*In the most unexpected display of man-love at a sporting event since…Straight Dave and Lutz, Franck decided giving LVG a big hug would be fun. It was the funniest Bayern moment on the pitch since Oliver Kahn’s celebratory punch in the face of Mark van Bommel, but Franck won’t be laughing when LVG seats him in the cargo hold for the flight to Tel Aviv in response.

*We’ve seen some interesting keeper jerseys over the years. Some keepers seem to swear certain colors (like Petr Cech’s orange) are more distracting to attackers. But one thing we can conclude after today is that mauve goalkeeper jerseys are *never* intimidating. Alas, Dortmund will never be Milan when it comes to fashion.

*I fully expect Bastian Schweinsteiger to be sitting in the stands next week after using Tinga’s thigh as a spike sharpener. What the hell man, seriously?

*Along the same lines, van Bommel was sent off in last year’s match in Dortmund, but this match, and this year in general, they really seem to be letting them play. I am too lazy to look up the stats, but despite the Wolfsburg-Leverkusen match today, it seems to me there have been a lot less cards in the Bundesliga this season, and even dramatically fewer in Bayern’s matches.

*A Kap has it right in his comment about the flow of the offense in the first half. I really thought Olić
would be the engine of the offense, but he never got the support from Braafheid that Lahm was giving Robben. Going forward, it just seems logical to expect Olić will do better when Pranjić is in the game.

*You’ve got to love seeing the vaunted Signal Iduna Park crowd, the supposed ultimate 12th man in Germany’s largest stadium, head for the exits with 20 minutes to go. I’ve got to say, when you watch a match at the Allianz, it might not be the loudest crowd in the league, but they stay for the full 90. Here’s to seeing if we can get the Hamburg crowd to head home at halftime in a couple weeks.

*I’ve got to agree with many of you that have stated that Butt is the “too aggressive” keeper choice and Rensing is the “too passive”. But, give me too aggressive any day of the week. Sure, it might have made Butt look like a 6 year old familiarizing himself with playing FIFA in that 4th minute excursion, but at least he was trying!

* Newsflash: I was able to obtain an unpublished image of LVG and Franck at the airport. Looks like things might work out after all…

2) As I was watching Ribéry and Robben sprint side by side down for the third goal, it made me think of this tangentially related scene. We’ve got to come up with the right nickname for these guys. I’m not sure I like “Robbery”. Rib-Rob, which immediately reminds me of “Jib Jab” (but not enough to create an old-timey animation of Arjen and Franck), seems like it would catch on better with Germans at least. “7-10 split” seems like it could carry some weight. Please weigh in with your ideas guys, this is a creative group, and now is the time, before some annoying moniker we all hate takes hold.

3) The most encouraging thing is, I believe this match could have been won without Ribéry and Robben. We saw a lot more stability out of the defenders, Tymoschuck had one moment where he was too late getting back and allowed Dzeko a free header, but was otherwise solid. The difference yesterday was, we went from competent to stellar with our playmakers on the field.

4) Perhaps the only player on the field who didn’t improve over the Mainz match was Ivica Olic. And yet, you’d be really stretching things to say he had a bad day. He was adequate, nothing more, which was just fine on Saturday.

5) The once heir-apparent to the 10 jersey in Munich, Toni Kroos, had an assist on the game-winning goal for Leverkusen, just 6 minutes after coming into the match. Kroos has remained mostly in the background this season, he was subbed in after the 80th minute in the two previous league matches. Perhaps Saturday’s effort will see him increase his playing time, but following the Robben acquisition, it seems more likely that Kroos’ loan spell has a better chance of becoming permanent. Meanwhile, Bayern’s last #10 also played the part of hero in the dying seconds on Sunday.

6) Almost lost in the excitement of the victory was the goalkeeping change. Hans-Jörg Butt replaced Michael Rensing in goal, after playing in the mid-week friendly. At that time, I was convinced he was simply getting some playing time in a meaningless match, but LVG stated on the club’s website that he will go forward with Butt. Say what you will, about how much a good offense makes a good defense, but Butt kept a clean sheet against one of the fiercest attacks in the league. However, he might owe that to Philipp Lahm’s clearance off the line and well constructed posts as much as to his own performance.

7) Champions League Group A roundup: Maccabi Haifa overcame a deficit, scoring 3 goals in the last 23 minutes of the match for a 3-1 victory at Hapoel Raanana. Juventus has defeated AS Roma by the same count, and Marseilles hosted Bordeaux in a Ligue 1 showdown..which ended like so many of them do over there, 0-0.

8. Multiple sources have indicated that the Rafinha transfer rumor is dead. It seemed to be more than a rumor on Saturday, when Kicker broke the story. Rafinha would have been a much more logical transfer to have undertaken right when the window opened. You’ve got to wonder what those conversations with Magath are like on these topics, there’s got to be some interesting psychological dynamics.

9) Saturday was also a banner day for FC Bayern II. Mehmet Scholl and company got their first victory of the season, defeating recent DFB-Pokal opponent Wuppertaler SV, 3:1, surely to the chagrin of the entertaining proprietor of the Abseits Guide to German Soccer. Despite the Robben debut scheduled for just a couple hours later at the Allianz, 1,700 turned out at the Grünwalder.

10) I wasn’t looking on my calendar when I kept talking about “next week, next week”, as next week is an international week! Bayern will be back in action, September 12, at Dortmund, with a start time of 9:30 Eastern. As you look ahead on the schedule, the weekend of September 26-27 sees the club visiting Hamburg. Although not officially announced by the DFL yet, that match in Hamburg will almost surely be played on Sunday be played on Saturday at 12:30 EST. So, adjust your American college football watching schedule and other commitments accordingly!

To Scholl’s credit, he seems to be taking a pragmatic approach, neither ripping lockers off the wall nor encouraging Zen meditation about the defeat. There is a report the squad will add 34 year old former Stuttgart, 1860 and Unterhaching midfielder Danny Schwarz, ostensibly for leadership purposes with this very young group. Each of the 4 Bundesliga amateur sides in the Dritte Liga (Bayern, Bremen, Dortmund and Stuttgart) are considerably younger on average than the rest of the teams and often lack an experienced stabilizing force. A couple seasons back, it was long-time Bayern central defender Thomas Linke, at age 38, who played this role. Additionally, the fact that the senior side for Bayern have pulled both Badstuber and Müller up to their roster makes it clear that Scholl has been dealt a tough hand. Perhaps the next acquisition should be Bastian Schweinsteiger’s brother, Tobias. The elder Schweini has scored 3 goals in 3 matches for Unterhaching thus far.

I will be back with a real post even though there isn’t much to say about today’s match. The goal was scored in the first fifteen minutes and that was pretty much it. Miro was injured. That Luvin guy definitely needs to think about changing his name because he wasn’t at all about the luvin’

I like the blue. I don’t like the CL one so much with the pink and black logo. Thoughts?

Why is the home jersey the only one with the weird star arrangement when these have the nice line layout?

He looks fabulous! And tan. Vacation did him good! Yes, I’m still a van Bommel girl

And now I will go recover from a serious throat infection and bronchitis.

As much as I am a fan of Bayern, I think it is time for them to take a loss. They’ve gotten far too comfortable and far too relaxed. They haven’t been playing good football for some time now. They lay back and miss chances that they should never miss. Offside!Toni got a yellow. So did Mark. I am a fan of van Bommel. And I miss his aggressive style of play now that he’s been put into a new role for the team, but yesterday saw some of the old style of van Bommel play. He is my favorite Dutch player.

At the half the score was still 0-0 after a goal at the 22 minute mark by Braga was revoked because of a foul on Lucio. Three minutes after the second half started, Bayern took the lead with a goal by Miroslav Klose. Linz scored Braga’s equalising goal at the 67 minute mark. And Willy Sagnol made an appearance, albeit brief.

Snapshots of the day:

The two goal scorers for Bayern Munich celebrate. I found the match a little boring to be honest.. until near the end.