Bayern Munich hail van Gaal in title joy (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan May 1, 2010, 18:05 GMT

Hamburg - Unless pigs start flying over Berlin next week, Bayern Munich will be crowned Bundesliga champions for the 22nd time.

Bayern's 3-1 victory over VfL Bochum on Saturday and Schalke's 2-0 defeat at home to Werder Bremen means the race for the German league title is effectively over.

Louis van Gaal's side will make it official at Berlin's Olympic Stadium next Saturday.

Bayern take a three point lead over Schalke to play relegated Hertha Berlin, and a goal difference of plus 17 as well as many more goals scored.

It means Schalke would have to win, for example, 9-0 at Mainz, and hope Bayern are also beaten 9-0 at Hertha.

If pigs had wings, everything would be possible - to coin a German version of the idiom about flying pigs - but such a last-day scenario is clearly the stuff of fantasy.

And so it's Bayern who have again emerged in a first season under Dutchman van Gaal as the Bundesliga's dominant force, correcting the blemish of being edged out by VfL Wolfsburg last season.

Felix Magath, who took over as coach and manager of Schalke after last season's triumph with Wolfsburg, came close to a second straight title win and the Gelsenkirchen's club first for 52 years.

Schalke will have to be content now with a fourth runners-up spot in nine years, as well as a third and fourth place during that time.

Still, disappointment is tempered by the fact that the club under Magath has exceeded its own expectations after eighth place last season and has clinched direct Champions League qualification.

For Bayern, the league title is the first of a possible treble after reaching the finals of the Champions League against Inter Milan and German Cup against Werder Bremen.

It justifies the appointment of 59-year-old van Gaal after the experiment last season of giving former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann his first coaching job at club level.

Van Gaal now adds to his collection of three Dutch titles and a Champions League win with Ajax, two league title with Barcelona and a fourth Dutch title last year with AZ Alkmaar.

Bayern and van Gaal did not initially seem to gel, but the players slowly warmed to the ways of the coach when the results began to come after a calamitous autumn when the team was not performing and was on the brink of an early Champions League exit.

Had not Bayern turned things round when they did - a 4-1 Champions League win at Juventus proving a pivotal moment - the chances are van Gaal might not have lasted much beyond the winter break.

'That game was a turning point. Before then we were playing awful football. Then came the success, the self-confidence returned and they have got where they are now,' said honorary president Franz Beckenbauer.

Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says the Bayern general assembly, in late November, which was also an official farewell to Beckenbauer in his role as president and a welcome to new president Uli Hoeness, was also a key moment.

The board had feared a fans' revolt in view of the team's poor start and the ups and downs of the previous season, but in an emotional evening the 'Bayern family seemed to move closer together,' Rummenigge said.

'Perhaps it was no coincidence that we then started our winning series with a win at Hanover,' he said.

Van Gaal had been criticised for his authoritarian style, his many team changes - which in fact were forced upon him by injuries to key players, including Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.

The coach was in trouble from the start after beginning the season with two draws and a defeat to Mainz. By the end of November, after being held 1-1 at home by leaders Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern were lying just seventh, six points from the top.

'He did a good job from the start but we weren't getting the results and that was the problem,' Rummenigge said.

But once van Gaal had all his players on board and they became accustomed to the methods of a coach for whom reputations mean little the results began to improve.

Van Gaal has not been afraid of leaving players such as Mario Gomez, signed last summer for a club record 30 million euros (some 40 million dollars), or fellow Germany striker Miroslav Klose on the bench. Others such as Croatia striker Ivica Olic, a free signing from SV Hamburg, or youngster Thomas Mueller have come in and stayed.

Mueller, who scored all three goals in the 3-1 win over Bochum, is just one of a half dozen youngsters who have come through the ranks to earn places in the side under van Gaal.

'We've had a consistent idea and philosophy since the start of the season,' captain Mark van Bommel said after the team had eliminated Lyon to secure their place in the Champions League final.

'It didn't look so good at the start, but we always believed in it. We've grown into a really good team, and we believe in ourselves.'

'He's the right man at the right club at the right time,' said Rummenigge.