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1/19
September 2020, the first day of the Bundesliga season, and yes, you see that right:
fans in the stands
.
The 2020/2021 season did not start with full arenas, but at least with a few thousand spectators in the stands, with hygiene concepts and safety distances, as here in Dortmund.
For a moment it was louder in the league, in short everything was a bit nicer and more normal.
But the corona numbers in Germany should rise again very soon, and the fans will disappear from the stadiums for the time being.
Photo: Anke Waelischmiller / imago images / Sven Simon
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2/19
FC Bayern could rely on the support of its club officials for this.
Here you can see CEO
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
, who
has become a
topic of
conversation this season because of his
protective masks
.
Sometimes the mask hung clearly under his nose, and here, well, you see him with special equipment that is a bit reminiscent of the mask of Batman villain Bane.
Only: The nose doesn't seem to be completely covered with it either.
Photo: Stefan Matzke / sampics / Pool / Revierfoto / imago images
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3/19
Bibiana Steinhaus was
referee of the year
several times
, she led a soccer final at the Olympics and a World Cup, but has not been active since this season.
The 42-year-old has withdrawn as an active player on the pitch, she is only still there as a video referee.
Steinhaus played her last game in the DFL Supercup final, which FC Bayern won 3-2 against Borussia Dortmund.
Photo: Andreas Gebert / picture alliance / dpa / Reuters / Pool
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4/19
The eighth game day was the game day of
Erling Haaland
.
The BVB striker had scored
four goals
against Hertha BSC at the time
,
he managed one
Hat trick within 15 minutes and was therefore mainly responsible for the Dortmund 5-2 in the Olympic Stadium.
The Norwegian should then become one of the defining figures of the season, most recently he won the DFB Cup with BVB and scored two goals in the final against RB Leipzig.
Photo: Pool / Clemens Bilan - Pool / Getty Images
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5/19
This season was also the season of
returnees
: At Hamburger SV in the second division,
Horst Hrubesch
, 70,
slipped
into the coaching job again (but nothing came of the promotion).
In the relegation battle, 1. FC Köln relied on
Friedhelm Funkel
, 67, who had already announced his departure from professional football last year.
But then Funkel's planned trips were canceled due to the corona pandemic - and when Cologne called, Funkel was back.
And
Thomas Schaaf
, 60, was reactivated again at Werder Bremen for a game day.
He took over for Florian Kohfeldt.
Photo: Eduard Bopp / imago images / Eduard Bopp
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6/19
A week had
Thomas Schaaf
time to
Werder Bremen
to swear on the final matchday against Borussia Moenchengladbach, at least to keep the relegation place - but nothing came of it. After the final whistle in Bremen's Weser Stadium you couldn't hear anything, just silence, sadness about the relegation. The 2: 4 bankruptcy against Borussia on the last match day and the victory of Cologne against Schalke led Bremen down to 17th place, in the second division. Thomas Schaaf is one of the greatest coaches in Bremen's club history, now he is also the coach under whom Werder was relegated to the second division, even if his contribution to this decline is only a very, very small one. The mistakes were made before his return. Funkel can hope to stay in the league with Cologne in the relegation.
Photo: Carmen Jaspersen / dpa
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7/19
It started promisingly:
Vedad Ibišević
, who scored 127 Bundesliga goals in his career, had switched to Schalke 04 at the beginning of the season and had
waived a lot of salary
.
The 36-year-old played for a basic salary of 100,000 euros that he wanted to donate.
At his previous station in Berlin, it should have been almost three million euros a year.
But as good as it all sounded, it wasn't that nice: For Schalke he only played 154 minutes in the Bundesliga (no goal), and his contract was canceled after 82 days.
He did not fit in at Schalke, said sports director Jochen Schneider at the time, allegedly Ibišević had clashed with the then assistant coach Naldo.
Photo: Lukas Schulze / Getty Images
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8/19
A goal for Hanau, a
goal celebration for Hanau
: Ferhat Unvar, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nesar Hashemi, Vili-Viorel Păun, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Sedat Gürbüz and Gökhan Gültekin were murdered by a racist on February 19, 2020 who also killed his mother.
A year later, in the game against Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt also remembered the victims.
The crew wore jackets with the names and faces of the dead and the hashtag #saytheirnames (says their names) as they warmed up.
When Frankfurt's Amin Younes made it 2-0 in this game, he cheered with the t-shirt.
"I was very depressed, very moved," said Younes on Sky about the anniversary of the attack.
He wanted "the family members to know that we were thinking of them."
Photo: Pool / Getty Images
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9/19
What do Marco Rose (left) and Adi Hütter have in common?
Both
coaches
announced their
move to the competition
during the season
.
Rose goes from Gladbach to BVB, Hütter from Frankfurt to Gladbach.
And the announcement of farewell was followed by a crisis: After Rose's statement in mid-February, Borussia lost seven games in a row.
Hütter announced his move in mid-April, after which Eintracht gambled away participation in the Champions League.
"At the beginning you really think that it doesn't affect you and you shake it off," said Frankfurt midfielder Sebastian Rode now in the "Kicker": "But a lot has been pounded on us.
When the entire sporting management breaks down, it is human that the players start pondering. «In addition to Hütter, sports director Fredi Bobic (goes to Hertha BSC) is also leaving the club.
Photo: Christian Verheyen / Borussia Moenchengladbach via Getty Images
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10/19
A world champion for the Big City Club,
Sami Khedira for Hertha BSC
: This change in winter caused a sensation.
There was very little to marvel at in the field.
The 34-year-old came on a few short appearances, but Juventus' access often caused problems with his calf.
Perhaps Khedira's presence alone, his influence in the dressing room, helped the Berliners to stay in the league.
It's a small farewell success: The 2014 World Cup winner has now announced the end of his career.
The body no longer participates.
Photo: Annegret Hilse / picture alliance / dpa / Pool via REUTERS
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11/19
Towards the end of the first half of the season Schalke had four and Mainz six points, and both teams were way behind the non-relegation places: That was the starting position for
Bo Svensson
when the coach took over on matchday 15 in Mainz.
And yes, Svensson, his
rescue mission
needed
a little miracle.
Sports director Christian Heidel said that you would have to score like a European Cup candidate in the second half of the season.
Svensson and Mainz actually made it.
Between the 24th and 32nd matchday, 05 did not lose a game under the new coach; there was even a win against FC Bayern during this period.
The premature league stay was successful - and so Bo Svensson is one of the winners of the season.
Photo: Oliver Zimmermann / imago images / foto2press
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12/19
16 years, one day, Bundesliga
debut
: In November,
Youssoufa Moukoko became the youngest player in league history
.
There was talk of a “child prodigy” and the BVB striker only needed six missions for his debut goal.
How good the young man really is will only be seen in the future, Moukoko's season ended early due to a ligament injury.
Photo: DeFodi Images / Getty Images
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13/19
In mid-April, the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf health
department took action in
Berlin and
quarantined
Hertha BSC
after several positive corona cases
.
Not a particularly good time for a team that was in dire straits at the time.
But, say the club's observers, after the quarantine there was a team on the field for the first time that deserves such a name.
Apparently the exceptional situation created a new sense of community among Berliners.
They were able to secure the league's whereabouts ahead of time.
Photo: Bernd Thissen / picture alliance / dpa
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14/19
Hansi Flick, the coach of FC Bayern, who immediately won the triple from the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League. The coach who won the DFL and Uefa Supercup the following summer, then the World Cup and finally the championship again. It is actually a big surprise that this coach is no longer on the Munich bench in the new season. But the longer this season lasted, the clearer
the rift between Flick and sports director Hasan Salihamidžić became.
It was about power, about having a say in transfer issues, and at the end of the friction there was an early termination of the contract, which the coach had asked for. FC Bayern will continue with Julian Nagelsmann, Flick may be drawn to the national team.
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / ActionPictures
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15/19
BVB sports director Michael Zorc (left) didn't even look anymore.
Coach Lucien Favre looks in the photo as if he has just witnessed an accident.
And it was probably that for BVB too, a felt accident, a defeat like a total write-off, this December 12th,
when BVB lost 1: 5 in the home stadium against promoted VfB Stuttgart
.
For Favre it was his last game as BVB coach.
Edin Terzić followed the Swiss.
After that, it took a while until Borussia got back on track.
But now she ends the season with victory in the DFB Cup and qualification for the Champions League.
Photo: Maik Hölter / TEAM2sportphoto / Pool / imago images
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16/19
"At least Corona has ensured that football professionals no longer spit everywhere." One would have liked to read this sentence after Corona, but it won't come to that.
Corona or hygiene, people still spit and spit on the football pitches.
Once even particularly disgusting: In mid-December, Borussia Mönchengladbach's
Marcus Thuram
spat at
his opponent Stefan Posch
from Hoffenheim
.
The Gladbacher saw the red card for it.
Photo: Marius Becker / picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Pool
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17/19
So far, only Gerd Müller has scored 40 goals in a Bundesliga season almost 50 years ago.
With this season, however,
Robert Lewandowski
initially set
the "eternal" record
and cracked it a week later.
On matchday 33, the Pole scored the decisive 40th goal against SC Freiburg with a penalty, while the Bayern striker scored eight of the 40 goals with a penalty.
Incidentally, Gerd Müller set his record at the time without a penalty goal.
Lewandowski was also to become the sole record holder.
On the last matchday against FC Augsburg Lewandowski took his time until the final stages, then he struck: With his goal in the 90th minute to make it 5-2, he should reach the 41st goal of the season, which he had never scored before.
Photo: S. Mellar / Getty Images / FC Bayern
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18/19
A jubilation that looks like redemption, like pure joy.
And yes, this jubilation probably expresses all of that too.
At the beginning of January, Schalke had won a league game for the first time after 30 Bundesliga games without a win: With a hat trick, Matthew Hoppe had led the Royal Blues to the longed-for victory (against Hoffenheim) and thus
prevented Schalke from setting Tasmania Berlin's winless record
.
You think you can see a breakthrough in this photo.
That Schalke is now getting started, catching up, and the class is holding up.
None of this happened.
In the coming season Schalke 04 will play in league two.
Photo: Ulrich Hufnagel / imago images
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19/19
For
Union Berlin
, on the other hand, it goes to Europe, the club has qualified as seventh in the table for the new
Conference League
.
Max Kruse
said a few weeks ago that he would like to play in the Europa League.
But the Conference League?
He didn't even know what it was, he wasn't "in the mood" for that.
Now, of all people, it was Kruse who led Union into the new competition on the last day of the match.
In stoppage time he scored the decisive 2-1 against RB Leipzig, after which there was exuberant cheers.
You'd think that Kruse would be interested in the Conference League.
At least a little.
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / MIS