Bayern Munich destroys Borussia Dortmund, reaffirms command of the Bundesliga
Bayern Munich has won the past five Bundesliga championships by an average of nearly 16 points a season. It’s the premier club in one of the world’s premier leagues.
Saturday offered no rebuttal.
Bayern scored five times — yup, five — in the first half and Robert Lewandowski registered a hat trick en route to a 6-0 victory over purported rival Borussia Dortmund in what nominally amounted to a Der Klassiker at the Allianz Arena.
The Bayern goals were well-earned, and we will not ignore them in this space, but our ultimate takeaway from the match is aligned pretty fairly with FOX analyst Stu Holden:
Completely and utterly pathetic from @BVB – This has been coming for weeks. Getting turned over and completely destroyed by @FCBayernUS 5-0 at halftime
— Stuart Holden (@stuholden) March 31, 2018
Lewandowski, one of the best strikers in the world, opened the scoring inside of five minutes with a clever (and possibly offside) run and good bit of skill:
That didn’t take long!
Lewandowski scores against his former club to put Bayern Munich up 1-0 in the 6th minute. pic.twitter.com/y2rXgmtYwV
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 31, 2018
James Rodriguez, an elite attacker deemed excess goods at Real Madrid this past summer, latched onto a David Alaba cross to score the second goal, before Bayern pieced together a third goal so gorgeous Thomas Muller even halted his celebration to dap his teammates:
My goodness, what a beautiful team goal from Bayern Munich! pic.twitter.com/pcZGDP9DoZ
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 31, 2018
Lewandowski and Franck Ribery scored right before the halftime whistle to push the already absurd lead to insurmountable proportions.
This is how it’s been in Germany the past few years. While the league overall has grown and become engaging in its races for both European spots and relegation avoidance, the champion has been preordained for awhile now. Bayern’s money and talent have won the day over and over again, with nary a whisper of the challenge that former Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp and his smart, heavy-metal management mounted to great effect in the early years of this decade.
And that’s perhaps what’s most disappointing. Expecting Dortmund to leave Munich with a result on Saturday was probably too ambitious. But expecting more of a fight than this? That’s hardly unreasonable, yet that’s what fans got.
So that’s what we’re left with. A 17-point gap atop the table, and a full 21 points between Bayern and Dortmund, which currently sits third.
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Will it change anytime soon? Bayern’s stars of yesteryear are aging out, but the club is well-run and therefore has stocked the cupboard with quality players ready to keep the dominance going. So looking forward to Dortmund, or anyone else, unseating the Bavarians anytime soon seems a foolish endeavor.
Maybe RB Leipzig’s money-mongering will do it? Perhaps FC Schalke will manage a legitimate title run? Can Dortmund pull itself together in proper fashion to stake its claim?
We have no idea. And until one of them does, the Bundesliga will be as one-sided as Saturday’s Der Klassiker.
Joey Gulino is the editor of FC Yahoo and moonlights as a writer. Follow him on Twitter at @JGulinoYahoo.