Bavaria succeeds in making “comeback of the year

The god of soccer was with the bavarians at wembley, but not the god of weather on their return home to munich: in heavy rain and wind, the muden champions league heroes, led by coach jupp heynckes and captain philipp lahm, brought the cup back “hoam” after twelve years.

19 hours after the 2-1 triumph in the thrilling wembley final against borussia dortmund and a long night of partying, europe’s fubball contenders landed slightly late at 17.30 o’clock with an airbus A380 on the munich airport. On the gangway, the breezily dressed players, many of whom wore dark t-shirts with the slogan “mia san champions”, braved the muddy weather for a few pictures. Then they quickly rushed into the team bus.

“Everything was exuberant,” thomas muller reported on the night of partying that lasted until dawn, “but now the weather is slippery.” franck ribery took the silver trophy to bed for a short nap, as he revealed on the tarmac. A rough reception with fans had been cancelled by the sporting management around heynckes because of the still outstanding cup final match against vfb stuttgart – at least because of the weather no wrong mabnahme.

On the winner’s stage of the banquet hall in the “grosvenor house”, chairman karl-heinz rummenigge had not set any limit to the alcohol consumption of his champions. “We have another final in six days, but i think with 1.8 per mille we still have a chance.”After the jubilant arias with their 25 000 fans in the stadium and the rough club party with 1800 invited guests in the “grosvenor house”, last-minute goalkeeper arjen robben and his colleagues still celebrated intensively in the internal circle. In a flush of happiness, robben simply announced celebrations over “two or three days.

The 2:1 (0:0) feat against national archrival BVB loved to "break all dams," as heynckes reported. The outgoing coach and his boys are on the verge of the crown – the historic triple beckons. Relief was palpable after the most important victory of the year, especially among captains philipp lahm and bastian schweinsteiger. "If you want to become a golden generation, you have to win an international title," said lahm. Against stuttgart, the rough final point is now to be set. "We want the triple," lahm proclaimed. The hunger for the title is not yet satisfied.

In the first german league final, bayern were repaid in london for everything they had to suffer in the lost finals against inter milan in 2010 and in the penalty drama "dahoam" against chelsea FC. "What we experienced today was the sports comeback of the year," rummenigge enthused in his speech: "what a club, what a quality, what a pride this bayern munchen represents at the moment."

Twelve months ago, many thought "we’d collapse, go into shock and give up". Now bayern are the new soccer power in europe. "A new era" in european club soccer could have been initiated by heynckes. "Pep guardiola is taking over a perfectly functioning team," he remarked.

The sentence was reminiscent of franz beckenbauer, who, after the world cup triumph with the german national team in italy in 1990, also handed over to berti vogts a team that he declared to be unbeatable "for years to come. Heynckes also mentioned in his ecstasy that, in addition to the confirmed addition of mario gotze as BVB’s second star, robert lewandowski "won’t be long in coming". The pole could come like 37-million-man gotze for much money already in the summer or 2014 without a contract to munchen.

As champions league winners they do not come because robben of a strong borussia in the 89. The first minute of the game the K.O. Offset. This also fitted perfectly into the picture of the "comeback of the year", because the hollander had a fair share of the missed goals in 2012. Instead of whistles, there were heartwarming "arjen seal" chants from the fans in london. "Today it worked – you can forget about the other," said the 29-year-old. Lahm, schweinsteiger, robben, ribery have finally "reached the highest", as the goal scorer emphasized. "Time had run out for them," heynckes noted.

"The pressure was enormous," lahm confessed. National goalkeeper manuel neuer had to save his poorly starting team from a jolt. Even after the 1:0 through mario mandzukic (60.), which robben set up, BVB came back through a foul penalty by ilkay gundogan (68.). "After the 1:1 my ass went on ice," neuer admitted. Until robben, who had failed twice in the first half to beat roman weidenfeller, made a determined strike.

It was a ruhrsee atmosphere when schweinsteiger handed the trophy to the president, uli hoeneb, who was plagued by his tax affair, and the president lifted the trophy to the accompaniment of frenetic shouts of "uli" from the fans. "This is not my title," said the club patron.

It was a fubball night with rough gestures and emotions. "My wife told me i hugged the players like my own sons," rummenigge said on the stage and admitted: "i’m a little teary-eyed right now."

Now the last act with heynckes, who has already made a monument for himself in munich, is still to come. "Our way is not over yet," the coach warned amid the jubilation around him: "we want to win the cup final in berlin."But against stuttgart it should be enough also with scarcely two promille, as rummenigge joked.