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Bayern Munich Vs. Borussia Dortmund: Final Score 2-1, Bayern Claim Supercup
Bayern Munich took an early lead and ultimately managed to hold on against a Borussia Dortmund onslaught to win the 2012 DHL Supercup by a final score of 2-1. It was a fun display from both sides, with Bayern showing their class early before some late substitutions kicked BVB into gear. We even had a pitch invader!
With Dortmund unbeaten against Bayern in their previous five matches, nobody was expecting a fast start from the Bavarians. However, that's exactly what we got after a brilliant pass from Franck Ribery unlocked BVB's defence and allowed new signing Mario Mandzukic to pounce. The Croatian striker took a touch before calmly dinking the ball past Roman Weidenfeller to make it 1-0. The game was just six minutes old.
It didn't get any better for BVB. Yellow shirts streamed forward, but Bayern can play counterattacking football as well as anyone, and Toni Kroos managed to catch the defence totally out of position when he found Arjen Robben with a beautiful through ball five minutes after Mandzukic's opener. Robben had the chance of squaring to Thomas Mueller for an open goal, but instead opted to chip over Weidenfeller. He hit the post, but the ball bounced right back to Mueller, with predictable consequences.
Dortmund, stung by going down by two goals barely 10 minutes into their match, started looking a little more lively after Mueller's strike, but never quite got that final ball to Robert Lewandowski working, and the Polish striker's poor touches turned several half-chances into nonentities. They certainly weren't playing like the attack-friendly defending champions they're supposed to be, and this is against a Bayern missing Holger Badstuber, David Alaba and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
An aside: It's a little-known fact that Bayern Munich youngsters under the tutelage of Jupp Henyckes must write out the names of their direct opponent 20 times before the start of every match. Emre Can took ended up taking this out on Jakub Blaszczykowski in the 35th minute. Fortunately for Dortmund, Kuba managed to carry on, although his head did hit the ground worryingly hard.
2-0 at halftime was not a good score, and it didn't get much better for BVB after the break, with Bayern once again looking like the better side. A brief pause for a pitch invasion -- a very large fan waddled into midfield -- at least gave the match some levity. The introductions of Mario Goetze and Ivan Perisic in the 64th minute threatened to change it more substantially than that, although the first major event after Dortmund brought on their young guns came from Munich when Robben forced Weidenfeller into a sprawling save.
Things brightened up after the Robben save, however, and Dortmund constructed their first really effective attack of the match down the Bayern left, with Kuba and Gotze getting involved to scythe through the defence and eventually push the ball through to Lewandowski, who was loitering with intent at the top of Manuel Neuer's six-yard box. The striker, so dangerous last season, should certainly have scored, but instead miscued his shot and saw it trickle behind for a corner.
Lewandowski made up for his miss in the 75th minute. Having being fed at the edge of the Bayern box, there didn't look like there was much danger to Neuer's goal. But Lewandowski managed to use Marco Reus as a screen to buy himself space to turn, then planted a beautiful right-footed shot straight into the corner, the ball skipping past the stranded goalkeeper to make it 2-1.
Dortmund were now well and truly awake, and Julian Schieber came close to drawing them level after finding himself free on the left -- his low shot was blasted just beyond Neuer's fast post. Next it was Goetze's turn as the teenager took advantage of some lucky bounces to burst through Bayern's line and bear down on goal. That luck evened out immediately, however, as the 20-year-old's shot took a flukey deflection and ended up safely in Neuer's arms.
It was looking like a matter of time until BVB drew level, but time was in Bayern's favour. The defence managed to hold out for the remaining 10 minutes for the win, with Henyckes finding time to introduce new signing Xherdran Shakiri as well, but they were certainly helped by some curious refereeing -- a penalty could easily have been given against Philipp Lahm when the captain looked to have handled Marcel Schmelzer's late attempt at a cross. Nobody complained too much, which is what you expect from a preseason friendly. Now onto the real thing!
