Imagine If He Had Started - Lewandowski Scores 5 Off the Bench

VfL Wolfsburg had to feel good at halftime yesterday, leading undefeated Bayern München, 1-0 in Munich.

Then Robert Lewandowski entered the match. 

Six minutes after coming off the bench to replace Thiago Alcantaro, Lewandowski took a pass at the 6 and tied the score.  A minute later he gave Bayern the lead for good from 20 yards out.  Then in the 55th minute came the hat trick, a goal that took three tries to score.  Again open on the 6, Lewandowski took a pass and hit the left post with a right-footed shot, hit the rebound off the keeper with his left foot and finally used his right to tap in the loose ball.

That wasn't his best goal of the match.  After scoring a (relatively speaking) mundane goal on a shot from straight away in the 57th minute, Lewandowski took a cross from the right touchline and vollied it in from the 18 with a scissors kick in the 60th minute. 

"You cannot be that good!" screamed the English-language announcer.

Andrew Das has the story of Lewandowski's amazing feat  - with a video clip of each goal - in today's New York Times.  He reports that this was the fastest hat trick in Bundesliga history and the first time a substitute had scored five goals. 

Lewansowski was quoted by Das as saying, "It was a crazy few minutes.  I'm very satisfied."  And Bayern coach, Pep Guardiola, who coached a guy named Lionel Messi at Barcelona, said "I don't think I'll ever see something like that again."  Probably not.