Bayern Munich, Champion of Germany, Adds European Title

 

But even if it isn’t, even if it turns out that two English teams or two Spanish teams play for the championship next year in Lisbon and the Bundesliga continues to lag behind the Premier League in popularity, there will always be this game. This night. This classic. 

The British call a final like this a showpiece, and on a perfect night at Wembley, it was. There was tension. There was passion. There was wizardry and precision and players who seemed ready to run forever. There was, in the end, redemption. 

It was fitting: Arjen Robben, the Dutch wing who had been roundly criticized for struggling in the biggest moments, starred in the most critical sequence of all, scoring the decisive goal for Bayern in the 89th minute and lifting the Bavarians to a 2-1 victory in front of a crowd announced at 86,298. Robben’s goal was also the perfect symbol for Bayern’s collective measure of payback as it reversed the crushing defeat it suffered to Chelsea in last year’s final at home. 

The finish was sublime. After slipping behind the Dortmund defense, Robben took a pass from Franck Ribéry, eluded a defender and then coolly flicked the ball past Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller. Last year, Robben missed a critical penalty kick in the loss to Chelsea; this year, he was off running before the ball even crossed the goal line, sprinting toward the Bayern fans with his eyes wide and shaking his hands with glee. 

Robben, who also lost the World Cup final with the Netherlands in 2010, said he nearly saw his career flash before him as he celebrated. “You don’t want the label of loser, you don’t want that tag,” he said afterward, cradling his award as the man of the match.

“This is a dream,” he said. 

At the final whistle, many of the Dortmund players collapsed to the ground. They played Munich four previous times this season and could never do better than two draws, but on this day they played as if they believed they could pull off a huge upset, despite making only the second European final appearance in club history. 

“We’re proud to have given Bayern a real game tonight,” Weidenfeller said. “We played well, but it wasn’t meant to be.” 

Instead, it was Bayern, the German juggernaut, that won its fifth European title, sending off Coach Jupp Heynckes in the best possible manner. Heynckes, 68, will be replaced by the former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola next year, but even the Spanish master will have trouble topping Heynckes’s final season: Bayern won the Bundesliga in record fashion, claimed the Champions League over its rival and could add the German Cup with a win in the final next week.

Guardiola will take over this summer, and talk of a Bayern dynasty will begin long before he sets foot in Germany. 

“It’s quite possible that a new era in Europe might have begun,” Heynckes said. 

Heynckes also noted that Guardiola will take over a “perfectly functioning team,” and it would be hard to argue otherwise. Bayern is a monolith, with financial resources that allow it to poach players when necessary, including Dortmund’s star forward Mario Götze, who did not play in the final because of an injury. Heynckes also indicated that Dortmund’s Robert Lewandoski would most likely come to Munich as well. 

Given that, Dortmund’s future is less certain. Dortmund is known as more of a scrappy underdog, though that label is not altogether accurate. While the team may well lose some of its players, the club is hardly downtrodden. In terms of revenues, Dortmund is the 11th-biggest club in Europe, and its image — which is rooted in passionate fans, a team motto of “Echte Liebe” (True Love) and fluorescent bumblebee-themed uniforms — makes it a trendy choice for German neutrals. That its coach, Jurgen Klopp, is of the quirky-genius mold surely helps.

Klopp, though, was clearly distraught late Saturday. He praised Bayern and Heynckes, but also wondered aloud what would have happened if the referee, Italy’s Nicola Rizzoli, had sent off Dante after the Bayern defender put his foot into Marco Reus’s stomach in the 68th minute.

Rizzoli awarded Dortmund a penalty kick, which Ilkay Gündogan converted to tie the score at 1-1, but Rizzoli did not show Dante, who was booked in the first half, a second yellow card and subsequent red for the reckless foul. 

“Maybe if it is 11 against 10 we get the winner,” Klopp said. He added that he was proud of his team but that, at that moment, “it’s the disappointment that prevails.”

“If you’re looking forward to something and you don’t get it, it hurts,” he said. 

The final came at the end of a week that featured plenty of typical English weather — cold, dank and windy with the occasional fit of rain — and a slow buildup to the game itself. By Saturday, though, the air was warm and the sky was clear, allowing the German fans to roam the streets near Westminster and Kensington with abandon. 

Bayern fans, their red scarves flapping, seemed a mix of overconfident and wary. Bayern won the Bundesliga by a record 25 points this season and shredded Barcelona in the Champions League semifinal, winning the two-game series by 7-0. Winning here was all but expected.

The Dortmund fans, on the other hand, seemed a bit more festive. Known for their boundless enthusiasm — unlike many European fans, they often arrive and chant for hours before kickoff at home games — the Dortmund groups seemed to be reveling in the occasion. One man wearing a Dortmund shirt spent several minutes dancing with, or at least near, a police horse outside Wembley, while two young women in Dortmund colors sang songs in the middle of the street, stopping only to plead with passers-by for tickets to the match. 

If they made it into the stadium, they saw a glowing advertisement for German soccer. An all-German final is not a referendum on the European game — there was an all-English final as recently as 2008 — but with the Bundesliga’s surging attendances, its focus on fan-owned clubs and a shining track record of player development, the German model is difficult to ignore.

The result Saturday was thrilling. Dortmund forced Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer into several good saves inside the first 20 minutes, and his performance was matched by his counterpart, Weidenfeller, who denied three chances from Bayern to keep the game scoreless.

Weidenfeller continued his strong play in the second half, but he was beaten in the 60th minute when Robben cut a sharp pass from the end line that Mario Mandzukic tapped in from close range.

Dortmund responded quickly with Gündogan’s penalty, but it always appeared as if Bayern was due for the winner. Thomas Müller had a rolling shot cleared off the line, and Weidenfeller’s save on David Alaba’s fierce shot in the 76th minute seemed to only delay the inevitable.

Thirteen minutes later, Robben ran free and the red end of Wembley erupted. Was it the beginning of a German renaissance? Perhaps. But on this night, in this stadium, the game itself was plenty.