Football Is Life; Don’t Put All Your Eggs In Allianz Arena


"Heartbreak is the cereal dishes out to those who put all their eggs in one basket and watch a predator pick them one by one. Yet, forgetting  to watch over the last one until someone crushes it." ....Isqil Najim


At the beginning of the season, Bayern Munich was in the running for treble. They have every chance and are the top favourite, at least on paper, and they have history on their side, Borussia Dortmund was not really considered a serious contender despite having won the league last season ahead of Bayern Munich. Many still feel there is possibility of Bayern clinching this time.

This was the situation as the Bundesliga started. Soon the BVD were dumped out of Champions’ League whine Bayern continue to make impressive outing in the prestigious competition. Back home however, Bayern are unconvincing despite the potentials and their capacity. Their road was fraught with inconsistency yet no one can deny the obvious; That Bayern has what it takes to win the league if only they could focus on this with even half the commitment given to the CL. Yet, at a stage, they were able to give their opponent a run for the title and were just a few games away from winning treble. All they need do is winning a couple of matches and also defeat Borussia Dortmund to have a chance.

For months, Bayern have had a dream of achieving the feat of hosting and winning champion’s league on their home turf. So passionate that they seemed to have extra motivation when playing in CL than when playing in the League. This soon clear becomes an obsession with more of their faith, commitment energy and belief invested in CL. This was the situation for the most part that they probably didn’t realize that the league slipping away from them until they met Dortmund in the last encounter between the two which they lost.

The Bavarians were therefore left to focus on the Champions League and the Pokal Cup.  However, resting key players in a bid to preserve energy for the main games in CL, especially the Madrid match gave them some advantage over the Spanish side that had to play their bitter rival that same weekend with strong mental focus and alertness. Yet, real Madrid still went ahead with same team to defeat The German team only for penalty shoot out to decide the match in favour of the German team.

Thus the dream of winning the CL appeared to be on course, especially when news came out that almighty Barcelona have been humbled at home by hungry and determined Chelsea FC, who also benefited from the effect of energy sapping Classico match the later had with eternal foe, Real Madrid.
And thus, Bayern still have the chance to stamp their authority on the ground and win Double. But they will have to defeat Borussia Dortmund in DFB Pokal final and also Chelsea in CL final. They are clear favorite, considering that they have just defeated one of the best teams in the world. And they have some of the world’s best attacking minded players and a fantastic goalkeeper.

Bayern had their eyes on history. Their obsession with winning CL on their home ground and their reliance on home support must have been so strong that they approached the DFB Pokal Cup with    uninspiring display and lost to a more focused and hungrier team. The Bavarians were worthy losers. They'd placed all their eggs in Champions’ League basket, in Allianz Arena. Believing so much in their home advantage.
And so came the day. The gods of football are not gods of logic. They are not mathematicians and not artists. They favour those who are hungrier and distribute lucks unevenly. Anything can happen in any minutes of the 90 minutes match. The gods reward hard work, but also enjoy dishing out surprises to keep the game interesting to the worshipers. That is why one can hear of ''ghost goal,'' “hand of god” etc deciding crucial matches.

In the end, the gods turned against Bayern for their wastefulness, and overconfidence. They lost to a side that was sixth in English Premier League and made football look like casino. The” goal dot com” players’ rating of the match tells it all: None of the men in final including the man of the match get ''7'' rating. That doesn’t however take away the fact that it was a great final, pulsating, and intriguing. Perhaps the gods deem it fit to compensate the blue for their Moscow lost, Perhaps to teach the German not to put all their eggs in one basket.

There is luck in football and little details can win important matches, yet, the gods does not smile kindly at teams with too much expectation but with culture of wastefulness.

Football is life, it teaches us many things. It tells us that the race is not always for the fastest, and that better team doesn’t always win, hungrier and smarter team does. Justice has no place in football lexicon while so much is done to make this beautiful game one of the best on earth. Team must strive to win every available honour possible and not put all their focus on just one title so that they will have equal chances of winning. Those teams that refused to do this are often rewarded with places on mediocrity ladder. Bayern, a great team lost the chance to win any silverware, not because it doesn’t have the resources or the team to achieve the goal, but because it put all her eggs in Alianz arena and the Roman’s bridge smashed it before thousands of their fans. Heartbreak is the cereal dishes out to those who put all their eggs in one basket and watch a predator pick them one by one.  Yet, forgetting  to watch over the last one until someone crushes it. Football is life; don’t put all your Eggs In Allianz Arena

....Isqil Najim

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