Matchday 1: Home vs. Borussia Monchengladbach

And the 2013-14 Bundesliga Season has begun!

On the bright side, Bayern scored all four goals today. Okay, so one of them counted for Gladbach, but...we won and that's what's important. A 3-1 win over a team that often gets under our skin is nothing to be ashamed of and things will only get better as we go from here.

Bastian Schweinsteiger celebrated his 300th Bundesliga match today and hopefully will be back to full fitness very soon. Personally, until he's back to full fitness, I'd like to see Pep not be stupid and play two defensive midfielders. I have two reasons for this: 1) Basti is the most important player in the world (I'm not being facetious...the numbers back me up on this! All three losses last year came when he wasn't on the pitch and, in the 2011-12 season, articles were actually written about how he's the difference maker) and risking his injury by exposing him like that is terrifying. And 2) Basti's a playmaker and when he has to play as an enforcer in midfield, he risks cards in a way that we can't afford. Plus, our offensive midfield was a little crowded today. While I love both Muller and Kroos, we don't need both of them playing centrally.

Ribery was spectacular today, providing the ball for our first goal, a beautiful strike from Robben, and generally being everywhere and doing everything. Mandzukic was also looking rather predatory and added to the scoring in the first half.

Perhaps the strangest moment was the double penalty in the second half. Hand ball, Muller's shot is saved, hand ball, Alaba converts.

In the end, we won 3-1 and can move on to our next match. Until next time...

MIA SAN TRIPLE

First the league, in record time.
Then the Champions League, over our bitter in-country rivals.
And finally, the Cup, over our Southern neighbors in a match that marks the last time that several of our boys will wear the Bayern red and white.

I don't know about all of you, but I still really do not have words to describe how happy and excited and thrilled I am with today's results. Okay, yeah, it would have been nice if we had won 3-0, but I also appreciate a fight and the second half of today's match, much like the second half of last week's, was exciting (and nerve-wracking!).

I am currently about 8 hours into a 72-hour exam, so I'm not at a place where I can really write much, so I will leave you with two things: promises of a real update about my experience at the bar for the Champions League Final and this of Manu, soaked in beer, proving just how Bavarian he has become.

That Saturday Night, a Displaced Münchener's Retrospective

It was the night before Christmas and all through the town, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Wait, fuck. Wrong story, what am I saying. Back up.

It’s been a while since I’ve done this, my wires are a little crossed.

It was the night of the Champions League Final 2013, I was sitting in the kitchen of my friend Carla’s apartment in Munich and we were slowly getting soused to manage our pre-match nerves. I was wrapped in a Bavarian flag, my friends Carla and David were clad in their Bayern jerseys, and I was sipping on (re: gulping down) a beer that I bought from the Biomarkt on my way over because it was the only store I wandered past that wasn’t packed full of people.

We kept looking at the clock, looking at each other, and repeating various optimistic phrases such as “we’re gonna make it!” and “I just have a good feeling this time!”

The shit-scared nervous looks on our faces possibly contradicted the positivity of our words but that’s football for you. You always gotta know going in that anything can happen. 100% positivity isn’t usually a good sign.

The weird thing is, though, is that my nervousness felt mostly put-upon. I felt like I should be nervous because experience had taught me that I should be. And maybe I can blame this on the fact that I sat and listened to all seven minutes of Michael Giacchino’s “Moving on” before heading out that night, but as the minutes ticked closer to kick-off, a sense of calm washed over me.

Sometimes, before a football match, I just get this feeling. I can’t explain and it usually makes little to no sense and I’m always always scared to voice it aloud for fear of risking it, but it’s a feeling that tells me that everything is going to be okay. I got that feeling before Germany - Argentina in 2010 as the national anthems were playing. I got that feeling when we drew Barcelona in the semis.

So, I’ve come to trust this feeling. It hasn’t really let me down yet.

(Knock on wood and never wear your jersey on match days, Samantha).

Right. Back to the story. Carla’s apartment, a fridge full of beer, and a television propped up on her desk. We all clustered into her room and arranged ourselves accordingly and settled in for the 90+ minutes of the final.

We ran our hands through our hair, almost tearing it out. We screamed. We screamed a lot. It really can’t be understated how much screaming was going on. Mostly from me. My throat was sore the next day.

But then there it was. In the final minutes, in classic Bayerndusel fashion, there was a Robben goal.

We broke out the Prosecco. We hugged and cried because we knew that finally, after all these years, this was it. It was real. FC Bayern had just won the Champions League for the fifth time and we watched it happen.

Good ole Angela got her hugs and kisses in from Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mandy almost lost his medal forever, and Lahm put his practice to good use by lifting the trophy.

And we took to the streets. Along with just about everyone else within a ten mile radius. I’m gonna reach the end of my story pretty quickly here because the rest of my memories of that night are a little hazy but I will tell you this. It was one of the best nights of my life. The sense of relief and joy amongst the Bayern fans in Munich was an unbelievable thing to witness. All I can offer you is a photo to give you a glimpse of it.

Thank you, Bayern. For everything.

PS: At one point during Saturday night/Sunday morning, I apparently decided that I wanted to play Arjen Robben’s torhymne on my phone. I know this because I opened up my browser a few days later and was greeted with a whole page of search results of pictures of tulips.

Whoops.

MIA SAN MEISTER!!!

It's only 6 April, but as of Basti's second-half back-heel goal (seriously, that was pretty badass!) earlier, we are officially the league winners for 2012-2013! So, Bayern fans, how are you celebrating? Your blog team here at FC Hollywood is planning on drinking many beers while laughing at the awesome photos of our boys celebrating, followed by saying our prayers for Wednesday's away leg.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures so far...

Bayern wins, Toni loses (his ability to play for a bit)

We're 1 point away from clinching the league (my request once we clinch? A game with Neuer at striker). We won today 2-0 over Juventus (and they're lucky that the refs seemed to really not want to card Vidal and that we only netted two). But what's the most important question in the FC Hollywood writers' room?

Is there a particular reason that Toni Kroos constantly injures his groin? Any aspiring med students or medical researchers want to see if there's a connection between groin injuries and the lack of compression shorts? Or, alternately, if there's a correlation between groin injuries and other activities using the groin?

That said, love and hugs to Toni Kroos who tore his adductor and is out for the season. We love you, Toni.

Fly-by post: CL DRAW

Very early this morning (for us Americans), the CL Draw happened. I'll post the full listing below, but we've drawn Arsenal.

My two cents? While I'm confident that we'll prevail over Arsenal, I had really hoped we would draw someone else (Shakhtar Donetsk, Malaga, Porto). Why? Because one of my close friends is a Gunner and we have to co-write a paper about footy this spring together (literally, we're writing the weekend after the second leg), so I'm sad we have to face them (and eliminate them) so soon. And I believe, if I'm correct, we have the second leg at home, which is always a good thing. We're quite difficult to beat at home and I'm sure our guys will be excited about the leg at Emirates, since so many of them really love the English league (but none are Arsenal fans, at least none that I know of...couple of Chelsea, maybe a Man United or two, but no Arsenal that I can think of...I'm sure BSchray will comment with a correction if she knows of any).

Schalke and Dortmund have less-scary draws (though there's no such thing as an easy draw at this stage) than some. I have a feeling most eyes will be in the Real Madrid-Manchester United and AC Milan-Barcelona pairings, as that means that two major clubs will not be making the quarterfinals. (I'll definitely be watching RM-MU and cheering VERY loudly for AC Milan to knock out Barcelona...and not just because one of the members of my dissertation committee is an AC Milan fan).

Here's the full list of pairings and fixtures:
Galatasaray v Schalke Feb. 20 March 12
Celtic v Juventus Feb. 12 March 6
Arsenal v Bayern Munich Feb. 19 March 13
Shakhtar Donetsk v Borussia Dortmund Feb. 13 March 5
AC Milan v Barcelona Feb. 20 March 12
Real Madrid v Manchester United Feb. 13 March 5
Valencia v Paris Saint-Germain Feb. 12 March 6
Porto v Malaga Feb. 19 March 13

Well hello

Like a/an (insert animal that hibernates for x amount of time) I have emerged to say:

 We have defeated FC Augsburg in today's Pokal match.
Franck got a red card and
Mark van Bommel must have been near because it was raining yellows.

 As someone who has watched only one Bayern match this season (or have I? wait… maybe? Yes. I think I was on the treadmill), this is going to be my only contribution for this half of the season.

And perhaps after June 3rd, you know, if this whole Mayan Calendar shenanigan stuff blows over, I shall emerge once more to shed my winter coat and offer my two cents (or a resume to become Hans Wilhelm Muller Wolfhart's replacement after he retires in 20 years).

Even Manu is skeptical of this


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, enjoy the break.