Who plays against whom and how?
Which game should you definitely not miss?
St. Pauli against HSV. The only city derby in the Bundesliga. There isn’t one in Berlin, Munich or anywhere else, which is a shame because a derby like this is special for every city. For around half of all Munich residents, Thomas Riedl is still a hero today because he scored the Lions to win the derby against Bayern in 1999. An HSV fan already knows: If his team loses the second leg at Millerntor after the first leg, he would rather take sick leave for Monday. It doesn’t matter that St. Pauli would still be two points behind the diamonds even if they won. There is something bigger than the table.
Which game can you safely miss?
Eintracht Frankfurt against Hoffenheim. There aren’t many things easier at the moment than scoring a goal against Eintracht. They have the worst defense of all teams in Europe’s top leagues (59 goals conceded). The problem has been known for a long time, it cost Dino Toppmöller his job, but it doesn’t seem to be getting better, as the 2-3 defeat in Qarabağ shows. And now comes Hoffenheim, one of the strongest teams in the league.
Who is in the spotlight?
The video evidence. While many football fans around the world want less VAR, they will most likely get more VAR in the near future. Yay. The rules keepers from the International Football Association Board, or Ifab for short, think it would be a good idea to soon also have yellow-red cards and even wrongly awarded corner kicks checked, as long as this “can be done without delaying the game”. A good joke. The constant video watching is already really annoying, maybe we’ll soon be heading towards 15 minutes of added time. The Ifab wants to make a final decision at the end of February. The new rules should apply from June, including the World Cup. The Bundesliga doesn’t have to, but could use it. Can’t you even have the decisions of this Ifab checked by an AI or something?
