Talking Fussball

With nearly one-third of the season in the books, FC St. Pauli look a good bet to go up to the top flight. Nik draws out our resident Pauli fan Maik on what's going so right at the Millerntor, and whether the club's lengthy unbeaten run is at rick anytime soon. Jasmine weighs in on whether Eintracht Braunschweig is beyond help, and the gang break out their rain gear to talk about the sodde...

With Bayer 04 Leverkusen riding high, it was high time for a check-in with one of their biggest fans Eric Bruehl. He and Nik have been busy putting together the new TORWART series on the TF Patreon , so we thought getting them together for a discussion of Match Day 8 was a natural. Matt steers things toward a discussion of Leverkusen's hot start before entering the choppy waters of FSV Mainz 0...

Nik is back with Maik and Jasmine to talk over the lay of the land in the 2. Bundesliga and the German lower leagues! FC St. Pauli are still riding high, FC Schalke 04 have looked to the West for assistance in getting out of the latest ditch they've fallen into, and a legal fight in Karlsruhe continues.

What in the world has gotten into 1. FC Union Berlin? After a string of tight low-scoring losses, the irons got a bit more ambitious this past week. They scored two goals in both their UEFA Champions League and their Bundesliga fixture...and still managed to lose them both. Matt talks over the Köpenickers' troubles with Terry, along with the recent steady play of Borussia Dortmund - is it just...

Recent seasons have not always been kind to Germany's northern Traditionsvereine , but their luck may be changing in the 2. Liga. Take a glance at the table and you'll find the two Hamburg clubs in first and second, followed closely by Hannover 96 and Holstein Kiel. What's behind all the success? Find out as Nik and Maik (northerners both) talk you through all the top storylines from G...

Five games into the 2023-24 Bundesliga season, FC Bayern München, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and RB Leipzig are - as expected - looking pretty damn good. But there are a number of surprises: TSG Hoffenheim and VfB Stuttgart are also setting a blistering pace, while 1. FC Köln, Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FSV Mainz 05 have yet to record a win. Matt, Nik, and Terry are ready to talk all those teams&#39...

Sometimes it's all about timing. With Jasmine taking a break from the podcast this week, Nik spends the hour with Maik, whose beloved FC St. Pauli busted loose with a thundering win on Match Day 6. Holstein Kiel went to the Millerntor on a high but got thrashed 5-1 and our panelist has plenty to say about it. Hertha BSC, meanwhile, also picked up three points but have some choice comments from...

With the Bundesliga on a break, the German football world turns its attention to the national team. For the last half-decade or so, that's been a pretty unappealing prospect as the team has played a lot of uninspiring football. Hansi Flick's disappointing two-year spell at the helm came to a close on Sunday, so Matt, Nik and Terry took the opportunity to talk through what's been ailing...

Would you believe Germany's lower divisions have been serving up more offbeat stuff over the past two weeks? If you're a devoted fan of this pod, I think you would! After Nik's repeated hat tips to A-ha last week, this time out he makes sure Jasmine is driven to tears by references to another group of 1980s giants as they talk through questionable police tactics at St Pauli, ticket pri...

Two games into the Bundesliga season, we still don't know much - but we think we know a few things: Harry Kane is going to fit in just fine at FC Bayern München, 1. FC Union Berlin appear to have bought well over the summer, and SV Werder Bremen are in for a long season. Matt, Terry and Nik mull over some early results as well as get into stories off the pitch - from shots fired in Augsburg to...

We sometimes go on about how tough and unpredictable the 2. Bundesliga is and, well...the two sides relegated from the top flight are proving us right thus far! FC Schalke 04 have just one win from their first three games, and Hertha BSC are rock bottom - no points, no goals, no clue. Nik and Jasmine welcome Maik back to the fold to talk through the goings on in the second tier, as well as a strin...

The Bundesliga is back, and so is Talking Fussball's coverage of the top flight of German football - for a 12th season running! After all this time, we've just about seen it all, but there are a few new wrinkles. First, while English Premier League clubs continued to buy up the Bundesliga's best, one also saw fit to sell an established star in Harry Kane - how will he fit at FC Bayern...

The 2. Bundesliga is up and running, which means Nik Wildhagen and Jasmine Baba are ready to talk some Fussball! They run you though the key transfers into the league, a string of youngsters to watch as the season unfolds, and their all-important (and perhaps controversial) picks for promotion and relegation come May 2024. Strap in!

Germany's relegation playoffs may not involve teams that play champagne football, but the storylines they offer up are plenty tantalizing. After another loss (this time to Stuttgart), what can the increasingly desperate HSV do to get back to the top flight? Are Bielefeld doomed after sealing their second straight drop with a loss to Wiesbaden? And what should we look forward to in next year&#3...

He's a football legend, a tabloid mainstay, a prodigious teller of tall tales and a symbol of postwar Germany itself. Franz Beckenbauer is the biggest name to ever emerge from the Bundesliga, and it's appropriate that Uli Hesse, the man who wrote the book on the league ( Tor! - if you haven't read it, drop everything and start) should take on the task of writing a new biography of him....

Wild times on the final weekend in the 2. Bundesliga (oh my Heidenheim!) and the 3. Liga too, where Wiesbaden's promotion party was abruptly cut short by Osnabrück. Join Nik, Jasmine and Maik for a re-cap of all the drama and a preview of what's to come in the two big relegation playoffs: Hamburg vs Stuttgart and Wiesbaden vs. Bielefeld.

We now know SV Darmstadt 98 are headed back to the Bundesliga next season, but there's still plenty to play for for the likes of promotion hopefuls Hamburger Sport-Verein and FC Heidenheim as well as the relegation-threatened Eintracht Braunschweig, 1. FC Nürnberg and Arminia Bielefeld. Nik talks through all the permutations with Maik and Jasmine, as well as take a trip down to the 3. Liga.

When the last Aufstieg edition came out, Hamburger Sport-Verein were riding high off a derby win over FC St. Pauli and edging toward the automatic promotion places. Not so much anymore - their two losses on the trot, as well as a timely defeat for league leaders SV Darmstadt, mean there's still much to play for as the league heads into the final three rounds. Nik, Maik and Jasmine are here to...

Here in 2023, football leagues selling a stake to a strategic partner is nothing new...but it sure would be for Germany's top flight. The DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) has been looking for a private equity firm who might help them bankroll a few projects - everything from media rights sales to international marketing - but not everyone is on board. Could it all blow up in the Bundesliga's fa...

The Bundesliga title race is still tight after another stumble by the team who entered the match day in the lead. As you'll hear in this edition, Matt and Adam Khan are pretty sure a few refereeing clangers played a part in BVB's slip, but the question remains: does anybody want to win the league? Plenty on the rest of the match day too, including what finally halted Mainz's charge, wh...

It's not every week that it's plausible to argue that a second-tier match might well have had the best atmosphere in Europe, but the Hamburger Stadtderby is an exceptional fixture. The most recent edition saw both teams fighting for promotion heading in...and just one looking up to it at game's end, as Hamburger Sport-Verein took down FC St. Pauli in a 4-3 that allowed them to open up a nine-point...

Well what do you know? Against all expectations, on Match Day 29 it was Bayern - not Dortmund - who faltered in the title race, surrendering top spot to the Schwarzgelben. Under the top two the most compelling story, however, might be Leverkusen, who cruised into the Europa League semifinal at midweek and then bopped Leipzig to notch their eighth straight match unbeaten. Guest host Marie Schulte-B...

What's gotten into Borussia Mönchengladbach? After spending much of the last decade in a renaissance that occasionally rekindled dreams of the club's 1970s heyday, the foals last three seasons have left them flirting dangerously with a return to the lean years of the 90s and 00s. Nik invites Gladbach obsessive Manuel Breuer on for a detailed chat on what's gone wrong and how it might get better. L...

With just seven games left on the 2. Bundesliga docket, the race for promotion is getting serious...which is often the time of year Hamburger Sport-Verein's hopes of getting back into the top flight starts to fade. Will this season be different? HSV got a big win last weekend, but events off the pitch are ensuring the club can't breath too easy. Listen in as Nik, Jasmine and Maik break down events...

Bayern strolled it against Dortmund on this past weekend. It was an outcome few apart from their own fans were excited about, but it was one that reminded us just how versatile this Bayern side can be when they want to be. Matt talks the big Klassiker win over with his old pal Abel Meszaros, who also shares a few thoughts about a rising Leverkusen side and about Stuttgart who, hapless as ever, mad...