Borussia Dortmund are almost ready for the winter break to begin, but they still have one more match to get through before they can rest. That match, a visit from Augsburg, also comes gift-wrapped with an opportunity: with a win and a little help from other results, Dortmund can potentially vault from fifth in the Bundesliga to third.
Borussia Dortmund vs. Augsburg 2016: Time, TV schedule, live stream, and 3 things to know
Dortmund can potentially climb to third place in the Bundesliga with a win, and it’s a victory they need very much heading into the winter break.
Photo by Alex Grimm/Bongarts/Getty Images
That’s an opportunity that Dortmund can’t let slip away, and even if they can’t control everything involved — they would need both Hoffenheim and and Hertha Berlin to drop points — they still have to take care of what they can control. That means beating Augsburg, and beating them as emphatically as possible — and a big win going into the break could be massively important for Dortmund’s momentum coming out of it next month.
TV: Fox Sports 1 (U.S. - English), Fox Deportes (U.S. - Spanish), Sky Bundesliga 1/HD, 4/HD (Germany)
Online: Fox Soccer 2GO, Fox Sports Go (U.S.), Sky Go Deutschland (Germany)
Match Date/Time: Tuesday, 2 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. local
Venue: Signal-Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany
Three big things to know
- While Dortmund are hardly threatening the title picture — that’s very much a two-horse race in the Bundesliga right now — they also can ill afford to drop any points, especially with the group fighting for third place so clumped up. Right now, first place is out of reach, but if Dortmund can put a stranglehold on third place and keep hanging around, the top two of Bayern Munich and Red Bull Leipzig could always fall back a bit, and in the worst case, at the end of the season third place will still send Dortmund back to the Champions League once more.
- Neither team is in terribly good form -- Dortmund are winless in three matches, and while they haven’t lost in that time they have looked terribly impressive since their comeback draw against Real Madrid that started the run. Maybe they’re tired, maybe they’ve lost focus with the winter break coming, maybe it’s something else entirely, but Dortmund have lost their edge of late, and they need it back, soon.
- Augsburg are faring little better — they’re coming off a win this past weekend, but that win broke a four-match winless streak that saw them score one lonely goal across all four matches. Even their win was a 1-0 game, and they’ve only scored four times since the beginning of November. They’re going to have to do a lot better than that if they want a chance against Dortmund, even with how stingy their defense has been recently.
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