Loading ...Aug 23 2008
Bayern’s Dortmund Draw Leaves Munich Winless Through Two Rounds
Jürgen Klinsmann should have anticipated a tough showing on Saturday at Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund bounced on Bayer Leverkusen last week and left with a 3-2 road victory to open the season. Their energy level left Bayer looking under-prepared for the opening match. It was only towards the end of that match that Leverkusen were truly playing with Dortmund.
Against Bayern Munich, Dortmund again showed that energy. As the match opened, the two sides went up and down the field, exchanging undeveloped opportunities. That changed in the sixth minute when Dortmund attacked up the right, played a ball into Nelson Valdez who settled on his chest and turned for a decent shot. The ball missed the target, but of note was the ease with which Dortmund was able to attack the middle of Bayern’s defense. Still playing without their best defender, center back Argentine Martin Demichelis, Munich looked unorganized throughout. It would come back to haunt them a minute later.
Dortmund attacked the middle of Bayern’s defense again in the eighth minute, leaving the Munich defenders on their heals as they put together three touches at the top of the box. Lúcio came out to challenge on the third and seemed to close down the angle for a Jacob Blaszczykowski shot, but the Poland international created his own angle with a beautifully struck ball that came off the outside of his right foot, started thee or four feet wide of goal, and curled into the top left-hand corner of the goal, giving Munich goaltender Michael Rensing absolutely no chance to keep the score level. Kuba, as he is known, put through a classic goal and gave Dortmund a reward for their early ambition.
As Munich tried to fight back, the act that is Mark Van Bommel put his team in dire straits. Van Bommel had already picked up a yellow card for sliding through his man on a tackle when he gave an opponent a forearm to the head during a 50-50 challenge in midfield. The linesman alerted the referee who sent Van Bommel off half-way through the first half. Had van Bommel not already gotten a yellow, it would have been a straight red car, and for the Bundesliga’s disciplinarians, it may still be treated as such. Expect the Dutch international to miss time extra time with a suspension.
For van Bommel, it was an idiotic act for somebody wearing a captain’s armband. Beyond his team being down 1-0 and in danger of falling five points behind Schalke 04 by the end of the weekend, van Bommel’s ever-increasing penchant for thuggery is embarrassing to Bayern. In a match in which Martin Demichelis’s absence demanded his strength in from of the center backs, he was unable to play within the bounds of normal football and leave his persona behind. It was enough to make you wonder how a team with Champions League aspirations can have a WWE character in midfield. Bayern would play the rest of the match down a man.
Bayern maintained their composure and was able to assert more control of the game in the wake of Dortmund’s goal. The home team seemed to settle in a bit, and with it their scoring chances waned. Bayern, in the mean time, kept moving the ball up the wings, with their primary attacking option being service for Luca Toni, who was returning from a hamstring injury for his first appearance of the season. The Italian star did not look to be in peak form, but he was a constant factor. Borussia Dortmund’s center backs seemed to be constantly double marking him, a benefit of the continued disappearing act of Miroslav Klöse.
Toni had Bayern’s best opportunity of the first half when he put a solid header no goal only to have a very good Marc Zeigler save keep Dortmund up. It was the second good play by the Dortmund keeping in the half, the first coming when a ball deflected on goal from around 40 meters out almost looped its way under the bar. Zeigler did well to punch it over the bar.
Beyond the header, Toni did not threaten goal, and his biggest impact on play was his simulation of fouls. Midway through the first half Toni want down in a heap clutching his ankle. The referee seemed indulgent of Toni’s potential injury, though replays would show no way Toni could have been injured on the defender’s tackle. Toni would soon bounce up off the pitch and report back to the match none the worse for wear. It was a subtle incident that would almost have a determinant effect on the match in the second half.
At the start of the second half Klinsmann had had enough of Klöse, who was almost literally invisible in the first half, and brought on Tim Borowski. Lukas Podolski, whose straight line speed would have been a welcome addition to a team playing down a man, remained on the bench, a concerning harbinger for the rest of the season, if you’re Podolski or a Munich backer. Toni and Klöse started up front, with Bastian Schweinsteiger (one of Munich’s best players on Saturday) and Hamit Altintop on the wings. Podolski would not see action until the 77th minute, when he was brought on to replace a spent Podolski. At that time, Munich would play without a target man, something that limited their effectiveness, consider they had spent all match playing as if their entire attack depended on a traditional number nine.
That dependence did lessen slightly in the second half. Bayern held more possession outside the area and did not immediately send the ball into the box. Instead of working predominantly up Schweinsteiger’s side, Munich went up the right with Altintop more. The Turk was more willing to be patient and try to work for better scoring opportunities. Ultimately, though, it would not matter, as Munich too often would forgo further possession in favor of putting a cross towards the middle or back-post and hoping Dortmund would break down. There were no counterattacks, no diagonal balls, no movement to try and take advantage of superior athleticism from the likes of Schweinsteiger and Borowski. And for the most part, Dortmund’s back held up.
The only break downs came during a two minute stretchs tarting in the 74th minutes, when a Luca Toni run at left-center back Neven Subotic saw him pushed down in front of the byline. Toni immediately jumped up and appealed for a penalty with the all too well known Luca Toni face of supreme indignation. The referee’s response was a yellow card to Toni for simulation, a decision that seemed to recall the Italian’s questionable display in the first half. This time, Toni really was pushed down, and while it may not have been enough to necessitate a penalty (though it was pretty blatant), Toni was not simulating. But trailing the play, the referee was at a bad angle, and Toni’s indignation only reminded the referee of the striker’s unreliability in such affairs. I could not help but think that Bayern would have been much more likely to get an earned penalty had Toni played it honestly in the first half.
Justice prevailed two minutes later, though, as a Bayern corner kick found the head of Lúcio, who put the ball at Tim Borowski’s feet for the substitute’s first goal of the season. The multiple Munich touches were allowed by a Dortmund defense that seemed on their heals the whole play. Particularly, Subotic was left watching the ball cross in front of him before finding Borowski, to whom the 18-year-old American did not react.
Bayern had their equalizer, and although they posed the greater threat throughout the remaining ten minutes, the defending champions were not able to get the extra two points. Playing most of the match down a man, Munich got a good result, because if Dortmund had been able to play with the same energy they showed in the first half, Munich would have been beaten. Klinsmann’s men got their point, though, no thanks to Van Bommel, Klöse, or Klinsmann himself, who left Podolski on the bench for most of the match. If Schalke 04 gets three points at Werder Bremen, putting Bayern five points behind the team that’s playing the best in the league, the decision to keep Podolski on the bench for so long will look even more curious.
For Dortmund, the season looks promising after coming away with four points from Leverkusen and Munich. But Bayern was there for the taking today, and their inability to create better opportunities in the opponent’s third was their undoing. Nelson Valdez needs to play better. There were signs that he and Mohamed Zidan, making his debut and mostly working to the left of Valdez, would be able to work together. One strike from Valdez in particular spoke to Zidan’s ability to facce defenders up, pull other to him, and set up shots for Valdez. That shot would go just over the cross-bar, but if Dortmund is going to adequately replace the traded Mladen Petric, Valdez will need to show better qualty.
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