“Having booked my trip to Munich to see FC Bayern take on Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Allianz Arena, I started to consider my schedule for the weekend. With Bayern playing on the Sunday evening and my arriving on the Saturday morning, my immediate thought was to look for a game taking place in the city that afternoon. Having trawled through the fixture list, I found two matches: Regionalliga Bayern side VfR Garching against FC Eintracht Bamberg 2010, and the third division match between SpVgg Unterhaching and Stuttgarter Kickers.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“The long and illustrious history of football is now and again graced with men of pure genius. Footballing giants whose exploits are carried like a torch by fans from around the world; men who wrote their name in gold, footballers who live on in the memories of countless fans long after they have left behind this mortal coil. One man who deserves his place amongst this celebrated band of players is a virtual unknown outside his own country yet his story is one of the most compelling. A story that deserves to be heard, the tale of a great footballer and a great man, of loyalty, triumph and sadly, tragedy. Matthias Sindelar was his name and this is his story.” Football Pink

“Shit happens. As much as you scheme and plan, measure and predict, train and prepare, the games still have to be played — and balls will bounce the wrong way, key players will get hurt, and opposing keepers will make incredible saves. This season, nowhere has more shit happened than at the Westfalenstadion, the 80,000-seat home stadium of Borussia Dortmund. As the Bundesliga returns from its winter break this weekend, Dortmund sits in 17th place out of 18 teams. If the season ended today, the 2013 Champions League runners-up would be relegated. It’s a stunning fall for a team that finished second in both of the last two seasons and first in the two years before that. So, it’s time to ask …” Grantland (Video)

“It’s the first game of the 2012 Rückrunde and bottom side SC Freiburg are facing FC Augsburg at home and neither side have found a way to score as the clock ticks down to 90 minutes. Trainer Christian Streich decides on a final throw of the dice and sends on eighteen year old academy graduate Matthias Ginter for his debut. Two minutes from time the substitution pays off as Ginter heads home the winner from a Michael Lumb freekick. Fast forward to last summer and having just been a non-playing member of Germany’s World Cup winning squad, Ginter sealed a €10 million switch to Borussia Dortmund. Not a bad piece of business for the Breisgau club and absolutely fitting with the way the club is run.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“After having been perennial title challengers over the past three seasons, Borussia Dortmund find themselves in the horrible and unexpected position of ending the Hinrunde in the relegation spots. In a word, the campaign so far has been a catastrophe – Riddled with a number of false starts and illusions of a new hope that simply did not materialize. Manager Jürgen Klopp undoubtedly still has the complete support of everyone at BVB, but the question is whether the manager can steady a ship that has been punctured below the water-line through a number of factors, physical and mental.” Vavel

“The most charismatic manager in soccer is at a crucial crossroads. Borussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp was once considered the hip, whip-smart up-and-comer, storming onto the European scene. His designer glasses, stylish stubble, enormous wry grin, and animated sideline behavior were all a heavy breath of fresh air in a managerial landscape filled with grey-haired curmudgeons, unsmiling and monotonously professional.” Soccer Pro

“For most fans, supporting their club conveys pride and joy, to see the fruits of their youth team set up burgeoning is the greatest feeling on earth. They will follow their team through its highs and its lows. They will travel hundreds of miles to watch them playing, be they opposing Slavia Prague, or Real Madrid’s ‘Galacticos’. Supporting a football club is almost akin to marrying; you know, at the point you start supporting a team, that you will dedicate the rest of your life to watching them play. However, if you happen to be supporting a team going by the name of FC St. Pauli, the fact that you are supporting them at all may have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you’re passionate about football; supporting St Pauli is about making a statement.” THE FOOTBALL PINK

“We are back with the 2014-15 Bundesliga Power Rankings – the post-Match Day 14 edition. Since our last edition, Bayern mocks the others, FC Augsburg reaches historic heights, Eintracht decides it might really want to challenge for Europe, darkness shrouds the middle table, while old faces revisit the relegation zone. Hold onto your butts, kids. The Power Rankings do not necessarily reflect the current table standings, since they account both for form and expectations, all the while acknowledging the fluctuation and random effects riddled through a single match day weekend, yet also acknowledging that the weekly randomness does something like work itself out over the long run. Thus, we proudly present our Match Day 14 Power Rankings. Debate. Discuss. Rinse and repeat. Huzzah! Bundesliga Fanatic

“So you’ve heard about Bayern Munich, and what the Bavarian titans are doing to the Bundesliga? Vacuuming up the league’s best players. Hiring the brainiest guy in soccer, then letting him pull all kinds of tactical stunts. The club’s paid off all it’s stadium debt and now is now stacking money higher than the Allianz itself. It’s as if Bayern’s tap-dancing in golf shoes on the Bundesliga’s helpless mug. Just think of the puncture wounds when Dortmund star Marco Reus arrives this summer.” Soccer Gods

“There is a Borussia Dortmund shirt exhibition on at the moment, with 32 shirts displayed from 1966 to 2014. The venue is a Catholic church in Dortmund and above the entrance in the building are the words, in big black and yellow letters: ‘Church, football, trust in God.’ Dortmund has slumped to the bottom of the Bundesliga, and, with coach Jurgen Klopp struggling to find answers, some fans might want to start looking for divine inspiration.” SI

“We are back with the 2014-15 Bundesliga Power Rankings – the post-Match Day 10 edition. Since our last edition, Bayern clings to its undefeated record, Mönchengladbach taunts the league with its, Dortmund continues its stunning crawl through the Bundesliga’s dive bars, Hannover 96 stubbornly clings to respectability, and Freiburg and Werder finally win a match. It’s the Bundesliga, folks. The Power Rankings do not necessarily reflect the current table standings, since they account both for form and expectations, all the while acknowledging the fluctuation and random effects riddled through a single match day weekend, yet also acknowledging that the weekly randomness does something like work itself out over the long run. Thus, we proudly present our Match Day 10 Power Rankings. Debate. Discuss. Rinse and repeat. Huzzah!” Bundesliga Fanatic

“It was a weekend of stalemates as 6 of this weekend’s 9 fixtures ended in draws. The top 6 sides all faced off against each other but all 3 games ended level, including the clash between the top 2 sides, Ingolstadt and Fortuna Düsseldorf. Elsewhere, 1860 Munich moved off of the bottom of the table with a 3-0 victory over a hapless Bochum, who have now gone 7 games without a win. Eintracht Braunschweig moved into the top half of the table with a win over Aalen and Greuther Fürth won, in Berlin, as they bounced back from 2 consecutive defeats. Let’s take a look at the team of the week for matchday 12.” Bundesliga Fanatic (Video)

“With Commerzbank’s current sponsorship deal with Eintracht Frankfurt over naming rights for their home ground since 1963 – formerly known as the Waldstadion – expiring at the end of the season, the practise of clubs selling parts of their identity – such as the name of their home ground – has become an important discussion of late. Understandably, all sorts of questions will be raised about any form of increased commercialism in German football; the changing relationship between money and German clubs is constantly debated and in many cases well documented.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“Bayern are just cruising at the moment. In their latest match the Bavarians barely moved out of second gear, but nevertheless they managed to destroy Werder Bremen 6-0. Gladbach continue their good run of form and next week’s match between the Foals and Pep Guardiola’s team is a mouth-watering prospect. On the other hand side there is Dortmund, who are still not finding their form, as another loss for Klopp’s team means that they can kiss their chances to win the German championship good-bye at an earlier stage of the season than people had expected them to. There were many great individual performances in the Bundesliga this weekend, here is our top XI of the week…” Bundesliga Fanatic

“‘At 3.30am he bids the party goers goodnight and walks off with Valentina asleep, curled up in his arms like a baby.’ Thus ends Pep’s first year as coach of Bayern Munich: during the wee morning hours with his young daughter asleep in his arms. Intimate scenes such as this one fill Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich (BackPage Books and Birlinn Limited, 488 pages), written by popular Spanish football journalist and former Olympian, Martí Perarnau, who chronicles Pep Guardiola’s first year as Bayern Munich’s coach.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“It’s October 4th and the sun is shining down on the Volkswagen Arena. I’m sitting close to the pitch watching the match unfold amidst the Wolfsburg faithful. In the 58th minute Dieter Hecking’s men have finally managed to crack the Augsburg defence wide open. The Brazilian defender Naldo had taken the ball upfield and continued his run, then engaged in a lovely one-two with Sebastian Jung, and a few seconds later the former Werder man placed the ball in the back of the net of Marwin Hitz’s goal. The roughly 25,000 fans who have found their way to the stadium in Wolfsburg celebrated, because finally their team looks like making its way towards what the supporters consider to be the right end of the table.” Bundesliga Fanatic