Tomorrow, Bayern take on Hertha Berlin in a clash that Marko Pantelic believes will result in his side walking away victorious over big red. Pantelic was quoted as saying "If we fight passionately, we can beat anybody." However, Hertha's big stumbling block might just be all of the injuries they are up against. Kacar, Cicero and Lustenberger are all out with injury and Dardai is pushing to be fit in time. Bayern, however, are only missing Massimo Oddo who will be sitting out his third and final suspension match. With only a point separating the teams, you can beat that both want to be victorious.
Jurgen Klinsmann may well look at some of his players who are coming off of International duty during the mid-week. One spot that hasn't gone unnoticed, unless you have been in the arctic, is that my secondary love, Daniel van Buyten, had a huge game for Belgium in which he scored twice - resulting in the 2-0 victory for Belgium. In truth, he found the net a third time, but the goal was not allowed. Prior to the match, Jurgen Klinsmann was quoted as saying it hurts him to leave Daniel on the bench behind Lucio and Demichelis. Maybe that was the reason for the explanation point during International duties. The interesting thing here is that Belgium chose to throw the Belgian Bull into midfield rather than into the defense. It's no secret that Daniel loves to play an attacking style of football so this was a good opportunity to showcase his talent and get some match practice in. And if you were to ask the big guy what that match was all about, he would flash that lovely smile of his and say the same thing he said in another interview, that it was a "statement of intent" to Demichelis and Lucio. Look out boys... here he comes. Jurgen has choices. And lots of them.
Bayern also have Miroslav Klose coming off of a great two goal game last weekend and I'm sure he's looking to continue that streak. And for whatever reason, he generally finds the back of the net against Hertha as well. In fact, he boasts over ten goals against them. The other good thing about facing Hertha is that they have always been a place of profit for Luca Toni. His form has been questionable lately, but perhaps this is the team that will get him back on track.
And, if worse comes to worse and Jurgen finds that Klose, Toni and Lukas Podolski give themselves injuries while playing table tennis or Foosball, then he can always call on backup keeper Hans Jörg Butt who, believe it or not, has three goals all from the penalty spot against Hertha.
Jurgen has options.