League Cup Final: Schalke 0 – 1 Bayern Munich

By: Jan | July 30th, 2007

The final was anti-climactic, boring and amassed a record number of bad passes.

This sums it up for me. Bayern Munich are excused as they were missing Schweinsteiger, Ribery and van Bommel (plus three of their four strikers, but that’s no news). They nevertheless got the result and two million Euros price money. But I had expected more from Schalke, who were able to field their strongest squad. Fittingly the only goal of the final has to be credited in equal measures to Schalke’s defence and goalkeeper and to Miroslav Klose for being there at the right moment.

Two players that stood out in this match were Kevin Kuranyi for Schalke and Ze Roberto for Munich. While Kuranyi continues where he left of last season, all of his potential strike partners are still searching for their form. Looking ahead to the Bundesliga and the Champions League, I’m a bit worried that Schalke might not just have a little problem in their midfield but also up front. And Stephen Appiah definitely(?) won’t be the one to ease their midfield troubles. I don’t know how often Schalke publicly proclaimed that Appiah wouldn’t come, just to reopen the case a few days and rumours later, but this time they swear it’s really all over. This news comes just a few days after sporting director Andreas Müller announced that they had reached an agreement and would only need to negotiate the transfer fee with Fenerbahce Istanbul. The latter though wasn’t too amused about this public statement and threatened to go to the FIFA. Their claim: Appiah still has a long running contract so Schalke should have talked to them first. When the two clubs met to talk, Fenerbahce insisted on swapping Appiah for Kuranyi, which killed the deal – once again. Time for Andreas Müller to present us with his Mister X that he foreshadowed after one of the many Appiah transfers had failed some weeks ago.

Bayern Munich have problems of their own. None of their strikers could be fit for the season opener as Miroslav Klose is now dealing with a shoulder injury. Yet another chance for the 19 year old Sandro Wagner to advertise his services. A striker that will no longer be able to help Munich in this situation is Roque Santa Cruz who joins the Blackburn Rovers for €5m. This transfer finally concludes Bayern Munich’s squad transition.

BTW: The German Football League (DFL) has some big plans for the League Cup. Or better, some proposals to turn the League Cup from a meaningless pre-season tournament into a full fledged up to 36 team strong regular season cup competition – while remaining meaningless to most fans and clubs. At least that’s the response to those proposals so far. Uli Hoeneß was once again the most vocal of all and already threatened to only send reserve teams, while Schalke coach Mirko Slomka shared this view, albeit a bit more relaxed and diplomatically.