The southern German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, based in Munich, had no trouble trusting its reflexes - and featured the news of the 4-0 victory by local Bayern Muenchen side as it outclassed the outstanding and famous Barcelona team in a 4-0 exhibition. It was a perfectly executed game plan masterminded by Jupp Heynckes, but which the team might have won anyway, without the deft strategy they carried out on the pitch. Big front page lead story yesterday on sz.de
Hats off to Dortmund, especially the fans who showed they can close ranks behind one of their team's young player in loyalty despite the Bayern Munich people choosing the eve of the Dortmund side's match against Real Madrid in the CL semi-final (in a war of attrition and legal poaching) to announce signing Dortmund's star player, who played very well, incidentally. Yes, I mean Mario Götze (Goetze).
But I am leaving my hat squarely on my head for the editors at Suedeutsche Zeitung for showing favoritism. Today, the news of the equally impressive, perhaps almost historic, but in fact against-many-odds win of Dortmund against the other top club from Spain, Real Madrid in the same competition, managed to coax its way into the 4th or 5th spot on the page at sz.de. Okay, some people might go and throw weisswurst (or a Nuremberg bratwurst) or epithets at the newspaper's building if Dortmund gets more coverage than Ulli Hoeness's illegal tax evasion and alleged kickback (get it?) from adidas. But I know they won't respond to this, they have never once responded to my e-mails to their editorial staff with useful hints, but I know they are busy deciding which stories to run first, second, third, fourth, and - yes Dortmund's win - fifth. After a higher-ranked news item on many German companies not paying minimum wage. And the news-worth(ier) story of Seehofer denying he showed favoritism to Hoeness. Horst Seehofer, Christian Social Union chief and Bavarias prime-minister once said: when Bayern Muenchen is doing well, Bavaria is doing well - and the blue-and-white checkered Bavarian legal audit authority (Rechnungshof) says there is a chronic lack of tax investigators who might track down more people suspected of tax fraud such as Ulli Hoeneß (Ulli Hoeness), president and CEO of Bayern Muenchen.
Barry Glendinning has jokingly identified the ingenious Kloppo, aka as His Kloppness, as an eccentric, Jupp Heynckes is not mentioned enough in reporting, and okay, saying the reason Manchester United failed to get farther (American leeches are supposedly to blame) is perhaps Victrola's Empire dog's Master's voice speaking with part of its cortex. Or joking that a Spanish center back will dally away the defeat with his supermodel dearest -- all this rather than actually providing insightful tea-time talk about football on the Continent - where was that again, oh dear, it's five already, bring me some Early Grey and some scaaahhns. Are those hornets out there, or that yellowjacket side from "Theremouth," near Sid-mouth and (S)port(s)mouth. Errr leeches, or verm(in)mouth.
But last night showed that a writer can wax lyrical in the moment: After some initial and realistically couched pessimism and making fun of Paula, Barry Glendinning predicts Dortmund will be nasty to Mario Götze, which they were decidedly not: the wrath never appeared, only whistles for ref. He then comes through with wonderful commentary on the match: "Schmelzer ... smashed... a hopeful low diagonal hail-mary drive through the Real Madrid penalty area. The ball came to the feet of Pepe, but before he could hack clear, Lewandowski took possession with one touch of his right and performed a drag-back with his left before turning on a sixpence and sending an unstoppable screamer into the roof of the net from nine or 10 yards out."
Thank you Barry Glendinning, you have a knack for humor and very enjoyable commentary. The fans applauded Götze at the end, too, and you said they would deride him. Last night proved what great fan culture means. One budget against the other, an essentially majority non-Spanish side against an essentially majority German side.
