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...
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