Bundesliga Whip Around Round 18

The Bundesliga is truly back into the swing of things post winter break after another wild week. This is the weekly look at those clubs around Borussia Dortmund in the table.

This week in the Bundesliga whip around we’ll focus on the clubs ranging from third in the table to seventh. That is the group that has made themselves into a mini table around Borrusia Dortmund, all within three points of each other. Two of these clubs will see Champions League action in a season, while the rest will be left out.

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3.) Eintracht Frankfurt

The third place club from Frankfurt played the Friday showcase match away to Schalke and picked up a hard-fought three points by winning 1-0.

Many American’s will know the club because Timmy Chandler features week in and week out and while he played well the man of the match has to be David Abraham. The central defender made up a pairing of three for Frankfurt and was an absolute animal in this defensive battle. For the match, Abraham won seven aerial duels and made seven interceptions according to whoscored.com. Despite Schalke struggling this season, their home arena is still a fearsome place to pick up three points, let alone get a clean sheet. Abraham was instrumental in that effort.

4.) Borussia Dortmund

You can find post-match coverage here, here and here

5.) Hoffenheim

In what was the Bundesliga match of the week, Hoffenheim came up short against RB Leipzig. For the second week in a row, Leipzig was the beneficiary of a red card while the match was still level. Hoffenheim eventually lost 2-1, but 20-year-old Nadiem Amiri did find himself on the scoresheet. The loss allowed BVB to pass Hoffenheim on the Bundesliga table on the strength of goal differential.

Next: Borussia Dortmund vs Mainz by the numbers

6.) Hertha Berlin

Hertha Berlin is yet another team that regularly feature an American in John Brooks. He didn’t have a good time out today as his club lost against a feisty Freiburg club 2-1 on Sunday. Freiburg had control of the match until a late 88′ Hertha Berlin goal by substitute Julian Schieber threatened to turn the match on its head. Ultimately nothing came of it and Hertha Berlin failed to capitalize on the opportunity to move up into third with a win.

7.) FC Koln

The new home to Neven Subotic, FC Koln absolutely took care of business over the weekend in their 6-1 win away to Darmstadt. It was good enough to garner the highlight clip of the week.

The predictable man, Anthony Modeste found the net as did former BVB midfielder Milos Jojic. The man of the match though has to be Japanese international Yuya Osako who scored twice and notched an assist.

With these clubs so tightly packed and SC Freiburg and Bayern Leverkusen also within shouting distance, the intrigue for the Champions League spots will likely run until the end of the season. So keep up with this weekly piece not just so you can know a name or two when BVB play these Bundesliga opponents, but also so you know just how well BVB need to play to finish in the top four.

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