Jupp Heynckes’ treble seekers travel to third division leaders Paderborn in the DFB Pokal quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Here we take a look at three of Bayern Munich’s most memorable German Cup games under Heynckes.
“Wunder von Weinheim”
The most remarkable encounter, for all the wrong reasons, was brought up during Monday’s news conference. During Heynckes’ first spell in charge, the back-to-back Bundesliga champions suffered an embarrassing first-round defeat to fourth-tier amateur club FV 09 Weinheim in 1990.
When asked about the shock 1-0 loss to the Oberliga Baden side, Heynckes refused to broach the subject. “Forget it,” he said, probably only half joking that he never remembered defeats.
“It was another era and a different team — and a totally different situation,” he said, trying to banish the Wunder von Weinheim to the back of his memory once again.
There’s great footage from the Sepp-Herberger Stadion that day — a cup tie played in brutal summer heat, with temperatures sizzling around 45 degrees.
Bayern midfielder Thomas Strunz was sent off on 26 minutes and moments later, things got worse after a foul by Jurgen Kohler. Weinheim’s Thomas Schwechheimer wrong-footed goalkeeper Raimond Aumann from the penalty spot for the game’s decisive goal.
Less than a month earlier, Kohler, Stefan Reuter and Klaus Augenthaler had won the World Cup with Germany against Diego Maradona’s Argentina, while other notable names from the teamsheet that day included Stefan Effenberg, Bayern’s 2001 winning Champions League captain, and “Great Dane” Brian Laudrup, who went on to star for Rangers.
Goalscorer Schwechheimer described to 11 Freunde how the Bayern players didn’t even bother to warm up, something that is unthinkable these days under the meticulous Heynckes. Instead they remained in the dressing room, perhaps due to the heat or more likely because they underestimated their opponents.
Meanwhile, Siegfried Mager, Weinheim’s director of football — if such a term existed back then — complained that the German champions were such sore losers that Uli Hoeness, general manager at the time, took the training balls (which Bayern may or may not have used to warm up with) home with him in a huff.
“It’s not good manners to disappear like that,” Mager ranted, bemoaning the fact that no-one had the grace to congratulate the minnows apart from Augenthaler, who exchanged shirts with one of the opposition.
Peak Klopp BVB
“We have to say in no uncertain terms that this was a disgrace,” CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge fumed at the postmatch post mortem as Heynckes’ side were dismantled 5-2 by Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund in the Cup Final in May 2012.
Shinji Kagawa’s third-minute strike put BVB in control early on, rising star Mats Hummels slotted home a penalty and a certain Robert Lewandowski’s hat trick submerged Bayern into a whole new world of pain as Klopp’s charges crowned their first (and last) league and cup double — courtesy of a fifth successive win over Bayern.
This was peak Klopp BVB and both clubs have never been the same since. Bayern, in particular, vowed never to experience such domestic humiliation.
However, Heynckes’ annus horribilis wasn’t quite over yet. A week later, on home soil, Bayern sealed an unwanted treble of second-place finishes on all three fronts, agonisingly losing the 2012 Champions League final after a penalty shootout to Chelsea.
Treble-makers in Berlin
Lesser teams might have crumbled after a triple whammy of set-backs, but not Heynckes’ treble-makers. Using the pain and anguish from the previous season, it was fitting that Bayern and Heynckes sealed a momentous treble in a city steeped in its own history by downing VfB Stuttgart 3-2 in a gripping German Cup final in Berlin.
Thomas Muller talked prematch about “rewriting history” and the Bavarians were as good as their word, becoming the first ever German side to win a treble of League, Cup and Champions League (European Cup in old money) in the same season.
Heynckes’ side crowned a remarkable season with a tense victory over underdogs Stuttgart, having already romped to the Bundesliga by 25 points, and a dramatic victory the week before in El Teutonico against Dortmund — the all-German Champions League final at Wembley.
Stuttgart coach Bruno Labbadia joked that perhaps the Swabians wouldn’t bother turning up at all, suggesting his side was a “small-vehicle manufacturer” compared to Heynckes’ purring Mercedes-Benz.
It looked like plain sailing as Bayern raced into a three-goal lead by the hour mark courtesy of Muller’s penalty and two second half goals from Mario Gomez. A brace from Austrian striker Martin Harnik ensured a tense final 10 minutes, but Bayern hung on to become the seventh European club to win a treble after Celtic in 1967, Ajax in 1972, PSV Eindhoven in 1988, Manchester United in 1999, Barcelona in 2009 and Inter Milan in 2010.
It was a fitting tribute for the outgoing Heynckes in his final season at the club as he brought down the curtain on an illustrious coaching career. Heynckes slipped quietly into retirement, eased aside for Pep Guardiola, who could never match his predecessor’s amazing achievements.
It was Heynckes’ final season — or so we thought. Cue the 72-year-old suddenly ditching his pipe and slippers to haul Bayern out of the mire again after Carlo Ancelotti’s reign turned sour last autumn.
Mark Lovell covers Bayern Munich for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter: @LovellLowdown.