This is how the last game day went
All results of the 34th match day, the table and statistics can be found here in the stern-Ticker.
We look back on the whole season this time after the end of the season:
The excitement of the season
Corona: The league had to learn that there are situations in which nobody is waiting for them to finally start again. This irritated some who were used to undivided attention. In a pandemic, however, there are really more important things – and to this day pubs and cultural workers can ask themselves why they have to remain idle while the high-paying footballers are playing again. After all: The German Football League has thought about something, invented a sophisticated concept how the operation can continue – albeit in pain. It was not to be expected that everything would work that way, many saw the Bundesliga as a super spreader. It turned out differently, and if you want to see it positively, the league has shown how life can go on despite Corona. Some restaurant owners and some school principals would like a concept that worked just as well.
Handball rule: Actually not allowed at all, but always part of the game and constant topic of discussion. When is hand hand? This question could not be answered this season either – in spite of all the film sequences that the video referee in the proverbial “Cologne basement” spoiled their eyes again and again. Partly adventurous, what contortions the professionals wrung out of their bodies so as not to suspect that they had deliberately touched the ball with their hands. And that should hardly get any better in the coming season. In the future, the shoulder should clearly and clearly no longer count to the “hand”. The international rule-keepers invented the “T-shirt line” for this. That means: Free kick occurs when the ball is touched with the part of the arm that is not covered by the sleeve of a T-shirt. Sounds like the video umbrellas need another “calibrated line”.
The losers of the season
The league: It became clear once again that the dominance of Bayern is overwhelming the Bundesliga. Everything seemed to be different this time. Long forgotten: The red “Bulls” from Leipzig became champions, followed by Gladbach. The Munich were only third. But then they found their solution again: Hansi Flick took over as the coach, breathed new life into the star ensemble, and the exhilarated team could not stop a full-blown epidemic. The Bundesliga has created a monster. Perhaps it had to happen at some point after the idea was implemented in 1963 to let Germany’s strongest teams play in a league. FC Bayern has outgrown this league, but letting the permanent master move to a super league among the top European clubs would only degrade it. A dilemma, no way out in sight.
Schalke 04: For the “miners” from Gelsenkirchen, the season does not end a day too early. What a crash! David Wagner, one of the most hyped coaches, came to Schalke and initially led the team to 5th place until halftime. But none of that has remained. 16 games in a row could not win the Schalke battered by injury bad luck – a club negative record. Financially it looks similarly poor. If Corona had canceled the season, bankruptcy would have been threatened. Now the European Cup is no longer a source of income. To make matters worse, there are the quarrels surrounding the Corona eruption near Tönnies. Meat manufacturer Clemens Tönnies is the chairman of the association’s supervisory board. Another veteran of the Bundesliga is tumbling towards the abyss. Quo vadis, Schalke 04?
The winners of the season
The fans: The ghost games also made it clear to the last one that the Bundesliga is not even worth half without fans. Without the chants, the choreos, the excited screams when scoring a goal, the celebration of a success often doesn’t really matter what happens on the lawn. The clearly audible clattering when the ball hits the handrail of the goal net does not trigger anything. The position of the fans is undoubtedly strengthened by the Corona phase of the season. Everyone wants the audience back because it’s not just about football, it’s also about the show and being admired. Will it be remembered that fans started to stay away before Corona because professional football estranged people? It was the television money that motivated the Bundesliga to continue playing despite Corona – less the idea of giving the quarantine fans a bit of variety. And the new television contracts now even require fans to subscribe to two subscriptions (Sky and DAZN) if they want to cheer on “their” club live week after week. Then you want the fans again primarily because they want to pay. The ghost games were a foretaste: woe if football goes too far. Woe if the ranks remain empty even without an epidemic.
FC Bayern: Celebrating the mayor as the season’s winner – actually pretty unimaginative. Actually, because it was different this time. Bayern were really on the wrong track, Leipzig seemed stronger, Gladbach and Dortmund on par. But the Munich team made it back on the track under their own steam. With a new coach and a new enthusiasm for the game, they only allowed themselves one tiny, meager draw in the second half of the season, let everyone else stand again effortlessly and ended up again at the top with a whopping 13 points ahead – and that through aggressive, attractive football. “The autumn was not easy, both for the club and for me personally. That is why, in addition to the first championship, it is perhaps the most special, the most intensive and the most emotional for me,” said Thomas Müller on his behalf. And indeed, the joy of the Bayern stars was real when they raised the “salad bowl” on Saturday for the eighth consecutive year. Admirable and scary at the same time.
You should see this gate (again)
FC Bayern’s 100th goal of the season was a mess: Thomas Müller scored 4-0 for the champions against VfL Wolfsburg.
Admittedly, Bayern’s 4-0 win at VfL Wolfsburg was nothing special at all. Perisic crosses in the 79th minute from the left into the penalty area, VfL defender Knoche involuntarily extends to Thomas Müller, who puts the ball with a rich right-footed shot next to the right post. So far, so normal. And yet you could only consider such a goal for the second time in the long history of the Bundesliga. It was the 100th goal of the Munich season. Mueller’s predecessor as scorer of a 100th goal of the season for a Bundesliga team was none other than … Uli Hoeneß! The long-time Bayern boss scored on the last matchday of the 1971/72 season in the 80th minute to 4: 1 against Schalke 04. At that time, Bayern even scored a 101st goal (by Franz Beckenbauer). Will 48 years pass before this brand falls?
The picture of the season
Defy the virus: the cardboard stands in the stands of Gladbach’s Borussia Park are a symbol of the Corona season.
Smiled by some, copied by others: In Mönchengladbach’s Borussia Park, fans could send a cardboard representative to the ghost games. Around 22,000 cardboard comrades – including players, coaches and staff members of Borussia and even away fans – recently filled the ranks, taking a little bit of desolation from games without an audience. A symbol of how the league and fans braved the virus. Other clubs later covered their ranks with huge tarpaulins, some of which also featured fans. The cardboard comrades from Gladbach found imitators – among them the Grasshoppers Zurich, Lazio Rome or Brighton & Hove Albion from the Premier League. But it is still nicer with real fans …
Is there anything else?
The big showdown is unfortunately unsuccessful this season. Too bad, a northern derby between HSV and SV Werder would have been a relegation that would have electrified the neutral football fan. But at 1: 5 at home against Sandhausen, the HSV showed that it is unfortunately not yet ready for the Bundesliga again. This also applies to the weak Heidenheimers on the last match day, who should hardly cause any problems for SV Werder.
We say goodbye to Düsseldorf’s Fortuna once again and firmly believe in a (further) reunion in league 1. VfB Stuttgart is already back, but they no longer bring Mario Gomez with them. The former Bayern and national striker scored his last goal in his last game for VfB on Sunday (1-3 against Darmstadt). Back after many years is the Bielefeld Arminia, which will now hold up the colors of East Westphalia instead of SC Paderborn. Again from autumn – whether with or hopefully with spectators.
