Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski, left, fought for the ball with Bayern’s Holger Badstuber during a matchup of the eventual Champions League finalists in a German league game in December. (Lennart Preiss/Bongarts/Getty Images)
(PhatzRadio / CBC Sports) — They are the two best clubs in Germany. We’ve known that for a while. But this is not the German Cup Final. This is about becoming kings of Europe.
Let’s be honest. Most of us do not watch German league soccer on a regular basis. But clearly we should. Based on this season’s UEFA Champions League, it is where the best European soccer is being played. Not in England, not in Spain and not in Italy.
German soccer is no longer under the radar — it is about to be showcased in all its glory under the beaming floodlights of London’s Wembley Stadium in Saturday’s Champions League final.
Between them, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have dominated German soccer in recent years.
They have hogged the Bundesliga title, both winning it twice in the last four seasons. Simultaneously, Bayern have made it all the way to the Champions League final in three of those four years, only to stumble at the last hurdle.
By the law of averages this should be Bayern’s year — third time lucky and all that. In 2010 they ran into Inter at its height under the management of Jose Mourinho. Twelve months ago Bayern survived a penalty shootout to dispose of Real Madrid, only to lose the final against Chelsea on its own pitch in similar heartbreaking fashion.
But soccer doesn’t work like that. It is a cruel game which doesn’t hand out trophies for hard work or hard-luck stories. It doesn’t always reward the better team on the day. In the tension-filled atmosphere of occasions such as this, one lapse in concentration can be the difference between elation and desolation.
If part of winning is learning the lessons of losing, Bayern should be experts. Certainly there has been no Champions League hangover this season — quite the reverse in fact. Munich romped to the German league title by a huge margin and has played virtually flawless football against all comers on the international stage.
Before blitzing Barcelona they beat up the Old Lady of Turin. Neither Juventus nor Barca managed to score a single goal against the German giants in 360 minutes of high-stakes soccer. Bayern appears to have come full circle from the despair of watching glory snatched away just a year ago.
Bayern beware
But this first all-German Champions League final is not a foregone conclusion. Bayern will start as slight favourites but Dortmund is not in England to sightsee or make up the numbers. Jurgen Klopp’s team know everything about their familiar foe and will have planned accordingly.
Bayern better beware. A week before last season’s Champions League final, Munich faced Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal (German Cup final). On neutral territory in Berlin, Dortmund delivered a knockout blow, winning 5-2, thanks in large part to a hat trick from Robert Lewandowski. More recently, the Polish striker scored four goals against Real Madrid to effectively book Dortmund’s Wembley excursion.
Dortmund is not a one-man team. Lewandowski’s presence is pivotal of course, but there is more than one string to this team’s bow. Mario Gotze’s enforced injury absence, ahead of his multi-million dollar move to Munich, is a major setback, but Marco Reus has enjoyed a productive first season back with his hometown club.
We may have to prepare for the long haul. The most recent league meetings between Bayern and Dortmund suggest extra time is a distinct possibility. Both games ended in inconclusive 1-1 ties. By definition the Champions League must have a champion, so a stalemate after 90 minutes this time will just not do.
Bayern Munich has the pedigree and the experience to clinch the title for the first time since 2001. Borussia Dortmund has the confidence and the determination to emulate the glory days of the 90s.
For those drooling over the tasty prospect of an all-Spanish showpiece between Barcelona and Real Madrid, sorry, the menu has changed. Forget the paella. Break out the bratwurst.
International – Club Friendlies
FT Manchester City 4 – 3 Chelsea
Italy – Serie C Super Cup
FT Trapani 2 – 2 Avellino
Germany – Bundesliga Promotion/Rel.
FT Hoffenheim 3 – 1 Kaiserslautern
Soccer: German soccer strength on display in Champions League final is a post from: PhatzRadio.com
Sports: Garcia’s remark again roils racial waters in sports
Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia stand on the 11th tee during round three of THE PLAYERS Championship.(Photo: Richard Heathcote, Getty Images)
Story Highlights
Sergio Garcia’s remark shows how racist language still can stir visceral emotions.
“A fried chicken joke, that’s from the museum of historic racist comments”
Tiger Woods said he believed there was real regret and now hopes to move on
(PHatzRadio / AP) — The president of the United States is African-American. The movie 42 plays at a theater near you. We live in a post-racial world, or so we like to think, until, inevitably, we are reminded otherwise.
This time it is Sergio Garcia, the Spanish golfer who, in the midst of a public feud with Tiger Woods, unleashed a shockingly racist joke this week with ugly echoes of Fuzzy Zoeller in 1997, Archie Bunker in 1972 and minstrel shows circa 1850.
“A fried chicken joke, that’s from the museum of historic racist comments,” says Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “Whenever we get these moments that remind us that as far along into the 21st century as we are, as much as we think attitudes like this have changed and consciousness has been raised and enlightenment has happened, we constantly get reminders that it isn’t always the case.
“These issues and attitudes about race are still very much present in society. And not only have people gotten in trouble before for this kind of remark, they’ve gotten in trouble before for this kind of remark in golf, made against this particular golfer.”
When Woods won his first major championship, the 1997 Masters, Zoeller made an on-camera joke about telling Woods not to serve fried chicken and collard greens at the next champions’ dinner. The context: Woods was the first African American golfer to win the storied tournament at Augusta National, a club that famously had no black members less than a decade earlier.
Three years after that, in 2000, Garcia celebrated an exhibition win over Woods a bit more exuberantly than Woods felt was warranted. Their mutual antipathy has simmered since and was on view once again nearly two weeks ago at the Players Championship, when Garcia accused Woods of distracting him on his backswing.
They have traded barbs since, including this stinging line from Garcia: “He called me a whiner. He’s probably right. But that’s also probably the first thing he’s told you guys that’s true in 15 years. I know what he’s like. You guys are finding out.”
Asked Monday if he’d thought of calling Garcia to broker peace between them, Woods uttered an icy, single syllable: “No.”
That set the stage for Garcia’s remark Tuesday night at the European Tour Player of the Year awards. Asked in jest if he would invite Woods for dinner at next month’s U.S. Open, Garcia said:
“We will have him ’round every night. We will serve fried chicken.”
That was met by audible gasps.
Garcia’s original apology Tuesday night called it a “silly remark.” Later he offered “an unreserved apology. I did not want to offend anyone. My answer was totally stupid and out of place.”
Woods accepted the apology, but not the notion that the remark came in the jocular setting of a banquet for jocks. “The comment that was made wasn’t silly,” Woods tweeted Wednesday. “It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate.”
The banquet was held in England. Garcia was there with his Ryder Cup teammates, who appeared uncomfortable with the remark.
“I think he probably felt that the people he was with would not be offended by it and would think it was humorous,” says Richard Lapchick, director of the DeVos Sport Business Management program at the University of Central Florida. “I have no way to verify that but I think those types of crowds can be that way. The difference today is social media makes everything up for grabs. It’s very likely anything you say will be discovered.”
Zoeller’s remark in 1997 was captured by CNN cameras. Not long after, Russell Baker wrote this in the New York Times: “Witless cracks with a racist undertone, whether deliberate or inadvertent, are useful, because they reflect the somber reality: Try as we may to conceal it, the tendency toward racism insists on pulsing silent and apparently eternal within us.”
Zoeller was pilloried in the press and Kmart dropped its endorsement deal with him. So far, Garcia’s sponsors are sticking with him. TaylorMade-adidas Golf issued a statement calling Garcia’s comment offensive and not in line with its “values and corporate culture.” The statement said the company believes Garcia’s apology was sincere but added that “we are continuing to review the matter.”
Hoping to Move on
The PGA Tour didn’t comment. Paul Azinger, captain of the victorious 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team, did.
“It was a really stupid question,” Azinger told USA TODAY Sports, “and, unfortunately, it was a stupider answer.”
Zach Johnson, who is defending his title at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in Texas starting Thursday, was asked about it at a news conference.
“I guess my first reaction is we are all human,” Johnson said. “We make mistakes. I’ve made some, and I am going to make some more. Ask for forgiveness and try to move on.”
Move on — that was the theme of the day. At an impromptu news conference at the BMW PGA Championship, Garcia said: “I felt very sick about it and feel really bad, and just hope to settle things down and move on.”
Woods echoed that sentiment — a rare point of agreement — as part of his series of tweets: “I’m confident that there is real regret the remark was made. The Players ended nearly two weeks ago and it’s long past time to move on and talk about golf.”
George O’Grady, chief executive of the European Tour, said: “We have accepted (Garcia’s) full apology and consider the matter closed.”
Garcia said he was caught off guard by the banquet question from Steve Sands of Golf Channel: “It was a funny question and I wanted it to be a funny answer in reply. I started to get a sick feeling straight after the dinner and I felt so bad I thought my heart was going to come out of my body.”
Syracuse’s Thompson rejects Garcia’s contention that he didn’t intend to make a racist remark.
“I suppose that’s what one says when one apologizes,” Thompson says. “But I can’t imagine any way in which one would use that other than race. Fried chicken is not an accidental menu item that you would bring up.”
It was the second time in two years that a racially charged banquet remark against Woods was followed by apology. Caddie Steve Williams won a tournament with golfer Adam Scott in 2011 after being let go by Woods and at an awards night for caddies in Shanghai that year talked of wanting to shove that win “right up that black (expletive).” Williams apologized the next week.
‘Attitudes are still present’
The movie 42 tells the story of Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color line in 1947 and foreshadowed the coming Civil Rights movement.
“Clearly in sports we are no longer in the age of Jackie Robinson,” Thompson says. “Our greatest stars in professional sports are people of color. Golf has its country club traditions but Tiger Woods has been golf’s superstar for a long time and there are people who are only interested in golf when Tiger Woods is playing.”
Woods was the only African-American player in that 1997 Masters — and again at the 2013 Masters. He is the only African-American player on today’s PGA Tour. Just two African-American players play on its developmental tour. The numbers aren’t much different on the LPGA Tour.
Garcia’s remark shows how racist language has a terrible power to stir visceral emotions.
“In the grand scheme of things, we are clearly better in 2013 than in 1913,” Thompson says.
“But to think that somehow we’ve reached a period where the rainbows have come down and we’ve joined hands and we are singing, ‘We Are the World,’ it’s simply not the case. The attitudes are still present, even in people who may not realize how present they are.”
Asks Azinger, “Don’t you think we would have gotten past this type of stuff after the 2008 election?”
Lapchick says there were 600 hate groups in the U.S. the year that Obama ran for president and 800 when he was inaugurated for the first time and more than 1,000 now.
“That’s the most in American history,” Lapchick says. “We’re not talking about the European stage anymore. We still have a lot of work to do right here.”
Contributing: Steve DiMeglio
It wasn’t always so acrimonious between Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia, shown here on April 9, 1999.(Photo: Elise Amendola, AP)
Sports: Garcia’s remark again roils racial waters in sports is a post from: PhatzRadio.com
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