FC Bayern Campus Round Up: Bayern II struggles to implement Kompany ball, U-19s demonstrate progress against Benfica and U-17s complete a perfect first half of the season

A 100% win rate in the first half of the season is not bad at all…

Welcome to the FC Bayern Campus Round Up, where this Bayern Munich’s U-17, U-19, and U-23 matches of the past weekend are recapped, line ups are provided and highlights to each match are hyperlinked on top of their respective score lines. Due to the U-19s not playing a match over the weekend, the midweek UEFA Youth League fixture against SL Benfica will instead be recapped. Unfortunately, none of these matches can be viewed in full length without an FCBayernTV subscription. Without further ado, here is the round up:

Ansbach 1-0 Bayern II
Bayern lineup (with subs): Schmitt – Manuba, Dettoni, Breitkreuz, Dell’Erba (62. Brückner) – Aseko (62. Rüger), Denk (90. Demircan), Kern – Della Rovere (62. Ličina), Wagner (46. Unsöld), Ibrahimović.

Goal: 1:0 Sauerstein (89.)

Unused subs: Ballis – Scholl, Marušić, Becker.

Unavailable players: Younes Aitamer Moritz Mosandl, Jonathan Asp Jensen, Javier Fernández, Adin Ličina

There was a lot of positivity going into this match. The team was unbeaten in 6 games, having won 5 of them and within touching distance of the top of the table. Furthermore, the injury list is starting to get shorter. Benjamin Ballis and Davide Dell’Erba were both fit to participate in the match while Asp Jensen and Ličina are back in team training. Curiously, both Nestory Irankunda and Jonah Kusi-Asare were both not in the squad despite participating in the UEFA Youth League in midweek.

Yet the match itself was so desperately disappointing. A shift to adopt various elements of the playstyle of Vincent Kompany, the head coach of Bayern, was very evident against SV Wacker on the previous weekend, in which Bayern’s U-23s absolutely dominated possession and wore the opposition down over time before hitting 5 goals past them. Various principles such as defensive midfielder Luca Denk slotting in to the right of a back 3 in possession, intense gegenpressing, inverted full backs and fluid movement from the forwards were all very clearly carried over from the Belgian coach.

But these principles were more difficult to identify against Ansbach. On a terrible pitch, Bayern struggled to string more than 5 passes together, the team remained in a standard 4-2-3-1 build up formation in build up the majority of the time and the gegenpressing was not very coordinated. Ergo Bayern II struggled, conceding big chances time and again against a relegation threatened side while not creating nearly enough in attack.

This result sees Bayern II drop to 4th in the table, 6 points adrift of top spot with a game in hand.

Bayern U-19 3-3 SL Benfica U-19
Bayern lineup (with subs): Klanac – Manuba (46. Dalpiaz), Scholl, Puljić, Aznou – Aseko, Rüger (61. Kusi-Asare), Richter (61. Mike) – Irankunda, Chávez (87. Nasrawe), Demircan (61. Della Rovere).

Unused subs: Ruland – Schäfer, Ofli, Scott.

Goals: 0:1 Varela (17.), 1:1 Irankunda (22.), 1:2 Oliveira (45+2.), 2:2 Kusi-Asare (70.), 3:2 Mike (76.), 3:3 Ferreira (90+3.)

Unavailable players: Iwinosa Uhuns, Sadiki Chemwor, Max Mergner, David Santos, Oluwaseyi Wilson, Tim Binder, Noah Codjo-Evora, Jonathan Asp Jensen, Javier Fernandez, Adin Ličina, Roko Mijatović

This was the 4th U-19 game in a row without a win and the 2nd in a row that featured a stoppage-time equalizer from the opponents. Yet there are very many positives to take from this match. Head coach Peter Gaydarov spoke ahead of the match how Benfica is not just the oldest team in the tournament, but in his opinion the best. Benfica’s superb academy is certainly no secret and this batch of players is so very mature, with just a single 17-year-old in the squad with 18 and 19-year-old players. Meanwhile Bayern has one of the younger sides in the tournament.

Despite this daunting task, however, Bayern acquitted themselves very well. They played a promising opening 15 minutes, but then conspired to concede a cheap goal. The last encounter between Benfica and Bayern’s U-19s, just 2 years ago, saw the Portuguese visitors 2-0 up by the 12th minute and the Bavarians unable to lay a finger on their opponents. This was not the case in this match, as Adam Aznou fed Nestory Irankunda to leather home an equalizer. Benfica gained the lead again, but again Bayern fought back and even 3-2 up in the 76th minute through two quick fire goals. But another set piece robbed the victory from the Bavarians…

This result leave Bayern’s U-19s with 7 points after 4 games. Despite playing against Dinamo Zagreb, FC Barcelona and Benfica’s academies, three of the most renowned academies in Europe, the Bavarian youngsters have acquitted themselves very well. It is a genuine source of pride to see how the team’s fortunes in the UEFA Youth League have gotten better in recent years.

SSV Jahn Regensburg U-17 2-3 Bayern U-17
Bayern lineup: Coenen – Moumouni, Kiala, Pavlić, Ajayi – Lambe, Snip, Göttlicher – Karl, Mike, Gashi.

Goals: 1:0 Preissler (9.) , 1:1 Lambe (30.), 1:2 Mike (38.), 1:3 Karl (45.), 2:3 Issifu (79.)

With this victory, the first round of the U-17 Bundesliga is complete. The U-17s have won all of their 14 games in the preliminary league phase, collecting 42 points and racking up a staggering goal difference of +60. Now, they will have a long winter break before entering a new league of 24, with the top 3 teams of each of the 8 preliminary leagues competing in it. That will last 10 games, before the champions of the U-17 Bundesliga will be decided by a knockout tournament.