Bayern Munich: Joshua Kimmich reminded us what a talent he is with match-winning goal

Joshua Kimmich scored a beautiful, decisive goal in Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win over Borussia Dortmund, reminding us of the size of his talent.  

Joshua Kimmich may have clinched the Bundesliga title on Tuesday. With Kimmich’s remarkably pretty goal from outside the area, Bayern Munich, the historic giant of the Bundesliga, beat an underwhelmed, sometimes confused Borussia Dortmund, to take a seven-point lead and likely securing the Bavarian team’s eighth consecutive league title.

The most awaited game of Matchday 28 of the 2019-20 Bundesliga took place today without fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The historic showdown, also known in Germany as Der Klassiker, was also crucial to this year’s title run, as league-leading Bayern faced second-place Dortmund just weeks before the season’s conclusion.

It was a hard-fought match, in which both sides had considerable chances at scoring and moved the ball well, but it was the 25-year-old Kimmich who marked the difference with a breathtaking chip from outside the box that beat Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Bürki.

This poem of a goal also reminded everyone of the kind of talented player Kimmich is. Acquired by Bayern in 2015 from RB Leipzig, where he debuted in 2013, the German has been praised by both fellow players and coaches for his tremendous ability at chance creation, moving the ball, and most importantly, recovering it.

He has been called “one of the best center-backs in the World” by none other than Pep Guardiola, before he moved him to right-back, a “Swiss-army-knife of a player” by the Bundesliga website, and he has been compared to players as diverse as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ilkay Gundogan, and even Phillip Lahm. 

But this also reflects where he is even more promising: The German national team. The Mannschaft is still in the middle of rebuild mode after a bad World Cup performance in 2018, and it needs a player like Kimmich to reach his full potential.

Fortunately, he is right there, establishing himself as one of the most reliable midfielders in Germany, a player as solid in defending duties as he is threatening in the attack, and with goals like today’s wonder against Lucien Favre’s squad, he shows us how much he has improved as a shooter.

In a league full of up-and-coming starlets it can be easy to forget Kimmich. His decisive moment of magic on Tuesday served as a reminder of what an enormous talent he is.