Thank God for Tim Borowski. That's all I can say right now. What started out as a promising game turned into a very disappointing, shameful performance. Franck Ribery and Miroslav Klose were both out for today's match. Ribery was scheduled to make a come back, but during training his muscles went tight and they decided it best to give him a little rest so he doesn't further injure himself. Miro picked up an injury during the Champion's League game mid week.
The first half started off pretty evenly paced. Both teams were pushing forward and presenting an attacking style that made this match very interesting to watch. Even though Werder were without four of their regular players, they still pulled together well and it was evident from the start that they weren't going to make this an easy task for Bayern. Midfield looked good for Bayern. Defense, however looked a little weak. Demichelis ha made several crucial mistakes, completely out of character for him. The little article on the FCB Site about Demichelis being 'hot for Pizza' made me think, while watching that game, that possibly he just can't defend Pizarro.
Baumann was pretty forceful throughout the first half, which resulted in a yellow and a talking to from the ref. I think the talking to should've been a second yellow and even the announcers said it was worthy a second booking, but the ref was pretty lenient today. Bremen walked away from the half with a two point lead over Bayern.
Baumann - yellow - 16'
Demichelis - yellow - 26'
Rosenburg - goal - 29'
Naldo - goal - 44'
Second Half changes brought on Borowski for Lell and Oddo for van Buyten. I was surprised by the van Buyten change because for all the screw ups from Demichelis and his inability to cover Piazzaro in the first half, it should've been him. And I know there will be tons of arguments about this and everyone will think it's just my flag waving DVB loving supporting heart, but seriously, he was better than Demichelis today. I would like to thank the camera crew from a strictly girl point of view on the gratuitous Oddo shirt changing shot. ;) Which actually turned out to be the highlight of the game for me because the second half performance by Bayern was just embarrassing. Maybe they shouldn't have made those half-time changes so quickly. Baumann was taken off in lieu of Hunt, which was probably to save him from getting a second booking. Podolski had a great start. He was all over the place and was giving a strong show, but in classic Podolski fashion, the second half rendered him completely invisible and this is why he doesn't deserve a regular starting position. He lacks consistently. Sometimes he plays well, sometimes he plays like he could care less if he got any game time. Until he plays consistently like he wants to be in the starting line, then he doesn't deserve to be there.
I keep waiting to see what Oddo is capable of, but have yet to witness it. He does, however, provide great, spot on crosses. If not for Borowski, this would've been a 5-0 thrashing by Bremen. Granted, Toni should've scored probably three times and Podolski should've scored once, but they didn't so that left it all up to Boro. I was greatly disappointed in the change of play between the first half and the second half. Bayern were a mess in the second half and Bremen deserved to walk away with the win. I'm getting more and more uncertain of Rensing's ability to be a consistent number one. No one will ever be Oli Kahn, but he needs to be better than he was today.
Anyways, that's about all I have to say on today's performance.
Ozil - goal - 54'
Pizarro - goal - 59'
Rosenburg - goal - 67'
Borowski - goal - 71'
Vranjes - yellow - 82'
Borowski - goal - 85'