Champions versus runners-up. Champions League winners versus Champions League runner-up. A DFB Cup final could not be more enticing than Saturday’s showdown between FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund. Coaches and fans alike are scratching their heads as they try to answer the big questions: What tactics should we use? Which player will make the difference? What is the key to victory?
“I think it's quite simple,” Matthias Sammer said three days before the match at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Of course “some details are also important, but the basics will decide the game” according to the board director for sport. “I expect total unity out on the pitch, where everyone is prepared to give all they have for the team. Everybody has to fight for the group, and sacrifice all their energy to the cause.”
Bayern will need to be “very compact and organised,” Sammer emphasised. “Every individual has to add to the group.” For that FCB need “perfect organisation in attack and defence and strong tackling. We have to give a top performance as a team. Whenever we’ve showed these qualities in the past, we’ve won.”
'A good foundation'
“We have to work as a team, move as a team and control the counter attacks,” agreed Franck Ribéry, underlining the importance of teamwork and team spirit. “If we win, it’ll have been an amazing season,” the French international continued. The team has already set “records that may never be broken,” as Sammer stated. But now “a very, very important game,” lies in front of them.
Organisation will be the key, creating a good foundation to keep a clean sheet, the sporting director observed, oicking out the two most important features from Saturday’s last-gasp 1-0 victory over VfB Stuttgart. “We kept a clean sheet and played to win until the very end. That’s something we can build on.” When FCN have the ball there will need to be “individual strength coming from the group to decide the match.” And it’s all best summed up by the famous fighting phrase: all for one and one for all!
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