Three friendlies in January - Borussia’s winter break plans take shape

Preparations for the second half of the season will begin in mid-December, with three friendlies planned for January.

The Foals will play three friendlies in January before the second half of the season gets underway. Head coach Daniel Farke’s side will face third-tier VfB Oldenburg on Saturday, 7th January (14:00 CET). Four days later, they will host Bundesliga 2 side Arminia Bielefeld on Wednesday, 11th January (14:00 CET). A third friendly has been arranged for Saturday, 14th January, with the opponent and kick-off time still to be announced.

The Bundesliga will resume play on the weekend of 20th January, with the Foals hosting Bayer 04 Leverkusen on matchday 16 (Sunday, 22nd January, 17:30 CET). The first half of the season will end with a mid-week game at FC Augsburg (Wednesday, 25th January, 20:30 CET). Borussia will open the second half of the campaign away against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday, 28th January (15:30 CET).

Training resumes on 13th December

Preparations for the second half of the season will begin on Monday, 12th December, when the team will return for a series of medical checks. The first team training session will take place the following day at BORUSSIA-PARK. On Saturday, 17th December (19:00 CET), the team will face off against the Borussia Legends in a friendly at BORUSSIA-PARK. Until then, those players who are not currently away competing at the World Cup or on international duty will complete individual sessions. “We decided to let the players take their holiday immediately after the last Bundesliga game against BVB,” said sporting director Roland Virkus. “Our next competitive game isn’t for a while yet, so it would have been hard to keep the intensity up in training during that time. Instead, we will start preparations in mid-December, with a short break for Christmas and New Years.”

The club have elected to not schedule a training camp for the winter break, provided that the winter conditions in Germany do not worsen significantly. The team will continue to train at BORUSSIA-PARK instead. “We didn’t have a big enough group of players in December because those players at the World Cup will only return later. We then only have two and a half weeks in January before the Bundesliga restarts. The coach obviously already has a training plan in mind, and it doesn’t leave room to sacrifice two training days for two travel days,” Virkus said.

Overview of Borussia’s winter schedule:

• Monday, 12th December: Medical checks
• Tuesday, 13th December: Training restarts at BORUSSIA-PARK
• Saturday, 17th December:, 19:00 Uhr: Friendly against Borussia Legends
• Saturday, 7th January, 14:00 Uhr: Friendly vs. VfB Oldenburg
• Wednesday, 11th January, 14:00 Uhr: Friendly vs. Arminia Bielefeld
• Saturday, 14th January: Friendly (Opponent/kick-off time TBC)