: “Does VfB really still belong to its members?”

He himself signed a corresponding agreement with Porsche, as he himself now admits. He has lost the trust of many fans, and several fan alliances are calling for his resignation and that of his two vice presidents Rainer Adrion and Christian Riethmüller. On Thursday morning, the two sent out a statement in which they announced that the general meeting would be brought forward to July 28th. There they want to ask the question of trust, i.e. whether they and Vogt should and are allowed to continue. Vogt did not sign the statement. Since Wednesday, a petition called “Zukunft_VfB” has also been calling on Vogt to resign. Only around 300 people had signed it on Friday morning. But what is interesting is what the ultra group Commando Cannstatt found out: Vice President Riethmüller created the document with the statement on the petition. Shortly afterwards he wrote that he had no involvement in the creation of the statement, either in terms of content or triggering it. He just looked over it to “check formal details.” He saved the formally corrected version in a Word file. There’s a fire again in the House of Stuttgart.

Who is in the spotlight?

Already the problem lawn in Saarbrücken. A cup semi-final is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Saarbrücken against Kaiserslautern, an already hot derby. The problem with the lawn in Saarbrücken’s Ludwigspark, renovated by the city from 2015 to 2021 for a good 46 million euros: the water drains poorly or not at all. No lawn drainage was planned during the renovation. The quarter-final against Gladbach fell through, the game had to be postponed, and the replacement date was also pretty wet. And now it’s supposed to rain continuously until Tuesday. As a precautionary measure, the DFB canceled Saarbrücken’s league game against Essen at the weekend and spared the grass. According to the Saarland blue light report, FCS press spokesman Peter Müller said that the lawn is currently dry, but there is water underground. “There is a wet biotope there that reaches depths of 30, 50, 70 centimeters.” Maybe the DFB will send a lifeguard instead of a referee.

Bayern against Dortmund. Time and again in this duel, which was denigrated as a German Clásico, the championship was decided (always in favor of Bayern). This year there isn’t much left of the sporting appeal. Once upon a time it was a top game. The championship seems decided, Bayern are 10 points behind Leverkusen and BVB 20. In the first leg, Bayern beat BVB 4-0 in their stadium. On Easter Saturday BVB is waiting for a resurrection. Fourth place is far too little for a club with its potential; missing out on the Champions League would be a catastrophe. We’ll still take a look, because let’s be honest: the Bundesliga doesn’t have much better to offer.