Welcome to the FC Bayern Campus Round Up, where the matches of Bayern Munich’s U-23, U-19, and U-17 squads are recapped, lineups are provided, and match highlights are hyperlinked above their respective scorelines. Remember, highlights for each match can be watched for free once you create an account on Bayern’s website.
Information on the matches of the U-23s and U-19s is provided by the official FC Bayern website here and here. The results of the U-17, U-16, U-15, and U-14 teams can be found here. If
one wishes to learn more about the format of the U-17 and U-19 youth leagues and what is at stake, more info can be found here. Without further ado, here is the roundup:
1859+1 Munich 2-4 Bayern II (U-23s), Matchday 13
- Bayern lineup (with subs): Bärtl – Manuba, Kiala, Pavic, Ajayi (63. Kim) – Santos, Olychenko – Heinz (70. Lambe), Della Rovere (82. Gashi), Codjo-Evora (82. Assomo), Binder (63. Degraf).
- Goals: 0:1 Heinz (12.), 0:2 Binder (23.), 1:2 Leone (29.), 1:3 Heinz (40.), 2:3 Niederlechner (50.), 2:4 Degraf (74.).
- Unused subs: Klanac – Moumouni, Osmani, Wilson.
- Unavailable players: Louis Richter, Leonard Prescott, Tarek Buchmann, Maycon Cardozo, Bogdan Olychenko, Benno Schmitz, Raphaël Pavlić, David Heindl.
- Position: 12th, 19 points.
Find our coverage of the match here.
One note: If one ignores Dante’s first four matches of the season—a rough start in which he collected just 1 point from 4 matches—Dante’s men have now racked up 18 points from the last 9 matches. A points average of 2.00 is not amazing, especially with all the talent in the squad, but maintaining it over a long stretch certainly would see the Bavarians rise up the table and perhaps enter contention for promotion again.
Oh, and suck it, 1859+1. Losing to Bayern’s U-23s AGAIN just has to hurt.
SpVgg Unterhaching U-19s 3-2 Bayern U-19s, Matchday 7
- Bayern lineup (with subs): Heo – El-Chaar, Mijatović, Pucci (28. Marić), Nuraj (70. Gashi) – Imade (64. Horoszczak), Schmid, Matosevic (46. Snip), Egwuatu – Schaff, von Taube (64. Afanou).
- Goals: 0:1 Schmid (8.), 1:1 Cirak (19.), 2:1 Burghardt (34.), 2:2 Schmid (51.), 3:2 Burghardt (66.).
- Unused subs: Nadler, Horvath.
- Unavailable players: Matthias Kösters, Aristide Hentcho Nseke, Thibault Maspimby, Chivano Wijks.
- Position: 1st, 15 points.
As successful as the U-23s’ derby against 1859+1 was, the U-19s’ S-Bahn derby against SpVgg Unterhaching did not provide the same kind of joy. Instead, Bayern allowed Unterhaching to collect just their second win of the campaign thus far in a frustrating, disappointing away loss.
The lineup changed four positions from last week. Ryan Moumouni and Erblin Osmani (who may or may not be a full-time member of the U-23s now) were in the squad for the U-23s’ game this weekend, while Chivano Wijks of course got hurt again. Therefore, Xavier Pucci partnered Roko Mijatović in the center of defense, while Skender Nuraj lined up again at left-back. Meanwhile, Simon Schaff started once again as an attacking midfielder. The biggest change, however, was the debut of Jae-Won Heo in net. Heo was a member of the World Squad and was signed in the summer on a six-month loan deal. As mentioned, this was his first competitive appearance for Bayern.
And what an unlucky debut it was for Heo, conceding three unstoppable goals and barely getting a touch of the ball for most of the match. That is just how the game went, though: Bayern pinned Unterhaching in their own half from minute one, started circulating the ball, won the ball back with very good gegenpressing, and eventually created some chances. Bayern had already come close to breaking into the box when the ball fell to #6 Leopold Schmid, who turned well and fired hard and low into the corner from just outside the area to give Bayern the early lead. The early opener should have given the league leaders the confidence to further decide the game in their favor.
However, the team’s passing instead got more ragged. The team lost possession more and more cheaply, Unterhaching disrupted the flow of play and got the ball into better positions, and then it happened: in the 18th minute, the opposition crossed the halfway line with the ball for the first time. And Bayern’s defense completely fell apart. Schmid needlessly let himself get pulled out wide and behind the ball, multiple defenders chose to close down the ball rather than limit space and block passing lanes, right-back Adam El-Chaar lagged behind, and Roko Mijatović needlessly let himself get dragged out of position before getting fooled too easily by their winger. El-Chaar and Xavier Pucci behind him did not cover him well enough, leading to the winger jinking past Mijatović to dig out a cross into the middle, where Nuraj was stuck defending two forwards on his own. The ball squirmed past the left-back and the first forward, meaning the Unterhaching forward behind them had a free shot around the penalty spot. Unterhaching had scored with their first foray forward. It was unlucky, but also very poorly defended.
Things went from bad to worse when it turned out that Pucci, desperately lunging after the goalscorer, collided with Heo’s knee and suffered a head injury. The center-back was treated on the sidelines for the next 8 minutes before finally being subbed off for midfielder Mateo Marić. This was a pivotal shift from manager Leonard Haas, who pulled Leopold Schmid into the defense rather than deploying another natural center-back.
This did nothing to stabilize the defense, though. A very heavy touch from Michael Matosevic straight from a free kick saw him lose the ball in the center of the park. Schmid strode forward to win the ball but let himself get caught on the wrong side of the forward, taking him out of play for the rest of the attack. Unterhaching continued to surge forward, and Mijatović did a good job of blocking the dribbling and passing lanes, but Nuraj’s history as a winger showed in the most unfortunate of ways. Without keeping the offside trap in mind, the left-back sprinted beyond Mijatović and lifted any potential offside, allowing Unterhaching to play a pass beyond Mijatović to the onrushing forward, who made no mistake in giving Unterhaching the lead.
Things changed in the second half. Roy Snip came on for the poor Matosevic, and the team took on a decidedly more lopsided look in an attempt to snag an equalizer. Schmid was moved back into midfield, with very attacking full-backs Nuraj and El-Chaar forming a back three with Mijatović in the middle. It was essentially a one-defender formation fully reliant on gegenpressing to defend at all. It did work initially, though, as the visitors immediately hit the woodwork, got close again, and finally got the equalizer in the third attempt of the half in the 51st minute when Schaff lobbed in a cross for Schmid to get his second goal of the match.
But this kind of formation was always going to backfire. Nuraj demonstrated again that he is simply not a defender, falling over in an attempt to stop his opponent in the 66th minute and leaving the lightweight defense in an impossible position to stop the goal.
Bayern created more chances, came close to scoring again, and hit the woodwork as well, but could not find another goal. Bayern lost this derby, though thanks to Stuttgart’s draw, they did not lose top spot in the table.
SpVgg Unterhaching U-17s 0-4 Bayern U-17s, Matchday 9
- Bayern lineup (with subs): Röhlk – Etüz (68. Ebert), Schreyer, Nduka (68. Rama), Herber – Zubovic, Mujic (75. Ciglar), Hoffmann (60. Hiseni) – Mahr (60. Rieber), Krasniqi, Ludwig.
- Goals: 1:0 Herber (8.), 2:0 Zubovic (53.), 3:0 Krasniqi (63.), 4:0 Krasniqi (73.).
- Position: 1st, 24 points.
The U-17s showed the U-19s how it is done by taking advantage of their dominance and destroying SpVgg Unterhaching 4-0. They had their own struggles converting their chances, but held their nerve defensively and eventually got their goals in the second half. This victory puts the U-17s on 24 points, 8 clear of second-placed Nürnberg, whom they will face next week.
