A mighty entertaining weekend in the 2. Bundesliga - league leaders SV Darmstadt dropped points to St. Pauli, while Hamburg shook off the poor form of recent weeks to come back and beat SC Paderborn. Nik, Maik and Jasmine talk the chaos over (including a new chaos-bringer on the job ion Fürth), before moving on to stories from the lower leagues and a tantalizing ground-hopping recommendation.

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Another week, another piece of evidence that 1. FC Union Berlin might well mean business about this title challenge thing. They went down early to an up-for-it Borussia Mönchengladbach side, but showed resilience and adaptability to eke out a win. Will it be enough to hold off the Rekordmeister? FC Bayern München have had an uneven start to the season but reminded everyone just how much firepower they've got by hanging a 6-2 result on FSV Mainz 05, heretofore one of the league's best defenses. Matt calls up Ronan Murphy for a chat about all that, VAR trouble in Frankfurt and more.

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Red Bull, the energy drink brand that sponsors football clubs across the world, lost its co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz this week, so we felt it might be a good time to look at the company's legacy. Nik calls up Jasmine for a chat about RB's rise over the last 35 years, the brand's big investment in German football, and how the RB coaching tree has influenced tactics across Europe.

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Bundesliga sides didn't show much restraint or moderation on Match Day 11. We were treated to blowouts as in Dortmund and Mainz, we got top-level sides showing pretenders how it's done as in Sinsheim and Freiburg; we had topsy-turvy see-saw score draws in Leverkusen and Augsburg; hell, we even had Bochum, the team that went into the match day bottom of the league, pick off table-toppers Union Berlin. Plenty to talk about for Matt and Terry - dig in.

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After a strong start to the season for Hamburger Sport-Verein, it was only a matter of time before they let their fans down. This week HSV got spanked 3-0 at the Millerntor by cross-town rivals FC St. Pauli. Is this sort of thing simply in the club's nature, or do they just love the 2. Bundesliga too much to leave it behind? Nik and Jasmine explore this question, along with new table toppers SV Darmstadt 98's prospects of hanging around the promotion fight to the end, Greuther Fürth's coaching change and more.

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Hertha BSC barely escaped relegation last season, and they're still hanging around the lower reaches of the table after nine games. But somehow, the atmosphere around the club is anything but panicked. Coach Sandro Schwarz appears to be forming a decent side in the capital, even if the results haven't quite come around just yet. Listen in as Nik twists Matt's arm and gets him to open up about the club he usually frets so much over, but suddenly has a pretty chill outlook on. Don't worry, it's not all roses - Hertha's unscrupulous moneybags Lars Windhorst and his Israeli security firm make an appearance, and it's a wild tale indeed.

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More of this please! We here at TF love all Bundesliga match days; just some more than others. When one comes along with this many late-game thrills, this many matches packed with goals, and this many eyebrow-raising results, you have to savor it. This week Matt speaks to Marie Schulte-Bockum about Anthony Modeste's big night of redemption, Borussia Mönchengladbach's derby win over 1. FC Köln, Bayer Leverkusen's breakout performance under the tutelage of a Hugo Boss model, and whether Pellegrino Matarazzo might be in trouble at VfB Stuttgart.

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Coaching carousel time! After significant spending in the summer, 1. FC Nürnberg finally lost patience with Robert Klauß and turned to a familiar face. FC St. Pauli didn't dazzle on the weekend (a 0-0 draw with Heidenheim) but they did make waves over the international break by suggesting the DFL get serious about closing the loopholes that exist in the 50+1 rule. Nik, Jasmine and Maik are back to talk over all this and more on a new TFE Aufstieg edition.

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The Bundesliga returned to regularly scheduled service after the international break on MD8, kicking off a six-week whirlwind stretch that will see plenty of teams play no fewer than 12 games across multiple competitions. So who got off to an auspicious start? FC Bayern München snapped their four-game winless run by beating Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt got a statement win over league leaders Union Berlin, and Werder Bremen really stirred the pot by putting five past Borussia Mönchengladbach. We take in all those results of course, but did you notice the big team we didn't mention? Ye,s, Matt chews the fat with Substacker extraordinare Adam Khan about Borussia Dortmund too.

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Sailing into the international break, we've learned a few things. Reports of Eintrcht Braunschweig's imminent demise were premature, FC St. Pauli have well and truly hit the skids, and Frank Schmidt might well remain coach at FC Heidenheim until 2037. Plenty more going on, of course - Nik, Jasmine, and Maik take you through all the big stories from the 2. Bundesliga and the lower leagues here on the Aufstieg edition.

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