2017 German Super Cup

This is the part of the year that She Who Must Be Obeyed dreads – the start of a new German Bundesliga season. The very first game of every new season in the German Bundesliga is the German Super Cup. It is a one-off football match between the regular season Bundesliga champion and the German Cup [DFB-Pokal] winner. The best analogy I could think of in North American sports would be if there was one game between the President’s Trophy winner and the Stanley Cup winner in the NHL. In the Bundesliga, if one team wins the domestic double [the regular season and the German Cup], then the league runners-up are invited as the second team. That happened last year. This year, and for the fifth time in six years, it was Bayern vs. Dortmund. Each team was looking for a record sixth Super Cup win. This game doesn’t count in the season standings, but it does matter.

Both teams have some new faces. Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel’s reward for winning last season’s German Cup was to be fired at season’s end. During Tuchel’s two-year tenure at Dortmund, there was much disagreement between him and club management. The final straw between them occurred after Dortmund’s team bus was attacked in Monaco prior to a UEFA Champions League match against AS Monaco. That match was postponed one day. Tuchel wanted a longer postponement – he didn’t get one. Tuchel effectively pointed the finger at CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke for “making” the players play just 24 hours after the incident [Dortmund lost]. Tuchel disagreed with management letting go of talent like Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Tuchel’s successor as coach is Peter Bosz, whose last team was the Dutch club AFC Ajax. Bosz brings a more pressing style to Dortmund, which promises to not let any of Dortmund’s opponents to get too comfortable. Dortmund’s opponents need to be on their toes at all times with Dortmund doing more pressing than in years past. The player turnover for Borussia Dortmund from last year looks like this”

In

Dan-Axel Zagadou (from Paris Saint Germain Academy) [Defender]

Mahmoud Dahoud (from Borussia Mönchengladbach) [Midfielder]

Maximilian Philipp (from SC Freiburg) [Midfielder]

Ömer Toprak (from Bayer Leverkusen] [Defender]

Out

Sven Bender (to Bayer Leverkusen) [Midfielder]

Matthias Ginter (to Borussia Mönchengladbach) [Defender]

Mikel Merino (on loan to Newcastle United FC) [Midfielder]

Dženis Burnić (on loan to VfB Stuttgart) [Midfielder]

Happily, Mario Götze is back in training with Dortmund after missing the last few weeks of last season due to a metabolic problem [but he didn’t play today]. Also missing today was Marco Reus and Raphaël Guerreiro.

Bayern experienced some player turnover of their own. Three players retired – team captain and defender Phillip Lahm, Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso, and backup goalie Tom Stark. The rest of the team turnover looks like this:

In

Niklas Süle (from 1899 Hoffenheim) [Defender]

Sebastian Rudy (from 1899 Hoffenheim) [Midfielder]

James Rodríguez (on loan from Real Madrid CF) [Midfielder]

Corentin Tolisso (from Olympique Lyonnais) [Midfielder]

Felix Götze (promoted from Bayern U19) [Defender]

Christian Früchtl (promoted from Bayern U19) [Goalie]

Serge Gnabry (from Werder Bremen) [Midfielder]

Serge Gnabry was part of the German international squad that just won the Confederations Cup. He was one of the better shining stars for Werder Bremen in a long time. But he wanted to play elsewhere, so he voided his contract and signed with Bayern Munich. But there’s a twist – he wanted to be loaned to another team so that he could get more playing time. So that’s why we see him as both an addition and a subtraction for Bayern. We don’t know how long the loan will be in effect. He’s young and has a bright future ahead of him.

Out

Douglas Costa (on loan to Juventus FC) [Midfielder]

Serge Gnabry (on loan to 1899 Hoffenheim) [Midfielder]

Holger Badstuber (to VfB Stuttgart) [Defender]

Manuel Neuer didn’t play today either. He broke his foot during UEFA Champions League play against Real Madrid last spring. The good news for Bayern fans is that he is fit enough to be back in training. Sven Ulreich played in Neuer’s place. Usual starters David Alaba and Arjen Robben didn’t play either, nor did new acquisition James Rodriguez.

But enough about the off season- what about the game? I wasn’t sure what to expect from Bayern or Dortmund because they’ve each had a lousy pre-season. Bayern had an early chance at 10:29 when Thomas Müller found Robert Lewandowski, who managed to slip behind two Dortmund defenders [how he stayed onside I don’t know]. There was nothing between him and the Dortmund goal except Roman Bürki, but his shot sailed well over the crossbar. But soon after [exactly one minute], Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic picked Bayern defender Javi Martinez’s pocket and got an easy first goal for Dortmund. I love to watch this guy play. He’s as cool as the proverbial cucumber, playing well beyond his 18 years.

Dortmund’s lead didn’t last long. Lewandowski evened the score at 17:37. After Dortmund’s Sokratis made a dumb foul against Lewandowski [and received a yellow card for his trouble], Bayern received a free kick. After Arturo Vidal took the free kick Sebastian Rudy found Joshua Kimmich, who beat Dortmund’s offside trap on the right. He quickly found Lewandowski streaking toward the goal. Bürki didn’t stand a chance. I thought Kimmich was offside, but the new Video Assisted Referee [VAR] said Kimmich was onside. After Lewandowski’s equalizer, Bayern finally found their rhythm and looked more comfortable. With Dortmund keeping up the pressure and Bayern getting their act together, the remainder of the first half was end-to-end high tempo. After 45 minutes, the score was 1-1.

The beginning of the second half was fairly uneventful until the 63rd minute. Ousmane Dembélé found Gonzalo Castro sprinting toward the goal, but Castro missed the header by mere inches. If he connects it’s 2-1, Dortmund. But it wasn’t to be. But then, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang [last season’s leading goal scorer] put Dortmund ahead 2-1 on a furious counterattack with a chip shot over Sven Ulreich. Lewandowski was driving toward a goal when he elected to pass the ball instead of taking the shot himself. That triggered the Dortmund counterattack. In the 75th minute the referees awarded Dortmund a free kick when Arturo Vidal fouled Pulisic. Vidal was lucky he didn’t receive a second yellow card on the foul. If he did he would’ve also received a red card and Bayern would have had to play a man down. Nuri Şahin took the free kick just outside the Bayern penalty area, but his shot went straight to Sven Ulreich.

Dortmund’s pressure nearly led to a third goal in the 81st minute. In the 87th minute, Sebastian Rudy took a free kick just outside the Dortmund penalty area after Kimmich was fouled. There was a mad scramble in front of the net, with Kimmich getting the equalizer. Dortmund claimed there was a Bayern handball, but again the VAR said “no”. The goal credited to Kimmich was an own goal from Roman Bürki. Initially the match commentators thought the ball deflected off Lukasz Piszczek, but when I looked at the videotape from behind Dortmund’s goal, the ball clearly came off Bürki’s arm. Once again Bayern were back from the dead as they had done so many times last season. As this was a match for a trophy [insert “participation trophy” joke here], after four minutes of stoppage time this game went to penalty kicks.

Penalty Kicks

Bayern - Lewandowski – Yes; Franck Ribéry – Yes; Kimmich – No; Rudy – Yes; Vidal – Yes; Niklas Süle – Yes

Dortmund - Dembélé – Yes; Max Philipp – Yes; Aubameyang – Yes; Sebastian Rode – No; Castro – Yes; Marc Bartra – No

Penalty shootouts are fun to watch. In all sports, there are guys who want the ball when the game is on the line, and you know they want the ball. For goalkeepers, it’s all about making the right guess which way the shooter is going to shoot. That’s why when you see a goalie going the opposite way that the shot went, you know he guessed wrong. On the flip side, sometimes you get to see some fantastic saves [the goalie guessed right]. Usually, each team gets five shots at the other team’s goalie. Those are the five guys who picked themselves to be in the penalty shootout. After those five guys have had their turn, then it gets really interesting. At that time, the teams go to guys who normally wouldn’t take penalty shots. And so, it was today. After Bayern’s first five, new guy Niklas Süle [a defender] stepped up and nailed his shot like he’s a midfielder. Marc Bartra [who was injured in the bus attack in Monaco] was up next. He looked to me like he didn’t want the ball. And as fate would have it, Sven Ulreich guessed right and he was Bayern’s newest hero. It was a wonderful save. Bayern won the record sixth Super Cup. It was a brutal way for Dortmund to lose. They led Bayern twice, outplayed Bayern in the second half, but Bayern is Bayern. You have to put a stake through their hearts to make sure they’re dead.

Observations: Dortmund got off to a fast start with the pressure, but after Bayern equalized they had the better first half. As he did during the Confederations Cup, Sebastian Rudy was quietly effective playing in the midfield. He marked Ousmane Dembélé extremely well, such that I didn’t hear Dembélé’s name called until the second half. And he converted his penalty kick effortlessly. Rudy might just be the Xabi Alonso replacement that Bayern needs. Thomas Müller didn’t score any goals, but he got a big assist for the first goal. He nearly scored two goals in the first half. Given the two goals he scored on Bayern’s Asia exhibition tour, he might be returning to his old self and last year can be a distant [if not painful] memory. And this just in – Joshua Kimmich is a damn good defender. He might just make it hard to miss Phillip Lahm.

Dortmund’s pressure is going to pay dividends. They gave up 40 goals last season. If they keep this up, that total will go down. It has to because Dortmund’s backline defense still needs work. Roman Bürki was very busy today, and not in a good way. But Dortmund will be more fun to watch this season, because they have a lot of weapons with which to attack. I don’t think Bayern is going to run away with the Bundesliga title like they did last season, if they win it at all.

As always, in-studio hostess Kate Abdo looks as good as ever. 😊