| 15.08.2008 |
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| Jürgen Klinsmann will wake up in the morning to a warm Danish and frothy cappucino to find out it was all a nightmare. He'll swing himself out of his king-size bed, stretch in his cotton PJs before enjoying a leisurely frühstuck. He'll then grab the leash and go wandering along the golden sands with a happy retriever bounding in the surf and a light heart beating in his tanned, relaxed chest. Only in your dreams, Klinsi. The Bayern Munich coach has already had a number of rude awakenings since taking over at the German champions. A friendly thrashing at the hands of Borussia Dortmund was seen as an ironing-out of a few teething problems, with a team made up of mostly second-string players. The lucky escape in the German Cup against lowly Erfurt was a little more worrying. And while the opening day result -- a 2-2 home draw against Hamburg -- is hardly cause for drastic action or wild predictions of disaster, the fact that Klinsi's champions threw away a two-goal lead will lead to a bloody autopsy at the very least. When Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski put Bayern two up with 12 minutes gone, it looked as though the magic Klinsmann had worked with these two young stars at national level was going to replicate itself in the league. But as the game wore on, Bayern ran out of ideas, and then ran out of steam. Shorn of the attacking threat of the injured Luca Toni (this based on his devastating league form and not his no-show at Euro 2008), Klinsmann went with Poldi and Klose up front, again hoping to tap into that sunny summer of 2006. With the lively Schweini roaming at will, it was just like old times. However, Martin Jol's team had other ideas. Hamburg were facing the campaign opener without their own talisman but in the knowledge that they would not be expecting Rafa van der Vaart to return any time soon. The new Real Madrid star may have glanced at the rough and tumble going on at the Allianz Arena and afforded himself a wry smile, looking forward as he may well be to having acres of space to stroke the ball about in the white of the Spanish champions. Despite RVDV's absence, Hamburg still managed to dig deep to find the reserves that the Dutch star nearly always had to conjure up for them alone in times of need. Their bravery paid off. Ex-Bayern flop Paolo Guerrero put the finish to a nice team move on 25 minutes to worry the home side before Piotr Trochowski made sure Klinsmann will be tossing and turning in his home from Californian home this evening. One game doesn't end a title challenge, especially when it's the opening game but Klinsmann's honeymoon period looks set to end faster than a Boris Becker engagement. Juergen will have to start thrashing some lowly teams pretty sharpish if the marriage made in heaven is not going to turn out to be a loveless union. |
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