The football media went gaga for the Germany attacking duo they dubbed 'Wusiala' after a big win over Hungary this international break. Naturally that means speculation over whether FC Bayern München can afford the W(irtz) to go along with the (M)usiala, so Matt, Nik and Terry threw their hats into that ring too. The gang also turned their attention to the latest crop of German coaching exports in England, where Fabian Hürzeler is leading the way...

After going 462 days without, reigning champs Bayer 04 Leverkusen tasted defeat on Saturday - surrendering a 2-0 lead while doing so. Matt, Nik, and Terry try to work out what it means going forward, as well as if it's a sign that Nik's title prediction has some serious legs. The gang discuss the new UEFA Champions League format (and the best away trips) now that the draw is done, and have some quality Old Man Time talking about the inimitable Thomas Müller, Rekordspieler of FC Bayern München.

The world of football, like other walks of life, harbors its share of idiots - our latest episode puts the spotlight on a few. Nik and Maik turn their attention to some childish behavior surrounding a banner, some regrettable chants in Austria that's had consequences for the players who shouted them, and how a few particularly egregious fans' behavior called off a whole weekend of football.

This might be the second-to-last match day of the season but, and this might hurt, this will be the last Talking Fussball Fantasy episode. They won't be leaving you hanging next week - JT and Flo will be hosting an extended Twitter Spaces Q&A/happy hour/hang next week at 8:00 p.m. CET. In the meantime, listen in as they offer all the tips that are fit to pod right here... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Another week, another turn of the worm in the battle for promotion out of the 2. Bundesliga - FC Schalke 04 and (gasp!) Hamburger Sportverein are on the rise, while FC St. Pauli and SV Werder Bremen came away disappointed. Plenty left to play for over the last two weeks, but one of the division's biggest clubs (who've been far off the pace all season) have been furiously turning their attention to the future. Hannover 96 have been making moves aplenty - listen in as the gang explore whether they think they'll do the trick in turning the club around. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After all the love JT and Flo got over the past week, they were rearing to go ahead of Match Day 32. It's a straightforward affair in this episode, as they boys run through all the games on the hunt for difference-makers. (Don't worry though - they find time for plenty of digressions on refereeing controversies, JT's appearance on the 2. Bundesliga Podcast, and Flo's delight over Werder Bremen...) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With so many aspirants for promotion to the top flight, you'd think at least one would have sewn it up by now. Not so - no fewer than six clubs can still dream of going up (or at least making it into the play-off), and none can yet rest easy, as all their good work could come to naught with a bad run over the final three rounds. (A nice change from the state of affairs in the 1. Bundesliga, no?) Meanwhile in the third tier, former deutscher Meister 1. FC Kaiserslautern may well be set for a return to the big time - and this being the Aufstieg edition, you know what division we mean. All that and much more from Nik, Jasmine and Maik. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Asking for a friend - is it normal for one team to win the league ten years in a row? Whichever way you might answer that question, it's the reality we Bundesliga fans live in, now that FC Bayern München claimed all three points in a comparatively limp Klassiker on Match Day 31. Matt rounds up Lewis Ambrose for a chat about the Bavarians' pathological dominance, some real movement in the relegation battle, Anthony Modeste's latest goal celebration highjinks and more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bundesliga is winding down with just four games to go, and our pundits are ready to give it their all, week by week until the bitter end. Speaking of endings, JT and Flo have an announcement about the future of the show. Listen in for that, and for all the tips you need to get ready for MD31. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For most of the season, Nik's Werder Bremen, Jasmine's SV Darmstadt, and Maik's St. Pauli have been trading places, week by week, at the top of the 2. Bundesliga table. My how times have changed. On this edition of Aufstieg, Nik and Jasmine break down FC Schalke 04's surge to the top of the table, the 3. Liga promotion race, and the continued controversy surrounding Monday fixtures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's not much of title race on, but just below the top two things get very interesting. RB Leipzig, SC Freiburg, 1. FC Union Berlin and 1. FC Köln all picked up wins on the weekend, and depending on results over the final four weeks, each team from third to eighth could find itself in Europe next season - or out in the cold. Meanwhile, FC Bayern München have all but won the league and are nonetheless in the midst of a major malaise.Matt rounds up Adam Khan to share his views on the goings on. Subscribe to his newsletter here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you've watched German football over the past decade and a half, you'll know that FC Schalke 04 has long maintained a close relationship to Gazprom, the Russian natural gas giant. But ever since Vladimir Putin sent the Russian army on a brutal campaign to invade Ukraine, many in Germany were forced to reckon with their business ties to Russia...and came to the conclusion that those ties needed to be severed. Nik Widhagen called up Schalke reporter Ron Ulrich to talk about the steps the club has been taking to move on from its dependence on Russian largesse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1. FC Union Berlin made it three for three in the German capital's Stadtmeisterschaft this past weekend, giving everyone another plum opportunity to gawk at the mess Hertha BSC has become. After an extra day to survey the wreckage, a crestfallen Matt hauls in Kit Holden for their traditional tête-à-tête. They talk about the derby, Union's chances of heading back to Europe next season in a crowded field of aspirants, what Bayern need to do to get past Villareal, Leipzig and Eintracht's chances in the Europa League and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Foals fans at the Borussia-Park may have feasted on a see-saw six-goal thriller, but their team's return - just one point -had to sting. Their opponents 1. FC Köln will have cherished an away draw in the Rheinderby, but time is running short on the billygoats' bid to stay out of relegation trouble. Matt and Nik put the spotlight on the two western giants on a weekend where Bayern hit Mainz with an eight ball, Leverkusen compounded Wolfsburg's misery and much more.

As you may have heard (on Monday's TF Direct among other places), FC Bayern München didn't quite manage to stick to just 11 men on the pitch at one time this past weekend. A few choice comments this week from Julian Nagelsmann that sounded like blame-shifting meant JT and Flo couldn't resist going in on the coach of the Rekordmeister. They'll let you know if that brouhaha might have any fantasy implications, whether it's time to shell out for Erling Haaland, and which Saturday games to tilt toward when selecting your team this wekeend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Could FC Schalke 04 actually be getting itself back on on track? It may be too soon to tell, but the Royal Blues' three-game win streak has put them back in the thick of the race for promotion back to the top flight. Nik and the gang talk through Schalke's chances for a speedy return, St. Pauli fans' chilly reception by police in Rostock, Türkgücü's financial flameout, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If there was much doubt that RB Leipzig are the form team in the Bundesliga, they erased that on Match Day 28, putting four past Borussia Dortmund in the Schwarzgelben's big full-house return to the Westfalenstadion. Matt gets hold of Terry Duffelen to mull over the consequences of that bog result, engage in some mutual head-scratching over Bayern's failed substitution in Freiburg, and look over the World Cup draw from a Bundesliga fan's perspective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bundesliga is entering the final stretch - just seven games to go. Most importantly for all the #BLFantasy managers out there, this window is the last one to offer UNLIMITED TRANSFERS. There might not be whole lot of season left to show off your re-vamped team, but that's no reason not to re-vamp it in the first place. Listen in as JT and Flo let you know all the best bets for big points in the run-in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It came as something of a shock when Hertha BSC named Felix Magath as their interim coach last week. The coaching icon who's been out of the German top flight for a decade may be in the capital on a limited appointment, but the announcement rocked the German football world, crashing web sites and attracting extraordinary media attention. So what makes the man they call 'Quälix' such a big deal? To get you up to speed on all the laurels, legends, and lore that punctuate Magath's career, Nik Wildhagen called on Matt Hermann and Flo Reinecke. As you'll hear, there's a lot to talk about... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plenty of the Bundesliga's biggest clubs have felt that sinking feeling at one time or another this season - none more so than VfB Stuttgart and Hertha BSC. There are reasons to think that might change after both were winners on Match Day 27. Listen in as Matt talks with The Athletic's Chris McCarthy about Hertha's coaching change, Stuttgart's radical embrace of continuity, BVB's latest disappointment and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The twists and turns continue in the 2. Bundesliga promotion race, as the candidates swapped spots at the top with just eight games left. The Coronavirus pandemic came roaring back this week, throwing a worrying wild card in the to mix as well. Listen in as Nik, Maik and Jasmine fill you in on all the latest from the second tier and below... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No TF Direct this week - we've got something completely different, and completely urgent to current events. Nik speaks with Eastern European football expert James Montague about Ukrainian ultras - how they've been deeply enmeshed in the country's conflict with Russia for years, and what they're up to as Russia's assault intensifies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a week off in light of the desperate situation in Ukraine, JT and Flo are back in the saddle to help you take your mind off of it. Listen in to find out: which elite striker to keep (and which to sell), whether Florian Wirtz is a must-have this weekend, which English translation of Anschlusstreffer hits the nail on the head and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're going deeper into German football history and culture studies this week - that means it's time to meet a few more clubs from the country's third-tier division for the western part of the country, the Regionalliga West. What clubs will you meet via Nik, Jasmine and Maik? Not one but two Rot-Weisses, a near-Borussia and one from the city with the most fascinating railway in Germany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's never a dull moment in Germany's second tier. Just when you think you've sussed out who's good and who's not so good, you get a week like round 24 - one in which every team in the top eight failed to record a win. The full Aufstieg gang of Nik, Jasmine and Maik get together to try and work out what that means, how a miscreant in Rostock made it on to the pitch, and more.

If you're a club in the bottom six places after 25 games, it's time to face it: the remainder of the season is about survival - no more, no less. This past weekend, a couple of clubs seemed to get the picture...while quite a few others did not. Matt sat down with Eva-Lotta Bohle of the 2. Bundesliga Podcast to get her thoughts on Arminia Bielefeld's recent defensive troubles, Borussia Mönchengladbach's irreconcilable differences, the shocking fragility of Hertha BSC and all the rest of the problems of the downtrodden. (Don't worry, they talk about the good teams in the league too...) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plenty of news from the 2. Liga. Werder Bremen prevailed over Hamburger Sport-Verein in an action packed Nordderby, Schalke realized after all these years that their main sponsor had some dodgy connections, and a return to form from SV Darmstadt in a win in Dresden. Speaking of Darmstadt, their assistant coach Maximilian Hahn joins the pod for some on-the-ground insight. Listen in as he talks all things lower leagues with guest host Jasmine Baba and Maik Krükemeier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now are you ready to crown FC Bayern München Bundesliga champions-in-waiting? After a limp draw for Borussia Dortmund at FC Augsburg on Match Day 24, the Rekordmeister's win at Eintracht Frankfurt restored their lead to eight points and may just end talk of a title race once and for all this season. But there's plenty more to talk about, like how to interpret Eintracht's enigmatic up-and-down season. For that, and all other subjects this week, Matt turns to Brian Sanders of the Hey Eintracht Frankfurt podcast. Plenty on tap about the Europa League draw, potential peril for Stuttgart and Hertha, and more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Match days come and march days go, but this one's special...at least for JT and Flo. As residents of Cologne (Germany's Karneval capital), our fantasy fellas had to squeeze in this episode prior to joining the days-long festivities. They've got all the advice that's fit to print, including the best way to replace the injured Patrik Schick, which injured players you shouldn't get rid of, and more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This one's for the crate-diggers, truffle-hounds, and off-the-beaten-path walkers of football fandom. Nik, Maik, and Jasmine take you down to one of Germany's fourth-tier leagues, the Regionalliga West. That might sound a bit obscure, but today's Regionalliga West is chock full of clubs with fascinating histories, which the gang are ready to tell you about: KFC Uerdingen, Fortuna Köln, Alemannia Aachen and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Germany's big three - FC Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, and RB Leipzig - all ran riot on Match Day 23, collectively outscoring their (admittedly lowly) opponents 16-2. It was a big about-face from the three teams' patchy performances in Europe at midweek. Matt gets hold of goal.com's Ronan Murphy for a chat about the teams on either end of those big blowouts, about the probabilities of scissor kicks, and (because Ronan's still on a high from last weekend) about the L.A. Rams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a two-week layoff from match day podding, James Thorogood and Flo Reinecke are back in the saddle. That means a whole slew of your questions about line-ups, transfers, and more will be answered at length. Lots of high-scoring potential out there this week, so make sure to listen in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just as in the Bundesliga, Germany's second tier is heading into the final third of the season and the time has come to take a closer look at the promotion prospects of the various sides hoping to make the jump to the top flight. At least six sides have a legitimate chance at promotion, so Nik, Jasmine and Maik have their hands full figuring out which are the best bets. Thy also tell us how 3. Liga fans have been working hard to be able to do something else with their Monday evenings than watch football... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's not every week we get a result as shocking as FC Bayern München's 4-2 loss to promoted side VfL Bochum. It's also not every week that a Bayern first-team regular decides to leave the club...for Borussia Dortmund. And it's certainly rare that the big conversation in German football all week has been about whether North American-style playoffs are a good idea for the Bundesliga. So there was plenty to talk about when Matt rang up Lewis Ambrose - all the aforementioned and much more, including the magic of Max Kruse, Christopher Nkunku's will-he-or-won't-he flirtation with the Congolese national team and other topics. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the face of all the commercialization baked into the modern professional game, it's easy to feel a bit romantic about amateur football. After all, that's where players play for the love of the game...right? Arne Steinberg, one of the producers behind a new documentary broadcast on German TV network ARD found otherwise. Listen in as he tells Nik Wildhagen about how Germany's non-professional divisions have become an unregulated wild west. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a weekend in which FC Bayern München made up no ground in the title race, they still managed to test Bayer 04 Leverkusen's balance. Thomas Tuchel will vacate his job on Säbener Straße at the end of the season, and Xabi Alonso is the hot favorite to take over. Matt and Terry talk through how much that storyline matters with Leverkusen in a commanding position. Dortmund's weak week also comes up, along with some thoughts on the wider fan frustration with modern football (modern capitalism? modern life?) that helped fuel the recent fan protests.

Yes I know you probably put away any notion of a title race weeks ago, but the math heading into round 21 allowed us to believe (just a little bit) otherwise. No more. Not after the Rekordmeister gutted out a win over a very game RB Leipzig, and certainly not after Dortmund ended up overmatched against Leverkusen in their own house. Listen in asa Matt gathers with Adam Khan to talk about big games, at-home touchline tirades, and a potential shift in the winds of success after Max Kruse's move up the tracks to Wolfsburg from Union Berlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Max Eberl, one of the towering figures of the Bundesliga over the last decade and a half, made a bold decision last week: he walked away. The Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director said he was exhausted, and that he had lost any sense of joy in his work, so he called a halt to his tenure at the venerable club. His press conference was a tearful exit, not least because it was evident to all involved how much he cared for Gladbach - and how much he had accomplished prior to a patchy season this term. How did it come to this? Nik Wildhagen wanted to find out, so he called up Vollraute Abroad podcaster Manuel Breuer for a good long chat on Eberl's body of work, and what might come next for the foals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 2. Bundesliga only just got back up and running about 10 days ago, but there's plenty to talk about already. St. Pauli's loss to their cross-town rivals handed Darmstadt the opening they needed to take over at the top, Fortuna Düsseldorf find themselves in major upheaval, and Werder Bremen kept on rising after a wild win. Listen in as Nik, Jasmine, and Maik walk you through these stories, along with a few from the lower divisions too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So we had a number of late scratches from starting line-ups last week - not least the one involving a certain Frankfurt winger. JT and Flo talk through strategies on how to make the best of these bad situations, give you their player picks and answer a number of your listener questions. Listen in and be ready for Match Day 20! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With 19 match days in the books, Berlin's rising force from Köpenick are knocking on the door of the UEFA Champions League places - held back, in fact, by nothing more than goal difference at the moment. Considering they spend less than all but a handful of clubs in the division, how are they pulling it off? Listen in as Nik Wildhagen gets the inside dope from our resident tactical analyst Jasmine Baba. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plenty to talk about from the weekend - Erling Haaland did his best to match the goalscoring exploits of Thomas Meunier and fire Dortmund to victory against Freiburg, Union Berlin kept on burnishing their European bona fides ahead of a big DFB Pokal Berlin derby clash, and Robert Lewandowski made Bundesliga history for the umpteenth time. Matt rings up Terry Duffelen to make sense of it all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lots of tasty fixtures in store in Bundesliga this weekend - not least the Dortmund-Freiburg clash in store for Friday night, so Match Day 19 will be getting off with a bang! ...Speaking of fast starts, we got off to one this week with our recording time, so JT and Flo weren't able to answer any of the questions you sent via Twitter. Not to worry - they did their best mind-reading act and answered a few of the ones you sent anyway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bundesliga has long been known as an incubator for young North American phenoms, but FC Augsburg's purchase of Ricardo Pepi is different. It's the biggest Bundesliga move of the January transfer window thus far, it's the second-biggest-ever sale price for a MLS player, and it's the most FC Augsburg has paid for any player ever. A lot riding on the El Paso native's shoulders...but at least one reporter who knows him well thinks he'll but up to the challenge. Listen in as Texas soccer writer Jon Arnold tells Matt about Pepi's meteoric rise, his pedigree from the vaunted FC Dallas academy, and what Bundesliga fans should expect from the center forward going forward... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bundesliga rang in the new year with rollicking Rückrunde action on Match Day 18. Listen in as Matt Hermann speaks to Jasmine Baba about: How Bayern's Covid-struck skeleton crew proved they're just as good as the club's first choicers by dropping points to Gladbach, How Dortmund managed to prevail in another wild west shootout against Eintracht, and whether the jury on who's actually a European-quality side is very much still out for half the league. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back! Have a nice couple of weeks? A happy new year? We hope you enjoyed your break, because the Official Fantasy Bundesliga is getting back to work. The big issue at the moment for fantasy managers? Making sure you make the most of the last unlimited transfer period until March. With perhaps the biggest match of the weekend up in the air due to a Covid outbreak, JT and Flo are taking a wait-and-see approach to a few decisions. Still, they've got loads of advice as well as answers to a string of your questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you thought there was an end in sight to Germany's fan protests, think again - they're just getting started. Nik, Maik and the returning Jasmine weigh in on the wave of game-stopping events that swept across the 2. Bundesliga, Steffen Baumgart's arrival at HSV, the latest indignity perpetrated at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and an attendance milestone that proves the Zweite Liga is Germany's #1 football league.

Ever wonder what's cooking over on our Patreon page? Well at the moment we've got a series that we're excited to share - one we hope will shed light on some sordid chapters in German football history. We call it SKANDAL! and we're sharing the first episode here on the man feed. This edition is about one of the biggest scandals of all - one that's had repercussions as recently as Der Klassiker in this year's Hinrunde. Remember what Jude Bellingham said about referee Felix Zwayer having fixed a match? This episode will explain how Mr. Z got mixed up in all that, as well as go deep on the referee who stood at the center of the story - Robert Hoyzer. Episode 2, about the bombshell memoir that cost a Germany international his DFB career, is already available on Patreon, Episode 3 goes up this week and the series is set to continue for the next couple of months. Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we move into the winter break, it's time to take stock of a very tight race for promotion in the 2. Bundesliga. FC St. Pauli and SV Darmstadt are riding high, but after that no fewer than SEVEN sides are within three points of the playoff spot. Nik, Maik and Jasmine step in to break it all down, as well as to discuss a game in the 3. Liga that was abandoned after racist chanting. So much going on in the lower leagues, so little time... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a few flirtations with the idea of a title race earlier this season, the Bundesliga has decided to settle down with its long-term partner - FC Bayern München domination. The Rekordmeister are back to putting the hurt on opponents (VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg most recently), and that's not something Borussia Dortmund - or anybody else for that matter - can really keep up with. Matt sits down with Marie Schulte-Bockum for a chat about Bayern's current brilliance, Dortmund's woes in Berlin, the streaking Eintracht Frankfurt and why their win against Mainz should not be underestimated, and where the league seems to be at right now heading into the Winterpause. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices