Klose kills all dreams

A slow and painful death for Borussia last night, after leading early on Borussia held on to a 1-1 draw until the 87th. A Klose brace killed all dreams. And during the match Franz „Der Kaiser" Beckenbauer shows all signs of dementia and causes a riot amongst Borussia fans.

Before the match

Just about 10 months after Borussia had been demolished by Bayern a week before the cup final, the Black'n'Yellows travelled down south again. Having not won a match there since the short days of Sören Lerby as coach of Bayern in 1991 and still doing without the likes of Kuba, Kehl (who made a short appearance yesterday) and Dede the Westphalians where the 1:8,1 outsider at one of the online betting biggies. Bayern, who lost away to Hamburg, needed to grab the three points to stay within striking distance to Bundesliga-leaders Hoffenheim. Some things never change. A short look at the our last results in Munich: 1:1, 2:6, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 0:5, 3:3, 0:2, 0:5 - doesn't look too promising. Let's add the 1:3 and forget all about it.

Scenes from the first half

A few scenes. Hajnal gets the ball from Schweinsteiger, finds Tinga, a neat one-two, Hajnal sets off a long ball to Valdez, Demichelis stumbles, Valdez paces towards Rensing and curls the ball into the top left corner. Has anyone ever questioned Valdez? World class finish, I kid you not. With 90 seconds into the match we are up by one. And then Bayern takes command of the game. A Toni header saved by Weidenfeller, a few easy ones for Klose denied by Weidenfeller. Borussia answers with long balls that come back immediately. Frei runs towards the Munich goal, fires off a shot from 20 meters, Demichelis plays handball, Ref Michael Kempter decides: No penalty! Kempter awards a free kick for Munich after Boateng touched the ball with his hand. The ball ends up in a box, and never gets out of there. Amazing frenchman Ribery shoots, Weidenfeller saves but Ze Roberto finds the back of the net of the rebound. Offside. But Kempter won't care. 1-1. And attack after attack rolls towards Weidenfeller. He saves every single one of it.

Half time talk

Enter Franz Beckenbauer at half time. Right before the goal Boateng jumped onto Klose's knee while trying to run after Ribery. Ze Kaiser, an old grey haired man, still chairman of Bayern Munich had been invited by Pay-TV station Premiere to be their impartial expert. Sure thing he is! Something. Not impartial and not an expert. „Boateng can be happy if those pictures are not shown to the DFL-officials. He has to be banned for this disgusting foul. I am not able to look inside the head of this young man". Either dementia or the old fellow put up a great smoke screen. The offside, the penalty -. not mentioned. Stop whining, you shout!, you are black and yellow. You are not from that other team. I'll give you more of it: Now!

Second half

Injured Tinga stays inside the dressing room and is replaced by Sahin, who went on to play a more than solid second half. And Lee stays underneath the pitch as well. „A gatekeeper closed the hatchway really quick and Lee was still on the other side. It took a minute or so until the hatchway was open again", explains Jürgen Klopp, then wonders if the small Lee might need some extra weight training to open the hatchway without any help. The game however shallows. Sahin takes command of our midfield and Bayern's attacks become less furios and forceful. Still - a feeling deep down says it's only a matter of time until they score. But before that Mr. Florian Kringe wastes a few good opportunities to put us in front again. He manages to hit a rebound so hard that from six meters the ball does not even cross the touchline and in a stylish manner clears a ball from two meters. Frei and Valdez are nowwhere to be seen as Demichelis takes both of them out of the match. On the other side, Klinsman substitutes Luca Toni and fields Landon Donovan. Ribery shows why he is one of the best players in the world right now. Playing seek and hide with Owomoyela who never stands a chance against the frenchman. As a defender he only wins three out of 12 duels against Ribery. And then with only three minutes to go our boys try and set up a counter attack without having possession of the ball. A naive idea that backfires on the defense within seconds. Schweinsteiger swings in a long ball, Santana stumbles and clears to Klose who puts it away through Weidenfeller's shorts. Then Klose scores a second one. And the match is over. 3-1 for Bayern.

Where are we now?

Where does this leave us now? Kinda exactly on 9th spot. But still within striking distance to Leverkusen who are only three points away from us. We will be facing Energie Cottbus next sunday. Cottbus jumped to 15 after beating Hannover 96 3-1 last night. A win is needed after throwing away three 1-0 advantages in the last three matches. After Cottbus comes the Derby. If we are lucky not only Kehl will be back by then but also Kuba and Dede.

What Klopp has to say

Klopp: „We do not deserve a point today which does not mean we were not up to steal an underdeserved point here tonight... When I heard that somebody tried to foister a foul into that Boateng-scene, I watched it again on telly. Kevin is in full speed and chases the ball. He is still within the box, the game moves on - what should he have done but to play on? I don't blame Miro Klose for being angry at Boateng - it is painful if 85 kilos smash down on your knee. But to ask the German Soccer Assosication for consequences is bullshit. Kevin was not able to see the leg. And one thing is for sure: If one of my players should jump onto an opponent deliberately, I'd be there to tell him off. Nobody could help him after that - not even the DFB. What's there to add? 1-1 was offside and in the history of this game more penalties have been awarded in situations like this (Lucios handball) than have not been awarded. If against a mighty strong Bayern you are unlucky with official decisions twice, it is even harder to not loose"

Stats

Line-Up
FCB: Rensing, Lucio, Demichelis, Lahm, Lell, Ribery, Ze Roberto, van Bommel, Schweinsteiger (72. Altintop), Toni (72. Donovan), Klose
BVB: Weidenfeller (2), Lee (3), Subotic (4), Owomoyela (5), Santana (4.5), Kringe (5.5) (82. Kehl), Tinga (4) (46. Sahin (3)), Boateng (4), Hajnal (3.5), Valdez (3), Frei (4) (74. Zidan)

Goals
0:1 Valdez (2.)
1:1 Ze Roberto (24.)
2:1 Klose (87.)
3:1 Klose (90.)

steph, 09.02.09