fc bayern münchen vs. manchester city match report

I'm going to keep this brief as I run a very serious risk of just dissolving into caps locking insanity and off key renditions of "Tage voller Sonne."

• 930 minutes without conceding a goal.


• Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger were world class, period, end of.


• both Müller and Kroos were a bit neutralized today but still held their own in a way, given their relative inexperience


• Philipp Lahm is one fast dude. Dzeko apparently discovered the only way to stop him, which is full on lay on top of him and hope that he doesn't find a way to get up again.


• slow and steady wins the race. we're showing patience and that more than anything gives me hope for the shiny trophy at the end of the rainbow


• Mario Gomez now has 50 goals in the last 47 games for Bayern. Effective.


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fc bayern münchen vs. bayer leverkusen match report

first things first. a very happy oktoberfest to all and sundry. my parents have been cruelly regaling their trips to the wies'n to me via phone but for those of you who are actually lucky enough to be in munich right now, enjoy! drink up! try not to get sick on the Hackerbrücke platform!

seriously, don't, it's gross.

ummmm. but I digress. how about that match, eh?

important points of note:

• Manuel Neuer has now gone roughly 820 minutes without conceding a goal (someone feel free to fact check me on that if you know the exact number). a credit to his immense talent as a goalkeeper, as well as how well our defense has been clicking.


• Daniel van Buyten may have his flaws but this season, he's shown again and again why it's good to keep him around. that was a helluva goal from the Belgian Bull. I hope it made Louis van Gaal choke on his words, wherever he may be.


• oh sweet beautiful squad rotation.


• it's always nice to see Arjen Robben back on the pitch. it's even nicer to see him score as if he'd never been away at all. the man is a wonder to watch, truly.


• Mario Gomez looked good but I'm glad we decided to rest him. Manchester City will definitely be our biggest test of the season, and we want our Torero fit and fighting.


• Franck Ribery, ladies and gentlemen. There's nothing I can say that can accurately describe how well he's been playing lately. If you had told me a year ago, I might not have believed that he'd be in such good form.


• thoughts, kiddos?

this blogger has a human geography exam straight through the Manchester City match (I know, I KNOW, it pains me) so I wish you all fun watching it while I quietly freak out to myself in ignorant silence.

Wir sind Bayern.

Our first order of business is to suggest that all Bayern players, from this point forward, be kept in bubble wrap at all times. This includes during matches. That is to say, Mario Gomez (groin) and Daniel van Buyten (Achilles) both picked up knocks during today's CL match against Villarreal and are doubtful for Saturday's contest against Schalke in Gelsenkirchen. But, in the words of our amazing kapitan, Wir sind Bayern (We are Bayern).

Anyway, today's match was fast-paced, intense, and all-around pretty darned awesome. Toni Kroos (side note: best thing about a German stream? They don't call him Tony Cruise.) scored his first CL goal and Rafinha scored his first goal for Bayern. What did we learn from today's match?

-Our boys can play a fast-paced 90 minutes in ridiculous heat and come out on top.
-With one exception (thank goodness Manu's body can apparently stop shots without him having the foggiest clue where the ball is), our defense is looking much more solid. And it's awesome that both fullbacks are getting in on the attack.
-Petersen fits well as a lone striker in the 4-2-3-1. It's nice to have a viable option with Gomez and Olic both out.
-Franck Ribery is REALLY happy LVG is gone and he's playing incredibly well. His assist on Toni's goal was pretty amazing, considering he wasn't looking.
-The German word for "no-look pass" is apparently nolookpass (I'm just assuming that they put it all into one word, as that's how new words are created in German). Either that or the German commentator I was listening to was making things up.

And, because it's pretty awesome: Bayern's kept a clean sheet for all but one match so far this season and they've conceded just one goal (to Gladbach in the Bundesliga opener). Not a bad start!

As we all know, Sunday we head to Gelsenkirchen and I, for one, will be sending happy thoughts and prayers that it's a clean (and safe!) match for all participants and that folks won't be too horrible to Neuer. And, you know, that Bayern wins.

So, how about that scoreline?

For a second week in a row, we'll be atop the table (because I'm kind of assuming that there's no way that Schalke can make up the 11 points difference in our goal differential tomorrow). And what a convincing win it was!

While Manu Neuer rescued kittens and drank beer in pubs, the rest of the team spent the afternoon pretty much decimating Freiburg in every position, at every moment. As a Bayern fan, it was nice to get up at the crack of dawn and be able to just really enjoy a match, rather than spending the match yelling at my computer in frustration. For Freiburg fans, well...it could have been worse.

So a few highlights:

*Mario Gomez appears to not only want to remain the top goal scorer in the league, but to overtake a certain hat trick record. If you're keeping track, that's two in the last two matches. Glad to see he was fully fit and has no linger effects from the injury that kept him out of international duty. Mario was also the first Bayern player to score four goals in a match since Rumme himself.

*Ribery was great today. He was creative, he seemed at several points to have developed a Messi-like ability to dissolve and re-form on the other side of defenders, and he was helping create chances for others.

*Bastian Schweinsteiger. Need I say more? If you look over the stats of the game (or if you spoke enough German to laugh at the fact that today's commentator was REALLY fond of statistics), Basti was, in a word, dominant. And I know I'm not the only one who loved seeing him with the armband.

*Nils Petersen scored his first goal for Bayern in an official match! Yay Nils! And what a goal it was!

Other than a lack of Tymo, today's performance was pretty much flawless. Which puts us in good shape as we head to Spain this week to play Villareal in our first Champions League group match. That match will be on Wednesday at 2:45pm EDT. If you can't catch the match on Wednesday, Fox Soccer will be showing it at 2:00pm EDT on Wednesday 15 September.

And Robben has been ruled out of Wednesday's match. Seriously, at this point, I'm starting to think we should all just assume he's out for a match and the club should only announce if he's actually fit to play. But in all honesty, he's still young and I hope they let him heal FULLY and COMPLETELY before he's allowed anywhere near a pitch. Between his glass bones and Ivica's tissue paper tendons, we really need to be careful with them.

Oh, and don't forget that we're away at Schalke on Saturday. Should be a good match! I, for one, am hoping for a birthday present in the form of a trouncing on Bayern's part.

Player Appreciation Post: Anatoliy Tymoshchuk

As a blog team, we've decided to begin doing posts whereby we express our love and dedication and undying devotion to our favorite Bayern players. And there was immediate consensus that none other than Tymo should be the first subject of our adoration. One quick note on format: You'll see our Blogger handle next to the pieces we've written, as this is a collaborative effort. And thus, we now present our first lovefest...

Bex: Where do I even start with Tymo? He's a defensive midfielder that can play centre back more convincingly than some centre backs can. He's a leader on and off the pitch, his tackling makes Mark Van Bommel smile, and he's pretty much a ninja (because you never see him coming). Add to that the fact that he's scored several of the last goals for Ukraine (and serves as team captain) and he's pretty much the epitome of awesome. Plus, his interactions with his fans make it clear that he's a nice guy who loves what he does and appreciates his fans. He fought to stay in Munich under he-who-shall-not-be-named and we're sure glad he did!

Charyse: I have a confession to make: I can't remember the last time I've actually seen a Bayern match, actually sat down and watched it what with school, moving and exams, so it has seemed a bit disingenuous for me to contribute to this blog regularly. Now that it is a perfectly fine weekend for me to enjoy the boys in red, they've all gone off to International Duty (which is fine and all but honestly I'd rather have them all back in one piece).

Anyway that confession aside, it is time to extol the virtues of Tymo. What more can one ask of a player? Dedicated, hard working and a clean tackler (CLEAN TACKLES!), I'm glad he's at Bayern AND he is glad to be there too, spending the most time with fans and all. A+, good sir. A+

how i feel about international duty in a nutshell

but all the same, Germany is the first team to officially qualify for Euros, so that's exciting all around. three cheers for Deutschland, etc etc. how did you all find the match?

in other Bayern international news: Ukraine lost to Uruguay 2:3, which does nothing to change my belief that Anatoliy Tymoshchuk is the Chuck Norris of football. Ribery's France defeated Albania 2:1. Both Neuer and Schweinsteiger will be out against Poland in Germany's upcoming friendly, which may be the least of problems with that match.

We'll be keeping an eye on the remaining international matches but when all is said and done, I'll be counting down the days until we get Bayern matches again.