This Klassiker is one Bayern, Dortmund can't afford to lose - ESPN

BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG, Germany — I'm writing this week's column while speeding through the Baden-Württemberg countryside on the Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national railway network. Green leaves are filling up the trees and there are discernible signs of spring blossom wherever you look.

This is my favorite time in the German football season. Der Endspurt (the final sprint to the line) played out in better weather amid delightfully long days is what we all yearn for in the dark days of winter.

Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund — der Klassiker, as it has come to be known — tends to be a April feature in Munich on the Bundesliga calendar (Saturday, coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+).

You can make the case that it has, temporarily at least, been surpassed in importance by the clashes between Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen in the past two years, domestically as well as in the UEFA Champions League. But there is still something evocative about Germany's two most avidly followed and most successful sides in their distinctive colors walking out on to the pitch simultaneously. Rot against schwarz-gelb.

Although this is no meeting of Spitzenreiter (high flyers), this season anyway, the fixture has considerable meaning for both Bayern and BVB and still qualifies as a Prestigeduell (top, prestigious match).

On the way to the train station, I picked up the latest edition of specialist football magazine Kicker, a bible for many of us who live German football full time. I rather liked their alliterative front cover headline, "Verlieren verboten" («losing forbidden»), which is self-explanatory.

Defeat for either side will have consequences, and a draw opens the door to a stressful Endspurt in each case, too.

Bayern need to keep