The wait is over. FC Bayern Munich gets down to the business of
reestablishing themselves at the top of the Bundesliga against Borussia
Mönchengladbach on Sunday. The match kicks off at 17:30 local time at
Allianz Arena
For U.S. viewers, ESPN Deportes has live coverage starting at 10:30
a.m., while ESPN3.com will also provide a live stream for those with
availability. The match will also air live in the UK on ESPN, while
Eurosport 2 will have live coverage across many European nations-check
your local listing. The Fan Chat will be up and running for you as well
in this space.
Retirement Far From Favre’s Mind
Maybe I’m just immune to Lucien Favre’s hypnotic gaze, but I don’t quite
know what to make of the optimistic projections for ‘Gladbach’s
emerging from many observers. Count me as pessimistic on their season
prospects. ‘Gladbach probably wasn’t as bad as their record before Favre
took over last season, and probably not as good as their record after
he took over. Just as he did at Hertha, Favre has to figure out how to
make the revolution permanent. Will he improve his success rate?
While most of the attention at the end of last season was directed at
Favre’s ability to solidify what had been the league’s most porous
defense, ‘Gladbach still only scored 16 goals in 12 matches down the
stretch, 5 of them in a single match. Expecting to win every match 1-0
for 34 weeks is a very dangerous way to live, and ‘Gladbach didn’t do
much in the transfer market to relieve the pressure on Marco Reus to be
Mr. Everything for their attack.
Manchester United’s Joshua King, just acquired on loan, won’t be in
the picture for this one, and two other attacking additions from the
other side of the globe, Australia’s Matthew Leckie and Japan’s Yuki
Otsu are strictly bench players at this point. It’s up to inconsistent
Juan Arango, reanimated Mike Hanke, and plain ol’ Igor De Camargo to
support the Reus flying circus.
‘Gladbach is strong in the center of defense with the 75% less ‘fro’d
Dante and Martin Stranzl playing in front of keeper prodigy Marc-André
ter Stegen. Unfortunately for the hosts, Stranzl isn’t going to be fit
for this one, so it’s Roel Brouwers, who I liken to a Dutch version of
Daniel van Buyten, stepping in for the start.
The soft spot opinion is the double-six for ‘Gladbach of Neustädter
and Nordtveit. The latter actually had some nice matches down the
stretch last year, but this pair will have to show me more before I
believe Bayern will have a problem breaking them down.
There isn’t a whole lot to be gleaned from ‘Gladbach’s Pokal match
against an over-matched Jahn Regensburg, but here’s the video anyhow
(with bonus Tobi Schweinsteiger goal).
Healthy Uncertainty
Bayern’s 3-0 win in Braunschweig was a foregone conclusion to some, a
confidence-boost to others who still found themselves haunted by the
sometimes shaky defense of the preseason. The way the match played out
robbed us of the opportunity to make a thorough assessment of the team
though. While it was encouraging to see Bayern work the attack patiently
(exactly what was called for, given the opponent), an early lead off a
penalty didn’t let us see if that patience would have lasted 25 minutes
or more. Braunschweig may have changed their formation as the match wore
on, but they never changed their approach, hence there was no incentive
for Bayern to do anything but what they had been doing in the early
going. To some, it was boring; to others, boring was refreshing, given
that strength of opponent had little to do with blowing 2 goal leads in
the 2nd half of matches last season. But overall, the result in
Braunschweig gave us a quite incomplete view of things.
With the exception of Breno, the entire squad reports healthy for the
season opener. We didn’t get to see as much as we’d like of Robben and
Ribery with the closed door training sessions this week-but even if we
had, Jupp Heynckes is keeping it close enough to the vest that we really
don’t know how much time either man will see. My guess: Only one
starts, but both see action.
The only other mysteries are the destined-to-become-eternal question
between Luiz Gustavo and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk at CDM, and who gets
dropped from the squad. I’m going to guess Gustavo has the edge this
time, that probably means Tymoshchuk will start. Usami is probably the
automatic squad drop, and I’d guess Contento and Olic as most likely to
join him in the stands.
Update: On Friday evening Everyone’s Favorite
Tabloid reported that both Manuel Neuer and Jörg Butt were suffering
from flu-like symptoms, making their status for Sunday’s match
uncertain. At least they’ve got the extra day to pound Dr.
Müller-Wohlfahrt’s Flu Relief Elixir. The danger in these situations
though, is that you have 3 or 4 other guys wake up Sunday morning with
the same symptoms..
This is one of these matches where I don’t think there’s a lot to be
learned from looking at last year’s results. Bayern will have no more
than 2 players in the same position in which they started in last
season’s match at ‘Gladbach. The return match in April was one of those
that would struggle to be favorably compared to a pile of dog shit-it
was around the time Louis van Gaal was burning the contents of his safe
after all. What might be a bit more surprising is that Bayern actually
won the match.
Correction
In last week’s Pokal preview, I wrote that Mario Gomez had scored in 4
consecutive 1st round Pokal matches. In fact, Gomez did not score in a
first round match in 2007, meaning he had only scored in 3 consecutive.
Gomez scored in the first Pokal match he played in 2007, but that was in
the 2nd round. However, since Gomez scored against Braunschweig, NOW he has scored in 4 consecutive 1st round Pokal matches..
Prediction
A tricky one to predict without quite knowing what kind of minutes we’ll
get out of our superstars. One can certainly imagine the match bogging
down a bit, but I still expect Bayern’s worst offense to be another
boring performance.
FC Bayern Munich 2:0 Borussia Mönchengladbach
reestablishing themselves at the top of the Bundesliga against Borussia
Mönchengladbach on Sunday. The match kicks off at 17:30 local time at
Allianz Arena
For U.S. viewers, ESPN Deportes has live coverage starting at 10:30
a.m., while ESPN3.com will also provide a live stream for those with
availability. The match will also air live in the UK on ESPN, while
Eurosport 2 will have live coverage across many European nations-check
your local listing. The Fan Chat will be up and running for you as well
in this space.
Retirement Far From Favre’s Mind
Maybe I’m just immune to Lucien Favre’s hypnotic gaze, but I don’t quite
know what to make of the optimistic projections for ‘Gladbach’s
emerging from many observers. Count me as pessimistic on their season
prospects. ‘Gladbach probably wasn’t as bad as their record before Favre
took over last season, and probably not as good as their record after
he took over. Just as he did at Hertha, Favre has to figure out how to
make the revolution permanent. Will he improve his success rate?
While most of the attention at the end of last season was directed at
Favre’s ability to solidify what had been the league’s most porous
defense, ‘Gladbach still only scored 16 goals in 12 matches down the
stretch, 5 of them in a single match. Expecting to win every match 1-0
for 34 weeks is a very dangerous way to live, and ‘Gladbach didn’t do
much in the transfer market to relieve the pressure on Marco Reus to be
Mr. Everything for their attack.
Manchester United’s Joshua King, just acquired on loan, won’t be in
the picture for this one, and two other attacking additions from the
other side of the globe, Australia’s Matthew Leckie and Japan’s Yuki
Otsu are strictly bench players at this point. It’s up to inconsistent
Juan Arango, reanimated Mike Hanke, and plain ol’ Igor De Camargo to
support the Reus flying circus.
‘Gladbach is strong in the center of defense with the 75% less ‘fro’d
Dante and Martin Stranzl playing in front of keeper prodigy Marc-André
ter Stegen. Unfortunately for the hosts, Stranzl isn’t going to be fit
for this one, so it’s Roel Brouwers, who I liken to a Dutch version of
Daniel van Buyten, stepping in for the start.
The soft spot opinion is the double-six for ‘Gladbach of Neustädter
and Nordtveit. The latter actually had some nice matches down the
stretch last year, but this pair will have to show me more before I
believe Bayern will have a problem breaking them down.
There isn’t a whole lot to be gleaned from ‘Gladbach’s Pokal match
against an over-matched Jahn Regensburg, but here’s the video anyhow
(with bonus Tobi Schweinsteiger goal).
Healthy Uncertainty
Bayern’s 3-0 win in Braunschweig was a foregone conclusion to some, a
confidence-boost to others who still found themselves haunted by the
sometimes shaky defense of the preseason. The way the match played out
robbed us of the opportunity to make a thorough assessment of the team
though. While it was encouraging to see Bayern work the attack patiently
(exactly what was called for, given the opponent), an early lead off a
penalty didn’t let us see if that patience would have lasted 25 minutes
or more. Braunschweig may have changed their formation as the match wore
on, but they never changed their approach, hence there was no incentive
for Bayern to do anything but what they had been doing in the early
going. To some, it was boring; to others, boring was refreshing, given
that strength of opponent had little to do with blowing 2 goal leads in
the 2nd half of matches last season. But overall, the result in
Braunschweig gave us a quite incomplete view of things.
With the exception of Breno, the entire squad reports healthy for the
season opener. We didn’t get to see as much as we’d like of Robben and
Ribery with the closed door training sessions this week-but even if we
had, Jupp Heynckes is keeping it close enough to the vest that we really
don’t know how much time either man will see. My guess: Only one
starts, but both see action.
The only other mysteries are the destined-to-become-eternal question
between Luiz Gustavo and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk at CDM, and who gets
dropped from the squad. I’m going to guess Gustavo has the edge this
time, that probably means Tymoshchuk will start. Usami is probably the
automatic squad drop, and I’d guess Contento and Olic as most likely to
join him in the stands.
Update: On Friday evening Everyone’s Favorite
Tabloid reported that both Manuel Neuer and Jörg Butt were suffering
from flu-like symptoms, making their status for Sunday’s match
uncertain. At least they’ve got the extra day to pound Dr.
Müller-Wohlfahrt’s Flu Relief Elixir. The danger in these situations
though, is that you have 3 or 4 other guys wake up Sunday morning with
the same symptoms..
This is one of these matches where I don’t think there’s a lot to be
learned from looking at last year’s results. Bayern will have no more
than 2 players in the same position in which they started in last
season’s match at ‘Gladbach. The return match in April was one of those
that would struggle to be favorably compared to a pile of dog shit-it
was around the time Louis van Gaal was burning the contents of his safe
after all. What might be a bit more surprising is that Bayern actually
won the match.
Correction
In last week’s Pokal preview, I wrote that Mario Gomez had scored in 4
consecutive 1st round Pokal matches. In fact, Gomez did not score in a
first round match in 2007, meaning he had only scored in 3 consecutive.
Gomez scored in the first Pokal match he played in 2007, but that was in
the 2nd round. However, since Gomez scored against Braunschweig, NOW he has scored in 4 consecutive 1st round Pokal matches..
Prediction
A tricky one to predict without quite knowing what kind of minutes we’ll
get out of our superstars. One can certainly imagine the match bogging
down a bit, but I still expect Bayern’s worst offense to be another
boring performance.
FC Bayern Munich 2:0 Borussia Mönchengladbach
.
.
If any United fan think he's shit then he needs to watch the first half of the first leg of the CL semi. Neuer's class.
