Friday's Game

Wow what a win. Schweinsteiger in the 91st minute? It couldn't have been more timely. MoM HAS to go to Ribery, who came up with a beautiful cross to Schweini, who to his credit timed his run perfectly. It looked like a goal Klose might have scored - last second, extreme angle. Kudos for the team for pulling that off.

Steve McClaren looked like he was about to have an aneurysm towards the end of that game. Mandžukić, Džeko, Benaglio, and Misimović all had good games, until they didn't. Couldn't believe Džeko wasn't man-marked on his header goal. One weakness we (FCBM) had - set pieces. Toni Kroos shows a lot of promise. Ribéry's aim was always sort of off, but that was about all that he did wrong. Holger Badstuber...geez, I dunno what we were doing letting him touch the ball in front of mid-pitch. All in all, not a bad game for us. Glad to see Ribéry on his game, but disappointed in:

A: LvG's odd substitutions; Gomez and Pranjic for Klose and Kroos? Sure, Klose disappeared in the second half, and Kroos was obviously tired, but...

B: MvB played TERRIBLY. Why not take him off? As was discussed on the Bayern Offside LiveBlog, MvB must have been playing injured. That many turnovers, play that slow, the lack of conviction...and Goal.com gave him the MoM? Wow...Olic needs to come back, or Robben needs to hurry and get fit.

Moving on from that, let me give my thoughts on our lineup after a league game. We played:

                          Butt

Lahm   Van Buyten   Badstuber    Contento

Kroos(Pranjic)     MvB       Schweinsteiger   Ribery

                Klose(Gomez)    Muller


Pray to the fußball gods that Klose magically holds his form from the WC, because Gomez didn't impress, and Olic needs to play on the wing until Robben comes healthy again. Here's what I (and most of the FCBM fans on the liveblog) think we need:

                            *GK*

Lahm   *CB*    *CB*   Contento

Robben   Kroos   Schweinsteiger   Ribery

   Klose or Gomez      Muller or Olic


Especially with Demichelis throwing a temper tantrum and Van Buyten playing like...well, Demichelis. Badstuber will be good...in a few years. But hey, lots of teams need CB/CB/GK.



In other hilarious news, there was a short discussion on the liveblog regarding talented homegrown teams. Bayern took no fewer than 6 homegrown players to the game Friday. The commenters queried which teams could do that, and could come up with no one besides Bayern and Barca, until a new member piped up and said that Arsenal, with Fabregas, Song, RVP, and Diaby, qualified for a 5+ homegrown players squad. She was promptly torpedoed. It may or may not have been my ex. Funny stuff.

In /sad/ news, Robbie McEwen was NOT picked for the Australian team for the UCI World Cycling Championships in Melbourne. WHAT A TRAVESTY. The guy is clearly on a hot streak, and with his career coming to a close, the least Australia can, and indeed, should do, is let their 3 time green jersey winner ride in a world championship on home soil. My condolences to the man...if any of you are on twitter, follow him @mcewenrobbie.

That's all kids. Wifey wants me to watch league football with her...ew, Steelers. Don't let her know I said that!