Louis, I think this is the beginning….

By: Luke | September 12th, 2009

It’s amazing that a match that was so frustrating to watch for the first half hour or so would turn out to be perhaps even more exciting than last week. Bullet goals, mad dashes, familiar and not so familiar faces on the score sheet, we have everything to be excited about.

$The image we\'ll long remember from today\'s match$ *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…