FC Bayern II: Reserves stomp on FC Ingolstadt II

This past week saw FC Bayern II defeat the Ingolstadt reserve side by a resounding 4 goals to 1 at the Grunwalder Stadion to improve to 7-0-0, continuing their undefeated start to the 2013/2014 in Regionalliga Bayern.

From the beginning it was a Bayern II dominated affair that almost saw the home team up 1-0 within 10 minutes as a free header in the box fell to CB Stefan Buck who drilled it far post, only to see it cleared off the line. Unfortunately, some defensive miscues down the right hand side of the pitch, allowed Ingolstand to open the scoring in the 25th minute. Not to be trifled with though, Bayern midfielder Rico Streider and Vladmir Rankovic put together a 2 touch nice movement down the rightside, allowing Rankovic to drive it low across the box where the sliding Julian Green latched onto it to level the score. It was Rankovic's 9th assist of the season and his first of three on the day.

Nary 2 minutes later than the Ingolstadt defense botched a clearance gave way to slotting CB Edwin Schwarz into the center of the pitch, where his 20+ yard drive skipped past Ingolstadt goalkeeper Thomas Reichlmayer to give the reserves the lead.

6 minutes into the second half saw the Bayern defense recover and loose the charging Rankovic down the right hand side, where with some deft turns and ball handling, Rankovic inside outed 2 Ingolstadt defenders before crossing to the far post and the waiting head of Patrick Weihrauch.  In the 59', Rankovic put together a very similar run down the right side that saw him cut inside, before duping a defender and laying it off for a Bastian Fischer midfield run that saw him blast it into the far corner of the net from beyond the penalty box.

Through 7 games this season, the Bayern reserves sit well atop the Regionalliga Bayern, 5 points ahead of 2nd place Greuther Fürth with a game in hand. With all three of  the reserves top scorers adding to their goal tallies, Julian Green and Bastian Fischer now sit with 4 a piece for the side, while Weihrauch sits on 3.

However, the big story of the year so far has been Vladimir Rankovic's transition from RB to RM, which has seen him become the key creative force on this Bayern reserve team to the tune of 11 assists through 7 matches. At this pace he'd finish the season with 57 which is just sheer hilarity to think about. His on-ball prowess and ability to turn defenders inside out and his crossing are both very impressive already, even at the level of competition he is playing against. He's a player we should expect to start seeing make some senior side appearances, at least on the bench, as we move into the congestion of the schedule in October and November.

The FC Bayern reserves were originally slated to play two games this week, with a midweek match against TSV Buchbach. Unfortunately, this match has been moved to mid October which leaves them with the sole match on their calendar this week being a visit from SV Viktoria Aschaffenburg this Saturday. SV Viktoria Aschaffenburg currently sit dead last in the Regionalliga, a season after transferring to the Bavarian league system from the Hessenliga. A 15th place finish last season was enough to see them relegation but this season, their 0-2-5 record and league highest -12 goal differential, should be foreboding tidings.