Borussia against Bayern – the everlasting classic
No doubt about it!: Beside the derby against Sch…e in two weeks the match against Bayern München is the second exciting date in our calendars. And the kick off for this match will be this Saturday in our – no surprise – outsold Westfalenstadion!
What goes on in our minds when we think about Bayern München? Here are some important items to mention:
* Germany’s most successful football team with the most national and international titles
* Internationals of highest popularity from the sixties until now
* The mighty “Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer, the club’s president
* Long time manager Uli Hoeness who inspires most of Bayern fans and often annoys all others
* A hot spot for many coaches
Of course such a list can never be completed! Opinions about Bayern München are drifting apart. Or let me say only two opinions about Bayern exist: Either they will be loved or they will be hated! And it’s a fact that you will find the Bayern lovers all across the country: Consequence of their long success story during the last decades. But let’s close the chapter “glory” for now and let’s take a look at the current situation of Bayern München: Last season was very unsatisfactory for the club: No titles, “only” position 2 in the table and coach Jürgen Klinsmann was fired. Not to everyone’s surprise the expected effects of his “sunnyboy image” in combination with “modern” training methods didn’t take place. His successor is well known Dutch coach Louis van Gaal, former coach of popular teams like Ajax Amsterdam and FC Barcelona and from 2000 until 2002 national team coach in the Netherlands. To improve the club’s situation Bayern invested a lot of money for new players. The most important and most expensive signings were: striker Mario Gomez from VFB Stuttgart (35 Mio €) midfielder Anatolij Timoschtschuk from Zenit St. Petersburg (11 Mio €) and also for a midfield position Danijel Pranjic from SC Heerenveen (7 Mio €). Important and popular players, but also impressive amounts for their signings. A free transfer was among others former Hamburg striker Ivica Olic. But that wasn’t the end of Bayern’s transfer activities for the current season. By the end of August, 25 years old Dutch striker Arjen Robben from Real Madrid joined the Bayern squad. We remember Robben’s fantastic goal from our friendly against Real Madrid and last Saturday he made his Debut in Bayern’s jersey. His perfect teamwork with Bayern star Frank Ribery and two goals for his new team enjoyed all Bayern supporters.
For sure a lot of high quality players, which put our Borussia, compared to record champion Bayern close to a dark horse position. But don’t panic or be too pessimistic for Saturday! Bayern’s strength is clearly the offensive but the defensive is until now the weaker part of the team.
For both teams training was not very optimal due to a lot of international duties for the world cup qualification games. Due to injuries Mark van Bommel, Martin Demichelis and Andreas Görlitz will not be able to play. Also for Italian international Luca Toni the match in Dortmund will be too early after his recovery.
It’s a pity for Borussia that Sebastian Kehl will definitely not enter the green. Due to ongoing groin problems he might have to undergo surgery again, which means that he could be out for the first half of this season! Hopefully he can avoid surgery and we can welcome him back to the team as soon as possible! Substitutes could be Tinga who recovered from his injury or Mats Hummels who got positive critics in Germany’s below 21 team. Maybe two remarks hint at Borussia’s strategy against Bayern. Jürgen Klopp mentioned “Bayern is favorite,… but we will not camp in our own box” and also according to Patrick Owomoyela “Bayern like everything but defending” we will see probably our team not only in the defensive.
Nelson Valdez showed us during this week how to “kill” a so called favorite. His golden goal for Paraguay against Argentina (1:0) was Paraguay’s ticket to the World Cup in South Africa. And why not another golden goal for Nelson this Saturday against Bayern? Or maybe the first goal of Lucas Barrios?
There’s enough hope that we will see a good performance of our Borussia! A sold out Westfalenstadion with 80.000 fans supporting should be motivation enough
Henry, 11.09.09
