Bayern Munich fans and coach Carlo Ancelotti might be experiencing some heart palpitations right about now. The German side’s much-anticipated loan signing, James Rodriguez, has been diagnosed with a leg muscle injury that threatens to keep him out for several weeks. The injury occurred in Bayern’s 3-0 Audi Cup loss to Liverpool yesterday.
On one hand, preseason friendlies definitely do not matter. On the other hand, preseason friendlies between teams like Chelsea and Bayern Munich definitely matter.
Not for any competitive reason, of course. When Bayern and Chelsea met in the International Champions Cup Tuesday, Munich's 3-2 win wasn't predictive of anything. No, the Chelsea-Bayern friendly definitely mattered because we hadn't seen elite soccer in a while and missed players doing things like what Thomas Muller did.
For years now, dedicated fans and wanna-be designers have been mocking up jerseys that are infinitely better than what Nike, adidas and the rest continually roll out. It’s the fans that pay around $100 for these annual threads, but it often seems like jersey manufacturers go out of their way to mess things up.
“You guys always wear vertical stripes? Okay, we’ll make them horizontal.”
“The jersey is always just predominately red? Okay, we’ll throw in some black, white, yellow and blue for good measure.”