Round-Up: Branko Oblak

For Bayern, the season brought the fourth Bundesliga title in a row and the national double; for the Round-Up, a premiere successful season, which we will finish off with this last edition. In 2014, we had regular updates from our Bavarian national players (on our German site) – which effectually lead to this category – and we will keep you updated during the Euro as well.

“Paul Breitner,” is Branko Oblak’s answer to the question of who was the best player he had ever played with. Breitner, says Oblak, had been unbelievable, just like Stan Libuda.

But back to the beginnings: Oblak, born in 1947 in Ljubljana in what is Slovenia today, learned how to play football first at home and later with Hajduk Split (in today’s Croatia) where he made his first experiences as a professional footballer. From Split, Oblak transferred to Schalke 04, where he played in around 50 games between 1975-77, until he made the jump and moved to Bayern Munich, where he stayed for three years, playing mostly as a holding midfielder. His career after Bayern was interesting, too: after returning to Slovenia for two years, during which he played at Sibenik, Oblak gave Austria a go at the end of his career, playing for Spittal an der Drau and Feldkirchen.

To this day, Oblak has contacts in Munich, according to an interview a couple of years ago.

We congratulate Branko Oblak to his 69th birthday!

On a weekly schedule, miasanrot.com provides a 2-for-1 information combo meal. It contains a link list to (hopefully) worthwhile texts about the red giant. Each round-up is dedicated to a former Bayern player who is celebrating his birthday in that week.

MiaSanReview

Carlo Ancelotti: What can FC Bayern expect?
The Götze saga lives on
The Pep Episodes XL
What will remain of Pep Guardiola?
Talking About A Revolution: Guardiola at FC Bayern
Analysis: DFB cup final FC Bayern – Borussia Dortmund 0-0 (4-3 pens)

Press review

Grande Finale

Alex Clapham offers another analysis about the DFB cup final between Bayern and Dortmund, focusing on BVB’s press, Vidal, Bayern’s width and Lahm’s positioning.

https://twitter.com/MC_of_A/status/734124318762893312

By winning in the final game of his tenure and securing the second double with Bayern, Pep Guardiola ended his era in Munich on a happy note and leaves the club in a more powerful position than he found them.

https://twitter.com/CrisNyari/status/734144548583145473

Carlo

If our Ancelotti portrait is not enough for you, Edin Halilovic’s in-depth analysis of Carlo Ancelotti’s managerial career will probably answer the remaining questions.

Media coverage in the US

With their office in NYC Bayern Munich is trying to leave a footmark of their brand in the US. According to this seasons click rates on ESPN, there is still much room for improvement since all Bundesliga teams combined are responsible for only one tenth of the clicks compared to the Premier League.

As a warm-up to the scheduled summer tour, the media hype is starting to build up, e.g. with an article about Manuel Neuer. It’s a little irritating how little actual sports contexts is used to get the story across, though.

Bayern’s attempt to build the fanbase around the club and not the players is clearly visible in their emotional supporters article/video on CNN.

Bundesliga

How does the Bundesliga compare to the other European Leagues in terms of “attractiveness”. One measure could be the amount of goals scored per game. According to Uli Hesse’s annual calculations the Bundesliga is the most attractive league in Europe since 1989, e.g. with 2.83 goals per game this season.

Moreover the Bundesliga is the second-best attended sports league in the world, only behind the NFL, with an average of 43.299 fans per game during the last season.

Compared to the other European top leagues, the stadiums are full of fans across the league.
https://twitter.com/CrisNyari/status/734817575746580480

In the German Women’s Bundesliga Bayern Munich are the most followed team with an average attendance of 1,672 per game, often attracting more fans to away games than to home games.

Kimmich

Joshua Kimmich’s development from a second league player to a potential EURO 2016 member of the German national team (please don’t call it #DieMannschaft) within 12 months’ time has not only impressed in Germany. The Bleacher Report calls him “Bayern Munich’s Most Surprising Player in 2015/16”.

How to defend defensive corner kicks

Offensively Bayern have often lined up in an extreme 2-3-5 formation (re-inverting the pyramid). In his article about defensive corner situations, Istvan Beregi analyses Bayern’s zonal-marking system, which lines up in a 5-3-2 formation. With this set-up Bayern have managed to keep a clean sheet after corners all season. Impressive.

Robben in 8-bit(s)

The German site fussballverletzungen.com collects all injury data of the Bundesliga players and thus they have a very special relationship to Arjen Robben, which resulted in the following demo of their upcoming game.

Well, uhm, just look for yourself