Yeah, I'm proud of that of course,
because I've changed the system and that is very difficult.
And very difficult to do that as a stranger in a club with a structure,
with top players in the board.
That's not so simple.
In that season,
we have won the championship, the cup, [Champions League] finalists.
It's unbelievable.
But it is also unbelievable that the same coach was sacked the next season.
So, that's football.
CHAPTER 2
“DEATH OR GLADIOLI”
It was also a period,
if you recall the 2009/10 season,
in which the whole country joined in the excitement with Bayern.
It wasn't yet the case that they had the league title booked every year.
They had to earn their wins and their successes
and also their European successes.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL
You saw the Louis van Gaal system there.
Then all of a sudden there were triangles and, I don't know, parallelograms,
pitches were divided into thirds, and I think to myself:
"Okay, I know that I know nothing."
Before you could've accused FC Bayern:
"What tactics do FC Bayern actually stand for?"
With van Gaal came a new tactical system which was attack-orientated,
where you press high, where you try to dominate the game.
And van Gaal could really
predict moves.
For example, he'd told me before the first leg that he said to his players:
"You have to watch out. When Manchester United have the kick-off,
the first ball always goes long to the right wing."
And exactly that happened on the night.
Badstuber was standing a bit diagonally.
Free kick.
Van Gaal's already snapped.
And the opening goal resulted from that free kick.
It's dangerous! And it's in! Wayne Rooney makes it 1-0 after one minute.
We didn't play particularly well but tactically we did well,
in terms of subduing the opportunities for Bayern Munich.
We never looked like losing the game
until the free kick.
Yes, a bit lucky.
But what can I say?
Ribéry... Ribéry! Goal!
It wasn't the best free kick,
but sometimes you need a bit of luck.
We certainly noticed that Manchester United are obviously at the top level.
But we also noticed
that if we kept plugging away, that might be the difference.
It was clear from the outset
that it's a Herculean task, it remains a Herculean task.
But with this spirit and this commitment, maybe there's more in it.
Who was the scorer of the second goal?
A friend once said to me:
''I didn't see you because the television always shows you where the ball is."
Perhaps I was two, three metres to the left or right
and then I came from nowhere.
They were all surprised
because I still found the strength in the 92nd minute
to somewhere push through.
And this is the opportunity for Bayern.
And Gómez is fouled there, then here's Olić. Olić!
Sometimes you have to take the medicine.
Goal! Goal for Bayern!
2-1! In the last second of the match!
When I watch it back now, it's all over 10 years ago,
then I think that was someone else, that wasn't me.
lvica Olić, who again is fighting till he drops, giving everything until the last second.
When I saw the pictures on the TV for the first time, the whole stadium,
it really was like an explosion.
For me that was honestly
one of the nicest moments of my career.
It was a really good game.
Also how the players attacked, I thought was very, very good.
We won 2-1 at home and then went to Manchester.
That wasn't easy.
2-1 isn't much.
We were good, but Man United were also still very good at that time.
We flew to England.
Manchester. And then it was said
that Wayne Rooney was injured.
And for Rooney it could be really tight for next week.
He's taken off his boot. He's limping.
He's in pain.
I don't know whether he can play or not.
I didn't see the ankle after the match.
And I also don't know how long something like that takes.
I also asked him later
if he was genuinely injured.
He said he's certainly got something.
But he just wanted to make out like he wouldn't play.
We never let anybody near the training ground.
The press were allowed for 15 minutes on Friday morning,
Rooney was not there.
You should never give your opponents opportunities and let them know.
And we did that all the time.
Then he came into the stadium on crutches to make it look like he wasn't going to play.
And 75 minutes before kick-off, Rooney was there.
We just laughed and thought:
"What's that about? What kind of madness is this?"
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL - 2ND LEG
And we just shrugged our shoulders. Well then,
he's playing-
I remember that Patrice Evra was playing for United at the time.
Together with Franck, I bumped into him just before the game.
And he said to us: "You'll see, it's going to be hell tomorrow."
It's going to be unbelievable!
We're playing at home and we're going to destroy you."
In the first 30 minutes we were
swept up in a hurricane.
75,000 mad fans.
I spoke to Micho, who was three metres from me.
And I know: when I shout on the pitch, you hear me.
He was three metres away and I shouted at him.
He didn't hear it.
We couldn't say anything to the team. And we lost our heads.
We were a bit naive there.
Myself included.
Old Trafford erupted, you thought a train was travelling
and Bayern are standing on the platform and waving behind.
Bayern were the better team in the final in '99.
We were the far better team that night.
Far better team.
It was incredible. And I just turned to van Bommel and said:
"Pfft, will we turn this around?" And he said:
"Yes, we'll turn it around."
Van Bommel, he was fantastic.
When they lost the third goal, he was going round
all the players, shaking his fists at them.
I always remember seeing that.
Bloody hell, he still wants to win,
at 3-0.
From there we got more into the game
and got our chances.
I played a long ball to Thomas Müller, he flicked it on.
I was almost on the floor after a body check.
The ball came onto my stronger foot.
I thought: "Okay, I have to shoot now."
Since there wasn't much time.
Olić! Yes!
3-1:
I get chills down my spine now because it came out of absolutely nothing.
And it was Olić of all people.
So, my take on the half-time talk to the players was
we have to go for the fourth goal.
We have to kill them off.
And Lahm, van Bommel and Butt stood there and shouted:
"We're not going out, we're staying in, we'll score a goal!"
And that was one of those moments in which you knew, okay,
we can still turn the game around.
At that point, at half-time,
Bayern were in the driving seat.
And then Rafael,
I think it was the 55th minute,
received a second yellow.
It was a really bad decision.
He was only 19 years of age. A kid.
The game changed because then you could see
they only needed to score one goal and then they're through.
The game turned.
But yes, we still needed one goal.
And then, obviously,
as everyone knows, the corner came.
I associate so many memories with that goal.
When you watch the goal again,
then it's the kind of goal you can hear — even if you only see a photo.
I stood in the penalty area and when the ball was played,
I just thought to myself: "Why's Franck playing it there?
We're all in the penalty area."
We made eye contact.
And then I see Arjen.
Alone.
Yes, I think, I obviously made a gesture.
I saw that he saw it.
I gave a signal.
We never practised that corner.
That's the big advantage with creative players,
they come up with something.
Just stay calm, strike well,
don't want it too much.
The ball went through
a forest of players.
You see and you feel already:
that's probably going in.
And for it to be such a goal
that turned off all the lights.
I mean, that was...
Yes, it doesn't get better.
Robben!
An incredible goal
2-3!
As things stand, FC Bayern Munich
are in the Champions League semi-finals.
This extraordinary piece of football was...
incredible.
That was a match that showed the belief,
that great battling spirit in the team.
It was clear: we want to win the Champions League.
And we're going to do it.
Then we said to ourselves: "Okay, now let's go to the final."
So, we progressed twice only thanks to the away goals rule,
then it was only against Lyon in the semi-final
where we really played more convincingly,
produced really good performances, particularly winning clearly at Lyon.
Three for lvi, I believe.
But we lost Franck in the first leg.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL
Against Lyon,
we actually gave the Champions League away a bit there.
You see...
You see red cards given for that.
You see them given.
Obviously, if you had a referee with a bit of instinct to say:
"Okay, that's dark yellow, next time you're off."
I didn't do that intentionally.
I didn't want to hurt the player
or injure him. No. It was unfortunate.
Franck was suspended for two matches,
and we still had the second leg at Lyon
and hopefully the final.
And I then flew with him to Geneva,
to the UEFA headquarters.
And we debated
MEETING AT UEFA HEADQUARTERS IN NYON
whether there's a possibility to reduce the suspension from two matches to "one plus one" —
i.e. one-match ban
plus one match suspended.
That was rejected.
We tried everything but it didn't work.
I felt it was annoying him.
At the same time, of course, Franck felt unbelievably
that FC Bayern did everything for him.
The club always fought for me.
Uli, Rummenigge...
Yes, we always fought for Franck
because he also gave everything for FC Bayern.
4 DAYS TILL CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
I understand his disappointment, his sadness.
But I'm sure
it's not the last time
that Bayern Munich can reach a final.
And next time I'm sure that he'll be on the pitch,
together with the team, and then
will achieve his big goal there.
At Säbener Street there are
two staircases on the way from the dressing room to the canteen.
After the first staircase there are three pictures.
A picture of the Meisterschale, a picture of the cup
and a picture of the Champions League trophy.
And we walked past these pictures all season.
Again and again.
And I don't know exactly, on 8th May
we were crowned champions.
On 15 May we won the cup.
But the Champions League win
was a long way off.
My pleasure.
We built a very humble team, in terms of the mentality,
to face a giant like Bayern.
We knew exactly the way we wanted to play,
which was to play in relation to our strength.
And to try not to give to Bayern
what they wanted us to give them.
I think he's right.
Bayern Munich was the attacking team.
We take the risk, and that is why he can say that.
I worked previously
as Mr. van Gaal's assistant.
I knew what
for him is very important.
Certainly in that time, I was more of an attacking coach against the team of Mourinho.
When I heard him speak about us...
All the teams of Mourinho play like that.
Inter is a different kind of team.
They were the defending team.
José will come with a certain kind of approach.
Defending is easier than attacking.
I knew exactly what he wanted with that.
FC Bayern were certainly a bit starved.
It had been a long time since a Champions League win.
Playing in a final is a special experience.
You notice that it's different.
Since Hamit [Altintop] played on the right,
I could play Zanetti in midfield
and Chivu on the left.
So, it all worked.
José Mourinho explained the game to me again
in Manchester from his perspective.
They knew: Franck isn't playing, Arjen was dealt with by Chivu.
He was repeatedly stopped,
there were lots of little fouls.
Don't let Robben play with space,
because Robben with space was amazing.
We tried always
to play him against two.
I always had two, three opponents.
Yes, we needed our wingers there.
But one of them wasn't there.
Franck was phenomenal at that time.
And that completely
senseless and unwarranted red card
obviously brought about our downfall.
The fact that Ribéry was suspended
also played a factor.
Bayern lost a great player.
Well, you don't know how it would've turned out with Franck.
But on the whole I'd say Inter also just had a great team,
an experienced team, who defended very, very well.
Our game, our tactics
was to play our game, not the Bayern Munich game.
Maybe they wanted to play faster.
But we wanted to play a controlled game.
When you have to play defensively strong teams,
it's more difficult
to score goals.
Our defence line was on the halfway line.
That is always more difficult.
And you've seen that.
And we didn't find any ways of making things happen.
Then they managed to do exactly what we didn't want.
We knew it would be a difficult final,
that FC Bayern had a lot of experience of these games and would give everything.
We prepared very well. We knew every detail,
we knew we couldn't leave anything to chance.
Micho and I were often one versus one — with Sneijder and Milito.
And then we face a counter-attack,
where they obviously get forward very quickly
and get the first goal.
They scored the goals from the few chances they had.
Then in the second half we had the huge chance with Thomas to score the equaliser.
A huge chance.
Schweinsteiger.
Olić. That was good.
Altintop. To the right is Müller, Müller, Müller, Müller, Müller, Müller.
I maybe come to the ball a tad too slowly,
so that I can allow myself more time for the finish.
Nevertheless, even in that situation
you should be able to finish more accurately and better.
That was certainly a big chance, I think.
If he puts that away, maybe it would've been a different game.
Yes.
In hindsight a big thing.
But I can't do anything about it now.
And then in that game, for the first time in many months,
we really lacked belief.
We tried,
but the feeling in the stadium:
Inter are going to win this.
And then came that decisive punch.
There are several points here:
you wait.
You try to hold up the player a bit.
But eventually you're in the penalty box.
So eventually you have to attack.
I knew that I can keep on dribbling because he can't touch me in the penalty box.
I took the risk and went into the one-v-one duel.
And it's a mistake by me to try to stop the player
from shooting.
One. Two. And then no option for the goalkeeper.
They were both one-v-one situations...
Making any sort of accusations
is no good.
We lacked a bit of something in the final.
We maybe weren't yet ready to win the Champions League
in an honest way.
When I look back,
I feel that Inter were more prepared.
They were really a tactical machine.
We were creating a certain kind of mentality, then the players
tactically were ready for everything.
Maybe when you see the match,
you think that Bayern Munich shall win.
But it's not like that.
We obviously got that far with a bit of luck here and there,
and for it was actually a huge achievement even to get to the final.
We seized it, I must say. And I
BANQUET AFTER THE FINAL
am very proud. Very proud of this team, of this coach.
Yes, we were all proud. And we had actually
planned, regardless of the outcome of the match,
to do a motorcade from the airport
to the city centre and then go onto the town hall balcony.
Louis was so whacked on the night after the match that he said:
"A motorcade after a defeat, that's not right." And I said:
"Louis, I tell you one thing, the people will celebrate
you and the team tomorrow — and you've earned that."
Yeah,
but when you don't win,
you cannot have a celebration.
That's also a principle of mine.
And then eventually we decided:
"We're doing that now!"
I have to adapt to the culture
in Germany and in Munich.
And I have done that.
DAY AFTER THE FINAL - MUNICH CITY CENTRE
Hoppa, hey!
Brilliant. Food, yes we need that at some point.
It was fantastic that so many people came.
You!
Are!
Unbelievable!
I thought I was dead
this morning,
but you are the gladioli.
Unbelievable. We're alive again.
I don't think it was as painful that time
because we knew
that we didn't go into it as favourites,
and then we're in the final - and then we lost.
Instead, the journey there and that process was important for us.
We valued that as a success in itself.
This group is achieving a lot,
and I assume
that we'll keep on working
until we bring the Champions League trophy here. Okay?
I always had that feeling.
That now a team is growing who in the coming years
can always compete for the Champions League.
And I think you also sensed that in the club,
the fans sensed it,
that top players such as Franck Ribéry, top global stars,
have identified with the club and the team.
Our friend Franck
signed a new contract yesterday until 2015.
Yes, I said: "I've extended by five years!"
And then the fans were happy.
I'm doing five more years.
It was a really phenomenal season
with Bayern, and then even better with the national team.
The World Cup went superbly, for our players too.
What happened then?
I think Arjen was then injured for another six months.
Ah, he's calling now.
Arjen, yes, servus, you...
No, no, it's not him.
Of course, that was also a very big and special story.
We then had the World Cup
and serious injuries.
They came back.
Three weeks' holiday.
And then we got the impression
that a lot of them were still physically tired —just physically.
You come up as a 20-year-old, play 50 plus games,
win titles, reach the Champions League final, lose it, go to the World Cup,
also get knocked out near the end there in the semi-finals.
In the following season we had,
let's say, suffer from it.
We again had problems from the start, we had difficulties.
I don't know what was up today because we just didn't get into our game.
Now we must first
process this crap here.
On Matchday 7 we're now 13 points behind.
In my view, that's a major disaster for Bayern Munich.
Of course the players are disappointed too.
But we now have the opportunity that the players,
who have been waiting so long to play,
can now play.
In the previous season,
Louis asked me after a few weeks:
"This Gómez, look at his goals at Stuttgart."
It was over 30 or something.
So I watched all these goals.
"And?" asked Louis.
I said: "15 goals inside the six-yard box."
Five goals are really nice goals. Well taken.
With five goals he had a bit of luck.
And five goals were just offside.
Then he says: ''I can't be doing with that."
Well, it was clear that I already
had an offer from Bayern Munich the year before.
And VfB Stuttgart didn't let me go.
And then in 2009 I moved
and signed, without knowing who would be coach.
And then Louis van Gaal became coach,
which really for me in my life
was a kind of milestone, I think.
Before that a lot of things were taken for granted.
With him nothing's taken for granted.
You're not used to that.
When you're a young rising star and everyone's slapping you on the back,
and then suddenly someone comes and gives you a dose of reality every day.
I'll never forget the first day, when I came into the dressing room
and everyone said "hello", and he takes my hand and I say "hello".
Then he carries on walking, turns around, comes back and asks:
"Who are you?"
And then I looked at him. He shook my hand and said:
"I'm Louis van Gaal.
In Holland we introduce ourselves on first meeting."
Then I didn't know if he was having me on or if he was serious.
I didn't know him.
And yes, he was being serious.
It is normal.
I have to introduce myself.
To then hear a bit later that he didn't actually want me,
that I'm fourth-choice striker.
At the start there were four strikers for two positions.
And then when the decision was made that it was better to play with
one striker and two wingers, there was really one too many.
Mario worked incredibly hard, improved a lot,
but wasn't yet at the level where he could start.
But to be honest, van Gaal opened my eyes.
He told me he expects more things from a striker
than just scoring goals.
I'm always very clear. I say the things
that I see on the pitch.
And I say it to the players at the right moment, I hope.
And then he has to change.
Subtitle Extracted by: Aren Zohrabi
Louis always said: "The better substitutes
wear the orange vests,
the worse players the blue ones."
And Mario always had blue in his first year,
always blue.
I obviously expressed my aggression and my displeasure.
And that was actually a provocation by Louis,
because he decided the colours before training
and the players knew that too.
The story with van Gaal then continues, we have the new season
and he says to me: "Okay, it's better if you go."
Because I wasn't going to play anymore with him.
And Uli Hoeneß then called me in.
I went to him and had a coffee with him.
And then he put his hand on his belly and said:
"My gut feeling tells me that you're still going to be very, very important for the club."
I just had to promise him that I'd give everything every day.
Well, Mario...
I thought a lot more of Mario, but Louis was obviously a...
yes-or-no type-
I then obviously stayed because I had to stay.
I had a very nice offer at the time from Liverpool,
with whom I'd actually already agreed
and which I also really wanted to do.
And then it just didn't happen.
I was on the bench for seven games, hardly played at all.
And we actually, luckily —
well, luckily for me — started the season really poorly.
And on Matchday 8, I believe,
he didn't know what to do up front anymore,
and he brought me over before the game and said
that I'm playing at the weekend.
Now's my chance.
It was against Hannover.
And then we won the game 3-0.
And I scored all three goals.
I then sat in the dressing room
and I was struggling with myself, with my emotions.
So I sat there, completely withdrawn.
Then someone taps me on the shoulder, laughs and says: ''I told you so."
And it was Uli Hoeneß, who was standing in front of me and laughed and said:
"But now keep it up, don't stop."
And Louis van Gaal, being as he is,
immediately brought me back down to earth.
He said: "Won, three goals, but still a long way from what I imagine from a striker.
But a good start, for sure."
From then on I played, though.
There was then a fantastic moment, which still gives me goosebumps when I think about it today.
It's probably the greatest success of my career.
At some point midway through the aforementioned second season, van Gaal
brought me into his office again before the match.
I came in, and he just always showed
his emotions unfiltered and was then like
sat in front of me with tears in his eyes.
They were tears of emotion.
He then told me,
that he's very, very happy that I've been on this journey
because up to that point in time,
so in the season before, he didn't want to play me.
But I'd fought my way from fourth to first in the pecking order.
He had a lot of question marks with me.
But those question marks are now gone for him,
because I'm now delivering exactly the game that he expects from a striker.
And that for him it's no longer a question of who plays up front,
but that it's clear for him that I play up front.
I haven't done that.
No.
Mario Gómez himself has done that.
I have created the circumstances [so] that he could do that.
And he has done it.
And that is remarkable because not many players
can do that.
I am very proud of him that he has done that.
In hindsight, really,
for what I am today and how I see things today, that was probably
the hardest but also the most important school of my life.
I was even the top goalscorer that season.
I think I scored 28 goals.
Mario did become the number one striker in the end
and scored a lot of goals and a lot of important goals.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - ROUND OF 16
And almost every ball near the goal, he put it away.
That's his quality.
Louis is a coach who looks at
competitive games, friendlies and training sessions.
And if a young player, in his opinion,
is doing better than an older player, then in comes the young player.
Doesn't matter who.
Thomas Kraft then played in goal
and Jörg Butt was dropped to the bench.
It all wasn't easy.
My goalkeeper coach Frans Hoek also saw that he was a talent.
And like Alaba, Badstuber or Müller
he could have the possibility
to develop himself.
You have to say: That wasn't a sporting decision.
That was a decision somewhere between coach, club or club management.
Yes, yes, that was also the "Koan Neuer" ["No Neuer"].
Was it that season? I kept saying:
"Please get the goalkeeper. He's the best around."
Hoeneß liked to buy Neuer.
We're signing Manuel Neuer.
I said we have Thomas Kraft.
And he said to us: "Yes, you can do that with him.
But Thomas Kraft is playing for me."
Then you think to yourself, are you in the wrong film?
Then I said:
"Louis, I'm going to say something to you now which stays in this room."
Manuel Neuer is coming to FC Bayern.
End of."
Okay, when you think
that Neuer is much better than Kraft, then you can do that.
But at that time, we didn't know that he was the best goalkeeper ever in Germany.
And then there was that strange DFB Cup match against Schalke,
where Manuel Neuer was unbelievable in goal for Schalke 04 again.
And the stands, the Südkurve: "Koan Neuer!"
Uli and I, we went mad.
Yes, we also went into the stand
and then into the dressing room.
And then, being completely mad as I was, I went
into the Schalke dressing room. Then Horst Heldt came up to me and said:
"What are you doing here? You're in the wrong dressing room."
And then I said: "No. May I please speak with Manuel briefly?"
And then Manuel came out of the shower, he came with a towel.
He came into the corridor and then I said to him:
"Manuel, I would like to
apologise for what happened there tonight."
And he was quite cool.
And then he said to me:
"May I ask you a question?"
I said: "Sure!"
"Do Mr. Hoeneß and you want me to come to FC Bayern?"
I replied: "Of course."
Then he said: "Then I'll come!"