You might, if you were not being kind, describe Bayern Munich as a big, bought and ageing team. Big, because many of their players - though not the most emblematic of all, the captain and sweeper Lothar Matthäus - stand over 6ft tall. Bought, because by sharp contrast to their famous European Cup-winning teams of the 1970s, not a single player is home-grown. Ageing, because no fewer than seven of the first-team squad are over or approaching 30.
Matthäus is 38, yet still good enough for club and country. Indeed, Berti Vogts's attempts to replace him in Germany's international team were in vain; he had to be recalled for the 1998 World Cup to play as sweeper, just as he had in 1994 in the United States.
It was, however, essentially as a midfield player, a classical inside-forward, that he made his name at Borussia Mönchengladbach. He first impressed as a youngster on a West German tour of South America. From Mönchengladbach he moved to Internazionale of Milan for several successful seasons. But he has had to cope with serious injuries which could have ended the career of a less determined player. Never the easiest of colleagues, Matthäus was notoriously at odds with Jürgen Klinsmann, when the striker played for Bayern. Harsh words were exchanged in the press, and although both figured in the 1998 German World Cup team, there remained an uneasy truce between them. He is used to being in command. Inevitably, the years have eroded his pace, but not his skill, positional sense or influence over the team. Comparisons can be made with Franz Beckenbauer, now the president of the club, and its true inspiration.
Founded in 1900, Bayern were for many years overshadowed by their neighbours and rivals, Munich 1860. Not until the 1960s did Bayern emerge as the dominant club of Munich, and, indeed, of the Bundesliga itself.
Without the precocious Beckenbauer, it could hardly have happened. A local Bavarian hero - like such other stars of that fine team as Paul Breitner, Uli Hoeness and Gerd Muller - it was Beckenbauer who virtually invented total football by remodelling himself as an attacking sweeper. He conceived the idea, he has said, by watching Inter play on television in the European Cup, with Giacinto Facchetti, their lofty left-back, constantly surging into attack. If this could be done from a full-back position, reasoned Beckenbauer, then why not from a central role? He played the role with huge success, although it would be years before Helmut Schön, his cautious international manager and mentor, allowed him to play it for West Germany.
Relations between Beckenbauer and Breitner, then an attacking left-back of exciting pace, technique and power, were about as good as those in time to come between Matthäus and Klinsmann. Beckenbauer's politics were conservative in the Bavarian mode while Breitner was said to be a rebel.
Hoeness, now the ebullient general manager of the club, provided speed and dynamism on the right wing. Muller, alias Der Bomber, was a remarkable opportunist up front. Jealous when he was nominated West German sportsman of the year, Heidi Rosendahl, the Olympic athlete, protested that all Muller ever did was hang around the penalty box and score. But what goals they were, and in what profusion!
Of their three successful and successive European finals, Bayern in 1974 equalised breathlessly late against Atletico Madrid then romped through the replay. In 1975, they were lucky to beat Leeds in Paris, aided by the French referee. In Glasgow a year later, they managed to squeeze by St Etienne. They have not won the Cup since.
One of the most interesting features of their victory over Dynamo Kiev in Munich last Wednesday was the explosive arrival as substitute of the Iranian striker, 30-year-old Ali Daei. His performance was important and encouraging to Bayern, who have been looking for a partner for the muscular Carsten Jancker since Giovane Elber, their Brazilian striker, dropped out some weeks ago with a serious injury.
In a sense, there is no replacement for a striker as elusive, gifted and incisive as Elber, who scored that palpably offside goal against United in Munich when the teams met at the League stage last year. Milan must still be wondering why they rejected him as a youngster, allowing him to move to Switzerland, Stuttgart and, finally, Munich. He was a perfect foil for Jancker, whose great strength and persistence brought the equaliser in Kiev when all seemed lost, and his far from negligible skill allied to that strength made what should have been a goal on Wednesday for the profligate Alexander Zickler. Having failed to go into orbit in Germany, Jancker left Cologne for Rapid Vienna, where he became a star.
Were Zickler and Daei to form Bayern's spearhead, United's occasionally fallible central defence would find them a physical threat, but perhaps not as taxing as the more subtle Filippo Inzaghi, constantly wriggling away from his markers in the Juventus games.
Sepp Maier, the goalkeeper noted for his huge gloves, and a crucial figure in Bayern of the 1970s, has an admirable successor in the 29-year-old Oliver Kahn, whose several dramatic saves against Kiev kept his team afloat. Those saves suggested, however, that Bayern's defence is hardly impregnable. Bixente Lizarazu, like Elber, has been a loss since his injury. In the 1998 World Cup he was a prominent overlapper on the French left flank. Michael Tarnat cannot quite contribute as much.
The 22-year-old Ghanaian defender, Osei Kuffour, one of several teenagers brought to Europe by Torino before being jettisoned, is confident and promising but possibly lacks valuable experience.
Manchester United must beware of Mario Basler. The right flanker's spectacular winning goal against Kiev, scored after he cut across two defenders then let fly furiously with his supposedly weaker left foot, was breathtaking. This season, Bayern have substantially reinforced their midfield, buying back their former player, Stefan Effenberg, from Mönchengladbach, and acquiring Jens Jeremies, the vigorous World Cup player, from nearby Munich 1860.
Bayern, like United, qualified for this season's Champions League only by virtue of coming second in their domestic league, but are strolling away with it this season, enjoying an emphatic lead. They are also in the final of the German Cup, although this has always, unlike the FA Cup, been no more than a marginal competition. Altogether, this is a physically powerful, well-organised, combative Bayern team. But United already know it and, with Ryan Giggs returning, they could turn and trouble its defence.
brian.glanville@sunday-times.co.uk
Key Confrontations
Peter Schmeichel-Oliver Kahn
Schmeichel has the greater potential, but Kahn may be more dependable. His spectacular saves against Dynamo Kiev kept Bayern in the Cup. In Turin, Schmeichel typically alternated stupendous saves with impulsive error. He was rescued when Jaap Stam headed off the line. Earlier in the tournament, he conceded goals with bizarre mistakes in Munich and Barcelona, but he can still win any game
Andy Cole-Dwight Yorke-Lothar Matthaus
A sweeper, Matthaus will have two
man-markers between himself and the United strikers. If they can elude those markers, however, they have the pace to elude the 38-year-old Matthaus as well. He must stay in the right place and put behind him that embarrassing moment in Giants Stadium when he went AWOL on
the occasion of Poland's winning World Cup goal
in 1994
Jaap Stam-Carsten Jancker
Though big and heavy, Jancker can show surprising technique and flair. Stam should more than match him in the air, however, and is unlikely to be as embarrassed as he was in the semi-finals with Filippo Inzaghi, who constantly tormented him on his right side. Elber, the injured Brazilian, would probably have given Stam more trouble
Nicky Butt-Stefan Effenberg
Effenberg is a vastly more talented all-round player than Butt, but the Englishman is a battler, in the committed tradition of Nobby Stiles, and will not give up easily. In the absence, though, of both Paul Scholes and Roy Keane, he carries a much heavier burden than usual
Compiled by Brian Glanville
THIS SEASON'S ENCOUNTERS UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
September 30, 1998
Bayern Munich 2 Man United 2
December 9, 1998
Man United 1 Bayern Munich 1
| Man Utd | | Bayern |
|---|
| 3 | Goals | 3 |
| 25 | Shots | 29 |
| 36 | Shots on target (%) | 31 |
| 12 | Goals to shots (%) | 10 |
| 576 | Short passes | 419 |
| 109 | Long passes | 95 |
| 79 | Pass completion (%) | 76 |
| 48 | Crosses | 39 |
| 31 | Cross completion (%) | 26 |
| 66 | Tackles | 55 |
| 64 | Tackles won (%) | 64 |
| 138 | Blocks and clearances | 154 |
| 50 | Fouls | 41 |
| 2 | Yellow cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red cards | 0 |
