Bayern Munich are to begin the new Bundesliga season at home to Hamburg SV on Friday, with the Bavarians bidding for a historic fourth league title and Pep Guardiola tight-lipped over his future.
Bayern’s head coach is about to start the third and final season of his contract, and is to reveal his plans for the future over the course of the campaign.
Global broadcaster BeIN Sport insists that he has already signed a four-year deal to join Manchester City for the 2016-2017 season, while Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is eager to extend Pep’s stay.
Photo: AFP
Bayern’s senior figures regularly claim that the Bundesliga title remains the priority each season, but Guardiola was brought in to bring Champions League glory to the Bavarians.
Having exited the semi-finals at the hands of Real Madrid, then Barcelona in their two seasons under Guardiola, Bayern bosses hope it will be a case of third-time lucky this term.
Whatever Guardiola decides, Bayern will have to adjust to life without midfield general Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has quit Bayern after 13 seasons for another famous red shirt at Manchester United.
Photo: EPA
Munich are the big favorites to win the German league again and become the first side to win a fourth straight crown.
However, Guardiola’s men have lost six of their past eight competitive fixtures, including defeat to last season’s runners-up VfL Wolfsburg on penalties in the DFL Supercup.
There were no surprises in Sunday’s 3-1 win against fifth-tier Noettingen in the first round of the DFB Pokal, though.
New signing Arturo Vidal gave the visitors an early lead and after the hosts pulled level, Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski scored for Bayern.
“It was a good test for the Bundesliga opener on Friday,” Goetze said. “We are prepared for the season, we’re in good spirits and we’re looking forward to it.”
Bayern’s advantage at the top has reduced year-on-year over the past three seasons and their main rivals are likely to be Wolfsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach again.
Borussia Dortmund are an unknown package under new coach Thomas Tuchel after Juergen Klopp quit at the end of last season.
They are looking to once again challenge Bayern’s title stranglehold, which shows only vague signs of weakening.
Their record 25-point cushion over Dortmund in the 2012-2013 season was reduced to a comfortable 19 points in 2013-2014 while they “only” enjoyed a 10 point-lead over Wolves last term.
Bayern have boosted their midfield options with Chile international Vidal set to bring his box-to-box energy, while Brazil winger Douglas Costa can cover for either injury-prone Arjen Robben or Franck Ribery.
Around the league, Germany internationals have returned home with striker Kevin Kuranyi joining TSG 1899 Hoffenheim after a five-year stint with Dynamo Moscow and Augsburg winger Piotr Trochowski back from Sevilla.
Yoshinori Muto is the latest big-name Japanese player to grace the Bundesliga having signed for FSV Mainz 05 from Tokyo.
The Bundesliga’s new teams are Bavaria’s Ingolstadt 04, who are making their debut in Germany’s top flight, while SV Darmstadt 98 are back after a 33-year absence.
They failed to stay up on their brief sojourns into the Bundesliga in 1978-1979 and 1981-1982 and the Lillies will have to prove themselves to avoid a swift return to the second division.
Fans are still lapping up live Bundesliga soccer, with as an average of 43,500 fans attending last season’s games.
The figure dwarves England’s Premier League, where the average is 36,200, while Spain’s La Liga has 27,000 fans watching each game and Italy’s Serie A a modest 22,200.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but