Volland is ranked behind Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) as the second best striker in the Bundesliga and is included in the International Class category. "The 26-year-old demonstrated his goalscoring instinct with eight goals and, with ten assists, he also showed his value to the team and demonstrated his ability to read the game," was the reasoning. "Volland has become a fixed point in Bayer's attacking game and he has finally become a leader on the pitch," the analysis continued. A noteworthy step up as the winter rankings had the striker as an outsider.
After the 4-0 win against Japan and the 2-1 victory over Ecuador, the Chile team with Charles Aránguiz have their last group match in the Copa America in the early hours of Tuesday. Aránguiz and his La Roja team-mates play second-placed Uruguay in the South American Championships at one in the morning German time. Chile can be relaxed as they already qualified the quarter-finals on Saturday. Wendell was the lucky omen and Chile fan in the stands. Wearing the Chile colours, the Brazilian crosses fingers for his Werkself team-mate – after the game Aránguiz presented him with his shirt as a thank you.
Leon Bailey is also top of the group with Jamaica at the Gold Cup. After the 3-2 win against Honduras and the goalless draw against El Salvador, Bailey and the Reggae Boyz have their last group match in the early hours of Wednesday (kick-off: two in the morning German time). There will be looking to confirm their place in the quarter-finals in the game against Curaçao
While the international players are still away with their countries, the rest of the Werkself are enjoying the last week of the summer holidays before it's back to work next week. On the morning of Monday 1 July there are the performance tests followed in the afternoon by the start of training. The first pros have already started to return to the BayArena. Returnee Niklas Lomb has been working on his own in the Werkstatt since last week. Karim Bellarabi and Joel Pohjanpalo are both expected back this week. After being sidelined with injuries in the second half of the season, they are completing a few special sessions under the guidance of Carsten Rademacher, head of the Werkstatt.
Under Carles Martínez, the Werkself have so far proved unbeatable at the BayArena. The Spaniard has led his team to victory in all three of their most recent home matches – and, it's worth noting, without conceding a single goal. On Sunday, 18 October (kick-off: 15:30 CEST / live on DAZN and Werkself Radio), current league leaders SC Freiburg will make the trip to Leverkusen, but will be without their top scorer. What's more, the Werkself have won all three of their previous home matches against the Black Forest club. With a goal, Patrik Schick could not only secure a fourth consecutive victory but also set a memorable record. Meanwhile, on what will be the ‘Health Day' at the BayArena, much of the focus will be on physical wellbeing. Today's matchday news.
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Bayer 04 Women missed out on victory in the Google Pixel Bundesliga as they were held to a draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Estrella Merino Gonzalez had put the Werkself ahead directly from a corner at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion, before Laura Freigang levelled for the visitors as it finished all square between fourth and third on Matchday 7.
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Freiburg have made an impressive start to the season, unbeaten in nine games across all competitions, with eight of them wins. Now the Bundesliga leaders come to the BayArena on Sunday to take on the Werkself, but Julian Schuster’s team will be missing their top scorer. Here’s the lowdown on our next opponent.
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Bayer 04 will have to manage without attacking midfielder Martin Terrier for the time being. The Frenchman sustained a muscle injury to his left hamstring yesterday, Thursday 15 October, during the Europa League game against Polish champions Lech Poznan (4–0). Terrier is not expected to be available until late December.
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