Augsburg v Sunderland - Pre-Season Friendly
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Speculation was rife late last week that the club would be sending a squad over to Germany that is likely to be the one that takes on West Ham in just under a week in the Premier League, and it was met with a mixed response. Many fans who had bought tickets for today’s game with Rayo Vallecano weren’t particularly pleased, especially having parted with £20 for the privilege, but the logic behind it all was sound.
Firstly, Augsburg are a stronger side than Rayo Vallecano, so you would want the stronger side to test us ahead of that first league game. Secondly, it’s a new approach from us to split the squad for the final weekend of pre-season, but you can understand why they do it - it means we get as many players as possible at their peak fitness and sharpness, because you never know who we might need to call upon. Thirdly, whilst £20 for a ticket to the game at the Stadium of Light is a lot of money by anyone’s standards, it’s not quite as much as what it must have cost to fly to Germany and stop over, all just to see the Lads — so, it’s hard to argue against giving the travelling supporters a virtually full strength starting eleven to watch.
The most important thing in pre-season is that you do your absolute best to be ready for the start of the season. To the club’s credit, I think that they’ve done that - and we got to see the payoff with the performance over in Germany yesterday afternoon.
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Players of Sunderland enter the field prior to the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Players of Sunderland enter the field prior to the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
Whether you agree with it or not, the starting eleven we saw against FC Augsburg is pretty close to the one that will start the game against West Ham. The big debate going into the game was over whether or not it was the right call to leave Enzo Le Fee in Germany, but I can’t really argue with the trio of Granit Xhaka, Habib Diarra and Noah Sadiki — they really are three excellent players, and for me Sadiki has been the pick of all our players in pre-season and has worked incredibly hard to show his worth since he arrived. Xhaka’s record speaks for itself and he’s probably the first name on the teamsheet, whilst Diarra is our record signing and showed what he can bring with that fantastic strike which won us the game.
Sunderland lined up with Robin Roefs in goal; a back four of Trai Hume, Dan Ballard, Jenson Seelt and Reinildo Mandava; the aforementioned Xhaka, Diarra and Sadiki in the middle; Chemsdine Talbi and Simon Adingra out wide; and the big man, Eliezer Mayenda, up top. The bench was made up mostly of kids, and the objective was clear — to give as many of them as possible a full ninety minutes on the pitch.
We started the quicker of the two sides, and the tempo was good. Building from the back and into midfield, the early objective was to get the ball forward to the front three as quickly as we could, aiming to get in behind the Augsburg press with our pace and power.
In truth, our opponents didn’t really put up much of a fight from the off and they provided us with the perfect opposing gameplan in a friendly — they were happy to sit back and they weren’t overly bothered about getting dragged into a physical battle, meaning it was very easy for us to keep the flow of the game on our terms.
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Reinildo Mandava of Sunderland (L) against Marius Wolf of Augsburg (R) during the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Reinildo Mandava of Sunderland (L) against Marius Wolf of Augsburg (R) during the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
We showed our intent early in the game, with Reinildo Mandava jinking his way through the Augsburg defence and into the box before the ball was eventually punted clear, before we eventually scored in the 14th minute thanks to a great team move. Reinildo played it to Granit Xhaka, who then found Simon Adingra on the edge of the box, and he calmly placed it to Habib Diarra, who then smashed the ball expertly into the bottom corner and out of the grasp of the Augsburg goalkeeper to give the Lads the lead.
The big gripe from this point was that we didn’t further assert our dominance with more goals, and we certainly had the opportunities. Reinildo once again was a threat to the Augsburg defence, and after being brought down in the box, he was awarded a penalty by the referee. Eliezer Mayenda stepped up, stuttered, and then stuck the ball in row Z — a let off for the German side, and a moment to forget for our talisman striker. In typical fashion, Mayenda didn’t spend too long thinking about his miss and he was at it again, causing all kinds of problems with his running and pace.
It was then the home side’s turn from the penalty spot, though the referee did them a favour by awarding it as there is no chance that the ‘foul’ he gave should have been awarded. Noah Sadiki, having made a perfectly legal block on the ball, was adjudged to have brought down an Augsburg player — but it was up to Robin Roefs to save the day, and he managed to save an admittedly poor effort from Phillip Tietz to retain Sunderland’s lead.
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Simon Adingra of Sunderland looks dejected and disappointed after a missed chance during the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Simon Adingra of Sunderland looks dejected and disappointed after a missed chance during the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images) Sunderland AFC via Getty Images
Mayenda’s bad luck in the game continued, though to be fair it wasn’t all his own doing, as a cracking through ball from Diarra slipped the Spaniard through one-on-one with the goalie, who did well to get down low and block his effort.
The second half came, and it was filled with key moments — a blocked effort from a Simon Adingra shot which was truly a piece of top class defending; an epic reaction save from the imperious Roefs; a great team effort led by Eliezer Mayenda which saw a decent strike from Chemsdine Talbi saved; a great run and pass from sub Timur Tutierov that saw Mayenda fluff his lines; and an absolute thunderbastard of a free kick from Granit Xhaka which cannoned off the crossbar that I really wish had gone in. All in all, despite Sunderland’s dominance in the attacking third, the only gripe you can come away with is that we didn’t take more of our chances.
All in all it was a very decent run-out for the Lads and, having not tasted victory since we played South Shields in July, it was nice for the players to get that winning feeling back ahead of what is going to be a huge week of preparations.
We go again tomorrow, although it will be a completely different eleven of Sunderland players on show, all of whom will have been watching on Saturday and wondering what they now must do to insert themselves into the manager’s thinking if they want to be a part of that starting eleven next weekend. Over to you, lads!