On Saturday, FC Bayern won the Super Cup in Dortmund, claiming its first title of the new season. The record champions beat Dortmund 2–1, but there was also quite a bit of tension between the coaches’ benches surrounding the game.
Among those involved was BVB coach Niko Kovac. After Bayern’s assistant coach, Aaron Danks, shouted a few apparently harsh words at him in English, Dortmund’s head coach reacted angrily.
“My English is pretty good, so I understood exactly what he was trying to tell me,” Kovac said into the microphone on Skyafter the game .
“A little respect,” he demanded from the Englishman, Kovac reported, “that’s all I said.”
Kovac Demands an Apology from Danks
Kovac did not reveal exactly what the Bayern assistant coach was supposed to have said. “Ultimately, I think it was clear what he said,” remarked the former FC Bayern coach: “You can argue about it, but that wasn’t right. I think it’s up to him. He should apologize.”
But that was the end of the matter; no one from Bayern commented on this incident during the game. Things got a little heated on the field at times; for example, Ramy Bensebaini was shown a red card shortly before the end for a hard tackle on Ismael Saibari. But that was also one of the few unsportsmanlike tackles.
Otherwise, FC Bayern played very well in the first half, though they still left some opportunities on the table despite their 2-0 lead. In the second half, BVB became more active and applied more pressure; they could even have equalized in the end and forced the record champions into a penalty shootout. But that didn’t happen.
The FCB was particularly pleased with the result of the match. However, everyone involved emphasized that the record champions still have a lot of work ahead of them and need to make the most of the training week leading up to the Bundesliga opener against VfB Stuttgart.