Guardiola’s Bayern Munich face recharged challengers for third successive Bundesliga title

Bundesliga play returns on Friday when Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg meet up, with the league taking on as high a profile as ever thanks to Germany's World Cup victory.

Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola applaus following a Bundesliga match against Stuttgart at the Allianz Arena in Munich on May 10, 2014. Andreas Gebert / EPA

The new Bundesliga season gets underway this weekend with German football riding the crest of a wave following the national team’s triumph at the World Cup in Brazil last month.

That thoroughly deserved victory, given to Joachim Loew’s side by Mario Gotze’s extra-time strike in the final against Argentina, saw a unified Germany crowned as world champions for the first time.

But at club level, the Bundesliga has been leading the way for some time. It averaged 3.16 goals per game last season, considerably more than any of its major European counterparts, while average gates were over 42,000, making the German top flight the best attended league anywhere.

“In my opinion, the Bundesliga’s the most attractive league in the world,” Borussia Monchengladbach coach Lucien Favre told bundesliga.com.

“The hype in Germany is amazing, and now they’ve won the World Cup so it’s not going to tail off in a rush.”

Nevertheless, the biggest problem facing the Bundesliga, as ever, is how to counter the dominance of Bayern Munich, who have romped to the title and added the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) in each of the last two campaigns.

They have seen Toni Kroos and Mario Mandzukic depart and lost Javi Martinez to a serious knee injury in last week’s SuperCup defeat to Borussia Dortmund, but the Bavarians remain favourites.

And yet the rest can draw some hope from the very fact this is a Bundesliga season immediately following a World Cup, and that has not tended to help Bayern in the recent past.

After Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup, Stuttgart went on to win the Bundesliga, while in 2011 Dortmund pipped Bayern to the title. In 2009, after Germany reached the Euro 2008 final, it was Wolfsburg who were champions.

Six members of Pep Guardiola’s squad played in the World Cup final, including Gotze, while Dante and Arjen Robben were also involved until the latter stages in Brazil.

That is why chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge wanted the start of the new season delayed in order to give these players longer to prepare, but that request was unsurprisingly turned down by Bayern’s rivals.

“We have to face the fact that the first half of the season will be difficult,” said Guardiola, who at times had only a skeleton squad in pre-season training. “We are at least one month behind schedule.”

Guardiola has added to his squad with compatriots Juan Bernat from Valencia and Pepe Reina, who will provide competition in goal for Manuel Neuer. But the marquee signing was Robert Lewandowski, a prolific goalscorer for Dortmund in the last four years.

However, Dortmund have moved to replace the Pole by signing Italy striker Ciro Immobile from Torino and Colombia’s Adrian Ramos from Hertha Berlin.

Stability is key at the Signal Iduna Park, where coach Jurgen Klopp, who led Dortmund to back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012 and a Champions League final defeat to Bayern in 2013, is entering his seventh season in charge.

“We want to establish ourselves further at the top of the league and qualify directly for the Champions League,” said sporting director Michael Zorc modestly.

However, Guardiola knows where the danger lies, saying: “We may have won the last two league titles, but they clinched the previous two. Our great challenge is to keep up our level to keep them at distance.”

Beneath them, Schalke, Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg will again be hoping to contend for Champions League qualification at least.

Schalke have kept Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Julian Draxler, while Sidney Sam has joined from Leverkusen, and few teams can boast a midfield as strong as Wolfsburg, with Kevin de Bruyne, Luiz Gustavo and France’s Josuha Guilavogui.

Bayer have signed Swiss striker Josip Drmic from Nurnberg and have a new coach in Roger Schmidt, back in his native country after winning the Austrian title with Red Bull Salzburg.

Hamburg will be hoping for a stable campaign after almost being relegated for the first time in their history last season.

There are new coaches at Mainz, Eintracht Frankfurt and Stuttgart, who have reappointed Armin Veh, the architect of their 2007 title triumph, while Cologne are back among the elite and Paderborn are in the Bundesliga for the first time.

Seven Bundesliga signings that will make a difference

Ahead of the start of the 2014/15 German Bundesliga season on Friday, AFP Sport takes a look at some of the most significant summer transfers:

Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich)

It was announced back in January that Polish striker Lewandowski would be moving to Bayern in the summer on a five-year deal under freedom of contract. The 26-year-old striker follows the path trodden last summer by Mario Gotze in joinng Bayern from their biggest rivals. Lewandowski scored 74 Bundesliga goals in four years with Dortmund and was the division’s leading scorer last season with 20. He is therefore expected to be an improvement on Mario Mandzukic, sold to Atletico Madrid.

Ciro Immobile (Torino to Borussia Dortmund)

To replace Lewandowski, Dortmund splashed the cash to recruit 24-year-old Italy striker Immobile, the leading scorer in Serie A last season for Torino with 22 goals. Immobile, previously with Juventus and Genoa, signed a five-year contract with Dortmund. He featured in two of Italy’s games at the World Cup but was largely ineffectual.

Adrian Ramos (Hertha Berlin to Borussia Dortmund)

Before the signing of Immobile, Dortmund had already wrapped up a deal to take 28-year-old Colombia striker Ramos from Hertha Berlin on a four-year contract. Ramos, who made three appearances during Colombia’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals, had spent the last five years with Hertha and scored 16 Bundesliga goals last season.

Sidney Sam (Bayer Leverkusen to Schalke)

Diminutive winger Sam, 26, is Schalke’s marquee signing as they look to close the gap on Bayern and Dortmund. Sam moved to Gelsenkirchen under freedom of contract, signing a four-year deal with Schalke. He had been in outstanding form for Bayer Leverkusen before signing a pre-contract agreement with Schalke back in January, and his tail-off after that saw him miss out on Germany’s World Cup squad.

Josip Drmic (Nurnberg to Bayer Leverkusen)

Leverkusen moved to strengthen their front line with the signing of highly promising 22-year-old Swiss international striker Drmic. Formerly of FC Zurich, Drmic sprang to prominence with 17 goals in a Nurnberg side that were relegated last season. He put pen to paper on a four-year deal before featuring in all of Switzerland’s games as they reached the last-16 at the World Cup.

Valon Behrami (Napoli to Hamburg)

Having needed a play-off to avoid a first ever relegation from the top flight last season and then sold Hakan Calhanoglu to Bayer Leverkusen, northern giants Hamburg have taken out the chequebook in a bid to strengthen their squad. Swiss international midfielder Behrami arrives on a three-year deal after requesting a move away from Napoli. The Kosovo-born 29-year-old has won more than 50 caps for Switzerland and was impressive at the World Cup.

Thorgan Hazard (Chelsea to Borussia Monchengladbach)

The brother of Chelsea and Belgium star Eden Hazard, Thorgan is a precocious talent himself. He spent the last two seasons on loan at Zulte-Waregem, with whom he was named Belgian player of the year for 2013, and a move to the Bundesliga will be seen by Chelsea as the next step in his development. He should flourish at Gladbach, the club where both Marko Marin and Marco Reus rose to prominence.

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