<b>Game Of My Life #05: How a 2-1 home win changed my life</b>
Only three days after their devastating 5-2 defeat in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals against Ajax Amsterdam, FC Bayern managed to redeem themselves. They achieved a 2-1 home victory against future champions Dortmund.<a href="#a-season-in-the-thrall-of-transition"></a>A season in the thrall of transitionBayern started the season as the reigning champions, having won the title in the 1993/94 season. That season cost Erich Ribbeck his job, he was released during the winter break. Shortly before the end of the season, Bayern lost 4-0 away to Kaiserslautern, almost squandering their title prospects in the process. Ultimately, 17 wins sufficed to secure Bayern the title. So Bayern started the 1994/95 season as the title holders. Before the season began, Italian star coach Giovanni Trapattoni had been installed at the club to rebuild the club’s shaky foundation for sustainable long-term sporting success. To facilitate Trapattoni’s task, new players Oliver Kahn (€2.3m from Karlsruhe), Jean-Pierre Papin (€2.75m from Milan), and Alain Sutter (€1.4m from Nuremberg) were signed. Kahn had made a name for himself as a goalkeeping talent on the rise at Karlsruhe and was considered Germany’s future in goal. Papin arrived as a highly decorated star, having won the French championship four times with Olympique Marseille as well as the Italian championship twice and the Champions League once with Milan. He was also the world’s top scorer and winner of “Europe’s footballer of the year” in 1991. A bonafide world star had come to the Isar. On the other hand, Bayern’s squad had also taken some serious hits. Raimond Aumann, Olaf Thon, Bruno Labbadia and Adolfo Valencia had left the club during the off-season. No doubt the team was a team in transition. Besides the stars, there were also lot of young talents who had to be integrated as well. <a href="#before-the-game-against-dortmund"></a>Before the game against Dortmund<a href="#champions-league-aftermath"></a>Champions League aftermathBayern had decided to put their focus for the season on the Champions League early on as their Bundesliga campaign never really flourished. They reached second place in the group stage and after a 0-0 in the first and a 2-2 in the second leg against Gothenburg in the quarter-finals, they even reached the semi-finals. There, after another 0-0 draw in the first leg, Bayern suffered a devastating 2-5 defeat in the return leg at the hands of van Gaal’s Ajax, a team replete with such future luminaries as van der Sar, de Boer, Seedorf, Litmanen, Kluivert and Davids, whose names would come to reverberate around Europe for years to come. With the loss Bayern had missed out on putting a positive spin on an otherwise disappointing season. They had no answer to the 3-4-3 system of van Gaal, but partly also brought about their own downfall through making quite a few individual mistakes before the goals themselves. And so the dream of the final in Athens lay in tatters.<a href="#problems-in-the-bundesliga"></a>Problems in the BundesligaMeanwhile in the Bundesliga, Bayern was in sixth place with six points off the top. The players did not feel comfortable with Trapattoni’s conservative tactics. The team was also hampered by a number of injuries. By the time of the confrontation with Dortmund, chief operator and midfield mainstay Matthäus had only got 16 applications, Kahn had 23. The goalkeeper was also unavailable in Amsterdam. Jean-Pierre Papin, who was meant to lead the line in attack, had only played six games. His goals were desperately missing in attack. Bayern’s dearth of goals was one of their cardinal problems throughout the 1994/95 season. They only managed to score 55 times all season, equalling 1.6 goals per game. 41 conceded goals on the other end were too many to make up for their paucity in attack.On matchday 27, the fixture list saw Bayern meet then league leaders Dortmund. Dortmund was…
Only three days after their devastating 5-2 defeat in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals against Ajax Amsterdam, FC Bayern managed to redeem themselves. They achieved a 2-1 home victory against future champions Dortmund.<a href="#a-season-in-the-thrall-of-transition"></a>A season in the thrall of transitionBayern started the season as the reigning champions, having won the title in the 1993/94 season. That season cost Erich Ribbeck his job, he was released during the winter break. Shortly before the end of the season, Bayern lost 4-0 away to Kaiserslautern, almost squandering their title prospects in the process. Ultimately, 17 wins sufficed to secure Bayern the title. So Bayern started the 1994/95 season as the title holders. Before the season began, Italian star coach Giovanni Trapattoni had been installed at the club to rebuild the club’s shaky foundation for sustainable long-term sporting success. To facilitate Trapattoni’s task, new players Oliver Kahn (€2.3m from Karlsruhe), Jean-Pierre Papin (€2.75m from Milan), and Alain Sutter (€1.4m from Nuremberg) were signed. Kahn had made a name for himself as a goalkeeping talent on the rise at Karlsruhe and was considered Germany’s future in goal. Papin arrived as a highly decorated star, having won the French championship four times with Olympique Marseille as well as the Italian championship twice and the Champions League once with Milan. He was also the world’s top scorer and winner of “Europe’s footballer of the year” in 1991. A bonafide world star had come to the Isar. On the other hand, Bayern’s squad had also taken some serious hits. Raimond Aumann, Olaf Thon, Bruno Labbadia and Adolfo Valencia had left the club during the off-season. No doubt the team was a team in transition. Besides the stars, there were also lot of young talents who had to be integrated as well. <a href="#before-the-game-against-dortmund"></a>Before the game against Dortmund<a href="#champions-league-aftermath"></a>Champions League aftermathBayern had decided to put their focus for the season on the Champions League early on as their Bundesliga campaign never really flourished. They reached second place in the group stage and after a 0-0 in the first and a 2-2 in the second leg against Gothenburg in the quarter-finals, they even reached the semi-finals. There, after another 0-0 draw in the first leg, Bayern suffered a devastating 2-5 defeat in the return leg at the hands of van Gaal’s Ajax, a team replete with such future luminaries as van der Sar, de Boer, Seedorf, Litmanen, Kluivert and Davids, whose names would come to reverberate around Europe for years to come. With the loss Bayern had missed out on putting a positive spin on an otherwise disappointing season. They had no answer to the 3-4-3 system of van Gaal, but partly also brought about their own downfall through making quite a few individual mistakes before the goals themselves. And so the dream of the final in Athens lay in tatters.<a href="#problems-in-the-bundesliga"></a>Problems in the BundesligaMeanwhile in the Bundesliga, Bayern was in sixth place with six points off the top. The players did not feel comfortable with Trapattoni’s conservative tactics. The team was also hampered by a number of injuries. By the time of the confrontation with Dortmund, chief operator and midfield mainstay Matthäus had only got 16 applications, Kahn had 23. The goalkeeper was also unavailable in Amsterdam. Jean-Pierre Papin, who was meant to lead the line in attack, had only played six games. His goals were desperately missing in attack. Bayern’s dearth of goals was one of their cardinal problems throughout the 1994/95 season. They only managed to score 55 times all season, equalling 1.6 goals per game. 41 conceded goals on the other end were too many to make up for their paucity in attack.On matchday 27, the fixture list saw Bayern meet then league leaders Dortmund. Dortmund was…