

Bayern 1 – 5 Wolfsburg
By: Angela | April 4th, 2009
Bayern took on VfL Wolfsburg today; matching up against their former coach, Felix Magath, once more this season. In the defense, Lucio and Breno will start due to an injury to Martin Demichelis. And as previously mentioned, Daniel van Buyten is absent due to family matters. Lukas Podolski once again makes the start in the absence of Miroslav Klose.
The announcers gave a shout out to van Buyten. He said that Daniel has been replaced by Breno because his dad is poorly and so he’s in his hometown currently and that if anyone is listening that knows Daniel to please wish him well and let him know that we all hope for a speedy recovery for his dad.
Captain Dutch kicks off the match the only way he knows how – with a yellow card just two minutes in. This is his 7th of the season; 2nd since serving his previous suspension. Luca Toni attempted to score the first goal at 14:45 while doing a back roll and it would’ve been lovely if it had gone in, but it just missed. It would’ve been a brilliant goal if it had found the back of the net.
At 22 minutes, Wolfsburg had a brilliant chance and their player was virtually all alone, but excellent defending from Philipp Lahm of all people keeps Wolfsburg from scoring. Rensing might’ve been in trouble had that one made it passed Lahm.
Lucio is awarded the second yellow for Bayern for arguing with the ref evidently. I didn’t see him say too much when he was injured, but evidently what he said was more than enough and he was awarded the yellow card while being helped off the pitch. Maybe it wasn’t how much he said, but what he said instead?
Wolfsburg take the lead with a quite brilliant header from Christian Gentner. Bayern’s defense was nowhere around and Gentner made that one look incredibly easy. However, Bayern respond with a goal of their own by Luca Toni. Lucio started it, but it was saved and then Toni took the rebound at which point the goal keepers hand was inside the line and therefor the goal was given. What an exciting end to the first half.
The second half kicks off with a Luca Toni yellow; his third of the season. Aside from the few moments of excitement at the end of the first half, this game has sort of been a mess. I’m finding it a bit boring and hard to watch. Mark is doing what he does best and coming to the defense of his team all the time. Bastian Schweinsteiger got fouled and it didn’t get called so Mark just sort of followed on down the pitch till the ball went out and had a few words with the player that fouled Schweini. Bayern might consider changing their name to Mad Mark and His Funky Bunch.
Wolfsburg take the lead 2-1 on a brilliant delivery from Schofer to Edin Dzeko who took the ball to the back of the net bringing that to a total of 32 goals in 41 appearances for all match types. And as if that weren’t enough, he sealed the deal with one more goal almost immediately after the last goal. Two goals by Dzeko and you can certainly see why the football world is paying attention to this kid. He’s scored ten goals in the last eight Bundesliga matches.
Andreas Ottl is brought on for Lucio. Odd move this one because Breno is the one that is stinking up the defense this match. Rarely would I take sides with Lucio, but I certainly think this wasn’t the best choice as Lucio has had a pretty decent game considering Bayern were pretty much a mess for the entire match. Breno was terrible. Podolski was pretty non existant. Schweini had a good match again, but his and Philipp Lahm’s strengths have gone unnoticed because the rest of the team has been a wreck.
And the train wreck continues. Wolfsburg’s Grafite scored with Breno doing nothing once more bringing the score up to 4-1. However, a huge mistake by the lot of Bayern, Rensing and the entire team Grafite scores again to bring the score to 5-1. Bayern are taking a beating and a much deserved one at this point. They’re not even trying to stop Wolfsburg.
Poldi scored, but he was offside so it didn’t count. Not that it would’ve mattered at this point. Tim Borwoski comes on for Philipp Lahm. Leaving Breno as the only defender and a bad one at that. He has been absolute rubbish today. If they play like this in the CL, Barca will walk all over them.
And the slap in the face continues by Wolfsburg when they pull their number 1 keeper and let the back up guy come in. I’m not a fan of Felix Magath, but this was a rather cheeky, brilliant move on his part. Quite a brilliant gesture by the former Bayern Boss. Way to rub a little more salt in the wounds.
What a horrible game for Bayern. Thank goodness that’s over.
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Comments
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Which alternatives for Breno did Klinsmann have left on the bench? Most notably alternatives who wouldn’t perform even worse than Breno? I mean there were no central defenders left on the bench.
Posted from
Germany

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It ended up a horror of a game for Breno, but he showed a lot of promise. He looked excellent in the first half, although everyone seems to forget it. He won every tackle in defense, never gave up a silly foul, never muffed a pass. He was great. Was the 2nd goal that started the snowball rolling really his fault? Dzeko was a step offside. The replay clearly shows it. Of course that is a really hard call for a linesman to make so I don’t fault him for it, but you can’t really expect Breno to beat Dzeko to the ball when he had a step on him. From there, certainly things went downhill after an easy to predict 3rd goal on the counter. This game more than any other did drive home the point that we need some defensive changes in the off-season. Who would you get rid of though? Clearly, Lahm will be staying and Demichelis just signed a new contract. Lucio I expect to be here too. Does this mean we’re looking at the same central defense? I hope not.
I’m with Luke. It’s not time to start saying we can’t win the title. That’s being overly pessimistic. We have a nice schedule for the remaining part of the season. Our toughest matches is away to a stumbling Hoffenheim team who look woeful without Ibisivic, and home to Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen. Wolfsburg does not have that difficult schedule either, but we will have the opportunity to pick up points.
Posted from
United States

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putting a 19 year old on someone as skilled as Grafite was a terrible decision to begin with even though it appears they had no choice. That Wolfsburg team is playing great team ball. They seemed to put every serious chance in the net. I’m almost beginning to think Bayern would be better off playing my grandmother in goal than Rensing… He sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks. Maybe they can offer Kahn enough to come back another year? Hell, I bet Sepp Mayer is still better than Rensing is.
I can’t get down too bad on Breno. It would have been nice to get his feet wet against a lesser opponent. He had a lot of good plays, and unfortunately a few bad ones that all ended up in the net. But then again, it’s hard to play defense in Bayern right now when there is no confidence at all in the keeper anymore. the only thing I’ve established is I would not want Rensing playing keeper on my beer league team.
Yes Breno was clearly not ready yet but he got thrown in a bonfire… the hottest team in the Bundesliga and one with all the offensive firepower of Bayern. And not one of there defenders played any better (ok Lahm did, but Lell was a joke as usual and Lucio certainly didn’t distinguish himself either), noone came back to support the defense. Why was Breno continuously the defender getting beat? Maybe we should be asking where the hell was Lucio while he was getting beat. And why can’t Rensing do a single thing right.
Lol my rant always returns to Rensing… Has anyone noticed yet that Rensing is NEVER in position… that he almost never makes the right decision to charge or stay back that most times he punches the ball out it’s right at the other team? How the hell is this the goalie of the future?Posted from
United States

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Quite on for Rensing. I honestly only think of 1 good save he made all season
Posted from
United States

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I agree with all those who consider that we have no goalie at all, and no right back, of course, so I consider these are the two main positions we should target for the summer transfers, a ten-year solid goalkeeper and a good defender on the right. My candidates Adler and Zirkhov
Posted from
Spain

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I partly agree Imi that Zirkhov would be a great acquisition for Bayern, as then we could piss C Lell off from the right of defence. However, most people here are blaming a goalkeeper for all our ill’s when clearly Bayern has gapping holes in the centre of our defence!! And it is through the centre that we are being ripped apart!! Rensing is the last line and he cannot be blamed for everything going wrong when the defence is constantly leaving him exposed, even Kahn would not be doing much better this season with the kind of insiped defending being demonstrated in front of him. We desparately need to buy at least one or maybe two central defenders in the summer. Demichelis will be staying as he has just signed on to 2012. Van Buyten I think has a contract to 2011 or 2012. Lucio has one more season left and is the logical choice to be sold off and get some cash. However, his stock price this season is going down faster than a lead balloon!!!
Posted from
Australia

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About Rensing, I’d give him another year. Sure he’s been bad this season, but keep in mind the fact that he’s had a sieve in front of him too.
I read somewhere (and I forget where, could have been on The Offside) that Junghans was possibly the worst keeper Bayern had ever had! Wonder if having him as the GK coach is part of the problem.
And like Roger seems to keep going on about Rensing, I’d like to think I’m hitting out at the assistant coaches: Klinsmann needs a more experienced set of sidekicks.
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United States

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Just to cheer you up: van Buyten will miss the Barca game. Family matters, so it’s understandable but still unfortunate. Seems Demichelis needs to partner up with Breno and help the kid deal with Messi and his friends.
Posted from
Germany

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ok with A KAP and Zermatt, no doubt the difference between last year and the black hole in the center of the defence we have nowadays is the basis of the problem, but I just would like watching Rensing a great save, one of those balls you see in the net when the striker shoots
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Spain

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Jan: I knew about Daniel missing because his father is quite ill and so he’s been spending a lot of time at hoe with his family. Hopefully his dad will recover. soon.
On Rensing: I’m pretty much in agreement. I realize that he can’t replace Olli and I am certainly not expecting him to, but I do expect him to have found some sort of rhythm by now and he has none. Most of the saves that he has made seem to appear to be accidental or lucky because his positioning is generally off and he doesn’t really act like he knows what he’s doing out there. If he had some confidence maybe I would believe his saves were skill and not dumb luck.
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United States

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Rensing did a very bad season up to now in Bundesliga. There’s still a long way for him to get out Olli’s shadow.
But the thing is that we needa support and believe in him this moment. remember that in CL,he’s the best goalkeeper so far.
Alles Gute,Bayern!Posted from
Singapore

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No Lahm??? Hopefully the thug Lell justifies his selection
Posted from
United States

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Lell sucks.!!!
Posted from
Singapore

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Uggh…. This one is getting ugly really fast! 4-0 before halftime, what a nightmare.
And seriously, he’s not the best in the world but why is Lahm on the bench instead of on the field? I didn’t read any injury news and he didn’t have that bad of a game last weekend.
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United States

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Let me assume this was actually tactical on Klinsmann’s part and say that it was a matter of size. But Lell? really? How about Ze Roberto back there and Borowski playing?
No matter how Bayern does by the end of the season, I want to see some heads roll.
Posted from
United States

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Our defense is crap.
Maybe if we ask nicely Hamburgh will let us have Jansen back? He’s not perfect but he’s better than most of what we have now.
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United States

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Update.. Lahm was injured, it was a last minute calf injury decision. Also I had to listen to the match and finally just got to see pictures but is our defense just really slow? In every goal scoring picture I saw it went Butt-Scorer-Bayern Defense. At least make it a little challenging and get a defender in there between the keeper and shooter.
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United States

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Lahm was not fit otherwise Klinsi would have played him. I think this match tells volumes of how much Bayern depends on Lahm. What’s more we learned how important Lucio is for the defense. Without either Bayern had neither quick counterattacking speed going forward nor stability in defense. Only high balls to Toni whose first touch always failed him. Not to mention how useless Toni is without Klose around.
Posted from
United States

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As I have been saying all season our central defense is what keeps letting us down. What todays match proved, no matter who was in goal whether it be Kahn, Rensing or Butt no one could have stopped this onslaught! As usual we were torn apart in the middle of the defense! Nick, your comment about Lucio is crap! Lucio has been an international for over a decade, and he constantly plays like he is in a school boys team this season!! The amount of mistakes he’s made are more than the number of games he’s played in this season!!! Here are my player ratings for this game:
Butt 3 – Really had no defensive screening in front of him all four goals left him hopelessly exposed, This seems to be a common theme this season.
Oddo 2 – Play kind of OK but far to slow at this top level of football.
Breno 3 – Some decent interceptions to prevent us going 5 or 6-0 down, but still needs to step up a gear or two.
Demichelis 2 – Hopelessly exposed in this game.
Lell -10 – An example of when you play a player who belongs in Bundesliga 3 against the worlds best player. He was comprehensively beaten by Messi on every occasion, completely out of his league!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Schweinsteiger 2 – Hardly saw him in this game non existant for large periods.
Van Bommel 1 – Was largely ineffective although he did try to rever the team up after the horse had bolted!!!
Ze Roberto 4 – As the game wore on he tired harder but a little to late, again the horse had already bolted before he shifted through the gears!
Ribery 2 – Barca did an excellent job closing him down was a shadow of himself and seemed to lack confidence!
Altintop 3 – Tried but was largely ineffective!
Toni 4 – Hardly could be blamed left totally isolated by the midfield who were simply overwhelmed by the clearly better team of the day!!!
Posted from
Australia

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I didn’t get to see the match, better that way really, but I want to comment about the decision to sit Rensing. To me there are 3 possibilities, none of them good:
1) Klinsmann lost enough confidence in him that he’s not 1st choice in the biggest matches. (Although many of us would like to think so, probably not the case.)
2) Klinsmann figured exposing the fragile psyche of Rensing to the onslaught of Barca behind a depleted defense would actually set his development back. (Probably true, but he handled himself well against AC Milan and that was 3 seasons ago! Also, is this the kind if guy you want to invest your future in, if he needs this kind of coddling?)
3) Klinsmann felt Rensing could handle the match, but thought Rensing would bear the brunt of media criticism after the inevitable loss, and wanted to protect him. (I guess if you are hoping for a quick Klinsi departure, you’d hope he is this worried about the media, for maybe they’ll control his fate.)
Posted from
United States

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I hate to make excuses for bayern, but if Barca had been missing Messi, and 3 of their best defenders, we’d have probably raped them too… Injuries have torn Bayern apart now. Lell, Breno, DeMichelis and Oddo as the back line was about as bad a combination as you can have.
My problem with Rensing is not his skill level. He has skills. He just has major problems with decision making. I disagree that Kahn would be getting ripped apart like this, because he was one of the best goalies in the world because he was always where he needed to be, he charged balls when he needed to, he stayed in the net when he needed to, he punched balls out in to space, not at opponents feet. Rensing does none of these things.
I highly doubt you will see Klinnsmann next year, unless Bayern wins the title outright. My belief is he is on a very short leash now. He does deserve some of the criticism though. The defensive problems this year do seem to have a lot to do with the system he has put in. The backline is exposed a lot, and this has a lot to do with coaching.
Bayern needs to see if they can bring Olli back to work with Rensing and see if they can turn him into a valuable keeper. I’m sure Rensing could be just fine if he could master the mental aspects of the game. His talent is fine, his decision making is terrible.We need a right back… Lell and Oddo is not the answer. We need DeMichelis and Lucio to find their 07/08 form again when Bayern yielded the least goals in Bundesliga history.
None of the players signed in the winter transfer help feel any holes in Bayern. Yes, we needed to replace Poldi, but 2 midfielders? This is by far Bayern’s strength. Where are the back line players? We need a really good central defender to put fire on DeMichelis and Lucio’s arse. Play well or get benched. Breno obviously needs more seasoning. I think it was horrible that he had to be thrown into the fire where his first two starts were vs Grafite/Dzeko and then Messi/Henry, two combinations that can make fools of any defenders.
I know I am really hard on Rensing, but I get the feeling the team has lost confidence in him and is showing it in their performances now. When you lose confidence in your keeper you try too hard to make the spectacular play, rather than the right play.
Anyway my hopes for the transfer window… A seasoned goalie, who has demonstrated a good decision making process to either come in and start a year or two, or to mentor Rensing and teach him the mental aspects of goaltending. I know I am very hard on Rensing, but it bothers me immensely when a player who is talented has no grasp of the mental game. Maybe try to bring Kahn on to fill Hoeness’s role and have him double as Rensings personal coach. An experienced and world class right back. Oddo has clearly lost it, and Lell has never and will never have it. More playing time for DVB in the center. This can start now. Lucio and DeMichelis need to be on notice that their starting positions are on the line and DVB has always done a very adequate job when called upon. I think I’d also loan Breno out to a decent team, and get another experienced central defender. Breno needs more playing time, but on a lower level club.
And finally, a coach who preaches better defending. I really like Klinnsmann. I admired the guts of putting in a new system and all that, but I really think Bayern is failing strategically, and that comes down to coaching. I say this with a very heavy heart, because Juergen has always been one of my favorite people in the game.
Posted from
United States

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Can somone volunteer to cover down when the primary blogger can’t post? It’s been over 48 hours since the CL game. This isn’t a knock on the primary, but please, can you designate an alternate blogger?
Following this week’s debacle, FC Bayern Forums are off the hook, and this blog just isn’t keeping up.
Again, no disrepect intended, your’e doing a great job.
Posted from
Germany

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Joca, I can understand why Angela might not want to post after two straight games like this…lol She is probably as upset as I am right now…lol This has been one of the worst weeks in the history of the club…
Posted from
United States

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@Nick Toni is a great scorer, but i am clearly unimpressed with his ball skills or anything else… Toni only scores if he is fed and can one touch the ball in. Klose and Poldi would be a much better match if Klose was healthy and Poldi would have quit crying like a little girl and earned a spot on the team, instead of playing with his head up his arse anytime he was given an opportunity. Klose is a much better all around striker than Toni, because he can make his own shots, Toni can’t.
Posted from
United States

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Very well summed up Roger. In full agreement with your points.
Posted from
United States

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