Barcelona against Bayern, this used to be a matchup that promised football at the highest niveau. Two team on the same level battling each other. Not this year, after 45 minutes at the Nou Camp Stadium at last Wednesday's game between the two clubs it seemed that the world had ended for Klinsmann, for Hoeneß and for Bayern. The team was just absolutely humiliated by Messi, Henry, and Eto´o. 4-0 seemed like a light result and hide the fact that Bayern should have been down much more at that point. That the final result was 4-0 seemed to be the most fortunate aspect of a truly forgetable evening for the Munich squad.
Now many will say that this result shows the difference between Bayern a Bundesliga club, and Barca a Premiera Division club. Many will point at the financial differences, and state that Bayerns squad is not strong enough for Europe. Others will say that with all the injuries Bayern had no chance at the first place. All of the above is not true, however, Bayern ranks above Barca at the richest clubs at the world list, Bayerns squad is strong enough to compete in Europe and even with the injuries should have been strong enough to at least hold Barca at bay. Yes a Philip Lahm is probably the best Left Back in the world, van Buyten playing is always a force and Lucio is not without reason the number one defender of the Brazilian national team, not to forget the absence of Miroslav Klose who could have truly helped a Bayern that seemed to be without offense that night.
But the reasons for this defeat are much deeper. Klinsmann has failed to install a winning mentality into the Bayern squad. The Bayern players on the field seemed like eleven bunnies facing, eleven tigers. Gone was that typical Bayern winning mentality that we are so used to, and that many football fans in Germany so much hate. During the game it seemed that the Bayern defense was without organization, to far away from the strikers. Lionel Messi was unchallenged, true the boy is amazing, but even he must have been amazed by the room he was given that night. Klinsmann has vowed to make every player better every day, but why is it then that Breno, who had been considered the worlds best defense talent 2 years ago, has shown no improvement since he signed for Bayern. Why is it that Podolski who plays so well for the national team, has failed so miserably under Klinsmann.
The same goes to Rensing a promising young goalie, who had been taken out of the squad by Klinsmann on the day of the Barca game. Perhaps staying with the goalie when most of the defense is already absent would have given the team more stability. It was perhaps the Rensing decision that killed Bayern in Barcelona last Wednesday. Now don't get me wrong I believe that Barcelona played a great game, fantastic even, but are they four goals better then Bayern? No definitely not, this result is not the result of a fantastic Barcelona display, but the result of poor decisions on the part of the coach. Keep in mind that only a few days before that faithful night in Barcelona, Bayern was even more mistreated by VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, who managed to score 5 goals against a Bayern squad that looked even worse in that game. In comparison the Barca game was perhaps an improvement.
So what now, Bayern actually won this weekend 4-0 against Frankfurt. Well might some of you say perhaps Klinsmann is not doing everything wrong. Frankfurt, however, is not Wolfsburg, and is most certainly not Barca. Yet players should always believe in miracles, and hope for the best, but no words from any of the Bayern personal of trying the unthinkable and winning against Barca 5-0, 6-1 or whatever it will take to advance. No the word is that Bayern is going to try to pull out of the Champions League with dignity. I say, even as an 1860 fan, what a shame, and hopefully next year Germany will be represented by three teams that have managers who actually care.
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