2020 German Super Cup

One week before the beginning of each Bundesliga season, the winner of the Bundesliga championship meets the winner of the DFB-Pokal [German Cup] in an exhibition match for the trophy known as the German Super Cup.  If the regular season champion and the DFL-Pokal winner is the same team, then the opponent is the championship runner-up.  And so, for what seems like the 100^th time, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund met today for this year’s edition of the German Super Cup.  As such, the game is an exhibition – it doesn’t count in the standings [but it DOES mean something (prestige)].  The 2020-21 Bundesliga began two weeks ago.  Because Bayern Munich was still in the hunt for the UEFA Champions League [which they won], the game was postponed until this week.  Last week, both Bayern and Dortmund lost their Matchday 2 games.  Bayern lost to Hoffenheim, while Dortmund lost to Augsburg.  Given the tight schedule this season, this was a game that I think neither team particularly wanted to play, but they didn’t have any choice.  Dortmund won last year’s German Super Cup against Bayern, 2-0.

Any Bayern-Dortmund clash is known in Germany as simply Der Klassiker. Today’s edition of Der Klassiker did not disappoint.  It was a close, hard-fought game from start to finish. It was a tale of two halves.  After their 4-1 loss to Hoffenheim, Bayern coach Hansi Flick altered Bayern’s usual gegenpressing game plan. Instead of pressing Dortmund’s back line, Bayern played it cautious in their positioning.  They didn’t overcommit in numbers to try and win possession in Dortmund’s half of the field.  Flick also shuffled the deck of Bayern starters.  Leroy Sané is out with a knee injury, so Kingsley Coman slotted over to take.  Serge Gnabry was given a rest, as was midfielder Leon Goretzka and defender Jerome Boateng.  Alphonso Davies started at right winger in place of Gnabry. Javi Martinez, the hero in Bayern’s UEFA Super Cup win over Seville, started in David Alaba’s spot as a center defender. Thomas Muller moved over to right wing to fill in for Gnabry.  Corentin Tolisso took Goretzka’s’s usual spot.  Dortmund had their own changes as well.  They were without Thorgan Hazard [injury], Roman Bürki and Jadon Sancho [illness – not COVID-19]. Julian Brandt and Marco Reus, who came off the bench against Augsburg, started.

Some Bundesliga games have seen fans in the stands [20% of stadium capacity].  Not so today in Bavaria where they are experiencing a COVID spike.  Bayern got the first shot on goal with a Joshua Kimmich header, but Dortmund keeper Marwin Hitz had no trouble with it.  Dortmund was able to get into Bayern’s penalty area with little difficulty early on, but it was Bayern who got on the scoreboard first at the eighteenth minute. Bayern scored on the counterattack from a Dortmund corner kick.  Davies received the block off the corner, fed Coman down the left side. Coman found Thomas Müller in the center, who found Robert Lewandowski sprinting down the right side.  Lewandowski found the trailing Tolisso in the middle, who shot on goal, hit the crossbar, and slotted home his own rebound. Bayern led 1-0.

Bayern’s second goal was a bit more methodical. having worked their way up-field from their own end, Alphonso Davies put a cross into the box from about thirty meters out. Thomas Müller caught up with it and scored on a header past Hitz in the 32^nd minute. Bayern appeared to have a comfortable 2-goal lead, but there was still an hour left to play against a team that makes its living by coming back from deficits.  Today would be no different for Dortmund.  Seven minutes later, and five minutes before halftime, Dortmund grabbed back a goal.  In the 39^th minute, Dortmund pressured Bayern in their own end and won back the ball.  It was Erling Haaland and Julian Brandt in the box against two Bayern defenders.  Haaland made a crisp pass to Brandt, who buried the goal.  New game! Dortmund refused to go away.  Dortmund’s high pressure was a sign of things to come in the second half.

Right after halftime in the 47^th minute, Dortmund found themselves with a 3-on-3 in Bayern’s penalty area, but Thomas Munier couldn’t seal the deal.  Dortmund coach Lucien Farve wasn’t pleased.  Shortly thereafter, Dortmund pressed Bayern hard and won back the ball.  Thomas Delaney found Erling Haaland sprinting toward Bayern’s penalty area.  Haaland succeeded where Munier failed and got the equalizer.  I really like Haaland’s game.  He is a beast in the middle.  He nearly got a third Dortmund goal when he found himself one-on-one against Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer.  But Haaland shot the ball almost exactly where he got the equalizer.  Neuer made himself big and blocked Haaland’s shot. That’s why they pay Neuer the big bucks [ok, Euros]. For a good part of the second half, Dortmund seemed to be beating Bayern at their own game, but they couldn’t get that third goal.

While Bayern maintained possession for two-thirds of the second half, Dortmund had more shots on goal.  At the 67^th minute, Dortmund’s Nico Schulz, Reinier and Gio Reyna subbed on for Erling Haaland, Thomas Munier and Marco Reus respectively.  Serge Gnabry subbed on for Kingsley Coman for Bayern.  And then the game slowed.  More substitutions for both sides.  It appeared both teams were starting to feel fatigued and were playing for the penalty shootout.  The German Super Cup doesn’t play extra time in case of a tie at the end of regulation – it’s straight to penalty kicks if needed.  Ethen in the 81^st minute, Joshua Kimmich picked Thomas Delaney’s pocket at midfield, sped down the field where he found Robert Lewandowski, who then passed it back to the trailing Kimmich.  Kimmich took the shot, but Marwin Hitz blocked it.  But instead of covering up the ball, Hitz let the ball rebound back to Kimmich.  As Kimmich was falling over Dortmund defender Łukasz Piszczek, he somehow got his left heel on the ball and put Bayern ahead 3-2.  This was as freakish a goal as I’ve seen in a long while.  As much as Dortmund pressured Bayern for the equalizer and a possible shootout, Bayern was able to kill the clock and win the German Super Cup.  This game could have gone either way.

In a somewhat bittersweet postscript, referee Bibiana Steinhaus announced her sudden retirement.  Before the game she released this statement:

“Like many people during the corona situation, I have reflected and reassessed some things. After a very truthful and constructive conversation with Lutz Michael Fröhlich, the sporting director of the DFB-Elite Referees, after carefully weighing many factors, I have decided to end my national and international career as referee. For this evening, I want the focus to be entirely on the game. I will discuss the reasons for my retirement in somewhat greater detail in due time.”

Steinhaus is a trailblazer in German soccer. Her father was also a football referee. In 2007, she became the first female referee in German men's professional football.  She made it to the Bundesliga’s first division for the 2017-18 season.  A police officer in her “day job” [she’s a Chief Inspector in Langenhagen], she had been the target of abuse from some players, but for the most part she’s respected throughout the league.  She’s a damn good referee.  I hate to see her go.  

 

Matchday 2 Match of the Week - Augsburg vs Dortmund

This weekend, ESPN didn’t show any Bundesliga games on television.  Every game was on ESPN+.  I woke up on Saturday and scanned the day’s final results.  One result popped out at me – Augsburg defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0.  That one held some promise.  I’ve never seen Augsburg beat Dortmund.  Then I found out that my favorite Bundesliga announcer, Phil Bonney, called the game.  That’s my benchmark – when in doubt, watch the games called by either Phil Bonney or Derek Rae.  These guys know the Bundesliga.

One expects to see Dortmund score a lot of goals against Augsburg.  Four Dortmund players that I know of have gotten hat tricks against them – Robert Lewandowski did it, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did it, as did Paco Alcacer and most recently Erling Haaland. Last year, Dortmund won both games with an aggregate score of 10-4 – 5-1 on the first day of last season, and 5-3 on the first game of 2020.  They’ve surrendered more goals to Dortmund than any team in the Bundesliga.  But that was then, this is now.  As Phil Bonney put it, that’s the thing about a new season. There’s always the chance to something you’ve never done before.  Augsburg started the game with a 4-5-1 formation.  They clogged up the middle of the field, which is where Dortmund is strongest.  If Dortmund was to score, they’d have to put pressure on the wings and crack open Augsburg’s defense that way.  With Jadon Sancho, Axel Witsel and Thomas Meunier, they’ve got the talent to do that.  Erling Haaland is a beast in the middle.

For the first ten minutes, Dortmund had possession of the ball 75 percent of the time.  But right at ten minutes, Augsburg showed Dortmund they could get the ball behind Dortmund’s defensive line in the final third.  Lack of any deep runs hurt the Dortmund attack.  They played their typical possession-oriented game, put just couldn’t finish.  Augsburg didn’t get their first free kick until the 40^th minute, and when they did, they made it count.  Augsburg were without their free-kick specialist Phillip Max, but they had Daniel Caligiuri.  Augsburg striker Michael Gregoritsch took an elbow to the face from Dortmund defender Imre Can, resulting in a yellow card for Can.  A recent acquisition on a free transfer from Schalke, Galiguiri is no stranger to Dortmund.  Galiguiri took the free kick and found defender Felix Uduokhai, who headed the ball home and gave Augsburg the lead. Augsburg was executing their game plan perfectly – keep the defense compact in the middle, make Dortmund attack from the wings, and when Dortmund gives you an opportunity, seize it. In last year’s games, both had low-scoring first halves with much of the scoring coming in the second half.  The fixture in Augsburg saw the home team take a 3-1 lead into halftime, only to see Erling Haaland get his hat trick in the second half.  Would this year be a repeat?  Consider this – although Dortmund had significantly more possession time, Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Bürki had more to do than Augsburg keeper Rafał Gikiewicz.  That was the difference in the first half.

While most of the first half was in Augsburg’s half of the field, there was more back-and-forth to start the second half.  Augsburg striker Florian Niederlechner, who had gotten through Dortmund’s defense three times only to be called offside each time, play the ball at midfield to a streaking Daniel Caligiuri, who raced past Thomas Meunier, beat Roman Bürki and scored the game’s second goal. Dortmund almost responded immediately when Gio Reyna was brought down in the penalty area by Rani Khedira. Was it a penalty? One look at the replay showed that Khedira got “all ball” and didn’t foul Reyna.  Reyna left his feet just a little too early. The referee made the correct call.  Shortly thereafter, Dortmund brought on some fresh attacking legs in Julian Brandt and Marco Reus, while defender Raphaël Guerreiro and midfielder Jude Bellingham.  Augsburg swapped out Niederlechner for Icelandic international Alfred Finnbogason, English midfielder Reece Oxford for Khedira, and Finnish midfielder Hans Jensen for Gregoritsch.  Would Dortmund pull another rabbit out of the hat as they usually do in these situations? One got the feeling that if Dortmund got a goal back that it would be an entirely different game. Conversely, if Augsburg got a third goal, it was “game over”. Uduokhai nearly got that third goal in the 68^th minute, with a shot just barely over the crossbar. In the 69^th minute, Dortmund swapped Meunier for Brazilian midfielder Reinier.  Dortmund changed their offensive attack from the wings to beef up their attack in the middle.  Credit to Augsburg – they didn’t wilt against Dortmund’s continuous pressure.  It just didn’t click for Dortmund today. Augsburg had too many defenders in the box. Augsburg didn’t let it slip away this time.

In his 300^th Bundesliga game Caligiuri had his hand in both Augsburg goals – assisting the first, scoring the second. Augsburg keeper Rafał Gikiewicz got a clean sheet against Dortmund – no easy feat there. He came up huge when he needed to. Augsburg have won their first two Bundesliga games of the season for the first time in their history. Augsburg were resilient, they were focused, they were disciplined.  They didn’t crack under Dortmund’s pressure.  It’s only Matchday 2, but Augsburg future for this season looks bright. 

Next up for Dortmund – the German Super Cup against Bayern in Munich next week, then a match against FC Freiburg.  For Augsburg, they have Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig to look forward to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matchday 1 Match of the Week – FC Köln v TSG Hoffenheim

It’s the beginning of a new Bundesliga season.  Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this season had a later beginning than usual.  Each season usually begins in August, but because the 2019-20 season was suspended for two months, the beginning of this season was pushed back.  With the new season comes a new broadcast partner for the Bundesliga.  For the past several years, Fox Sports held the US broadcast rights.  That deal expired this year.  The new broadcast partner is ESPN.  That’s both good and bad.  The bad part is that ESPN will broadcast only one Bundesliga game every weekend on television.  Fox would broadcast five. The good part is that all Bundesliga games will be on demand via ESPN+.  Although Fox broadcast more games, sometimes they wouldn’t broadcast the best, most competitive games. I like to see games with lots of goals. This week’s Bayern Munich vs. Schalke 04 match had many goals, but they were all scored by Bayern.  Blowouts like that tend to get a bit boring.  Low-scoring draws [1-1 or 0-0] are usually equally dull.  This week there were two games that saw plenty of goals.  One such game was FC Köln v Hoffenheim 1899.  The other was SC Freiburg v Stuttgart.  Both had a final score of 3-2, but my choice for this week’s game of the week is FC Köln v Hoffenheim 1899.

SC Freiburg v Stuttgart was a good game.  SC Freiburg jumped out to a 2-0 lead and held it until halftime.  Two minutes after the half, they extended their lead to 3-0.  It had the prospect of being a blowout.  SC Freiburg is a mainstay of the Bundesliga first division, although they usually finish every year in the middle of the pack.  Stuttgart is an up-and-down team.  For the past several seasons they flirted with relegation to the second division.  Last year they played in the second division, having been relegated by Union Berlin in a two-game home-and-home playoff after the 2018-19 season.  This year they’re back in the first division with many young players, most of whom are not yet 22.  Given that Stuttgart is a young team and newly-promoted to the first division, one would expect them to be disheartened by going down 3-0 to the more-experienced Freiburg.  Not so this week.  Stuttgart finally got on the board at the 71^st, and got their second goal ten minutes later.  They had momentum on their side, and the home crowd of 8,000 fans [who sounded like 24,000 – they were that loud] rooted them on.  SC Freiburg withstood charge after charge from Stuttgart until the final whistle six minutes into stoppage time, but they hung on for the win.  Stuttgart didn’t roll over and play dead.

The FC Köln v TSG Hoffenheim game was a bit more dramatic.  Hoffenheim got on the board first when Croatian international Andrej Kramaric scored just four minutes into the contest.  Köln goalie Timo Horn made a fairly lackadaisical pass to defender Jonas Hector to begin the Köln attack.  Hector didn’t know Kramaric was behind him, and when Hector made a lazy pass back to Horn, Kramaric intercepted the pass and got an easy goal.  Luckily for Köln, Swedish international Sebastian Andersson evened the score eighteen minutes later with a header from a beautiful cross from Jan Thielmann.  Andersson was just signed only five days ago from Union Berlin.  He showed his worth to Köln almost immediately. All was tied until just before halftime.  Austrian midfielder Christoph Baumgartner was brought down in the penalty area.  After several minutes of review via the Video Assisted Referee [VAR], Hoffenheim were awarded the penalty shot, which Andrej Kramaric converted in the last play of the first half.

Almost immediately after the start of the second half, Andersson nearly equalized for Köln, but was denied from point-blank range by Hoffenheim goalie Oliver Baumann.  The score stood with Hoffenheim leading 2-1 until Köln midfielder Dominick Drexler received a header from Sebastian Andersson and buried it in the back of Hoffenheim’s net for the equalizer at the 86^th minute.  With one goal and one assist, it wasn’t a bad day’s work for new signee Andersson, and it appeared that Köln and Hoffenheim would share the spoils with a 2-2 draw.  But Hoffenheim weren’t done.  With two minutes into stoppage time, Andrej Kramaric got the hat trick after deceiving numerous Köln defenders.  The game’s outcome was decided at the very last minute.  Wins like these are thrilling for the winners, and agonizing for the losers.  Since the outcome of the game wasn’t decided until very late, FC Köln v TSG Hoffenheim is my “match of the week”.