FC Bayern Munich: Thoughts from the Dortmund Game; Preview of Mainz Game

Do you know the phrase that I dislike most in football?

"Mathematically possible."

Why can't the DFB just hand the title to Dortmund and get on with things? The Ruhr derby takes place this week between Schalke and Dortmund. Schalke will get the beating of their lives. Monchengladbach plays Dortmund next week. Dortmund will beat an off-form Gladbach by at least two goals I am sure. With four remaining games, the probability of Bayern winning the title is close to zero.

Dortmund was the better side undoubtedly in the so-called "clash of the titans" yesterday. However, the match was gifted to Dortmund. A certain Dutch-man no doubt had plenty to do with the defeat. There is a thin line between being ineffective and being insanely pathetic. Arjen Robben was the latter of the two yesterday. The next time the Dutch-man toys with the hierarchy about a possible contract extension, he should be shown a video of this game.

He played Robert Lewandowski onside for the only goal of the match, undoing all of Manuel Neuer and the defence's hard work. He missed the penalty which would have kept Bayern in the title race. The only thing Robben deserves credit for is not reacting to the atrocities Neven Subotic put to him in the aftermath of the missed penalty.

Which brings me to my next point.

Dortmund might be the best team in Germany since mid-2010. However, they have a long way to go before emulating Bayern's success in the Bundesliga. The bananas thrown at Neuer was one of the poorest acts committed by fans, unless one counts the coin thrown at Lukas Podolski in Koeln's horrendous thrashing by Mainz. Neven Subotic reacted very poorly—his team was already winning. He had absolutely no reason to react like an absolute animal.

Dortmund's talks about a youth revolution are premature. How many of the players on the pitch yesterday came from their respective youth academies? For Bayern, Toni Kroos, Thomas Mueller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, David Alaba, Philipp Lahm and Holger Badstuber came through the academy.

For Dortmund, the number is much smaller: Just Subotic and Kevin Grosskreutz can truly identify with the club. Mats Hummels, who almost has "demi-god" like status in Dortmund, is a graduate of the Bayern academy. His hatred towards Bayern is strange; Bayern didn't bench him the way they benched Andreas Goerlitz; they didn't mistreat him either.

He didn't make the first team and was sent out by Juergen Klinsmann. If anything, Hummels should be grateful for all that he learned in Munich.

Bayern's attack was abnormally poor on Wednesday. Franck Ribery produced an abysmal showing. Both Thomas Mueller and Toni Kroos would have perhaps contributed more if they had been sitting on the bench and cheering on the team. Only after Bastian Schweinsteiger came on did Bayern start to take control of the game.

Bayern's original game is to simply attack. With Bastian's introduction they got a chance to do that.

Bayern's best player on the night without a shadow of a doubt was a young Austrian by the name of David Alaba. He is almost setting an example for his captain on the opposite flank with his current displays. Alaba was Bayern's attacking source throughout much of the first half. Overall, Bayern had 58 percent possession but did much less with it than Dortmund did with their 42 percent.

Dortmund's pressing game has been Bayern's downfall in each of the last four defeats. However, playing such a pressing game is tiring. Dortmund admitted as much. The goal they scored came against the run of play at a point when Bayern had started taking advantage of the Ruhr side's weariness.

One has to feel for Neuer whose main motivation to come to Bayern was to win the Bundesliga. In the end, he might end up exactly where he was with Schalke—a Pokal winner and a Champions League semifinalist. One can now seriously doubt whether Bayern can win the Pokal.

Bayern lost the title not because they lost to Dortmund twice. They lost because they gave away points against HSV, Freiburg and more importantly Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Each of these teams should have been disposed of. One can even say they lost the title due to two defeats to Lucien Favre's Gladbach.

So, congratulations Dortmund. Well-done on another title victory.

On Saturday, Bayern plays Mainz. Mainz has a similar approach to Dortmund but hasn't had the best of seasons. They sit 11th in the Bundesliga table and basically require one more win to guarantee safety. They hammered Koeln 4-0 in midweek. Mainz beat Bayern in their only meeting this season. The score was 3-2 with Bayern having netted twice through Daniel Van Buyten.

This match will be Jupp Heynckes' last chance to tinker with the lineup ahead of Real Madrid's visit to town. Bayern, despite the defeat, has won nine of their previous 10 games. The Bavarians won this fixture against Mainz 3-1 with some degree of comfort under Louis Van Gaal last season. Heynckes is seemingly not prepared to concede the title as long as it is...um...mathematically possible.

This is the starting 11 I think Jupp will put out:

Manuel Neuer

Philipp Lahm- Jerome Boateng- Holger Badstuber- Diego Contento

Bastian Schweinsteiger- Luiz Gustavo

Thomas Mueller- Toni Kroos- Danijel Pranjic

Ivica Olic

To finish off, I am not really looking forward to the matches against Mainz and Real Madrid. The core of Bayern's team is relatively young and a single defeat can leave the team in disarray. Almost everybody will be fuming at Robben unless he can make amends this week.

The last few weeks leading up to the Dortmund match were great. This week could exactly turn out to be the opposite of those "Bavarian" weeks.

So Bayern fans, buckle up—we could be in for a bumpy ride this week.