Bring it on
January 18, 2012
A little over five months ago, on Bundesliga match day one, Bayern Munich haters were served up a tasty plate of schadenfreude. They saw the preening Bavarians, who'd done little but talk up the alleged superteam they'd built now that goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and defender Jerome Boateng were onboard to shore up the defense, come out of the gate lame.
They stumbled to a home loss against Borussia Mönchengladbach - a side that had only narrowly avoided relegation the season before.
But since then we've learned that Bayern's team really is quite good. They've shrugged off that opening game loss to give up the fewest goals in the league with 10, and put in at least a dozen dominant performances across three competitions to enter the winter break as deserved league leaders, as well as still alive in the Champions League and German Cup.
To the surprise of most, we've learned that Mönchengladbach are no slouch either. What seemed in August like an afternoon of embarrassing comeuppance for Bayern now seems, in retrospect, something closer to a fair fight between heavyweight contenders.
It's through that lens that Bundesliga fans are approaching Friday's tantalizing second-half curtain-raiser between the two sides, the return fixture from opening weekend.
Bayern, still the acknowledged title favorites, are hoping to hit the ground running and send a signal to the rest of the league that they are ready to take on all comers. Meanwhile Gladbach, part of a chasing pack alongside Borussia Dortmund and Schalke, are hoping to get a result against Bayern to stay within touching distance of the lead.
Titles galore
Whatever the result on Friday, Bayern will feel confident that they have the resolve to finish the season with at least one - and if they are lucky, two or even three titles to their name.
The grounds are a mix of factors: In Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, Bayern have two of the best technical players in the league, and in Mario Gomez they have its best striker. Coach Jupp Heynckes is proving himself a master of squad rotation, making the most of the ample options he has at his disposal while somehow keeping the players who often find themselves left out from running to the papers to complain.
Perhaps most important, however, has been the unexpectedly large contributions from midfielder Toni Kroos, who at age 22 is living up to the promise he showed under Heynckes at Leverkusen two seasons ago, and Daniel Van Buyten, who is experiencing a career renaissance. The Belgian defender turns 34 in three weeks, and has never looked better.
Contenders, pretenders
If there is a team that Bayern should worry about sneaking to the title, it is Dortmund. The reigning champions got off to a poor start, but since match day seven they've been more than the measure of the Bavarians, and indeed bested them in Munich on match day 13. They too have a hot striker in Robert Lewandowski (12 goals thus far), and have coped very well with injuries to the likes of central defender Neven Subotic and holding midfielder Sven Bender.
Schalke and Gladbach are a different story. While it would be unwise to count either out of the title chase, neither is a very good bet to take it. Both have shown an admirable steadiness and the ability to pick up points when they are not at their best, but both have serious shortcomings that should keep them from winning it all.
Schalke's defending is not really championship standard, and opposing teams who figure out how to bottle up Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Raul can find themselves breezing to victory.
Gladbach Coach Lucien Favre's compact-in-defense, quick-in-counterattack style is a winning one, but it yields scant results against teams who don't give the ball away in the first place. Moreover, the team's over-dependence on Marco Reus for goal production (he's had a hand in 15 of their 25 goals) is worrying.
He is not the sturdiest player, and will be off to Dortmund at the end of the season for a cool 17.5 million euros. It's a move that's good for the club's financial health, but has the potential to stop it's rise this season if players get the sense the board won't be willing to spend to hold on to its best in the future.
Outside the lead group, Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen, Stuttgart and Hanover are all hoping to break into the top four - a critical distinction now that Germany has three automatic Champions League berths and a qualification spot.
Werder would seem to have the best shot - they're just four points off of fourth - but their woeful record against all four clubs above them in the table means they may have reached their ceiling.
In truth it's Leverkusen who show the most promise. The club that represents the famous aspirin maker has showed what they are capable of in Europe. There they got impressive wins over Valencia and Chelsea on their way to qualifying for the Champions League round of 16. In that FC Barcelona await them there, however, Leverkusen should have plenty of time to concentrate on the Bundesliga come March 7th.
Going going gone
Well down the table, Bundesliga fans should be treated to a wide-open relegation battle this spring. SC Freiburg appear to be planning for the second division now that they've agreed to sell star striker Papiss Demba Cisse to Newcastle United, but the other sides near the bottom have all shown signs of life.
FC Augsburg went into the winter break on a high, collecting seven points from their last four league matches, beating Gladbach along the way, and could yet get themselves out of trouble if they can eke out a similar good patch this spring. FC Kaiserslautern were not looking so robust in December, picking up just three points over the last four match days, and remain plagued by a lack of firepower. The Red Devils have scored just 13 goals all season.
Just a tick up the table are clubs who will likely have a part to play in any relegation drama to come. Last year's high-flyers Mainz and Nuremberg parted ways in the summer with much of the top talent that took them to the brink of European qualification. (Andre Schürrle, Lewis Holtby, and Christan Fuchs in the former case, and Mehmet Ekici, Ilkay Gündogan, Julian Schieber in the latter.) Still, in head coaches Thomas Tuchel and Dieter Hecking these two sides hold an advantage over their fellow relegation candidates.
And who knows? With the Bundesliga pecking order undergoing a nearly year-on-year shuffle, whichever of these sides does escape the drop this year may be fighting for Europe and the title the next.
Author: Matt Hermann
Editor: Rina Goldenberg