Wow, Bayern lost the trophy before the penalties even started. Right before the players lined up on the pitch for the penalties you could see Bayern players in a circle with Lahm in the middle clinching his fist and giving his Sparta speech. It looked really cool and inspirational. Too it went on deaf ears except Neuer. I would take him over Pepe Reina at Liverpool.
Seeing how Gomez is useless vs. ultra-defensive teams like Chelsea because of his poor dribbling and playmaking I strongly hope that we sign someone like Dzeko or Benzema this summer. Yaya Toure also wants out of City and his agent mentioned Bayern as a possible suitor. We have to work our azzes of to get these guys, no matter the cost. Bayern made 60mil € via CL this season and should finally spend some of their hard earned money to sign stars that ensure that we're not stuck behind Dortmund or fall flat in Europe.
Yeah Gomez was putrid in the game. He had two solid chances in the first half but the 2nd half he was invisible. Did he even touch the ball? I'm surprised that he didn't choke on the penalty either. Bayern don't need to do much though, their squad is elite if they can figure out how to beat Dortmund LOL.
We need a new coach, a new center forward and a mega aggressive guy in midfield. Should have never let Lucio and van Bommel go. We would have won 2010 with Lucio and 2012 with both these guys. I like Mario personally (know him), but he is useless. It's like playing 10 against 11, except that Gomez is used as a decoy. He cannot stop the ball, control it or pass it. 9 out of 10 times you try to pass the ball to him, it's gone. The team is very frustrated with this. Plus, his body language is awful a lot of the time. It's like he is just wandering around on the pitch, and actually hiding. It doesn't look like he is aggressively trying to get away from the defenders. I don't think Robben and Ribery respect him enough to actually feed him the ball, and I wouldn't either. Yeah, he will score 3 or 4 goals against lesser teams, but he doesn't show up in the big games. Still, he should have shot that penalty instead of Robben. Shoulda woulda coulda. Too bad Guardiola doesn't speak German. I would want him as the coach. If not him, then Favre from Moenchengladbach. I spoke to Jean-Marie Pfaff after the DFB-Cup loss to Dortmund and he told me he trained three years under Heynckes and learned absolutely nothing. I was not surprised at all to hear that. Too bad Heynckes is a buddy of Hoeness and Hoeness doesn't want to fire him again. So, realistically, I want Favre as coach, Dzeko as center forward, sell Gomez, get another center forward who is good with the ball and can play with the others as backup (Pizzarro). Plus, I want someone like a young van Bommel or Gattuso in midfield. Someone who will physically attack and dominate the opponent. Bastian wasn't fit. He wasn't fit the whole season, two severe injuries. He tried his best, but couldn't get it done last night. He is still a great player and leader. It was a great chance to win the cup, it won't be easy to get past Real and Barca again next year. If we keep the team pretty much together, get a few more real top stars (not middle of the road players like Dante, Shaquiri), then we can compete again next season. I was at the banquet last night and the mood was very somber, obviously. Hopefully we can bounce back next year. I'm not even in the mood to watch the Euro in Poland and the Ukraine right now, I will just give my tickets to someone else.
I think Toure and Benzema are pipe dreams. No way either leave. Now Dzeko I see. I think he would do well with Bayern but he isn't that drastically different from Gomez is he? A player like one of the two ex-Bundesliga strikers Newcastle signed-Papiss or Demba, would have been a nice signing for Bayern. A plan B, when the plan A with Gomez goes awry against ultra-defensive teams like Chelsea. Also, Bayern fans should take heart, that squad is still a special squad, I don't think a ton of changes are needed, just a few little changes, #1 being that striker you mentioned. As TheRealist mentioned, all that's needed apart from the above, is also to figure out how to beat Dortmund. Shame about the lack of players with balls to stand up and and be counted during penalties. Horrid feeling if you miss but better to be a man and stand up and take your penalty than be the p*ssy that doesn't volunteer and then watches your team lose on PK's and wonder if your PK might have been the difference.
Agreed. Have to give it to Lahm (I'm usually not a fan of his) for having the balls to go first, and also to Mario for having volunteered. Players like Tymo should just go away. He didn't play badly defensively, but I can't stand watching him anymore. Boateng - nice guy, but when you are up 1-0 with two or three minutes to go and all you have to do is guard the ONE GUY EVERYONE KNOWS IT MATTERS TO GUARD, then you don't stand several meters behind him on a corner kick. You just don't. When I saw that they were gesturing towards Neuer to shoot as the THIRD guy, I knew something was wrong. Everyone else was too chicken. Props to Neuer for having the balls to shoot and make it. Thanks ferrari77 for the fair analysis. I still think we are in good shape to contend for the next few years. Beating Dortmund, yeah, that's another matter. They have the better coach. They also have some outstanding players (Pisczek is probably the best right wing defender in Europe right now. Why does Dortmund find someone like him and we don't?) If we could pry Lewandowski from them and eventually Goetze, it would be great. We slept on Oezil and Khedira, too. Missed out on Goetze and Reus. Should have never let Hummels go (although I hate him right now). It sucks. I am tired of Hoeness. His dictatorial ways have helped lead Bayern to success, but I am tired of his grandstanding and ego. Bayern has made some serious errors in talent judgment. We paid a lot of money for terrible or mediocre players (Breno, Sosa, dos Santos) and we let real winners go for little money (van Bommel, Lucio). We will lose Karl Hopfner probably next year due to health reasons, who has been the financial mastermind and the guy who really ran the club internally. I don't have too much trust in Nerlinger to be able to succeed Hoeness. He is a nice guy, but his track record is not great. And some of the guys on the business side inside the team are sycophants, not leaders, which is a result of the Hoeness dictatorship.
I don't follow soccer, but a few of my euro friends were posting about this game, so I thought I'd duck into this thread. This comment surprised me -- with the international composition of the teams, do the Bundesliga teams actually still communicate in German, and not English?
It's not a must in Bundesliga, but Bayern specifically pointed out that their coach has to speak German fluently.
Well Robben having played with Cech before was another part of the equation in him bowing out of pk's. Cech has his number and knows all of his shots. I wouldn't want him to take it either. Bayern lost when they took Muller off the pitch
Absolutely incredible. Can't believe how that game played out! Saw a story on Bild calling Robben 'Arjen Floppen' - - they mentioned that they are happy he will be playing for Holland and not Germany at the Euros! Feel sorry for him - he seems like a nice guy from the interviews I've seen and things I've read but on the pitch, if things don't work for him, he can seem very selfish. Same thing for Ribery. Maybe he is putting too much pressure on himself to perform and make up for missing the penalty against Dortmund. Cech mentioned that Robben is a bit unpredictable with penalties. He doesn't follow a pattern so Cech didn't know which way to go. He said that considering the fact that it was late in the game and Robben would be tired, he reckoned he would go for power and not technique or placement. Being left-footed himself, Cech figured that shooting into the right corner would make most sense. Well, it's easy to say that after the fact but it seems to make sense. In the end Robben didn't put much power behind it anyway...
I feel sorry for Robben, too. At least he had the guts to take the penalty. Unfortunately, he probably lost two major competitions for Bayern this year, with his missed penalties in Dortmund and in the CL final. But then again, he also won a lot of games for us. I still like him and want to keep him. He needs to learn to sometimes play a little less selfishly, but at the same time, he still needs to use his strengths (tempo dribble, shooting). I hope we get a real center forward whom Robben respects enough to pass him the ball (and get it back). I also think Robben needs to practice corner kicks or let someone else take them. 20-1 corners for Bayern, but Chelsea scored a goal out of the one they had, whereas we wasted all of ours.
Ask Man U if they think Robben choked when he killed them with his fabulous goal. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VL68hVoKXuY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Robben didn't choke against Real, either...unlike a certain other team this year.
Both in that World Cup and in the CL, he got a round or more further than Messi (I know Messi won the CL, but he had Xavi, Iniesta, etc...Messi is still the best, but just saying that at least Robben got to the final every time). I'm sure that if Bayern keeps the team together and adds some missing pieces, we will contend again - with Robben. Cech, Lampard and Drogba had to try many times until they finally succeeded. Neuer, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Ribery, Robben should eventually win the CL one of the next few years, hopefully. The final I really wanted to see this year was Bayern vs. Barca. It would have been a sight to see. Maybe next year?
Cech said after the game that for all of the penalties he guessed that it would be kicked right and it paid off for him immensely.
