The game between TSG Hoffenheim and VfB Stuttgart is not just about qualification for the Champions League. It is also the duel between the two German World Cup keepers.
The fans can look forward to a game at eye level in the Hoffenheim game against VfB: the opponents each have 57 points to their name, and the winner can slowly intensify the previously vague plans for the premier class.
The two goalkeepers of the top game also meet at eye level: Oliver Baumann and Alexander Nübel will currently be number 1 and number 2 at the World Cup coming up in the summer.
Nübel with better values than Baumann
The Hoffenheimer has the edge in the national team, although Nübel has the better stats in the league. The Stuttgart player defended 69 percent of the balls on his goal, while Baumann “only” managed 67 percent. When it comes to thwarted big opportunities, Nübel (24 percent) is also ahead of Baumann (15 percent).
In addition, Nübel has kept a clean sheet eleven times this season, while Baumann has kept a clean sheet six times. And yet Baumann should still have his regular place at the World Cup. There are good reasons for this: the 35-year-old has shown good to very good performances in his eleven international matches so far. After more than 400 Bundesliga games, the veteran is not easily disturbed.
Nübel with international match as a “reward”
Baumann has been impressing with strong performances at TSG Hoffenheim for years, and the former Freiburger rarely makes mistakes. With this consistency and calm he also seems to score points with Julian Nagelsmann. After Marc-André ter Stegen was injured again, the national coach quickly decided on Baumann as the new number 1.
Nübel is likely to only play the role of representative at the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico, even though he was most recently rewarded with a performance in front of the home crowd in the friendly against Ghana at the end of March. Nagelsmann hastened to emphasize that this was not a “casting for the goalkeeper position”.
Discussions about Manuel Neuer ended – for now
FC Bayern’s Champions League games are apparently not a “casting” either. The 40-year-old Manuel Neuer was so brilliant there in the spring that quite a few experts called for a return to the DFB team and a late appointment as World Cup keeper.
Luckily for Baumann (and Nübel), these discussions finally died down. Maybe a little because Neuer got five balls on goal in the epic semi-final duel at Paris St. Germain but couldn’t defuse any of them. He wasn’t to blame for conceding a goal, but another over-performance like in the game at Real Madrid would have fueled the discussions again.
Young keepers are pushing their way into the DFB team
With Baumann, the DFB team will have a World Cup keeper who certainly has what it takes to provide the support they need for a successful result. Nübel, who is five years younger, will focus on the 2028 European Championships as his next big goal.
The Paderborn native already has younger competition breathing down his neck: Jonas Urbig, Finn Dahmen and Noah Atubolu are already pushing for a place in the national team, especially since this could perhaps be Baumman’s first and last major tournament as number 1. But all of this is a thing of the future: on Saturday Nübel and Baumann will be in the stadium 2000. VfB Bundesliga game first of all about qualifying for the premier class.
