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Bundesliga 2 Kicks off today, Schalke hosts Hamburger

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Bundesliga 2 Kicks off today, Schalke hosts Hamburger

Following the summer recess, the Bundesliga 2 kicks off tonight as FC Schalke 04 hosts Hamburger SV at the VELTINS-Arena, marking the beginning of the 2021/2022 season.

Both teams will be looking to start their campaign with a victory, getting their quest for promotion to the topflight underway, and establishing themselves as the league’s team to beat. The action continues across the weekend, with the current 3. Liga champions SG Dynamo Dresden facing play-off winners FC Ingolstadt 04 on Saturday – a game each newly promoted team will want to win.

With the likes of FC Schalke 04, SV Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, 1. FC Nürnberg, Fortuna Düsseldorf and more now in Germany’s second division, the 2021/22 Bundesliga 2 season promises to be the most exciting yet. And it all kicks off on Friday with a superheavyweight clash at the Veltins-Arena between Schalke and HSV.

It’s the seven-time German champions against the country’s six-time title holders. It’s the football club with the third-largest membership in the world against the 1983 European Cup winners. It’s a match that’s been played exactly 100 times in the Bundesliga and with a perfectly balanced record of 38 wins apiece. And now for the first time, this historic fixture will be contested in the second division.

Both clubs go into this season with the same goal of achieving promotion. Schalke, though, is in the midst of a rebuilding project as they try to bounce back from their fourth top-flight relegation as a result of finishing bottom in the 2020/21 Bundesliga. The Royal Blues have brought in all-time Bundesliga 2 top scorer Simon Terodde (from HSV, in fact) as they look to make it just a one-year stay, but there will be a strong core of be players from the club’s famed Knappenschmiede academy that forms the bulk of the squad.

Among those young talents is 20-year-old striker Matthew Hoppe. He was Schalke’s top scorer last season and became the first American to net a Bundesliga hat-trick, but the freshly minted USMNT player will miss the opening league game of this season as he competes at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

As for Hamburg, the Bundesliga’s once only ever-present club now goes into its fourth season in the second tier after three straight fourth-place finishes that saw them miss out on a top-flight return. They begin the new campaign with a sixth different coach in that time with Tim Walter, while their big-name summer signing is midfielder Ludovit Reis from Barcelona.

HSV are by no means the only fallen northern giant. Bremen’s final-day heartbreak saw them fall through the Bundesliga trapdoor for only the second time. The four-time champions now, too, have to rebuild under Markus Anfang, with striker Josh Sargent set to be leading the renaissance. The 21-year-old American has had two-and-a-half ever-improving seasons in the Bundesliga and now has the chance to really kick on in the second division for a leading team. Die Grün-Weißen begin their first Bundesliga 2 campaign since 1980/81 at home to fellow northerners Hannover in the new late Saturday kick-off slot at 8.30 pm CEST.

Elsewhere on Saturday – and in contrast to Schalke, HSV and Bremen – two promoted sides still on a high meet when 3. Liga champions SG Dynamo Dresden host play-off winners FC Ingolstadt 04. As well, new FC Bayern München CEO Oliver Kahn’s former club Karlsruher SC face a long trip to take on the league’s third promoted club, FC Hansa Rostock. SV Darmstadt 98 also welcome SSV Jahn Regensburg to the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor, while 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 host SC Paderborn 07.

On Sunday, Holstein Kiel – who missed out on the chance of going up last season after a play-off defeat to 1. FC Köln – begin their next push for a maiden Bundesliga promotion away in nearby Hamburg against FC St. Pauli. Germany’s second-most successful club, Nürnberg, is looking for a record-setting ninth Bundesliga promotion when they start at home to FC Erzgebirge Aue, while SV Sandhausen takes on a Düsseldorf side aiming to better their fifth-place finish last term.

Spread over three days, Matchday 1 has it all to offer with giants locking horns, local rivalries and the little man trying to stir things up as the biggest season ever seen in Bundesliga 2 kicks off in fitting style.

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