Harry Kane star show one of five standouts from Matchday 1

Harry Kane got his Bundesliga career underway with a goal and an assist for Bayern Munich against Werder Bremen, bit his debut wasn’t the only reason to watch this weekend.

1. Harry Kane is the real deal 

Expectations are always sky-high at Bayern Munich, but they have hit stratospheric levels with the capture of England captain Harry Kane. He has immediately set out to live up to them, though. Kane’s Bundesliga debut produced an assist – for Leroy Sane – after four minutes, a goal for himself, four for his team and three points as Bayern made an emphatic start to their title defence.

“Long may it continue,” said coach Thomas Tuchel after the 4-0 victory over Werder Bremen, and Kane’s record tells us he is far from a one-hit wonder, despite once being billed as such when he made his initial breakthrough at Tottenham Hotspur.

Kane’s performance illustrated just how good a fit he will be at Bayern and promises great things to come for both the club and its world-class No.9.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better evening,” said Kane after his stellar debut. “It’s not easy when you come to a new country, it takes time – but I’m really happy. As for the hype, I don’t give it much thought. I’ll try to repay the faith, though.” You could argue he already is.

2. There will be goals, and lots of them, in 2023/24

Kane will almost certainly be in the running for this year’s Torjägerkanone trophy, but it wasn’t just Bayern and their new star man that plundered the goals on Matchday 1.

The highest scoring game of the weekend came in Saturday’s 4-4 thriller between Augsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach, while VfB Stuttgart put five past Bochum while there were five more goals in Bayer Leverkusen’s 3-2 win over RB Leipzig.

Saturday’s afternoon kick-offs produced 23 goals in five matches alone, with Matchday 1 ultimately concluding with 34 goals at an average of 3.8 per game.

As for the individuals who will be competing with Kane, Kevin Behrens hit a hat-trick for Union Berlin as they beat Mainz 4-1 on Sunday to pull to the top of the goalscoring charts, while Sane, Tomas Cvancara, Serhou Guirassy, Silas and Jonas Wind also bagged braces. Such is the attacking talent up and down the league, this weekend will not serve as the exception to the rule; it is the rule. 

3. Leverkusen, Stuttgart and Union make early statements

Three of the aforementioned, high-scoring games were real statements of intent.

For Leverkusen, the result may not have looked emphatic on paper, but they were the better team against a Leipzig side that took Bayern to the cleaners just one week prior in the Supercup. Coach Xabi Alonso will have been delighted with his team’s performance, one which hints at a promising season ahead for Die Werkself.

Stuttgart, meanwhile, produced a dominant result which reflected their performance as they brushed Bochum aside 5-0 to go top of the table. The impact of the dynamic duo of Guirassy and Silas was particularly eye-catching and also suggest good times may be ahead for VfB after two seasons spent on the brink of relegation.

Union finished above both last season, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the first ever time, and they looked dominant in beating Mainz – a team with European aspirations of their own. As well as Behren’s hat-trick, new boy Kevin Volland got an assist late on, and the future looks bright.

4. It won’t be plain sailing

Borussia Dortmund were less imposing as they scraped a 1-0 win over Cologne, but the resilience shown by the team will have pleased coach Edin Terzic and the club’s supporters, especially having seen them miss out on the title on the final day of last season. Expect this exciting Leipzig outfit to bounce back quickly and for an exciting battle at the top of the table to unfold.

At the other end of the table, the relegation dogfight should again prove fascinating, if at times stomach-churning viewing for some. Having narrowly survived last season, Bochum will be concerned by such a heavy loss to a team who were two points worse off at the end of last term and only beat the drop with victory in the relegation play-off.

Bundesliga newboys Heidenheim were also comfortably beaten by Wolfsburg on their top-flight debut and will need to adapt quickly if they are to avoid an immediate return to the second tier. Darmstadt gave Eintracht Frankfurt a good run in the Hessenderby on Sunday, but still lost 1-0.

5. Exciting new signings

Of the goalscorers on Matchday 1, four – Kane, Lois Openda, Cvancara and Sven Michel – were new signings, and all but Michel had never played Bundesliga football before. 

As well as the goal-getters, Kane’s new Bayern teammate Kim Min-Jae won praise for his performance at the heart of the champions’ defence, while Openda has been joined by a host of big-name arrivals at the Red Bull Arena, from Paris Saint-Germain-owned Xavi Simons to Konrad Laimer successor Nicolas Seiwald.

Leipzig may have lost to Leverkusen, but they also had new arrivals to boast about Saturday with Victor Boniface and Jonas Hofmann both laying on goals and Granit Xhaka – a summer signing from Arsenal – making Simons’ afternoon particularly difficult.

“To be back [in the Bundesliga] myself, and with Harry Kane as well, is something the Bundesliga can be proud about,” Xhaka told bundesliga.com. “We’ll try to give our best to make the Bundesliga as exciting as possible.”

It’s job done in that regard already.