Bayern Munich's five-star London bash dominated by feelings of relief
Champions League victory party was as much an exorcism of last year's defeat by Chelsea as a triumphal spree
Raphael Honigstein
The Guardian, Sunday 26 May 2013 20.57 BST
The abiding image of the night was Jupp Heynckes throwing shapes with Mr and Mrs Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and a well‑lubricated Bastian Schweinsteiger to Beyoncé's Crazy in Love at 2am. But in truth, the Grosvenor House's packed ballroom saw few moments of such abandoned joy after Bayern's Champions League win.
The supposed stars of the show, slightly underdressed in their post-match training kit, were either unwilling to brave the dance floor in front of 2,000 club officials, sponsors, Bavarian VIPs and media guests or simply too tired. "I'm cramped up on the left and on the right," said Thomas Müller, with an apologetic smile.
Borussia Dortmund's courageous pressing in the first 30 minutes had made it a much more uncomfortable evening than Bayern had anticipated; Jürgen Klopp's pre-match threat "of pulling them down to our level" had looked like it may come true.
"The manager told us to play weakly at first so that they think we're useless," Schweinsteiger joked on stage, but the first half was as poor as any they have played this season. Even after the break, when some tactical tweaks by Heynckes and Bayern's superior individuals on the flanks had turned the tables, they could not quite banish the doubts. "I was bricking it at 1-1," said the goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Philipp Lahm, the captain, spoke privately about the level of "inhumane pressure" he was suddenly experiencing on the pitch. After last season's traumatic defeat in the "final at home" against Chelsea, the awareness of what Germans call the Fallhöhe, the height of their possible fall, was in danger of bringing on a bout of vertigo. Dortmund forced them to look down – and what they saw was scary.
Bayern did score the decisive goal ("we had learned from the last final that it's best to score late, so that your opponents don't have a chance to come back," joked Müller) but the overwhelming feeling was one of relief at the final whistle.
They had won, of course, but more importantly they had avoided another horrific defeat. Apart from the totally unfazed Brazilian faction of Dante, Luiz Gustavo and Rafinha, and Franck Ribéry, who was holding court with the trophy amid an entourage of 60 people or so, the close shave had left most players mentally drained. "We all feel that an incredible weight has been lifted," said Neuer.
This was especially true for Arjen Robben, naturally. The Dutchman told how "memories of the previous year" had come flooding back; "I was thinking about all these bad moments I had in my career, with three defeats in big finals, and to finally win one is a dream. You don't want be labelled a loser, this puts all of that aside now." Robben added that he had made a point of not looking at trophy before the match. "I thought I'll see you later," he said. And so it had come to pass.
"Football is coming hoam," it said on the red shirts that the players were wearing on the night. It's a Bavarian play on the Euro 96 anthem title but, more importantly, it's an expression of closure.
The Chelsea defeat had cast them as chokers on the international stage, and in the process critically undermined their self-image of a club with "winner DNA". Twelve months later, they have returned from that wilderness to the only place they truly feel at ease: the winner's podium.
"A year ago, I looked into the faces of thousands of disappointed fans and I thought: Mama mia, what is happening here?" said Rummenigge in his banquet speech. "This shock is so big, how can we recover from that? Many were waiting for us to break down, to stop but that wouldn't have been Bayern Munich-like."
The executive chairman told of daily 10am calls from Heynckes in the summer holidays. "We discussed what we needed to change, we all worked towards that. And what we have seen today is the sports comeback of the year!"
For a few players there was an added element of personal redemption too. "I'm most of all pleased for my players," said Heynckes, "especially the generation of Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Ribéry and Robben". That quartet had not just lost Bayern's last two Champions League finals but three more international finals (the World Cup in 2010 for Robben, the World Cup in 2006 for Ribéry and Euro 2008 for the two Germans); "time was running out for them to cap their careers with that big trophy," said Heynckes.
The importance for Schweinsteiger's and Lahm's standing in Germany cannot be overestimated. For years, members of Bayern's 2001 Champions League‑winning side such as Stefan Effenberg and Oliver Kahn sniped at them from the sidelines. For many of the country's football traditionalists, the two of them were not big and brash enough, and the lack of international trophies – with Bayern and Germany – was blamed on their perceived lack of leadership quality.
"Here are your Führungsspieler [leading players] who [you said] aren't Führungsspieler", Müller shouted defiantly at reporters in the mixed zone, when the two captains were passing through.
Now that all those unsettling questions are resolved, Bayern can return to what they do best – cultivate their image of relentless trophy hunters who don't care one jot about upsetting their rivals.
"I say fire at will tonight," said Rummenigge. "We have a good chance of winning the DFB cup final [against Stuttgart on Saturday]."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/may/26/bayern-munich-champions-league-party
That's the best part of the Bayern win - the likes of Effenberg and Kahn (and probably, if not likely, otto) finally shutting up about the 'Führungsspieler' nonsense. Plus, if this Bayern team really pull off the treble, they will have achieved something no other Bundesliga team has achieved before, those 'Bayern greats' included.
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