German football goes into the new year with numerous unsolved problems: Bundesliga boredom, further cuts due to the Corona restrictions, open power struggle in the DFB and other deficits. The football column.
The year 2021 ends for German football as it began: in the corona chaos. It was only on Tuesday that the federal and state governments agreed that from December 28th all games would only be allowed without spectators, but it only took a few days until it became clear that there would be special ways again. Berlin and Hamburg still allow a small proportion of spectators to attend sporting events.
Whether completely behind closed doors or not – the situation could remain difficult for a long time in view of the highly infectious Omikron variant.
An economic drama for the professional clubs, which have already been badly hit by the pandemic. Even though, in contrast to 2020, there were long, perhaps too long, full stadiums in the past year.
In terms of sport, however, last year was much better, mainly because of Bayern’s Champions League triumph. The national permanent dominator last season was far from that, but that’s not the only reason why 2021 was a devastating year for German football overall.
Because wherever you look, you will find construction sites.
Construction site dominating Bavaria
And again the marmot congratulates the Munich team on the next championship (if it hasn’t fallen asleep from boredom beforehand). In view of the nine point lead at halftime, nobody can actually imagine how the tenth championship in a row could still be prevented.
Thanks to the smooth transition from Hansi Flick to Julian Nagelsmann, who was convincing at all levels, and his outstanding record offensive (116 Bundesliga goals in the calendar year, there have never been 116 Bundesliga goals), FCB has of course contributed most of it itself.
But he benefits once again from the virtually non-existent competition, which this time did not manage to exploit the weaknesses such as the vulnerable defensive, the numerous failures or the almost constant unrest in the club and team.
With the three defeats in the first half of the season, it became clear how the record champions can be cracked: With aggressiveness, high commitment and courage. Then even a relegation candidate like Augsburg can deserve beat Bayern. And Gladbach even showed the former arch rivals in the 5-0 victory in the cup.
Bayern opponents lack consistency and conviction
But Borussia is also a good example that a win against Bayern cannot save an otherwise miserable streak. In addition to the consistency, the supposed opponents obviously lack the conviction in their own ability. There is no other explanation for the home debacles in Stuttgart (0: 5) or Leverkusen (1: 5), nor the almost always unsuccessful concrete tactics of many opponents, such as in the first half of the season against Wolfsburg (0: 4), after all, fourth in the previous year.
Only Borussia Dortmund played a reasonably stable first half of the season, at least in tabular form, but was rarely able to convince in terms of football – also, but not only because of the many injuries.
Only one win in the last four games creates a latent mood of crisis at BVB despite second place. Apart from the fact that the “eternal second” is always the first to lose.
