DFB Pokal: Dortmund rips Bayern

Dortmund defeat Bayern 5-2 to do the domestic double! This is a huge win for Dortmund, as they’ve beaten their rivals in all three critical matches this season. Overall, this was an exciting game, where Bayern actually had more of the play, but the Neons were much more opportunistic.

Things started out with a disaster for Bayern: after only 3 minutes, Luiz Gustavo made a horrible pass, Kuba picked it up and passed to Kagawa, who had an empty net. bayern reacted well, with some pressing and strong attacks. Only a few minutes later, Gomez was put through, but Weidenfeller made a courageous dive to intervene. He was down injured for quite a while, with speculation that he had broken a rib. However, he continued in the match. Dortmund actually looked a bit confused after the early lead, and was relying more on a stout defense. Bayern then got a deserved equalizer in a similar Weidenfeller vs. Gomez repeat: this time however the keeper got the player instead of the ball and Arjen Robben put home the subsequent penalty. A few minutes later Weidenfeller had to leave the match, and he was replaced by Australian Mitch Langerak. One might have expected Bayern to gain the upper hand, but the opposite happened. Kuba tried to dribble in the penalty area, and Boateng chopped him down; Hummels put home the penalty, and the Neons were back on top. The lethal blow however came in injury time. Kagawa got to a bouncing ball and passed perfectly splitting the defense for Lewandowski to blast home.

Bayern tried to regroup and come out strong in the 2nd half, but didn’t look like they would take advantage of their chances. Instead it was Dortmund, showing some nice passing as Kagawa to Grosskreutz, who played through Schweinsteiger’s legs to Lewandowski, who hammered past Neuer. Bayern was stunned, and Dortmund was sailing along. Some good combination passing gave Lewandowski another chance, but Neuer made a great save. The Müncheners then recovered for a last ditch run. Gomez headed off the bar, then Ribery did somefancy footwork and finished with a nice shot into the corner. But that was as close as they would get. Lewandowski did get  his hat-trick near the end, as Neuer dove on a ball, but then lost it, Piszcek flipped it high to the far post where Lewandowski headed home for the final nail in a historic Dortmund victory.

Borussia Dortmund     -     Bayern München    5:2 (3:1)    74,794

                     1:0  Kagawa (3., Blaszczykowski)
                     1:1  Robben (25., penalty, Gomez)
                     2:1  Hummels (41., penalty, Blaszczykowski)
                     3:1  Lewandowski (45. + 1, Kagawa)
                     4:1  Lewandowski (58., Großkreutz)
                     4:2  Ribery (75.)
                     5:2  Lewandowski (81., Piszczek)

So is this signaling a changing of the guard in German football? I would say “no”. Clearly Dortmund is well on track to become the second force, but they still have a ways to go. Bayern still dominates the league financially, and Dortmund is only recovering from their previous run at the top. (where they also won the Champions League). Dortmund has yet to do anything in Europe, whereas next week Bayern could perhaps “salvage” their season by beating Chelsea in the Champions League final…in München.

Last season Dortmund stormed to the title, and Bayern played poorly. Management reacted by spending big, and things started quite well, as it looked like they would run away with things. But as Dortmund played themselves into (superb) shape, Bayern began to reveal some weakness, at the same time getting stretched in Europe. I would expect Bayern to spend some more to shore up the at times shaky defense, and certainly be one of the favorites again. Dortmund will have to achieve a deep Champions League run (or maybe win it all) in order to gain recognition as Bayern’s equal, while increasing their financial muscle. So I would say they still have quite a way to go, but at least they’re on the right track.

2 thoughts on “DFB Pokal: Dortmund rips Bayern

  1. Hah! I’ve got a top-notch pedantic comment: The stadium announcer today said (and I’m proud to still remember this): sold out at 75 408. Obviously, these are relatively arbitrary numbers, but where do you get your attendance figures? I’m just curious.

    As to the game, I only saw the second half, which was pretty smooth sailing, so I can’t say how “souverän” the victory was, but I’ll take it anyway. This season has re-opened talk of a ‘second powerhouse’ in German football, but it’s still very premature. However, the last (non-Bayern) team to win the double was Bremen in ’03-’04. More significantly, the last (non-Bayern) team to win back-to-back titles was also Dortmund, 17 years ago. So there is a chance.

    • Interesting about the attendance numbers. I took the 74,794 number from “kicker”, which was published just after the match. However, when I looked later, I see that kicker revised the number to 75,708….which still doesn’t match the number you heard. I guess the numbers are fairly arbitrary, even in “sold out” matches where you might think there could be an accurate count.

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