BVB fans mock Lewandowski: The dubious luck of FC Bayern

Sunday, December 5th, 2021

BVB fans mock Lewandowski
The dubious luck of FC Bayern

By Tobias Nordmann

The Bundesliga was looking forward to a top game. And the Bundesliga got a top game. FC Bayern wrestles Borussia Dortmund in a wild duel. Two very controversial decisions help the master, who, however, also has Robert Lewandowski.

What did Lionel Messi actually do? Well, once again officially the best footballer on the planet had taken it easy on this Saturday evening. With his billionaire adjudicators from Paris St. Germain, he saved himself to a draw against RC Lens in the 90th minute. Ballon d’Oresk, the Ballon d’Or winner did not appear. Well, he doesn’t care. It feels like nobody grants him this title anyway. Not because Messi is Messi, but because there is this irresistible Robert Lewandowski. Among other things, he broke Gerd Müller’s all time goal record this year. More legend is not really possible.

And if this Ballon d’Or is also about how important a player is for his team, then it would have been Lewandowski’s turn. All the arguments for this election, which was jazzed up to the point of scandal, had been exchanged in the past few days. Only one person needed to clarify things again on Saturday evening. The narrowly beaten Lewandowski himself. In the only real top game that the Bundesliga still has to offer, the FC Bayern striker was the man who decided the duel at Borussia Dortmund (3-2) alone. If you disregard referee Felix Zwayer, who made decisions that stunned BVB. No penalty for Marco Reus (after a good bump from Lucas Hernández), but then a penalty for Bayern after an unintentional handball by the stumbling Mats Hummels (the arm was outside).

Well, the outrage was great. BVB coach Marco Rose flew out of the coaching zone after an emotional outburst with yellow-red. The strong Jew Bellingham sensed a conspiracy. Erling Haaland spoke of a scandal. And most of the 15,000 fans whistled their anger loudly out of their bodies. All of this left Lewandowski completely unimpressed. The Pole put the ball on the spot, trotted hesitantly as usual and completed it precisely. That was necessary because goalkeeper Gregor Kobel had foreseen the corner. It was 3-2. It was the decision. It was the last high point (or low point from BVB’s point of view) in this furious game that told so many stories, but all of which were torn away by the pull of the referee’s decisions.

Bitter ridicule from the ranks

There was Lewandowski, of course. What would Bayern be without him? Well, you don’t want to imagine that in Munich. In a wild initial phase, in which the record champions lurched violently, one scene was enough to cool down the hot-blooded Dortmunders in a flash. Just four minutes after the sensational start by Julian Brandt (1-0, 5th minute), the striker from Munich made an ice-cold 1-1. It was already his 15th goal in the league, the 16th later brought the decision. “He played very well. It goes without saying that the goals are very important, but Robert also had other actions that are real winners for me,” said coach Julian Nagelsmann. And he was happy, too, that Lewandowski defied the mocking Messi-Messi calls from BVB fans so confidently and calmly.

The Bavarian defense told a different story. Once again, she was not the foundation trusted to build powerful success stories on her. First and foremost Dayot Upamecano. The Frenchman is still very unfamiliar with the intended role of the defense chief: positional errors, lost duels with Haaland (well, he’s not alone in that) and a wild bad pass that almost made it possible to equalize in stoppage time. Do you sometimes get a little annoyed in Munich about having lost two regulars this summer with David Alaba and Jérôme Boateng? Incidentally, Boateng was once not punished for a handball with an outstretched elbow in the early summer of 2020 in Dortmund. Well, that’s football. Ailton would say now.

At Bayern they could not understand the black and yellow outrage anyway. Which wasn’t surprising. “The penalty was undisputed for me,” said Nagelsmann. And for Thomas Müller, too, the penalty kick was the right decision: “I’m probably not making friends now, but when I see the scene, Hummels is already going with his arm. I can imagine that this is part of the regular referee training Penalty is. ” The driver behind FC Bayern understood the Dortmund’s anger. Also because of the Reus scene. “I can understand the frustration. It’s the bitter that these scenes decide such an intense game.”

Rest for the Bavarian chaos

Yes, intense, that was that top game. And Bayern had shown what makes them special when they are under pressure. And there have been plenty of them in the club recently: Corona outbreaks, vaccine skeptics, fan anger against the sponsorship deal with Qatar and an annual meeting that was completely derailed as a result, which shocked Honorary President Uli Hoeneß. In Dortmund, the team that had to do without Corona-infected Joshua Kimmich shook itself again and again. She sharpened the focus when the impact of BVB was too great. Like at the beginning of both halves, which opened with early goals. Haaland had equalized the 1: 2 deficit, the strong Kingsley Coman had scored right before the break, just two minutes after the restart. Worth seeing.

Bayern not only played well (like Dortmund, by the way), they were also merciless and punished three bitter mistakes. Hummels screwed up the 0: 1, at the 1: 2 Raphael Guerreiro shot at Hummels in his own penalty area and before 2: 3 it was the arm of the national player who was waiting, accused Zwayer of doing prohibited things. Games like these feed doubts as to whether the head of defense actually still has a future in the DFB team. Things are different with his team-mate Brandt. It slowly fights its way to a strong and finally more constant form. All the more bitter for him: Saturday evening ended for him after a horrific collision with Upamecano in the hospital. But even after the game, Rose gave the all-clear. Nothing worse had happened to the apparently briefly unconscious dribbler.

Well, what now? Everything as always. FC Bayern remains leader of the table, Dortmund struggle with themselves and their fate. And Lionel Messi remains the Ballon d’Or winner. That’s football.