{"id":3332,"date":"2020-05-23T11:27:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T11:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-edict.in\/?p=3332"},"modified":"2020-05-23T11:27:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T11:27:25","slug":"signs-of-life-bundesliga-and-the-return-of-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/2020\/05\/23\/signs-of-life-bundesliga-and-the-return-of-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs of Life: Bundesliga and the Return of Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dhruvan Nair, Undergraduate 2021<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The significance of 16th <\/sup>May 2020 would not be forgotten\neasily by football fanatics as well as sports fans across the world as it saw\nthe return of Bundesliga, the German First Division. It became the first of\nEurope\u2019s top flight leagues to restart since being called off due to the\nCoronavirus in March. Since the Europa League clash between the German side\nWolfsburg and the Ukrainian outfit, Shakhtar Donetsk on March 13th<\/sup>,\nnot a single European fixture was held as nation-wide lockdown measures were\nimplemented across Europe and the rest of the planet. With players being sent\ninto isolation and various clubs facing tough financial calls to be taken, the\nbeautiful game seemed to have been lost. However, the return of the Bundesliga\nseems to suggest that there is still hope for the millions of ardent football\nfans around the world, that their game simply cannot be taken away from\nthem.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After obtaining the\ngreen light from the German government, the DFL (German Football League)\ndecided to restart the first and second tier (2. Bundesliga) leagues on 16th<\/sup>\nand 17th<\/sup> May. A week prior to the restart, the same body conducted\n1,724 tests on players, staff members and all other officials out of which 10\ntested positive for Covid-19, who were to be treated and put in isolation for\ntwo weeks. Apart from this initial test, all Bundesliga clubs continued to have\nregular tests conducted right up till the latest one being conducted right on\nthe Matchday. But the precautionary measures did not end here. Alongside real-world\nchanges came changes to the game itself. New rules were set up to ensure that\ngovernment regulations were followed while conducting the matches. These\nincluded having five substitutes instead of the usual three which would help in\neasing players back to the game after the long layover, the removal of handshakes\nbefore the kick-off to reduce physical contact, half-time kit changes to ensure\ngood hygiene and prevent any infections and finally, holding all games behind\nclosed doors to prevent fans from gathering in large numbers. Equipped with\nthese and several new safety measures and regulations, the Bundesliga signalled\nthe return of European football in Matchday 26, instantly picking up from\nwhere it had left off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first set of\ngames included RB Leipzig taking on Freiburg and then the big one, the \u2018Revierderby\u2019\nwith FC Schalke travelling to the Westfalenstadion, to face Borussia Dortmund.\nPlaying at Dortmund is a challenge for any team as the home side\u2019s supporters,\nthe infamous \u2018Yellow Wall\u2019 is known for creating an electric atmosphere.\nHowever, with the new rules, the truth is that there is no home advantage\nanymore. There were more prominent changes in the stadium, especially on the\ntouchline. The substitutes bench had a different arrangement now where each\nplayer was seated with a minimum distance of three feet between the seats. Once\nsubstituted off, the player was now provided with a mask along with the\nstandard water bottle as custom. However, despite the numerous new guidelines\nand changes, there was no change brought to the intensity of the contest. The\nderby finished with Dortmund emerging 4-0 victors after a resounding\nperformance, with goals from Thorgan Hazard, Raphael Guerreiro and teenage\nsensation Erling Haaland. The victory brought Dortmund to within a point behind\ndefending champions and current league leaders, Bayern Munich.  Despite\nthe result, Bayern were able re-establish their four-point lead at the top of\nthe table with a 2-0 victory over Union Berlin, with target man Robert\nLewandowski and Benjamin Pavard getting on the scoresheet. By scoring from the\nspot against Berlin, Lewandowski took his tally of 25 goals in 26 games,\nincreasing his lead for the Golden Boot but with RB Leipzig\u2019s Timo Werner not\ntoo far behind on 21 goals. At the end of Matchday 26, Bayern remained at the\ntop of the table with 58 points with Dortmund, Borussia Monchengladbach, RB\nLeipzig and Bayer Leverkusen in pursuit, with each separated by just 4 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dortmund Players Celebrated Their Victory in Front of the Empty Stands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The return of the\nBundesliga will play a vital role in bringing back normalcy to sports as well\nas to daily lives of large populations. This comeback has accelerated the\nprocedures to resume the respective top flight leagues in England, Spain and\nItaly. In stark contrast to the situation a few months back, when sports\nfanatics across the world were saddened by the cancellation of major sporting\ntournaments such as Euro 2020, Wimbledon, the Indian Premier League etc., there\nis now a re-emergence of belief and hope across regions that sport too will\nadapt to suit a society slowly recovering from a global pandemic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dhruvan Nair, Undergraduate 2021 The significance of 16th May 2020 would not be forgotten easily by football fanatics as well as sports fans across the world as it saw the return of Bundesliga, the German First Division. It became the first of Europe\u2019s top flight leagues to restart since being called off due to the Coronavirus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,1],"tags":[289,210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3332"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3346,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332\/revisions\/3346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}