In my last entry I stated MY best possible Bayern Munich starting XI. Louis van Gaal, strangely, chose not to listen to me at all. I wonder why that is...

Instead he chose to start Danijel Pranjic and Andreas Ottl as holding midfielders, keep Schweini in the playmaker's role, sit Breno in favor of Antoliy Tymoschuk and give (my favorite player ever) Hamit Altintop a start, opposite Thomas Mueller, in attacking midfield.

Well, it worked. Ish.

German fussball giants, Bayern Munich, took down second-division Alemannia Aachen 4-0 on Wednesday night to progress, for a record 22nd time, to the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal. I said "Ish" above, for the scoreline was not entirely indicative of the run of play. There was uncertainty by Bayern at the start of the second half and only a couple of errrr... crafty saves by young Thomas saved the away team blushes as Bayern had failed to capitalize on their narrow one-goal margin.

Thomas Mueller rightly deserved man-of-the-match honours as he netted a brace and was involved in almost every aspect of Bayern's attack. His partnership and fluidity with Mario Gomez keeps growing. This will serve both of them well as we get in to the latter stages of the Bundesliga and Champions League competitions.

Gustavo's pace up the flank was refreshing. His cross in to Gomez for the opening goal? Perfect. The only knock was the clumsy tackle on Auer which probably should've resulted in a penalty for Aachen. I'll go ahead and say that he got a bit of the ball. Ish.

The real game changer was, of course, Arjen Robben. Towards the end of the first half, when the camera cut to Mr. Robben wildly gesticulating on the bench, I thought, "Good. He's done with the sniffles." But then when he wasn't on the pitch at the beginning of the second half, and we started getting beat up a bit by Aachen, I was internally chanting, "Take Hamit off. Take Hamit off."

And as much as it pains me to say it, Hamit Altintop was not horrible. But the Dutch guy sitting on the bench is/was infinitely better, as the scoreline indicates. Arjen comes in for 20 minutes and we score three goals in that span.

What is most amazing to me is that he plays the same scenario over and over. Run down the flank, cut in towards the box, draw the double coverage, and then either shoot or kick it out to the man left uncovered. Simple. Brilliant. And no one can stop it... Well, except Jose Mourinho's Inter. And we'll see how that holds up in February and March.

So, we've booked a spot in the last four - along with Schalke and second division sides Duisburg and Cottbus. You've got to tip Schalke and Bayern going through, each facing second division sides in their semi-final matches. Stranger things, of course, have happened. But, a Schalke - Bayern final in Berlin? Who wouldn't watch that one?

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