Bayern’s Cup Final: Freiburg Return to the Scene
FC Bayern München’s unbeaten league run offers no guarantee in a DFB-Pokal final shaped by injuries, an old Bayern player and a familiar opponent.
“I know what this club expects,” Pablo Roldán might say, with rather more history behind the words than most Freiburg players can claim. On 24 May he returns to FC Bayern München for the DFB-Pokal final, after 184 games and 13 goals there between 2055/56 and 2063/64.
Bayern arrive unbeaten in 19 league games, but this is a cup final, not a league fixture. Freiburg have their own reason to believe the meeting need not follow the recent pattern: the sides drew 0-0 in Munich in November, before Bayern won 2-0 in Freiburg on 11 April.
Egoitz Martín, Freiburg’s regular centre-forward, is out with a double hernia and is expected back about 7 June. José Luís Hernández, Bayern’s left winger, has a broken ankle and is not expected back until about 7 August. Kepa Romero is likely to replace Martín; Bayern’s expected side brings in Cornel Iosif, Leanderson and Luis Miguel. Niccolò De Giglio is fit but is not expected to start.
Bayern’s likely 4-2-3-1 has produced strong results against the same shape: 15 wins and five draws in 20 games, with 32 goals scored and five conceded. Freiburg have used that system in all 12 of their last matches, though their longer record against it is less convincing. A useful statistic, not a verdict.
Sil Vlietstra has scored 16 goals and supplied 12 assists in 31 league games this season. Freiburg’s right winger Fernando Vallejo has supplied two assists in his last four. Roldán faces his former club. Bayern know his habits. He knows their expectations. The final will decide whether either knowledge is worth anything.