Bayern Munich beat Chivas de Guadalajara in Audi Football Summit

Bayern Munich won the first match in their North American tour with a 1-0 victory over Chivas de Guadalajara. A crowd of 25,023 filled Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey to watch FC Bayern play a game on American soil for the first time in roughly a decade.

FC Bayern started with a three man backline of David Alaba, Javi Martinez, and Rafinha. While this formation does have it's strengths in fluidity and the ability to to quickly move the ball from defense to offense, it also can see your defenders caught out if they aren't aware of where the runners are coming from. Chivas nearly capitalized on this in the opening minutes, but Fernando Arce sent his shot well wide of the target.

Everyone's favorite Peruvian would open the scoring for Bayern in the 10th minute. Franck Ribery earned a corner kick and would whip the ball into the near post. Claudio Pizarro's diving header would deflect off of Chivas's Aldo de Nigris before ending up in the back of the net for the 1-0 advantage.

It appeared that Martinez earned a penalty after a handball from Hedgardo Marin on an audacious bicycle kick, but the referee decided against the call. However, the highlight of the first was unquestionably Gianluca Gaudino's very impressive run through the Chivas defense that would've resulted in a spectacular goal had he been able to take a shot.

Chivas definitely ramped up the extremely physical dirty play for the remainder of the first half. Sebastian Rode took an elbow to the face that left a cut on the bridge of his nose, while Ribery and Robert Lewandowski were the victims of rather poor tackles from behind. It continued into the second half with Lewandowski taking an elbow to the throat and Rafinha being taken down from behind.

Guardiola chose not to make any substitutions at the start of the second half, but Holger Badstuber and Xherdan Shaqiri soon found their way onto the field for Pizarro and Rode. It seemed nearly guaranteed that Bayern were going to add a second goal shortly thereafter, but Ribery's poor pass to Shaqiri on a 2-on-1 opportunity squandered that chance.

The two sides swapped chances in the 75th minute. Bayern's best opportunity was first with Ribery picking up a loose ball in the box before having his shot deflected out of bounds for a corner. His subsequent corner was weakly headed into the arms of Chivas's goalkeeper Luis Michel.

Chivas's substitutes kept throwing numbers forward and thought they were surely going to score the equalizer in the 81st minute. Carlos Fierro slipped in behind David Alaba and brought down a ball with his chest. He saw the glory of "I SCORED AGAINST BAYERN MUNICH!" in his future, but he forgot that the human wall known as Tom Starke was in his way. Starke blocked the shot to deny Chivas the goal.

Pierre Hojbjerg earned a free kick at the top of the Chivas penalty area in the 85th minute after a some fancy dribbling that left Chivas players stumbling over themselves. With four players standing over the ball, including recent substitution Lucas Scholl, Shaqiri put the ball into the crowd behind the goal.

In stoppage time, Shaqiri played Scholl through the Chivas backline with a nice chip pass. Scholl took a touch to force the Chivas goalkeeper to commit and then softly lifted the ball over him and into the back of the net. Unfortunately, he was judged to be offside, and the goal was called back.

The referee blew the whistle to end the match a few minutes later, and Bayern Munich claim their first victory in their North American tour.