The 2. Bundesliga makes its return tonight with two games that will get us prepared for the remaining 151 after that. We’ve had 153 games so far this season and in each matchday of nine, we’ve had a few real standout moments that will be remembered far past the end of the season. Like last season, I picked out my favourite from every matchday as a way to remind us of what we’re returning to in a few hours.
Matchday 1: HSV beat Schalke in eight-goal thriller
HSV and Schalke opened the 2. Bundesliga in 2021/22 and did so again for this campaign. Both sides entered the season with high hopes, but it would be the home fans of Hamburger who would be feeling better after ninety minutes. The game was finely poised at 3-3 after Simon Terrode’s equaliser against his former club, but Ibrahima Cissé was dubiously sent off for the recently relegated side shortly afterwards, and HSV would add two goals in added time thanks to Robert Glatzel and Jean-Luc Dompe. The 2. Bundesliga is best known for its goals and unpredictability, and no one could have predicted eight goals in this, meaning the league really did pick up where it left off.
Matchday 2: Budu Zivzivadze scores 95th-minute equaliser against HSV
Sticking with HSV, their next game was as memorable, but not as fun for them. After trailing early, Hamburger were in the lead thanks to goals from László Bénes and Glatzel. It looked like they were going to carry that lead through to the end of the game for another three points, but in the 95th minute, Lars Stindl would play through Budu Zivzivadze for a deserved equaliser. Late goals are always memorable, and this set the tone for HSV as they’ve been weak on the road all season.
Matchday 3: Kaiserslautern 3-2 Elversberg
One of the wilder games this season, Kaiserslautern edged out newly promoted Elversberg in a truly entertaining duel. Kaiserslautern went from joy to despair to joy when a goal was ruled out for offside, which in turn meant a penalty had to be given for a prior handball, one that was scored by Kevin Kraus. Elversberg came back though a took a surprising lead at the beginning of the second half, Manuel Feil and Semih Şahin scoring, before the Red Devils would win the game with the best goal of the five, Jean Zimmer on the full volley into the bottom corner. These sides have had contrasting fortunes since: Kaiserslautern are currently a point clear of the drop whilst Elversberg are sat in the top half.
Matchday 4: Hertha win 5-0 to save Pál Dárdai
Hertha were the worst side in the league after three weeks. They opened the season with a 1-0 loss away at Düsseldorf, followed up with a more surprising defeat at home to newly-promoted Wehen, and then lost their third in a row with an incredibly poor performance against HSV. It was reported that another loss at home to Fürth would cost head coach Pál Dárdai his job. BSC fought back though and won 5-0 in an all-conquering performance. In the 13 games since, Hertha have picked up 22 points and are currently in the promotion race. Things could have been very different if they had not managed to get that vital first win on matchday four.
Matchday 5: Magdeburg beat Hertha 6-4
The best game of the season in terms of mere shock factor, Hertha were hoping to carry their momentum from that win against Fürth into a game against a Magdeburg side who had started the season well. I don’t think I need to explain why a game that finished 6-4 was good, but it was 4-4 as late as the 58th minute. Magdeburg were easily the better side at the end of the game: Mohammed El Hankouri would see a great dipping shot go in after 68 minutes to make it 5-4 and Ahmet Arslan would get an added-time tap in to finish the scoring. Whilst Hertha have been the better side since, Magdeburg fans will look back on this game for a long time.
Matchday 6: Magdeburg lose in seven-goal thriller
Not as great for Magdeburg fans but still great for the neutrals, Christian Titz’s side would follow up that 10-goal thriller with a 7-goal thriller away at Schalke. It was one they had a chance to win as well, Connor Krempicki’s goal in the 67th minute made it 3-2 to the East German side, but Thomas Ouwejan would hit a free kick into the top corner to level the scores before Daniel Heber would get sent off for a bear hug inside the box, leading to a penalty which was scored by Sebastian Polter. Win or lose, Magdeburg do entertain.
Matchday 7: Baumgartl’s comments
Schalke had started the season poorly, with just seven points through their opening six games. A trip to the Millerntor to face St. Pauli was next and again the newly relegated side struggled as they were comfortably beaten 3-1 to drop into the relegation places. Clearly, this poor start to the season had been affecting the players and after the game, Timo Baumgartl used his interview with Sky Sport to express his grievances. “There is no compactness, we are always a step too late. And that’s playing with fire if we’re always one step too late. It is very risky.” He wasn’t subtle about who was to blame for this, “It’s the trainer’s philosophy. He tells us that and that’s why we do it as a team, but it’s clear when you see in the first 20 to 30 minutes that it’s brutally difficult, if the opponent does it well, moves well, then, of course, it’s 1 against 1 at the back, that is of course fraught with risk. We train this during the week, we are meticulous. But it always comes back to the same thing in the first 30 minutes.” Schalke suspended Baumgartl and the defender would issue an apology, but his comments rang true with the higher-ups, as Reis would be fired later in the week.
Matchday 8: Lennart Grill let down by Osnabrück
Goalkeeper Lennart Grill did not have the best start to the season, the 18 goals Osnabrück had conceded through their opening seven games was the worst in the league and the visit of 4th placed Kaiserslautern did look like it was going to help matters. Grill was exceptional though. After giving away a penalty in the opening stages of the game, he would recover by saving the shot from Kevin Kraus. Osnabrück were leading 2-1 in added time when VFL’s defence would give away a second penalty, but again Grill would stop the shot, this time from Terrance Boyd. However, the hosts had been terrible defensively all game and since Kaiserslautern couldn’t score, Osnabrück did it for them, Oumar Diakhite turning in a Tomiak header that Grill would have comfortably saved otherwise. Lennart Grill was the best player of matchday eight, but sometimes you can only do so much when your defence is almost trying to lose the game.
Matchday 9: Fabian Schleusener’s long-range first-touch finish
Magdeburg were easily the better side in their match against Karlsruher and really should have got all three points, not only did they have the lion’s share of possession and chances, but they also had a stonewall penalty turned down. Still, whilst Magdeburg would have been feeling disappointed following the match, they couldn’t have any complaints with how Karlsruher got the opening goal, as Fabian Schleusener would hit a shot first-time from within the centre-circle over the head of Dominik Reimann and in. On that week’s episode of Going Deutsch, I said that it was a goal of the month contender, but in the end, it was beaten by something even better just the week after.
Matchday 10: Florent Muslija scores from his own half against St. Pauli
There have been three goals from beyond the halfway line so far this season, and this might be the best of them. Paderborn were somewhat lucky to get a point against top-of-the-league St. Pauli, but there was nothing lucky about their opening goal, Florent Muslija lined up for a shot inside his own half and fired it over the head of Nikola Vasilj. Whilst most will remember Harry Kane’s halfway goal against Darmstadt more, I think this was the better of the two.
Author’s note: Fortuna Düsseldorf’s comeback from 3-0 down to win 4-3 against Kaiserslautern was this week as well, which was discussed in the article Fifteen Moments to Remember from 2023. I could have put that here but thought that, as a single moment, Muslija’s goal was more memorable.
Matchday 11: Julian Krahl punches at nothing
Football can oftentimes be equal parts spectacular and hilarious, and we saw that on matchday 11 when Kaiserslautern hosted HSV. The Red Devils had been in another memorable game the week before as mentioned where they managed to lose after leading Fortuna Düsseldorf 3-0. Perhaps bad defending was one of the main reasons and they displayed that again the week after. The hosts were leading 3-2 when HSV’s Miro Muheim would float a ball into the box. Keeper Julian Krahl would rush out and try to punch it clear. Except, he punched at nothing but air and the ball sailed into the net. This has been a perfect encapsulation of what came next for Kaiserslautern, something they should have had under control, but manage to screw up.
Matchday 12: Lennart Grill’s defence let him down again
The more things change the more they stay the same, Osnabrück hosted 4th placed Holstein Kiel having not won in their previous four. For a lot of the game, it looked like VFL were going to stop that bad run, Dave Gnaase scored the only goal as the side entered added time up 1-0. However, they would yet again concede late to drop points as Benedikt Pichler would volley into the back of the net in the 94th minute. It would have helped if he had been even slightly marked while standing in the middle of the box, but he wasn’t. If you want to understand why Osnabrück are at the bottom of the league, moments like this are why.
Matchday 13: Braunschweig get late winner in Daniel Scherning’s debut
The game between Eintracht Braunschweig and Osnabrück was most certainly a relegation six point. Osnabrück were the better of the two sides, in 17th on 7 points, but they were still five off 16th and six away from safety. The situation for Braunschweig was even more bleak, bottom of the league with just five points from twelve. That’s why the side had decided to move on from Jens Hartel, though their hiring of former Arminia Bielefeld and Osnabrück manager Daniel Scherning didn’t seem like the best. He would try and prove that to be wrong from his first game, winning against his former side with a 98th-minute goal from Ermin Bicakcic to win 3-2. It lifted Braunschweig off bottom and resulted in the firing of Osnabrück’s Tobias Schweinsteiger, who ironically had been the replacement for Scherning in the first place.
Matchday 14: Schalke’s open letter after 5-3 defeat
As already discussed, Schalke have not had the best start to the 2023/24 season, and the club has not always been the most harmonious in the Zweite. More of that was seen after the side lost 5-3 to Fortuna Düsseldorf. Null Vier had been 3-0 down after just 26 minutes and only briefly threatened when a run of two goals in as many minutes made it 4-3 with 14 to play. Schalke were so bad that they felt the need to issue an open letter, stating, “We are ashamed of some of our performances in recent months! We have set ourselves much higher targets – every single one of us! We are very disappointed not to live up to the expectations of you members, fans, and ourselves.” It might just be something that other clubs should do in the future, as Schalke have seven points from three following the publication of this letter.
Matchday 15: Daniel Heuer Fernandes has comical error vs St. Pauli
From the article ‘Fifteen Moments to Remember From 2023’, because what else could I really put here? This is the greatest football moment of all time.
We watch football because we like seeing those at the very top of the game do what we could only dream of, but it’s nice to occasionally remember that they are human too. That’s what we saw with what might be the funniest own goal of all time. The stakes couldn’t be higher too, this was the first Hamburg Derby where St. Pauli and HSV entered as the top two sides in the league. Kiezkicker utilised a high press at the beginning of the game, which made HSV’s attempts to play out of the back difficult. Finally, it would backfire for the visitors in the 27th minute when Daniel Heuer Fernandes tried to clear a misplaced back pass and instead hit it straight into the top corner of his own goal. Simply perfection.
Matchday 16: László Bénes scores screamer
To make up for my continuous mocking of the Daniel Heuer Fernandes goal, it’s only fair that I mention something good from HSV for matchday 16. Even with the Florent Muslija goal mentioned earlier, the best goal of the season so far might be this effort from László Bénes against Paderborn. Facing away from goal, the midfielder would knee the ball away from his nearest defender before blasting it from very far out into the top corner. I can’t directly link to the goal on this article, but go and give it a watch, it’s most certainly worth it.
Matchday 17: Düsseldorf comeback from 2-0 down to beat Magdeburg
Fortuna Düsseldorf had come from behind to beat Magdeburg in the DFB Pokal, apparently, FCM took no lessons from that game as F95 would do the same thing again just a few weeks later. Where Magdeburg had only led 1-0 in the Pokal game, they would manage to blow a 2-0 lead in the league. Vincent Vermeij would get two with Shinta Appelkamp getting the other as they faced little opposition from their hosts through a second half which Düsseldorf dominated. Was it as good a comeback as their 4-3 win over Kaiserslautern? No, but it was another reminder to never give up on Fortuna and to never trust a Magdeburg lead.
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