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.
