Bayern Munich host FSV Mainz 05 today looking for their third Bundesliga win of the season after club president Uli Hoeness dismissed champions Borussia Dortmund as just a “regional” team.
Bayern are set to start new signing Javier Martinez, who cost them a German league record 40 million euros (US$52 million) from Athletic Bilbao two weeks ago, alongside Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger in midfield against Mainz.
Dortmund, who have won the league title for the past two seasons, host Bayer 04 Leverkusen, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel expected to be in the crowd, but Hoeness has upped the ante with some trash talking.
Photo: AFP
“Dortmund are a relatively regional thing. Bayern are a global player,” Hoeness told a digital trade fair in Cologne. “[Dortmund] will never, never, never catch up to our enormous success over the last 30 years. They will have to win the German title 10 times in a row to perhaps be more popular.”
While Bayern have won away at SpVgg Greuther Fuerth and trounced VfB Stuttgart in Munich in their opening games, Dortmund opened their bid for a third consecutive league crown with a narrow win over Werder Bremen and a draw at Nuremberg.
Both Bayern and Dortmund have UEFA Champions League games looming, with Munich hosting Valencia on Wednesday, while Borussia are at home to Ajax on Tuesday and Bavarian coach Jupp Heynckes has said he will rotate his squad.
“Every player will get a chance and every player will get playing time,” Heynckes said. “I am not going to decide [whether to start Martinez] just yet. I have to consider how we want to play against Valencia the following Wednesday, but we have quite a few options.”
Bayern struggled against Mainz last season after suffering a shock 3-2 defeat away in November last year and they were then held to a goalless draw in Munich in April.
“They’re difficult opponents, with a good pressing game,” Heynckes said. “We need to be just as aggressive as we were against Stuttgart, accept the rules of engagement set by our opponents and use our footballing class in attack.”
After his side drew 1-1 at Nuremberg last time out, Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp expects a battle.
“Bayer Leverkusen have an exceptionally good team. This will be a really difficult game,” Klopp said. “The season has really started now and we will have to work hard.”
Dark horses Eintracht Frankfurt, who won promotion last season, are second in the league after impressive wins over Leverkusen and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
They host Hamburg SV in Frankfurt tomorrow, with Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart set to make his debut having returned from Tottenham Hotspur to the north German club, who have lost both of their opening games.
“I’m glad that it’s finally going to happen. I am as excited as I was for my debut,” Van der Vaart said.
Third-placed Hannover 96 host Werder Bremen, whose Austria internationals Marko Arnautovic, Sebastian Proedl and Zlatko Junuzovic played in Wednesday’s 2-1 World Cup qualifier defeat to Germany in Vienna.
“They have to take the positives from the game,” Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said. “Sure, Austria lost, but it’s better that way than to have played in a poor match.”
Schaaf said he expects a tough match at Hannover, who won 4-0 at VfL Wolfsburg in their last league match.
“It’s clear the team is well established and has great self-confidence,” he said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS