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.