Lena Oberdorf was almost stoic as she stood on the touchline in the 62nd minute of the Supercup. Now, 410 days on from suffering a cruciate ligament injury in Germany’s Euro qualifier against Austria, the 23-year-old was about to make her return to competitive action. She’d been waiting over a year for this moment, spending countless hours working towards it – from the first steps on the treadmill to tentative touches of the ball out on the training ground. And as her No.8 flashed up in green on the fourth official’s board and Momoko Tanikawa made way, Oberdorf took a deep breath, flashed a smile and took her first steps back onto the big stage.
The crowd of 16,000 inside the Wildparkstadion in Karlsruhe rose to its collective feet. It was a moment that almost overcame even the calm and collected Oberdorf. She took to the field smiling – she simply couldn’t help herself given the feeling of delight after working so long for this moment. She passed on some instructions to her teammates and then took control in central midfield, helping Bayern wrap up a 4-2 victory over Wolfsburg that meant so much.
Barcala’s dream debut
But Oberdorf’s return was just one of several subplots in the season’s first competitive fixture. It was also a Bayern debut for new coach José Barcala, who’d made clear before the game that he wanted a focus on dominance, intensity and alertness. His team needed to play consistently well and be dominant. “And when we’re not and the opposition have the ball, then we can’t let up,” he demanded. His team did just that, allowing Wolfsburg no room to breathe and dictating the tempo for much of the 90 minutes.
The four goals Bayern scored in their first outing of the season were evidence of Barcala’s approach. It started with Magdalena Eriksson smashing the ball into the top corner from 20 yards after a quick passing move on the edge of the box. The second highlight came from Jovana Damnjanović as she forced her way past Joelle Wedemeyer and fired inside the near post on her (supposedly weaker) left foot, with Stina Johannes again helpless in the Wolfsburg goal. And then there was the poetry of Lea Schüller, finishing off a press by chesting down a cross and volleying home on the spin – into the top corner again.
Ultimately, Wolfsburg’s two goals in Karlsruhe were little more than sidenotes. The first was a scramble at a corner, while the second was a penalty. Mistakes that will be analysed and corrected afterwards. More important was the overall display of a Bayern team looking confident and excited to start the season.
Bundesliga opener on Saturday
Retaining the Supercup against their arch-rivals underlined the promising displays of pre-season featuring well-drilled attacking patterns, uncompromising defensive work and tireless pressing. Bayern look a team ready to kick off the Google Pixel Bundesliga season, which they’ll do in front of a crowd of over 45,000 at the Allianz Arena next Saturday (5.45pm CEST). And perhaps it’ll be yet another great moment for Oberdorf and the whole squad.
Read more about the game in our report:
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