ON a cold, damp day last Saturday afternoon in a half empty Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany's most famous club, Bayern Munich, served notice on all their rivals by defeating St Pauli 3-0 to remain top of the Bundesliga.
On a busy European weekend, Bayern's win against the fourth from bottom side might not seem exactly earth shattering.
Chelsea's last gasp 2-2 FA Cup draw with Leicester, PSV Eindhoven's 1-0 loss to Vitesse in Holland (PSV are now joint top with Feyenoord), Sampdoria's 2-0 defeat by AS Roma in Italy and Barcelona's 1-0 win against Santander in Spain all provided arguably much more dramatic games.
The significance of the Bayern win, though, was that it came on the first day of the second half of the 34 match Bundesliga season, on the weekend when German soccer restarted following its habitual two month mid winter break. Furthermore, Bayern returned to action 24 hours after their closest rivals, reigning champions Borussia Dortmund, had come out to beat third placed side Bayer Leverkusen 3-1.
Nor will Bayern team morale have suffered much from the sight of seeing their controversial striker Juergen Klinsmann score two of his side's goals. Regularly criticised during the first half of the season when he scored only five goals, Klinsmann's double on Saturday may have finally terminated an unhappy period for Germany's best known goalscorer, a period when he even threatened to leave the club.
Bayern's Italian coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, with whom Klinsmann has had his differences, was inevitably well pleased with the result, saying: "It was important that we won given that Dortmund won last night and that way we've kept our lead. I am very happy with the team, they showed spirit".
Trapattoni, of course, is at the centre of a major gamble twice taken by Bayerns ruling eminence grises, former internationals Franz Beckenbauer and Karl Heinz Rumennigge. Remember that Bayern ended last season in a state of relative chaos, despite winning the UEFA Cup against Bordeaux.
Just four days before that final, though, Beckenbauer sacked club coach Otto Rehhagel, replacing him with himself. At the time, Bayern were not only about to contest the UEFA final, but were also joint top with Borussia Dortmund with just four games to play. It seemed a strange decision, one based more on Rehhagel's deteriorating relationship with senior Bayern players (hand on soccer logic.
In the end the move backfired, at least it half backfired since Bayern won the UEFA Cup but lost the Bundesliga title. Significantly, though, in the same week that Otto Rehhagel was shown the door, Beckenbauer announced the reappointment of Giovanni Trapattoni as club coach.
Two seasons ago Trapattoni, Italy's most successful club coach of the post war era, had moved to German soccer amid fanfares and expectations of great things. By the end of the season, Dortmund had won the title and a homesick Trapattoni was on his way back to Italy.
At stages last autumn history of the negative kind appeared to be about to repeat itself, with Bayern's defence of their UEFA Cup title getting no further than the second round and a 3-1 aggregate elimination by Spanish side Valencia.
However, that was probably the lowest moment of the Bayern season so far. On the league front, the record is much more impressive since Sunday's win means that Trapattoni's team are unbeaten in the Bundesliga since September 28th. Furthermore, Bayern are still in the German Cup and are due to meet Karlsruhe in a knockout quarter final tie tomorrow night.
With defenders such as Thomas Helmer, Christian Ziege (due for AC Milan next season) and soon to be 36 year old Lothar Matthaeus, together with international midfielders such as Mario Basler and Mehmet Scholl, not to mention Klinsmann and 22 year old Alexander Zickler in attack, the Bayern squad inevitably looks strong.
Even stronger, though, is Trapattoni's desire to make up for his failure two seasons ago and add a German title to the six titles he won with Juventus and the one title he won with Intern Milan in Italy.
While in Sardinia two weeks ago to finish off Bayern's midwinter training, Trapattoni spelt it out loud and clear: "At the moment, I'm thinking about only one thing and that is winning the Bundesliga title. That would be an immense satisfaction. My whole aim is to teach my players a soccer that embodies the best of both German and Italian traditions."
German mental and physical strength plus Italian skill, or German attacking power plus Italian defensive strength - sounds good, maybe even good enough to win the 1997 Bundesliga title.
