Transition years
After World War II, German soccer was reformed, playing in regional West German conferences whose champions then battled it out in postseason playoffs. Bayern played in the new-formed Oberliga Süd (South Division). However, success was elusive. However, in 1957, FCB won its first German Cup by beating Fortuna Düsseldorf with 1:0, and further highlight was the first UEFA Cup participation in 1962.
Second Bundesliga: a historical injustice
In the early sixties, FCB was a well-respected club in German soccer. However, when the Bundesliga was formed in 1963, the DFB decided that only one club from Munich could participate, and that club was the (then) more successful local rival TSV 1860 Munich. In the following two years, the team under trainer Tschik Cajkovski acquired a certain young, agile goalie called Sepp Maier, a corpulent, but lightning quick striker Gerd Müller and an certain unorthodox libero called Franz Beckenbauer, notoriously after trying out with local rival TSV 1860 Munich and literally getting slapped in the face. Bayern however promoted in 1965 (with a record 146 scored goals), and then began to write history.
Rise to power
In 1966, Bayern acquired Georg Schwarzenbeck, a burly sweeper who perfectly complemented the elegant Beckenbauer. Bayern ended its first season as third and won the German Cup again. The following year brought more success, as FCB beat Glasgow Rangers with a goal from Franz "Bull" Roth in the 109th minute to win the Cup Winners' Cup.
In 1968 Branco Zebec took over from Cajkowski. and despite the gloomy predictions of experts, acheived the domestic double. They won the Championship with an eight point lead over Alemannia Aachen and a Cup victory over Schalke.
In 1970, Bayern acquired Paul Breitner, a notorious troublemaker but a genius midfielder, and then acquired the last piece to become a superpower. 1972 saw the Reds regain the Bundesliga crown they had temporarily lost to Borussia Moenchengladbach. At this time they were coached by Udo Lattek. Gerd Muller topped the statistics table with 40 goals in one season and the team had collected a record number of Bundesliga points. They seemed to have made a habit of winning the DFB Cup, and this continued with a 2-1 victory over FC Cologne. In 1972, Bayern also had an extra boost when it swapped the small Grünwalder Stadium for the modern Olympic Stadium. Until 1974, Bayern won the German Championship and the German Cup multiple times and established itself as the ultimate team to beat in the Bundesliga. Notable acquirements were Franz Roth and Bernd Dürnberger, two smothering midfield enforcers and Uli Hoeness, a often-injured but genius playmaker. Bayern could even bear Breitner leaving for Real Madrid.
The Golden Generation
In 1974, Bayern played Atletico Madrid in the Europe Cup I finals and was trailing 0:1 in the 120th minute when Schwarzenbeck scored the 1:1 with a desperation 40-metre-shot. In the replay (note that there were no penalty series yet), Bayern drubbed Atletico 4:0 and won its first Europe Cup I. One year later, Bayern beat Leeds United in the Europe I Cup finals, and in 1976, Bayern completed the hattrick. This "Golden Generation" Bayern team is widely considered the best German team that ever played soccer, with a stellar goalie Maier, world-class defenders Beckenbauer and Schwarzenbeck, a midfield Roth-Hoeness-Dürnberger which was dangerous both ways, and superb attackers, spearheaded by the deadly finisher Müller paired with young supertalent Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
"Breitnigge" years
After over a decade of domination, Bayern slowly dimished. Maier's career was ended by a car accident, Beckenbauer and Müller left for the USA and Hoeness retired early due to injury. However, FCB stayed at a very high level, mostly due to stellar play of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and the return of Breitner in 1978. The two formed the most feared one-two punch in the Bundesliga, called Breitnigge. Bayern continued to win Championships and Cups in Germany, but just fell short of European success.
In 1984, Bayern experienced heavy financial trouble and was forced to sell Rummenigge to Inter Milan for 10 million DM (app. 5 million Euro). However, they also acquired a slew of promising new players to form the next Bayern generation.
A new generation
When Rummenigge left, the last player of the Golden Generation had left. Trainer Udo Lattek built a new team around a new star, a certain Lothar Matthäus. Other cornerstones of this new team were extroverted goalie Jean-Marie Pfaff (who had a notoriously bad relationship with his goalie rival and eventual successor Raimond Aumann), burly sweepers Klaus Augenthaler, Norbert Eder and Hans Pflügler, midfielders Andreas Brehme, Roland Grahammer and Hansi Dorfner and finally the attacking trio of huge center striker Dieter Hoeness (Uli's younger brother), Roland Wohlfarth, and Ludwig Kögl. Notable later additions were Stefan Reuter, Jürgen Kohler and Olaf Thon.
The team continued to dominate the local Bundesliga. However, in European level, success was elusive. In 1986, Bayern faced outsiders FC Porto in the Europe Cup I finals and led 1:0 with a quarter of an hour left, but lost 1:2 in what was called the most bitter Bayern loss ever. However, the team dominated at home, winning several championships against rivals Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen and notoriously 1. FC Köln under extremely Bayern-hating coach Christoph Daum.
Post-World Cup 1990 player drain
After the 1990 World Cup, which Germany won with a core of Bayern players, Italian clubs bought Matthäus, Reuter, Kohler and Brehme. Bayern earned much money, but had suffered major blood loss. New players like Thomas Helmer, Jorginho, Stefan Effenberg, Brian Laudrup and Jan Wouters were bought, who played decently but failed to translate their individual talents into a cohesive unit. It was enough to dominate the Bundesliga, but on European level, Bayern utterly failed.
Transition years
In 1994, famed trainer Giovanni Trapattoni was installed. He began to rigorously rebuild the squad, both on personal and tactical level. He encountered many obstacles, under which a huge injury list which claimed new star keeper Oliver Kahn, strikers Jean-Pierre Papin and Emil Kostadinov and Matthäus, and of course the language barrier. However, he jumpstarted the careers of Helmer, who became a legitimate superstar, young amateurs Dietmar Hamann and Samuel Kuffour and seemingly eternal talent Mehmet Scholl. Bayern ended only 6th in the Bundesliga, but reached the half finals in the UEFA Champions League and earned a lot of money.
In 1995, trainer legend Otto Rehhagel was installed, and with him came a slew of new stars bought with the Champions League money, such as Jürgen Klinsmann, Thomas Strunz, Andreas Herzog and Ciriaco Sforza. However, the heavy favourites Bayern spectacularly crashed, because Rehhagel's maverick approach to soccer utterly failed to mesh with players and environment. However, despite lackluster performances, Bayern managed to win the UEFA Cup with good clutch play.
Trapattoni came back the next year. Fortified by new stars like Giovane Elber, Michael Tarnat, Mario Basler and Bixente Lizarazu, he carried on to win championships and cups in Germany. However, European success remained elusive. Until 1998, Bayern had failed to reach the Europe Cup I finals in 12 years.
Return to glory
In 1998, Bayern acquired trainer Ottmar Hitzfeld and controversial, but genius players Mario Basler and Stefan Effenberg, who provided badly needed creativity. Hitzfeld injected a new sense of team spirit into the piecemeal Bayern squad and most notably changed the rigid, defensive 1-2-5-2 system into a revolutionarily offensive 3-4-3. Bayern convincingly won the Bundesliga and came close to winning the 1999 UEFA Champions League final, but were beaten 2–1 by Manchester United after conceding two goals in stoppage time. Bayern bounced back and continued to dominate the Bundesliga, and after a painful Champions League loss the following year against Real Madrid, Bayern at last won the UEFA Champions League in 2001 by beatingValencia CF 6–5 on penalties after a 1–1 draw. Oliver Kahn and Stefan Effenberg were considered the MVPs of that team.
In the same year, Bayern also won the German Championship with a last-minute goal. After Schalke 04 had won their game, Bayern needed a draw against Hamburger SV. HSV scored in the 90th minute, making it 1–0, but three minutes into stoppage time the referee Markus Merk awarded an indirect free kick after HSV goalie Matthias Schober had picked up a pass by a colleague in his own box. Patrik Andersson blasted the ball through a wall of HSVers and decided the championship in the literally last second. However, the team lost steam after winning those titles and the next season saw a poorly conditioned Bayern squad squander late leads. Ottmar Hitzfeld and Stefan Effenberg left and were replaced by Felix Magath and rising star Michael Ballack. Other notable additions were Roy Makaay and Lucio. Under Magath's tutelage, Bayern saw a new rise to domination, steamrollering the Bundesliga opposition. However, European success proved elusive, as Bayern were eliminated by the English club Chelsea.
The present
In 2005, Bayern moved from the Olympic Stadium for the hypermodern Allianz Arena, built for the 2006 World Cup. This switch has proved extremely beneficial up to now, as Bayern has won every game in it, the fans receive it well and regulary sport sell-out crowds. In the present season 2005-06, Bayern is leading with six points in the winter break with an impressive 44 points out of 17 games.
[Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayern_Munich]
BAYERN HONOURS
German Championships (19):
1932, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005
German Cup titles (11):
1957, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1998, 2000, 2003
European Champions' Cup/League titles (4):
1974, 1975, 1976, 2001
European Cup Winners' Cup title:
1967
UEFA Cup title:
1996
Intercontinental Cup:
1976, 2001
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