Jürgen Klinsmann’s debut as Bayern head coach ended with a comfortable warm-up victory on Sunday afternoon, as the German champions defeated Westphalian sixth division outfit SV Lippstadt 7-1 (4:0) to hand the new boss a successful start two weeks after taking the helm vacated by Ottmar Hitzfeld.
An 8,000 crowd packed into the Am Waldschlösschen stadium saw Thomas Müller (3, 32, 60), Toni Kroos (21), Andreas Ottl (23, 77) and Deniz Yilmaz (79) hit the target for the men from Munich, who were visiting chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s home club to mark the Lippstadt outfit’s centenary year.
Training routines
“In this friendly, we want the players to put into practice the things we’ve started working on in training,“ Klinsmann declared beforehand. His team, minus ten of its Euro 2008 stars and South American pair Martin Demichelis and Lucio, duly heeded the new chief’s words.
Two full weeks’ worth of practice at a high-tempo passing game focused on attack paid off after just three minutes when a smooth interchange left youth talent Müller with the opportunity to open the scoring.
Double whammy from Kroos and Ottl
The skilled and physically superior Bayern side predictably dominated the sixth division outfit for long spells, Zé Roberto seeing his 25-yard free-kick well held by Lippstadt keeper Zapala (9), although the home side finally overcame their awe of their illustrious opponents after quarter of an hour, Thomas Bertels somehow failing to equalise with the empty net begging on 16 minutes.
Bayern resumed lazy command before a double strike from Kroos (21) and Ottl (23) increased the advantage to 3-0. The hard-working Müller then deceived the onrushing Zapala to add another before half-time. “We’re not really fresh, but we’re basically satisfied,” Bayern team manager Christian Nerlinger commented at the interval.
Lell hits bar from 50 yards
The men from Munich eased off a little after the break, although they continued to dominate and the bustling Müller added another with his head on the hour, before Chomse grabbed a consolation for SV Lippstadt with 15 minutes remaining.
That served only to rouse Bayern to a final effort as Ottl (77) and late sub Yilmaz (79) confirmed the Bundesliga side’s clear-cut victory before the end. The most spectacular moment of the game was provided by Christian Lell, who spotted the keeper too far off his line but landed his 67th minute shot on the crossbar from fully 50 yards.
Klinsmann happy
“After two weeks in training, it was interesting to see what we were able to put into practice. We’ve trained very hard, we wanted to see what shape the lads were in, how we played when not in possession, and how the players supported each other,“ Klinsmann commented afterwards, voicing satisfaction with the afternoon: “In this respect, it was basically a great game.“
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