Hamburg - Champions VfL Wolfsburg have a tough start to the new Bundesliga season with a home match against last season's third-place finisher VfB Stuttgart, the German Football League's fixtures released Thursday showed. The showpiece match on Friday August 7 will begin the 2009/2010 Bundesliga season, with the rest of the first matchday fixtures following over the weekend.
Record champions Bayern Munich, under new coach Louis van Gaal, have a tricky start to the season with a visit to Hoffenheim who led the table at the halfway stage last season before finishing seventh.
Van Gaal faces further tough opponents in August, with a first home game against cup winners Werder Bremen, followed two weeks later in the Allianz Arena by Wolfsburg.
In between, Bayern must visit newly-promoted Mainz, with a trip to Borussia Dortmund - unbeaten at home last season - following the Wolfsburg match.
For Wolfsburg's coach Armin Veh, who has succeeded Felix Magath, the match with Stuttgart is an early meeting with the club he led to the 2007 title before being dismissed last November.
"This is, of course, something special for me as I was German champions with VfB in 2007," Veh said on the club's website.
"It's a very, very explosive game for sure. I am absolutely sure that Stuttgart will be near the top again this season."
Veh has further difficult opponents with a visit to Cologne, now coached by Zvonimir Soldo, and take on SV Hamburg - also with a new coach in Bruno Labbadia - before the trip to Munich.
All three promoted sides have home matches, with Nuremburg up against Schalke 04, now coached by Magath, Freiburg meeting Hamburg and Mainz 05 entertaining Bayer Leverkusen.
Magath has a local Ruhr region derby the following weekend when Bochum are the visitors.
In other matches of the opening weekend, Bremen have a home match against Eintracht Frankfurt, Hertha Berlin face Hanover, while Dortmund play Cologne and Bochum meet Borussia Moenchengladbach in regional derbies.
The season finishes in World Cup year on May 8 with potentially key matches including a northern derby between Werder Bremen and Hamburg and Bayern Munich at Hertha Berlin.
Saturday will continue to remain the Bundesliga's main match day with six fixtures, including one match kicking off at the later time of 6.30 p.m. (1630 GMT).
One match will continue to be played on Fridays (8.30 p.m.), with two games set for Sundays at 3.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m.
