The Bundesliga season kicks off on Friday, and the scheduling gods were nice enough to send us some very good opening weekend games. Two, in particular, feature four of the likely top six teams in the league all facing off against each other.
Bundesliga preview, Week 1: Two marquee matches get the season started right
Dennis Grombkowski
Bayern Munich vs. Wolfsburg
Friday, 2:45 p.m. ET
TV: GolTV (US and Canada), BT Sport (UK)
Wolfsburg will be in contention for a Champions League place all season, but Friday’s game won’t be much of a litmus test for them. They finished in fifth place last season, just a point off qualification for Europe’s biggest competition, but they lost twice to Bayern by an aggregate score of 7-1.
The good news for Wolfsburg is that Bayern are seriously hobbled by injuries. Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thiago and Rafinha are still out, while Bayern haven’t bought any new defenders yet, so their lineup is going to be a weird, makeshift one, the likes of which conceded a couple of goals in a friendly against MLS All-Stars. Bayern will spend a lot of time at the top of the table this season, but an upset here wouldn’t be too shocking given the circumstances.
Pick: 2-1 Bayern
Saturday, 9:30 a.m. ET
TV: GolTV (US and Canada)
Schalke brought in a number of new bodies this summer while holding on to Julian Draxler, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Benedikt Höwedes, so they'll have high expectations for this season. Of course, because nothing about Schalke ever makes sense and they rarely play up to their talent level, those expectations could change drastically after Saturday's match.
Last season, Schalke got the better of Hannover in two thrilling matches, losing 2-1 away and winning 2-0 at home. Hannover have made a couple of shrewd like-for-like replacement signings for exiting stars, but they’re not a better squad than the one that finished 10th last season.
Pick: 2-1, Schalke
Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET
TV: GolTV (US and Canada), BT Sport (UK)
Saturday's marquee match will, unfortunately, not feature a handful of the best players from either team. Lars Bender is still struggling to get back from the injury that kept him out of the World Cup, while Dortmund are missing a half-dozen first-team players. Ciro Immobile should make his Bundesliga debut for BVB, however, while new Bayer recruit Hakan Calhanoglu, just 20, will see if he can turn his success at Karlsruher and HSV into stardom on a bigger stage.
Since Ilkay Gündogan and Nuri Sahin are out, Jürgen Klopp couldn’t even go with attack-minded midfielders if he really wanted to, so Calhanoglu is going to be tested in terms of just finding the ball. Between this being Calhanoglu’s debut and Bender probably missing out, Simon Rolfes is going to need to be at his best for Bayer to have a chance of getting anything.
Pick: 1-0 BVB
The rest
Hoffenheim vs. Augsburg - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. ET
Hertha Berlin vs. Werder Bremen - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. ET
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Freiburg - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. ET
Köln vs. HSV - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. ET
Paderborn vs. Mainz - Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET
Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Stuttgart - Sunday, 11:30 a.m. ET
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