Also on Saturday, Bayern München travel to FSV Mainz 05 in search of their first league victory of the 2009/2010 Bundesliga season. According to the great Infostrada Sports, if they fail to beat Mainz, it will be the second time in their club history that Bayern fail to collect a win in the first three matchdays.
Bayern boss Louis van Gaal is aiming to avoid joining Zlatko Cajkovski as the only coaches to have performed this lacklustre feat.
Most successive matches from start of season without a victory – Bayern München
Manchester United were handed their sternest test of the post Cristiano Ronaldo era by Bayern Munich and for the first time since the departure of the £80million man were found somewhat wanting.
Malaysian Select XIs are one thing but multiple European champions are quite another. And on this evidence, Sir Alex Ferguson still has plenty of questions to ponder with the start of the Barclays Premier League season just over a fortnight away.
One such question is how best to combine a strikeforce of Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen. If United's pre-season games are anything to go by then it will be very much a case of one or the other when it comes to Rooney and Owen.
The former Everton player is sure to start more often than not, with Ferguson seemingly intent on reverting to a 4-4-2 formation with Ronaldo gone.
With 12 minutes of the Audi Cup final remaining, Ferguson made the now customary move of swapping Owen and Rooney. It means the pair have still to share a minute on the pitch for United this summer despite an impressive return of 23 goals in 29 appearances as partners for England.
Even Ferguson cannot have expected Owen to have had such an impressive impact during United's summer workouts as he looks to rebuild his fitness and reputation after a dismal, injury-ravaged spell with Newcastle.
But Bayern offered a much better barometer of how Owen is likely to fare in the Premier League than anything United faced in the Far East as the Germans carried off the Audi Cup 7-6 on penalties in front of 69,000 in the Allianz Arena.
Bayern Munich demolished AC Milan with a fine display of confident, attacking football on their first appearance at the Allianz Arena since Louis van Gaal took over.
Nineteen-year-old striker Thomas Muller grabbed a brace as the record German champions taught the Italians a lesson with a comfortable 4-1 win.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Saer Sene were also on target for Bayern with a free-kick from Andrea Pirlo Milan's only consolation.
Bayern will now meet Manchester United in the final of the Audi Cup tomorrow night with Milan contending third place with Boca Juniors.
Bayern took the game to their Italian opponents from the very beginning with Muller, the young revelation of their pre-season, terrorising Milan's experienced defender Alessandro Nesta, a man 14 years his senior.
He broke the deadlock after 12 minutes with a predatory finish that his legendary namesake Gerd Muller would have been proud of to conclude a fluid team move.
Hamit Altintop slotted the ball through for Jose Ernesto Sosa, who dragged the ball back from the goalline for Muller to sidefoot in from point-blank range.
Mario Gomez had a string of opportunities to add to the early lead, but he was unable to put the finishing touch to another impressive team move which involved Philipp Lahm and Muller on the half-hour mark.
Gomez then nicked a Daniel Pranjic cross just wide of the far post from close range with Nesta in close attention as Bayern tore Milan to shreds, albeit without converting their dominance into goals.
At the other end, Giuseppe Favalli did find the back of the net a minute before the break but the goal was ruled out for offside.
The hosts continued to take the game to their guests, who were clearly suffering after a tiring tour of the USA came to an end only early yesterday morning.
Half-time substitute Schweinsteiger inspired Gomez to another chance which he dragged just wide of Marco Storari's goal while on the stretch while Thiago Silva almost put the ball in his own goal as he cut out a low cross from Lahm.
There was another flash of danger at the other end with Martin Demichelis heading over the crossbar as his team mates just looked on believing the ball had already gone out of play.
Schweinsteiger then grabbed a deserved second goal for Bayern with a touch of individual skill.
He left Gennaro Gattuso, Massimo Oddo and Kakha Kaladze all on the floor before placing his shot calmly past Storari into the bottom corner from 15 yards.
A goalkeeping error by Hans-Jorg Butt allowed Milan an unexpected route back into the game less than two minutes later.
He flapped at Pirlo's 25-yard free-kick and could only push the ball into the roof of his own goal.
But a grandstand finish enabled Bayern to move comfortably into tomorrow's final against Manchester United.
Young substitute Sene, making his first ever appearance in the first team just 24 hours after scoring the equaliser for Bayern's reserves in their third division match, opened his account for the club in style.
His initial shot was saved by Storari, but the ball fell for Muller, Sene's former team mate in the youth team, who unselfishly laid the ball back into the 22-year-old's path, giving him an easy tap-in from close range.
And there was another tap-in for Muller in the last minute from Alexander Baumjohann's cross to complete a deserved rout of the Rossoneri.
In a veritable who's who of world football, Intercontinental Cup-winning foursome AC Milan, Manchester United, Boca Juniors and hosts Bayern contest the Audi Cup 2009 at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday and Thursday, but the stakes for Louis van Gaal and his team are far higher than simply adding another piece of silverware to the already glittering Säbener Strasse trophy cabinet.
For Munich, the real significance of the prestige event is as a final dress rehearsal for Sunday's DFB Cup first round tie away to Neckarelz. "We've only had three and a half weeks in pre-season. I'm piecing a team together, so I have to regard the tournament as a warm-up for Sunday," explained van Gaal: "Sunday is the more important game." In that match, Bayern intend to make the second round convincingly against their sixth-tier opponents.
All change in Milan Wednesday's semi-finals in the Audi Cup, staged to mark the centenary of FCB's premium automotive partner, feature Bayern against Milan and United against Boca. Some 70 reporters turned out to hear all four coaches address a news conference at the official team hotel, the Westin Grand Munich Arabellapark, on Tuesday afternoon.
"We're just back from a tour of the USA and my players are certainly a little weary. But we're delighted to be taking part in this high-quality tournament," said Milan coach Leonardo. The Brazilian goes into his first season as Rossoneri boss without superstar Kaka, who was allowed to leave for Real Madrid in the summer. "We're rebuilding here in Milan, but even without Kaka we have a good team," said Leonardo, who has succeeded Chelsea-bound Carlo Ancelloti.
90 minutes each for Butt and Rensing
"I hope the crowd will enjoy watching these top teams, but I hope they recognise we're all still in pre-season," commented Van Gaal. Bayern's opponents Milan have indeed only just reported back from summer vacation, as the Serie A season does not recommence until the end of August. "Bayern will probably be in better shape than us tomorrow," offered Leonardo. "Milan are a top team. I'm intrigued to see how we get on against them at this stage," countered Van Gaal.
The Bayern coach will use the games to continue his team's bedding-in process, and also come to final decisions regarding one or two starting positions for Sunday. "All the players will have the same amount of playing time, but I won't mix things up at this stage, because I need my team to settle down," the Dutch boss said. Jörg Butt will keep goal on one day and Michael Rensing on the other, Van Gaal revealed. Franck Ribéry, Luca Toni and Ivica Olic are all sidelined with injury.
Van Gaal's debut at the Allianz Arena The tournament offers Allianz Arena debuts for Van Gaal, and for new signings Danijel Pranjic, Edson Braafheid, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Alexander Baumjohann and Mario Gomez. "The Audi Cup is the highlight of pre-season," commented the Germany international striker, "it's the perfect acid test, before it really gets serious for the first time at the weekend. We're ready for it."
Tournament schedule Wednesday:
6.30 pm: Manchester United - Boca Juniors
8.45 pm: Bayern - AC Milan
On Wednesday morning, Tim Borowski practised his shooting in Donaueschingen with Bastian Schweinsteiger and number three keeper Thomas Kraft, but the 29-year-old midfielder will now return to the task of attempting to score against Bayern Munich. Borowski has left the Bavarians in favour of a return to Werder Bremen, from where he switched to Munich only a year ago. The 29-year-old, whose contract with FCB was intended to run until 30 June 2011, switches north for an undisclosed fee.
Borowski will ink a three-year deal with Werder in the next few days, keeping him in Bremen until 30 June 2012. The man capped 33 times by Germany left Bayern's summer training camp on Wednesday afternoon and made his way straight to Bremen. He had earlier lunched with the Munich officials, coaches and playing staff, saying farewell with a handshake and thanks for the previous 12 months.
A great experience
"I've had a curious year at Bayern, but I wouldn't have missed the experience for the world," commented Borowski, "I'm now looking forward to Werder and intend to hit the ground running there." Last term, the midfielder never managed to escape the role of squad player in Munich. He did score seven goals in no fewer than 35 competitive appearances, but only covered the full 90 minutes on six occasions. He netted four Bundesliga goals as a substitute, finishing level with Dortmund striker Mohamed Zidan as the league's most dangerous super-sub last term.
Borowski switched to Bayern on a free transfer in the summer of 2008. He joined Bremen in 2001, making 169 Bundesliga appearances in his first spell at the club, and winning the league and cup double in 2004. He will now seek to recapture past glories in a second stint in a green and white jersey.
