9th matchday
Union and Freiburg defend top positions
Union Berlin’s Paul Jaeckel (r) cheers after his goal to 0:1 with teammate Jamie Leweling (l). photo
© Tom Weller/dpa
At Leicester City, they didn’t believe in the Premier League title for a long time in 2016. In the Bundesliga there are two candidates for a football fairy tale – even if they don’t want to believe it.
Matthias Ginter looked up at the television at an angle. The international from SC Freiburg took the TV pictures of the game between 1. FC Union Berlin and VfB Stuttgart rather casually in the interview zone of the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
Maybe he already suspected that his own lead in the table wouldn’t last, but maybe it’s also true that in Freiburg, like in Union, they don’t put as much effort into the still rather surprising ranking in the football Bundesliga. 1. Union Berlin, 2. SC Freiburg and only then with some distance FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
“Right now it doesn’t matter”
“Currently it doesn’t matter,” said Ginter about the table constellation. “We got off to a good start, we still have a tough program ahead of us, so we need all our energy and all our brains too, not that we’re busy with other things,” added the defender after the 2-2 win Hertha BSC, the seventh league game without defeat in a row, clearly.
It sounds pretty similar for the Irons, who quickly replaced Freiburg at the top of the table with a 1-0 win at VfB. “For me, the table is particularly meaningful after the 34th matchday,” said coach Urs Fischer in his typically postulating tone of voice. “Front runner”, this word is reserved for the fans in Berlin-Köpenick in their songs. Fischer was happy about the 20 points he has already achieved. At Union they are still talking about 40 points as a seasonal goal because they should guarantee staying up in the league.
Parallels to Leicester
However, parallels have long been drawn with Leicester City, the sensational English champions of 2016. After nine matchdays, they were only in fifth place at the time, with a respectable gap to Manchester City. The fairy tale of the provincial club from the East Midlands can be transferred just as well to the likeable Bundesliga clubs on the south-western and north-eastern edge of the Bundesliga map.
They are a little different in the glitter business, with a large regional fan base and the sometimes friendly, sometimes oddly bizarre coaches Fischer and Christian Streich – that’s what connects the clubs. It is also noted with goodwill that no club has currently held on to its trainers longer than Union and Freiburg. Loyalty is paying off.
The forecasts were skeptical, after fifth and sixth place plus the cup final for Freiburg in the previous season, which were already great successes. The double burden of the Europa League would cause problems for the underdogs. puff cake. Both have good chances of spending the winter in Europe and have only lost one game in the league.
Super Sunday after the European Cup
And now, after the international tasks on Thursday for Freiburg in Nantes and Union against Malmö, the big super Sunday is coming. The schedule makers of the German Football League could not have foreseen it any better. Union first receives Borussia Dortmund at 5.30 p.m. Two hours later, Freiburg are guests in Munich. The people from Breisgau are currently two points ahead of the industry leaders, who are often at odds with each other at the moment, and for Union it is even four. Even after the 10th match day, the leaders will be called Union or Freiburg.