Bayern Munich avoids post-World Cup letdown
As Germany was finishing off Argentina to win its fourth World Cup title last summer, you couldn’t blame some of the country’s most passionate soccer fans if they watched the final with a bit of apprehension. Because what has been good for the national team has not always been good for Bayern Munich, Germany’s most popular and successful club team.
On the three previous occasions that Germany won a World Cup, Munich stumbled the following season — once falling so far the team was relegated to the second division. Twelve times Germany made it to the World Cup semifinals but only twice has Munich followed that by winning the Bundesliga title.
But this season Munich is making a mockery of that history. With Saturday’s 4-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, Munich is unbeaten nearly a third of the way through the Bundesliga season. And three days earlier it beat AS Roma to remain perfect in Champions League play.
FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story stated Bayern Munich defeated Manchester City last week. It beat AS Roma.
All of which is expected when you play for Bayern Munich.
“The last four, five years I’ve been on this club we’ve been very successful,” Dutch forward Arjen Robben said in a phone call from Munich. “When you’re successful, then people always have high expectations. They expect you to win titles. That’s the most important thing.”
Yet it’s also a remarkable thing when you consider that six of Germany’s 11 starters in July’s World Cup final came off the Bayern Munich roster. That’s significant because rather than enjoying the regular three-month summer break from competitive games, those players — along with Mario Goetze, who came off the bench to score the winning goal against Argentina — opened their domestic season just 29 days after leaving Brazil, starting a grueling streak in which the team played 18 times in 11 weeks.
Munich frequently contributes more players to the national team than any other Bundesliga club, so fatigue probably has been a factor in the team’s traditional post-World Cup swoons.
“Mentally you have to be ready again,” said Robben, who speaks from experience having played through the final weekend of the last two World Cups for the Netherlands, finishing second in 2010 and third last summer.
“You need to feel this hunger and, really, motivation to play again. [For] me, personally, it’s not a problem.”
Nor, apparently, for this German teammates. Although Bastian Schweinsteiger, Munich’s bruising midfielder, hasn’t played a competitive game since the World Cup because of knee problems, the rest of the roster appears to have recovered nicely. Goetze and World Cup teammate Thomas Mueller are tied for the league lead with six goals in 11 games, Mueller ranks third with five assists, and Manuel Neuer, who pitched the shutout in goal in the Brazil final, already has eight clean sheets in Bundesliga play.
“We’ve simply got immense quality in our squad,” Mueller, one of five Munich players to make the short list for the world player of the year award, told FIFA.com. “And although that’s no guarantee of results, it is very difficult to beat us. We have so many options.”
That quality has Munich positioned to win its third straight Bundesliga title and 24th overall. No other team has won more than five. It’s also on track to reach the Champions League final for the third time in four years and for the 11th time overall. Only Real Madrid has played in more.
So while Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea will certainly argue otherwise, there appears little doubt that Bayern Munich is the best club team in the world. And, Robben warns, there’s more to come.
“Bayern Munich is still growing. And getting more and more fans all over Germany, Europe, the world,” he said. “I see a very positive development in that way actually.”
In other ways too. While many top European teams are burdened by crippling debt, a Munich official last week confirmed reports that the club earned record revenues of $667 million over the last 12 months, $20 million of which was profit. About 20% of that revenue comes from merchandise, including the 1.7 million replica jerseys the team sold last year, more than the rest of the league’s teams sold combined.
In an effort to continue that growth, in August the team opened a business office in New York and the club made a brief but profitable preseason tour of the U.S.
So if there’s been any kind of post-World Cup effect this year, Robben says it’s been a positive one
“It’s the best feeling playing on such a great team. And you have to enjoy every moment,” he enthused. “Everybody’s ready again. Everybody is still motivated.”
Twitter: @kbaxter11
