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.
The season card waiting list, introduced by Bayer 04 last season, is open to Bayer 04 Club members. Read on for further information.
Show moreThe Werkself training camp officially began early on Tuesday morning with the landing in Rio de Janeiro. Ahead of the first session in the afternoon local time, bayer04.de profiles the talented youngsters from the youth teams who have travelled to Brazil.
Show moreThe welcome in Brazil could not have been more fitting: Paulo Sergio, with a small Bayer 04 delegation, welcomed the Werkself to Rio de Janeiro on the beach in front of the team hotel on Tuesday morning local time. Under clear blue skies, players, coaches and staff joined together for a group photo and then it was off to the rooms and breakfast. Shortly after the Werkself arrived, club legend Paulo Sergio, who will accompany the Werkself over the coming days, talked bayer04.de about these emotional moments for him.
Show morePreparations for the 2025/26 season are in full swing with the new head coach Erik ten Hag working for the start of the season in the middle of August. After the timings for the first matchdays in the forthcoming Bundesliga season were confirmed a few days ago, we now provide information on the first sale phase for match tickets. The early booker phase, exclusively for Bayer 04 Club members, brings some changes. Read on for further information.
Show moreBayer 04 are away to SG Sonnenhof Großaspach in the first round of the 2025/26 DFB Pokal. The match is on Friday, 15 August (kick-off: 18:00 CEST) at the WIRmachenDRUCK Arena. Read on for the latest ticket information.
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