The Set: FC Bayern 1–1 Borussa Dortmund

Bay­ern Munich moved into sec­ond after a well-deserved home vic­tory over Borus­sia Dort­mund. Dort­mund scored early when Nel­son Valdez slipped behind Demiche­lis and Tomas Hajnal’s pre­ci­sion pass turned the Argen­tine defender too quickly, result­ing in him falling and leav­ing Valdez through alone on the keeper.

How­ever, Dort­mund spent too much time defend­ing both the lead and the draw and as is always the case against a team of Bayern’s qual­ity, if you allow them time to chase the game, they will come through. The equal­izer came in the 24′ off a save by Wei­den­feller that fell to Ze Roberto. The final two goals came late as sus­tained pres­sure broke down Dort­mund and Klose hit a brace to take the Bavar­ian giants to within a point of lead­ers Hoffenheim.

That’s not to say that Dort­mund were out­classed. While they did allow Bay­ern to win the pos­ses­sion game by way too big a mar­gin (62–38), they did have some dom­i­nat­ing patches in the sec­ond half, where they looked bound to snatch a lead. But squan­dered chances by Zidan, Valdez and pos­si­bly even Lee left them vul­ner­a­ble to the late goals by Klinsmann’s men.

Seven Ran­dom Things You Didn’t Know About Bayern-BVB

1. While Neven Sub­otic labeled Luca Toni a diver before the match, it was Ribery who pro­vided the most Luga­nis type per­for­mance, falling at every instance. I believe he was felled by the referee’s whis­tle, an uncut blade of grass and slight breeze at var­i­ous points in the match. It’s a real shame too, because his antics are start­ing to over­shadow his amaz­ing ability.
2. But Bay­ern rely too heav­ily on the diminu­tive French­man. His slow return from an injury at the Euro’s was always the obvi­ous rea­son for Bayern’s early sea­son form. And it seems at time, that the whole of their tac­tics is lump it to Ribery and hope for the best. He’s so good that it works, as he either scares the other team into mis­takes or uses his class to cre­ate a moment of bril­liance. How­ever, if they are going to live with­out him after this cam­paign, they need to start address­ing the issue now.
3. Tim Borowski must really be enjoy­ing his move south. His indis­pens­able role as a late game time-wasting sub­sti­tute is prob­a­bly exactly what he expected when he signed from Werder Bremen.
4. Has Luca Toni lost it? He’s not been the same since last year, and Lan­don Dono­van has paired bet­ter with Klose, is his short time in Bavaria, than the Ital­ian does. I have been of the opin­ion, over the past two years, that Bay­ern is suited to a 4–2-3–1 with Toni as a tar­get and Ribery, Schwe­in­steiger and Alt­in­top with free roles in front of two hold­ers. How­ever, Toni is no longer that hold-up man and Donovan/Klose could be a strong pair­ing up top.
5. Nuri Sahin has always been a Foot­ball Man­ager Leg­end. That’s not a good title to have because it usu­ally means, much like Freddy Adu and Anthony Van­den Borre, that the heights these play­ers reach on a com­puter game far sur­pass any­thing they do on the pitch. How­ever, today Sahin was immense. I thought he was the best player on the pitch in his 45 minute stint, show­ing dogged deter­mi­na­tion, grit and a good eye for a pass. I hope this is the start of great things for the young kid, as it would be great for the league, Dort­mund and FM, as their track-record is poor.
6. Make no mis­take about it, had Dort­mund not been with­out three of their most impor­tant play­ers this would have been a dif­fer­ent game. Prince-Boateng is good for a yel­low card, but has none of the attack­ing flair and defen­sive solid­ity of Kuba; Kehl is too impor­tant at pro­tect­ing the back line (although Surin might have shown they have bet­ter options than Tinga); and Subotic/Hummels is a very impor­tant pair­ing. I love Sub­otic, but he thrives on Hum­mels orga­niz­ing skills.
7. Mohamed Zidan is pos­si­bly the worst for­ward in the Bun­desliga. Zurc and Klopp’s biggest job this sum­mer will be con­vince Kuba to stay and find­ing a replace­ment for Zidan, who has been a one-hit won­der at best.
   
   FC Bayern 1–1 Borussa Dortmund">
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   The Set: FC Bay­ern 1–1 Borussa Dort­mund, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

   Tagged as: Franck Ribery, Luca Toni, Nelson Valdez, Nuri Sahin