Bayern settling into rhythm ahead of Supercup Klassiker

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Munich - It has been a busy few days for FC Bayern München and it is about to get a whole lot busier. Their ten-hour flight from Portland, Oregon to Munich landed at 19.30 CEST on Thursday night, bearing not just the squad but also the club’s FIFA World Cup winners, who will be joining, and improving, Pep Guardiola’s .

Ankle fears

Philipp Lahm

,

Manuel Neuer

,

Thomas Müller

,

Mario Götze

,

Jerome Boateng

and

Bastian Schweinsteiger

, as well as semi-finalists

Arjen Robben

and

Dante

, had all flown into Portland especially for the 2-1 loss to the MLS All-Stars, and one of them caused quite a stir. Before the game, eyes were understandably focused on Götze, scorer of the winning goal in the World Cup final, but after the game, it was Schweinsteiger that was the talk of the town.

A heavy tackle in the 86th minute from Canadian Will Johnson left the club vice-captain and toast of Germany writhing in a heap on the floor, and Bayern fans’ hearts, be they in Munich or Manhattan, in their mouths. After the game, a wincing Schweinsteiger confirmed that it was "just a bruise", adding that he was "lucky" not to have emerged more damaged. The club’s Twitter account then followed up:

Wanderlust

Despite just having come back from a break, Schweinsteiger and his fellow travellers could perhaps do with another one. The 30-year-old added that because of the time differences and the quick turnaround in flights, "staying awake wasn’t easy", while Müller tweeted the following:

Curtain Call

The next assignment for the weary stars will be a game against a Manchester United Legends XI on Saturday, before

Der Klassiker

against Borussia Dortmund next Wednesday at the Signal Iduna Park for the DFL Supercup, and Robben, for his part, has not only shaken off the jetlag but is chomping at the bit to get going. “It all starts again for real now,” he confessed to

fcbayern.de

. “We need to recover our training rhythm as fast as possible.” Unlike the World Cup participants, however, plenty of Bayern’s stars are already in rhythm.

Franck Ribery

- who missed the World Cup with injury -

David Alaba

and

Robert Lewandowski

have enjoyed the benefits of a full pre-season, while the new Polish striker looks particularly sharp, having hit five goals in six games.

A very bright spotlight

His most recent strike, the opener in the

2-1 defeat

to the All-Stars, was a thing of beauty. Lewandowski lifted the ball past the defender, before meeting his own flick to fire a powerful curling shot past the goalkeeper from 18 yards. It might, however, be different against his old club, Dortmund. In one of the most intriguing plotlines to this Supercup, the Polish marksman will make his first competitive appearance in a Bayern shirt on his former stamping ground. While the spotlight will be trained on him and his teammates against the Red Devils on Saturday, there’ll be an altogether brighter one trained on in the Ruhr next week. Daniel Thacker