Bayern Munich brings best of the Bundesliga to Charlotte 

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Bayern Munich, one of the top teams in Germany's Bundesliga and a global soccer brand, will play Benfica of Portugal on June 24 in the FIFA Club World Cup tournament.

Anyone under 30, maybe even 40 years old, might not believe it, but there once was a world where soccer could not be watched daily across more than 40 different television channels. 

Save for a rare game here or there on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” CBS, or NBC, the only consistent soccer programming in Charlotte began in 1976 on WTVI with a PBS-produced show called “Soccer Made in Germany.” That’s right. PBS, as in the Public Broadcasting Service. 

Before soccer’s growth as a youth sport, the establishment of MLS, and technology changed everything, the weekly series featured hour-long edited versions of games from the West German Bundesliga. That’s when German soccer teams became the favorites of players in the almost cult sport that soccer was in the ‘70s. 

You could easily tell who a soccer player was in Charlotte because they wore Adidas Sambas and could quote Toby Charles, the legendary broadcast voice of the show, with a talent for phrases such as “High, wide, and not very handsome!” for a bad miss, or “A second bite of the cherry” for a shot on the rebound.

The game in Germany was played on an amateur and semi-professional level until 1949. The first season for the fully professional Bundesliga was 1963-64.

FC Bayern Munich was one of those clubs in a much more balanced Bundesliga that in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s (seasons ending 1970 to 1999) saw eight different teams win titles. Bayern had the most with 13 trophies, Borussia Mönchengladbach 5, Hamburger SV 3; VfB Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund, and 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Werder Bremen two each; and 1. FC Köln once. 

There were two Bayern players on West Germany’s 1966 World Cup roster – Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier. In 1970, it was Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller. By 1974, there were seven of the 22-man squad, and it was these stars – Beckenbauer, Müller, Maier, along with Paul Breitner, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, and Uli Hoeness – who made an impression on young American soccer players, including this reporter. 

In the past 26 seasons, Bayern has become the alpha wolf, winning 18 titles, including 11 straight from 2012-13 to 2022-23. Dortmund interrupted the dominance three times, with Bremen Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg, and Bayer Leverkusen winning once each. 

There were also seven Bayern players on the last World Cup squad in 2022. Six of them will be with the team in Charlotte, including goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, midfielders Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, and Jamal Musiala, and forwards Thomas Muller and Serge Gnabry. 

Bayern leads Group C with six points from wins over Auckland City FC (10-0) and Boca Juniors (2-1) and confirmed to move on. The fabled Benfica club, with 4 points, must get at least a draw to do so as well, and could win the group by upsetting the Germans. The Portuguese side has a plus-6 goal differential, which could be at risk if they lose with Boca taking on amateurs Auckland in their last group match. 

Sport Lisboa e Benfica is no pushover. The former club of Eusebio, the only player to win Ballon d’or for a Portuguese club, qualified as seventh-best ranked eligible team in the UEFA four-year ranking. Bayern qualified as the best-ranked team in UEFA. 

Known as the Eagles or the Reds, key players for the team that finished second in Liga Portugal by two points last season include Argentine World Cup winners Angel di Maria and Nicolas Otamendi, both of whom scored in their 2-2 draw with Boca in game one. They beat Auckland 6-0 in their last match. 

The match kicks off at 3 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium. Tickets are available. It will be televised on DAZN, TNT,truTV, TUDN, UniMas, and Univision.

A Real-ly big show

Real Madrid, the “Showtime” Lakers of international soccer, came to Charlotte on Sunday for the second time in two summers. Against Chelsea in a pre-season friendly last year, 62,617 came to see Real win 2-1. 

This time, against Liga MX side Pachuca in a consequential Group H match, another 10,000 (70,248) from around the country and the globe paid a much higher price to watch Los Blancos win 3-1, keeping them atop the group with one match to go. It became the second-highest attendance in the tournament so far, behind PSG vs. Atlético Madrid at the Rose Bowl (80,619). 

The fact is that Real is going to draw a large crowd wherever they play, but this match once again showcased the ability of Charlotte and Bank of America Stadium to handle such an event. 

A week ago, FIFA reported that over 1.5 million tickets had been sold for the tournament. 

After two games, Madrid lead their group with 4 points and a plus-2 goal differential, just one goal better than Red Bull Salzburg, whom they will meet on Thursday. A draw in that match will see them both move on to the Round of 16. Pachuca is eliminated with two losses. Saudi club Al Hilal, with draws against both Madrid and Salzburg, can jump into the top two with a win over Pachuca, and possibly top the group with a big scoreline, sending either the Spanish or Austrian club home. 

Jude Bellingham, Arda Guler, and Federico Valverde scored on neatly constructed goals for Real that defined the quality and class of the talent on what is, arguably, the world’s most popular team in any sport.

It didn’t start well for the Spanish side as a straight red card in just the seventh minute for a foolish foul by Raul Asencio reduced the favorites to ten men for the rest of the match. Asencio, who gave up the equalizing penalty in the 1-1 draw against Al Hilal should have given up the shot as his goalkeeper was having one of those Spiderman days when he was smothering or getting a hand on 10 of Pachuca’s 11 shots on goal. On another day, or against another keeper, Pachuca might have scored more.

What Real didn’t do was hunker down like most teams would have done. They kept playing and controlled the ball 57% of the game, finding space with pace, movement, and exceptional skill. Outshot by Pachuca 25-8, 11-3 on target, the only stat that mattered was that all of Real’s shots on goal were in the goal.

Who’s moving on

For the two groups that have concluded, a scintillating match between the last surviving MLS side, Inter Miami and Palmeiras ended 2-2 with the Brazilian club taking first place in Group A on goal differential (plus-2 to plus-1) over Messi and company. In the highest-scoring game of the tournament with both teams scoring, FC Porto and Al Ahly drew 4-4.

In Group B, PSG ended the Seattle Sounders tournament with a 2-0 win on Monday. Botofogo finished second in the group over Atletico Madrid on goal differential (plus-1 to minus-1) despite a 1-0 loss to that same team. The top three teams all had 6 points. PSG topped the group with a +5 differential. The other four groups all have one match left through Thursday.

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