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This past Wednesday, Erik ten Hag’s FC Bayern II squad went into the Flyeralarm Arena in Würzburg and after a first 45 scoreless minutes (that were only so due to the performance of the Würzburg keeper Daniel Tsiflidis), opened the second half with a bang as American Julian Green latched onto a cross from Vladimir Rankovic and headed home to open the scoring. An immediate response from Wurzburg leveled the score, and after Green dropped another to secure his brace ten minutes later, Würzburg equalized again. A 63’ minute free kick from Benno Schmitz found Tobias Schweinsteiger who put the reserves ahead for good. An 85th minute strike from Alessandro Schöpf was just icing on the cake as the reserves improved to 2-0-0 on the season.
Two matches into the 2013/2014 season, the FC Bayern reserves are undefeated. Erik ten Hag’s side has outscored their opponents by a margin of 10 to 2, for a +8 goal differential. In their latest win, Vladimir Rankovic provided 2 assists on top of the 3 he provided in Matchday 1. 5 assists in two matches is quite a haul, even more so considering he is a right back. This amount of production is quite impressive, and even doubly more so from a 20 year old. Coupled with the quality finishing from the young striker set in the Bayern academy, this should be a highly entertaining season.
Sitting 4th in the Regionalliga after two matches with a game in hand on the teams above, they take on SV Schalding-Heining this Friday. SV Schalding-Heining finished 1st in the Bayernliga Süd, earning promotion in the 2012/2013 season; this followed a season after they won promotion from the Landesliga Bayern-Mitte following the 2011/2012 season. This year, they sit 8th after 3 matches on 4 points having drawn with SpVgg Bayern Hof and defeated 1.FC Schweinfurt 05.