Chapter 601 New Captain Three Consecutive Championships
As early as before the winter break of last season, the German Football Association announced the cancellation of the 2008 German League Cup.
The reason is that the League Cup schedule has been affected because of the European Cup.
But in fact, everyone knows that this is just a lame excuse.
The German League Cup adopts a knockout system with a total of six teams, including the champion of the German 2nd Bundesliga, the cup champion and the top four teams in the Bundesliga, but such a showdown is actually not very attractive, especially there is no way to attract sponsors.
Professional football, after all, is still mainly commercial, and events without commercial value are often unsustainable.
What's more, the participating teams have always regarded the League Cup as a warm-up event and don't take it seriously at all.
Under such circumstances, the suspension of the League Cup did not cause much controversy.
On the contrary, at the beginning of this year, Bayern took the initiative to launch an initiative to resume the German Super Cup.
Like the Super Cup in other countries, the format is a single-match match between the league champion and the cup champion. This is undoubtedly more suspenseful and more commercially valuable than the lengthy League Cup.
At least this can be seen from the fact that the Super Cup in other countries has been held for so many years.
As a result, Bayern's initiative was supported by other Bundesliga teams, especially after Bayern won the treble and the team playing against Bayern in the Super Cup was the Yellow Bee Dortmund, which attracted the support of many sponsors.
Although Dortmund only ranked 13th in the league last season, as one of the most glorious teams in Bundesliga history, Dortmund still has a very outstanding fan influence.
Bayern vs. Dortmund, such a Super Cup is very interesting in itself and sponsors are also flocking to it.
The German Football Association did not agree, but acquiesced to Bayern and Dortmund to hold the event on their own.
The time is set at the end of July, and the venue is chosen as Dortmund's home stadium, Signal Iduna Park.
Although this event has not yet been officially sponsored by the Football Association, everyone knows that it is actually the German Super Cup.
It is worth mentioning that after Dortmund's poor performance last season, they decided to change coaches and chose Klopp, the Mainz head coach who failed to lead the team to promotion in the German Second Division.
This 40-year-old German coach was once a candidate for Bayern's head coach and was favored by Hoeness.
But unfortunately, in order to be safe, Bayern chose the old coach Heynckes, which led to the young coach transferring to Dortmund.
This will also be Klopp's first official game as coach of Dortmund.
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Before the team travelled north to Dortmund, Bayern held a dressing room meeting at their training centre on Sebener Strasse to make a crucial decision: the captain.
After Kahn retired, the captain's position became vacant. Vice-captain Sagnol currently has relatively little playing time, so in some warm-up matches, the captain's armband is worn on Lahm's arm.
In fact, there are many stars in the Bayern team who used to be captains of their respective teams, such as Van Bommel, but in Bayern, Van Bommel's current position is still a rotation role, especially with Tymoshchuk joining and Modric shining in the European Cup, Van Bommel's situation will be even more embarrassing.
The Dutch have strength, but Schweinsteiger and Modric both played a little more aggressively.
After changing positions, Schweini is not only the dual core of Bayern's midfield, but also performs very well in the German national team.
Not to mention Modric, one of the best players in this European Cup.
In this situation, it would be difficult for Van Bommel to compete with them.
According to convention, after the captain retires, the vice-captain is the strongest contender, but Sagnol's current situation is not good either.
After being seriously injured, Sagnol lost his main position and even threatened to leave the team. Now he stays, but he still can't grab a position because of his age, after all.
Su Dong was originally very competitive. Many Bayern players and management, including Kahn, believed that if he came out for the election, there would basically be no suspense.
But before the election, Su Dong took the initiative to clarify in the locker room that he would not run for election. He had no interest in this regard and would rather concentrate all his energy on training and competition and did not want to be distracted by other matters.
Some people are keen to be the captain and hold certain power, but Su Dong doesn't need that.
Firstly, he is not that kind of person, and secondly, he does not need this power, because his current privileges are above the entire team. Whoever is the captain, or even the head coach, must treat him like a lord, right?
It would be better if they were polite to each other. If someone provokes Su Dong and makes him unhappy, how long will this captain or head coach last? Therefore, Su Dong's withdrawal seems generous.
The final result was that Lahm was unanimously elected as Bayern's new captain.
This is also quite interesting. Lahm and Ribery are the shortest players in the team, but Lahm became the captain. He has to be at the forefront of everything and stand up for his teammates. It's quite funny to think about it.
However, when it comes to serving his teammates, Ram has done a very good job.
The vice-captain selected three, Sagnol, Lucio and Schweinsteiger.
Although Sagnol has lost his starting position, he is a meritorious player for the club after all, so it is understandable that he should retain his position as vice-captain.
Lucio's vice-captaincy is the carrot that Heynckes dangles in front of him, allowing the Brazilian central defender to continue to improve himself and preferably become more stable.
On the contrary, it is Schweinsteiger who is highly praised by Bayern.
The captain was selected and some rules were established in the locker room, which were basically the same as before and there were no problems.
But according to convention, the new captain treated everyone in the team to a big meal as a greeting gift.
Subsequently, the club announced the locker room's choice, which was approved by Heynckes.
The media and fans are generally satisfied with the result, with more than 30% of fans agreeing that Lahm should be the captain.
But what’s interesting is that more fans chose Su Dong as captain than Lahm, so much so that after the results came out, many fans felt sorry for Su Dong and wondered why he was not the captain?
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Although he became the captain, due to his participation in the European Cup final, Lahm returned to the team later and his progress was not consistent with the team, so Sagnol still started in the Super Cup against Dortmund.
It is called the Super Cup, but in fact it is just a more formal warm-up match.
I don’t know if it was because he missed the captain’s position, but Sagnol was quite active at the beginning of the game.
In just eight minutes, he launched an attack on the right, Robben passed the ball to the middle, and Su Dong headed the ball from close range and broke through Dortmund's goal, opening the scoring for Bayern, one to zero!
Losing the ball did not dampen the passion and desire to win of the Hornets players.
At home, Dortmund played with a very oppressive feel. The team adopted a tactic of pressing throughout the court, like a crazy boxer, constantly swinging his fists.
The Hornets' chaotic punches forced Bayern to temporarily avoid their attack.
It was not until the 27th minute that Sagnol launched another attack from the right. Robben dribbled the ball inside and made a straight pass with his left foot. After Su Dong successfully made an offside, he dribbled past the attacking goalkeeper Weidenfeller and easily shot into the empty goal, making it 2-0!
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The first half ended with a score of 2-0 and Heynckes made major substitutions during the halftime break.
After all, this is not a formal game and there are no strict restrictions on substitutions, so Heynckes replaced seven main players at once during the halftime break. Obviously, he still hopes to use Dortmund to observe the players.
With the departure of key players such as Su Dong, Dortmund's tactical style gradually showed its power. They scored two goals in the early stage of the second half and successfully equalized the score.
Su Dong was also stunned watching from the sidelines.
After coming on as a substitute, Hummels was obviously unable to adapt to Dortmund's fast-paced rhythm. He seemed a little overwhelmed and his performance was not ideal. Van Buyten was not much better either.
Fortunately, in the 73rd minute, Oter intercepted the ball and launched a counterattack, assisting Olic to score a goal.
In the end, Bayern narrowly beat Dortmund 3-2.
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After playing the Super Cup in Dortmund, Bayern returned to Munich for a short rest, and then played a warm-up match with Cologne.
In the 18th minute of the game, Su Dong scored the first goal for Bayern with a long shot.
After that, Bayern firmly controlled the game and left no chance for Cologne.
Before the end of the first half, Sagnol came from the right and made a two-on-one combination with Robben, sending the ball in front of the goal. Su Dong rushed over and calmly shot the ball into the goal, making it 2-0!
After the second half, Heynckes again replaced all the starting players and replaced eleven players for the second half.
Bayern started the second half a bit disorganized but soon picked up.
Unexpectedly, a sudden rainstorm disrupted the progress of the game and prevented Bayern players from performing in the second half.
Especially the last ten minutes, which ended abruptly.
In the end, Bayern defeated Cologne with a score of 2-0 in the first half.
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Bayern Munich's strong strength in the warm-up matches and the Super Cup has won them unanimous recognition from the media and fans.
Everyone believes that Bayern is the number one favorite to win the Bundesliga title this season.
Heynckes also expressed confidence that he hopes to lead Bayern to win three consecutive championships.
In the history of the Bundesliga, only two teams have won three consecutive championships, namely Bayern and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Bayern has won three consecutive championships three times, namely Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller in the 1970s, the mid-1980s, and the turn of the century when Hitzfeld coached, all of which were the peak dynasties in Bayern's history.
After Beckenbauer led Bayern to win the first three consecutive titles in Bundesliga history, Borussia Mönchengladbach also quickly won three consecutive titles. At that time, the soul leader of Borussia Mönchengladbach was the top scorer Heynckes.
Yes, it is the current Bayern coach, Old Man Hai.
So, this old man still has a complex about this.
But Bayern also faces a big challenge, as the first game of the new season is the national derby between the North and the South against Hamburg.
(End of this chapter)
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