Klassiker rife with disruption

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This article was published 03/12/2021 (1713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has been billed as a showdown between two of the world’s best strikers, but Saturday’s Klassiker is really about which players won’t be involved.

First, to those form forwards.

Robert Lewandowski, who finished a controversial second to Lionel Messi when the 2021 Ballon d’Or was awarded on Monday, has scored 13 goals in 11 matches for Bayern Munich over the last two months and has bagged 25 from just 20 outings this season.

Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, meanwhile, made a goalscoring return against Wolfsburg last weekend after missing nine games through injury. He has 14 tallies from 11 matches in all competitions.

It goes without saying that the pair will be the reason a lot of viewers tune in to this Dortmund-Bayern clash (11:30 a.m., Sportsnet World) that also happens to be a top-two tilt with the Winterpause looming.

Stars sell. But it’s the players behind Lewandowski and Haaland who will settle the score in German football’s biggest match.

Or, in Bayern’s case, the lack thereof.

Key midfielder Joshua Kimmich will once again miss out after contracting COVID-19, as will veteran forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. Neither is vaccinated, and both are in unpaid quarantine. Kimmich’s absence will be particularly felt, and, as it’s down to his vaccine hesitancy, is particularly stupid.

It’s also a reckless decision, what with Germany experiencing a devastating fifth wave of the pandemic. He is choosing to set a bad example, which places him among the population most culpable for stadium restrictions that will limit this Klassiker to 15,000 spectators.

It also comes as midfield partner Leon Goretzka continues to recover from a knee injury, leaving manager Julian Nagelsmann with limited options in the centre of the park. Corentin Tolisso will definitely start, and he’ll likely work in tandem with Jamal Musiala, who is also unvaccinated but has so far tested negative for coronavirus.

Nagelsmann has also suggested that Marc Roca — yet to start in the Bundesliga this season — is an alternative. Marcel Sabitzer might also have been in the running were he not sidelined with a leg problem.

Bayern legend Lothar Matthaus, speaking to Sky Germany on Friday, opined his former club stood little chance against Dortmund without Kimmich and Goretzka. And that was before winger Serge Gnabry left training with an apparent knock.

All signs would seem to point to a Dortmund victory, but while manager Marco Rose has a healthy squad from which to make his selections it’s the first time this campaign that he’s been presented the luxury of picking a first-choice XI.

At various points since August, Dortmund have been without defender Mats Hummels, left-back Raphael Guerreiro, midfielders Emre Can, Mahmoud Dahoud, Thorgan Hazard, Gio Reyna and Jude Bellingham, and, of course, Haaland. Each will be available for Der Klassiker, but it’s yet to be seen how the side will come together.

Will there be some understandable unfamiliarity? Or will Rose be able to finally meld the team he hoped to coach when he was appointed in the summer?

Dortmund’s injury woes have already cost them a spot in the last 16 of the Champions League, but if they can remain healthy from here they’ll at least be a contender in the Europa League. And with Bayern having been unexpectedly and embarrassingly dumped out of the DFB-Pokal, there’s a domestic trophy for which they have to be favoured as well.

As for the Bundesliga, they’ll always be the underdogs.

Yes, a Klassiker victory at the Westfalenstadion would take them two points clear atop the table, but they’d still require further upheaval at Bayern—and a lot of it—to deny their archrivals a 10th successive shield. The Bavarians, in other words, control their own destiny.

Then there’s the painful reality that Haaland, without Champions League football to play from January, could leave the club next month. Rumours of a release clause have already pitted Premier League outfits against one another, with Manchester City considered front-runners for his signature.

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Could this be the 21-year-old’s final Klassiker?

If so, today could be one of the first and final times to see the full version of this Dortmund side. But Haaland won’t decide it on his own. Nor, for that matter, will Lewandowski.

There has simply been too much recent disruption within both teams, and the one that best accommodates the upheaval will prevail.

jerradpeters@gmail.comTwitter @JerradPeters