Okay, let's start with the bad news (as well as your German vocabulary lesson for the week). "Badstuber erleidet Kreuzbandriss" means Holger has torn his ACL and, for all practical purposes, is likely out for the rest of the season. They'll have to wait a bit for the swelling to go down before they can do surgery (can take anywhere from a day or two up to a few weeks) and then rehab post-op is at least three months. Realistically, if we're talking about him being fully healed and not brought back too quickly (*cough* Torres *cough*), we might have him back for the last few Bundesliga fixtures and any Pokal/CL championships. It's a huge blow to our back line, as Holger's move back to the center has strengthened our defense (and how good is it to see Alaba back in the Starting XI, by the way?). But we've got Boa and Dante, with Tymo and Martinez and Gustavo (once he's no longer injured) who can also play center half well. And yes, Bayern fans, those desires to see the ghost of Mark van Bommel slide tackle Gotze (for causing the injury to Holger) and Hummels (he's so freaking smug!) are totally normal and part of the healing process. (An interesting side note: this means that the central defense for the German NT is now Mertesacker and Hummels...I bet Per will REALLY be missing Holger, too!)
As for the match itself...there's not much to say. Their keeper had a good day, Mario Gomez was brought on FAR too late (honestly, Jupp, I love Mandy as much as anyone, but Gomez should have started...it's DORTMUND, for goodness sake!), and Holger's absence was clearly felt on the defensive lapse that led to Dortmund's goal.
I debated waiting to write this until I was less angry, but screw it. I am angry. We deserved to win that. Franck was offsides when he shouldn't have been, Toni was caught a little bit off-guard, but STILL. We had more possession, we played our hearts out, and, most importantly, we didn't sink to the chippiness that Dortmund displayed (clearly, they don't think they can win a match against us without scrapping).
So what did we learn today? We're still Herbstmeister, our goal differential is still at +35, and Mario Gomez is still a game changer (once again, within seconds of being brought on, he created a chance that almost won us the match, save for a pretty good save for Weidenfeller). And can we please stop calling this a "Classico"? Dortmund have a lot more to prove until they're in our ranks in terms of history and, let's face it, we'd all rather NOT have the comparison to Real Madrid/Barcelona.
And a brief note to Sky Sports: Did you SERIOUSLY just ask Toni how he felt to have let in the winning goal?!? While, yes, he was caught off-guard, there were TEN other Bayern players in the same area and it's not as if he was the only one caught sleeping there. I realize I'm being overprotective of my boys, but seriously, they just drew a game they should have won. Try not being an asshole to the guy who scored the goal.
We'll see you back here on Wednesday, when we meet Bate Borisov in Allianz at 2:45pm EST. Until then, be well, guard your ACLs, and AUF GEHT'S BAYERN!
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