When Rafael Nadal won the Mexican Open at Acapulco in the last week of February, he and his opponent Taylor Fritz did not throw the tennis ball to serve until everything the world in the audience is silent. When classical music superstars Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos appeared in Chicago in early March to perform various piano trios by Beethoven, the Harris Theater was quiet while it was playing. When Englishman Tyrrell Hatton won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill later this week, he didn't bother to hit the golf club precisely 284 times.
We are more used to observing greatness in silence in this world than we think, and this is true even in the world of sport. This has rarely been the case in the world of football, but it is the atmosphere when the German Bundesliga returns on Saturday morning to end the 2019-20 season.
"Of course, it wouldn't be the same without the fans," said Gio Reyna, the American teenager who quickly showed up at Borussia Dortmund on the Fox futsal program, on Monday. "But once you start playing again, it's the same thing. And it all comes down to focus and the need to win the game while we make the final effort to try to win the Bundesliga."
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The Bundesliga is known for its passionate and colorful game scenes, perhaps nothing more than in Dortmund, where the yellow wall of 25,000 fans has been one of the most spectacular places in world sport for nearly of two decades.
However, we had two months during the COVID-19 pandemic to fully understand what football is like without football. It seems unlikely that football without supporters would be a more empty experience.
The American sports fanatic has been able to move from baseball to American football to basketball and hockey, depending on the season, for a lifetime. With the increase in popularity of football here over the past quarter century, the American fan has been able to be busy all year with MLS, the American men's and women's national teams. The United States, the Premier League, La Liga MX, the Champions League, the European Championship, the America & # 39; s Cup, the Gold Cup and the Men's and Women's World Cups. Football on American television has never faltered.
"I don't know what's going to happen," said Kevin Egan, football analyst for Atlanta United and CNN International. "When you watch the old games, and that's what we all did, you know what's going to happen. I watched Lionel Messi miss a penalty here in the United States for Argentina against Chile at the Copa America Centennial, and I was ready to get the ball in because I wanted to see Tata Martino and Argentina win a major trophy, but obviously I knew it was not the "That will not happen. I miss this feeling of unpredictability very much. Live sports, no matter how welcome you are again."
The first game widely broadcast here in the United States will feature FC Schalke 04 against Dortmund, four points behind FC Bayern Munich, first place, at 9:20 am Saturday on FS1. Schalke is in sixth place but out of the title race, although he competes with at least four other clubs for positions in the 2020-2021 European competition.
Fans on this side of the Atlantic have many reasons to be interested in what we will see:
North American stars
Alphonso Davies of Canada, 19, is the usual left-back of Bayern, one of the most remarkable teams and winners in the world in the last seven Bundesliga titles.
"I honestly think, Alphonso Davies has absolutely everything you need to succeed. His demeanor is exemplary. He is incredibly athletic," said Egan. "Lots of people questioned him because he was playing for Vancouver and was playing Major League Soccer. I’m not just saying this: from day one, when I started watching him, I knew he was a top level star. "
Now an automatic opening for the United States' men's national team. American midfielder Weston McKennie has been a regular at Schalke since the start of the 2017-18 season. RB Leipzig midfielder Tyler Adams would be an automatic for the USMNT, but has been injured for much of the past 18 months. He has only started five league games this season, but indications are the month of inactivity and now the practice to prepare for this comeback has put him in a position to finish strong. But will he have a position to call it his own, and will the pressure to end the season allow it?
"For Adams and McKennie, because they can play defensive positions and in the midfield, these guys will get used to it in different ways due to the busy schedule, rushing quickly," said Jason Davis, American football host at SiriusXM. , he told Sporting News. "I'm not sure it's a good thing. It's better than not playing, but will they have representatives in positions that will become their established homes in the future, either in a club or in a country?
"You can see it as a credit to them that they can play as many positions in what could be the best or the second best league in the world." It's great that they have a chance to shine, but they're going to be wiped off the map. "
Reyna has not yet started a Bundesliga match for Dortmund, but has left the bench in each of the team's last three victories before the suspension of the league. And he scored one of the big goals of this season for any player, anywhere, in a DFB Pokal Cup win against Werder Bremen.
"I am sure he will become a star," said Egan.
The title race
Bayern's quest for an eighth consecutive title is a different challenge from those that preceded it. The first of his remaining nine games will take place on Sunday against Union Berlin at noon on FS1, and the intention is to finish the season in late June. It is a game every 4.7 days.
And there are three teams within six points of Bayern's 55: Dortmund with 51, Leipzig with 50 and Borussia Monchengladbach with 49. Bayer Leverkusen, with 47 points, will be hard pressed to win, but that could still be a factor.
Of those who remain on the Leipzig calendar, only the penultimate match against Dortmund requires facing a team with a position higher than the eighth. The average position of the remaining opponents of Leipzig: 12th. Dortmund has four games against seventh or more opponents, and the average of the nine remaining opponents is 10th. For Bayern, there are five games against eighth or better teams and a ninth average position for the nine remaining opponents.
"When it comes to the title race, we see Borussia Mönchengladbach running at an advantage and taking first place for much of the season, we've seen RB Leipzig hold it for a while, and now the Bayern Munich have it and they are four points ahead, "Egan told SN. "It's hard to go against them, knowing their dominance over the past seven years. But knowing the Leipzig calendar, the rest that they have had, the ability to get the boys back into shape, is exciting . It really is. " "
That's all we have
The Bundesliga is the first major world league to resume operations since the shutdown which took place the second week of March. The Champions League matches were played on March 11, with Atlético de Madrid eliminating Liverpool and Dortmund falling against Paris Saint-Germain. He has been very calm since then.
Dortmund's Westfalenstadion will be relatively calm when the Blacks and the Yellows face Schalke. However, it will not be empty. There will be coaches, officials, those necessary for the organization of a match. Above all, there will be athletes and competitions.
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"I'm fighting a little bit with that. I'm delighted to see football again, because I guess it will be the first step towards something that is getting back to normal," said Davis. "But I guess I'm a bit cynical: I'll believe it when I see it. The lack of fans will obviously have an impact. The Bundesliga has good vibes and the BL Bundesliga has a lot of talent, but it won't not what we're used to. "
"I will wake up at 9 am on Saturday. I'll settle in and see what he looks like. I'll try to be as open as possible. I don't want to hate him, but I think I hate him. "
"I think everyone wants it to work. We go ahead with this tacit understanding that we want football to happen again and we trust the Germans."
Egan told SN that he was talking to a friend in Germany this week who said, "Usually we do things right."
There are risks, but the two main divisions of German football have carried out frequent tests for coronaviruses since their return to training last month, with only a few positive results during this period.
"I'm worried," said Egan. "I just hope it will be done so safely that we will continue to see improvement and more and more leagues will say" yes "to a comeback."
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