Uli Hoeneß turns on fans after Bayern's DFB Cup final win

Uli Hoeneß was in no mood for a routine celebration after Bayern München beat VfB Stuttgart 3-0 in the DFB Cup final. The honorary president chose to focus on the joint protest from both sets of supporters, which briefly stopped the match and turned the final into something far messier than a straightforward cup win.

How the protest took over the final

Supporters from both Bayern München and VfB Stuttgart staged a joint protest against the DFB during the final. A DFB logo with a line through it was passed from the Stuttgart end across the stands to the Bayern end, and referee Sven Jablonski briefly halted play after about an hour because smoke from pyrotechnics engulfed the pitch.

Hoeneß did not try to soften his view. "What the fans on both sides got up to today is an outrage," he told goal.com. He added, "They completely ruined the game. My wife told me you couldn't see a thing on the telly for ages." His final word on the matter was even sharper: "The clubs, the DFB and politicians must act decisively to ensure this outrageous behaviour doesn't happen again. After all, the DFB isn't to blame for anything."

That last line matters. Hoeneß was not pointing the finger at the governing body for causing the protest, he was demanding a response to stop it happening again. The pitch was still the stage for the result, but the off-field message from him was much louder.

Kane made the football one-sided

The football itself was settled by Harry Kane, who scored in the 55th minute, again in the 80th minute and from the penalty spot in stoppage time to complete his hat-trick. It was the first perfect hat-trick in a DFB-Pokal final, and only Uwe Seeler, Roland Wohlfarth and Robert Lewandowski had previously scored hat-tricks in the competition's showpiece.

The numbers back up how cleanly he finished the job. Kane's 9.3 match rating in the final was the best single-game mark in the supplied data, and he put 3 of his 4 shots on target. He now has 10 goals in 6 DFB-Pokal appearances, which fits the same picture the final showed: when the chances arrived, he took them.

Deniz Undav gave the more generous verdict on the day, saying Stuttgart "wanted to make it ugly" but that Kane "puts those things away ice-cold." Ermedin Demirović also called Kane "outstanding" and said the final score was too harsh on Stuttgart. That may be true in emotional terms, but the final was still decided by the striker who finished the game with three goals and the trophy in Bayern's hands.

The result will stand, and so will the argument around the protest. Bayern lifted the cup, Kane wrote the decisive football story, and Hoeneß made sure the wider row around the final did not get ignored.