The T-Home Supercup will be missing from the Säbener Strasse trophy cabinet after Bayern fell 2-1 away to Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday evening, the double winners' first pre-season friendly defeat after three clear-cut victories against lower league sides. For their part, Borussia enjoyed partial revenge for their Cup final defeat to Bayern by the same score back in April.
A creditable 47,100 crowd at Sigal Iduna Park saw Jakob Blaszczkowski (29) and Tamas Hajnal (33) hand BVB a commanding half-time lead. Munich sub Mehmet Ekici pulled one back with a quarter of an hour remaining, but it was not enough to prevent the Bavarians falling to defeat on the night.
Debut for Borowski
Just under three weeks ahead of the Bundesliga restart, training injuries deprived Bayern coach Jürgen Klinsmann of the services of Philipp Lahm and Marcell Jansen, while Franck Ribéry is out until September with ankle ligament damage. Olympics hopefuls Breno and Jose Sosa, and Zé Roberto (absent due to bereavement) were also unavailable.
However, Tim Borowski, a summer arrival from Werder Bremen, made his debut alongside fellow Euro 2008 participants Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Hamit Altintop. "The line-up shows how seriously Jürgen Klinsmann is taking this. This will be a proper match,“ manager Uli Hoeneß commented before kick-off.
Klose off target
Both Borussia and Bayern took time to settle, unsurprisingly enough given the early stage of pre-season for both teams. The best move of the opening exchanges saw Toni head narrowly wide from Borowski's seventh-minute cross, although 23 minutes had elapsed before Nelsen Valdez tested Munich's new number one keeper Michael Rensing with a header.
The game came to life as a spectacle midway through the first period with the home side in the ascendancy. Hajnal was only just off target with a bicycle kick on 26 minutes, before Bayern raced up the other end only for Miroslav Klose to squander the best chance of the game thus far. The striker latched onto Toni's incisive lay-off and rounded BVB keeper Roman Weidenfaller, but somehow contrived to slide the ball wide of the empty net.
Five changes at half-time
Bayern were left to rue the missed chance when Borussia took the lead just short of the half-hour, Blaszczkowski exploiting Christian Lell's misjudgement of a long ball to advance on Rensing's goal and slot home the opener. Only four more minutes had been played when Hajnal struck a precise 25-yard free-kick into the top corner to hand his side a 2-0 half-time advantage.
Klinsmann made five changes at the interval and also switched from a 4-4-2 to a 3-5-2 formation. The former world-class striker's men had much the better of the possession against the side coached by new BVB boss Jürgen Klopp, but Munich struggled to create clear-cut chances. Sub Toni Kroos (47) and Lell (55) aimed at goal without every seriously threatening Weidenfeller.
Ngwenya out of luck
Mehmet Ekici, the youngest player in the Bayern matchday squad, ensured a tense final few minutes after collecting Kroos's lay-off and reducing the arrears on 73 minutes. Trialist Joseph Ngwenya really ought to have equalised on 89 minutes, but Weidenfaller made sure of his side's victory with a stunning save. Klinsmann and Co will go looking for revenge in just under four weeks, when Bayern again visit Dortmund on Bundesliga Matchday 2.
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