Talking Fussball

It's not every week we get a result as shocking as FC Bayern München's 4-2 loss to promoted side VfL Bochum. It's also not every week that a Bayern first-team regular decides to leave the club...for Borussia Dortmund. And it's certainly rare that the big conversation in German football all week has been about whether North American-style playoffs are a good idea for the Bundesliga. So there was plenty to talk about when Matt rang up Lewis Ambrose - all the aforementioned and much more, including the magic of Max Kruse, Christopher Nkunku's will-he-or-won't-he flirtation with the Congolese national team and other topics. Enjoy!

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In the face of all the commercialization baked into the modern professional game, it's easy to feel a bit romantic about amateur football. After all, that's where players play for the love of the game...right? Arne Steinberg, one of the producers behind a new documentary broadcast on German TV network ARD found otherwise. Listen in as he tells Nik Wildhagen about how Germany's non-professional divisions have become an unregulated wild west.

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Yes I know you probably put away any notion of a title race weeks ago, but the math heading into round 21 allowed us to believe (just a little bit) otherwise. No more. Not after the Rekordmeister gutted out a win over a very game RB Leipzig, and certainly not after Dortmund ended up overmatched against Leverkusen in their own house. Listen in asa Matt gathers with Adam Khan to talk about big games, at-home touchline tirades, and a potential shift in the winds of success after Max Kruse's move up the tracks to Wolfsburg from Union Berlin.

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Max Eberl, one of the towering figures of the Bundesliga over the last decade and a half, made a bold decision last week: he walked away. The Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director said he was exhausted, and that he had lost any sense of joy in his work, so he called a halt to his tenure at the venerable club. His press conference was a tearful exit, not least because it was evident to all involved how much he cared for Gladbach - and how much he had accomplished prior to a patchy season this term. How did it come to this? Nik Wildhagen wanted to find out, so he called up Vollraute Abroad podcaster Manuel Breuer for a good long chat on Eberl's body of work, and what might come next for the foals.

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The 2. Bundesliga only just got back up and running about 10 days ago, but there's plenty to talk about already. St. Pauli's loss to their cross-town rivals handed Darmstadt the opening they needed to take over at the top, Fortuna Düsseldorf find themselves in major upheaval, and Werder Bremen kept on rising after a wild win. Listen in as Nik, Jasmine, and Maik walk you through these stories, along with a few from the lower divisions too.

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So we had a number of late scratches from starting line-ups last week - not least the one involving a certain Frankfurt winger. JT and Flo talk through strategies on how to make the best of these bad situations, give you their player picks and answer a number of your listener questions. Listen in and be ready for Match Day 20!

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With 19 match days in the books, Berlin's rising force from Köpenick are knocking on the door of the UEFA Champions League places - held back, in fact, by nothing more than goal difference at the moment. Considering they spend less than all but a handful of clubs in the division, how are they pulling it off? Listen in as Nik Wildhagen gets the inside dope from our resident tactical analyst Jasmine Baba.

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Plenty to talk about from the weekend - Erling Haaland did his best to match the goalscoring exploits of Thomas Meunier and fire Dortmund to victory against Freiburg, Union Berlin kept on burnishing their European bona fides ahead of a big DFB Pokal Berlin derby clash, and Robert Lewandowski made Bundesliga history for the umpteenth time. Matt rings up Terry Duffelen to make sense of it all.

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Lots of tasty fixtures in store in Bundesliga this weekend - not least the Dortmund-Freiburg clash in store for Friday night, so Match Day 19 will be getting off with a bang!

...Speaking of fast starts, we got off to one this week with our recording time, so JT and Flo weren't able to answer any of the questions you sent via Twitter. Not to worry - they did their best mind-reading act and answered a few of the ones you sent anyway.

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The Bundesliga has long been known as an incubator for young North American phenoms, but FC Augsburg's purchase of Ricardo Pepi is different. It's the biggest Bundesliga move of the January transfer window thus far, it's the second-biggest-ever sale price for a MLS player, and it's the most FC Augsburg has paid for any player ever. A lot riding on the El Paso native's shoulders...but at least one reporter who knows him well thinks he'll but up to the challenge. Listen in as Texas soccer writer Jon Arnold tells Matt about Pepi's meteoric rise, his pedigree from the vaunted FC Dallas academy, and what Bundesliga fans should expect from the center forward going forward...

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