Tor Search: On To Freiburg

By: Luke | October 15th, 2009

The show must go on, even during international weeks, and so it was that FC Bayern played a friendly match against Jahn Regensburg on Tuesday. A personal aside, if any of you ever have the opportunity to visit Regensburg, do take it. It will never get listed in the “top 10 destinations” to visit in Germany, but this small, incredibly well preserved city on the Danube is one of my favorite places, and produces the world’s best Dampfnudeln, if you’re into that sort of thing. That it is also the origin point of Händlmaier Senf means there’s more than one gastronomic “world’s best” in town.

As for the match, it served mainly as a rehab assignment for Mark van Bommel and Luca Toni (who is surely tiring of them), but ended in a 1-0 defeat. That’s right, we can’t even score in Regensburg. I’ll give you three guesses which Bayern defender blew his assignment on the Regensburg goal..your answer, Luca Toni speaking German and uninspiring but humorous highlights below.

Where have I seen that shot at 1:35 before? Oh, right.

The long shadow of Volker Finke
A return to Freiburg for the first time in 4 years is enough of an excuse to recall their long-serving and influential coach Volker Finke, who in many ways succeeded in creating the anti-Bayern. Uli took a well-deserved long look back at the social studies teacher turned coach when he departed Freiburg in 2007. part 1 part 2 part 3
That’s SOME magic spray!
Among the surprises emerging on Thursday was that Arjen Robben completed a full training session on Wednesday and is expected to be in the squad this weekend! Considering LVG’s slow nursing of Ribery (and the fact that the slow nursing has not done much to actually heal Ribery), I’ve got to believe that including Robben in the squad might be more to give Freiburg’s coaching staff something to squirm about. And if so, it’s working: Freiburg coach Robin Dutt himself plans on spying on Bayern (because the surveillance budget at the smaller clubs really is non existent.)
The numbers..they do nothing
Throw out the all-time record book. SCF had Bayern’s number when they first rose to the Bundesliga, but it’s been slim pickins’ since. The all time goal differential is also skewed by a 6-0 Bayern win. It’s hard to get a fix on Freiburg by looking at the stats. They had been riding a two match win streak..but the first win was at Hertha, so who wouldn’t have won that one? The second was at home to ‘Gladbach, a 3-0 victory. Then, they traveled to Hannover where, almost unbelievably, they were thumped 5-2. You’ve got to believe that any team that can manage to concede 5 to Hannover is only willing and able to concede *something* to us. Forward Tommy Bechmann will miss the match, making Mohammadou Idrissou the only real offensive threat for the Breisgauer. As long as Daniel Van Buyten is using his height against the 6′3″ Cameroonian, things ought to stay calm in front of the Bayern goal. Center back Pavel Krmas is also doubtful, but I actually hope he plays. From my admittedly limited viewing of Freiburg, he seems to be perpetually wearing leaden shoes.

Look for Mark van Bommel to be back in the starting 11, no matter what the formation. The “rah-rah” phenomenon is always overrated in sports, but this team needs some, and he’s the man to bring it. It may take a little luck, but once a Tor is found, many more will follow. And then we can get back to worrying about important things, such as Klose sticking his landing

The match will air Saturday at 9:30 a.m. EST on GOLTV. I might have a liveblog up, and if I do, I’ll have a reminder up on the site on Friday.