What a difference a month makes. Four and half weeks ago, those gripped by an out-of-the-ordinary Bundesliga battle were feeling ... well, they were feeling perhaps less gripped, or, at least, less close to the edge of their seats than they had anticipated at the turn of the year. They were merely feeling surprised.
Surprised, that is, because the serial German champions, Bayern Munich, sat a distant nine points behind the league leaders, Borussia Dortmund, as matchday 19 of the 34-match calendar was being played out. Actually, you could make that 10 points, effectively, because Dortmund boasted a goal difference better than Bayern’s by 11 goals, a margin they had just swelled with a 5-1 win against Hannover eagerly celebrated by a throbbing, bouncing Westfalen stadium.
That was on the Saturday, a sunny January 27th. Bayern played their 19th fixture of the season the next afternoon and when they conceded their 20th goal of a campaign peppered with defensive lapses midway through the first half of their hosting of Stuttgart, to go into half time at 1-1, there were certainly jitters.
Was this a turning point? There have been too many twists and slip-ups to isolate one single turning point in a captivating joust, but Bayern came out and scored three times in the second half against Stuttgart, notice at least that they intended the pursuit of Dortmund to be sustained, and that, though their setbacks have been uncomfortably regular as they seek a seventh successive Bundesliga Shield, while learning to adapt to young, new manager. Niko Kovac, they have the mettle to recover from them.
Bayern did that at Augsburg two weeks ago, having fallen behind in the first minute, and then, after a first equaliser, falling behind again in the 23rd. The champions ended up winning 3-2. Yes, Bayern have kept only one clean sheet, in the league, in their last six matches, but the major detail that concerns Kovac is that they have dropped points only once in their last 11 fixtures, the loss to Bayer Leverkusen on matchday 20.
That weekend, Dortmund dropped points, too, drawing 1-1 with Eintracht Frankfurt, a brake on momentum that turned out to be hard to shrug off. After 3-3 draw with Hoffenheim in which they held a 3-0 lead until 15 minutes from full time, you could almost hear the whoops of delight from Bavaria. Now Dortmund had the shakes, the trembles, and once they had drawn 0-0 at Nuremburg - their first 90 minutes in the league without a goal since August in their free-scoring season - it looked as though Bayern were reeling in the challengers with ominous purpose.
By last Saturday night, the leading pair were locked together on 51 points each, and Dortmund’s game in hand, played on the Sunday, looked a tricky one: against Leverkusen, who scored twice at the Westfalen. Dortmund, though, struck three times, evidently relieved to be back on a winning track.
It is fashionable for players and coaches to say that, in the edgy to-and-fro of a close duel for a title, they cast no glances at how their opponents are faring. It is usually untrue. In this case, some of the noises coming out Bayern are boldly, strategically, focussed on how news from Dortmund is received.
"The boys showed some extra power in Monday's training, for sure," said Kovac of the effect of Dortmund's third successive draw, 11 days ago, on morale in his camp. And the next day Bayern raised their game, defensively at least, to earn a 0-0 draw at Anfield in the first leg of their Uefa Champions League last-16 ties against Liverpool.
European engagements may have a bearing on how the domestic showdown, which has 11 matchdays to run, develops, although whether the fact that Dortmund, 3-0 down to Tottenham Hotspur after one leg, look close to exiting the Champions League while Bayern retain a more committed interest, affects the next two weeks is debatable.
What it does mean is that there are calendar alterations that might shift the initiative one way or the other. Dortmund, buoyed by the likelihood captain Marco Reus will be back from a four-week lay-off, play Friday at Augsburg, a trip scheduled with next week’s Spurs match in mind, which means they could hold a six-point lead over Bayern by the time the chasers take on third-placed Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday.
Broadly, Dortmund’s run-in of fixtures looks slightly kinder than Bayern’s, although the direct duel, on April 6, between the pair will be a home game for the champions. By then Bayern hope another dramatic month will have turned them from stalkers to pacesetters.
