{"id":135780,"date":"2025-09-11T09:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135780\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T09:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:11:17","slug":"bayer-leverkusen-starts-again-with-a-new-coach-after-two-games-under-ten-hag-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135780\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayer Leverkusen starts again with a new coach after two games under Ten Hag \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk about a tricky first game.<\/p>\n

After Erik ten Hag lasted just two Bundesliga games as Bayer Leverkusen coach, his replacement Kasper Hjulmand \u2018s debut is a Friday night clash with Eintracht Frankfurt, the main contender to take Leverkusen\u2019s place as Bayern Munich\u2019s chief challenger.<\/p>\n

Once Hjulmand gets through that, there\u2019s the small matter of his first Champions League game in 13 years next week.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"New
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew head coach of Bundesliga soccer club Bayer Leverkusen Kasper Hjulmand from Denmark attends his first training session in Leverkusen, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Martin Meissner)<\/p>\n

There are signs of turbulence at Bayern, too, after club powerbroker Uli Hoene\u00df\u2019 forthright comments about the \u201csensitive\u201d nature of board member for sport Max Eberl.<\/p>\n

Key matchups<\/p>\n

Leverkusen hosting Frankfurt is an evenly matched game \u2013 in theory. Hjulmand must forge a team out of Leverkusen\u2019s many new signings after Ten Hag\u2019s tenure fell apart in weeks. The last game featured players ignoring Ten Hag\u2019s orders and arguing on the field.<\/p>\n

Back in the Bundesliga after seven years, Hamburger SV is still searching for its first top-tier goal since 2018 but its defense seems largely reliable. Facing Bayern on Saturday is less about scoring, more about damage limitation.<\/p>\n

The three Bundesliga teams who won both of their opening games are Bayern, Frankfurt and \u2026 Cologne. The promoted team tries to keep its streak going at Wolfsburg on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Players to watch<\/p>\n

Michael Olise\u2019s three goals for Bayern make him joint Bundesliga leader with Harry Kane and Dortmund\u2019s Serhou Guirassy. Hamburg is a good chance to score some more.<\/p>\n

Mainz midfielder Nadiem Amiri has been praised after scoring a crucial goal for Germany in its win over Northern Ireland. His team hosts Leipzig on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Unwanted at Leverkusen, striker Victor Boniface starts a new chapter on loan at Werder Bremen. He could make his debut on Sunday at Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach.<\/p>\n

Wolfsburg surprised many by signing Denmark playmaker Christian Eriksen on Wednesday. It remains to be seen if Cologne\u2019s visit on Saturday is too soon for his debut.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s out<\/p>\n

Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck has been back training with the team this week, five months after a meniscus injury in his knee. New signing Fabio Silva has yet to play for Dortmund because of injury.<\/p>\n

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Off the field<\/p>\n

Hoene\u00df\u2019 comments on a TV talk show sparked speculation about Eberl\u2019s future as Bayern transfer mastermind. Hoene\u00df called him \u201cquite sensitive\u201d in disagreements and said he wanted to spend more than Bayern could afford. Asked if Eberl might quit, Hoene\u00df said, \u201cYou\u2019d have to ask him yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mario G\u00f6tze has revived his career at Frankfurt and now looks set for a contract extension but sporting director Markus Kr\u00f6sche says talks with the 33-year-old World Cup winner won\u2019t take place till winter, in comments reported by dpa.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talk about a tricky first game. After Erik ten Hag lasted just two Bundesliga games as Bayer Leverkusen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-135780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}