Red Bull Salzburg
Finally returning to play after the two-week international break, the Red Bulls’ hopes to repeat as champions took a stumble with a 1-1 draw at LASK Linz in the first of back-to-back matchups with the last-place club. After falling behind just as the second half got underway, RB Salzburg managed to salvage an essential but still disappointing point.
The draw, Salzburg’s 11th of the season, leaves the club five points out of first place and two shy of second. Although the Red Bulls have lost only one match in 2011, they have drawn five of their eight, leaving a host of points on the table as they close out the third set of matchups in the tipp3 Bundesliga.
The Red Bulls (11-5-11) will host LASK Linz on Saturday, April 9 with nine matches remaining to begin the final round of league matchups. Three points are crucial to any title hopes at this point, but Salzburg will be without David Mendes due to yellow card accumulation.
RB Leipzig
VfB Lübek proved to be less of a challenge than the club’s second-place ranking as RB Leipzig topped its opponent, 2-1, for the club’s fourth consecutive home victory and sixth unbeaten match in a row. The Red Bulls took the early lead in the first half courtesy of Thiago Rockenbach and Daniel Frahn and held on to earn a well-deserved victory, allowing only an 89th-minute consolation goal to the opposition.
The Red Bulls remain in fourth place but move into striking distance with 50 points as they now sit a mere three points out of second, which VfL Wolfsburg holds with one fewer match played. While second place is quite attainable, first place and the coveted promotion to the recently created 3rd Liga are all but locked up by Chemnitzer FC, which holds 60 points. RB Leipzig will have a shot at the leaders in the penultimate match of the season in late May.
RB Leipzig (14-4-8) will take a break from league play to face off with FC Sachsen Leipzig in the Wernesgrüner Cup knockout round before focusing on obtaining second place in the table, as the club will face Wolfsburg away on Sunday, April 10 before taking on a slew of mid-table opponents in the following weeks.
Red Bull Brasil
The Red Bulls finished the season at 8-6-4, good for fifth place in the table and one spot shy of second-stage qualification last week. The club will resume play when Copa Paulista commences in July.
The Red Bull Brasil U-20s will play for the São Paulo Championship over the course of May and June, while the U-17s were eliminated from the Copa Ouro in the semi-finals and the U-17s and U-15s will begin play for the São Paulo Championship on Saturday, April 9.
Red Bull Ghana
The Red Bulls (4-4-3) recovered from a disappointing defeat to Purejoy last week, handing the home crowd a win over Okwawu United by a score of 1-0. The shutout is the Red Bulls’ second of the recommenced campaign and pulls them into a tie for fifth place with Okwawu, which won the teams’ first matchup in the first set of matches by an identical score, at 15 points.
Three matches remain for the Red Bulls, with one against a team in each tier of the table, including against still-unbeaten Tema Youth.
