NEW YORK -- Franz Beckenbauer may be the brand ambassador for Bayern Munich, but Der Kaiser was less than diplomatic on Friday as he tried to row back on comments he had made in the wake of Bayern's Champions League humiliation in Porto.
Bayern were put on the back seat early on Wednesday by conceding twice in the opening 10 minutes of an eventual 3-1 defeat in the first leg of their quarterfinal.
After the game, Beckenbauer infamously characterised Dante as looking as if he had "ski boots" on against Porto, and in trying to clarify his comments only succeeded in adding further criticism of the whole Bayern team.
"I made a mistake, I know, but I was so angry... after 10 minutes you're 2-0 down," Beckenbauer said
"It was so many individual mistakes. I never saw this before. You saw the passes, they passed the ball... there was no one. I never saw this before. I thought they took sleeping pills. Really, it looked like that.
"Porto was much faster, more willpower and in every kind of thing they were much better. Then you give them the three goals and they were very very easy and it makes me very angry."
As for his comments on Dante, Beckenbauer said: "At half-time, I have to give a comment and that was my reaction. And I'm sorry to give him the ski boots... but he's Brazilian, and Brazilian to me means for me, technique and Pele and... Brazil. But not this."