Bayern Munich weathered the Borussia Dortmund storm, grabbed a late equalizer and eventually won the 2017 Supercup in penalties.
Manager Grade
Carlo Ancelotti, Manager — B
Carlo began the match by lining his squad up in a 4-3-3 formation. However, after Dortmund’s opener, the Italian switched his squad to a 4-4-2 that caused serious problems to the BVB defense. This smart switch saw Bayern dominate most of the first-half, but that ended in the second. Luckily, his players came up big to get a late equalizer and subsequently win in penalties.
Player Grades
GK, Sven Ulreich — A
The late hero for Bayern Munich, Sven Ulreich’s two saves from the spot gave Bayern the win in penalties. There was nothing he could do against Dortmund’s regulation time goals, but he stepped up big time in the penalty shoot-out. Interestingly, Ulreich went to his right for every single spot-kick and saved the two sent his way.
DEF, Rafinha — B
Asked to play out of position in light of Bayern’s current injury crisis, Rafinha did well for most of the match against young Ousmane Dembele. Ended the game with a team-high five total tackles.
DEF, Mats Hummels — B+
Hummels was a rock at the back today for Die Roten. His pace let him down on Dortmund’s second, but this was largely a great game for the German.
DEF, Javi Martinez — C
The Spain international gave the ball away too easily for Dortmund’s opener (although he had no help from Arturo Vidal). Left the field early with a knock after failing to make much of an impact on the match.
DEF, Joshua Kimmich — A
Don’t let his poor penalty fool you, Kimmich was undoubtedly Bayern Munich’s best player on the day. His perfectly timed run and pinpoint cross led to Bayern’s first. He also was responsible for the own-goal on Bayern’s second. Surely nobody can doubt the Kid’s ability at right-back after today’s performance.
Kimmich gets behind the Dortmund line and crosses it perfectly to Lewandowski, who won't miss from there. #Supercup https://t.co/CtHXXeXdyH
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 5, 2017
MID, Arturo Vidal — C+
Vidal was — as usual — reckless for many parts of the game and was too often caught in possession. His errant pass to Javi Martinez led to Dortmund’s opener, and never really made up for the vital mistake.
MID, Sebastian Rudy — A-
If Kimmich was Bayern’s best player on the day, then Sebastian Rudy is not far behind. Rudy could not have asked for a better debut with his new club, as he was directly involved in both Bayern Munich goals. His beautiful pass played Kimmich in behind for Lewandowski’s opener, while his perfectly placed free-kick created the second. He said he was ready to fight for a starting place in Munich, and his performance today backs that up well.
MID, Corentin Tolisso — C+
A relatively quiet debut for Bayern’s record signing. The Frenchman started in the midfield, but spent a good bit of the match covering for Joshua Kimmich at right-back. Tolisso did not necessarily have a poor game, but his performance was nothing to write home about.
FWD, Franck Ribery — B
Ribery continued in his pre-season form by energetically attacking the BVB defense for the entire match. None of his four key passes led to a goal, but Riberby nevertheless played a big part in keeping Bayern in this match.
FWD, Robert Lewandowski — C+
By his lofty standards, this was a poor match from Robert Lewandowski. He was anonymous for most of the game and made the wrong decision when he could have given Bayern the winner. He may have scored Bayern’s opening goal and fired home their first penalty, but more is expected of one of the world’s best strikers.
FWD, Thomas Muller (C) — B+
The Bavarian-born Germany international showed the same form he’s displayed all pre-season. Ran tirelessly and consistently got into threatening positions. Perhaps a bit unlucky not to have scored on his chances, and understandably frustrated after his early substitution.
Next: Bayern technical director leaves for Stuttgart
Subs
(59′) DEF, Niklas Sule — B-
The German giant precisely blasted Bayern’s final penalty into the top right corner as if he felt no pressure whatsoever. His header off the post caused the chaos which led to Bayern’s second goal, but he honestly did very little on defense.
(66′) FWD, Kingsley Coman — C
The Frenchman could not make much of an impact on the match proceedings after replacing Thomas Muller, with his one shot on target fired straight at Roman Burki.
(84′) MID, Renato Sanches — N/A
Sanches played basically no role in the game and therefore receives no grade.