Monday, October 18, 2021
“Crazy” and insanely dominant
The fatal fear of FC Bayern
Once again, a highly talented team like Bayer Leverkusen did not manage to get their own fear of the record champions under control. But this is really not a new phenomenon. Part of Bayern’s insane dominance has long been based on the overwhelming respect of their opponents.
“The fear of the opponent is also Bayern’s strength.” How old is the sentence? Exactly 32 years. It was said by the then football columnist and expert par excellence, Udo Lattek. And before which game? FC Bayern Munich versus Bayer Leverkusen. Then as now, a real duel for the top of the table. And Lattek really knew his way around – after all, he himself was on the sidelines as a coach for Bayern for many years.
The difference between then and now: Bayer Leverkusen obviously actually took Udo Lattek’s words (“Be brave!”) To heart in October 1989. At the end of the game in the Munich Olympic Stadium, a 1-0 away win for the Bayer team flickered high up on the scoreboard in the cloudy evening sky of the Bavarian metropolis. That was 32 years ago.
After the weekend and the 5-1 victory in the BayArena, the Spanish newspaper “Marca” described the FC Bayern team as “crazy”. It shows: Europe is amazed these days (once again) at the insane dominance of the German record champions. And in fact, the Munich team are mostly very impressive this season. But that’s only one side of the truth. Because of course the Munich whirled and conjured up in a remarkable way on this Sunday afternoon through the football west – but they could only do all this because the opponent let Bayern switch and rule with almost no real resistance. And that is only partly due to the impressive strength of the Munich team.
The subtle difference between respect and fear
Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said after the very one-sided encounter that his team would have been aware of the paramount importance of the game. The other way around naturally raises the question: Wasn’t that the case for Leverkusen? It was amazing to see that Bayer couldn’t get a foot on the ground in their home stadium yesterday. And that after a season so far that had raised so many hopes.
But the Bayer-Elf had nothing to oppose the Bavarians and their way of playing football in a terrifying way. The consolation goal of Leverkusen revealed one of the weak points in the Bayern game. But in these special situations the Bayer kickers mostly didn’t even make it. Quite the opposite: Bayern’s defenders had enough time and space to successfully intervene in Munich’s attacks again and again.
During the week, Atletico coach Diego Simeone’s remarkable quote about Joshua Kimmich showed how great respect for Bayern is now across Europe: “Bayern have a special player in him. It’s just fun to watch him play football The only time he lost the ball? That was when he gave it to his son to play with at home. ” But there is still a subtle but important difference between respect and fear.
“We cannot become masters” as an omen
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and maintains his legendary treasure trove of anecdotes. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Mondays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his website www.scudetto.de.
Yesterday, Sunday, no one had the impression that the highly talented Bayer Leverkusen players would believe in a victory over Bayern in any second of the game. The chances before the encounter were once again better than they had been for a long time. But in addition to courageous tactics, belief in one’s own strength is also part of success. And Bayern have been living this belief like no other team in Germany for over 50 years.
Back in October 1989, the press asked about Leverkusen’s surprising victory in Munich, and the Bayer players and their coaches about further goals for the season. Goalkeeper Rüdiger Vollborn said: “We can’t be champions. But we want to annoy Bayern as long as we can.” And coach Jürgen Gelsdorf said: “We’re not talking about the title. We want to establish ourselves in the top eight.” Bayer was in first place in the table at that time. Needless to say, how the season ended.
The fear of Bayern is old, very old. It’s a shame, actually. But from time to time there are, thank God, teams that forget the horror of the record champions for a (brief) moment. Unfortunately, Bayer couldn’t do it yesterday. But who knows: the season is still long – and one team has already shown how it could work.