'We can only beat ourselves,' reckoned Philipp Lahm after the Bundesliga leaders beat Bayer ahead of their European clash
In the very corner of his right eye, Robin Dutt might have just made out a Leverkusen supporter's banner urging him kindly to "Piss Off". But the 45-year-old cut a content, unperturbed figure in front of the TV reporter's microphone at the final whistle. "I have to compliment the team today," Dutt said, smiling benignly. "They fought all the way to the end, they didn't give up, their body language was good and they weren't going to get slaughtered." It was the very sort of thing happy managers say when their teams have just battled back from 3-0 down to a thrilling draw or to an unfortunate, narrow loss. There was just a tiny snag. Bayer had just lost 3-0 in the Allianz Arena and done nothing of the sort.
"There is no need for everyone to soil their pants," Bremen's sporting director Klaus Allofs had warned the league in light of Bayern's dominance before the game. Leverkusen did not quite heed the advice: the performance from last year's runners-up instantly brought to mind (the former 04 sporting director) Reiner Callmund's quip about "wearing Pampers on the pitch".
Will this Bundesliga season actually start before it's too late? This was supposed to be the game when the league leaders were finally tested properly. And they were, for five minutes. Once Thomas M�ller had scored a classic Gerd M�ller goal, a determined toe-poke following some splendid work from the rejuvenated Franck Rib�ry, it was all over. Daniel van Buyten made it 2-0 with a free-kick straight through a creaky wall (19) which even seemed to do the visitors a favour. "They enjoyed the slow pace before such an important Champions League match," wrote S�ddeutsche Zeitung acidly. "[After the two goals] they didn't have that much to do against an opponent that was only moderately committed. Leverkusen managed to conserve a lot of energy during that 3-0 defeat in Munich."
The returning Arjen Robben nonchalantly curled in the third in added time but it could have easily been another debacle for the "Werkself" (company team). Without Andr� Sch�rrle, Michal Kadlec (both suspended) and Michael Ballack, Dutt's men seemed to lack belief. Their thoughts soon turned to the must-win game against Genk on Wednesday, and Bayern looked increasingly absent-minded, too.
"We weren't very good today; there were loads of mistakes," said M�ller, with regard to some sloppy ball squandering in the final third. "Against City, we all need to be awake," warned Philipp Lahm, "unlike today, not as heedless."
"With a fully-fit [Mario Gomez] and Arjen Robben, we can play a lot better," said Jupp Heynckes, who also mildly criticised the former Manchester City defender J�r�me Boateng. "He doesn't have the consistency at the moment," the coach explained about the reasons for leaving the 23-year-old on the bench. Boateng should return against his former club, however, to partner Holger Badstuber, perhaps the most improved member of this Bayern side, along with Toni Kroos.
Bayern's captain, Lahm, threatened to stretch out the freakishly mean domestic streak ? they haven't conceded for 568 minutes ? indefinitely. "We can only beat ourselves," said the full-back. Leverkusen's sporting director Rudi V�ller quickly sensed that sharing this view was the only way to avoid an inquest into his men's depressing show. "When you're 2-0 down this quickly, damage limitation is your only option," he claimed. "Bayern are on the level of Barcelona and Real Madrid. They play a special role in the Bundesliga."
The difference in class on Saturday evening did indeed make Bayer look like Germany's answer to Rayo Vallecano, but unlike the two La Liga heavyweights, Bayern are yet to show that their greatness is not strictly relative. Handily, this is where Manchester City come in. Bastian Schweinsteiger was visibly excited about "facing a real challenge on Tuesday. We have to show that we can play like that against top teams in the Champions League, too".
Sections of the local press have predictably played up the diametrically opposed business models of Bayern and City ("That's why the whole world is rooting for us!" one tz reader wrote in the commentary section of yet another Financial Fair Play piece on Monday) but the non-red-and-white two thirds of the country will watch the showdown with mixed feelings. There will be a measure of reflected pride and glory if Germany's lonely superstar-club can beat a Premier League one, but certainly a sense of dread as well. "If these Bayern are the real deal, the word autumn champions might just take on a whole new meaning," predicted Abendzeitung eerily.
Talking points
? Bayern's win was so effortless that the assembled big-shots could concentrate on fighting the powers that be instead. They all queued up to slam the Munich public prosecutor for arresting the injured Brazilian defender Breno following a suspicious fire at his rented villa on Tuesday. "Inhuman, ridiculous," said the president Uli Hoeness, "the way they're playing up is incredible. If this is our country, then it's goodnight Germany."
The vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was more measured in tone but equally angry. "We are surprised about the public prosecutor," he said. "I'm appealing for fairness and handling the matter sensitively." The public prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch did not understand all the fuss. "Bayern themselves have said that they're planning to fly him and his family out to Brazil," he told S�ddeutsche. "How can a judge dismiss the risk of flight in this case?" The fact that Breno's passport had apparently been destroyed in the fire was immaterial, he added. The charge is arson. But the club's verbal attacks on the legal authorities perhaps betray a sense of guilt. Bayern obviously neglected to deal with the unspecified "personal problems", according to Heynckes, of the 21-year-old who had apparently become increasingly worried about his career in the wake of recurring knee trouble. "In Brazil I had less money and less luxury, but I was a happy person," Breno said last year. "Here, I have money but I'm missing everything else."
? Breno's alleged call for help strangely enough coincided with Ralf Rangnick's admission to suffering from burn-out syndrome. "Rangnick is physically on the ropes," said the Schalke 04 team doctor Thorsten Rarreck. "He couldn't help the club any longer." Colleagues and the press applauded the 53-year-old's courageous decision to go public about his problems and one hopes that the "Fu�ballprofessor" will be allowed to lecture again after an extended break. Schalke's caretaker manager Seppo Eichkorn oversaw a 4-2 win over relegation-bound SC Freiburg. The former Schalke legend Mike B�skens, now in charge of Greuther F�rth in the second division, is very much in the mix as far as the succession goes. Then there is also the inevitable Huub Stevens, perhaps the one man who will threaten Bayern's clean-sheet record by peddling his special brand of goalless football. Hamburg, who were also talking to the Dutchman, pulled out on Sunday night, which is real shame. As the blogger Kai Pahl suggested, next week's match between the two clubs could have made for a great play-off ? with the losers having to take on the 57-year-old, naturally.
? The Northerners seem to prefer tactical incompetence of a more attacking kind, however, and are reportedly eager to hand the job to Marco van Basten. Under the caretaker Rodolfo Cardoso, HSV won their first match of the season, 2-1 at Stuttgart on Friday, but they are still propping up the table.
? Dortmund, too, won 2-1 away, at Mainz, to ease the sense of crisis that was threatening to engulf the champions. Mario G�tze's return vastly improved Borussia's approach play but the conversion rate was again scandalously bad, even worse than at Thomas Cook. It took a last-minute 20-yard effort from Lukasz Piszczek to secure three points for J�rgen Klopp's team. "This result makes work easier for us," said the coach, in view of Wednesday's trip to Marseille.
? The result might have been a tad tough on Mainz but poor Hertha had it worse on Sunday. The visitors held Werder Bremen to a valiant 1-1 draw with nine men for almost 30 minutes ? Adrian Ramos and Christian Lell, who had incongruously been linked with the national team, were sent off in the space of four minutes ? before Claudio Pizarro scored with a header deep into injury-time. It was the Peruvian's second of the match and fifth of the season. Werder climbed to second as result while Hertha reflected on what might have been. "I feel sorry for the boys, they went beyond the call of duty today," said the coach Markus Babbel.
? Lucien Favre's teams rarely do, however, they prefer binary code to the flowery language of fantasy football. But who can blame them? Not long ago, Borussia M�nchengladbach looked destined for the second division so the improvement achieved by the Swiss coach is nothing short of miraculous. Their 1-0 over N�rnberg (Filip Daems, 76) was the fifth win in 10 games with that scoreline ? no other manager is able to set up his sides so precisely, especially in defence. "It's almost spooky," said the assistant manager Frank Geideck, "but we have to remember that we only have 13 points so far. We need to keep on working."
Results: Stuttgart 1-2 Hamburg, Bayern 3-0 Leverkusen, Gladbach 1-0 N�rnberg, Schalke 4-2 Freiburg, Wolfsburg 1-0 Kaiserslautern, Mainz 1-2 Dortmund, Augsburg 0-0 Hannover, K�ln 2-0 Hoffenheim, Bremen 2-1 Hertha BSC.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/sep/26/bayern-munich-mean-machine
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