Another day, another blown opportunity after a disappointing Bayern performance. A legitimate complaint could be lodged over a few bad calls, but either way we failed to seize control of the game again.
After only 5 minutes, I thought we were in the clear when Muller and Robben hooked up after a long, marauding run. Not only did we have the lead, but our energy level looked great and Nurnberg was on their heels. Unfortunately, we then settled into our familiar pass-it-around-until-someone-gets-it-stolen-away offense, and basically did nothing for the rest of the first half.
Nurnberg's goal was on a long-distance shot that might have been a little lucky, but honestly we didn't do enough to win. A good microcosm of our season can be seen if you review the film from about the 78the minute. Bayern had something of a break, with Gomez and Robben ahead, but with Nurnberg having two defenders behind the ball. First, Gomez (while arguably being fouled) kicks the ball right into the keeper. Then he runs through the rebound and shoots a hard blast way too high, which isn't easy from inside 7 yards even if you TRY. Meanwhile, Robben has COMPLETELY STOPPED in the middle of the play to turn around and complain for a foul, missing his chance to jump on the rebound and score on an open net (which is, of course, beyond Gomez's abilities).
Some other notes:
- Looked like there definitely should have been a handball called against Nurnberg towards the end, which would have given us a penalty. The official was right there.
- What's with the confederate flag waving around behind the left-side goal? Or are my eyes playing tricks on me?
- Hannover won, of course, so we're back into 4th place and back into hearing about how awful the Europa League is. For a bunch of guys who hate the Europa League so much, they don't appear to be doing that much to avoid it.
- Say what you will about Dimitar Berbatov, he doesn't generally blast the ball over an open net from inside 7 yards.
** EDIT - readers RCB and quaazi point out this is not true. Not sure if this is the one they had in mind, but check out this bad miss by Berbatov, and feel free to send me others at bayern.offside@yahoo.com and I'll post.
We''l be back with more later. Thanks for reading.