Et had just been played for a good quarter of an hour, coach Julian Nagelsmann looked a little worried at the lawn of the Munich Arena. Yes, there are still those moments at FC Bayern these weeks, when the team regained the dominance it had lost and gave the competition the impression that this season could end like the ten before it.
Jamal Musiala gave Bayern an early lead against Werder Bremen in the penultimate Bundesliga game before the World Cup break, but shortly afterwards Anthony Jung equalized. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting then missed a penalty, exactly the same Munich striker who had always scored in the past seven players. And shortly afterwards Sadio Mané had to leave the field after a blow to the head of the shin. You ask yourself the question, Nagelsmann admitted, how the team would react.
“It was a lesson”
Only a few minutes later he had the answer, he knew his worries were unfounded. “She reacted well,” the team, he said. Shortly afterwards it was 4:1, in the end 6:1. “It was a lesson,” confessed Bremen coach Ole Werner.
Above all, it was the German internationals who set the tone in this game and let national coach Hansi Flick know from afar that they are ready for the upcoming big tournament in the desert state of Qatar. The triple goalscorer Serge Gnabry for example. After Musiala, whose 1-0 was his ninth Bundesliga goal this season, he is Munich’s top scorer. “I’m also happy for the DFB, because he’s also an important player for Hansi,” said Nagelsmann. Incidentally, Gnabry scored the first three-pack by a player this season.
Sorgen a Mane
Or Leon Goretzka, who not only made it 3-1, but also impressed with his dynamism and tough duels. Then there is of course Musiala, who acts in front of goal with an amazing calm and sovereignty for his 19 years. Joshua Kimmich anyway. The perennial runner in the team has silenced the critics from early autumn, because he is still present everywhere on the field, but tills the pitch and opponents at such a consistently high level that there is nothing left to complain about.
And Leroy Sané seems to be able to continue the good form he had before his muscle injury, as he proved after his early substitution for Mané. “Of course, the fact that everyone is back at 100 or 120 percent is also good for our German block at the World Cup,” said sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić, the former Bosnia-Hercegovina international.
After the last international matches in September, the national coach told his World Cup candidates “that we should kindly get in good shape,” Goretzka said. It was the phase in this not-so-old season when the Bayern players weren’t in the best shape, and after a couple of draws and a defeat in the Bundesliga they were lagging behind their own expectations.
The World Cup probably didn’t play such a big role in the minds of the Munich team, but it was more about fighting back to the top of the Bundesliga. But one has to do with the other.
The record champions are back on top, scoring 47 goals after 14 match days, only in the mid-1970s had a Bayern team managed to do so again. Because everyone is playing at a high level. And if things go well for the club that provides the most national players, that usually helps the national team in major tournaments.
The topic of the World Cup was not only present in a purely sporting sense that evening in Munich, but according to a statement by the Qatari World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman in a ZDF documentary, the socio-political aspect has become even more explosive.
The fact that he described homosexuality as “mental damage” was initially not uncommented by the Bayern fans, who were already critical because of the Qatar sponsorship. “Damaged Mind? Fuck you, Khalid & Co!” was written on a large poster in the south stand.
Then Goretzka and Nagelsmann also found clear words. The midfielder described Salman’s statements as “very oppressive” and “absolutely unacceptable”. It reflects “an image of man from another millennium,” said Goretzka.
His trainer found the ambassador’s statements “cross-border”. It was the only criticism that FC Bayern had that evening. But a very valid one. And above all an indispensable one.
