The G.I.M.P. Digital Football Association

BAVARIAN BLISS

Bayern puts away Palermo to earn first GIMP DFA League Title for Thompson

A Well deserved Bayern Beer Bath for the Champs

Bayern Munchen puts up four goals to down an aggressive Palermo squad set on playing spoiler.

"They came out and let us know from the start that they weren't going to roll over and let us win the title," said Bayern Munchen manager Ian Thompson.  "They certainly didn't play dead like Chelsea did for Liverpool the other night." Palermo utilized a defensive 5-3-2 formation to try to slow the Bayern barrage to no avail as Toni Kroos threaded a through ball through the Palermo defense for Thomas Muller to slot home after just 10 minutes.  The home side would not find themselves down for long after Abel Hernandez put them level just two minutes later.  The match would continue this back and forth manner, with Man of the Match, Bastian Schweinsteiger, putting Bayern back in front in the 16 minute, only to see the lead disappear in the 29' after a Miccoli shot was parried to the feet of the eager Hernandez who finished for a first-half brace.

After the restart, Bayern's Arjen Robben worked beautifully with Rafinha along the ride side and into the 18 where he was promptly taken down by Federico Balzaretti. The usually lenient referee, Pedro Ortagilla, was left no choice but to point to the spot.  It was Robben himself that stood over the ball despite having a horrid record of recent, missing his last five PKs. He would make it six in a row as Francesco Benussi guessed right and parried the ball right to Franck Ribery who promptly crossed back to Robben's waiting head, where he made no second mistake above an attempted bicycle clearance from the troubled Balzaretti. That goal proved to be the winner as Robben described his emotion, "Relief, I feel relief that I didn't cost my teammates the title." Thompson's take was quite different, "I give Arjen a ton of credit there, a lot of players would have put their heads down and sulked after missing a spot kick in a situation like that, but he kept his head up and capitalized on the chance that Franck presented him and I'm d*mn proud of him for it."

Palermo turned up the heat even more after Robben's eventual match winner.  The match turned to one of the high octave variety with Palermo keeping constant and effective pressure on the entire German midfield. That pressure nearly paid off with an equalizer in the 72' but Abel Hernandez's angled attempted was parried wide by in-form Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. That would prove to be Palermo's last real chance of the match as Bayern defenseman Jerome Boateng added an insurance goal on a real shocker of a mistake by Benussi.

The German squad was not at their best, but it was enough to get by Palermo and secure the league title with one match remaining.  The victory guarantees that the GIMP DFA League Trophy will not be in Merseyside for the first time since Bayern Munchen lifted the trophy in the League's first two seasons.  The win also sees gaffer Ian Thompson as the first manager not named Liam Pruitt to lift the prestigious GIMP DFA League Trophy.