Recent thoughts

Since I (accidentally) slept through the match yesterday, I can't bring you a match post, but here are my thoughts from this week.

*Rotation works. Having depth at different positions means that we're able to rest players and, you know, win matches. Of course, injuries have caused some of our rotation, but I really like that Heynckes is making an effort to keep players more or less in their preferred positions while still getting lots of them in there.

*Injuries suck. Robben is made of glass, Olic is apparently made of tissue paper, and Gomez' calf strain was worse than expected as he's now bowed out of the Euro qualifies with the German NT. Hopefully, the two weeks off will help both Robben and Gomez to be fit by the time league play resumes.

*Speaking of the international break, lots of Bayern players will be playing for their NTs in the next few weeks. Schweinsteiger, Mueller, Badstuber, Kroos, Neuer, Boateng, and Lahm will all be playing for Germany. Van Buyten will be on duty for Belgium, Tymo will be captaining Ukraine, and Alaba will be playing against his teammates when Germany and Austria play on Friday.

But I think the most important thing to note is that the fun is back and our guys seem to be enjoying themselves a lot. Not only off the pitch (see the hilarious interviews Mario and Basti recently gave where they discuss each others' fashion proclivities...and thanks to Mario for confirming what we all had thought: Sarah saved Basti from a life of bad fashion choices), but also on. Today, they played against TSV Paehl, the local team for which Simon Mueller, brother of Thomas, plays. They won by 21 goals (TSV Paehl scored one) and while Mueller only got one, Petersen scored 7. Even Contento got in on the scoring. But watching the highlight video, it's clear that the match was a lot of fun. Having qualified for the Champions League (and yeah, we're in the group of death, but we play our best against good teams), our guys seem to be playing well and enjoying it. So that makes me one very happy fan indeed.

Hair we go

Thursday was the draw for the group stages of this years Champions League. With Bayern being Bayern, and in such an important year, of course we landed in the GROUP OF DEATH.

In case you've been living under a rock, or swamped with homework, we were drawn in to Group A with:

Manchester City
Villarreal
Napoli

Yikes. Personally, the one I'm the most knowledgeable on his Manchester City. Everyone is saying we should be afraid of them. They made some massive signings in the past few transfer windows - Dzeko, Aguero, Nasri, Balotelli - the list can and probably will continue on and on and on through the next transfer window as well. Now, should we fear them? Maybe not. The thing with MCFC, they're trying to push together huge star names with no real sense of direction. On top of that, their defense does not match the talent on their offense. Kind of sounds like Bayern just a few short months ago, no? This will be their downfall. MCFC don't have that great of a track record when it comes to multiple competitions at a time. They did win the FA cup last season, but they have faced defeats from lower sides following big wins against Manchester United. So what does Bayern have to do? Try to get as many goals as possible at Allianz and send in as many reinforcements as possible when playing in Manchester.

My preferred line up: Neuer; Rafinha - Boateng - Badstuber - Lahm; Gustavo - Schweinsteiger; Robben - Müller - Ribery; Gomez.

Undoubtedly our strongest starting XI. But why Gustavo over Tymo? Gustavo proved against Inter and then again against Barcelona that he's incredibly motivated against these stronger sides. His performance against Inter, along with Kraft and Robben, was key to our success in the first leg. He is that strong defensive force needed when facing Aguero, Nasri and co. Not to throw any shade on Tymo, of course. They're both interchangeable and of comparable talent - but I personally believe Gustavo gives us that defensive edge needed when aiming to keep a clean sheet.

I'm not as familiar with Villarreal or Napoli, but they are both really strong sides. Obviously, they're in the Champions League. Bottom line, we need to be on our A-game going in to the group stages. I believe we can see through it. It wouldn't be a typical season without ups and downs. This group gives us a challenge and the platform to prepare ourselves for the "stronger sides" - Barcelona, Manchester United, etc. It's time to prove our worth on the international stage.

I have a few comments to bring up on our squad, though I'll save it for another time as school started this week and I'm exhausted. We may be done with the transfer market for the summer, but that doesn't mean I'm not already planning for winter when we reach the knockout stages. :)

Heal quickly, Ivica!

Some bad news out of Munich today, fans. Ivica Olic, who made his comeback yesterday and scored a goal, has been injured. He has a partial tendon tear in his left hip area and is out for 6-8 weeks of forced rest, according to the club. We here at FC Hollywood hope that Ivica heals completely and is able to re-join the team as soon (and safely!) as possible.

FC Bayern München vs Hamburger SV Match Report

There's no other way around it. A scoreline like today's can leave you beyond giddy and unable to talk of anything other than Bayern for hours afterwards, wrapped up in a haze of pure football joy. However, when one has delusions of grandeur and blogdom, one must take a step back and look at things as they were. With a 5:0 scoreline, the question usually becomes, was it Bayern's game to win or HSV's game to lose?

I'm inclined to say that it was a bit of both. I thought HSV looked fairly good during the pre-season but they're clearly a case of too much restructuring leaving them right back where they started - hapless and disorganized.

However, and this was a sticking point with me after the mid-week CL match, Bayern showed themselves to be every bit as aggressive as they need to be going forward. We already we know we can maintain possession, gold stars all around for possession football, but today we showed the doubters that yes, we still actually know what to do with it. Will this stand up against a tougher, better organized opponent? FC Zürich is hardly that but if we capitalize on the sort of chances that we failed to take advantage of in the first leg, I will be feeling much better about the future.

A few matters of note:

→ How did we all feel seeing Olic on the pitch and scoring again? I, for one, have missed that sight dearly.

→ Rafinha has clicked remarkably well with the team very fast. His enthusiasm is admirable - it's nice to see a new player clearly love being here as much as he does.

→ did anyone else find watching Manuel Neuer to be something of a comedy show today? He was wandering around with absolutely nothing to do, it was hysterical. I think at one point he was actually pacing in circles.

Bayern v. Borussia Monchengladbach: Match Report

I suppose I should begin with a disclaimer: this will not be one of those doom and gloom, "Oh no! We're all damned!" posts. It's the first match of the season, for goodness sake, and we still have 33 days left to play. So, keeping that in mind, let's look at Match Day 1. If, at any time, you find yourself hyperventilating, please remember to breathe.

Let's get the bad things out of the way first.
-The goal happened, in large part, because Neuer was way off his line. That's not to say that our back line was flawless, but in reality, we only conceded one goal. But Neuer makes me (and others, too, I'm sure) nervous when he comes off the line like that. Thus, I have a remedy. First, Manu, watch this clip from Happy Gilmore.

Then, every time you feel like leaving your box, hear the goal saying to you, "This is your home. Are you too good for you home?" and DON'T LEAVE THE BOX when there are a bunch of players from other teams advancing on you. There. That's taken care of.

-Missed chances. Also known as a serious lack of finishing. Again, it's the first match of the season, we've had several new players in, our Starting XI isn't exactly set in stone, we've dealt with injuries, and so I don't find it surprising that we had some issues settling down and finding the back of the net. It's frustrating when commentators keep saying things like, "Bayern certainly look the most likely to score" and we don't manage to do it, but I'm not concerned that this will be continue to be a big issue. We have a lot of guys who can score, including several of our defenders. It'll happen.

-Short corners. I understand the reasoning behind them, especially when you don't have the height advantage in the box, but seriously, they clearly don't work. Rafinha, who otherwise had a good game, had trouble shortening his crosses in off the short corners and we missed several chances because the crosses in were better suited to a corner than to a pass from a short corner. Plus, it reminds me entirely too much of Barcelona and that's not really something I like having to say about Bayern.

Those were the big issues. So now onto the slightly brighter spots...
-Nils Petersen. From the minute he stepped onto the pitch, his energy brought the tempo up and Bayern had its first real chances of the second half.
-Arjen Robben. I know that some people think that he was crap in this match because he wasn't scoring or racing down a wing in a blaze of glory, but that's not fair. He was everywhere. He was playing on both wings, he was defending, and he often had three or four white shirts on him. And he managed to not get injured!
-Our tackling. Maybe it's the spirit of Mark van Bommel, but there were lots of solid tackles and steals. We've got some bite in us (Luis Gustavo, I'm looking in your direction. If someone goes down because of you, it's because there was a reason). If we can be that tenacious going forward, we'll be in good shape.

All in all, it wasn't what we had hoped for, but it's definitely not the end of the world. We can take what we learned and move on. And now, in a slightly un-related note, I'd like to propose that Bayern hold a seminar in pronunciation for all announcers. It would make it ever so much easier. And it might make some of the players feel better, since they wouldn't be called things incorrectly. Because, really, Lew-ees isn't that hard. It's not Lou-iss.

It's time!

In a few short hours, Bayern will open the regular season at home versus Borussia Monchengladbach. And by all signs, things look good for our boys.

Reports coming out of Sabener Strasse say that both Robben and Ribery are fit (but likely only one (probably Robben) will start) and that both our number one and two keepers are recovered from their flu and are fit to play (it should be noted that, yesterday, I might have suggested that we change our name to FC Murphy's Law...but hopefully, that's just my pessimistic side talking). If you look at this, you'll see that they both looked absolutely horrible on Friday. So it's good that they're feeling better. And that we have four keepers in total, just in case.

If you're in the United States, the match will air live on ESPN3 and on ESPN Deportes. In the UK, it'll be on ESPN UK and elsewhere in Europe, it'll be on Eurosport 2. We'll have a match report here after things wrap up.

And, looking ahead to our next match in the Pokal, we'll be taking on FC Ingolstadt 04. More details to come as we approach the match.

And now, I leave you all with happy thoughts for a great kick off to the season! After all, Stuttgart beat Schalke by three goals, so it's already off to a good start! Mia san Mia! Auf Geht's Bayern!

Are the days of Neuer backlash over?

Probably not completely, but to make up for my long absence I offer you all a bit of ~exclusive info.
Okay, not exclusive. But after months of pining over it, and conveniently having a friend visit the motherland, I was set in my path to have Neuer's jersey by the opening weekend of the BuLi season. UNFORTUNATELY, it's sold out for the next 3 weeks.

Bad news for me, good news for Neuer? I'm already picturing a sea of small children running around in his jersey.

Bless.

And we're off!

First things first: a VERY happy birthday to Bastian Schweinsteiger, who turns 27 today. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Basti! And thanks to Holger Badstuber's Facebook for this photo that says more than I can about why they're so fabulous.

Oh, and we had a match today. And we won. As Mario Gomez said in his blog today, "The cup has its own laws." The first round of the DFB Pokal claimed four Bundesliga teams (Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen, SC Freiburg, Bayer Leverkusen) and so today's match wasn't something we could take for granted. And, luckily, we didn't.

Our first two goals came off of penalty kicks, both earned by Thomas Muller taking quite the beating in the box (seriously, it was starting to seem like they were intentionally picking on him at points). Mario "Super Mario Goalmez" Gomez scored the first one and the birthday boy scored the second. And our third goal came off of what one fan described as "THE MOST THOMAS GOAL TO EVER THOMAS." Seriously, it was SO him and brilliant.

All in all, it was a strong showing and means that we'll be confident as we open the season on Sunday against Monchengladbach (which will be on ESPN3, for our readers in the US). Our back line showed up and played, Toni Kroos has yet again proved that he's going to fight for a spot in our starting XI, and Alaba and Muller more than held their own in the place of the injured Ribery and Robben. Speaking of our Frenchman and our Glassman, both are recovering well from their injuries and both should be ready to go within the next few weeks. Robben's cast is off and he's running, so it's likely he'll be available on Sunday for the Bundesliga opener. Ribery's a little bit more of a question mark, but all reports are that he's healing well and shouldn't be out for long.

So here we go...the Pokal's underway and the season is just around the corner. Here's to fewer injuries and players out of position (Seriously, Jupp, Tymo's a DM. Let him play there) and more wins and fun!

THE FC BAYERN MÜNCHEN DRINKING GAME

as created by my friends Joni, Irene and myself over the course of tonight’s DFB Pokal match at the Bachmaier Hofbräu.

• Philipp Lahm's captain armband shines as bright as the sun. Drink.


• Manuel Neuer strays outside his box. Drink.


• Oh no, not Pranjic. Drink.


• Mario Gomez's hair does something you don't expect it to. Drink.


• Arjen Robben falls down. Drink.


• Number 17, whoever that may currently be, does something particularly violent. Drink.


• Anatoliy Tymoshchuk does a tackle that looks straight out of a Playstation video game. Drink.


• Toni Cruise. Drink.


• Holger Badstuber Hissy Fit. Drink.


• Mia san Drunk.


• Anymore and you'd be dead. Happy trails, my friends.