Bayern reserves kick off season with a bang

Reloaded for the new season

Bayern II has played out a few rather disappointing campaigns in recent years. After a 2013/14 season which saw them seconds (literally) away from winning promotion to the 3rd Bundesliga, the ensuing seasons saw them fall considerably short of a return to the promotion playoff.

A second place finish in 2014/15 was the closest they’ve come to promotion, with a 6th place finish in 2015/16 and a 3rd place finish (though 25 points behind league champion Unterhaching) in 2016/17, inspiring little confidence in the team and the direction in which they were heading.

But as they say in German: “Neues Jahr, Neues Glück!” (“New Year, New Luck!”)

Equipped with last year’s U-17 Bundesliga-winning coach Tim Walter and his assistant Tobias Schweinsteiger, along with 10 additions from last year’s U-19 side, which came second in the Bundesliga, there is hope that this will finally be the year that the reserves make the jump up to the 3rd Bundesliga for the first time since their relegation in 2011.

Bayern II demolish Ingolstadt

In their first game, Bayern II certainly showed they have the potential to play a successful season, beating last year’s 8th place finisher Ingolstadt by a lopsided score of 5:0.

Though key players such as Fabian Benko (torn ankle ligament), Christan Früchtl, Marco Friedl, and Felix Götze were missing from the squad (they are currently all with the first team), Walter was still able to field a side that included high-profile prospects such as Timothy Tillman, Derrick Köhn, and captain Niklas Dorsch.

Bayern jumped out to an early lead, as Manuel Wintzheimer drove a wonderful strike from outside the box into the bottom left corner after 9 minutes.

Things got a bit rocky roughly 30 minutes later, as Bayern center-back Maxime Awoudja was sent off with a red-card for a last ditch tackle. Ingolstadt’s advantage lasted only minutes, though, as Alexander Kogler was sent off a minute before half-time for a nasty tackle on midfielder Adrian Fein.

Just ten minutes after the restart, Marco Hingerl extended Bayern’s lead to 2:0. A free-kick was quickly executed and Raphael Obermair was able to find Hingerl for the acrobatic finish. The 71st minute saw the subbed-on Milos Pantovic raise the score to 3:0 with a nice one-touch finish into the top left corner.

Michael Strein, subbed on in the 74th minute, waited just seconds to open his account on the season, scoring in both the 75th and 80th minute to help the reserves see out a very comfortable win in their opening game.

“There is no young or old, just good or bad,” said Walter in his post-game interview. “We have the quality, and I mentioned earlier that the faster they adapt, the more successful we’ll be.”

Though currently on a bit of a hiatus due to Bayern’s pre-season tour, the reserves will resume league play on July 30th, when they face 13th placed FC Unterföhring away from home.

The full highlights can be seen here.

Bayern XI: Weinkauf - Türkkalesi, Feldhan, Awoudja, Köhn - Fein, Dorsch (C) - Obermair, Hingerl (Tarnat 77’), Tilman (Strein 74’) - Wintzheimer (Pantovic 58’)

Ingolstadt XI: Buntic - Langen, Grauschopf, Gerlspeck, Reislöhner - Nicklas (Suljic 54’), Kotzke, Watanabe, Jalinous (Senger 70’) - Hasenhüttl (Tobias 81’), Kogler