The Fall of the Bayern Empire

A year prior, there was hope. Hope that a team could rival Bayern Munich for the long-term future at the top of German football. That team, Borussia Dortmund, was reminded that that is not the case and could never be the case in the coming years. Sure, their shot at a three-peat in the Bundesliga was never truly there, but they had a chance to beat Bayern on club football’s biggest stage: The Champions League Final.

        Champions League Final 2013: In what looked like a game destined for an extra thirty minutes, Arjen Robben stole hope out of Dortmund’s hands and brought back glory to a historic team that seemed to have lost its way. Bayern had just won the Bundesliga and finally had won the Champions League after years of coming so close. Bayern Munich lost in penalties to Chelsea in the final a year prior, so that experience certainly helped carry them to the Final. This win sparked an era of reign and dominance in the Bundesliga that I doubt we will ever see again.

2018-2019 Bundesliga: Six years later it was going to the wire for the Bundesliga. It looked like their impressive Bundesliga run might end. On a different front though, it looked like they would end Madrid’s reign in the Champions League. This was their best shot to do it. Like how Dortmund looks at Bayern in the Bundesliga, is how Bayern looked at Madrid in the Champions League. Bayern would fall a goal short despite leading early and dominating statically. For the second year in a row, Madrid bested Bayern in the Champions League. Bayern struggled to get over that hump on club football’s biggest stage, which left them feeling quite disappointed.

At the same time as their semi-final tie with Madrid, they had a Bundesliga title to fight for. Dortmund was even on points with Bayern with five games left. To win the league, Dortmund had to win four of the next five games without losing any of them against poor competition. Despite the stars aligning, Dortmund would lose at home by two goals to Schalke 04 who were fighting to stay in the Bundesliga. Bayern’s recent excellence helped them win three out of the next five, drawing twice to win a sixth Bundesliga in a row. They were officially untouchable in German football.

Champions League 2020: Bayern handily won the Bundesliga to nobody’s surprise. With the great Robert Lewandowski on their team, they cruised to the Champions League final. They won each match before the final, by an average of five goals. In the final against a PSG squad with two of the three best players in the world, they would win by a goal while holding the Avengers scoreless. They would win their second Champions League in eight years proving how good they were. Nobody in the Bundesliga has won a Champions League since 1983 outside of Bayern Munich. They are the face and the sole face of the Bundesliga on the World stage. The idea of somebody beating them for the Bundesliga given they had won eight in a row is not plausible.

(Bayern won the Bundesliga handily in both 2021 and 2022.)

Bundesliga/Champions League 2022-2023: Now prior to this season some major things happened. Jadon Sancho had left Dortmund to go to Manchester United, which might seem minor, but he opted to leave Germany instead of going to Bayern. Erling Haaland had the option and was close to signing with Bayern Munich prior to the 2022 season but opted to also go to England and sign with Manchester City. He has flourished in Manchester for those who do not know. The sign is that talent wise, the gap is narrowing.

              This season, Dortmund had a squad. So did Bayern, but they always do. Did they have a squad comparable to that of Bayern’s? No but then again who did in the Bundesliga. It was reported that Bayern lost striker, Robert Lewandowski because of how pursuant they were of Erling Haaland. Bayern in April would fire their manager Julian Nagelsmann for a poor Domestic league performance. This team was in contention for all three trophies and seemed to have put all hopes of winning a trophy in jeopardy with an early exit in the DFP Pokal, and a quarterfinal exit in the Champions League. Granted they ousted the God Squad that was PSG with Messi and Mbappe, but they fell completely flat against Manchester City.

              Thomas Tuchel’s first match with Bayern was a four-goal win over league rival Borussia Dortmund. This was crucial in the race for the Bundesliga, and we would see just how crucial it would prove to be. In May, when it felt like Dortmund had done all they could to push Bayern but was going to fall short, a miracle happened. Bayern lost to RB Leipzig at home with just one game left to play in the Bundesliga season. Dortmund would end up winning, which meant all Dortmund had to do was win against Mainz who had lost four of their last five. Ironically, this team’s final win of the season came against Bayern.

              The last day of the season was peak cinema. Bayern was trailing in their final match until extremely late in the game and they got the victory. Dortmund on the other hand fell into a two-goal hole early but recovered in extra time to even the score. They were inches away from claiming the Bundesliga for the first time in eleven years. Inches and goals are what gave Bayern the Bundesliga though, as they would win another Bundesliga. This proved the greatness of Bayern in Germany, as their experience in the big moment allowed them to pull through.

              It felt like Bayern was falling at this point. They clearly were, but it was an offseason addition that gave the illusion that they were still the kaisers of Germany. With any clear empire though, there are weaknesses and sometimes the strengths can overshadow the minor flaws. The flaw is glaring with hindsight and in perspective, but it is not when you look at Bayern winning the Bundesliga and getting stronger on paper. The flaw is the manager and when your manager and form are not strong, your team can fall despite the talent. Especially when you are trying to rebuild an already good team.

Summer 2023: Dortmund would lose Jude Bellingham in the offseason, so the thought of them competing for the Bundesliga title was out of my mind. The thought of a team in the Bundesliga competing for the Bundesliga was also out of my mind as Bayern added top striker Harry Kane. Harry Kane has been the best striker in the World for the past three years and that is not up for debate. Harry Kane has been the most and the only consistent player on this team outside of Manuel Neuer.

Bundesliga 2023-24: In Dortmund, on November 4th, Bayern plays their archrival. Bayern had just been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by a team that is not in the Bundesliga, so they were looking to bounce back. Dortmund had yet to lose in the Champions League group stage and was proving their place on the World’s biggest stage. Dortmund had also yet to lose in the Bundesliga. These two separate stories were shocking to me, three months into the season. It did not lead to a shocking result though, but an unexpected one. Bayern then gave them a humble reminder of who the top dog was in the Bundesliga. Bayern would win again by four goals in a shutout that saw Harry Kane score a hat trick.

Coming into this season, Harry Kane had never won a trophy. He had come close, being in a Champions League final with Spurs, and a Euro final with England but always came up short. If there was a season, he would lift a trophy it would be this one. Bayern seemed guaranteed a trophy each season for the past twelve years. Three years following their Champions League final, they would have just three players remaining from that team. On paper they have upgraded since then, but on paper only tells half the story.

Against Frankfurt, Bayern would fall yet in a major way. They would lose by a score of five goals to one, conceding all five goals before the sixty-minute mark. Every team loses at times, which is not the issue here. The issue is that this team showed a lack of heart in this game, not showing enough fight. For all the problems with Thomas Tuchel, he fixed this issue as Bayern looked like have some fight when they would go down, the rest of the season. The trouble is, not every player had that fight and not every competition saw them fight.

Coming into February 10th, Bayer Leverkusen had yet to lose a game in any competition. Bayern had won three matches in a row coming into this tie, and looked like they were taking championship form. For the first half of this game, Bayer Leverkusen took an early lead but would have been up by multiple goals at halftime if it were not for the brilliance of Manuel Neuer. In the second half, Leverkusen scored twice, and it felt like Bayern was playing how Leverkusen wanted to play. Bayer 04 set the tone and in doing that dominated the empire, Bayern Munich.

Champions League 23-24: In the month following that game, Bayern Munich had their round of sixteen matchup with Lazio. They lost the first leg by one goal and answered with a three-goal victory in the second leg. This was a huge win that could spark a true change in Bayern’s season. We will come back to the Bundesliga later, as this win against Lazio gained Bayern a matchup with the high-powered English side, Arsenal.

In the first leg of the quarterfinals, we saw an epic match in London. Bayern would take the lead late in the match, but Arsenal would even the score for the second leg in Munich. With the second leg in Munich, it was no surprise that this was a grueling match. Joshua Kimmich’s goal early in the second half propelled Bayern to the semi-final of the Champions League in a tie which saw them be the far superior club. This set up a date for Bayern with Real Madrid in the semis.

Real Madrid would end up obtaining a draw in the first leg in Munich. In the second leg, they would find themselves down a goal later from a wonderful strike from defender Alphonso Davies. At this moment it looked all but certain that Bayern would see Dortmund in the Champions League Final once again at Wembley. Looks can be deceiving though because Madrid is simply inevitable in dying moments of any match.

In the eighty-eighth minute of the second leg, the pressure of Madrid striker Joselu on Neuer would see Real Madrid equalize. To that point in the match, Neuer had been putting on an impressive performance. Bayern’s defense would collapse in the late stages though. Joselu put Madrid in front with a wonderful strike off clever teamwork from the entire Madrid squad. Thomas Tuchel would take Jamal Musiala and Harry Kane off in the minutes prior to Joselu’s two goals which would prove to be quite a costly decision as Bayern would have to attempt to equalize.

Matthew De Ligt would score in the dying moments, but the referee called the play offsides early. This should never occur because it stops everybody on the field. The problem here is that it occurred in the thirteenth minute of extra time, and nobody knows what would have happened if offsides never was called. There was too much extra time, too many missed chances and terrible substitutions from Bayern to be complaining about the refs. One call never defines a game, and I will die on that hill. Bad call, yes, but not a call that defined this game. It has felt at times with this team, when Kane does not play to an exceptional degree, this team fails.

Bundesliga 23-24: Bayern lost to VFL Bochum in the match following the first leg of their Champions League matchup with Lazio. They would draw against Freiburg, two weeks later to push Leverkusen’s lead over them to ten points. Then came their match against Dortmund. Dortmund was the better team for all ninety minutes but given how the rivalry was it felt Bayern would steal the win. That never happened, so Bayern would end up dropping to thirteen points behind Leverkusen.

A week following their home defeat against Dortmund, Bayern played Heidenheim. Bayern would go up two goals on Heidenheim just to watch their lead evaporate along with their hopes of winning the Bundesliga. Leverkusen won the Bundesliga on April 15th, meaning they had more than a month left in the Bundesliga calendar. To put it in perspective how crazy this is, in an article describing the betting odds for the Bundesliga, there is a section without Bayern futures. Leverkusen were predicted to be fourth in most predictions and Stuttgart were predicted to be in a relegation battle. Both finished above Bayern.

Two weeks ago, Stuttgart played Bayern. Bayern’s only goal in the match came from a penalty taken by Harry Kane. Stuttgart won by a score of three goals to one, in a match that truly showed the times were changing in the Bundesliga. As I mentioned earlier, the league race was over, but the race for second was not. Stuttgart would have to win both of their remaining matches and have Bayern lose again to pass them. As we saw in the previous season, this is highly unlikely of a sequence of events to happen. Stuttgart would end up winning both of their matches, so the pressure was on Bayern Munich.

This brings us to Saturday. Bayern went up two goals in the first six minutes, to give all indications that they would end the season on a positive note. Hoffenheim answered Bayern two minutes after Bayern’s second goal. At the half, Bayern was up one goal. In the sixty-eighth minute Hoffenheim tied the match up. In a span of two minutes right before additional time Hoffenheim scored twice to go up two goals. Andrej Kramaric scored all three second half goals, the second one he had nothing, but space and the third one was after a really bad defensive sequence from Bayern.  This led to Bayern finishing third in the Bundesliga and begging the question of where do they go from here?

Moving Forward: This was Bayern’s best chance to win a treble and do the things that Leverkusen has done and yet they are going to go trophyless. Leverkusen did lose yesterday, but they still had a season for ages. Forget the Bundesliga, this is a team who has two signature wins all season, against Dortmund and Arsenal. They edged both teams out due to experience, and this offseason they will have to figure out where to go from here. Leverkusen has some immense talent, but nobody on the level of the players at Bayern. Bayern finished with less points last season yet still won the league. What this signifies is all of Germany’s talent goes to Bayern. What this means is that when Bayern is beaten for titles by German squads, it is a terrible look for Bayern. In perspective, the last twelve years haven’t been a great look for the Bundesliga given the performance in Europe.

If this league can become more competitive, it will be a good thing for Germany football. It will also be a wonderful thing for Bayern because iron sharpens iron. Without Leverkusen’s unbeaten season Bayern still would not have won the league which hence begs the question of if they can live up to the test. The last trophyless season for Bayern was 2011, but their main competition (Dortmund) at the time saw their manager leave not too long after they went back-to-back. Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen’s manager, will be staying there for the long haul. As will Dortmund’s manager who could give Bayern a run for their money in the Bundesliga next season, with how good a unit they are as a collective.

My hope is that this season sparks a new era of the Bundesliga, which prevents Bayern from poaching all the talent in Germany to monopolize the Bundesliga yet fall short on Europe’s biggest stage annually. One that sees teams compete and win trophies because of their peak form and class, not because they have all the resources the league has to offer. My take on this season’s performance from Bayern is that it is pathetic. You have the best manager in the world and failed to be runner up in any competition you competed in. This was something in the making for the past two seasons. Bayern’s era is ending. It will be over momentarily, and abruptly if they cannot embrace the domestic competition they have begun to face.