The timing was good for Dino Toppmöller. The assistant coach of FC Bayern should now “like to be a bit in the spotlight,” said Julian Nagelsmann, the head coach, who only saw the game against TSG Hoffenheim from his domestic isolation as a corona positive. And so Toppmöller, son of the former Bundesliga coach Klaus Toppmöller and since this season in the FC Bayern coaching team, now on the sidelines in the crowded arena, cheered, was hugged by sports director Hasan Salihamidzic and heard the loudest scream in the Munich arena had existed for a year and a half.
FC Bayern’s 4-0 (2-0) on Saturday initially had an emotional value. 60,000 spectators were in the arena, and for the first time since March 2020 the stadium with 75,000 spectators should have been full again. The banners of fan clubs such as the “Kornlupfern Bazi Offensau” or the “Upper Franconian Association of 1983” were hanging on the bands, and those people who tend not to be envied were there again who sit in the main stand in a white full-body suit for a “T” for to form the Munich main sponsor.
The most audible difference to the previous weeks was offered by the Ultras, who were standing and singing again in the south curve. In addition, they had prepared a message for the opponent in the second half. In spring 2020, the Munich fans had a dispute with the football associations escalating with insults against the Hoffenheim patron Dietmar Hopp – at that time, before Corona, that was a big topic. “Everything the same as before, we’re back, Dietmar Hopp is staying”, was now written on three banners, before the supporters revealed the fourth including the punch line: “Very fine man of honor”.
Robert Lewandowski scores his tenth goal of the season in the ninth game
Everything was the same as before, and that also largely applied to the sporty. A Munich victory is apparently hardly at risk even without the head coach’s speech in the dressing room and with a few regular players on the bench against a middle-class Bundesliga club, unlike the previous home game, the 1: 2 against Eintracht Frankfurt. Nagelsmann was in contact with the coaching team from the hotel during the week, as in the 4-0 win in Lisbon in the Champions League, Toppmöller said. “Julian was able to intervene again and again if he thought it was necessary.” But maybe he didn’t have to do that much.
In the 16th minute, Serge Gnabry took the lead from a half-right position in the penalty area after a pass from Jamal Musiala, who, unlike in Lisbon during the week, was in the starting line-up just like left-back and summer access Omar Richards. In the 30th minute, Robert Lewandowski scored his tenth goal of the season in the ninth game, the preparatory work by Thomas Müller, who claimed the ball against Chris Richards, who was loaned to Hoffenheim from Munich, was also worth mentioning; Müller pointed to his biceps while cheering.
When Müller was substituted in the second half, the Hoffenheim team also played a little in between. From the 55th to the 70th minute, his team created a few chances, as guest coach Sebastian Hoeneß described it. But after that, the Munich team increased the score to the level almost befitting this season, it was already the fifth Bundesliga victory with at least four own goals. Substitutes Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Kingsley Coman, the latter with his first goal after heart surgery, scored 3-0 (82nd) and 4-0 (87th). It was rather surprising that Lewandowski alone in front of Hoffenheim’s goalkeeper Oliver Baumann neither played across the free Corentin Tolisso, nor scored the 5-0, but shot over it.
How long Dino Toppmöller stays depends on Nagelsmann’s corona tests
“We’re all happy when Julian comes back as soon as possible,” said Dino Toppmöller at the press conference after the game, he’ll then take a step back, into the second row. Of course, he couldn’t say when that would be, it depends on Nagelsmann’s corona tests. So maybe Toppmöller will remain his boss’s representative in the DFB Cup match at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Wednesday.
For now, the former second division professional, who was head coach at Luxembourg club F91 Dudelange and Nagelsmann’s assistant at RB Leipzig last season, with six points and 8-0 goals in two games, does not have the worst record. “We have now won two games 4-0, but the games before that weren’t too bad either,” he said with a grin.
And Toppmöller has now also got to know the other, more remote side of the job as a coach at FC Bayern. After the victory on Saturday, it was only briefly about the current sporting situation, then soon about Joshua Kimmich, who had confirmed in the Sky interview after the game that he had not yet been vaccinated, which of course raised a few questions. He respects that, said Toppmöller, and also mentioned that every player had the opportunity to talk to the club’s internist about the risks of a vaccination. More, he noted, could certainly be said elsewhere by other officials from the club.