The Wolves host Hertha BSC on Saturday 15 September (kick-off 15:30 CEST) in a battle between two sides who have made perfect starts to the season.
Will the winning run continue?
VfL have taken maximum points from the first two Matchdays for only the second time since their promotion to the Bundesliga 22 years ago. In the 2009/10 campaign, they began their title defence with wins over Stuttgart and Köln. Equally noteworthy is the fact that the Green-Whites have won their last six competitive matches and are closing in on their run from the 2013/14 season, when they recorded eight successive victories under coach Dieter Hecking.
Unpredictable in attack
A real plus point for the Wolves has been their variability and unpredictability in attack. Their last ten Bundesliga goals have been scored by ten different players (including the own goal by goalkeeper Ramazan Özcan in the 3-1 win at Leverkusen). Meanwhile, Hertha’s match-winner in their recent 2-0 success at Schalke was Ondrej Duda. The 23-year-old Slovakia international scored his first senior brace, netting more goals in one game than he had done in his previous 28 combined for the Berliners.
Familiar foe
Interestingly, current coach Pal Dardai lined up 16 times for Hertha against Wolfsburg during his playing career – a club record! In fact, the 42-year-old Hungarian scored the winning goal on his Hertha debut in a Bundesliga 2 match against VfL in March 1997. Dardai has two members of the Wolves’ 2009 title-winning squad in his ranks in Peter Pekarik and Alexander Esswein, although both are currently sidelined, while VfL centre-back and Berlin-born John Anthony Brooks made 90 Bundesliga appearances for the visitors.
