BERLIN — On the day the FIFA president warned about a lack of competition in club soccer, Bayern Munich started the German league by scoring a whopping eight goals.
The Bavarian club routed Schalke 8-0 Friday and it could have been more but for a slew of missed chances. After half an hour, Bayern was up 3-0. By then, it was only a matter of how many the team would score.
"The Bundesliga did not provide many arguments at the start that it should definitely continue to be watched — at least not when Bayern Munich is playing," Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel wrote. "The game was tediously boring."
Bayern has already won the last eight Bundesliga titles — a record — and last season it added the Champions League and German Cup, too.
On Friday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino pointed to Juventus winning the last nine Italian league titles when he talked about dominance.
"Do we really think the Italian league has been very exciting in the last 10 years, let’s say nine years?" Infantino asked after the FIFA Congress. "Do we really think that some other leagues have been really exciting in the last years? What kind of competition is that, where 90% of the teams want to arrive second, and not first? I don’t know. I’m asking myself that question."
Star Canadian left back Alphonso Davies was on the bench but did not play in Bayern’s season-opening rout. Coach Hansi Flick said Davies was dealing with a minor injury, and the Bundesliga website reported that the 19-year-old should be fit for Bayern’s UEFA Super Cup match against Sevilla on Thursday.
Under Flick, who took over in November, Bayern has evolved into a relentless pressing machine, choking off opponents’ space and options, then bamboozling them with quick combination attacks.
The win over Schalke was Bayern’s 22nd in a row in all competitions, and the second in four games in which the team scored eight goals after the 8-2 rout of Barcelona in the Champions League.
Germany forward Leroy Sane joined in the off-season, strengthening an already fearsome offence with the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller and Serge Gnabry. Sane and Gnabry seemed to form an instant understanding. Sane scored one goal and set up two more for Gnabry, who scored a hat trick.
"We were getting hammered by Bayern before it was cool," former Bundesliga club Hamburger SV joked on Twitter.
Bayern’s dominance including a goal from 17-year-old Jamal Musiala, the club’s youngest scorer.
Bayern could have met stronger opposition than hapless Schalke, now on a 17-game run without a win, but it’s hard to see if any other club can challenge Flick’s team.
"It’s currently probably the best team in the world, you have to say it," Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said of Bayern after his own team’s 3-0 win over Borussia M?nchengladbach on Saturday. "An example for all the others."
Leipzig, which finished third behind Bayern and Dortmund last season, eased past Mainz 3-1 on Sunday, but few believe it has what it takes to dethrone the champions. And it’s a stretch to see any other contenders.
Bayern looks set to claim a record-extending ninth consecutive title, then a 10th, forcing fans to look to the Bundesliga’s relegation battles for excitement.
Bundesliga chief executive Christian Seifert warned in 2017 that it would become a problem "if Bayern Munich wins the title 10 or 15 times in a row."
But it seems there’s no way of stopping the Bavarian behemoth.
[relatedlinks]
