Weekend Warm-up: Bayern Munich fans should savor the next few weeks; Bundesliga predictions; Damn it feels good to be a gangsta; and MORE!

The 2020/2021 campaign will clearly not be remembered as fondly as the 2019/2020 season for most Bayern Munich fans.

Sure, there will not be a DFB-Pokal or Champions League celebration this season, but it was a wild, fun, frustrating, and memorable ride nonetheless — and it’s not over just yet.

While injuries, fatigue, controversial contract dealings, and some front office drama captured many of the headlines this season, the actual players on the roster of Bayern Munich did an excellent job of navigating some very choppy waters.

Nearly every key player suffered some sort of injury over the course of this season for Bayern Munich, but the group persevered onward and never — ever — stopped fighting. While the group still needs to clinch the Bundesliga, it will be a title that will be well-earned if they can close the deal.

The condensed schedule after an already hectic conclusion to the 2019/2020 season was a major reason why Bayern Munich looked lethargic at times, but in the end, if not for a very untimely and unnecessary injury to Robert Lewandowski, the Bavarians could be one of the two squads lining up to compete for a Champions League crown later this month.

Sadly, Andorra happened.

Anyway, the end result in terms of titles won for this campaign might leave some unsatisfied, but it really should not. The season definitely could spark dozens of “What if” scenarios, but it was a battle and Bayern Munich faced every challenge head-on. It was never easy — and it was never going to be. Still, the last season of Hansi Flick’s tenure and all of the ins-and-outs of why things ended up the way they did has been a roller coaster of a ride.

Hopefully everyone can sit back and appreciate those ups-and-downs — and remember that even though there will not be a sextuple in the works, it was still a grinding, rugged, and physically and mentally draining effort by the team that should be appreciated.

At a minimum, Robert Lewandowski still has a chance to break Gerd Müller’s record and that would be a pretty spectacular way to cap off what has been an eventful 2020/2021 campaign.

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Mare of Easttown — I’m finally going to start it

I have been eagerly waiting to get started on HBO’s new series and am looking forward to really digging into it this weekend after a few weeks of being caught up in other tasks.

As previously detailed, the show was filmed (for the most part) in the county where I live and features many of my homeland’s little intricacies (Wawa, a very distinct accent, lots of beer drinking in corner bars, etc).

If you have started it, drop me some (non-spoiler) quick thoughts on how you think it’s going.

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Song of the Week: “Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta” by Geto Boys

I was driving one of my daughters to practice the other night and scanned to 88.5 WXPN — a listener funded station that literally plays everything and anything — and to my surprise this lost classic was on the air.

At first, I started to scramble to hit the “next channel” button because my recollection of the song always goes to the “explicit version.” Thankfully, though, the radio edit was in full force. The video below is the “clean version” because I don’t want the Weekend Warm-up to get cancelled right now.

Anyway, this song first came out to little acclaim in 1992, but exploded with the 1999 release of the movie Office Space — which is one of my all-time favorites. If you somehow have not seen this flick, you need to make it appointment viewing.

Office Space achieved “cult classic” status a while ago, but I can assure you that there is no better movie or show that captures the “office life” scene in the early aughts as well as Office Space. Everything from the levels of middle management, to consultants brought to drive “restructuring” to the basic grind of having to get up every day and do something you don’t necessarily even like to get paid is just spot on in every way.

This song by Geto Boys — who are best know for “My Mind Is Playing Tricks On Me” — was used in such a perfect way and it made the tune more popular than ever. In the early aughts, if you heard someone say, “Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta”, you knew exactly what they meant.

Anyway, enjoy the clean version below:

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Predictions

Borussia Mönchengladbach is always a tough match-up for Bayern Munich and this fixture should not be any different. A big factor for the Bavarians in this game could be that the large majority of the roster is finally healthy — including Robert Lewandowski, who undoubtedly could have used the extra time off to get right as he pursues the Bundesliga scoring record.

This will not be easy, but I think Bayern Munich is re-focused and feeling good about itself. This should be a solid effort with more energy than we have seen out of the team in weeks.

Prediction: Bayern Munich 3-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Other Bundesliga predictions include:

• VfB Stuttgart 2-1 FC Augsburg
• Borussia Dortmund 2-1 RB Leipzig
• Hoffenheim 2-0 Schalke 04
• Werder Bremen 1-2 Bayer Leverkusen
• Wolfsburg 3-2 Union Berlin
• FC Köln 1-2 SC Freiburg
• Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 Mainz 05
• Hertha 1-1 Arminia Bielefield

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Prediction Records

Last DFB-Pokal/Bundesliga match day record: 2-2

Overall record: 152-141*

Guest predictors’ record: 23-4*

(*includes DFL-Supercup, DFB-Pokal, Club World Cup, and Champions League)