Pre-season and Super Cup matches worth watching

Jurgen Klopp would love to beat Bayern Munich in their Super Cup clash next month

Super Cups gain and lose interest based on the participants. Whether you give these trophies real value or not is a story for another day, but the last two years the German, English, and Spanish Supercups have all been hotly contested.

It really depends on the match-ups. Bayern Munich meeting Borussia Dortmund last season had a lot of meaning, and little did we know at the time that it would be a Champions League Final preview. Dortmund had dominated Bayern the previous season in all their meetings. It was important for Bayern to get a win and get over being snake bitten by Dortmund. This season offers a few match ups that will be well worth watching.

Without a doubt, the most intriguing Supercup will be the UEFA Super Cup between Chelsea and Bayern. We did not have to wait long for old rivals Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola to lock horns. In this battle of egos, I do not envision either man will take this match lightly.

For Chelsea, it’s a chance to really establish themselves as viable contenders for all competitions going forward. For Bayern, it’s a chance to put a trophy on the wall that gets them closer to a sixtuple, something Pep achieved at Barca.

The Community Shield should be a lopsided affair. Manchester United and Wigan Athletic are always going to be miles apart as far as quality is concerned, but this season, with Wigan dropping down a division, the gap is larger.

Wigan could really use a boost in confidence. Fighting your way back up to the Premier League can be extremely difficult. David Moyes could really benefit from grabbing a quick trophy and starting the season off on the right foot. The opposite result could be really bad for the start of his tenure.

The English press would have a feeding frenzy if his team lost to a Championship side. In a way, Moyes has more to lose than to gain, so in a very twisted way this has become a must-win game. You do not want the ghost of Sir Alex haunting you from the outset.

The Spanish Super Cup has provided two consecutive years of top class football. Barcelona and Real Madrid met on both of those occasions and played as if more than just a pre-season cup was on the line. This year, Atletico Madrid enter the mix after beating Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey Final last season.

Falcao has moved on, but David Villa has moved from Barcelona to Atletico to fill the space left by the departing star. Villa will certainly have something to prove against his old club. For Barcelona, this will be an important tie as they need to get off on the right foot after losing Tito Vilanova so suddenly.

They will not want to allow Atletico to get any confidence in themselves by dropping a game they should win handily on paper. For Atletico, it will be important to have a strong showing in their first big test in the post-Falcao era. They have lost big strikers before, but this season they are considered to be outside contenders for La Liga.

The German Super Cup is a rematch between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. It is also the first meeting between the two clubs since their epic Champions League Final. Do you really have to say anything more than that? Some may be getting a bit tired of these two sides constantly playing each other, similar to Barca and Real Madrid, but why? It is a puzzle piece for Bayern on their road to the sixtuple.

For Dortmund, it is a chance for some revenge and to get a leg up on their rivals. Guardiola seems to hoard trophies and I bet Dortmund would love to get in the way of him raising another, no matter how minor.

Every season starts with the hope that all the planning and preparation will pay off. Many of these pre-season matches and Supercups present us with a chance to see what the future may hold. Some of these matches may not live up to the hype, and the post-match handshakes might be more entertaining.

Still, they are better than watching no football at all. Image that for a second.