Weekend Warm-up: Hansi Flick is pushing Germany to greatness; Everything is looking up for Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies; Bundesliga predictions; Appreciating “Head Right” by Wilderado; and MORE!

Think about where Germany was a year ago…and now look at the impact that Hansi Flick has made.

While the Germans might not yet be at the level of France or England, they are certainly working their way to that stratosphere.

Flick is simply doing what he has always done:

• Building relationships through communication, empathy, and a sense of caring.
• Being genuine, upfront, and honest.
• creating a good enough rapport that the players want to do well for the team — and the coach.

It is far too early to predict that Germany can win the World Cup, but in watching the team, it seems as if they squad would run through a brick wall for the man.

Flick is being creative with his tactics and personnel combinations — and has pushed the players to show the same type of excitement, energy, and ingenuity in the pitch.

This Germany team looks more confident, plays more in control, and asserts itself on the opposition. These characteristics were not present in the final years under Joachim Löw. Now, though, Germany looks like it can be a formidable opponent to anyone — including powers like France and England.

Flick does still have some work to do. The manager needs to settle on a roster, figure out how to get his best XI — or close to his best XI — on the pitch together, solve the issues he has at right-back, and finalize what combinations of players work best together.

It won’t be easy, but if anyone can push Germany to pull off the unthinkable in Qatar, it’s Hansi Flick.

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Davies’ luck about to turn around

Right now is a pretty good time to be Alphonso Davies.

After a bout with myocarditis, Davies is poised to return to Bayern Munich just in time for the stretch run of the Bundesliga season — and the club’s upcoming Champions League tie with Villarreal. In addition, Davies’ Canada squad has qualified for the World Cup and looks like it could be one of the dangerous sleepers in the field.

Not too shabby, eh?

Canada coach John Herdman is excited at the prospect at what his team will look like with Davies back in tow.

“We finished ahead of two top-15 nations. And we did it nearly half of this campaign without our No. 1 player (Alphonso Davies) – the best left back, the best left-winger, in my opinion, in the world,” Herdman said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).

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Song of the Week: “Head Right” by Wilderado

I recently came across this song on my local alt rock station (Alt 104.5) and it immediately struck a chord with me.

The upbeat nature of the song is catchy and hooked me in pretty quickly. Released in 2021, I might be a little late to this one, but it’s new enough that I don’t feel so bad as of yet. I’m enjoying every second of this song and I’ll be checking out more from Wilderado for sure:

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Bavarian Podcast Works: Weekend Warm-up Podcast Season 1, Episode 43

Another week is close to being in the books and there was plenty of Bayern Munich news for us to think about this week.

Even with the Bavarians sitting out during an international break, the news and rumors were flowing. Germany looked relatively good during its set of games against Israel and the Netherlands, too, so let’s dive in. This is what we have on tap for this episode:

• Serge Gnabry is unhappy, but still wants to re-sign with Bayern Munich — and why this could be the right time to part ways. David Alaba is campaigning for Gnabry to move to Real Madrid.
• Corentin Tolisso wanted €12 million!?
• Bayern Munich would rather have Noussair Mazraoui than a new center-back.
• Jamal Musiala’s star is exploding.
• Germany has a right-back problem.

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Predictions

Bayern Munich is starting to get healthy and it could all be coming together at the right time for Julian Nagelsmann’s squad. SC Freiburg will not be a pushover, but Bayern Munich should be the favorite in this one despite being on the road and with a plethora of players coming back from international break.

This will not be easy, but Bayern Munich will shake off its cobwebs in time put home a couple of goals and also keep SC Freiburg off of the scoreboard.

Prediction: SC Freiburg 0-2 Bayern Munich

Other Bundesliga predictions include:

• Union Berlin 1-2 FC Köln
• Hoffenheim 3-1 VfL Bochum
• Arminia Bielefeld 1-2 VfL Stuttgart
• Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Hertha Berlin
• Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 SpVgg Greuther Fürth
• Borussia Dortmund 2-1 RB Leipzig
• FC Augsburg 1-2 Wolfsburg
• Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1 Mainz 05

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Prediction Records

Confidence is key…right?

Last Bundesliga Match Day record: 3-6

Overall Bundesliga record: 127-115

DFB-Pokal record: 1-1

DFL-Supercup record: 1-0

Champions League record: 7-1

Overall record: 136-117