Oliver Kahn is a calm, sometimes detached, CEO since his June 2021 appointment. But on Saturday night, the 53-year-old’s reaction to Anthony Modeste’s late equaliser for Borussia Dortmund was reminiscent of the old “Vul-Kahn”, as the tabloids used to call the former goalkeeper; a man who lets his emotion rip with primal screams and anguished facial expressions.
Kahn’s meme-tastic reaction shows the whole extent of the Bayern hierarchy’s frustration this autumn. Conceding a 95th-minute equaliser is always annoying, even more so against Dortmund, but what’s worse is that the reigning Bundesliga champions have developed a bit of a habit of throwing away points in recent months.
Bayern has never seen them win a single league title, a run that is so disappointing in this decade of dominance.
“This result knocks you off your chair,” Kahn tweeted on Sunday morning, in a clever effort to dial down the anger with some self-deprecating humour.
But he also warned that Bayern only had themselves to blame for “not deciding the game earlier or defending more resolutely until the end”. A degree of carelessness is maybe understandable, if not excusable, when deep down, they know they’re likely to win the league come what may.
But in the past, one of Bayern’s secrets to success has been to not let overconfidence get the better of them, especially in matches with Dortmund. This time, they played as if BVB’s chances of staging a comeback after going 2-0 down were not worthy of serious consideration and were duly punished for their presumptuousness.
