The Bundesliga Preview Show - Best of March 2015
Cologne - The Bundesliga Preview Show is the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga'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.
Rollercoaster Ride
Coming up on our review of the best of March....
It was a month of mixed fortunes for FC Bayern München. The defending champions started into it in their accustomed fashion, with back-to-back wins on the road at Hannover 96 and Werder Bremen. Having satisfactorily negotiated the Ides of March, however, they came a cropper the following week against Borussia Mönchengladbach, with a 2-0 home defeat compounded by a torn abdominal muscle which sidelined top scorer Arjen Robben for several weeks.
The subsequent international break brought further bad news, with David Alaba - who had bagged his second spectacular free-kick goal of the year in the 4-0 win at Bremen - ruled out for around seven weeks after sustaining a knee injury playing for Austria.
Coaches' Corner
VfL Wolfsburg's Dieter Hecking, Lucien Favre of Borussia Mönchengladbach and Roger Schmidt, the new man in the Bayer 04 Leverkusen hot seat as of this season: three coaches with contrasting philosophies of the game, all at the helm of clubs seeking to clinch a place in the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League over the coming weeks.
We take a look at their respective prospects on the back of the March programme - and at the sporting director-turned-interim-coach with only a handful of games to keep Hamburger SV's unblemished top-flight attendance record intact.
Homegrown Stars
Less than a decade-and-a-half after it underwent a root-and-branch restructuring, the German professional game's youth academy system produced the players for a national team that last summer became the first from Europe ever to win a World Cup in South America.
That talent conveyer belt continues to churn out Bundesliga-standard stars of a remarkably young vintage and among those to the fore for their clubs in March were Schalke attacking talent Max Meyer, his VfL Wolfsburg counterpart Maximilian Arnold, 1.FC Köln custodian Timo Horn and - at 24 a regular old hand by comparison - Gladbach's Patrick Herrmann.
