by Patrick Strasser
02.11.2023, 18:58
5 Min.
After FC Bayern’s embarrassing defeat in the DFB Cup, the game against Borussia Dortmund awaits at the weekend. And a season threatens to end quite early despite a run of 13 games without defeat.
Do you still remember FC Bayern Munich’s last DFB Cup triumph? In the summer of 2020 it was a pretty unspectacular final against Bayer Leverkusen, with dreary TV images due to the corona pandemic. The game was played in front of empty stands in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. Since then, Bayern have been hit by a mysterious cup curse.
Four seasons, four bankruptcies. First at second division club Holstein Kiel in a penalty shootout, then at Borussia Mönchengladbach with a historic 0:5 defeat, last season at home against SC Freiburg with a last minute penalty and now the 1:2 embarrassment at third division team 1. FC Saarbrücken . Second round, second round, quarter-finals – to put it heretically: a positive slip – and now second round again. Different laws apply to Bayern in the cup: from 1998 to 2020 they were in the final 15 (!) times in 23 seasons and won twelve (!) times, most recently in 2020. And now: the quadruple of bankruptcies, bad luck and mishaps. Is it all just bad luck?
Not at all! The cup malaise is a homegrown problem. A sporty one, as far as the supposed A-eleven is concerned. A structural one, as far as the squad is too thin, which is even thinner than it already is without the recently injured central defender Matthijs de Ligt.
OPINION
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FC Bayern puts themselves under pressure
The treble is gone, with the cup being eliminated, title two even after the Supercup, which was clearly lost 3-0 against Leipzig. Through their own fault, Bayern put a lot of pressure on themselves in no time. On Saturday we go to the eternal rivals in Dortmund, the German Clásico in the emotional cauldron “Signal Iduna Park” – and despite a run of 13 games without defeat, a season threatens to end quite early. As if out of nowhere, the Munich team go into what is usually a heated top game with a backpack full of pressure. In view of the first defeat in the cup against a club below the second division in 23 years (in 2000 they failed against the then upper division club FC Magdeburg), unusually mild words were heard from Tuchel.
“After such a bitter evening, it is not the time to make accusations. It is not the time to point fingers at each other and question everything,” emphasized Tuchel. After five wins in a row, his team simply chose the “worst possible time” to end the series. Goalscorer Thomas Müller spoke of “a brutal blow”, while the coach appeared perplexed on Wednesday evening, as he had done so often in the spring: “Very bitter. We can’t make up for it, we’re super disappointed.”
In the championship, the table lead is a matter of course by two points and the strong Bayer Leverkusen feel light years away from comet coach Xabi Alonso. It must now be a matter of “getting the disappointment out of your head and then getting up,” demanded sports director Christoph Freund, who was pissed off for the first time. He believes – and hopes: “Dortmund will be a completely different game. We’re going there to compete as Bayern Munich and take something away.” Despite eleven championships in a row, it sounds just as defensive as Tuchel, who announced: “We have to find a solution in order to be able to survive in Dortmund.”
For Dortmund it is against FC Bayern: Losing is forbidden
The new understatement as a unique opportunity for the hosts? “The signs could hardly be better. But you have to go through this open door – it didn’t work out in the season finale of the championship in May,” said Sky expert Didi Hamann on Thursday. The former Bayern midfielder found pithy words about the duel between the league’s major powers: “For BVB it is forbidden to lose if you want to play a role in the title fight! If you don’t beat Bayern now, then never again.”
Says the expert. An emotive word on Säbener Straße. Because: It’s such a thing, the thing with football experts. More precisely: those with the so-called experts, as the experts at FC Bayern like to say. With their hands on the microphone, the external observers put their fingers in the wound and that is often more uncomfortable than opponents like Manchester City, RB Leipzig or 1. FC Saarbrücken.
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Lothar Matthäus is such an unpleasant zeitgeist, and recently Didi Hamann, also previously employed as a midfielder at Säbener Straße, has increasingly turned out to be a tormentor. He also has neither ambition nor chance of becoming a greenkeeper at FC Bayern one day. Both are considered a red flag; Uli Hoeneß judged Matthäus in March. He is “an outstanding football expert and a very important personality at FC Bayern over the last 20 years. But sometimes he forgets that he once played for this club. When I hear his suggestions – I don’t understand it. He oversteps the limits.”
It’s fair to say that border crosser Didi Hamann’s finger has been in Bayern’s wound for a long time – not just since the 2-1 accident in Saarbrücken on Wednesday evening. Hamann is not considered a friend of Tuchel’s football and the coach’s work at FC Bayern. In the end, the subscription master suffered from phantom pain at best, but Hamann’s constant comments (“Bayern’s results are right, but the football is not good. An alliance of convenience, not a love affair”) seem like the itch of a mosquito bite that one actually wanted to ignore, but has now carelessly scratched up has. It was Tuchel himself who, after repeated stabs, allowed himself to be carried away into a counterattack against Mücke Hamann – everyone knows who thrashes wildly in the bedroom at night because the noise (just the noise!) is so annoying. “Didi is getting a little out of hand at the moment, I feel, and on the other hand it’s definitely not important enough for us to care about it, react to it or let ourselves be annoyed.” It’s good for the soul to have done or said something. But it doesn’t help. A mosquito has seven lives.
Hamann: “I’ve never had the feeling of unity in the last seven or eight months”
In the heart of Munich, in the “Bayerischer Hof” hotel, expert employer Sky had reserved the “Minister’s Room” on Thursday morning. Hamann was allowed to hold court in the baroque room two days before Munich’s Bundesliga classic at Borussia Dortmund. The 50-year-old was in a good mood, but not because he presented himself as a satisfied prophet in view of Munich’s cup defeat, which he “didn’t expect”. Wearing a black turtleneck sweater, he spoke briefly in a benevolent and hopeful manner (“It can have something cathartic about it”), but then got to the heart of the matter: “How many of the current players will walk over hot coals for this coach?” And: “I have never had the feeling in the last seven or eight months that there is a unit that is ready to iron out a teammate’s mistake.” Tuchel has now been at Bayern for seven, well, almost eight months. Meanwhile, Matthäus spoke from the off-screen via “Bild”, calling Munich’s recent cup defeat “embarrassing and shameful”. This is “inexplicable”. Typical expert rhetoric.
Meanwhile, Hamann continued on the never-greenkeeper course: “The development has not been good since Tuchel has been there – unsatisfactory for all sides. I have great concerns as to whether it will work in this constellation. It started badly and now things are continuing badly. ” A rush followed, but one that made people sit up and take notice: “The coach could be gone in a few weeks or months.” Can, but doesn’t have to. For Julian Nagelsmann it was a matter of days. Regarding his feud with Tuchel, Hamann, who “of course also has a lot to thank Bayern for,” said calmly: “For me it’s about the matter, not about Tuchel. If he perceives it that way, everything is good. I can deal with criticism – like that as he certainly can.”
And now, Mr. Executioner Hamann, what will the duel with BVB bring? The expert suddenly said a sentence that sounded like Hoeneß and trace elements of Mia-san-Mia DNA: “In the past, Bayern were always there when they faced big opponents.”
Is Boateng coming back to FC Bayern after all?
In terms of personnel, de Ligt’s serious injury could lead to a spectacular turnaround. At the beginning of October, the board had decided against a short-term employment for Jérôme Boateng (35), although Tuchel had spoken out in favor of the 2014 world champion as a backup for the central defense after he was able to demonstrate his fitness level in training. The topic could now become hot again in an emergency – despite the trial against Boateng due to assault and insult to his ex-girlfriend at the Munich I regional court in the spring and the largely negative attitude of the fans towards their ex-player? Bayern can do anything.
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