Dalbeider

Oct 29th 2030 SSV Jahn Regensburg vs. TSV 1860 München (DFB Pokal 2nd round) Back to the cup with the always treacherous second round tie. 2.Bundesliga sides are supposed to be inferior to us regardless of their form, but they're close enough to be able to give us trouble if we don't take it seriously. That said, Regensburg's twelfth place in the second tier isn't exactly awe-inspiring, and neither is their form. We should get through this. * * * REGENSBURG (4-2-3-1): Marco Hiller (GK); Angelo Brückner (DR), Eldin Dzogovic (DCr), Sven Sonnenberg (DCl), Filip Brekalo (DL); Majeed Ashimeru (MCr), Max Besuschkow (MCl); Donat Rrudhani (AMR), Anssi Suhonen (AMC), Gabrijel Rukavina (AML); Dennis Borkowski (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Kevin Rexhepi (GK); Lukas Hauptmann (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Alex Ball (DL); Ezequiel Beltramone (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Matías Miranda (MC), Thiago (MCl); Roberto Caraballo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) * * * Rotation as expected, with only Lang repeating from Saturday and Hauptmann and Beltramone getting the starts they've been hungering for. Regensburg still start our former goalkeeper Marco Hiller, who hasn't changed teams since he left 1860 after losing the fight for the starting position with Kretzschmar in the 3.Liga. That brings back memories... We soon give Hiller our warmest greetings with a passing play right out of kick off which Schulze finishes with narrowly wide shot, but afterwards we seem to lose control of the ball and struggle for a while to regain it. When we finally do it's Schulze again to finish our next attack, this time finding the target but also Hiller's gloves. Third time isn't the charm for the midfielder either, as his 15th-minute header to a cross from the left by Thiago bounces on the upside of the bar before going over. Seconds later, though, he intercepts Hiller's goal kick and kickstarts a counterattack that ends with Miranda crossing and Caraballo being pulled down by Sonnenberg to prevent his header: stonewall penalty kick, and Miranda buries it confidently from the spot to grab the first lead. Regensburg won't take this sitting, though, and in the 18th a cross from the right turns into danger when Rukavina gets to it ahead of a half-asleep Lang, although thankfully his finish goes wide. Just to prevent further scares, Miranda performs one of his trademark runs into space and catches a long pass from deep by Ball, facing Hiller and calmly passing the ball into the net for the 0-2 in the 21st minute. Once again Regensburg answer, this time with a cross from the left and a good finish by Suhonen that Rexhepi blocks and deflects wide, for a corner kick that ends in a wide shot by Rukavina. A bad clearance by Ball in the 30th gives the home team another chance to strike back, once again sent wide by Borkowski, and once again with Lang looking slow and out of position. Miranda then brings us back into attacking positions with a great through ball towards Caraballo, who tries a lob over Hiller but overhits it and lodges it on top of the net. Next up is a corner kick that the omnipresent Miranda sends into the box so Casas can head it narrowly over, but after a short while without any progress Regensburg hit back with *another* pass into space behind Lang that Borkowski mishits and also sends over the target. We hit back through Schulze's nod and Özcan's well-placed header in the 43rd, denied by Hiller's good diving save, but in the end the result doesn't move in either direction before time runs out on the first half. HALF TIME - 0-2 We remain in control in the early second half, taking our chances to run forward and give Hiller something to think about from time to time. There are no real chances until the 59th, though, when a shot by Caraballo makes its way towards the target but is held by the keeper with little effort. We then decide to experiment a bit, replacing Lang with Touré and moving Hauptmann to the center of the defense, to see how he performs in his other natural position. Rodríguez and Meunier also replace Miranda and Schulze, both excellent today. With our three defensive midfielders on the pitch at the same time our grasp on the ball tightens even further, and Regensburg can't seem to find those free crosses behind our defense anymore. Of course our creativity also suffers, and we spend a while struggling to create danger from anywhere other than long shots that don't even make it past the defense. In the 69th, though, Thiago finds the way with a pass ahead of Caraballo inside the box which the forward collects and calmly turns into the 0-3 with a perfectly placed finish. Game over. Regensburg still have enough guts to try and look for at least one goal, and Rukavina gets really close with a powerful header after cross from the left in the 79th minute, but sadly (for them) the ball hits the crossbar and flies over into the stands. Two minutes later it's Özcan's turn to miss with his header, this time sending it wide after a pinpoint cross by Beltramone, and in the 86th Rodríguez also hits wood with a long-range direct free kick into the outside of the post. Borkowski has another chance for the home team in injury time after breaking through the center, but Rexhepi does well to cover the near post and deflect his finish wide, for a corner kick that Sonnenberg heads well over. Another run into the box by Borkowski ends in another excellent save by Rexhepi, and seconds later the referee calls for time. Good win, onto the next one. * * * SSV Jahn Regensburg 0 TSV 1860 München 3 (Matías Miranda 16p 21, Rodrigo Caraballo 69) - - - Somewhat deceptive result, honestly. If it weren't for that early penalty I could easily see this game grinding into a slugfest, as Regensburg gave us more than enough trouble to deserve at least a goal today. Thankfully that didn't happen, though, and with Miranda and Caraballo doing their usual magic we ran away clear winners today. Deserved result, don't get me wrong, but we could've had a much tougher time to get it than we did. Big news of this round is Leipzig's extremely early exit after a very tough home tie against Union, who stole the game on penalties after a 2-2 draw. That leads to a bit of a dressing room bust out, too, as a few players including sure starters like Marko Cumic and Rayan Cherki publicly request a transfer out of the club, citing broken promises by the manager. Welp. Might be worth keeping an eye on this situation, could even fish something interesting out of these troubled waters... Bayern manage to survive a criminal tie away to Fortuna with a 1-3 win, but other big names like Hertha, Nürnberg, and Wolfsburg are also out of the competition already.

Oct 26th 2030 VfB Stuttgart (6th) vs. TSV 1860 München (3rd) (Bundesliga, 9/34) One fourth of the season gone and it's not getting any easier in the Bundesliga. Stuttgart are one of the in-form teams in the competition, turning a very solid defensive outlook into a serious challenge for the European places, currently sitting only two points behind us. They're also a team we have very mixed results against, so we'll have to rely on our current burst of good form to get past them and establish ourselves in the top four for good. * * * STUTTGART (3-2-2-1-2): Finn Dahmen (GK); Ronny Klotke (DCr), Chris Richards (DC), Hrvoje Smolcic (DCl); Bali Mumba (WBR), Diego Rocha (WBL); Williot Swedberg (MCr), Vampeta (MCl); Ismaël Gharbi (AMC); Isaac Tshibangu (STr); Nedeljko Pavisic (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Mateja Stjepanovic (DCl), Mahamadou Touré (DL); Aymeric Meunier (DM); Juan David Palomeque (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Jonatan Basualdo (STr), Julian Rijkhoff (STl) * * * Podolski remains faithful to his 3-5-2 variant, and for good reason given their recent results, although there are lots of personnel changes in their lineup compared to our last meeting. We restore our eleven from last week's win against Union Berlin with Miranda in Schulze's place as the only new face, and we get off to a pretty uneventful start, with neither team managing to break through the opposing lines for the first fifteen minutes, with possession almost equally split. A direct free kick that Rodríguez smashes into the fence is the closest thing to a goalscoring chance to happen in the early game, and that's being very generous. This can only change if the defenses make a mistake, and Richards soon obliges when he tries a short pass back towards Klotke but instead gifts the ball to Rijkhoff, who profits from being in the right place at the right time to shoot with power and, finally, score his first goal of the season in the 18th minute. Five minutes later we show Stuttgart how to play from the back with a long passing play in which almost every player touches the ball before Basualdo gives Rijkhoff the final assist, only to be denied by Dahmen's excellent parry. Meanwhile the home team can only put some pressure on us through set pieces and long shots, none of which make their way to Kretzschmar. Gharbi gets the closest with a direct free kick that he sends over the bar in the 28th. After that come fifteen more minutes in which the attacks fail to make any progress into the opposition's territory, and we go all the way into injury time for Dahmen to have more work to do, this time stopping and keeping hold a 20-yarder by Palomeque, powerful but centered. With that and little else, the first half ends. HALF TIME - 0-1 The second half starts with another direct free kick for Rodríguez, this one coming from quite a distance away but still forcing Dahmen into a difficult fingertip save. In the 55th Miranda profits from a loose ball in midfield to send a quick pass forward towards Basualdo, who finds the keeper in the way of his finish, probably our best chance since Rijkhoff's goal. Stuttgart seem unable to generate anything during this stretch, and soon it's time for some substitutions, with young Hauptmann taking Touré's place after a pretty poor game and pushing Javorcic to the left side of our defense, while Schulze gives Miranda some rest. Javorcic's side change proves fruitful in the 66th when he steals the ball from Mumba and quickly launches it forward for Rijkhoff, who goes all the way into the box but lacks the precision to get it past Dahmen. Three minutes later it's Schulze who tests the keeper following a good run down the right while combining with Hauptmann and Basualdo, and soon after Rodríguez also gets some resting time as we bring Thiago in his place. That pushes Meunier into a more attacking role, and soon the Belgian shows up to finish a cross by Schulze, although his volley ends up going well over. Stuttgart still haven't done anything in attack during the whole second half, and that only changes in the 80th minute when Tshibangu shoots wide after a bit of a defensive mishap in a set piece routine leaves him unmarked just inside the box. After that, not much else, on either side of the pitch. Just a couple of shots by Basualdo and Palomeque that hit a defender and bubble their way harmlessly into Dahmen's hands and a couple corner kicks for Stuttgart that Lang clears with ease. The big scare comes in injury time, though, when a pass from deep finds Gharbi right on the edge of our box and his volley is only stopped from becoming the 1-1 by an excellent flipping save by Kretzschmar, showing he's still very much in the game despite having zero work all evening. That's enough to secure an important result that keeps us where we want to be in the Bundesliga table for the time being. * * * VfB Stuttgart 0 TSV 1860 München 1 (Julian Rijkhoff 18) - - - Deserved result, even if we needed a bit of a gift to actually get it. The game was very even both possession-wise and positionally, but Stuttgart never looked like scoring a goal today other than that one isolated chance for Gharbi near the end, while we enjoyed many opportunities to improve our lead that we couldn't put past Dahmen. Regardless, great result against very difficult opposition, and we're now very much in the correct pace. * * * | Pos | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | GD | Pts | Form | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Borussia Dortmund | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 7 | 13 | 22 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | RB Leipzig | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 8 | 18 | 20 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | 1860 München | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 10 | 8 | 18 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | FC Bayern | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 18 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | Fortuna Düsseldorf | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 25 | 12 | 13 | 16 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | Nürnberg | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 16 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | Union Berlin | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 14 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | Stuttgart | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 12 | 1 | 13 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | Augsburg | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 12 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | Wolfsburg | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 17 | -4 | 12 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | Borussia M'gladbach | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 15 | -4 | 11 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | Hertha BSC | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 11 | -4 | 10 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | Mainz | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 15 | -7 | 10 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | Werder Bremen | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 18 | -8 | 9 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | Freiburg | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 11 | -5 | 7 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | Hamburg | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 20 | -10 | 7 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | Dynamo Dresden | 9 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 16 | -10 | 5 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | Frankfurt | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 15 | -10 | 4 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Looking fine so far, which is something considering how hesitant our first few games in the season were. We seem to have picked up the pace now, and both our League and Champions League results have seen a marked improvement in October. We're keeping pace with the big teams now, which is reassuring, but the distance between us and the teams behind is still small, so we need to keep it going for a while longer. Once we're secure in the top four we'll be able to start thinking about bigger goals. Those goals are very much within reach, though, particularly after Dortmund just lost their first match of the year in der Klassiker and are now only four points ahead of us. Leipzig and Bayern are with us in the chase group as expected, but there are some surprises even there, with our neighbors having one of their worst starts in recent memory with lots of narrow results and not looking as dominant as in the past. The surprises don't end there, though, as Fortuna are just behind the top four coming straight from the 2.Bundesliga, and actually have the second best goal difference in the league right now. They're filling the space left by the surprising downfall of both Freiburg and Hamburg, both tied on points in the bottom half and with HSV having the worst defensive numbers in the whole Bundesliga right now. Weird. No unbeaten teams, no winless teams, and short distances all over: looks like another fun season ahead of us! * * * PLAYER STATS ============ Average rating (min. 3 games played): Jonatan Basualdo 7.83 (7(1) apps) Juan David Palomeque 7.42 (8(3) apps) Matías Miranda 7.40 (10(3) apps) Ernesto 7.33 (7(2) apps) Maximilian Schulze 7.30 (7(4) apps) Goals: Jonatan Basualdo 5 goals Maximilian Schulze 4 Jair Rodríguez 3 Rodrigo Caraballo 3 Juan David Palomeque 3 Assists: Matías Miranda 9 assists Thiago 3 Juan David Palomeque 3 9 players 1

Oct 22nd 2030 Three slots in the Team of the Week for us: Miranda, Rodríguez, and Basualdo. Another win for the U19 kids, this time destroying Villarreal 5-1 and taking command of the group, still unbeaten. Midfielder Felix Donner took the spotlight this time with two goals, but Katic still contributed another, and he's on eleven and five assists in all competitions already despite a somewhat lackluster start to the league so far. * * * TSV 1860 München vs. OGC Nice (Champions League group H, 3/6) Halfway point of the group stage with the nice fellows from Nice coming to town. Another team so far unbeaten in the league and surprisingly pushing PSG for all they're worth, they sport a short but very high-quality squad, including a handful of players that have been in my shortlist for years now, and who probably will never arrive at Munich at this stage. Tough, but then again what else can you expect from this competition? * * * 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Kevin Rexhepi (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Ernesto (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Alex Ball (DL); Thiago (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Matías Miranda (MC), Juan David Palomeque (MCl); Roberto Caraballo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) NICE (4-4-2): Cezary Miszta (GK); Rubén Pulido (DR), Jean-Clair Todibo (DCr), Malick Thiaw (DCl), Mateo Rossi (DL); Calvin Stengs (MR), Cristian Medina (MCr), Marc Roca (MCl), Arnaut Danjuma (ML); Amine Gouiri (STr), Arthur Cabral (STl) * * * Last time we played against a flat 4-4-2 we lost to Villarreal, so while in theory we should have the upper hand in midfield presence, it's been shown that's not always the case. We do look good in the initial moments, though, and good pressing by Özcan leads to a dangerous steal and a not-so-dangerous finish for the first chance of the game, easily saved by Miszta. Immediately after, though, Thiago spots a large opening in Nice's defensive lines and sends the ball forward towards Schulze, who calmly gathers it and places it past the keeper to score the 1-0 with a little over two minutes played. No complaints so far. We keep tearing Nice apart through the center in the following minutes, and soon Miszta has to tip a good finish by Caraballo over the bar to keep his team alive in the game. Ernesto heads that corner kick over the bar to keep the pressure up, and after a short rest we go right back at it with Miranda breaking into the box but having to finish with his right foot, which ends with the ball going a few miles wide off target. Caraballo tries again in the 21st, curling it from the edge of the box but sending it a bit too high and wide, while all Nice can produce in all this time is a single blocked shot by Cabral. The second should have arrived in the 24th following a long pass along the right wing by Javorcic towards Schulze and a perfect cross into the box for Özcan's tap-in, but somehow the striker manages to send the ball wide with the whole goal at his disposal. Instead it arrives one minute later and in a more prosaic way: free kick whipped into the box by Miranda, Casas jumps high on the far post, and one header later the 2-0 is a reality. We take a longer break then, controlling possession for ten minutes and not giving the visitors a chance to dream of a comeback, but in the 34th a throw-in on the left side of our attack ends with the ball under Ball's control just inside the box, and the full back surprises everyone with a perfectly executed banana shot into the top far corner to score the 3-0. Not a bad way to grab his first goal as a Löwe. We're not done yet, and one minute later Miszta has more work to do to block a well-placed finish by Palomeque after yet another break-in through the center of Nice's defense. The Colombian then starts another quick attack that Miranda and Özcan continue by trading short passes before the striker decides to upstage Ball with a wonderful 30-yarder that the keeper fails to reach and becomes the 4-0. Third assist of the game for Miranda, too. Rexhepi's first save of the game comes already in injury time, easily holding a cushioned header by Gouiri just mere seconds before the end of an absolutely perfect first half. For us, at least. HALF TIME - 4-0 Some relaxation is to be expected after such a comprehensive performance, and it's no surprise then that Nice start the second half with a wide finish by Gouiri following a good cross by Danjuma. Things remain largely under control, though, and we take the chance to rest some tired legs early, and bring Hauptmann and Meunier to replace Javorcic and Palomeque, who both played the full game against Union. We return to the attack in the 59th with a great pass into the box by Schulze that Özcan wastes with a terribly high finish, and soon after the midfielder takes a seat, too, with Stjepanovic coming in his place and pushing both Ernesto and Thiago towards more advanced roles. The game slows down considerably, which is just fine for us. A direct free kick that Miranda sends narrowly over in the 67th minute comes next, and four minutes later Caraballo sends wide a much clearer chance following a quick counterattack, with Thiago providing the final pass. Nice never give us anything to worry about, so we calmly dominate the game until the 81st minute, when Thiago sends a long ball into the box towards the rampaging Meunier for a half-volley that Miszta parries, but the rebound falls to Caraballo and it's an easy finish from there to make it 5-0. The game dies right there, and the remaining minutes are nothing but confirmation of our absolute domination today. * * * TSV 1860 München 5 (Maximilian Schulze 3, Arnau Casas 25, Alex Ball 34, Vedat Özcan 37, Rodrigo Caraballo 81) OGC Nice 0 - - - Simply perfection. Reminder that Nice are currently tied on points with PSG on the Ligue 1 and had lost just that one game against Liverpool so far in the whole season, yet here we are. Most one-sided European game we've had so far, in all competitions. Villarreal's 3-0 win against Liverpool keeps them top of the group thanks to their win against us, but we're in a perfect position to push for qualification. The Champions League is no longer too big for us, it seems.

@EvilDave: thanks! And mostly our league position, really. True, it was mostly due to having the nightmare one-two punch of playing Dortmund and Bayern back to back within the first four weeks, but when the board expects you to qualify for the Champions League it's usually a bad idea to be midtable for too long. The quicker we get up there the better. Also it wouldn't hurt if Rijkhoff remembered he's supposed to be a striker one of these days, really... * * * Oct 8th 2030 Basualdo earns himself a place in the Team of the Week, just as he receives a callup to join Argentina U23 for a friendly against Nigeria. Not a bad day for the kid. Oct 9th 2030 Hamstring injury for Casas, just the usual pull. He'll miss a week and a half-ish of training, but thankfully this happens bang in the middle of an international break so at worst he'll be back for our next Champions League game against Nice. Oct 10th 2030 Caraballo grabs himself a goal with Venezuela, but the highlight of the first batch of international matches is Palomeque's debut off the bench with Colombia, although sadly it came in a 0-1 loss to Australia and he didn't really play all that well. Rijkhoff also shows he's not forgotten how to score goals bagging one in the world champions' 2-2 draw with Denmark in an otherwise unremarkable series of performances by our internationals. Oct 13th 2030 The second round of international matches brings one more goal for both Caraballo and Rodríguez, full-game stinkers for both Özcan and Rijkhoff, and U21 assists for both Ball and Touré, with Althoff also playing some minutes for his third U21 cap. He's had a pretty good start to his loan in Bielefeld, too, already with three assists to his name and with the team pushing for promotion. Oct 18th 2030 Welp, here comes trouble. Caraballo feels like he's not playing enough (despite starting at least every other match and then some, and being outperformed by Basualdo lately) and hands in a transfer request. I get the feeling it would've been better if we'd just sold him to Bayern last summer... Oh well, we'll still be expecting a good payday for him come January, and we have a replacement lined up for when he does leave that probably improves on him both quality and potential-wise, so it's not all bad. When it rains it pours, and the next piece of bad news comes from the usual place: the infirmary. This time it's Neves who'll be out of contention for a bit over a month with abdominal strain. We have a strong midfield rotation now, so as long as everyone else stays healthy we should be fine. Probably. Oct 19th 2030 TSV 1860 München (5th) vs. 1.FC Union Berlin (7th) (Bundesliga, 8/34) One of the early positive surprises of the season together with Fortuna and Augsburg, Union have been living among the Europe chasers from the get go and only dropped off the green zone of the table last week precisely after a loss to Augsburg. Their good form is remarkable, but we still should have more than enough to beat them, even while saving a couple starters for the midweek fixture. * * * 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Mateja Stjepanovic (DCl), Mahamadou Touré (DL); Aymeric Meunier (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Juan David Palomeque (MCl); Jonatan Basualdo (STr), Julian Rijkhoff (STl) UNION BERLIN (4-4-2 diamond narrow): Florian Kastenmeier (GK); Daniel Murillo (DR), Reece Oxford (DCr), Nathan Phillips (DCl), Jarrad Branthwaite (DL); Rani Khedira (DM), Kristoffer Askildsen (MCr), Mirko Koch (MCl), Aymen Barkok (AMC); Iker Bravo (STr), Borja Mayoral (STl) * * * Still with Baumgart's favorite narrow diamond formation to make our life difficult, I see. We keep a few usual starters like Miranda, Thiago, and Ernesto on reserve today, and hope that Rijkhoff can finally grab his first today, while also trying to ride Basualdo's current high. It's a bit of a slow start today, with possession on our side but the first chance falling to Askildsen after a long pass from deep to the center, very much in our style, that the midfielder turns into a dangerous finish that Kretzschmar has to block and deflect over. The keeper also saves a header by Bravo seconds later, then Koch tries a low shot from outside the box come the 16th minute and sends it very narrowly wide. We're gonna need more than possession to win this, it seems. We finally find that something two minutes later in a counterattack launched by Rodríguez, ran by Rijkhoff, and finish by Basualdo with a placed finish that Kastenmeier gathers without trouble. It takes us until the 27th to find that spark again, but when we do we hit gold: pass into the box along the right side by Javorcic, Basualdo gathers it, and the forward calmly runs at the keeper and wins the one-on-one with a perfectly placed shot to score the 1-0. We're playing with much more confidence now, and soon Palomeque has a chance to double our lead after a neat through ball from Rodríguez, but he sends his finish licking the outside of the post and nothing of value comes out of it. It's our best moment of the game, so of course it's the perfect time for Union to completely tear apart our pressing line with patient passing, then for Mayoral to spot Barkok's run into space and set him up for an easy one-on-one against Kretzschmar that the keeper has no hope of winning: 1-1 and back to the drawing board. We need a short while to regain our bearings, but by the 36th minute we're back in a good place, with Basualdo finding Palomeque inside the box but the midfielder once again failing to produce a credible finish and making it easy for Kastenmeier. Basualdo blasts another one over the bar three minutes later, and after a couple more blocked shots that go nowhere we go into halftime with everything still undecided. HALF TIME - 1-1 The second half also starts slowly, and it takes us eleven minutes to find Rodríguez in a good shooting position, only for Kastenmeier to fly and deflect the ball wide. That's not gonna be good enough, so we decide to shake things around thoroughly and bring Ernesto, Miranda, and Özcan into the game replacing Stjepanovic, Schulze, and Rijkhoff, all of them pretty pedestrian today. That does the trick: interception in midfield by Javorcic, the ball makes its way to Miranda, and the Argentinian sends a pinpoint through ball towards Rodríguez that the Mexican turns into the 2-1 with a nice touch. Back in the driving seat. A weak header by Bravo to a cross by Murillo is Union's first response, and Kretzschmar holds it just as he does with Barkok's much more dangerous direct free kick a couple of minutes later. The real chance comes in the 69th minute, though, when Miranda takes a corner kick, Ernesto heads it into the crossbar, Meunier half-volleys the rebound into a spectacular save by Kastenmeier, and Özcan is denied on the third try by a timely block from Oxford. After that we regain control of the game, looking to grab ourselves some peace of mind with a third goal, and in the 77th we finally get it: Miranda crosses first time into the box, Basualdo breaks the offside line by inches, and his tap in turns into the 3-1. Now we can finally relax and start having fun, and soon Rodríguez sends over a decent chance for a fourth following good pressure and recovery by Palomeque and Özcan. In the 82nd he gets another with a punt shot from the edge of the box that goes wide by the width of a hair, and we keep piling up the dangerous approaches on a defeated-looking Union defense. The best chance comes in the 90th minute, with Rodríguez assisting this time only for Palomeque to smash his finish into the root of the post. Then one minute later the Colombian hits wood again, this time finishing a fantastic assist by Miranda. A final high ball by Rodríguez from outside the box signals the end of the game with the result still 3-1, which is more than sufficient. * * * TSV 1860 München 3 (Jonatan Basualdo 27 77, Jair Rodríguez 64) 1.FC Union Berlin 1 (Aymen Barkok 30) - - - Good turnaround today, there were some moments in which this game looked like it was going to be another grindfest. Of course, when you have a gamechanger like Miranda waiting in the bench everything looks much easier, and the Argentinian basically won the game on his own today, with some help from Rodríguez and the most in-form player in the squad right now, Basualdo. If he keeps this up we might end up not missing Caraballo terribly much when he leaves, heh. The flip side is that we just can't seem to keep clean sheets this year, we've got all but one in all competitions so far, against Liverpool in the Champions League of all matches... Today's win comes with an added bonus, as Bayern's 1-1 draw in Frankfurt means we catch up to them in points and actually pull ahead on goal difference. Let's see if we can keep it up for longer this time...

Oct 2nd 2030 International callups! We start with the obvious ones, that being Rodríguez, Javorcic, and Caraballo. Then one a bit more surprising: Palomeque gets his first senior callup for Colombia. Finally, the rest, with Schulze and Kretzschmar remaining in the Germany setup but Touré staying in the U21 side for the time being as the highlight. Oct 5th 2030 SG Dynamo Dresden (17th) vs. TSV 1860 München (8th) (Bundesliga, 7/34) Dynamo, like Werder, are having it tough in their long awaited return to the top level of German football. Also winless, and only ahead of the Bremen side due to a slightly less terrible goal difference, the fact that our ex-prospect Martin Karlsen is their best goalscorer so far with two should speak volumes. Yet it hasn't been that long since we dropped two points in the Weserstadion, so let's not get too confident here. * * * DYNAMO (4-3-3): Niclas Thiede (GK); Simon Asta (DR), Benjamin Dibrani (DCr), Francisco Cárdenas (DCl), Marco John (DL); Kevin Ehlers (DM), Fabrice Ndeh Nsoh (MCr), Mario Nemeth (MCl); Matteo Grimaudo (AMR), Martin Karlsen (AML), Juan Camilo Romaña (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Alex Ball (DL); Ezequiel Beltramone (DM); Juan David Palomeque (MCr), Joao Neves (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Jonatan Basualdo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) * * * A perfect chance (on paper) to give Beltramone some much needed first time minutes with a start today, while the rest of the team rotates as per usual. As expected Karlsen starts on the left of Dynamo's attack, and he's witness to our quickfire start of the game with a cross by Miranda and a high header by Özcan within the first thirty seconds. One minute later Ball breaks in through the left wing and crosses low towards Özcan, who places his finish well but is denied by Thiede's fingertip save. Third time isn't the charm either, as Özcan's header to Palomeque's cross come the ninth minute also ends up wide. Our early domination continues, although now with less attacking punch, and it isn't until the 21st minute that we get another chance, this one coming from a curler by Basualdo that bounces off the top corner of the frame, while Miranda isn't quick enough to get to the rebound before the defense clears it away. Meanwhile Dresden finally get near Kretzschmar's goal for the first time in the 25th with a decent header by Nsoh that Kretzschmar catches without any trouble. Palomeque then creates danger again with a through ball towards Miranda, who finishes under pressure and can't get it past Thiede. The following minutes see both attacks failing to break through in any significant way, with only a game-ending injury to Dibrani as a noteworthy highlight. We finally create something in the 42nd with a long ball that Özcan nods towards Basualdo, only for the forward to once again see his finish deflected wide by Thiede. One minute later Özcan runs into space on the left and crosses towards Neves, who smashes his rebound on a defender but sees it bounce back straight into Basualdo's head, allowing an easy nod into the back of the net to finally give us the lead. And in the 45th we switch sides and attack through our right flank, Palomeque finding space for a run into the box and a low cross towards Basualdo, who hits it left-footed into the root of the post and in for the 0-2. Great end to a very one-sided first half. HALF TIME - 0-2 We keep the pressure up after the break, and soon enough Basualdo follows up his decisive contribution in the first half with a perfect little through ball towards Özcan, who this time doesn't hesitate and blasts it in right next to the post to score the 0-3, and his first of the season. Finally. The Basualdo festival continues with a cross towards Özcan that the striker heads into Thiede's hands, then it's Miranda who shoots into the keeper's save following a nice combination through the center with Basualdo once again providing the final pass. Karlsen tries to hit back with a weak header that Kretzschmar holds easily, but we quickly hit them back with a long ball from Özcan to Palomeque, his finish well held by Thiede. Another combination between striker and midfielder come the 61st minute ends in a narrowly wide finish by Palomeque, just before both him and Miranda are awarded a rest and replaced by Schulze and Meunier. Schulze starts his game with a pinpoint cross towards, who else, Özcan, who this time sends his header very narrowly wide. That's also his last chance of the game, as we decide to bring Rijkhoff in hoping that he'll break his goalscoring duck today, too. Schulze provides again in the 68th with a great pass forward, only for Neves to blast it over the stands. Then, out of nowhere, Asta runs past a very passive Ball and crosses into the small box so Romaña can tap it in for the 1-3. We take it easy for the next few minutes, with only a high ball from distance by Schulze to keep things a bit interesting. On the other goal Kretzschmar has to work hard to keep a dangerous shot by Wölfel from becoming a very dangerous 2-3, but with only two minutes in the clock we should be safe from any further shenanigans. Another blast over the bar by Meunier comes next, and that ends up becoming the final chance of an easy win that probably should've been even more comprehensive. * * * SG Dynamo Dresden 1 (Juan Camilo Romaña 72) TSV 1860 München 3 (Jonatan Basualdo 43 45, Vedat Özcan 49) - - - Well then, looks like Basualdo is really taking that step forward we were hoping to see from him. Between him and a very good if inaccurate Özcan they generated most of our good chances today, and that was enough to see off a very lackluster Dresden side, who nonetheless got a goal thanks to overconfidence and the fact that Ball is having a very rough start to the season so far. Still, solid win, nice to see Özcan finally get one into the net, and up the table we go. We might still fix this season after all.

Sep 29th 2030 Well then, looks like Touré is already turning heads nationwide with his performances, and he's in the discussion for a senior international callup with Germany. At nineteen years of age. Looks like we made a good decision splashing the cash on him last year, huh. Oct 1st 2030 Miranda and Palomeque show up in the Team of the Week this time. The U19 kids once again show us the way with a 2-0 win over Liverpool's youth, which puts them top of their group. Katic scored once again. * * * TSV 1860 München vs. Liverpool (Champions League group H, 2/6) Time to get serious with the strongest team in our Champions League group. Not just on paper, too, since Guardiola's Liverpool (when did the world go this crazy?) have started the season in fine form, currently fourth and unbeaten in the Premiership and having also won their first group stage game against Nice. Our defeat in Villarreal means we need points against them, though, so that's some unwanted extra pressure for today. * * * 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Kevin Rexhepi (GK); Lukas Hauptmann (DR), Ernesto (DCr), Mateja Stjepanovic (DCl), Mahamadou Touré (DL); Aymeric Meunier (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Joao Neves (MCl); Roberto Caraballo (STr), Julian Rijkhoff (STl) LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson (GK); Alexis Rojas (DR), Jair Santos (DCr), Filipe Meireles (DCl), Josko Gvardiol (DL); Gavi (DM), Jude Bellingham (MCr), Tomasso Pobega (MCl); Henrique Saldanha (AMR), Curtis Jones (AML), Folarin Balogun (ST) * * * Another start for Hauptmann after a good performance off the bench against HSV, with the usual rotation elsewhere. Guardiola surprises absolutely no one with a 4-3-3 formation, featuring some of those up-and-coming players from ten years ago that really made the jump into stardom, like Gvardiol, Gavi, and Bellingham. Scary. We look quite good against them in the initial minutes, though, holding the ball well and prodding at their defense from time to time, although without any immediate results. Twenty minutes pass with Liverpool looking surprisingly inoffensive, so we turn it up a notch and finally test Alisson for the first time with a first-time shot by Rijkhoff after a cross from Touré, well saved by the veteran keeper. The visitors finally get something going seven minutes later with a good run and cross by Pobega that Balogun finishes straight at Rexhepi's hands, but both attacks remain relatively inactive still. The next chance doesn't come until the 41st, following a good through ball by Neves and a not-so-good finish by Rijkhoff that sends the ball wide to the right. Livepool respond with another cross by Pobega towards Bellingham, whose header is a relatively easy catch for Rexhepi, and that's it for a pretty tame first half. HALF TIME - 0-0 Things look a bit more lively after the break, and soon Rijkhoff heads a cross by Schulze to give Alisson the chance to show his reflexes and swat the ball away from the top corner. The striker follows it up with a free run into the box from the left flank, but once again can't beat the Brazilian keeper with his finish, too centered to be a worry. Alisson goes down again in the 55th to save and hold a weak shot by Schulze, but we seem to be taking hold of the game for good now, bad finishing be damned. Basualdo replaces a pretty invisible Caraballo with fifteen minutes of the second half gone, and a bit later it's Miranda and Özcan coming in for a very solid-looking Neves and Rijkhoff. Those are quiet minutes with little action on either goal, though, and Guardiola's team looks happy to hold the draw now, uncharacteristic as that is. Only a cross by Saldanha towards replacement striker Mourelo gives Rexhepi something to do, which in this case is just gathering the weak header and get the ball moving quickly once again. The game looks deadlocked for good, but there's a cure for that: set pieces. Rodríguez takes a corner kick towards the near post in the 78th minute, and up goes Stjepanovic to nod the ball into the back of the net to finally give us the lead. Liverpool don't seem to mind terribly much, and they keep playing their game without rushing forward desperately or anything like that. They do try to push the pressing lines higher up the field, though that just gives us more space to exploit. Özcan profits from that space in the 88th, although he shoots too early and without enough precision to surprise Alisson. Meanwhile all the visitors can create is another weak header by Mourelo that Rexhepi saves without issue, while Rodríguez gets denied a decisive second goal in injury time by another great save by Alisson. Soon after the referee signals the end of the match, and we can go home happy with a job well done. * * * TSV 1860 München 1 (Mateja Stjepanovic 78) Liverpool 0 - - - When you play against a Guardiola team and their best player ends up being their goalkeeper you know you've done well. Yes, finishing still sucks, but that'll fix itself eventually. What matters is that we dominated Liverpool, kept them safely away from our goal for the whole game, and actually took our chance to win against an European giant this time, unlike what happened in the Super Cup. Great midfield and defensive display, and with Nice's win against Villarreal the whole group is now completely level on points, with only minor differences in goals deciding the ranking. Our first ever win in the Champions League comes with €2.8M attached, too, which is a nice bonus.

Sep 24th 2030 Touré earns himself a spot on the Team of the Week thanks to his goal against Werder. Sep 28th 2030 TSV 1860 München (9th) vs. Hamburger SV (12th) (Bundesliga, 6/34) Not the best of starts for Hamburg either, currently tied on points with us in the very middle of the table and quite far from the European positions we're both supposed to occupy. That doesn't make either of us a bad team, though, and we know our history with HSV is spotty at best, so we'll need to show a much better version of ourselves today if we want to be the ones to snap out of this funk and start climbing. * * * 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Alex Ball (DL); Thiago (DM); Juan David Palomeque (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Jonatan Basualdo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) HSV (4-2-3-1): Bekir Dereli (GK); Marcel Neigenfink (DR), Erik Trehkopf (DCr), Justin Janitzek (DCl), Idriss Viadère (DL); Burak Ince (MCr), Antonio Entrena (MCl); Xavier Amaechi (AMR), Tin Vrljicak (AMC), Dimitris Paligeorgos (AML); Mazinho (ST) * * * Hamburg come to our stadium today sporting a very fresh manager, someone you might've heard about called Thomas Tuchel. He just took over from Frank Schmidt after he decided to grab the vacant role in the German national team, also recently vacated by Klopp's move to Tottenham. Now that's a painful-looking one... Anyway, we need to rotate a bit today because Liverpool are coming to town in three days, which means players like Ball, Basualdo, and Palomeque have a chance to impress today. Both teams try their best to hold the ball at first, although it's HSV who get the first shot at goal with a high header from Amaechi after a way too comfortable cross by Viadère. From there they build up a strong midfield presence, stealing the ball away from us for a long while with their high pressure, and that eventually yields benefits when Vrljicak steals the ball from Casas near the edge of our own box and quickly places a shot past Kretzschmar to score the 0-1 only eight minutes into the game. Yet our reaction is immediate, and only one minute later Palomeque intercepts a poor clearance and quickly assists Basualdo, who enters the box completely free of any pressure and calmly lobs the ball over Dereli to make things level once again. The early goalfest continues in the thirteenth, and sadly it once again goes against us: corner kick taken by Amaechi towards Paligeorgos and the forward heads it in almost unopposed to restore HSV's lead. This time there's no immediate reaction, and only a timely challenge by Lang prevents Paligeorgos from scoring another six minutes later, while we keep struggling a lot with keeping possession of the ball. We finally show something in the 25th thanks to a good run by Rodríguez through the center and an even better pass towards Özcan, who tries the near post but sees Dereli's quick reaction sending the ball wide. After that we finally start chaining some decent passing plays and start pushing HSV back a bit, but time passes without any action on either goal until the 43rd, when Kretzschmar gathers easily a weak header by Paligeorgos. Nothing else happens before the end of the first half. HALF TIME - 1-2 Ball is an early victim of our bad first half, being immediately replaced by Hauptmann and moving Javorcic to the left. We don't see much immediate improvement, though, and the second half in fact starts with a huge scare when Mazinho sends Amaechi running alone into the box and the winger's chip hits the crossbar before going over. Other than that the game gets mired in midfield for a long while, and only a fantastic pass from deep by Thiago in the 59th minute manages to break the deadlock, finding Miranda's run into the box so the attacking midfielder can blast it in and score the 2-2. Neves and Rijkhoff replace Rodríguez and Özcan then, and we try to capitalize on our better momentum to try and turn things around. And it works a treat, even if neither of them are involved. Instead it's Miranda who finds himself with space and time to think, then threads the needle through an impossible gap to find Palomeque inside the box so all the midfielder has to do is place it past Dereli to complete our comeback. Rijkhoff even has the chance to put it to sleep in the 71st following a horrible pass by Trehkopf setting up a quick counterattack, but it's still not the time for our strikers to get their first goal and Dereli tips his finish wide. Tuchel moves to a 3-2-2-2-1 to try and compete with our overloaded center, but we counter that by ordering our midfielders to track back more and keep an eye on any forward runs. Don't try to use our own spells against us, Tuchel... A few minutes pass without any clear chances, going all the way until the 83rd when Casas tries a cheeky shot that Dereli dives into to save and hold without major issue. Rijkhoff then heads a cross by Miranda wide just seconds later, but afterwards the defenses manage to plug all the holes and the match slowly drifts into injury time under our complete control. Great comeback, and finally a win. * * * TSV 1860 München 3 (Jonatan Basualdo 9, Matías Miranda 59, Juan David Palomeque 64) Hamburger SV 2 (Tin Vrljicak 8, Dimitris Paligeorgos 13) - - - How a single moment can define the result of a game, and maybe a season. If Amaechi had hit the net instead of the woodwork with that early second half chance we might very well have ended with another defeat and in a very difficult position. Instead we got saved by the crossbar, and then we mounted a fantastic comeback after a pretty bad first half to grab our first win in a while and, who knows, maybe finally get us started on our season for real. Palomeque continues with his remarkable turnaround season, Miranda remains fantastic as almost always, and now even Basualdo has grabbed a goal before either Özcan or Rijkhoff. Soon, I hope...

Sep 19th 2030 The kids' start of their European campaign is much better than ours, stealing a 2-2 draw from Villarreal with Katic scoring one of the two. Sep 21st 2030 SV Werder Bremen (17th) vs. TSV 1860 München (11th) (Bundesliga, 5/34) Rolling back the years today. This is Werder's first year in the Bundesliga after their relegation back in 2021, which is certainly a far cry from their past success in the competition which even includes a title in 2004 and two second places not much later. It's also our first meeting with them after our brief two-year stay in the 2.Bundesliga, and it's a meeting we should be getting a win from. We can't afford to drop many more points in the league if we're to keep pace with the leaders, and I'm sure the board won't appreciate it if our current position remains so much longer... * * * WERDER BREMEN (3-2-2-1-2): Julian Faye Lund (GK); Jacek Winiarczyk (DCr), Eduard Löwen (DC), David Kinsombi (DCl); Francisco Machado (WBR), Moussa Djénépo (WBL); Luis Rojas (MCr), Ángelo Aires (MCl); Parfait Guiagon (AMC); Luc Ihorst (STr); Mateusz Muniak (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Ernesto (DCr), Mateja Stjepanovic (DCl), Mahamadou Touré (DL); Aymeric Meunier (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Joao Neves (MCl); Rodrigo Caraballo (STr), Julian Rijkhoff (STl) * * * Werder's attacking 3-5-2 formation has only brought them a single point so far, but it'll still be a pain to deal with. We have a full week of rest after this fixture, so we can afford to go all in today, and we bring back almost the whole eleven that played so well against Bayern with only Miranda resting. This results in an early first shot by Caraballo that Faye Lund holds well, but which bodes even better for our immediate future. Even better is Caraballo's chance in the seventh minute following a steal by Neves and a pass into space by Rijkhoff, but when everyone expected the first of the evening we had to watch the ball bounce off the root of the post instead. The game slows down by a lot after those two early blows, much to Werder's delight I'm sure. In the 18th minute Neves finally finds a wide corridor to move into a shoot through, but Faye Lund answers with another solid stop. Afterwards, lots of possession and very little in the way of shots at goal until the 31st minute, in which Rijkhoff squanders a quality pass by Touré with a poor finish that makes the keeper's job way too easy. The left back himself tries luck three minutes later, but his shot from distance sails into the stands behind the goal. Our best chance yet comes in the 38th, when a rare bout of creativity from Javorcic turns into a great pass ahead of Rodríguez, who tries a chip over the keeper only to see the ball hit the crossbar and bounce clear of danger. Then, mere seconds later, Werder mount an almost as rare attack down the right, Machado crosses towards Ihorst, and the striker breaks free from Stjepanovic and shoots placed and powerful to show our forwards how it's done, scoring the 1-0. And it almost becomes even worse when Löwen, still with a perfect name, hits the outside of the post with his direct free kick in the 43rd minute. Somehow, we're behind at half time. HALF TIME - 1-0 Eight minutes into the second half we finally get a break: Schulze drives into the box and is brought down by Djénépo for a penalty kick. Neves, however, decides to blast it with power through the center and Faye Lund decides to, well, not move, thus saving the penalty and digging our hole just a little bit deeper. It's time for substitutions, then, and Casas, Miranda, and Özcan are brought in to try and salvage something out of this disaster. The next shot is for Muniak, following a simple nod-it-back-and-run template that still needs Kretzschmar going down to save to prevent any further shenanigans. Miranda answers with a well-placed direct free kick that Faye Lund tips wide, then a second one that goes narrowly over, already in the 67th minute. Ihorst almost makes it two for two then, chasing a pass into space and only denied in the end by Casas's timely block. Caraballo misses another sitter in the 72nd following a nice nod by Özcan, his poor finish straight into the keeper's hands, and now we're starting to get a little bit desperate. We continue our streak of incredible misses in the 76th, with Özcan once again providing and Schülze being the culprit this time, his shot blocked by Faye Lund when he had almost the whole goal available to him. Ten minutes later it's Miranda who volleys a nod by Schülze and finds both the crossbar and the keeper's fingers in the way. Then, finally, we manage to pass the ball along the edge of the ball from the right to the left until it reaches Touré and the youngster, unmarked, launches it into the top corner to score the 1-1. We keep trying for the winner, but after all those misses we can't really expect anything more from this game. A poor draw. * * * SV Werder Bremen 1 (Luc Ihorst 38) TSV 1860 München 1 (Mahamadou Touré 87) - - - This was painful to watch. One of those days in which everything goes wrong and anything positive you get feels both too little and almost a miracle. Our forwards keep making every single opposing keeper look like Lev Yashin's reincarnation, and once again it fell to a defender to get the job done and, at least, prevent what would've been a very worrying defeat. Instead we get a mildly worrying draw, which isn't much better.

Sep 17th 2030 Neves earns himself a place in the Team of the Week thanks to his screamer off the bench against Bayern. Sep 18th 2030 Villarreal C.F. vs. TSV 1860 München (Champions League group H, 1/6) And into the Champions League we go, fresh out of a reinvigorating performance and result against our rivals and once again starting our European campaign in Spain. Villarreal are a team I've always had a lot of sympathy with, thanks to becoming a major force in Spanish football despite being based in a relatively small city and with theoretically more powerful teams in the vicinity, they've started their season with four out of four draws in the league. In theory the weakest opposition in our group, they'll still be tough to beat. * * * VILLARREAL (4-4-2): Javier Belman (GK); Juan Foyth (DR), Jorge Cuenca (DCr), Pau Torres (DCl), Francisco Ortega (DL); Michael Olise (MR), Edson Álvarez (MCr), Mohammed Kudus (MCl), Ferran Jutglà (ML); André Silva (STr), Gorka Sesma (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Kevin Rexhepi (GK); Lukas Hauptmann (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Alex Ball (DL); Thiago (DM); Juan David Palomeque (MCr), Joao Neves (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Jonatan Basualdo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) * * * Rexhepi returns to the sticks in Europe after missing the deciding part of our successful Europa League campaign, given another chance to show he can perform at this stage. We otherwise rotate the squad as mandated by the calendar, with a trip to Bremen coming in only three days, and we also give new arrival Hauptmann his first minutes as a starter. We draw first blood with a long range attempt by Ball that sails well over the crossbar of Belman's goal, then it's Neves who tests the keeper for real after a break through the center in the 11th minute, well answered with a block into a corner kick which ends in another high ball from distance, this time by Lang. Things look good enough for us, but soon Sesma gives us a reason to worry with a quick run past Lang and a dangerous shot that Rexhepi tips over with a good save. The keeper then has to work overtime to block a header by Álvarez in the corner kick, and suddenly we're on the back foot. Torres is next with another corner kick header, this one over the bar, but after this we finally get things back under control, preventing any further scares in the following minutes. Not like we do anything worthwhile in attack in the meantime, though. That hard work almost goes to waste in the 27th when Ball gives the ball away in midfield and prompts a counterattack that Lang fails to stop, but which Stjepanovic eventually solves with a strong block when Sesma looks like a certainty to score. We finally return to action six minutes later, with Miranda assisting Özcan inside the box only for the striker to smash his finish against Belman's body, but at least it's something. After another good-looking attack in which Miranda ends up crossing into no one at all, Villarreal mount a quick counterattack that ends with the ball on the right wing for Foyth, who passes it low into the box and allos André Silva to score the 1-0 with a placed finish Rexhepi really should've done better with. The rest of the first half brings no further news, and we reach the halfway point deservedly behind. HALF TIME - 1-0 Not much happens in the first ten minutes of the second half either, eventually broken by a good effort from distance by Basualdo that Belman has to stretch to his limit to block. The forward has a much better chance one minute later after a quick one-two through the center with Palomeque which he wastes with a terribly wide finish when free of any pressure from the defence. He is therefore replaced soon after, together with Ball and Neves, and with Caraballo, Javorcic, and Rodríguez coming in their places. The substitutions seem to work, and soon enough Miranda puts Belman in trouble with a direct free kick the keeper can't catch, although in the end Özcan's follow-up is deflected over by a defender. Miranda is once again in the spotlight after a great assist from Palomeque in the 68th minute, although his finish isn't good enough to surprise the keeper and all we get from it is a corner kick that Lang heads over. We are doing much better, though, and we're deserving the draw more and more as time passes. Rodríguez tries luck with another direct free kick in the 75th, this one going quite far from the target, but afterwards it's Villarreal who give us a real scare with a header by Silva after a series of rebounds inside the box, thankfully cleared away before it became a real problem. Our desperate push in the final minutes generates very little worth of mention, and in the end we stumble into defeat as a poor start to our European campaign. * * * Villarreal C.F. 1 (André Silva 35) TSV 1860 München 0 - - - That was quite bad, yep. Never really got going today, our attack was on-and-off at the best of times and our midfield couldn't really dominate like we're used to. What worries me is our strikers, though, still on zero goals scored after all this time, and Caraballo is the only of our four forwards who's managed to put the ball into the net so far. We need better from both Özcan and Rijkhoff, and quickly. Hauptmann was quite solid, though, nice debut for the kid.

Sep 2nd 2030 It's time. The transfer window shuts down today, and I'm ready to see half of our starters be poached out at the last minute as we're left to scramble to find replacements. Isn't that always fun? Rijkhoff to Benfica seems to be one of the headline rumors coming into the final hours of the window, for example. The first two offers come in quickly. First is Everton offering a ridiculous part-exchange deal for Caraballo that is rejected outright, but the second one is more serious: Bayern offer €23.5M for Amador, and the player obviously is very keen on the move. With his release clause at €30M we don't have much room to negotiate, but we manage to get the next best thing: €29M, half of them in yearly installments, and a 30% of future profits for a player that's a) likely to improve his value while in Bayern, and b) unlikely to be a starter for them unless Kimmich retires tomorrow. This leaves us with a bit under €30M to find a replacement, although we're not exactly in a rush since, worst case scenario, we can just use Althoff as a first-team backup and move Ball full time to the right as Javorcic's rotation option. Not happy with taking away our best right back, Bayern return with a very lowball offer of €38M for Caraballo. Strangely enough, while he is of course interested in a move, the forward isn't as gung-ho about making the deal a reality as Amador was, so we're free to reject the offer without fear of unsettling him. Don't expect this to be the last time we have to do this today, though... Amador's replacement finally arrives from Dortmund in a transfer worth €13.5M plus a 30% of future profits. The name is Lukas Hauptmann, he's 18 years old and an U21 international for Austria, and can play as both a (defensive-minded) right back and a center back. He's a bet for the future alongside Touré and Althoff, but also like them extremely likely to become a reality, as he's already good enough to be a rotation player on either position for us. He doesn't expect much playing time in this first year, so we'll be free to alternate him and Althoff as our backup full backs while giving more starting playing time to Ball, another youngster hungering for minutes. A good deal all in all, since not only does it cover our right back right now, but also the center in case Lang ends up leaving in the end. Meanwhile the offers keep coming, with Monaco lowballing us for Stjepanovic with a €15.25M offer we reject outright, and Bayern returning for Caraballo with a €45.5M bid, closer to his actual value but still a nope. It'll take something much bigger than that for us to sell one of our best players to our main rivals, and just a couple of weeks before playing them, too. Well, Bayern are getting serious now: €55M plus 20% of future profits for Caraballo. This is worth negotiating at least, and we ask them to raise it to €70M and a 30% of future profits, plus requiring us to find a replacement before the window ends in order for the deal to go through. Their answer is to withdraw, which is just fine for us. One hour to go, and it's time to get things done. Arminia want to loan Althoff which, honestly, is probably a better idea from the player's perspective than keeping him with us just for the occasional game off the bench. We accept, and trust Hauptmann to do a good job in that role. We can always recall Althoff come winter if need be. Meanwhile Lazio try a loan offer for Basualdo, offering a decent monthly fee plus most of his wages and a cheeky €7.5M fee to buy him permanently after playing 25 games for them. Not good, because it doesn't give us any money right now to replace him, and we need him to rotate with Caraballo, so nope, sorry. Then there's Bayern: €67M plus 20% of future profits for Caraballo, non-negotiable. We've been working on a replacement deal all day long, so we accept and hope we can finish the deal before the end of the window. But it's too late, both for us and for Bayern. Both Caraballo's and his replacement's transfers can't make the cut before the transfer window shuts down, so both stay in their teams for the time being. So in the end we lost Amador and replaced him with a young backup. Not ideal, but it could've been worse. And it does become worse, as we're suddenly reminded that the German transfer window is one of the few that close at 6 PM, and other windows in Europe are still ongoing: Lazio offer €7.5M for Lang, who had been promised previously that we'd consider any and all offers coming for him, so we can't really reject it outright. What we can do, though, is negotiate to a value noticeably higher than his market value, perfectly justified given the situation we're in, so we ask for €20M instead. They of course withdraw, and while Lang isn't happy at first he quickly realizes our reasoning and drops the issue until the next transfer window. All's well that ends well, for now. Sep 5th 2030 Caraballo gets an assist in his first international game with Venezuela in a while, although despite it being a decisive one in a 0-1 win against Australia, his overall performance was pretty average. All our youth internationals have pretty good performances, while the best of our seniors is Javorcic with a merely solid defensive show against Ukraine. Sep 8th 2030 The second round of games start once again with Caraballo, this time grabbing himself a goal in a 1-1 draw against Jamaica. Katic also gets a goal with Germany U19, while others like Beltramone or Rijkhoff have good games without impacting the scoreboard. A relatively uneventful international window all things considered. Sep 14th 2030 TSV 1860 München (8th) vs. FC Bayern München (2nd) (Bundesliga, 4/34) Welp, here we go again... Another Münchner Derby, another chance to finally break our horrible streak against our neighbors and finally get one over them. We're in a good place regardless of our loss to Dortmund last time, and Bayern haven't looked as unbeatable in recent years. Except when they play against us, of course... I have a good feeling about this one, though, might be the first time I feel we can try and face Bayern on equal terms. Well, equal-ish. * * * 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Ernesto (DCr), Mateja Stjepanovic (DCl), Mahamadou Touré (DL); Aymeric Meunier (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Rodrigo Caraballo (STr), Julian Rijkhoff (STl) BAYERN (4-2-3-1): Aaron Ramsdale (GK); Joshua Kimmich (DR), Dayot Upamecano (DCr), Jonathan Tah (DCl), Ian Amador (DL); Sandro Tonali (MCr), Diogo Henrique (MCl); Deivid (AMR), Kai Havertz (AMC), Ansu Fati (AML); Yousouffa Moukoko (ST) * * * Feels weird seeing Amador in a red shirt, but alas. It's also weird seeing him starting on the left back, but hey, Nagelsmann knows what he's doing, probably. Otherwise Bayern look quite similar to our last meeting, with only Tah and Henrique as new faces. We also keep our core from our last outing, with just a couple like-for-like changes. Of course Bayern start attacking, getting an early header by Deivid in a corner kick that goes over the bar, but we soon manage to contain them and start pushing back a bit, giving Ramsdale something to do in the ninth minute thanks to a good Rijkhoff assist and a decent finish by Caraballo. Things remain quite even for a while, but in the 16th minute Bayern do what they always do: take their chances. Corner kick taken by Kimmich, Havertz jumps over his marker, and it's the 0-1. We don't look discouraged afterwards, though, and soon we're striking back with a beautiful, quick combination through the center by Miranda, Rijkhoff, and Rodríguez, finished by the Mexican and once again stopped by Ramsdale with a good save. Another quick passing play in the 26th brings the ball through Meunier to Rodríguez near the edge of the box, and the young midfielder shows his quality with a beautiful 20-yarder that Ramsdale can't do anything against to restore the balance on the scoreboard. Now it's Bayern who look a bit taken aback, and we take the chance to steal possession and start dominating (dominating!) the game for real. A good chance comes from this in the 34th minute, when a pass by Schulze eludes Rijkhoff but reaches Miranda inside the box, his finish deflected wide by the keeper. Bayern respond with their first shot after their goal three minutes later, a low, placed effort by Fati that Kretzschmar barely manages to tip wide. Upamecano then sees the keeper grab his finish in the corner kick, denying them a second goal from set pieces, which we follow with a long pass from Touré towards Rijkhoff that the striker finishes with a stylish lob over Ramsdale, who backtracks just in time to swat the ball away from the goal line. We've been the better team in the first half so far, which makes what happens in the 42nd minute sting even more: Amador, who else, gathers the ball on the left and crosses towards the far post, where Deivid jumps unopposed to head it in for the 1-2. We keep trying afterwards, but Bayern hold on to their lead until the referee calls for half time. HALF TIME - 1-2 Nothing much changes in the second half, and soon enough we break through the center once again with Rijkhoff assisting Rodríguez, who this time rushes into his finish and shoots well over the bar. In the 51st we try again with a quick passing play involving our whole attacking unit and finishes by Miranda, once again stopped by the always dependable Ramsdale. Things soon slow down, though, with Bayern managing to plug the holes in their defense for the next ten minutes. A looping header by Rijkhoff in the 61st minute gives Ramsdale a bit of a scare, and the keeper has to resort to a punch when it looked like an easy grab. That's the striker's last action of the game, though, as Özcan soon takes his place. Then Bayern get a corner kick out of nowhere and almost score a third, although this time Tah's header hits the crossbar and bounces away from danger. Ball and Neves for Touré and Miranda are our last substitutions, as the game enters another lull leading into the final twenty minutes. Things remain quiet for a while longer, with only a direct free kick that Rodríguez smashes into the fence in the 77th as a small dose of excitement. What happens three minutes later more than makes up for it, though, when Neves intercepts a terrible horizontal pass by Diogo Henrique twenty-five yards away from goal, and the Portuguese doesn't hesitate to shoot straight after controlling, bending an absolute beauty into the top corner to draw the game once again. The following minutes see both teams wanting the winner, but neither willing to overcommit and throw away the point. The next chance doesn't come until injury time, a wide finish by substitute Tunay Can from just inside the area, and that's also the last action on either goal. A different result for a very different derby. * * * TSV 1860 München 2 (Jair Rodríguez 26, Joao Neves 80) FC Bayern München 2 (Kai Havertz 16, Deivid 42) - - - Feels weird to say, but we deserved more than a draw today. Losing the first half was an absolute travesty considering how well we played, but we've known for a while that Bayern need very little to rip you apart. For once, though, we didn't crumble in the face of their lethal goalscoring prowess, and we faced them head-on and actually got something out of it. Two scorchers by Rodríguez and impact sub specialist Neves mean we can be proud of our performance while at the same time not feeling too hard done by the result. First time we score two against Bayern, too! This feels like a turning point, really.

Aug 26th 2030 One week left in the transfer window and still no movement in either direction. We may actually get through the whole thing unscathed! Aug 27th 2030 ...Says I, twenty-four hours before PSG come with a €42M offer for Caraballo. Low offer given his value, so rejected, but I expect them to return at some point, or the player to force the issue. Aug 29th 2030 More offers, this time for Palomeque and from Hamburg, a paltry €13.5M for a player that's not even interested in joining HSV. Nope. We just got more than that for reaching the Champions League groups, no way we're selling him this cheap now that he's starting to play well. On that topic, the draw for the group stage of the Champions League is held today, and that's an extremely important draw since it'll give us a reliable hint of how likely we are to fulfill expectations in the competition. The good news is that our exploits in the Europa League last season have given us a place among the first seeds, which should guarantee an easier draw on paper. We're drawn into group H, together with Liverpool (ow), Nice (nice), and Villarreal (not easy at all). A pretty rough group given the alternatives, while Leipzig for example got drawn with Inter, Shakhtar, and FC Midtjylland. Oh well, we'll do our best, I'd say we have a shot at least at the second place, and we could aim for the third as a consolation prize if everything else fails. Aug 30th 2030 International window incoming! Schulze and Kretzschmar remain in the senior German team's roster after the World Cup, and both might have a chance to get their debuts. Otherwise it's the usual, with the big news being Katic's presence in the U19 German side. And apparently the press are calling him "the next Miroslav Klose" now? Huh. Aug 31st 2030 Borussia Dortmund vs. TSV 1860 München (Bundesliga, 3/34) And suddenly we're playing title deciders already. Both Dortmund and us have four points to our name so far, and since Emery took over we haven't lost to them, so this is not the nightmare fixture it used to be anymore. It's still a very tough game in which we'll do well to get a positive result, though. * * * DORTMUND (4-3-3): Gregor Kobel (GK); Malo Gusto (DR), Mohamed Simakan (DCr), Niklas Süle (DCl), Arthur Theate (DL); Angelo Stiller (DM), Kacper Kozlowski (MCr), Hannibal (MCl); Matteo Cancellieri (AMR), Giovanni Reyna (AML), Luka Jovic (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Ian Amador (DR), Ernesto (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Tomislav Javorcic (DL); Thiago (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Rodrigo Caraballo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) * * * We try to keep the core of the team that won against Eintracht, with only a few changes in the lineup to keep the minutes shared mostly equally among our starting-worthy players. Few changes in Dortmund's lineup compared to last season, too, with Cancellieri in Chukwueze's place the most notable one. We get off to a great start, with Javorcic setting up a quick attack within the first minute with a long ball towards Özcan, who controls and assists Caraballo only for the false nine to shoot wide when everyone was expecting a goal. Possession in the early minutes is mostly Dortmund's, although they keep it in their own half for the most part and we look more dangerous when we do get the chance to attack. Proof of this concept comes in the tenth minute, with Miranda assisting Özcan with a quick through ball only for the striker to mishit his finish and send the ball wide. Dortmund's first approach arrives three minutes later and ends in a beautiful header into the back of the net by Cancellieri, thankfully disallowed due to offside. Things start leveling off play-wise as Dortmund start getting out of their own half more frequently, and the following minutes devolve into a midfield battle with little danger on either end of it. Kretzschmar has some work to do in the 26th minute when he needs to parry a dangerous direct free kick by Hannibal, then watches as Cancellieri heads a cross by Theate over the bar three minutes later. The game seems to become more yellow-colored with each passing minute, but chances dry out after those two and we reach the end of the first half with the keepers looking a bit bored, and of course without any goals. HALF TIME - 0-0 Not much happens in the early minutes of the second half, either, even though we seem to be regaining a certain degree of control over the game flow. In the 57th Schulze appears in the game for the first time to send a good pass ahead of Özcan, who tries a long-range finish and sends his shot into the crossbar, immediately waking up the whole stadium. Four minutes later it's Theate who tries luck from very far away, sending a missile Kretzschmar's way for the keeper to block and deflect wide. Neves and Palomeque enter the game then, replacing Rodríguez and Schulze, just in time to see Theate win the jump over Casas in a corner kick and head the ball into the net for the 1-0. Meunier comes in for Thiago to try and make our midfield a bit more creative, but now Dortmund have a firm grasp on the game and deny us any quick chances, then create one of their own in the 70th with a long pass towards Cancellieri, who gets ahead of Javorcic but is stopped in the end by Kretzschmar. That corner kick almost turns into another goal, but thankfully Amador blocks Süle's finish following a nod by Theate. Cancellieri creates more danger in the 75th with a run into the box, but Javorcic chases him and blocks his finish after the winger had dribbled his way past Kretzschmar's opposition. The play continues with Neves launching a quick counterattack with a long pass towards Özcan, who makes his way into the box but smashes the ball into Kobel's body. One minute later the goalkeeper saves his team once again, this time following a low cross by Özcan towards Caraballo, who hits it first time with power but little precision. A good recovery in midfield allows us another chance in the 77th, but this time it's Palomeque who miskicks his finish and the ball rolls harmlessly into Kobel's hands. We've managed to turn things around and we enter the final ten minutes looking good, but Dortmund tighten up and stop our flow of chances at the right moment, and despite our best attempts we can't get another one before the game ends. A shame. * * * Borussia Dortmund 1 (Arthur Theate 61) TSV 1860 München 0 - - - Tough luck. This was a very tightly contested game, with both teams alternating in control and generating chances, but in the end Dortmund got lucky to score in that one corner kick and we couldn't make our chances count. Should've been a draw, really. Kinda worrying that neither Rijkhoff nor Özcan have managed to score even a single goal so far, hm. The Bundesliga reaches its third date with Fortuna as the surprising leaders and zero teams on nine out of nine points, which is rare.

Aug 20th 2030 Schulze's two goals earn him a place in the Team of the Week. Aug 21st 2030 Another loan for Leacock, this time in the Eredivisie playing for Groningen, where he's expected to be an important player and keep improving. They pay most of his wages, which is relevant in this case as Leacock's contract is on the high end for a prospect. It's also a long one, until June 2034, so we're not in any hurry to get any immediate value out of him and we can afford to be patient. Aug 24th 2030 TSV 1860 München vs. Eintracht Frankfurt (Bundesliga, 2/34) First home match against a team that bordered the relegation zone last season, and we're already feeling a bit of the pressure that comes with having high expectations. Our draw in Freiburg combined with the Dortmund-Bayern combo awaiting us in the coming weeks means anything less than a win today could spell disaster for our campaign this early on. We'll need to be sharper when it comes to finishing if we're to have a comfortable game today. * * * 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Ernesto (DCr), Mateja Stjepanovic (DCl), Mahamadou Touré (DL); Aymeric Meunier (DM); Juan David Palomeque (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Rodrigo Caraballo (STr), Julian Rijkhoff (STl) EINTRACHT (3-2-2-1-2): André Gomes (GK); Jamil Siebert (DCr), Heinz Mosch (DC), Jackson Porozo (DCl); Shurandy Sambo (WBR), Nico Elvedi (WBL); Guilherme Santos (MCr), Toma Basic (MCl); André Franco (AMC); Datro Fofana (STr); Joe Gelhardt (STl) * * * Most of our starters are restored to the lineup today, with Palomeque taking Schulze's place to see if his good form in the cup was a fluke or a new reality for the Colombian. Eintracht keep the same shape and many of the same players from last year, so they probably should've seen us coming, but they didn't: five minutes in Miranda completes a good team play with a great ball into space for Caraballo, and the forward places his shot perfectly to beat Gomes and give us an early lead. That's improvement already, for sure. Our goal precedes a long period in which Eintracht fail to provide any reaction and we just let time pass until we find another good chance. We finally do so in the 19th minute, with Palomeque sending a pinpoint cross from the right and Rijkhoff heading it narrowly over the bar. A blocked long shot by Palomeque comes next, but it's hard to create danger against an Eintracht side that still wants to defend with basically everything. With lots of patience we keep passing the ball around, and Caraballo eventually spots a way with a good pass towards Javorcic, who runs into the box and shoots into Gomes' save. Nothing else after that, but at least we're ahead and not looking like losing our lead anytime soon. HALF TIME - 1-0 Just like in the first half we create danger almost from the get go, this time with Javorcic assisting down the right flank and Palomeque shooting from a difficult angle into Gomes' body. In the 48th minute Rodríguez finds Miranda on the left side of the box, and the attacking midfielder crosses unopposed to an equally unmarked Caraballo, who only needs to put his foot in to score the 2-0. We know this is our moment so we keep pushing for another, and only four minutes later Palomeque tries a dangerous cross that the keeper is forced to punch away, but only as far as Rodríguez, who jumps high to intercept and head the ball into the empty net. After that quickfire double we take the foot off the gas for a while, knowing that Eintracht don't have the will nor the quality to give us any kind of consistent trouble. In the 60th minute we give the game a small burst of speed with a 25 yard effort by Touré that Gomes saves well, and not much later Schulze and Neves replace Miranda and Palomeque, both excellent today, just before Rodríguez sends over the bar a direct free kick from over thirty yards away. Eintracht finally give Kretzschmar something to do in the 64th minute a set piece that Porozo heads straight at the keeper, and soon after Casas replaces a very solid Ernesto to give him some rest. Rodríguez smashes another free kick into the fence, but otherwise it's a quite calm game in this final stretch, with only a weak header by Schulze in the 86th minute to give the fans something to cheer about. Schulze also creates a chance for Caraballo to grab himself a hattrick in the 89th, but the forward can't finish the low cross properly and Gomes knocks the ball behind. There's no need for more, and the game ends in a comfortable win for us, for a change. * * * TSV 1860 München 3 (Rodrigo Caraballo 5 48, Jair Rodríguez 52) Eintracht Frankfurt 0 - - - No contest today. Eintracht came to defend and did it properly enough, except for the fact that they conceded five minutes in and that blew their game plan into the stratosphere. They couldn't adapt, so all we had to do was keep the ball, lay siege to their goal, and have patience. It paid off, for once. Great game for Caraballo and Miranda, and Palomeque already has more positive contributions than in all of the previous season put together. Might we have another Marcos Paulo-style resurrection in our hands? We'll see... Incidentally, this was Kretzschmar's 300th appearance for 1860, a record that might become hard to match in the future if he stays with us after next week.

Aug 16th 2030 Somewhat unexpected offer coming from Porto, who want to buy Stjepanovic for €17.75M. Not nearly enough, and considering how much we'd owe Partizan due to his sell-on clause replacing him with an equally good player would be difficult. Rejected, they'll have to go up to €25M at the very least. Phew, Bayern-Leipzig as the very first game of the Bundesliga season. Bayern win 2-1, and so take an early lead in what's likely to become another battle for the title between them. We'll see if we can sneak ourselves into it, too. Aug 17th 2030 The draw for the second round of the DFB Pokal pairs us against Jahn Regensburg, currently in the 2.Bundesliga although last season they got really close to the relegation places, finishing 16th. Not the hardest tie we could get, of course, and for once we can look down on Bayern since they'll be playing away to new Bundesliga members Fortuna Düsseldorf. Leipzig will also have a relatively difficult tie against Union Berlin, although at home in their case. Aug 18th 2030 Just before our Bundesliga debut the board announce our season ticket sales, and we've gone up from 16,800 to 18,100 tickets sold. We really need to expand the stadium for the next season, I think... * * * Sport-Club Freiburg vs. TSV 1860 München (Bundesliga, 1/34) And back into the fray. We start the league away once again, and against a tough customer like Freiburg, a consistent top half performer that nonetheless never quite makes the jump to the European battle. We know who we are, and we showed the world how good we are just four days ago. Now we only have to carry that into the league and get to a good start. * * * FREIBURG (4-2-3-1): Florian Müller (GK); Hugo Siquet (DR), Laurin Moser (DCr), Eric Martel (DCl), Julio Ayala (DL); Marco Kana (MCr), Maximilian Eggstein (MCl); Jan Thielmann (AMR), Lazar Samardzic (AMC), Danrlei (AML), Nicolai Skoglund (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Tomislav Javorcic (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Alex Ball (DL); Ezequiel Beltramone (DM); Maximilian Schulze (MCr), Joao Neves (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Jonatan Basualdo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) * * * Some forced rotation today after the 120 minutes of action midweek, while Freiburg have a couple of notable changes from our last meeting, most notably with Germany's second keeper Müller, bought mid-season from Monaco, starting today ahead of Verbruggen. We have the upper hand in possession during the first ten minutes, but there's no danger to be had on either goal until the 11th minute, when we move the ball freely around Freiburg's penalty area until Ball spots Schulze's run forward and crosses the ball ahead of him, allowing the midfielder to score with a subtle and precise touch. Not a bad way to start the season. Freiburg try to react quickly with a cross from the right that Samardzic heads straight at Kretzschmar, then with a more dangerous header by Moser in a corner kick that the keeper manages to parry and Ball clears away from danger. We try to regain control, but in the 23rd Siquet sends a cross into the box from the right and Skoglund catches it first-time, surprising Kretzschmar and drawing the game. Only then we're allowed to attack again, and we almost make it count after a good combination between Basualdo and Schulze ends with another chance to score for the midfielder, but this time Müller manages to deflect the ball over. Both teams are now on equal terms in both play and score, and the next chance falls to Samardzic after a rebound he tries to hit first time, but Kretzschmar sees it coming this time and dives well to save. Our turn comes next, with Neves assisting Basualdo on the run only for the false nine to shoot wide, wasting a great chance to restore our lead. Midfielder and forward trade places next, this time with Basualdo assisting and Neves at least finding the target, although not managing to beat a well positioned Müller. We get a corner kick from it at least, and Lang almost puts it in with his header, but the ball misses the crossbar by a couple of inches. Yet in injury time Freiburg attack again, and this time Ayala manages to cross towards the far post and Thielmann sneaks away from Ball's attention to tap the ball in, giving the home team the lead just as the first half reaches its end. HALF TIME - 2-1 We restart the game looking good, and for a change we make it count quickly: five minutes in a pass into space leaves Özcan on the run, but he's forced towards the left side of the attack by the defense. No matter, he turns around and passes across the box towards Schulze, who hits it first time and scores his and our second of the day. Özcan has the opportunity to complete our comeback moments later, but his finish following a great assist by Neves isn't good enough to beat Müller. We soon make our first substitutions, bringing Palomeque and Ernesto in for Miranda and Beltramone, the latter of which after not exactly the best of league debuts. The game then seems to stall, with no chances happening on either side for a long while, and in the meantime Touré comes in for Ball as our final substitution. We go all the way until the 78th minute without nothing happening, and what changes the trend is a low cross by Touré that Özcan blasts well wide. Three minutes later Schulze splits Freiburg's defense apart with a beautiful through ball towards Neves, but Müller comes forward to cover up the space before the midfielder can get a good shot in, and the chance is once again aborted. The final minutes of the game find us looking like the most likely team to grab a late winner, but two minutes before full time Freiburg launch a quick cross into the box and Skoglund gets his head to it, looping the ball over Kretzschmar and straight into the crossbar. The play continues with a cross from Böller towards Skoglund who this time manages to volley it in, but from an offside position well caught by the linesman. In injury time we once again break through the center, this time with Basualdo assisting Neves for another run into the box that Müller stops dead with a great rush and save. Kretzschmar then saves another header by Skoglund, this one a bit less dangerous, Özcan misses the target by inches with a 20-yard shot immediately afterwards, and a very entertaining game finally ends in a draw. * * * Sport-Club Freiburg 2 (Nicolai Skoglund 22, Jan Thielmann 45+1) TSV 1860 München 2 (Maximilian Schulze 11 50) - - - Great fun today, even if the result wasn't the one we'd hoped for. Freiburg did well to take their chances, and we once again failed to put them in and paid the prize in the shape of two points we should've kept to ourselves. Oh well, not the worst result, but certainly not the best. Also Schulze has started the season absolutely on fire when it comes to scoring, huh. Wish our forwards learned a thing or two from him...

Aug 12th 2030 Shock in the cup: Dortmund lose to Darmstadt 1-0 and are out at the first hurdle. Can't complain about removing strong rivals from the running, really. Aug 13th 2030 City come back, but this time for a different player: Amador. Their offer is a bit short at only €23.5M plus some clauses, but considering how close they are to his €30M release clause it's probably just a matter of time until they decide to just take him away. Still rejected. Aug 14th 2030 TSV 1860 München vs. Real Madrid C.F. (European Super Cup) Super Cups are always a funny matter, only mattering for those who win it. Just in case, and because we know from recent experience that Zidane's Real Madrid are just that good, we won't be putting much stock into this game, although we'll still play our best eleven and see if we can get lucky. A fun fixture for sure, just not one I'd put too far above a friendly in importance. * * * 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Tom Kretzschmar (GK); Ian Amador (DR), Ernesto (DCr), Mateja Stjepanovic (DCl), Tomislav Javorcic (DL); Thiago (DM); Aymeric Meunier (MCr), Jair Rodríguez (MC), Matías Miranda (MCl); Rodrigo Caraballo (STr), Vedat Özcan (STl) REAL MADRID (4-3-3): Dragan Stojanovic (GK); Diogo Dalot (DR), Maxence Lacroix (DCr), Éder Militao (DCl), Isak Jóhannesson (DL); Eduardo Camavinga (DM), Fede Valverde (MCr), Bruno Fernandes (MCl); Yeremy Pino (AMR), Justin Kluivert (AML), Kylian Mbappé (ST) * * * Schulze misses out today due to suspension and Meunier takes his place in the lineup, but other than that and Özcan starting in Rijkhoff's place we repeat the same eleven that won the Europa League against Arsenal. Real Madrid have just seen their long-time goalkeeper Courtois retire, but have already splashed the cash in a worthy replacement with Stojanovic, one of those potential replacements for Kretzschmar we saw get poached before we had the chance to make a move. Otherwise, a similar eleven to the one we met two years ago in the Champions League. The match starts slowly, but with us controlling possession in the early minutes and even creating a very good chance six minutes in, with Meunier passing into space and Özcan running into it before missing the target with a narrowly wide finish. You can't miss those chances against Real... Soon we find another way through, Caraballo trading passes with Amador and shooting into Stojanovic's legs from a difficult position, and immediately we generate a third one with Özcan, Caraballo, and Miranda combining and setting up the midfielder for a left-footed finish that the keeper dives to tip wide for a corner kick that Ernesto ends up heading wide. Looking really good so far. Real finally respond in the 13th minute with a good direct free kick by Bruno Fernandes that makes Kretzschmar stretch to his limits in order to save it. Possession soon starts switching sides, but los Blancos can't turn it into chances and it isn't long until we hit them on the break again, this time with Caraballo finishing and Stojanovic flying for a fingertip save. That's another corner kick and another header by Ernesto, this one going narrowly over. Our best one comes in the 27th, with Caraballo assisting Özcan with a neat touch into space and the striker finishing with a good-looking chip that bounces clear off the crossbar. In the 33rd we hit wood again, this time with a beautiful lob by Miranda that gets this close to going in, and by now we really have deserved to take the lead already. Rodríguez tries next with a direct free kick that Stojanovic saves easily, but that's our last approach of a very one-sided first half, as expected, only towards the completely unexpected side. HALF TIME - 0-0 Not much happens in the first fifteen minutes of the second half other than a blocked shot by Rodríguez, and soon it's time to start rotating players around. Palomeque and Touré are the first to come in, replacing Meunier and Javorcic, the latter of which has had a pretty horrible game today. Things remain deadlocked afterwards, and soon we reach the final twenty minutes with nothing to entertain the Greek fans in the stands. Neves then enters the game replacing Miranda, and his appearance gets us going once again, soon generating danger with a one-two combination with Özcan that the midfielder finishes with a very narrowly wide shot. Two blocked shots for Özcan and Neves follow, both extremely dangerous but not even reaching Stojanovic's hands. Real Madrid then generate danger the only way they seem to be able to: a set piece, this time a corner kick taken by Bruno Fernandes and headed by Tavares that Kretzschmar blocks and Amador clears away. The game then goes to sleep once again, not waking up until Rodríguez runs towards the left side of the box in the 90th minute and cross towards Özcan, who sees his header go straight into the keeper's gloves. Injury time sees Caraballo smash another great chance created by Amador into Stojanovic's body, but we can't manage to turn our surprising superiority into goals before the game ends, and both teams are then headed into extra time. FULL TIME - 0-0 We take the chance to make our extra fourth substitution before restarting the game, bringing Rijkhoff into the fray in Özcan's place. The striker has a chance to make an impact in the eighth minute of extra time following a great long ball by Neves, but he's also incapable of putting his finish past an excellent Stojanovic. In the 104th minute Real Madrid create their first chance from open play of the whole game when Motika dribbles his way into the box from the left wing and passes it back towards Mbappé, whose first relevant action in the whole match is smashing the ball into the back of the net to score the 0-1. Neves tries to respond immediately with a very similar play, but Rijkhoff can't shoot past Calabria's challenge. Differences. The second half of extra time starts with Real Madrid looking more comfortable than they've been during the whole game until that point. And that's precisely when a long passing play ends with the ball under Thiago's control on the left side of our attack, the midfielder passes it to Touré, and the young left back unleashes a surprising 30-yarder with his right foot that Stojanovic simply can't reach, and the game is all tied once again. Not a bad way to score his first senior goal for die Löwen. Two minutes later Neves misses by inches with his finish after a fantastic long pass by Palomeque, and we're back to the usual flow of this game. Yet once again against the flow of the game Calabria runs down the right wing, gets a cross past Touré's mark, and Mbappé connects an unstoppable header that puts Real ahead once again with a bit over two minutes to play. Our last-ditch effort leads nowhere good, and we end up losing a game we should've won clearly. * * * TSV 1860 München 1 (Mahamadou Touré 110) Real Madrid C.F. 2 (Kylian Mbappé 104 118) - - - Told you one can't waste chances when playing against Real Madrid... This game was so one-sided it should've finished 3-0 or more in our favor even before extra time, yet we just couldn't find a way to put it past a very good goalkeeping performance by Stojanovic, and then Mbappé finally showed up and it was over. We still played magnificently against the current European champions, though, and that has to be worth something. No title for us, but we have to be proud of our performance. This becomes easier when the defeat is worth €3.5M, of course... Incidentally, Touré just became the youngest player to ever score a goal in the European Super Cup. That's something.

Aug 1st 2030 Another of our interesting youngsters is Romelle Leacock, who spent last season on loan in Stockport and doing quite well. Now Fortuna Düsseldorf want to loan him, but they also want to attach a mandatory fee into the deal in case they manage to survive in the Bundesliga. I wouldn't mind too much, but the money they offer is nowhere close to enough and the player doesn't want a permanent move to Fortuna, so the deal's out. There's some interest from Feyenoord in a full transfer, so there might be movement around the kid in following weeks. Aug 2nd 2030 Ah yes, things are picking up now. Couldn't have a summer without a ridiculous part-exchange offer from someone... Stuttgart are the culprits this time, offering a paltry €2.4M plus defensive midfielder Ronny Klotke for Basualdo. As Australians often say: yeah, nah. Bad news for young Althoff, who'll be out for 3-4 weeks with a pulled calf muscle and will miss his best chance to start with the first team in the DFB Pokal first round. Aug 4th 2030 TSV 1860 München vs. Athletic Club de Bilbao (Friendly) Our last friendly of the preseason brings historic Basque side Athletic to Munich, and our stadium is filled to the brim to welcome them. Of course it's a much more even match than the previous friendlies we've played, and both teams struggle for possession and trade blows during the early game without managing to break through. Rodríguez, Schulze, and Rijkhoff have our best chances, but in the end the first half ends without goals. In the first minute of the second half striker Aguado profits from a loose ball inside our box after a cross from the left to smash the ball into the net for the 0-1, but only six minutes later Özcan fixes things gathering a pass from Palomeque, dribbling past a defender and the keeper in a single movement, and passing it into the net to draw the game. Lang then heads in a corner kick taken by Basualdo and gives us the lead just two minutes later, followed by Meunier blasting it in with power after another great pass by Palomeque, very active today. Even Javorcic joins in the attacking fest with a perfect cross towards the far post so Özcan can score his second and our fourth come the 69th minute. We then proceed to dominate the rest of the game with ease, denying Athletic even a single shot after their goal. Great comeback to close up the preseason. TSV 1860 München 4 (Vedat Özcan 52 69, Niklas Lang 54, Aymeric Meunier 67) Athletic Club de Bilbao 1 (Jorge Aguado 46) Aug 7th 2030 Not Chelsea, but the Premier League did come back for Kretzschmar. Manchester City offer €22.5M, clearly insufficient, but we could probably negotiate it to a more acceptable fee. Problem is, all the potential replacements we had in mind have already been sold to other teams, and it feels too risky to sell our starting keeper without a replacement ready. Rejected, but we'll put our scouts to work specifically on this matter starting now, just in case. Aug 11th 2030 FSV Union Fürstenwalde vs. TSV 1860 München (DFB Pokal 1st round) Here we go again. The official start of the season with the traditional trip to a small stadium somewhere in Germany is already here, and while it usually is a perfect chance to see how any new signings perform in a competitive setting, there aren't any of those this time! So, it'll instead be a good opportunity for returned loanees and youngsters to show how good they are, and that they deserve a place in the first team, either now or in the future. * * * FÜRSTENWALDE (3-2-2-2-1): Marcin Stainszewski (GK); Manassé Eshele (DCr), Jan Just (DC), Adrian Jarosch (DCl); Paul Manske (WBR), Moritz Römling (WBL); Jeremy Postelt (MCr), Max Winter (MCl); Chinedu Ekene (AMR), Kajetan Wasielewski (AML); Antonio Bück (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Kevin Rexhepi (GK); Alex Ball (DR), Niklas Lang (DCr), Arnau Casas (DCl), Mahamadou Touré (DL); Ezequiel Beltramone (DM); Juan David Palomeque (MCr), Joao Neves (MC), Romelle Leacock (MCl); Jonatan Basualdo (STr), Julian Rijkhoff (STl) * * * Beltramone and Leacock get their first starts with 1860 today, with young Katic waiting for his chance on the bench. Most of our starters rest today in order to be available against Real Madrid in three days, and some even aren't on the bench today. Hopefully we won't need them... Early signs are good, at least, and within two minutes Palomeque has already scored, although from an offside position that invalidates what would've been his first goal for 1860 one year after his arrival. The first legal chance comes through our very own World Cup winner, Rijkhoff, who gathers a ball from Neves and walks into the box only to shoot weakly into Staniszewski's hands. Beltramone comes next with a 25 yard effort that sails over the bar, then Rijkhoff has another one-on-one stopped by the keeper after a great assist by Palomeque, followed by a high effort from the edge of the box by Leacock come the 10th minute. It's coming, but we can't seem to find the right way to finish the job, and Rijkhoff's third chance of the game ends in a wide shot, wasting a good pass by Leacock. Basualdo tries next with a direct free kick that goes just over the bar, then Staniszewski saves two consecutive long-range attempts by Palomeque and Touré. Twenty-one minutes and we're still goalless, and Rijkhoff's fourth clear-cut chance ends in another wide finish, showing the striker's heart isn't on it today. Leacock shoots over the bar next after a nod by Neves, and even Lang joins in heading onto the top side of the net a corner kick taken by Basualdo in the 25th. Rijkhoff's luck remains abysmal as he sends his shot into the crossbar following a fantastic long pass from Ball, and Basualdo doesn't fare much better with his second free kick attempt, this one saved by the keeper. That's when Fürstenwalde get a free kick near our box, they take it towards the frontside of the area so Ekene can pass it forward into the box, and an unmarked Just taps it past a woefully positioned Rexhepi and scores the 1-0. Shock. Thankfully the horror story lasts all of two minutes, which is what we need to lay siege to their goal once again until Beltramone spots Palomeque's run into the box and assists him for an easy finish that, finally, goes past the keeper to become the 1-1. That's his first goal for die Löwen, and it seems to give him the motivation he needs because in the 42nd Palomeque gathers the ball from Rijkhoff outside the box and places a perfect little shot right next to the post, scoring the 1-2. There's still time for Stainszewski to save a header by Rijkhoff in injury time before we head into the dressing rooms ahead by an inch. Crisis averted, for now. HALF TIME - 1-2 "For now" is right, as two minutes into the second half Fürstenwalde are already attacking our left wing and crossing into the box, where Bück half-volleys it into the crossbar and clear, then two minutes later Rexhepi has to work hard to save two consecutive finishes by Wasielewski following a pretty bad pass by Ball and an even worse recovery by the full back. We finally get back into the right half of the pitch in the 50th, with Neves assisting Leacock and the youngster smashing his finish into the keeper's body. Stainszewski also saves a header by Rijkhoff one minute later, as it looks like the game is going back to normalcy. A high shot from distance by Touré is our next approach, already in the 59th and with the bench players getting ready to come in. They do soon after, with Katic getting his debut in Rijkhoff's place and Schulze and Meunier coming in for Neves and Leacock. Meanwhile the home team keep believing they can give us another scare, and soon Wasielewski heads wide a cross from the right side of the box. In the 66th minute Basualdo gets really close with a first time finish after a cross from deep by Meunierr, although his finish ends up hitting the sidenetting, and two minutes lter Palomeque tries to find a hattrick for distance but finds the stands behind the goal instead. We are increasing the pressure little by little now, and Casas gets really close with a narrowly wide header in a corner kick come the 72nd minute. Basualdo tries a left-footed shot into the top corner but sees the goalkeeper swat it away at the last second, and in the 79th he sends a great through ball towards Katic that the youngster finishes with accuracy and style, but his goal is disallowed in the end due to a clear offside position. Two minutes later, though, a header by Basualdo that Stainszewski parries with difficulty leaves the ball dead at Schulze's feet, and the midfielder manages to put it in from a very tight angle to, finally, score a very relieving 1-3. We take it easier afterwards, holding the ball to prevent any further shenanigans and secure a win that shouldn't have taken us this much effort to achieve. * * * FSV Union Fürstenwalde 1 (Jan Just 33) TSV 1860 München 3 (Juan David Palomeque 35 42, Maximilian Schulze 81) - - - We can't have a calm first round in the cup, can we? Not lately, at least, and no matter who the opposition happens to be. We played well today and deserved at least a couple more goals, but our lack of finishing (Rijkhoff had one of those days) and Rexhepi falling asleep at the worst possible moment gave us one hell of a scare. Good thing Palomeque seems to have started this season on a much better form than he had all last year, and that was enough to see us through. Good show by the young midfielders, too, Beltramone in particular, and Katic was unlucky to get his debut goal disallowed but showed some glimpses of quality off the bench.