supercup: borussia dortmund vs fc bayern münchen...
Supercup: Borussia Dortmund vs FC Bayern München, 2-1
(Blaszczykowski 29', Hajnal 33'; Ekici 72')
The T-Home Supercup isn't really that important a tournament, and the people who organise the Bundesliga schedule made it even less important by scheduling the same tie on the second matchday, which means in a couple of weeks. The officials of Dortmund and Bayern weren't really too amused about that, but at least the Signal-Iduna-Park was half full, which is quite good for a friendly. Anyway, I decided to watch the game, knowing that I couldn't expect too much because both teams are in the middle of preseason, the Euro participants joined the rest of the team just a couple of days ago, and due to the excessive training, the speed had to be lacking. However, there was some spice in this tie because of the former rivalry of the two clubs, and Dortmund, who desperately want to get back to being a respectable, successful club after years of mediocrity were playing at home - enough reason for them to give everything.
I watched Liverpool's friendly against Hertha BSC on Tuesday, in which Benítez did without all his Euro participants (apparently, the Spaniards are still on holiday?), so I almost expected Klinsmann to do the same, but he decided to have them on the pitch for 45 minutes, which I appreciated. Unlike Dortmund's Klopp, Klinsmann didn't have the whole squad to pick from: Jansen was out due to an infection, Ribéry is still injured, Sosa and Breno are at the Olympics, and Lahm and Zé Roberto were missing due to private reasons. Other than that, however, Bayern played with what could be considered as their best 11 in the first half.
First Half:
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller - Rukavina, Subotic, Hummels, Dedé - Blaszczykowski, Hajnal, Buckley - Valdez, Petrić
FC Bayern München: Rensing - Sagnol, Lucio, Demichelis, Lell - Altintop, van Bommel, Borowski, Schweinsteiger - Toni, Klose
From the beginning, both teams showed some effort, but Dortmund had the better chances, compensating for the lack of quickness by determination and (healthy) aggressiveness. I quite liked the way they played, pushing forward all the time (assisted by an absolutely worrisome Bayern midfield), but I won't read too much into it. Yes, they have a new coach now, and yes, I do believe he can make a difference and pull this team out of their pit of despair, but their opponent here was Bayern, a somewhat reduced Bayern, but Bayern nonetheless. (Rumour has it that they wore the rather fugly white jerseys to blind Dortmund's players, but that didn't quite work out.)
Oh, and one last thing before I write about the highlights: In this game, I finally realised what the big advantage of having Tim Borowski at Bayern is (= getting to see things like this more often XD), and I'm somewhat less WTF about the transfer. ;D
17' First chance for Dortmund, Hajnal gets a free kick against Demichelis 17 metres away from Rensing's goal, but Petrić's free kick flies into the stands.
23' First real test for Rensing, good save against Valdez.
26' Buckley enters Bayern's box, dribbles around two players, Demichelis prevents an offside position, and Hajnal scissor-kicks the ball a couple of inches past the goal.
27' Bayern counter, Borowski passes the ball through a gap in Dortmund's defense to Klose, who circles around Weidenfeller and then manages to miss the empty goal. *sigh* Not really the way I wanted him to start the new season.
28' Petrić sends a long pass to Blaszczykowski, Lell neglects to clear it and instead puts it right in front of Kuba's feet, the Pole takes a shot, Rensing slips and can't catch the ball, and Dortmund are 1-0 up.
33' Deliberate handball by Lucio in front of Bayern's box, Hajnal scores the 2-0 with a perfectly executed direct free-kick and gives Rensing no chance at all.
36' Shots on goal after 35 minutes: Dortmund 13, Bayern 2. *facepalm* After Dortmund's second goal, Bayern's box was literally besieged, because whenever Rensing or a defender kicked the ball out, it came back immediately because Bayern's midfield let everyone pass. No tackles, bad defensive play, and in case you wonder if they compensated that with good combinations in the other direction - they didn't. I don't know why they were even there. Borowski's clever pass in the 27th minute was the only good thing he did, van Bommel showed some improvement compared to last season but his bad passes annoyed me to no end, and on the rare occasion of the ball reaching Bayern's wings, everything seemed to focus on Schweinsteiger, who quickly lost the ball, whereas Altintop stood completely free and was ignored most of the time. Frustrating. Dortmund, on the opposite, cleverly imprisoned Bayern in their box and coolly circulated the ball around them like in basketball until they found a gap to pass it through. Bayern's defense made some mistakes, but considering the amount of work they had to do, this is absolutely forgiveable. Seriously, midfield, you should be ashamed for loading that much work upon your teammates just because you didn't feel like doing your job. I was very relieved to see Martin Vasquez take lots of notes on the bench next to Klinsmann, because there are a lot of things that don't quite work out yet.
Second Half:
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller - Rukavina, Subotic, Hummels, Dedé - Blaszczykowski (Federico 60'), Hajnal (Kruska 60'), Kringe - Valdez (Klimowicz 71), Petrić (Sadricaj 86')
FC Bayern München: Rensing - Lucio, Demichelis, van Buyten - Altintop (Ekici 71'), van Bommel, Ottl, Kroos, Lell - Podolski, Ngwenya
After the break, Klinsmann changed the 4-4-2 into a 3-5-2 to see how it would work. I had never seen Bayern play in that formation, but it worked out surprisingly well. The reinforcement of the midfield prevented Dortmund from passing with such ease as in the first half, which resulted in fewer advances. Especially with a midfield like that, however, one could have expected Bayern staying in ball possession for a bit longer and completing accurate, useful passes, but the department responsible for advances seemed to be asleep still. Lots of bad passes kept interrupting the flow and allowed Dortmund to counter, and even when the bumblebees drew back to defend the score and keep the remains of their energy, the players in red white (ugh) couldn't take advantage of that because the passes didn't arrive. And strangely enough, whenever they did manage to advance, the crosses reached the head of Christian Lell, who does occasionally score with his foot but never with his head. WTF.
72' Quite significantly for this game, Bayern's only goal is scored by a reserves player. Lell passes the ball to Kroos, who crosses it over to the right side where Ekici is standing completely free, takes the ball and tunnels Weidenfeller to the final score of 1-2.
74' Kringe has the 3-1 on his foot but only hits the outside of the net.
89' First real challenge for Weidenfeller when the ball enters his box and Ngwenya takes a volley shot - rather embarrassing that it took us so long. And of course, Dortmund's #1 parries that one well, so there was no penalty shoot-out and the Supercup stayed in Dortmund. Kehl's happy glow in the interview afterwards made up for that - the boy was positively beaming when he said that Dortmund finally won a trophy again, aww. :D
By the way, Ngwenya is a player from Simbabwe who is currently looking for a club to give him a contract. Bayern allowed him to participate in their preseason and get in shape in exchange for a few goals in preseason friendlies, which Ngwenya was happy to score. ;) It's unlikely he'll stay at Bayern, but a couple of Premier League clubs are interested, apparently.
Oh, and is it just me or have the German commentators finally had some lessons on the correct pronunciation of footballer's names? Both the commentator of this game and the TV expert and former BVB coach Jürgen Röber pronounced "Demichelis" correctly. I am impressed! :D
Anyway, I don't mind the loss that much. If I remember correctly, we lost against Köln and/or Mönchengladbach (don't remember exactly anymore) last preseason and still managed to win our first real match. Also, being in excellent shape so early is always dangerous because it might not hold until the winter break and we have three important tournaments, which is definitely going to be exhausting.
*re-reads entry* God, that was a lot of waffling. I won't hold it against you if you didn't read all of it. *looks a bit sheepish*
(Blaszczykowski 29', Hajnal 33'; Ekici 72')
The T-Home Supercup isn't really that important a tournament, and the people who organise the Bundesliga schedule made it even less important by scheduling the same tie on the second matchday, which means in a couple of weeks. The officials of Dortmund and Bayern weren't really too amused about that, but at least the Signal-Iduna-Park was half full, which is quite good for a friendly. Anyway, I decided to watch the game, knowing that I couldn't expect too much because both teams are in the middle of preseason, the Euro participants joined the rest of the team just a couple of days ago, and due to the excessive training, the speed had to be lacking. However, there was some spice in this tie because of the former rivalry of the two clubs, and Dortmund, who desperately want to get back to being a respectable, successful club after years of mediocrity were playing at home - enough reason for them to give everything.
I watched Liverpool's friendly against Hertha BSC on Tuesday, in which Benítez did without all his Euro participants (apparently, the Spaniards are still on holiday?), so I almost expected Klinsmann to do the same, but he decided to have them on the pitch for 45 minutes, which I appreciated. Unlike Dortmund's Klopp, Klinsmann didn't have the whole squad to pick from: Jansen was out due to an infection, Ribéry is still injured, Sosa and Breno are at the Olympics, and Lahm and Zé Roberto were missing due to private reasons. Other than that, however, Bayern played with what could be considered as their best 11 in the first half.
First Half:
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller - Rukavina, Subotic, Hummels, Dedé - Blaszczykowski, Hajnal, Buckley - Valdez, Petrić
FC Bayern München: Rensing - Sagnol, Lucio, Demichelis, Lell - Altintop, van Bommel, Borowski, Schweinsteiger - Toni, Klose
From the beginning, both teams showed some effort, but Dortmund had the better chances, compensating for the lack of quickness by determination and (healthy) aggressiveness. I quite liked the way they played, pushing forward all the time (assisted by an absolutely worrisome Bayern midfield), but I won't read too much into it. Yes, they have a new coach now, and yes, I do believe he can make a difference and pull this team out of their pit of despair, but their opponent here was Bayern, a somewhat reduced Bayern, but Bayern nonetheless. (Rumour has it that they wore the rather fugly white jerseys to blind Dortmund's players, but that didn't quite work out.)
Oh, and one last thing before I write about the highlights: In this game, I finally realised what the big advantage of having Tim Borowski at Bayern is (= getting to see things like this more often XD), and I'm somewhat less WTF about the transfer. ;D
17' First chance for Dortmund, Hajnal gets a free kick against Demichelis 17 metres away from Rensing's goal, but Petrić's free kick flies into the stands.
23' First real test for Rensing, good save against Valdez.
26' Buckley enters Bayern's box, dribbles around two players, Demichelis prevents an offside position, and Hajnal scissor-kicks the ball a couple of inches past the goal.
27' Bayern counter, Borowski passes the ball through a gap in Dortmund's defense to Klose, who circles around Weidenfeller and then manages to miss the empty goal. *sigh* Not really the way I wanted him to start the new season.
28' Petrić sends a long pass to Blaszczykowski, Lell neglects to clear it and instead puts it right in front of Kuba's feet, the Pole takes a shot, Rensing slips and can't catch the ball, and Dortmund are 1-0 up.
33' Deliberate handball by Lucio in front of Bayern's box, Hajnal scores the 2-0 with a perfectly executed direct free-kick and gives Rensing no chance at all.
36' Shots on goal after 35 minutes: Dortmund 13, Bayern 2. *facepalm* After Dortmund's second goal, Bayern's box was literally besieged, because whenever Rensing or a defender kicked the ball out, it came back immediately because Bayern's midfield let everyone pass. No tackles, bad defensive play, and in case you wonder if they compensated that with good combinations in the other direction - they didn't. I don't know why they were even there. Borowski's clever pass in the 27th minute was the only good thing he did, van Bommel showed some improvement compared to last season but his bad passes annoyed me to no end, and on the rare occasion of the ball reaching Bayern's wings, everything seemed to focus on Schweinsteiger, who quickly lost the ball, whereas Altintop stood completely free and was ignored most of the time. Frustrating. Dortmund, on the opposite, cleverly imprisoned Bayern in their box and coolly circulated the ball around them like in basketball until they found a gap to pass it through. Bayern's defense made some mistakes, but considering the amount of work they had to do, this is absolutely forgiveable. Seriously, midfield, you should be ashamed for loading that much work upon your teammates just because you didn't feel like doing your job. I was very relieved to see Martin Vasquez take lots of notes on the bench next to Klinsmann, because there are a lot of things that don't quite work out yet.
Second Half:
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller - Rukavina, Subotic, Hummels, Dedé - Blaszczykowski (Federico 60'), Hajnal (Kruska 60'), Kringe - Valdez (Klimowicz 71), Petrić (Sadricaj 86')
FC Bayern München: Rensing - Lucio, Demichelis, van Buyten - Altintop (Ekici 71'), van Bommel, Ottl, Kroos, Lell - Podolski, Ngwenya
After the break, Klinsmann changed the 4-4-2 into a 3-5-2 to see how it would work. I had never seen Bayern play in that formation, but it worked out surprisingly well. The reinforcement of the midfield prevented Dortmund from passing with such ease as in the first half, which resulted in fewer advances. Especially with a midfield like that, however, one could have expected Bayern staying in ball possession for a bit longer and completing accurate, useful passes, but the department responsible for advances seemed to be asleep still. Lots of bad passes kept interrupting the flow and allowed Dortmund to counter, and even when the bumblebees drew back to defend the score and keep the remains of their energy, the players in red white (ugh) couldn't take advantage of that because the passes didn't arrive. And strangely enough, whenever they did manage to advance, the crosses reached the head of Christian Lell, who does occasionally score with his foot but never with his head. WTF.
72' Quite significantly for this game, Bayern's only goal is scored by a reserves player. Lell passes the ball to Kroos, who crosses it over to the right side where Ekici is standing completely free, takes the ball and tunnels Weidenfeller to the final score of 1-2.
74' Kringe has the 3-1 on his foot but only hits the outside of the net.
89' First real challenge for Weidenfeller when the ball enters his box and Ngwenya takes a volley shot - rather embarrassing that it took us so long. And of course, Dortmund's #1 parries that one well, so there was no penalty shoot-out and the Supercup stayed in Dortmund. Kehl's happy glow in the interview afterwards made up for that - the boy was positively beaming when he said that Dortmund finally won a trophy again, aww. :D
By the way, Ngwenya is a player from Simbabwe who is currently looking for a club to give him a contract. Bayern allowed him to participate in their preseason and get in shape in exchange for a few goals in preseason friendlies, which Ngwenya was happy to score. ;) It's unlikely he'll stay at Bayern, but a couple of Premier League clubs are interested, apparently.
Oh, and is it just me or have the German commentators finally had some lessons on the correct pronunciation of footballer's names? Both the commentator of this game and the TV expert and former BVB coach Jürgen Röber pronounced "Demichelis" correctly. I am impressed! :D
Anyway, I don't mind the loss that much. If I remember correctly, we lost against Köln and/or Mönchengladbach (don't remember exactly anymore) last preseason and still managed to win our first real match. Also, being in excellent shape so early is always dangerous because it might not hold until the winter break and we have three important tournaments, which is definitely going to be exhausting.
*re-reads entry* God, that was a lot of waffling. I won't hold it against you if you didn't read all of it. *looks a bit sheepish*