Match Preview: Dortmund and Bayern Battle for the DFL-Supercup

Do you hear that? It’s the sound of the first official match of the 2019-20 calendar year, and what a match we have to open the season! It’s Der Klassiker: Supercup Edition as Borussia Dortmund hosts Bayern Munich from inside the Westfalenstadion in the 2019 DFL-Supercup.

After nearly winning the whole dang thing last year, Dortmund enter this season with incredibly high expectations after their disappointing end to the 2018-19 season. The rebuild (reload?) has continued from last season, with Nico Schulz, Thorgan Hazard, Julian Brandt, and Mats Hummels all joining the squad for the new Bundesliga season. It sucks that we wont have Christian Pulisic to root for anymore, but his sale allowed Dortmund to bring in all of those players.

Unfortunately, the injury bug has reared its ugly head once again, and it is some of our newest signings that have been affected. Favre already confirmed that Brandt won’t play as a precaution after suffering a muscular injury, while Hazard, Roman Bürki, Mateu Morey, Jacob Bruun Larsen, and Marius Wolf are all questionable with various knocks. Injuries were the downfall of the team last season, and hopefully it doesn’t leave the squad high-and-dry before the season has even started.

The reigning Bundesliga champions for the umpteenth time in a row and the defending Pokal champions, Bayern had a relatively quiet offseason in regards to transfer moves. While FC Hollywood strengthened their defense with Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez, they lost some of their attacking bite with the retirement of Arjen Robben and the release of Franck Ribéry. Still, they’re an incredibly dangerous attacking team as long as Müller, Lewandowski, Gnabry, Koman, and Kimmich are still wearing that disgusting shade of red.

I think we’ll see plenty of the 4-2-3-1 going into Saturday’s affair. One of Lukas Piszczek or Achraf Hakimi would be the starting right back, while I believe Manuel Akanji-Hummels will be the starting centerback pairing, and Schulz will be the starting left back. Axel Witsel retains his spot in the center midfield, while most likely Thomas Delaney should line up next to him in the absence of Brandt. On the wings looks to be Jadon Sancho on the right and either Hazard or Guerreiro on the left with Marco Reus in the middle. It’s pointing to Paco Alcácer starting up top, but I wouldn’t mind if Mario Götze also got the nod.

Prediction: 2-1 (aet) Dortmund

The fact that this match is in the Westfalenstadion will be the difference, as the Allianz Arena has been nothing but a house of horrors in recent years for BVB. The injured players will make this much more difficult, but I believe in these guys to get the job done and bring home their first trophy of the season.