TAKTIK

Sascha Funk
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Twenty years coaching team sport, now watching from Bangkok while Europe sleeps. A weekly coach's-eye look at German football — with detours into volleyball, the NBA, fight sport, and whatever else is worth watching. Ten minutes of recap, ten minutes of the coach's read, one closing segment on something a coach's brain can't ignore. Not tactical Xs and Os. Not hot takes. The show for people who want to understand what they actually watched. New episodes every week. Before Europe wakes up. Hosted by Sascha Funk, Professor, Coach, Fighter, & host of FUNK !T Mindful Media & Communication.

  1. 5d ago

    Bayern And Dortmund Draw At The Top, Leverkusen Lose Two Straight And We're Out Of Jokes About It, And Elversberg Put Four Past Mainz Like It's Nothing

    Der Klassiker lived up to the billing without settling anything: Bayern and Dortmund drew 2-2 at the Allianz Arena, Konrad Laimer and Dayot Upamecano scoring for the hosts, Serhou Guirassy and a stoppage-time Fábio Silva equalizer keeping Dortmund level on points at the top. Bayern played the match under their assistant coach, because Vincent Kompany has spent the last week and a half in the news for reasons that have nothing to do with tactics - he collapsed during a training session, was hospitalized for close to a week, and has now been discharged to recover at home. We'll give that the one serious paragraph it deserves and move on, same as we did with it the first time. Bayer Leverkusen, meanwhile, somehow found a way to make last week's three-goal home collapse at Hoffenheim look like the good version of their week: they lost 2-4 at home to Stuttgart, their second straight Bundesliga defeat, and we are formally retiring the "best-run club in the country" bit because it's no longer funny, it's just inaccurate. SV Elversberg beat Mainz 4-1, because apparently that's just what Tuesdays are now. Eintracht Frankfurt beat Hamburg for the second time in a week and fielded a sixteen-year-old who tied a Bundesliga age record doing it. And in the 2. Bundesliga, Hertha BSC are now unbeaten in ten after taking Kaiserslautern apart 3-0, while 1. FC Nürnberg won 3-1 away at St. Pauli and stayed exactly where they were anyway - second, seven points back, still waiting for Hertha to slip.

  2. Oct 26

    Dortmund And Bayern Are Both Top Of The Table Now, Leverkusen Win In Europe And Then Fall Apart At Hoffenheim Anyway, And Gladbach Finally Win One Before The History Books Needed Updating

    Borussia Dortmund beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 and Bayern Munich won 3-1 at Freiburg, which means the two clubs that spent September accusing each other of not being very good are now level on points at the top of the Bundesliga, with Bayern ahead only on goal difference. They play each other next weekend. We'll get there. Bayer Leverkusen had, by some distance, the strangest seven days of anyone in German football: a perfectly tidy 2-0 win away at OFI Crete in the Europa League, undone three days later by a 3-0 collapse at Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, where their own player got himself sent off for taking his shirt off in celebration. Last week we called them the best-run team in the country. We'd like to formally retract that. Borussia Mönchengladbach, meanwhile, finally won a football match — 3-2 away at Stuttgart, avoiding what would have been the worst start to a season in Bundesliga history. It took seven games and a second head coach, but they got there. Elsewhere in Europe: Bayern led Arsenal twice in the Champions League and still only drew 2-2 at home, Dortmund bounced back from their Bodø/Glimt humiliation with a gritty 2-1 win in Azerbaijan, and RB Leipzig lost 4-1 at Real Madrid, with a player who left Leipzig for Real Madrid only this summer scoring against his old club for good measure. And because you specifically asked for it: El Clásico happened on Sunday, Real Madrid won 2-1 at Camp Nou to end Barcelona's perfect start to the league season, Manchester United lost 0-3 at home to Bournemouth with their manager's job hanging by a thread, Chelsea lost at home to Tottenham, and tonight in London — for the first time outside Paris since 2019 — somebody is going to be handed the Ballon d'Or. We preview that too. This is a big one. + added some AI madness to see if you spot it - choose human made podcasts!

  3. Oct 19

    Bayern Put Six Past Leipzig Four Days After Nearly Losing To Part-Timers From Norway, Dortmund Get Turned Over By A Fishing Town In Europe, And Gladbach Are Still Winless Under Manager Number Two

    Bayern Munich spent Tuesday night in Stavanger being held to a 3-3 draw by Viking FK — a team whose budget probably doesn't cover Harry Kane's laundry bill — and getting Michael Olise sent off for throwing a ball at an opponent. Four days later they put six goals past RB Leipzig, with Luis Díaz scoring a hat-trick and Kane marking his 100th Bundesliga appearance with his 102nd league goal. Same club, same week, two completely different realities. We explain how both are true at once. Borussia Dortmund had an even stranger seven days: they lost 1-0 in the Champions League to Bodø/Glimt, a club from a Norwegian city of about 50,000 people best known for fishing and the northern lights, with manager Niko Kovač publicly admitting his team "weren't even in the game" until they conceded. Three days later they were held scoreless by Union Berlin and are still unbeaten domestically, which is either remarkable resilience or proof that "unbeaten" has become a very low bar to clear. Bayer Leverkusen quietly had the best week of anyone in the country — thrashing Lech Poznań 4-0 away in the Europa League, then beating Freiburg 2-1 at home to climb to within a point of the Bundesliga's suddenly-crowded summit. Freiburg, Mainz, and Elversberg are all still hanging around up there too, because the early-season "it's all a bit random" phase of the Bundesliga hasn't ended yet. Elsewhere: Elversberg and Augsburg played out a four-penalty, pyrotechnics-interrupted 4-3 thriller; Hamburg won again in stoppage time, with Miro Muheim scoring his second match-deciding late goal in as many weeks; and Borussia Mönchengladbach, now under their second head coach of the season, lost again and remain the only team in the Bundesliga without a single point. We also check in on Hoffenheim's miserable continental week — a 3-2 home defeat to Beşiktaş, their sixth loss in seven games across all competitions — and on 1. FC Nürnberg and Hertha BSC, who are, improbably, both still unbeaten in 2. Bundesliga eight games in.

  4. Oct 12

    Freiburg Are Top, Bayern Concede In Under Nine Seconds, And Leipzig Remember They Have Strikers

    Freiburg beat Schalke 2-1 and, because football is a cruel and petty sport, that result alone was enough to put them above Borussia Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga — not because Dortmund lost, but because Dortmund drew and Freiburg's goal difference is better. Dortmund are still unbeaten. They're just unbeaten in second place now. We explain how that works, slowly, for anyone who thought "top of the table" meant something stable. Bayern Munich somehow conceded a goal before most of their fans had sat down — Augsburg's Robin Fellhauer scored in under nine seconds from kickoff, reportedly the fastest goal in Bundesliga history, by exploiting a Manuel Neuer pass that should've been a formality. Bayern needed two Harry Kane assists just to draw 2-2. Jamal Musiala missed it with a knock from international duty, Saibari filled in fine, and that's the last we're saying about that. RB Leipzig put six goals past Eintracht Frankfurt, with Christopher Nkunku scoring a hat-trick, because apparently all that squad needed was Frankfurt standing in front of them. Elsewhere: Bayer Leverkusen won an actual shootout at Mainz (4-3, Diaby's 50th league goal), Hoffenheim and Hamburg played out a genuinely unhinged 2-3 with a red card and two VAR-disallowed goals, 1. FC Köln beat Borussia Mönchengladbach to keep them rooted at the bottom with zero points from five games, Union Berlin finally won a match, and Stuttgart did the professional, boring thing at Paderborn. In the second division, Hertha BSC won their seventh straight game and are still — still — unbeaten, and 1. FC Nürnberg played out an eight-goal fever dream against Wolfsburg that somehow ended 4-4. And because you can't just skip two weeks of your own podcast, we close with a brief, unsentimental look at Jürgen Klopp's first two games in charge of Germany — a draw, then a home defeat to Greece — before we get back to normal service.

  5. Sep 22

    Bayern Hang Seven On Union Berlin, Kane Breaks The Century Record, Dortmund Stay Boringly Perfect

    Harry Kane became the fastest player in Bundesliga history to a century of league goals, and did it inside a 7-0 demolition of Union Berlin that also featured Michael Olise's first career hat-trick. That alone would headline most weeks. Instead it has to share the podium with Borussia Dortmund, who ground out a 1-0 win at Stuttgart to stay perfect through four games and go top of the table, and with SC Freiburg, whose three-game winning start finally ended in a wild 2-2 at Frankfurt. Elsewhere: Werder Bremen came back from 2-0 down to beat Augsburg with a stoppage-time winner, Borussia Mönchengladbach fired their head coach and then lost 4-3 in a seven-goal circus against Mainz, Hamburg won a league match for the first time this season, and Bayer Leverkusen beat RB Leipzig to continue building some real form. In Europe, Leverkusen won their Europa League opener while Hoffenheim lost theirs. And Jürgen Klopp named his first Germany squad — all 44 players of it — leaving out Maximilian Beier, who responded the very next day by scoring the winner for Dortmund. Down in 2. Bundesliga, Hertha Berlin are six games into a perfect season, with 1. FC Nürnberg two points back in second.

  6. Sep 14

    Freiburg Top The Table, Bayern Survive Elversberg, Hertha Berlin Are Actually Perfect

    SC Freiburg are top of the Bundesliga after three matchdays. Say that sentence out loud a few times, because it doesn't get less strange. A 5-0 demolition of ten-man Gladbach puts them there on goal difference over an equally perfect Dortmund, who needed goals from Fabio Silva and a Felix Nmecha brace to see off Paderborn. Bayern Munich, meanwhile, had to go to a town of 13,000 people and grind out a 2-1 win over newly-promoted SV Elversberg, who very nearly repeated their opening-day miracle against Leverkusen — and who gave Bayern a real fright before Harry Kane's 72nd-minute winner settled it. Elsewhere: RB Leipzig went from a historic 4-1 Champions League beating at Como to putting five goals past a hapless Hamburg side that still hasn't scored a league goal this season. Schalke picked up their first win with a dramatic 3-1 away at Union Berlin. Augsburg and Leverkusen played out a VAR-heavy 2-2. Frankfurt beat rivals Mainz to hand Adi Hütter his first win back in the job. And down in 2. Bundesliga, Hertha Berlin have won all five of their games and sit top of the table, with 1. FC Nürnberg right behind them on a nearly-as-good run of their own.

  7. Sep 7

    Schalke Held Bayern, Elversberg Won Again, and Leipzig Came Back to Earth

    Bayern's unbeaten start to the season continues, but their 59-match scoring streak doesn't — held to a goalless draw by newly promoted Schalke at the Veltins-Arena, in front of a crowd that celebrated the point like a trophy. Jamal Musiala made his first appearance back from the neurological condition that caused him to collapse twice in preseason — Kompany confirmed it's seizure-related and said a recurrence "wouldn't be a big deal," which we unpack carefully. Elversberg are two wins from two Bundesliga matches. After shocking Leverkusen on opening day, they came from behind twice at Gladbach — with their own head coach sent off at halftime — to win 4-3 through a stoppage-time Maurice Krattenmacher winner. Population 13,000, and undefeated. RB Leipzig came back to earth after their emphatic opening win, losing 3-1 at Werder Bremen. Leverkusen answered last week's shock defeat with a 4-0 win over Union Berlin. Dortmund won 3-2 at Hoffenheim but confirmed their big summer signing Giannis Konstantelias is out for months with a serious knee injury. Also: Mainz 5-0 Hamburg, Augsburg 4-1 Frankfurt (their second big win in two matches), Freiburg 1-0 Paderborn, Stuttgart 4-1 Köln. Next weekend: Union Berlin travel to Schalke, and Bayern host Elversberg — suddenly not the formality it looked like a fortnight ago.

  8. Sep 1

    Elversberg Shocked Leverkusen, Bayern Are Bayern, and Schalke's Homecoming Went Badly

    Matchday 1 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga is done. Bayern beat Stuttgart 5-1 — business as usual, with Ismael Saibari setting up two goals off the bench on his debut, and Musiala still absent while his return is carefully managed following two preseason collapses linked to a neurological issue, not just heat exhaustion as first reported. The real story: SV Elversberg, newly promoted, population 13,000, beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 in their first ever Bundesliga match. 2-0 up inside 9 minutes. Cole Campbell — the ex-Dortmund winger we flagged as their smart summer signing back in July — scored the second. Leverkusen's captain and goalkeeper both admitted their team was disorganized in the first match of their third head coach in a year. Schalke's long-awaited Bundesliga return went badly — 3-0 away at Augsburg, down to 10 men after a 62nd-minute red card. Edin Džeko made his Bundesliga comeback after 5,734 days away. One road defeat doesn't undo a mid-table prediction — the real test is next week at home against Union Berlin. Also: RB Leipzig 3-0 Gladbach, a winning debut for new coach Martín Demichelis. Köln 3-2 Hoffenheim, with Said El Mala — who nearly left for Dortmund this summer — on the scoresheet. Union Berlin 3-3 Frankfurt in a six-goal thriller. Dortmund 2-0 Hamburg overshadowed by a serious knee injury worry for Konstantelias. Mainz 0-0 Paderborn. Freiburg 4-1 Werder Bremen. Next weekend: Schalke host Bayern, Leverkusen host Union Berlin in the match that tells us if their opening-day collapse was a blip.

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About

Twenty years coaching team sport, now watching from Bangkok while Europe sleeps. A weekly coach's-eye look at German football — with detours into volleyball, the NBA, fight sport, and whatever else is worth watching. Ten minutes of recap, ten minutes of the coach's read, one closing segment on something a coach's brain can't ignore. Not tactical Xs and Os. Not hot takes. The show for people who want to understand what they actually watched. New episodes every week. Before Europe wakes up. Hosted by Sascha Funk, Professor, Coach, Fighter, & host of FUNK !T Mindful Media & Communication.

Information

  • Creator
    Sascha Funk
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Sascha Funk
  • Show Website
    TAKTIK