All the attention on Bloody Wednesday — which saw three respected Bundesliga coaches get fired or resign — has overshadowed Sunday’s showdown between Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 (TV: GolTV: live, 11 am ET), which share first place two games into the second half of the season.
Bremen and Schalke broke away from the pack, picking up win on Wednesday to move seven points clear of third-place Stuttgart and eight points ahead of defending champion Bayern Munich.
Bremen, which leads on goal difference, will be without suspended Torsten Frings, one of four Bremen players called up for Germany’s friendly against Sweden next Wednesday along with defenders Per Mertesacker and Clemens Fritz and striker Miroslav Klose.
Schalke striker Kevin Kuranyi, whose fine form earned him a national team recall for the Sweden game, said Sunday’s game could be the first step toward deciding the 2007 race.
“We are looking forward to the match,” he said, “and we are going there full of confidence.”
Elsewhere, Ottmar Hitzfeld returns to the Bayern bench for the first time since replacing Felix Magath when the defending champion travels to Bavarian rival Nuremberg on Friday (TV: GolTV: live, 2:25 pm ET). Magath is rumored to be a candidate to replace Thomas Doll at his former club Hamburg, which is in last place and faces relegation for the first time since it became one of Bundesliga’s founding members 43 years ago. The third club to change coaches on Wednesday was another relegation candidate, Borussia Moenchengladbach, whose veteran coach Jupp Heynckes resigned and was replaced by assistant Jos Luhukay on an interim basis.