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Bundesliga 2019-20: A strange season with the usual winners

  • June 28, 2020

The mundane oddness of the situation was summed up by Saturday’s title celebration. DFL boss Christain Seifert, whose organization runs the Bundesliga, pointed Bayern Munich captain Manuel Neuer towards the Meisterschale in order for Neuer to lift the trophy in front of an empty stadium, rather than handing it over.

“This is a special moment, but also a very strange one,” Seifert said. “We’ve never experienced a season like this before. No fans, no celebrations, no whistles – it’s an odd atmosphere. It’s not the Bundesliga that we want, but it was the only Bundesliga that was possible.”

Not everyone agreed with that, particularly when plans were being hatched last month. Games behind closed doors, or Geisterspiele as they’re called in Germany, were one of a number of issues where large sections of fans and authorities were at odds.

“We experienced a season like nothing we’ve experienced before, and hopefully we never will,” Helen Breit, a board member of Unsere Kurve, Germany’s biggest collection of active fans, told DW. “No one could have guessed in the beginning of the season that it would go this way. We’ve seen conflicts between fans and the associations and clubs intensifying shortly before the coronavirus break. Just like every other aspect around fan culture at the stadium, it was brought to a standstill.”

Football grinds to a halt

At the end of February, just as the seriousness of the pandemic was starting to become apparent in Europe, there had been a standstill of a different sort in Bayern Munich’s game against Hoffenheim. The match in Sinsheim was interrupted after fan protests, with Bayern players and officials remonstrating with fans about banners criticizing Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp and various decisions from the German game’s governing bodies, particularly the DFB (German FA).

After the players and match officials left the pitch, the last 13 minutes were eked out with the teams passing the ball aimlessly between themselves and refusing to play. At the time it seemed the issue might define the Bundesliga season, but just one full matchday later, play was stopped altogether.

When it started up again more than two months later, on the pitch at least, normal service was resumed. Borussia Dortmund hammered Schalke 4-0 in their first game back, but a 1-0 loss at home to Bayern 11 days later effectively ended their title challenge after Hansi Flick had replaced Niko Kovac early in the season and steadied the Bayern ship. The Bavarians’ eighth title in a row led to the familiar debate about their dominance and what it means for the league.

“I think it is worrying, but part of a wider issue,” journalist Kit Holden, who writes about the Bundesliga for English and German publications, told DW. “Bayern were always dominant, but it used to be that there was space for any club to break that dominance if they had an outstanding season or a once-in-a-generation coach. The top six is now a lot more stodgy, and I think that is partly why teams like Leipzig and Dortmund have not taken advantage of Bayern’s slips.

“They have more to lose by dropping out of the top four than they have to win by beating Bayern to the title in a single year. The table has become more predictable from top to bottom, and that is not just Bayern’s fault.”

Grim times for Schalke, Union overachieve

As Holden went on to mention, Union Berlin’s survival was one of few stories of great overachievement in the 2019-10 Bundesliga campaign. A fiery 1-0 win over fellow capital city club Hertha was the highlight of a campaign that saw Urs Fischer’s outsiders survive comfortably and finish in 11th. For newly-monied Hertha, a chaotic season saw Jürgen Klinsmann come and go but finish once again in midtable mediocrity. They ended up 10th, above Union on goal difference.

Disappointingly, Hertha also made headlines back in February after their defender Jordan Torunarigha was racially absued by a small section of Schalke fans. It was the first of many bleak stories to emerge from a miserable campaign on and off the pitch for the Gelsenkirchen club. But the actions of players like Jadon Sancho, Weston McKennie and Marcus Thuram highlighted the growing momentum of the Black Lives Matter late in the season, with Bundesliga players taking a knee in solidarity. 

At the conclusion of the season, only two issues were unresolved; the final Champions League spot and the battle for the relegation playoff. While Werder Bremen capitalized on Fortuna Düsseldorf’s tepid last day performance to secure the latter, Borussia Mönchengladbach did their bit to clinch Champions League football on the last day. Their coach Marco Rose, in his first season with The Foals, perhaps summed up the prevailing mood better that most.

Something missing

“The most important missing factor is our fans,” he said on Saturday. “I hope that our fans, and we have very, very many  of them around the world, enjoy an extraordinary success for this club. I’m mighty proud of the boys, of this club. It’s something special. With fans, this would have been explosive today. Of course we hope…you’ll be back next season.”

Even Bayern Munich’s Thomas Müller, a relentless winner raised in a relentless winning machine, conceded something was missing. “Of course all is different during the corona times,” he said. “The competition is the same, but I wish the fans would be back soon, we hope we can integrate them back bit by bit again. Without the fans, there’s something missing.”

Whether Rose and Müller’s hopes for a return to normality will be granted is unclear. But, unlike many of its peers, Germany’s top flight season has finished, and all that remains is to see whether Bayern can clinch yet another double in the German Cup final against Bayer Leverkusen on July 4. Perhaps Peter Bosz’s side might just provide one more twist in this strange but familiar tale.

Interviews for this story were conducted by Felix Tamsut and Oli Moody.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Union win first top-flight Berlin derby vs. Hertha

    November 2, 2019 — It was a historic moment for the city of Berlin as Hertha and Union clashed in their first ever top-flight derby. Sebastian Polter clinched a tight 1-0 victory for the hosts, but the match was marred by ugly scenes in the stands. Hertha ultras launched fireworks onto the pitch and Union ultras attempted to storm the field.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Bayern Munich sack Niko Kovac

    November 3, 2019 — Bayern Munich looked in trouble following a 5-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 10. Off the title pace by four points, the club decided to part ways with under-fire coach Niko Kovac. It proved to be the right choice, as replacement Hansi Flick went unbeaten for 20 matches to seal an eighth straight Bundesliga title. 

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Erling Haaland announces Bundesliga arrival with hat-trick

    January 18, 2020 — The biggest transfer of the Bundesliga proved to be Borussia Dortmund’s capture of Erling Haaland. The 19-year-old Norwegian made an immediate impact off the bench as he netted a game-winning hat-trick to hand Dortmund a 5-3 comeback victory over Augsburg. Haaland went on to score 13 goals in just 15 games.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Jürgen Klinsmann leaves Hertha in the lurch

    February 11, 2020 — When Hertha Berlin appointed Jürgen Klinsmann as coach, not many saw the partnership ending well. Three wins in just ten games signaled his time in charge would be short, but no one predicted the chaotic nature of his departure. Klinsmannn announced he was leaving the club via Facebook, blindsiding his bosses and making a mockery of the club in the eyes of media and rival fans.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Bundesliga fans protest against Hopp

    February 29, 2020 — These protests were about much more than just billionaire Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp, who has cut a controversial figure in his bid to circumvent the Bundesliga’s 50+1 ownership rule. Several clubs voiced their opposition to the DFB, due to what they saw as a breach of trust in their relationship with fan groups. Bayern Munich’s game at Hoffenheim ended in farce.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    The Bundesliga shuts down

    March 13, 2020 — As COVID-19 spread across Europe and Germany, unprecedented lockdown measures were brought into society and the Bundesliga. Before the competition was suspended, however, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Cologne played the first Bundesliga game in front of no fans on March 11. It was the last game until football returned on May 16.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Bundesliga returns in May with ‘Geisterspiele’

    May 16, 2020 — There were mixed feelings among fans as the Bundesliga came back, but the DFL was adamant that the financial future of several clubs depended on a return. Games behind closed doors, known as ‘Geisterspiele’ in Germany, was the only way forward and overall it has proved a successful experiment. What’s the plan for the new season though? How long can football continue without fans?

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Bayern kill title race with Der Klassiker win

    May 26, 2020 — Heading into Matchday 28, there were just four points between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Der Klassiker was therefore a final chance for Dortmund to mount a serious challenge on Bayern’s title monopoly. But a Joshua Kimmich wondergoal and a controversial penalty call steered Bayern to a 1-0 win and all but ended any title race.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Klaus Gjasula claims an unwanted record

    June 13, 2020 — Paderborn’s Klaus Gjasula not only suffered relegation with his club Paderborn, but the 30-year-old also copped a Bundesliga record not many would be proud to hold. Gjasula, playing in midfield, collected his 17th yellow card on Matchday 31 – the most any Bundesliga player has received in one single season.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Bayern Munich win historic eighth straight Bundesliga title

    June 16, 2020 — Bayern were pushed further than they have been in the past eight years, but still they did enough to seal yet another Bundesliga title. With two games to spare, they beat Werder Bremen 1-0 on Matchday 32 through a goal from who else but Robert Lewandowski. They finished the season with 13 straight victories, an incredible achievement.

  • Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season

    Wirtz becomes Bundesliga’s youngest scorer

    June 30, 2020 — At 17 years and 34 days, Florian Wirtz became the league’s youngest ever goalscorer when he netted for Bayer Leverkusen against Bayern Munich on Matchday 30. He took the title from previous record holder Nuri Sahin, who scored for Dortmund at the age of 17 years and 82 days in 2005. With Kai Havertz’s future up the air, could Wirtz become Leverkusen’s next superstar?


Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/bundesliga-2019-20-a-strange-season-with-the-usual-winners/a-53969744?maca=en-rss-en-sports-1027-xml-atom

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