Pep Guardiola awarded his troops Monday off prior to the final preparations for the Bundesliga restart, Friday's match away to Hamburger SV at 20.30 CET. However, three Munich men worked on their comebacks at the Säbener Strasse: Franck Ribéry, Mehdi Benatia and Mario Götze. “I'm feeling good,” commented Ribéry after the training session in temperatures of four degrees below zero. “It's very cold, but I'm happy when I can put on my boots and be out on the pitch.” Despite his progress the Frenchman will gently work his way back to the squad programme: “The muscle is okay again. But we don't want to take any risks. Not too fast!” Ribéry wants to complete sprints “soon,” followed by initial exercises with the ball. Speaking of which, Mario Götze was back with the ball at his feet on Monday.
Lewy and Alonso on Goal of the Year shortlist
Robert Lewandowski? Xabi Alonso? Or perhaps Bayern fan Michael Freudlsperger? Weekly sports programme ARD Sportschau is looking for the Goal of the Year 2015, and three Bavarians are in the race! Lewandowski's sideways scissor kick in the 5-1 victory over Wolfsburg (September Goal of the Month) and Xabi Alonso's cracking strike in the cup victory over Darmstadt (December) made the shortlist, as did Freudlsperger's highly watchable lob from the penalty spot: the Bayern fan chipped the ball past Tom Starke during the break in the Bundesliga match against Borussia Mönchengaldbach.
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