Why Bayern Munich 12/13 is the best team of the 21st century yet

The 21^st century has seen many great teams from the ‘Invincibles’ of Arsenal (03-04) to the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ Liverpool (05/06) to the ‘La Decima’ Real Madrid (13-14) to the ’gegenpressing’’ of Dortmund in 2010/11. While we’ve seen some great teams, very few have been dominant in every competition they’ve played in. Very Few teams have been so dominant that they have won all 3 major trophies (treble) in the same season. Only 4 teams have managed the treble in the 21^st century: FC Barcelona in 2008/09 and 2014/15, Inter-Milan in 2009/10 and Bayern Munich in 2012/13. While 2 Barcelona teams have won the treble as well as Jose Mournho's Inter of 2009/10, I think the Bayern-Munich treble winning team has out-performed all of these teams.

The Barcelona treble winning team of 2014/15

The Barcelona treble winning team of 2008/09

Today it’s very normal to hear Bayern Munich won the league but at the beginning of the 2012/13 this was not the case at all. Dortmund had won the league in the previous 2 seasons and Bayern Munich were trophy-less in the previous season. So the Bavarians didn’t have too much investment/money either. So winning one trophy was a big thing let alone a treble.  The Bayern Munich league domination started with Jupp Heynkes and his team in 2012/13 as they completely outperformed the former champions and rivals Dortmund as they finished 25 points ahead of them with a record 91 points from 34 matches. The more remarkable thing about this feat was the fact that Dortmund themselves were having a great season and one of the best clubs in Europe and reached the champions league final. So unlike 2014/15 when Bayern won the league by more than 25 points but Dortmund struggled to reach 7^th and the second placed (Wolfsburg) were in the Europa league, the standard of Bundesliga was at its peak and it was the best league in Europe. The all-German final was a reflection of how strong the Bundesliga was at that time. The German cup/DFP Pokal was dominated by Bayern Munich as they won all their games in 90 minutes in route to win the knockout tournament including a win over Borussia Dortmund. But the tournament that defined the greatness of this team was the champions league. The Bavarians cruised through from their group in first place before beating Arsenal in the Round of 16. After that they thrashed Italian champions Juventus in the quarterfinal 4-0. The match which made the Bayern Munich of 2012/13 the best of the 21^st century was their semifinal tie against European ‘Powerhouse’ Barcelona. Barcelona had had a great season too, they had cruised to the semi-final of the champions league and they were dominating La-Liga eventually ending with 100 points. So this was supposed to be a very close match. It was a 2-leg tie but the 1^st leg had seemed to already have finished the tie. Bayern had absolutely dominated Barcelona. Muller opened the scoring after 25 minutes and German club didn’t seem to look back. The final score was 4-0. Before the second-leg, though the majority was expecting Bayern to win on aggregate, they were also expecting Barcelona to at least close down the gap. Instead it was a completely different story, Bayern Munich demolished Barcelona at the Camp Nou 3-0. They had just defeated the Spanish champions 7-0. It was one of the worst humiliations in Barcelona’s history. Bayern beat Rivals Dortmund 2-1 to win the champions league to show the world why they were the greatest team of 21^st century. Even the Mastermind of the 2008/09 Barcelona’s treble winning team ‘Pep Guardiola’ couldn’t replicate the success of this team despite the extra investment he had got.

The Team of the century so far: 2012/13 Bayern Munich

So how is this team better than the treble winning Barcelona teams of 2008/09 and 2014/15 as well as the inter-milan of 09/10:

The 2014/15 Barcelona team won the treble but it wasn’t smooth at all times. In January, the manager had a fallout with some players and had almost lost his job after his team lost a game. For a lot of the season, Barcelona weren’t even 1^st in the league and won the La-Liga only on the penultimate match day of the season. Also, Barcelona were heavily reliant on goals on their trident of Messi, Suarez and Neymar. On the other hand, Bayern Munich (of 12/13) had a smooth sail to their league title and were 1^st for almost the whole season despite also having the finalists of the champions league in their league. On the other-hand their top-scorer (Muller) had 23 goals showing how much more a team-effort it was and not just a trident-based team as in the case of Barcelona’s 14/15 team.

The 2008/09 Barcelona team was better than their 2014/15 version because of how consistently they played and how they sailed through the league. They weren’t reliant on a goal-scorer unlike the 2014/15 team. However, what makes Bayern better than them is the fact that Barcelona 08/09 didn’t deserve the treble as they progressed through the semi-finals on away goals of the champions league despite their opponents having so many clear penalty calls against them and then a last-minute equalizer from Iniesta sent them through on away goals. It’s fair to say the Barcelona 08/09 was lucky to win the treble. Meanwhile Bayern Munich didn’t need such luck thrashing European Giants like Juventus and Barcelona themselves en route to the champions league and treble.

The Inter team of 2009/10 was undoubtedly great with their success but they weren't the greatest. They won their league title on the last match day and scraped through the semi-final of the champions league in contrast to Bayern Munich's heavy league triumph and their thrashing of Barcelona. Unlike Bayern Munich, they were much more reliant on the management in comparison to the players as after Mourinho left Inter have not won a league or European trophy in contrast to Heynkes' Bayern Depature who made the platform for 3 more league titles in 3 seasons.

This is why Bayern Munich 12/13 is the best team of the 21^st century yet