FCB - Pre-season schedule 2008/09 - Page 4 - TalkSoccer

**Trim** · 29-07-2008, 07:55 PM

Japan tour
Bayern face stern challenge in Tokyo

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Some 10,000 kilometres, a 12-hour flight and a seven-hour time difference separate Munich and Tokyo - "it's definitely stressful," acknowledged Uli Hoeneß ahead of Bayern's 75-hour round trip to Japan. However, the club is only too happy to make allowances for the wearying travel if it involves paying a visit to partner club Urawa Red Diamonds. Germany's leading club thus took off on Tuesday for the Land of the Rising Sun for the third time since 2005.

"If you decide you want to be a global player, you do occasionally have to travel to where the global opponents are," commented Hoeneß, head of the 39-strong Bayern delegation. In terms of the playing staff, the party is without the injured Franck Ribéry, Luca Toni, Tim Borowski, Martin Demichelis and Hans Jörg Butt, while José Ernesto Sosa and Breno are away on Olympic duty. Promising reserves Mehmet Ekici and Thomas Müller boarded the plane operated by FCB partner Lufthansa instead.

Penultimate test

The trip was admittedly "not exactly ideal from a timing point of view," Jürgen Klinsmann advised fcbayern.de, but the key thing was to make the best of the situation. "We're very respectful of our partnership with Urawa Red Diamonds," continued Klinsmann, "the date for this trip was fixed more than a year ago, and no-one was exactly sure of how the training schedule would look following the European championships.“

The head coach will be happy that the trip does at least include a serious sporting challenge. On Thursday (12.30 pm CET), Urawa Red Diamonds host Bayern in the Munich club's penultimate warm-up before the first competitive fixture of the new campaign, a DFB German Cupfirst round tie away to Rot-Weiß Erfurt ten days later. "The Japanese are in the middle of their season and will be in good shape. They're also one of the best club sides in Asia," Klinsmann commented.

No major jetlag issues

The Red Diamonds, who are coached by German national Gert Engels and currently lie second in the J-League, finished runners-up in the domestic championship last term and triumphed in the Asian Champions League. "They'll be totally fired up," Hoeneß reckoned, sensing that the match in Tokyo would be a genuine test of Bayern's credentials ahead of the 2008-9 campaign.

Apart from the match against the Japanese partner club, Bayernwill also train and attend a kids' football tournament. After two nights in Tokyo, the party returns to Munich on Friday. The trip had delibertately been kept as short as possible, Hoeneß revealed. "We won't have any major problems with jetlag.“ The manager knows what he is talking about, as it is after all hardly the club's first voyage to Japan.

Bayern face stern challenge in Tokyo

Stupid trip to be honest.. why do they have to go so far to Japan every year? Why can't Urawa come to Allianz Arena?

RunX · 29-07-2008, 08:24 PM

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Stupid trip to be honest.. why do they have to go so far to Japan every year? Why can't Urawa come to Allianz Arena?

Right,But Urawa Reds have a good relationship with bayern thats all the story ....

**Trim** · 29-07-2008, 08:28 PM

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Originally Posted by RunX

Right,But Urawa Reds have a good relationship with bayern thats all the story ....

That's understandable. But, they can come to Allianz Arena, can't they?

RunX · 29-07-2008, 08:31 PM

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That's understandable. But, they can come to Allianz Arena, can't they?

Sure that they can .. but the japanese fans want to see the german giants in their country

**Vargas_4** · 29-07-2008, 09:03 PM

He's got a point there.

There are more chances of fans flocking to see the Bayern v Urawa match in Japan than in here.

So in a business perspective, it's better if we go there.

**Oliver_Kahn** · 29-07-2008, 09:09 PM

I don't agree.

If the match was played in Germany, we would have German fans coming to watch it and I'm pretty sure the Japanese would follow. Not sure if the Germans will go there.

Buddha14 · 29-07-2008, 09:36 PM

This inst gonna be a easy match guys, Urawa are champions of Asia, watch out for Washington, he is very strong and can be underestimated. You might scrape home with a 2-0 win.

RunX · 29-07-2008, 10:05 PM

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This inst gonna be a easy match guys, Urawa are champions of Asia, watch out for Washington, he is very strong and can be underestimated. You might scrape home with a 2-0 win.

^ Washington back to brazil to play with flumininse ...

Munchen Minded · 30-07-2008, 02:30 AM

Urawa may be in the middle of their season and be fit and on form, but Bayern will take this game more seriously than the last couple of games. and to all those doubters and Bayern pretenders. Bayern will show what they are capable of!!

Buddha14 · 30-07-2008, 05:06 AM

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Originally Posted by RunX

^ Washington back to brazil to play with flumininse ...

oh oops my bad, just that he played in the asian champions league final so i thought that he had stayed with them.

RunX · 30-07-2008, 01:15 PM

Guys, the match FCB v Urawa finished or no !?

**Trim** · 30-07-2008, 02:28 PM

It's tomorrow mate.

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Thursday 31 July, 12.30h: Friendly, v Urawa Red Diamonds (A)

vampyrian · 30-07-2008, 02:31 PM

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Originally Posted by RunX

Guys, the match FCB v Urawa finished or no !?

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On Thursday (12.30 pm CET), Urawa Red Diamonds host Bayern in the Munich club's penultimate warm-up...

So... no. The match is tomorrow.

**Trim** · 31-07-2008, 11:20 AM

Half-time; Urawa Red Diamonds 0 - 3 FC Bayern München.
Goals from Klose and Podolski (2).

Our line-up:

Podolski - Klose
Schweinsteiger - Zé Roberto - Van Bommel (C) - Hamit Altintop
Lahm - van Buyten - Lucio - Lell
Rensing

We totally dominated the first half. The guys played some brilliant, fantastic, entertaining football.

Great combinations, great understanding between the players. Everything links so well.

Our players get past opponents quite easy, some awesome dribblings there.

Klose scored the first goal, after a great through ball from the elegant Zé Roberto.

Schweinisteiger provided Podolski with a great ball (he lobbed it), and Podolski just made a light touch for 2-0.

The third goal came on counter-attack. Klose 'stole' a ball there, made a run, assisted to Podolski in the last second, and he just hit it well above the keeper for 3-0.

Our defence was quite strong and concentrated, and so was Rensing.

Brilliant first half, I hope the second half will be similar.

**Trim** · 31-07-2008, 12:23 PM

Game over; Urawa Red Diamonds 2 - 4 FC Bayern München.
Abe and Umesaki scored for Urawa, Podolski scored for us again (his hat-trick!).

Kroos, Ottl, Müller, Ekici, Jansen featured for us in the second half.

I had hoped for a better second half, wanted to see something similar as the first half, but that didn't happen.

We were too careless in the second half, the players were just not interested in the match anymore. We gave Urawa too much space, and they somehow dominated the second half.

They made it 3-1 first. Then Podolski scored for 4-1. It was a great goal. Zé Roberto provided him with a great ball, and Podolski volleyed it perfectly. Urawa scored the last goal, for 4-2.

A good test, a good win. I'm quite satisfied.