The short version of this blog would be:

First half: Yay! And then 40 minutes of #%^$$&#!!#$#$!@@#$#$$!!!!

Second half: Ah, that’s much better…

Billed as David versus Goliath, Wednesday’s DFB Pokal quarter-final match had Bayern pitted against, giant-killers, Gruether Fuerth. Personally, I think a “David” team would be someone a bit further down in the 2. Bundesliga standings. Like, say, 1860, perhaps?

After an early goal by Thomas Mueller, Bayern seemed uncharacteristically out of sorts. The snow on the pitch made for inconsistent passing. The midfield seemed lost without the cohesive play of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mark van Bommel. And, although I generally stick up for Martin Demichelis, he was… what’s the word I’m looking for… oh, horrible.

Greuther Fuerth came to play ball. Aggressive coverage and hard running confounded die Roten, as Fuerth leveled the score ten minutes in, came up with half a dozen other scoring chances, and then went up 2-1 in the 40th minute on a goal by Allagui that most certainly should’ve been saved by Michael Rensing.

I can only imagine what van Gaal said to his squad in the dressing room at half-time. It probably mirrored what I was yelling at my monitor over 40 minutes. Which, by the way, had my mother in stitches while she corrected my shoddy German grammar.

“Naturally, I was very angry at half-time. There’s no second chance in a cup tie. If you lose, you’re out, and we didn’t want that,” said the coach.

A completely different FCB came out for the second 45 minutes as Arjen Robben scored from the Elfmeter, Ribery netted at 61 minutes, and Lahm completed the barrage at 65 minutes. Add on the second half of Mueller’s brace and an Allagui own goal, saw the final 6-2. A deceiving final score, as it was not as easy as the numbers show.

And, finally, what’s with Ribery hugging his agent after scoring? This is the man who has been trying to get him to leave Bayern for over a year. A poor choice by the Frenchman, I think, as the tides have started to turn against him and will continue to do so. Eh, we’ll take Kroos back and 50-some-odd million for you, Franck. And our form will not suffer because of it.