The Bundesliga has branded it “Super Saturday,” a thrilling afternoon in which the division’s top six sides will do battle in a five-hour stretch.
Given that the group includes some of German football’s biggest clubs, this isn’t exactly a quirk in the schedule. Still, Hertha Berlin cannot have been expected to rise from the brink of relegation to contention for Champions League qualification, and Borussia Monchengladbach risked irrelevance after beginning the season with five successive defeats.
But, paced by a reborn Salomon Kalou, Hertha haven’t fallen out of the European places since Matchday Six. And ‘Gladbach, following the shock resignation of former manager Lucien Favre, have dropped just two points since September.
Then there is unbeaten Bayern Munich, rejuvenated Borussia Dortmund, home-field giants Wolfsburg and a Bayer Leverkusen side that is finally hitting a groove.
And so we have our top six, although we’ve only skimmed a very broad and fascinating package of storylines.
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With an eight-point lead on second-place Borussia Dortmund, Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich could potentially secure the winter championship this weekend. Other than the Supercup (lost to Wolfsburg on penalties) they’ve not tasted domestic defeat in 2015-16 and have only a draw at Eintracht Frankfurt and loss at Arsenal to blemish their record in all competitions.
But they’re about to get a thorough examination from Borussia Monchengladbach—unbeaten since the September 19 defeat at Koln that preceded Favre’s sudden exit.
Impressively, ‘Gladbach have taken 22 of the last 24 points available despite the extended absences of Alvaro Dominguez, Andre Hahn, Patrick Herrmann, Nico Schulz and Martin Stranzl, and they’ll likely be without the services of Ibrahima Traore on Saturday as well.
In other words, interim manager Andre Schubert’s starting XI will little resemble the Favre sides that claimed four points off Bayern last season. And given the quality and range of contributions being put forward by the champions it could well be that The Foals are herded out of the top four on Saturday.
In-form Bayern striker Thomas Muller has tallied seven times in his last seven outings for Bayern, and since the Robert Lewandowski quintuple at home to Wolfsburg on September 22 (he has 14 goals in the Bundesliga so far) each of Arjen Robben, Kingsley Coman and David Alaba have scored two goals apiece. Douglas Costa, meanwhile, leads the league in assists.
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It’s that Hertha Berlin-Bayer Leverkusen match that could see Borussia Monchengladbach absorbed into the pack. Just four points separate themselves from 11th-place Ingolstadt, and even a draw in the capital could result in a tumble down the table.
Incidentally, Hertha’s last home defeat—a 4-1 drubbing by ‘Gladbach—was their first at Olympic Stadium this season, and they’ll be relying on their form in Berlin to beat a Leverkusen outfit they haven’t bested in their previous eight tries.
Despite the addition of ex-Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez, who has tallied 12 times in all competitions, Leverkusen have struggled for incisiveness in the final third and go into Saturday with the joint-worst offensive record in the top six—tied, as it happens, with Hertha on 18 goals from 14 matches.
But they’ve much improved since a late-summer slump threatened to derail their campaign before it really began, and a win or draw on Matchday 15 would extend their unbeaten run to six.
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As far as unbeaten runs are concerned, Wolfsburg have gone a club-record 29 home games without a defeat and will look to extend their streak in Saturday’s late contest with Borussia Dortmund.
No doubt they’ll have Tuesday’s Champions League showdown with Manchester United in the back of their minds, if not further forward, but they’d also do well to consider a history with Dortmund that isn’t exactly favourable.
Wolfsburg’s defence—the second-most stingy in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munich’s—should ensure the match is competitive, but Dortmund forward Marco Reus has burned them for seven goals in as many outings, and then there is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
No player in any of Europe’s top divisions has as many league goals as the Gabon international, and he’s only been kept off the scoresheet in two Bundesliga matches so far this season. He has already matched his 2014-15 output of 25 goals in all competitions—and in just 22 matches; the 17 league goals he’s scored is already better than last year’s haul of 16 and just two shy of his 2012-13 output at Saint-Etienne.
Elite-level finishing ability has finally been added to Aubameyang’s physical combination of acceleration, speed and dribbling ability, and as a result the 26-year-old has become one of the most electrifying footballers in the world.
He may well end up being the story of the weekend, and it wouldn’t be the first the first time this season.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter