ESPN Soccernet - Correspondents - FC Bayern Munich

Posted by Susie Schaaf on 05/01/2011

It's a curious week when I'm in the position of having to support Schalke 04 against Manchester United on Wednesday, only to turn it around on Saturday when die Knappen came to the Allianz Arena. A quick bit of maths will show you where my head is at: Bayern Munich > Schalke 04 > Bayer Leverkusen > Manchester United > Inter Milan.

Got it?

I took three things away from that mid-week Champions League clash:
1) Schalke's defense is less-than-nothing without Benedikt Howedes.
2) Manu Neuer's first half performance was maybe the best 45 minutes I've ever seen from a goalkeeper.
3) More than ever, I hate plastic Mancs.

So, Schalke was going to react in one of two ways on Saturday: They were either going to put their big-boy pants on and acutally attack, or the barrage would come from Bayern and 10 men would hang their hopes on Neuer's broad shoulders. Thankfully for die Roten, the second was the case.

With an ueber-determined Arjen Robben back in the starting XI, after serving a silly two-game suspension, our offense bore out why it's tops in the Bundesliga. And Neuer's mid-week heroics were not to be repeated as the "Tulpen aus Amsterdam" opened up the scoring on 6 minutes after an Annan error allowed Mueller to find Robben in the box.

Schalke's lone bright spot (if you can call it that) in the match came 2 minutes later as Jefferson Farfan curled a free-kick in front of Bayern's goal, embarrassingly nodded in by Holger Badstuber. Hey, no worries, Schalke! We'll score your goals too!

A soft card given to Zorro, I mean... Christoph Metzelder for a shirt-tug on Robben just outside the box four minutes later, saw the Dutchman free-kick in to the wall. However, the ball was scooped by Mueller who deftly finished past Neuer. Young Thomas was in play again on 20 minutes as he headed over Manuel to give a tap in to Mario Gomez. Finally, Mueller finished off a superlative day on 84 minutes, scoring again after a brilliant break from Franck Ribery.

Not much to comment on the defense, as they really had not a lot to do. The only blemish is the afore-mentioned own goal by Badstuber. Philipp Lahm and Diego Contento nicely complemented Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery with their runs up the flanks. And except for the odd goal kick, Hans-Jorg Butt could've been sitting on the pitch, cross-legged, picking grass: There were no shots, he had nothing to save.

Tymo and Basti won the majority of tackles and distributed the ball around nicely, feeding to the stellar trio of Robben, Mueller and Ribery. Ribery is out on the pitch looking like he's having fun again, and the excitement is palpable when he's got a ball at his foot. Arjen Robben, when he's not complaining, is brilliance personified. And out of the shadows of those two midfield gods, Thomas Mueller is rising in esteem and notice, capturing his World Cup form.

Mario Gomez was, once again, in the right place at the right time. And with a two goal lead over Papisse Cisse, he'll be crowned Bundesliga goal-scoring champion this season.

With 2 matches left, away against St. Pauli and home to Stuttgart, and a two-point lead for third against Hannover 96, we're looking good for Champions League qualification next season. Which means we're looking good- despite a few hold-outs- for Neuer joining Bayern this summer. So, can I be a little greedy and hope that Leverkusen pulls a, well... Leverkusen, and only manages 1 point out of the next two weeks? Then we'd capture second and qualify directly. Because, you know, Bayern Munich > Bayer Leverkusen.

Wir singen, wir tanzen auf jedem Fussballplatz! Ein Schuss! Ein Tor! Die Bayern!

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Comments

Posted by Patrick on 05/01/2011

would be really nice if we just qualified directly, but we just gotta concentrate on winning the next 2 games and then we'll see. this seasons been awful and i just want it to be over, this is actually the 1st time ive ever said that about a season, but this ones been bad. i just want it to be summer, i wanna get Neuer, at least one world class defender, Coentrao would be cool too, i dont see much in van der Wiel i think he's overrated. but if we did get him at least Lahm would go back to the left side where he is best. and another winger wouldnt be bad since robben/ribery are injured/suspended alot.thats all.
"Gestern noch in Kiev, Morgen schon in Wien, zusammenhalten das ist Unser Ziel! Wir sind aus Muenchen, Wir sind die Bayern, Wir sind die Jenigen die immer wieder feiern!!! Oleoleoleoleoleole!"

Posted by Brett on 05/02/2011

Great match! Phenomenal performance by Müller. It's the best I've seen him play as a center forward. The attacking trio looked creative and happy. Tymo and Schweini looked solid, although Schalke seemed unable to fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Good to have Van Buyten back and playing reasonably well. It gives the manager considerably more flexibility in regards to positioning Tymo and Gustavo. For direct UCL qualification, it's in Leverkusen's hands. I expect they will likely win at home against a dubious Hamburg side who have not won in five matches after their 6-2 drubbing of Köln took them to 40 points. Plus, Bayern have won handily a few times this year followed with a disappointing result. They should stay ahead of Hannover, being up two points with GD. The important thing is Bayern held onto Schweini, Robben, and Ribery and should add Neuer next year. Hopefully Olic returns with his motor intact since a knee injury for a striker the wrong side of 30 can cause problems.

Posted by Brett on 05/02/2011

One question. The lunch discussion today at work revolved around Bayern's forwards. Who should start in front of Robben, Müller, and Ribery?

Gomez has been in good form this year (finally) and scoring easily. But his goals are simple, easy goals resulting from the good play and hard work of others.

Olic on top form scores somewhat regularly and runs everywhere. He is a handful and creates spaces and opportunities for team mates even when he himself can't find the net. However, he will never lead the Bundesliga in scoring.

No one made an argument for Klose. The past few years he's had a terrible scoring record and shooting percentage. Before that he was passable, but second fiddle to Luca Toni. While he's been useful at times in the Pokal, he's never scored more than 10 Bundesliga goals at Bayern and will be 33 this summer. Should he be sold?

Will Olic get a shot or have to wait for Gomez to get injured/slump? Who do you think should play up front?

Posted by Frank on 05/02/2011

A goal is a goal doesnt matter if its simple or easy, having the instinct of being at the right spot at the right time is a quality itself. Have you heard of a man called Gerd Müller? I dont think he ever broke a sweat, but yet he was the greatest "scoring machine" ever and jsut because he such great instincts. I love Olic and Klose but we need younger players upfront and it would be a shame to see Olic's and Klose's careers come to an end sitting on the bench for Bayern. Klose is expected to leave this summer, I think it would be great if he would end his career at Kaiserslautern.

Posted by Shane on 05/02/2011

So, down the stretch when we really needed points, we played against a coach who's coming to manage Bayern next season (5:1) and a goalie who's almost-certain coming as well (4:1) - Guess they still love Bayern in Deutschland... :P

I"ll be very pissed if Neuer changes his mind and not coming to Bayern because the stupid pride of Schikeria in Südkurve. Also, KH Rummenigge = Pure Class (asking explicitly on TV to congratulate BVB)!

Leverkusen choke in the end? Sounds like a dream but it happens more often than we can imagine. So, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking looking up the table. But it'll be too harsh for them, I'll be happy if we take care of own business winning the next 2 games.

Posted by Stefan on 05/03/2011

Is it just me, but I believe Gustavo is a far greater defensive talent than Badstuber, he is a better tackler, faster and seems to postion and concentrate alot better. I agree with Susie about Man Utd fans they are so ignorant and obnoxious in ther little man utd box and it really annoys the rest of the football community. Lets hope after their lose to arsenal they will lose the epl lead to chelsea and get killed by Barca in ucl. As for Bayern its simple if they played the right players in the right positions, as they doing now, the whole season they wd have easily won the bundesliga

Posted by MIke on 05/03/2011

Its not a big deal but just to give credit where credit is due, it was Gomez who stole the ball and got the assist for Robben's goal. Shows that he's a little more than just a right-place right-time tap in scorer.

Posted by d on 05/04/2011

Weil Ihre prestigeträchtigen Club ist frei von Ruhm Jäger!? Warten Sie ... nicht zwei Ihrer Sternen sagen, sie würden zu verlassen, wenn Ihr Club nicht geschafft haben in der Champions League im nächsten Jahr? Sprechen Sie über die Kunststoff!

Posted by Gabe on 05/07/2011

I'm really sick of people still questioning Gomez. Counting the 3 he scored today against St. Pauli he has scored 27 goals in the bundesliga and is the joint second top scorer in the champions leaggue and that's with getting kicked out in the second round. Messi has only scored 4 goals more than him in the La Liga. Have any of you actually played football? I played right wing professionally for several years and my job was to get the ball to the center forward for easy tap ins. His job was to read the ball and be at the right place at the right time. Gomez is doing that and delivering the goals, center forwards are not supposed to set up goals they're just supposed to score the ones that others set up for them. Perhaps we could sell him and pay insane amounts of money to get a "world class" striker like Torres who can show us what a true waste of money is.

Posted by Jason on 05/09/2011

Is all the talk of Neuer not coming positioning between the two clubs? Is his coming still a likelihood and they are just haggling over price publicly? Bayern needs to go after him harder. I would be sorely disappointed if they missed the opportunity to pick up one of the best goalkeepers in the world and let him go to Manchester United. This team is so close to being very, very good again and would hate to see them fall short of the couple keys players they need to add.

Posted by Rita on 05/24/2011

Good point. I hadn't thugoht about it quite that way. :)

Posted by Livia on 05/25/2011

In awe of that answer! Rlealy cool!

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