This was a real mixed bag of a weekend for Bayern’s youth teams.
Welcome to the FC Bayern Campus Round Up, where the matches of Bayern Munich’s U-17 and U-23 squads are recapped, line ups are provided and the highlights to each match are hyperlinked on top of their respective score lines. This week, the U-19s did not have a match but will resume their season next week. Information on the matches is provided by the official FC Bayern website here and here. Unfortunately, Bayern did not release the highlights for the U-17 match. Additionally, none of these matches can be viewed in full length without an FCBayernTV subscription. Without further ado, here is the round up:
Greuther Fürth II 5-1 Bayern II (U-23s)
Bayern lineup: Pavlešić – Scholze (62. Yanda), Becker, Scholl, Brückner – Denk, Rüger, Jensen (62. Ličina) – Della Rovere (62. Unsöld), Wagner (16. Heilmair), Binder (79. Darboe).
Goals: 1:0 Adlung (16.), 1:1 Binder (22.), 2:1 Grimbs (48.), 3:1 Aigboje (54.), 4:1 Marita (61.), 5:1 Aigboje (85.).
Unavailable players: Vincent Manuba, Steve Breitkreuz, Javier Fernández, Younes Aitamer, Tarek Buchmann, Veis Yildiz, Benjamin Ballis, Moritz Mosandl, Kurt Rüger, Michael Scott, Gabriel Marušić, Davide Dell’Erba
This was the defeat that officially made it impossible for Bayern II to be promoted from the Regionalliga this season. And what a way it was to confirm that dubious honor. Having won on the previous weekend against 1. FC Schweinfurt to open the door to promotion a sliver, the team played against Aubstadt in midweek to push that door further open…only to lose the match and incur multiple new injuries, as well. It is not as if Bayern II have not been used to injuries this season. Practically every match sees the team without at least half a dozen player. But losing 12 players to injury, as well as seeing striker Jonah Kusi-Asare join the senior team’s matchday squad, a particularly bare bones team traveled to Greuther Fürth.
And immediately went down to 10 men before the 20 minute mark. Paul Scholl, Lennard Becker and Luca Denk (right as the commentator was praising the former two, as well) completely fell asleep and allowed a lofted pass to find a forward, with goalkeeper Anthony Pavlešić rushing out, completely missing the ball and only getting the player. It was an obvious red card. To add insult to injury, Fürth scored from the resulting free kick.
From there, it was a difficult watch as the home team repeatedly took advantage of their one man advantage. It really could have been a lot worse. Poor Hannes Heilmaier, bought just last summer, had to make his debut after Pavlešić was sent off. He even made a few decent saves but was repeatedly overwhelmed as the game wore on. The only real bright spark for Bayern was Guido Della Rovere, another signing in the summer who has been growing from strength to strength this year. He is a talent to keep an eye on.
As mentioned above, promotion is not longer mathematically possible for Bayern II. Schweinfurt are now 11 points clear of the Bavarians’ U-23s with 3 games to go.
Bayern U-19 2-1 Wolfsburg U-19
Bayern lineup: Schmitt – Dalpiaz, Mijatović, Puljić, Ofli – Chávez (83. Schuhbauer), Santos, Richter (26. Chemwor) – Karl, Gashi, Sadat.
Unused subs: Stančić – Schäfer, Nasrawe, Mike, Zöls.
Goals: 1:0 Chemwor (50.), 2:0 Puljić (55.), 2:1 Yacobi (70.)
Unavailable players: Noah Codjo-Evora, Valentin Yotov, Max Mergner, Bogdan Olychenko, Leon Klanac, Oluwaseyi Wilson, Erion Rexhepi.
That is better. Bayern hosted Wolfsburg in the Round of 16 of the U-19 Bundesliga’s third and final phase. Remember, the one who wins in the final wins the entire U-19 Bundesliga in the new league format’s debut season. There was a lot on the line for this one, so the likes of Magnus Dalpiaz, Felipe Chávez and Lennart Karl returned to the U-19s for this match. Even Yll Gashi, usually a part of the U-17s, was called up for the match in main striker Codjo-Evora’s absence. Wisdom Mike, injured since February, made the match day squad for the first time in two months but was not fit enough to play yet.
But there was one unexpected personnel decision. Usual captain of the U-19s, Jussef Nasrawe, was left on the bench in favor of Louis Richter. Though he is not as talented as Nasrawe, at 19, Richter is the oldest of the group and has a leadership role in the team, as well. That may be the reason he was selected ahead of Nasrawe and it certainly is the reason he wore the captain’s armband. However, when Richter had to come off injured in the 26th minute, it was winger Sadiki Chemwor who was chosen to come on instead of the Germany U-17 international. Very curious.
Not that it was the wrong decision, as Chemwor provided the ever so crucial opener with a brilliant shot from a fairly difficult angle in the second half. The 17-year-old had already provided some moments of real danger in the first half but the goal was a thing of beauty and his best work of the day, a low and hard shot that arrowed perfectly into the far corner. David Santos, the defensive midfielder today, set up the goal with a brilliant tackle in midfield. The U-18 Portugal international found himself on the fringes of the U-19 squad in the summer but was granted the captain’s armband after Richter left the field today, which sums up his amazing development over the year very well. Karl also played really well, was the most dangerous Bayern player on the night and showed extreme maturity in his decision making as well as immense quality in all his actions. But that is hardly anything new.
This victory means Bayern move on into the quarterfinals of the U-19 Bundesliga, where they will face Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, May 4.
FC Ingolstadt U-17 4-4 Bayern U-17
Bayern lineup: Kösters (46. Coenen) – Wijks, Kiala, Pavlić, Ajayi (65. Özmen (82. Zogaj)) – Matosevic, Lambe, Göttlicher – Snip, Hentcho Nseke, Egwuatu (65. El-Chaar).
Bayern goalscorers: 1:1 Snip (22.), 1:2 Matosevic (32.), 4:3 Snip (86.), 4:4 Snip (90.).
This was a bit of a dead rubber match, as Bayern’s U-17 team had already qualified for the third and final phase of the U-19 Bundesliga and were merely battling for first place in the league. Perhaps that was why Bayern’s performance was so sloppy as the team faced second to bottom Ingolstadt in a match that ended in an 8-goal thriller. In the absence of top scorer Gashi, Snip took matters into his own hands and scored a hat trick, with his two last goals coming in the very end.
Ultimately, Bayern still made it through to the Round of 16, where they will face Karlsruhe SC’s U-17 team on Saturday, May 3.
All the other information Bayern’s youth teams is here.
Looking for more thoughts and discussion on Bayern Munich’s performance over the weekend against Mainz and where things stand in the Bundesliga? What about some chatter on whether or not bringing Leroy Sané back is a good idea? Finally, we hit on how Tom Bischof might fit in at Bayern Munich and whether or not that undermines the work being done on Bayern Munich’s campus. You can get all of that and more on Patreon, Spotify, or below:
