August 13th.
With less than a week until the Bundesliga kicks off, major media magazines, TV commentators, and football experts have all written columns analyzing and previewing the upcoming new Bundesliga season:
Firstly, the strong contenders for this year's Bundesliga title!
Most media magazines and football experts believe that this season's champion will be decided between the defending champions Bayern Munich and the "Black and Yellows" Borussia Dortmund.
Of course, even little kids who have just started watching the Bundesliga would make such a prediction.
Because in the Bundesliga, everyone knows there are only two teams with genuine title-contending strength.
Those are Bayern and Dortmund.
However, a very small number of football journalists believe that Wolfsburg, who performed impressively last season, will be a spoiler in the title race this season.
But, compared to the powerful Bayern and Dortmund, Wolfsburg, even after recruiting new players, is clearly slightly inferior in squad strength and depth.
This season, they also have to contend with the Champions League, and it's very possible they will be dragged down by fighting on two fronts, leading to a thankless effort and falling short on both sides.
Therefore, many believe that if Wolfsburg wants to achieve anything this season, they must make a choice.
Whether to prioritize the League or the Champions League!
However, everyone believes that Wolfsburg's performance will largely depend on the display of the twin stars: Mark, the Germany Imperial Star, and De Bruyne, the Belgium international.
Their partnership was the most prolific attacking duo in terms of mutual passes and assists in the second half of last season's Bundesliga.
Whether they can continue this chemistry in the new season will largely determine Wolfsburg's ranking.
Especially for Mark, who is about to face his first full Bundesliga season, whether he can lead Wolfsburg to become a spoiler between Bayern and Dortmund is a huge test... Of course, in addition to the top three title contenders from last season, the battle for Champions League qualification is also very fierce.
Leverkusen, Schalke, and Mönchengladbach have become the second tier.
Leverkusen, who was pushed to fifth place by Wolfsburg's rise last season and lost their Champions League qualification, also fired their club legend Sami Hyypiä and hired Schmidt as the team's new coach.
Subsequently, with the new coach taking charge, the team also made a series of transfer moves.
Although the team sold their key midfielder Emre Can and also lost winger Sam, who once carried the team.
However, the team also acquired Hamburg midfielder Hakan Çalhanoğlu for 14.5 million euros, a club record transfer fee.
The Turkish midfielder Hakan Çalhanoğlu, at only twenty years old, is already a renowned free-kick specialist in the Bundesliga, with extraordinary potential.
Moreover, the team also strengthened its attack, with the Swiss wonderkid Josip Drmić, who scored seventeen League goals for Nuremberg last season but failed to help the team avoid relegation, also joining the team.
The Leverkusen in the new season still has the strength to challenge for the Champions League!
Unlike Leverkusen, Schalke did not make any major transfer moves in the summer window.
Spending only 2.5 million euros to acquire the excellent winger Sam from Leverkusen last season can be considered a value-for-money deal.
In addition, the free transfer of Mainz striker Choupo-Moting also gave the team a new option in attack.
However, for Schalke fans, the team being able to keep their three talented players, Draxler, Goretzka, and Meyer, during the summer, was already a perfect transfer window!
Mönchengladbach, on the other hand, made moves in this summer window that suggest they are looking to cause trouble in the new season.
Although "Little Lion" Ter Stegen transferred to Barça and Luuk de Jong transferred to PSV Eindhoven, causing the team to lose two key players, one in attack and one in defense.
However, they acquired the Swiss international goalkeeper Yann Sommer from Basel, and also found several promising young players in the transfer market, such as Thorgan Hazard, the younger brother of Chelsea's "Ball King" Hazard, Hahn, Augsburg's biggest discovery last season, Fabian Johnson, a free transfer from Hoffenheim, and Traoré, a speedy winger from Stuttgart.
Their overall strength has not decreased but increased, and they definitely have the strength to challenge for European qualification!
Of course, for Wolfsburg, they have only one goal in mind:
To break the duopoly of the Bundesliga!
It is worth mentioning that they will face Bayern in their first match of the season!
Because the opening match of this Bundesliga season will definitely be a highly anticipated showdown:
Defending Bundesliga champions Bayern will host German Cup winners Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena!
But before that, Wolfsburg first faced Bayern for the first time this season.
That was the German Supercup, contested by the League champions and the German Cup winners!
The German Supercup is similar in nature to the Premier League's Community Shield.
Strictly speaking, it is a warm-up friendly match before the start of the League.
However, unlike other ordinary warm-up matches, this cup has a trophy to be won.
Even a small mosquito has some meat.
The Super Cup champion is also a champion!
And the opponent is the Bundesliga hegemon Bayern Munich.
For Wolfsburg, who aims to break Bayern's dominance, this is a very good opportunity to test the team's mettle.
However, Bayern seems not to care about this small Super Cup, which they have won so many times...
Time quickly came to August 14th, and the Volkswagen Arena was already packed.
And in the starting lineup announced an hour before the match, Bayern lined up in a 3-4-3 tactical formation:
Neuer was in goal, with the three center-backs being Alaba, Javi Martínez, and Jérôme Boateng.
The four midfielders were Juan Bernat, Gaudino, Højbjerg, and Sebastian Rode.
The front three were Shaqiri, Lewandowski, and Müller.
Clearly, from the tactical formation and starting lineup, Guardiola treated this warm-up Super Cup as a testing ground for his new tactics.
Not only did half of the regular starters not play, but he also tried a new formation.
Especially in the crucial midfield position, Guardiola chose the combination of Bayern's youth academy stars Gaudino and Højbjerg.
It is worth mentioning that, according to a joke made at the pre-match press conference, Guardiola said he dreamed of this 3-4-3 formation while sleeping.
Whether true or false, it is not uncommon for Guardiola to like experimenting with new tactics and making changes in his team selection.
Wolfsburg, on the other hand, played with their full starting lineup from last season!
And before the match began, as the first meeting with the fans this season, Mark, under the gaze of tens of thousands of fans in the stadium, displayed his world cup golden boot trophy and World Cup Best Young Player trophy!
You should know that the world cup golden boot and World Cup Best Young Player trophies are awarded only once every four years, and are very significant individual awards.
And facing the microphone handed to him by the stadium host, Mark also loudly said: "This honor belongs to me, and even more so, to every Wolfsburg person!
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire stadium erupted in deafening cheers!
...
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