Munich Monday: Start with A Supercup of News

THOUGHTS ON THE SUPERCUP:  A patient match for Bayern at the Signal Iduna on Sunday against Dortmund. They absorbed plenty of first half pressure from BVB and were rather fortunate not to fall behind. In the second half, Bayern’s class showed and they caught Dortmund on a counter that was finished off by Arturo Vidal in the 58th minute. Thomas Muller added a second off a corner in the 79th minute to make it 2-0. Manuel Neuer made five saves in the win.

This was thrilling match that both teams played to win to get an edge on the other coming into the Bundesliga season. It makes us look forward all the more to the Klassiker in November at the same venue. For Bayern, it’s the first time since 2012 that they won the SuperCup. They would complete a treble later that season. Dortmund showed that they will be strong contenders, if not the strongest to deny Bayern a fifth straight Bundesliga crown.

PLAYER NOTES:  Arturo Vidal is OK after suffering a knock that forced him to leave Sunday’s match. Jérôme Boateng, Arjen Robben, Holger Badstuber, Douglas Costa, Renato Sanches all performed running drills on Monday morning as they recover from knocks from last season and over the summer.

MUST-SEE TV:  Sunday’s SuperCup drew 7.22 million viewers on German state broadcaster ZDF in Germany which was over three million more that ARD’s broadcast of the Olympics for gymnastics and golf.

WEBSITE REVAMPED:  On Monday, FCB revamped their website and updated their mobile apps with a new look. The website is now officially www.FCBayern.com and FCB.tv is now FCBayern.tv with the introduction of a plus site (FC Bayern.tv Plus) for full-matches, highlights, and other exclusive in high definition. Other features include more intuition in terms of navigation and handling, a central login for all apps, more security through the https protocol on all sites, and a revamped online shop. Fans are encouraged to supply feedback at relaunch@fcbayern.de.

NEXT MATCH:  A first round DFB Pokal tie at 4th-tier FC Carl Zeiss Jena on Friday at 1:30pm CT. I’ll have more on the DFB Pokal in a separate article.