German Bundesliga, Week 1: Borussia Monchengladbach Upset Bayern Munich 1-0

Mainz carried their first half performance into the second half and never appeared in too much trouble as they defeated Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga debut of the Coface Arena.

Sami Allagui was excellent keeping the Leverkusen defense on their back foot all match long. He scored the opener in the first half and nearly doubled his lead in the second half, but his touch let him down and the ball went over the line for a goalkick. A few solid, if not spectacular, saves by Leverkusen goalkeeper Fabian Giefer kept Allagui from adding one of two additional goals to his tally.

Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach are set to begin their Bundesliga campaigns today in the Allianz Arena.

Bayern enter the match with a clear goal from beginning: win. There’s no question about it they are the better side and are one of the favorites to win the Bundesliga this season. A win at home against ‘Gladbach is mandatory. For ‘Gladbach, while a win would be excellent, it’s more of a “Put in a good performance” kind of day. They’ll likely be fighting the drop at the end of the season, so any victory (Actual victory or moral victory) against Bayern on opening day is worth taking.

Nürnberg didn’t play the prettiest brand of football against Hertha Berlin at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but they played a hard-working and physical enough style to deny Hertha and create one goal for themselves, as they won 1-0.

The hosts were looking for a great return to the Bundesliga in front of a massive crowd in Berlin, but based on their performance Saturday they will do well to simply stay in the league. They were respectable defensively and looked threatening on set pieces on a couple of occasions, but offered very little going forward with the run of play.

Nuri Sahin has been solid, Lucas Barrios is injured and Jakub Blaszczykowski has been dropped to the bench. Yet, surprisingly, Borussia Dortmund look like the exact same team as last season. Without three of the biggest stars in the Bundesliga, der BVB played the exact same exciting and dominant football, running over Hamburg SV en route to a 3-1 win in which the score doesn’t tell the story.

Dortmund were truly dominant from the first whistle until around 10 minutes from the end of the game, when they let their guard down with a 3-0 lead and HSV mounting little challenge. It was a complete team performance, and they were just as dominant at the back as they were creative and ruthless up top.

And now this match has gotten well and truly embarrassing. Borussia Dortmund are completely bulldozing Hamburg SV, as they’re now leading by a score of 3-0. They haven’t let off the gas at all after the halftime whistle, and HSV don’t look like they know what’s hit them. It’s been a brilliant performance from every single player so far for BVB, and Kevin Grosskreutz has added another goal to put this game completely beyond doubt.

Though Grosskreutz provided the finish, the conduit for the goal was once again the brilliance of 18-year-old rising superstar Mario Götze, who has BVB supporters asking ‘Nuri who?’ after just over 45 minutes of the new season. In the 47th minute, he played a give-and-go with Grosskreutz, beating two defenders before laying the ball back to his teammate. Grosskreutz’s first shot was saved, but he pounced on the rebound and put it into the back of the net, putting his team up 3-0 and netting himself a brace.

The German Bundesliga is the first of Europe’s big four leagues to kick off their season, as defending champions Borussia Dortmund host Hamburg SV in the season opener. Dortmund lost Nuri Sahin over the summer, but they still have a roster that makes them title contenders. Both teams had major players unfortunately bow out with injury or illness just before the game. Dortmund central defender Neven Subotic picked up a muscle injury in warmups and will not be starting, while young Korean star Son Heung-Min will miss the game for Hamburg due to illness. Here are the lineups.

Borussia Dortmund lineup (4-2-3-1): Weidenfeller; Piszczek, Santana, Hummels, Löwe; Gündogan, Bender; Götze, Kagawa, Großkreutz; Lewandowski

Borussia Dortmund vs Hamburger SV

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