First half had a good start, but the passing has been poor. Piszczek and Sancho have stood out to me for the number of poor choices and bad passes. Akanji not sharp either, but has made some good interventions. Not going to both calling out Toprak, he has done okay 1v1 a few times, but he isn't good enough in general.
Now Sancho with a nice dribble, then a bad choice into a crowd, lost the ball but regained immediately and found the pass to Alcacer. Alcacer finished amazingly. It wasn't a great opportunity, but what a finish!
Sancho immediately (49') with a terrible dribble attempt in the defensive end. Loses in a dangerous place. Bayern can't finish as Akanji makes a very good slide.
Terrible decision 52' by Toprak let a pass play past him, figured he'd run onto it, but barely got there, caused 30 seconds of defensive scramble. Then nice counter, but Piszczek, with time, does absolutely nothing with the ball in. Just not good enough. 53' Reus intercepts beautifully (he has been excellent all game) Sancho "pulls a Piszczek" and fluffs the pass to no one in the box.
What is Sancho thinking? 54', past midfield along the sideline he decides to wing it backward in the air, high and hard, off of Piszczek's high foot trying to bring it down. Ball falls into the defensive midfield with no one there. Excellent chance for Bayern to Lewandowski's head (missed by an inch), out of nothing they did. Don't shoot the ball randomly into your own end.
Now Schulz, no one on, blasts it at Weigl who can't handle it in midfield. Another run down an empty field for Bayern. Goretzka finishes badly, Hitz gets a finger. These are all much better chances than BVB scored with, the finishing is just lacking. The players need to make better decisions in possession.
Why have your updates dried up? And then Sancho woke up! Great assist for Paco and well taken goal. How Kimmich didn’t see red for that stamp was a disgrace!
Yeah, how there was no red for Kimmich, on a clearly intentional ankle stamp, out of bounds, long after the play was done, is beyond me. Particularly since a yellow isn't even a punishment in this one-off game. Sancho took that goal nicely. Guerreiro's vision on that pass to send him was great.
In the end, they win. Bayern had more chance and better chances but had no finishing. Reus and Alcacer were excellent. I think both Guerreiro and Weigl were both very good. The whole team was terrible playing out from the back. Toprak and Hitz made everything hard. Akanji was bad playing out also, but was good defensively. Piszczek had a few good moments, but on balance was quite bad. Sancho had two or three good attacking moments, and the goal was beautiful, but he was terrible in his decision making in possession, slack on passing. Hopefully just a glitch, he was so good last year. Witsel had a rough game. He wasn't able to hold up like he usually can. He got bullied off the ball several times and didn't make many positive plays. Schulz was okay. Decent defending, decent attacking, but just as much bad as good. For the subs, Hakimi was mostly poor, but had the nice run that could have been a pk (the angle shown couldn't show if he exaggerated the thigh contact, if he didn't exaggerate it, it should have been a pk), so I guess that puts him at "ok" in total. Bruun Larsen and Wolf were both poor. Heavy touches, poor angles on runs that left no good way to get the ball to them. Their defense wasn't helpful either, but it was late so everyone was a little light on defense. For me, the biggest unexpected was Guerreiro. I think he should find a place in the squad.
Wow we already have a trophy this year And Hitz is making a case to be considered a starter more often...
Good way to start the season! I'm surprised we didn't concede 1 goal, given the chances they had. But BVB players were more fresh than Bayern's. I no longer see a huge gulf between the level of talent in the 2 clubs. I feel we have a better shot this year at winning the league. I hope they don't get Sane though..
I could only follow commentary/summaries of the game on radio where it was said it was a deserved win. I was really surprised later when I watched the highlights at the amount and quality of the chances Bayern had. Our errors and their ability to attack so easily reminded me of last season's disaster. Coupled with the very likely possibility that they'll also get Leroy Sané soon, it makes one a bit worried. Hummels will help with reading the game but not really against their pace.
Yeah, you'd have to be a pretty big homer to say Dortmund outplayed Bayern. They out-finished Bayern. Finishing is a big thing and shouldn't be dismissed, but Bayern carried the play. But I would say a lot of that was down to Hitz, Toprak, and Piszczek having too little quality moving the ball out and then Bayern recognizing that and pressing with three been right at the box, even on goal kicks. It wouldn't work with more quality from the back line.
Interesting reports. Confirms what I saw last year. Unfortunately I am on holiday and cant watch the matches. Hummels and Hakimi moving into the back like will help with the problems, but Witsel is the elephant in the room. Against any quality opposition he gets out hassled, out muscled and forced into errors. His passing is too slow and he just won't cut it. Dahoud needs to play in that position or else we wont progress. Something has to happen for him to he dropped. I am glad Weigl took Delaneys position. Good to see Ralphael played well, but Brandt should be even better in the role. Alcacer excelling is nice and we have options. Hopefully Favre does rotate this time.
I agree, since Alcacer went down a lot lost season, though I wonder if some of that was cynicism about his potential playing time before the loan and years of disuse. He looked more fit in this game and had lots of motor on both sides of the ball. I hope that his desire for playing time, and knowledge it would be his if he could be fit, has added another level: 90 minutes of effective play. It really did look like it.
I only watched the second half but outside of our counterattack I didnt see much for us to be happy with other than the final score. Im not sure we can cant on that type of match from them the next time we play.
One thing that might work against Bayern is Neuer. He still had some great games in the recent past but he seems slower. The one scene where he came out against Alcacer that almost resulted in a goal was something Neuer used to be able to evaluate to perfection. The first goal looked as if a prime and quicker Neuer would have saved it. They'll likely get Nübel next year on a free transfer, though, who I think has all the basics to be their next Neuer. It won't happen but I'd gladly see Nübel given a shot here despite his youth.