One game into the 2016-17 Bundesliga season, Bayern Munich looks unstoppable, a dead certainty to lift the Meisterschale for a fifth straight season.
Premature hyperbole it may bebut a crushing victory in front of a frenzied sellout crowd leaves little doubt the defending champion looks to be miles ahead of the chasing pack.
Not named amongst the teams with even afaint hope of challenging Bayern for the title, Werder Bremen departed the Allianz Arena beaten, 6-0, confident at least in the belief that such displays won’t be uncommon this season.
Inthe ninth minute of the league opener Friday, Xabi Alonso controlled a partial clearance and struck a majestic volley from nearly 25 yards out. Werder Bremen keeper FelixWiedwald’s desperate lunge got just a fingertip on the shot on its way into the net, and by the time the ball landed a sense of “here we go again” had probably flashed amongplayers, coaches, executives and fans as the likely slogan of a 54th Bundesliga campaign.
Werder, which had lost to Bayern, 5-0, last March on its way to a 13th placefinish, a full 50 points behind the champion, succumbed a second time four minutes later to the first goal of three for Robert Lewandowski and was never really in the game.
Bayern wonthe title by 10 points last year, 10 points the year before that, and 19 points and 25 points in the two seasons prior to the last two. Not since the 2011-12 Borussia Dortmund team coach by currentLiverpool manager Jurgen Klopp captured the crown has Bayern been seriously challenged domestically.
Several months ago, before he took on the job of replacing head coach PepGuardiola at Bayern, Carlo Ancelotti said, “Bayern win the league with theirhands in their pockets.” The club did indeed secure a record 26th title but also stumbled in the Champions League, the third straight such failure for Guardiola, who months before the seasonfinished had agreed to take over at Manchester City.
Bayern won its fifth Champions League just three years ago under Jupp Heyneckes, but that triumph ended more than a decade ofdisappointment. During the first reign of Ottmar Hitzfeld (1998-2004), Bayern captured the 2000-01 crown, which ended a barren quarter of a century since the great Bayern teams of the mid-1970swon the European Cup (as it was known then) three straight times.
Ancelotti is the only man to manage three teams to Champions League titles: two with AC Milan, which he served for five yearsas a player, and more recently with Real Madrid in 2014. He’s also won domestic league titles in Italy, England, and France.
“Carlo is a football man,” said Alonso inan interview with FOX Sports that aired Friday during the pregame show prior to Bayern’s romping victory. “He’s been a great player, he’s been a great manager in so manycountries with so many great clubs.”
If anyone besides Jose Mourinho could be considered an upgrade from Guardiola, it would have to be Ancelotti. At 57, he’s taking hisfirst venture into the Bundesliga, which despite Bayern’s dominance regularly cranks out intensely competitive games played in packed stadiums crackling with energy. Last season, Bundesligagames averaged 43,300 fans per game, the highest figure of any pro soccer league and second in all sports only to the NFL (68,400).
“It is a new challenge, a new team, a new language,which has not been easy,” said Ancelotti, who does speak very good English along with his fluency in fussball.
During the summer Bayern didn’t spend a lot on new players butdid snag German international Mats Hummels and Portuguese teenager Renato Sanches for combined transfer fees of $78 million. The main Bundesliga challenger again appears to be BorussiaDortmund, which plunged $123 million into transfer fees, most notably for Ousmane Dembélé, Mario Gotze, Sebastian Rode, and Andre Schurrle. Bayern cut loose Gotzeand Rode, which gives an indication as to the club’s assessment of their importance.
The major hope for Dortmund and the other 16 Bundesliga clubs is for Bayern’s obsession withEuropean success to hamper their domestic performances, but the league’s deepest roster will be hard to dent significantly with injuries, suspensions, international callups, and fatigue. Amaster tactician and excellent manager of men, Ancelotti will relish the opportunity to take a team from yet another nation to the European summit. Aside from derbies and regional rivalries, tacklingBayern is the acid test for every team, and those that can take points off the perennial champion provide one of the world’s most entertaining leagues with underdogs to root for.