Following consecutive league wins to start the season, Bayern return home at the campus to face Carl Zeiss Jena. They finished 11th last year, one place above the foot of the table, and avoided relegation
due to the expansion to 14 teams.
José Barcala made seven changes to the starting line up from the victory against Leipzig in the Red Bull Arena; only Ballisager, Oberdorf, Bühl and Harder retained their place, with a return to action for Club Captain Glódis Perla Viggósdóttir in the heart of the defence. Katharina Naschenweng alsogot her first league start since returning from injury. In other good news for Bayern: Giulia Gwinn was fit enough to be a part of the Matchday squad.
The Bayern XI was as follows:
Mala Grohs (GK) – Tuva Hansen, Glódis Perla Viggósdóttir (c), Stine Ballisager, Katharina Naschenweng – Lena Oberdorf, Sarah Zadrazil – Klara Bühl, Arianna Caruso, Alara Şehitler, Pernille Harder
The Match
As you would expect, Bayern were dominating possession from the off. However, they were struggling to combine and had many periods of play that were undone by an overhit/under-hit pass, which proved a frustrating watch at times.
The first notable chance for Bayern came in the 23rd minute, where an Alara shot from the edge of the box blazed over the bar. Alara was at the end of another chance in the 27th minute, after some great work by Oberdorf on the left, but her shot from inside of the box was sliced wide.
This was probably Bayern’s best spell of the match, and if not for the crossbar, Bayern would have had the breakthrough after a curled shot from Harder over the keeper from the left.
It has to be said that Jena were defending well, but Bayern lacked clear ideas on how to break down the defence, so a lot of potential chances were easily cleared.
It wasn’t just the Jena defence though, as Hannah Etzold showed her impressive reactions in net just before the half-time whistle. After a long ball from Glódis toward Harder, the Dane cut inside and released a powerful effort toward the near post, but Etzold produced a spectacular save.
Jena had really struggled to cause any problems for the reigning champions, so the least I expected was a half time change in the centre of defence, with Ballisager being replaced by Gilles. Perhaps Barcala was hoping the Canadian would show her set piece threat once again, but with a half to go against a side lacking quality, you would hope for open play chances and inventive patterns to break down their deep block.
More of what happened in the 60th minute ideally, where a great cross from Bühl toward the centre of the box was met by Harder, but her header lacked conviction and ballooned wide.
Barcala had seen enough to ring the changes, making a triple substitution in the 64th minute. Georgia Stanway, Momoko Tanikawa and Lea Schüller replaced Oberdorf, Caruso and Alara. Unless Oberdorf was struggling with an injury, that also seemed to be a strange substitution, given her goalscoring prowess from distance and set pieces.
It looked like the substitutions would have proved genius, as Tanikawa whipped a cross into the box from the right, where Schüller rose highest but headed over.
Apart from a few speculative shots from Stanway and Zadrazil, Bayern’s main method of attempting to score seemed to be launching balls into the box from deep or wide, where they were subsequently claimed by the keeper or easily cleared by the defenders.
Bayern’s final change of the night came in the 84th minute, which was to replace Naschenweng with Damnjanović.
Unfortunately, that did little aid Bayern’s attacking dynamics in Bayern’s desperate search for a late winner. As the seven minutes of time added on ticked by, the whistle sounded, and two points were dropped.
Conclusions
Certainly a disappointing result. Historically, Bayern have done well to beat the lower teams, sometimes late on, but they often managed to get the job done. To have an opportunity to go at least two points clear if you beat one of the lowest-quality sides in the league at home is an opportunity that the team and the coaching staff will be rueing.
As I said in the match report, the substitutions from Barcala were confusing. To make two defensive changes from the five available, especially against a side with little attacking threat was mystifying at best. If you were wanting the set-piece threat from Gilles, which is certainly understandable, she could have just started.
Following yesterday’s news about the UWCL draw, and the tough fixtures that are to come, you would hope that the coaching staff will learn from this, and that the players have time to analyse what they can do better as well. If European glory is the ambition, you cannot afford to drop points against sides like Jena.
Bayern’s next match is again at home versus Freiburg on Tuesday, 23rd September.
When Bayern Munich traveled to Sinsheim on a short week after taking down Chelsea FC in the Champions League, it was never going to be easy.
Hoffenheim is well-coached, motivated, and playing with a real fire. For a weary Bayern Munich side, that meant trouble, but Vincent Kompany heavily rotated his men and while it was not always dominant or even pretty, the Bavarians showed their grit once again in a 4-1 win.
Let’s get into all of the details right here on the Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show:
- A look at the starting XI and why it was absolutely the right move to rotated so much.
- A rundown of the scoring and substitutions — and why that scary first half told us so much about where the squad stands.
- Some final thoughts and takeaways on the match.
Also, be sure to stay tuned to Bavarian Podcast Works for all of your up to date coverage on Bayern Munich and Germany. Check us out on Patreon and follow us on Twitter @BavarianFBWorks, @BavarianPodcast @TheBarrelBlog, @BFWCyler, @2012nonexistent, @TommyAdams71 and more.
