Bayern Munich

In 2013 2014, the German Bundesliga season ended with Bayern Munich as the champions, Borussia Dortmund as the runners-up, and Schalke 04 in third place. Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg rounded out the top five. Now, in the wake of the opening week of 2015 - 2016 Bundesliga play, it's as if we've found a time warp back to the 2013 2014 season, for how similar today's standings look like the final rankings from that season.

Indeed, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Schalke 04 are the opening week's top three performing football clubs. Bayer Leverkusen, meanwhile, are in fifth, while VfL Wolfsburg are just outside the top five, at sixth place. Talk about déjà vu.

Two Returns to the Top

For Bayern Munich, returning to the top of the Bundesliga table is more or less a foregone conclusion at this point. The soccer club has won 25 German championship titles since inception, including six of the past 10 Bundesliga

10th August 2015.
On August 27^th, ahead of the group stage draw for the 2015 2016 Champions League, UEFA will announce the winners of the Goal and Save of the Season awards. We will also do a rundown of the nominees for Goal of the Season, but today, we're taking a look at the goalkeepers who have been nominated for the UEFA Save of the Season 2014 - 2015 Prize. Of course, similar to Goal of the Season, the nominees for Save of the Season are all moments that took place in UEFA competitions during the 2014 2015 season-so Europa League and Champions League matches, Euro qualification fixtures, U19 or U21 games, and more.

So, without further ado, the nominees! Note that the hyperlinks provided on the names of the goalkeepers take you to UEFA's page, where you can vote for the goal in question as your "Save of the Season."

The Goalkeeper: Sergio Rico, of Sevilla FC

The Game: The Europa League final, between Sevilla

It's official: Arturo Vidal signs for Bayern Munich. The transfer is arguably the biggest signing of the summer for the German champs, as Vidal has played an integral role in each of the past four title-winning seasons for Juventus. He's also on the shortlist for UEFA's Best Player in Europe Award for the year-one of five Juventus players on the list, and one of three who is departing the Italian football club this summer. (Andrea Pirlo and Carlos Tevez are also saying goodbye to Juventus for the 2015 2016 season.)

A Key Cog

In their announcement of the Best Player in Europe Award shortlist, UEFA praised Vidal for his contributions in both Juve's Serie A victory and the Chile national team's 2015 Copa America triumph.

The European football organization noted that Vidal "struck the decisive goal against Sampdoria" on May 2^nd, in a 1-0 home game win that officially secured the Serie A trophy for Juventus.

Back in May, Bayern Munich officially launched their 2015 2016 home kit, a red and white jersey that hewed close to designs from the football club's past. Around the same time, designs of the 2015 2016 away shirt and third jersey allegedly leaked onto the Internet. The leaked away shirt was a white jersey with grey and red trim and detailing, while the leaked third kit was a charcoal grey kit with subtle striping and pinkish trim. On July 10^th, two months and one day after FC Bayern officially unveiled the 2015 2016 home jersey, the football club officially unveiled the Bayern Munich away kit 2015 - 2016 other shirts that will be in their wardrobe for the forthcoming soccer season.

Will Bayern Munich set themselves up to win a fourth consecutive German football title? Will Thomas Tuchel acquit himself well as the new manager for Borussia Dortmund? Will Wolfsburg improve upon last year's solid run to return to the top of the table? All these questions and others are on the minds of German football fans as the start date for the 2015 2016 Bundesliga season approaches. At the end of June, the German league announced the various Bundesliga opening day fixtures 2015 - 2016, which is scheduled for August 14^th. Unlike the Premier League, which pretty much scheduled all of its best teams against notably weaker entities, there are some very interesting, competitive draws in the bunch for Bundesliga opening day this year. Read on to see the various match-ups, as well as to get our commentary about what kind of outcomes might be anticipated.

The Big Games

While August 14^th will see nine

Where other clubs have been picking up new players right and left since the 2014 2015 football season drew to a close, FC Bayern Munich have had a relatively quiet summer transfer window so far. They've brought in goalkeeper Sven Ulreich from VfB Stuttgart (though he will undoubtedly play second fiddle to the great Manuel Neuer), and they've added midfielder Joshua Kimmich (also from Stuttgart), but for the most part, the Bavarians have been reserved with their summer signings and transfers so far. That could all change in the coming weeks, with rumors swirling that the club might offer Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben to Manchester United in exchange for Angel di Maria. For now, the announcement that Bayern Munich sign Douglas Costa, an attacking midfielder, is Bayern Munich's biggest signing of the summer.

Douglas Costa-not to be confused with Chelsea FC's Diego Costa-comes to Bayern Munich following a five-and-a-half-year stint with Ukrainian club, Shakhtar Donetsk. The

Do you want your kids to love watching soccer as much as you always have? Better yet, do you envision your child becoming a big-time soccer star in the Premier League, La Liga, or the Bundesliga? There's really no guaranteed method of getting kids interested in football. After all, some kids raised in sports-loving households end up wanting to blaze their own paths, while other children develop interests in different sports than what their parents or siblings love. However, if you want your child to take up football, here are five ways that you can help the dream along.

1. Start Early

It's never too early to start planting the seeds for lifelong football fandom. From dressing infants and toddlers in miniaturized soccer kits to taking them to games at a young age, raising your child in the culture of association football improves the chances of them adopting that culture as their

Throughout the 2014 2015 football season, en route to a third consecutive victory in the German Bundesliga, the players of Bayern Munich wore a distinctive red and blue striped jersey in their home games. For the 2015 2016 season, though, the football club's style is changing noticeably. The day before the end of the 2014 2015 campaign, Adidas launched a brand new Bayern Munich home kit 2015 - 2016, and it's a distinct change of pace from the 2014 2015 version.

Indeed, the brand new Bayern Munich home kit for the 2015 - 2016 season largely returns to the subtler design that Bayern had during the 2012 2013 and 2013 2014 seasons. Those jerseys were red with white detailing around the neck, sleeves, and shoulders. The new home shirt boasts a similar red color, but replaces the white Adidas striping and detailing with darker red around the sleeves, hem, and crewneck. Meanwhile, the club name spans

As the 2014 - 2015 season closes any Pep Guardiola Champions League hopes for this season are gone, but what does he need to do if he is to secure a win in 2015 - 2016? For the second year in a row, Bayern Munich exited the UEFA Champions League after the semifinals. You could hardly call that a "slump" for the beloved and hugely successful German football club, who just won their third consecutive Bundesliga title. However, the fans of the team have still begun to wonder when they will return to the top of UEFA's most prestigious club football event, which they last won two years ago. More specifically, fans are asking what Bayern manager Pep Guardiola can do over the course of the next few months to transform his team from a national championship-winning soccer squad to a continental championship-winning

The Barcelona v Bayern Munich Champions League Semi-Final did not disappoint last night (06/05/15).  Both sides produced an intriguing and engaging battle which really came to life just 13 minutes before the end when two moments of Messi magic all but ended the German champion's hopes of another Champions League final.  Two goals in quick succession from superstar Lionel Messi were followed by an impressively quick counter-attacking goal from Neymar in added time as the game finished 3-0 to the hosts.  Bayern Munich were without star men Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben but produced a tactically astute performance which for the most part stifled the dangerous Barcelona attacking trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar.  This was of course due to the inside knowledge of Barcelona gleaned by Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola during his 4 years in Spain as manager of the Catalan giants.  The Champions League semi-final was Guardiola's first match back at the Nou Camp since