It was one of those games where the draw felt like a win at the end: At the weekend, SC Freiburg played Borussia Dortmund with ten men for 60 minutes but were able to secure a 0-0 draw against BVB, who have made an excellent start to the season, with a battling defensive performance. That earned SCF a second point in the current campaign following a goalless draw against Eintracht Frankfurt in the opener and a 4-1 defeat away to RB Leipzig. The club from the Breisgau now occupy a position in the league that represents a minimum target for the season – fifteenth and above the drop zone.
Fate again raised its head in the Black Forest. The fate of a feeder club that affects Freiburg nearly every summer. Toprak, Cissé, Kruse and Ginter – they all emerged in the modest surroundings of the Breisgau before moving on to bigger clubs to advance their careers. This year, SCF had to cope with the departure of two key players from last season in Maximilian Philipp (Borussia Dortmund) and Vincenzo Grifo (Borussia Mönchengladbach). Coach Christian Streich, an institution in Freiburg and the world of German football, again confronts the challenge of ensuring his young team can avoid relegation with the modest financial means available and bring through the next talented youngsters to attract vital transfer funds. He has often succeeded in that area in the past.
It will be hard to compensate for the departure of Philipp and Grifo, who were directly involved in 26 of 42 Freiburg's Bundesliga goals last term. That is not only a loss of fire power up front but also a sharp reduction in the quality of the squad. In addition, the defence has to settle down around the two, highly talented but inexperienced central defenders Marc-Oliver Kempf and Caglar Söyüncü – last term Freiburg had the fourth-worst defence in the Bundesliga with 60 goals conceded. Kempf is unlikely to play against the Werkself due to an injury and Streich will also have to replace the forward Yoric Ravet who was shown a red card in the Dortmund game.
Last season, the world of German football was able to see what Freiburg are capable of achieving with their settled club environment and sustainable transfer strategy when the team qualified for Europe for the fourth time in the club's history ahead of a host of clubs with bigger reputations. The desire to establish the club in the Bundesliga over the long term is evident in the recent plans to build a new stadium. The new ground is due to have a capacity of 35,000 fans and should be ready to occupy by 2020 at the latest.
Even though Freiburg have seen the rewards for last season's outstanding campaign disappear with defeat in the Europa League play-off against Slovenian club NK Domzale that could be a blessing in disguise in terms of ambitions in the Bundesliga. Without the burden of additional games for a thin squad, Streich is once again capable of keeping his team in the top flight even if climbing to the heady heights of the Bundesliga appears rather unlikely this time round.
Here we go! The new season of the VBL Club Championship by WOW starts on Thursday, 16 October. The games can be seen live on the Bayer 04 app and on the club Twitch channel. Bayer04.de presents an overview of the first opponents for the Leverkusen eSports team in the new season.
Show moreThe autumn holidays attracted a host of Bayer 04 fans to the BayArena on Tuesday, 14 October. An open training session for the Werkself in the morning ended with the players taking time out for selfies and autograph requests from the 160 or so fans in attendance. During a children's press conference organised by Barmenia Gothaer, Werkself player Arthur and Kristin Kögel from the Bayer 04 Women's team fielded questions posed by the youngsters. Meanwhile, a trio of young players from the Leverkusen U19 squad put a smile on everyone's faces at a meet & greet event. And fans enjoyed a range of exciting activities at the Fanwelt.
Show moreThe Werkself host 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 at the BayArena on matchday 10 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The match is on 8 November at 15:30 CET and is a Members matchday. Information on ticket sales.
Show moreThe Werkself host Borussia Dortmund at the BayArena on matchday 12 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The match is on Saturday, 29 November, at 18:30 CET. Information on ticket sales.
Show moreWerkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 2-0 win at TSG Hoffenheim on the 6th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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