GOAL! The Bundesliga magazine: Matchday 3
Munich - GOAL! The Bundesliga Magazine is the DFL's weekly TV programme, offering a global audience a unique perspective on Germany's top flight throughout the season. We have in-depth previews of the upcoming league action, exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes reports, the best goals from the latest league encounters and much more besides. Coming up in this week's show...
Start-up!
Matchday 2 in the Bundesliga provided the thrills and spills which fans have come to expect from the German top-flight. Borussia Dortmund youngster Jonas Hofmann is well on his way to becoming a household name after his first Bundesliga goal fired his side towards three points against industrious promotees Eintracht Braunschweig.
Indeed, the nine games provided fans across the world with endless talking points, from Brazilian Roberto Firmino's five-star display in Hamburg to Turkish international Mehmet Ekici's solitary strike that gave Werder Bremen two wins from two for the first time sicne 2006/07.
Top Game I
Coaching changes, tactical tweaks and personnel permutations cannot stop the powerful red machine that is FC Bayern Munich from collecting points. Sweat and toil replaced glitz and glamour in Matchday 2's 1-0 success over Eintracht Frankfurt, and with new signing Mario Götze fit enough for the bench at the weekend, it would be a surprise not to see him involved on Matchday 3 when Bayern host 1. FC Nürnberg.
The imminent return of Javi Martinez and Thiago Alcantara's Bundesliga debut look like ominous signs for Der Club, who just about salvaged a 2-2 draw at home to Hertha Berlin, with Hiroshi Kiyotake's free-kick delivering their second point from their second game. Nürnberg's battling qualities were on display on Sunday, and these could serve them well against their star-studded opposition in an encounter likely to be fought tooth and nail. Regional pride is on the line after all. Which Bavarian club will take the spoils at the home of the quadruple-winners?
Spotlight
It's likely that when Henrikh Mkhitaryan swapped Shakhtar Donetsk for Borussia Dortmund he was well aware that his new German side had strong traditional links to the mining industry: However he might not have expected to have had to dig quite so deep and chip away for quite so long for three points on his debut against Bundesliga new boys Eintracht Braunschweig.
The Armenian made his Dortmund bow in front of 80,000 fans at Signal Iduna Park, and impressed the Yellow-Black faithful with his diligence and intelligence. His debut may have been delayed by an ankle injury but now he's back, Dortmund will want to see him ally his work ethic to those regular goals, the touches and intricate passing which made him such a coup, not just for the Westphalians, but for the Bundesliga.
In focus
Last season, Bayer 04 Leverkusen boasted one of the best attacking trios in the Bundesliga, and if their start to the new campaign is anything to go by, the much-vaunted, ever-so-slightly adapted triumvirate has improved. The signing of Heung Min Son from Hamburg to play alongside Stefan Kießling and Sidney Sam looks a masterstroke. Kießling's consistent goal-scoring is already the stuff of legends, the prolific striker having already broken club legend Ulf Kirsten's single-season goal record en route to becoming the Bundesliga's top scorer last term.
Kießling looks to be enjoying playing alongside his 2012/13 partner-in-crime Sidney Sam, and expressed his admiration for Son after Leverkusen's Matchday 1 victory over SC Freiburg, a game in which all three players scored. Could the new-look triad propel Leverkusen into the top two?
