Talking Fussball

Remember the Royal Blues? They're the second-biggest membership club in Germany, they're a club with one of the most vaunted youth academies in Europe, they're one half of the biggest rivalry in the Bundesliga...and as of this season, they play their football in the 2. Bundesliga. Nik Wildhagen rounds up freelance journalist Ron Ulrich to get an update on what's going on with FC Schalke 04 in their new sporting environment - and hear what it might take for them to get out.

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Is it time to take a break already? I suppose if we really want to have a World Cup in Qatar next year (debatable), we'd better get cracking on qualification. And while that means the Bundesliga has to go into standby mode for a couple weeks, at least many of the league's top teams gave us plenty to cheer about on MD3. Matt Hermann rings up Marie Schulte-Bockum to talk about Wolfsburg's solid start under Mark van Bommel, Dortmund's thrill-seeking behavior (and whether it's healthy), German teams' European draws, the newcomers in Hansi Flick's first squad, and much more.

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Some of you will be pleased with your haul from the first three match days...and some will not. In either case, Match Day 3 will be the last one before you can either sand off a few edges, or engage in a total tear-down of your squad. That's right, UNLIMTED TRANSFERS are just around the corner! Listen in as JT and Flo get you ready for the weekend's action, and give you tips on how to renovate over the international break....

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Want an hour on the 2. Bundesliga? You've come to the right place on this week's Talking Fussball Extra. Nik Wildhagen sits down with Jasmine Baba and Maik Krükemeier to dissect the opening weeks of Germany's second tier, which this year features a staggering string of the country's biggest clubs. Buckle up.

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Another goal-filled weekend of Bundesliga football - Jesse Marsch and Leipzig topped Pellegrino Matarazzo's Stuttgart in Germany's first face-off between two American head coaches, Leverkusen may have surprised even themselves by how convincingly they beat Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Cologne were far sprier than expected despite falling to FC Bayern. Matt Hermann and Terry Duffelen take in all this and more in this week's pod, which also casts a concerned glance at the shaky launch of Bundesliga coverage at the league's new UK broadcast partner Sky.

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Another match day, another massive score from Erling Haaland. Or was it? If the big Norwegian is going to rack up points through assists as well as goals this season, JT and Flo may need to re-think his role in their fantasy universe. Plenty of other points to ponder from the opening weekend, including how much to trust your RB Leipzig stars, whether Stuttgart can keep up their blistering shot rate, and more. If you haven't done so already, sign up for Official Fantasy Bundesliga and play along with us this season!

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FC Bayern München and German National Team legend Gerd Müller died this past Sunday - his influence on both of those sides is difficult to overestimate. Der Bomber's otherworldly goalscoring record, his preternatural ability to appear at precisely the right place at the right time, and his down-to-earth personality made him one of German football's all-time icons.

For this episode of Talking Fussball Extra, Nik Wildhagen sits down with someone with a unique perspective on Müller: Susie Schaaf, a lifelong Bayern and Germany fan, who grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she crossed paths with the man himself many times.

The podcast ventures into some difficult, personal territory - Susie opens up not just about what Müller meant to her, but about her experience caring for and eventually mourning her mother, who struggled with Alzheimer's in the same years as Müller did. An emotional episode.

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A boffo Bundesliga weekend in front of fans - it turns out that's what we'd been missing. We got goals galore, some head-scratching results, a few VAR controversies, goalkeeping heroics, and much more. Matt Hermann sits down with Nik Wildhagen to talk through the biggest goings on of Match Day 1, including Erling Haaland's latest stupefying actions, Bo Svensson's continued sorcery in Mainz, and an opening night fight between Gladbach and Bayern with some wild ebbs and flows.

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And now...the second installment of our 2021-22 Bundesliga preview! This time out Matt, Nik and Terry profile the teams that finished from 7th place on down last season - and share in their predictions that they think a number of them may crack into the top six next year. Find out who the gang reckon bought well, hired poorly, and which coach they can reveal may have been a flat cap guy all along.

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Welcome back Talking Fussballers! If you're not already counting the hours to the big Bundesliga kick-off on Friday, now would be a great time to start. To help you shave off one of those hours, here's the first installment of our two-part preview for the 2021-22 season. Matt Hermann sits down with Nik Wildhagen and Terry Duffelen to take in all the off-season doings at the heavyweights of the German top flight - last year's top six: FC Bayern München, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Unusually, ALL SIX have a new coach heading into the new season. Listen to the gang speculate wildly in this edition of TF...

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