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.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
Show more
Bayer 04 face Hamburger SV for the first time in almost eight years. Although the Hanseatic city team are often below par on the road, they are regularly in top form in front of their own fans. In particular, 18-year-old shooting star Luka Vuskovic is proving to be a real bonus for Merlin Polzin's team, both in attack and defence. However, that should not scare the Werkself: Not only was the last defeat against the newly promoted team 17 games ago, but Kasper Hjulmand's players are in with a chance of securing their fifth win in six games against HSV. Today’s matchday news.
Show more
Hamburger SV and Bayer 04 meet again in the Bundesliga for the first time in almost eight years. This Tuesday evening, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET), the promoted team with impressive home form welcome the Werkself to the Volksparkstadion to round off the Hinrunde. The lowdown on our next opponents.
Show more
The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
Show more
