Bayern Munich Vs. Borussia Dortmund: Bavarians Win 2-1

Bayern Munich took an early lead and ultimately managed to hold on against a Borussia Dortmund onslaught to win the 2012 DHL Supercup by a final score of 2-1. It was a fun display from both sides, with Bayern showing their class early before some late substitutions kicked BVB into gear. We even had a pitch invader!

An aside: It’s a little-known fact that Bayern Munich youngsters under the tutelage of Jupp Henyckes must write out the names of their direct opponent 20 times before the start of every match. Emre Can took ended up taking this out on Jakub Blaszczykowski in the 35th minute. Fortunately for Dortmund, Kuba managed to carry on, although his head did hit the ground worryingly hard.

Mario Mandzukic isn’t just scoring goals. He’s providing brilliant service that lead to goals, too.

Bayern are exposing a weak midfield pairing of Moritz Leitner and Ilkay Gundogan and playing some gorgeous football while doing it. Without Sebastian Kehl and Sven Bender, BVB are down to their non-preferred pairing. Jürgen Klopp has his work to do to get his side back into this match. The Allianz Arena is rocking, and the Bayern supporters are looking for payback after five straight losses to this BVB side.

Bayern has been on the attack early in the match. Their first chance came minutes before the goal when Thomas Müller sent a header over the crossbar after a cross from Mandzukic.

Dortmund haven’t had a lot going forward in the limited time we’ve had so far. They were attacking early at the makeshift left back Emre Can through Jakub Blaszczykowski. This will likely be the route they take for a large part of the match to test the young defender. Getting Marco Reus involved will be important for them to find a link between that midfield and Robert Lewandowski.

It’s new faces ahoy in Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund. The two sides are getting set to start the season proper next week, and they’re using the 2012 DFB Supercup to test out some of their new signings. For BVB, it’s former Borussia Monchengladbach man Marco Reus who’s the big addition -- he’ll run the attack now that Shinji Kagawa is at Manchester United.

Borussia Dortmund starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Roman Weidenfeller; Marcel Schmelzer, Mats Hummels, Neven Subotic, Lukasz Piszczek; Ilkay Gundogan, Moirtz Leitner; Kevin Grosskreutz, Marco Reus, Jakub Blaszczykowski; Robert Lewandowski.

German football officially kicks off with Sunday’s DFL Supercup. Double winning Borussia Dortmund will travel to the Allianz Arena in Munich to take on last season’s ultimate runners up Bayern Munich.

If you weren’t aware, the last two years in head to head matchups between these two sides has been demonstrably one sided: BVB have won five straight over Bayern with a 12 goals to 3 differential. They left no doubt in May’s DFB Pokal Final when they handed the Bavarians a 5-2 thrashing that was never really close.