Bayern beats Dortmund 2-1 in final on Robben goal

LONDON (AP) -- Arjen Robben found redemption at Wembley Stadium.

Robben scored a go-ahead goal in the 89th minute to give Bayern Munich a 2-1 victory over German rival Borussia Dortmund on Saturday night in the Champions League final, ending four years of frustration for his team in club soccer's biggest tournament.

''I don't know how many times I dreamed about it,'' Robben said. ''Everybody I spoke to before the game, I said, 'Today is going to be the night and we're going to do it.' To do it in the end is an unbelievable feeling.''
Bayern had lost two of the last three Champions League finals.

A year earlier, Robben failed to convert a penalty kick in overtime as Bayern lost the final in its own stadium against Chelsea in a shootout. This time, when he carried the European Cup toward the thousands of celebrating fans in red and white and raised it over his head, he received undivided adulation.

''There are so many emotions, especially after where we came from,'' Robben said. ''Last year was such a disappointment.''

In a game that featured a slew of chances for both teams, Mario Mandzukic put Bayern ahead in the 60th minute, and Ilkay Gundogan tied it with a penalty kick 8 minutes later after defender Dante fouled Marco Reus.

Robben had missed two great chances in the first half, reviving memories of last year and of the 2010 World Cup final, when the winger missed the Netherlands' best chance during the loss to Spain.

Even Bayern great Franz Beckenbauer, the club's honorary president, said during halftime on television that ''evidently in the big games he just can't score.''

But this time, he could.

Robben ran onto Franck Ribery's backheeled flick-on in the area and calmly slotted the ball past goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller to give Bayern its first Champions League victory since 2001 and fifth overall. Bayern lost to Inter Milan in the 2010 final.

''That's three finals, and of course you don't want the stamp of a loser. You don't want that tag,'' Robben said. ''It was a sense of 'finally.' It was unbelievable. I can't describe what's going through my mind.''

Robben also set up the first goal for Bayern, taking a pass from Ribery and drawing Weidenfeller out before squaring for Mandzukic, who could hardly miss from a few yards.

But the lead didn't last long. Dante raised a foot into Reus's midsection, and Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli pointed to the penalty spot. Gundogan sent goalkeeper Manuel Neuer the wrong way before calmly slotting into the right side of the net.

Dortmund defender Neven Subotic became the first American to play in a Champions League final and made an outstanding sliding clearance on Thomas Mueller's wide shot to prevent a goal in the 72nd. The 24-year-old grew up in Salt Lake City and Bradenton, Fla., and played for the U.S. under-17 and under-20 teams before switching to the senior national team of Serbia, where he was born.

''It's hard to deal with the disappointment right now, especially if you concede the goal in the 89th minute,'' Dortmund defender Mats Hummels said. ''In the end we had become a little tired, and Bayern took advantage.''

Bayern, which won the Bundesliga by a record 25 points, improved to 3-0-2 against Dortmund this season. Bayern can complete a treble when it plays Stuttgart in the German Cup final next weekend.

Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes won his second Champions League trophy following a 1998 victory with Real Madrid. Bayern announced in January that he will be replaced after the season by former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.

''It is quite possible,'' Heynckes said through a translator, ''that a new era might have begun under the aegis of Bayern Munich.''

Guardiola's first chance at a trophy with Bayern will be the UEFA Super Cup in August against Europa League winner Chelsea - likely to be managed then by outgoing Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho.

''It's incredible what the team had achieved in the last few years. And today we were finally rewarded. We had to overcome a lot of setbacks,'' Bayern captain Philipp Lahm said. ''There was so much pressure, it was enormous. After you lose two finals, if you lose again you don't know if you'll get another chance. The pressure was so great, I've never felt so much pressure before. The international titles were missing. We never won a big international title for this generation.''

For Dortmund, it's another bitter runner-up finish to its main rival, having seen Bayern end its two-year hold on the Bundesliga title.

''We are very proud to have given them a good contest,'' Weidenfeller said. ''But we didn't manage to win. We gave our best. We'll be back next season.''

Jose Mourinho tasked with reviving Chelsea again

Soccer's self-proclaimed Special One is just days away from returning to the place where he coined the nickname.

Jose Mourinho announced Monday that his three-year stint in charge of Real Madrid will come to an end following a season in which his relationship with the club collapsed irretrievably.

The eternal merry-go-round of the beautiful game is such that leading lights never stay unemployed for long however, and according to multiple reports in the United Kingdom and independent inquiries by Yahoo! Sports, Mourinho will return to former club Chelsea long before the start of next season.

And so the soap opera, one that ran for three remarkable years between 2004 and 2007, can recommence.
Mourinho does indeed have "special" coaching abilities, but his relationship with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich became so fractured towards the end of his first tenure there that even having won the club's first two league titles in half a century could not spare him the sack.

Yet Abramovich has learned from experience, through a blow to both his pride and his pocket, that replacing Mourinho was nowhere near as simple as he thought when he pulled the trigger in the winter of 2007.

Having gone through seven managers in six years, and with Mourinho's legacy at Madrid crumbling alongside his uneasy peace with the directors, a common desire to reunite the marriage grew steadily over the past two seasons.

Yet there were logistical and financial reasons why it was implausible, until now.

Having absorbed a $20 million compensation hit when luring Andre Villas Boas – then regarded as the "next Mourinho" – from Porto, only to sack him after less than a year, Abramovich has vowed to never again pay an inflated transfer sum for a coach.

For as long as Mourinho was under contract with Madrid, that stumbling block would remain in place.
Yet Monday's revelation, which suits both club and coach, confirmed that no compensation will be payable on either side, meaning Chelsea can pick up their man for no cost other than the veritable salary of around $12 million per year he will command.

"No one has been sacked,” said Madrid president Florentino Perez. "It is a mutual agreement.”

In truth, the agreement saved Madrid from firing Mourinho and having to pay out his contract. The Spanish club will now turn to Carlo Ancelotti as it tries to claim back the Spanish league title from Barcelona and improve upon three straight Champions League semifinals.

Ancelotti walked out on French club Paris St-Germain last weekend and is expected to be appointed at Madrid once contractual details have been sorted out.

The movements and machinations surroundings soccer's top managerial jobs often have an incestuous nature to them, and this week's developments are no different. Ancelotti knows that Mourinho is stepping back into a volatile situation, having himself been fired as Chelsea boss in May 2011, despite delivering the EPL title.
There is a growing sense that this may be Abramovich's last and best chance of finding managerial stability. In reality, he probably had the right man to begin with, but allowed Mourinho to slip away the first time over an argument that now seems pathetically trivial.

In 2006 and into 2007, Abramovich wanted his friend, Ukrainian superstar Andriy Shevchenko, to be a pivotal part of Mourinho's starting line-up. Mourinho not only believed Shevchenko was past his prime, but he was not prepared to have team selections dictated by an owner with no practical soccer experience, whatever his wealth.

The dispute created cracks in the relationship, their mutual stubbornness did the rest, and Mourinho departed boasting a record of 124 wins from 185 games in charge.

He would go on to lift the Champions League title with Inter Milan, perhaps his most extraordinary performance given the relative quality of the side, before heading on to Madrid. Chelsea, meanwhile, has stumbled from one boss to the next and never found an adequate replacement.

Its Champions League triumph last season was as dramatic as it was unexpected, but this season's crash landing was painful and put an end to any notion the club was legitimately among Europe's very best.

A group stage exit from the Champions League saw Roberto Di Matteo become the club's latest manager to be fired, while victory in second-tier European competition the Europa League could not take the disappointment out of a third-place English Premier League finish, well adrift from champions Manchester United.

Much more will be expected now that Mourinho is coming back, and the EPL is now faced with the intriguing situation whereby each of the top three finishers will begin the new campaign with fresh faces in charge.
Sir Alex Ferguson's timeless reign at Manchester United closed with an EPL title and retirement, with former Everton chief David Moyes already announced as his successor, while Roberto Mancini's failure to win the championship for a second straight year or contend in Europe cost him his job at Manchester City.

Abramovich has committed to a sizeable summer spending spree to help rebuild his squad, and Mourinho will no have no excuses if he is unable to rekindle the old magic.

But whether he is successful or not, whether you love him or hate him, the EPL is a more interesting place now the Special One has returned.

Arsenal, Chelsea could play-off for UCL

Arsenal and Chelsea could face a play-off for the final automatic Champions League place if they finish with identical records after Sunday's games, the Premier League has confirmed to ESPN, but finding a date will prove problematic.

The two teams go into the final round of matches two points and one goal apart in terms of goal difference with a realistic possibility that they could end up inseparable. Both teams would have the same points, goals scored and goals conceded.

The team which finishes third in the Premier League will go directly into the Champions League group stage, while fourth place will enter in the play-off round, with the tie to be played over two legs on August 20-21 and 27-28.

Arsenal's 4-1 win over Wigan on Tuesday means a 2-1 victory for the Gunners at Newcastle, coupled with a 0-0 draw between Everton and Chelsea, would force a play-off. The same would apply to any scoreline between the two clubs which adds a goal to all four teams: so 3-2 and 1-1 or 4-3 and 2-2.

Premier League rule C.14 states: "If at the end of the season either the League Champions or the clubs to be relegated or the question of qualification for other competitions cannot be determined because two or more clubs are equal on points, goal difference and goals scored, the clubs concerned shall play off one or more deciding league matches on neutral grounds, the format, timing and venue of which shall be determined by the board."

Chelsea won both league games this season 2-1 but the Premier League does not recognise head-to-head as a tie-breaker, unlike the Football League and most European leagues.

Scheduling a play-off would prove very difficult for the Premier League. Wembley Stadium would be the logical choice as a neutral venue in London, but it is booked for the Champions League final on Saturday, May 25, the Championship play-off final on Monday, May 27 and England's friendly with Ireland on May 29.

England will expect to have their players released by both clubs, as would the many other national teams whose players represent the respective sides. There are international games scheduled every day at the start of June, with Brazil facing England in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, June 2. Even if that Saturday was a viable date for the clubs, Wembley is already booked for the International Stadiums Poker Tour.

June 3 to 13 is an official FIFA international break for World Cup qualifiers, and the UEFA European Under-21 Championships also starts on June 5. The Confederations Cup, featuring Brazil, Spain and Nigeria, then begins on June 15 and runs until the end of the month. It means it could be July before a viable date is available, but UEFA requires qualifying clubs to submit official entry documents no later than June 3, 2013.

Even if the Premier League hoped to play the game on the weekend of May 25 at a venue other than Wembley, such as Tottenham's White Hart Lane, Chelsea will be in the United States that weekend to play two money-spinning games against Manchester City and will fly out at the start of the week.