Bayern Amateure kick off their season with a win

The Bayern Munich Amateure (II, U-23, however you’d like), kicked off their 2018/19 campaign with a 5-1 win over VFB Eichstatt on Thursday night, taking the first step in what hopefully ends up being a title winning season for a squad that finished second behind 1860 Munich a year ago. The team, led by last years U-17 coach Holger Seitz, looked drastically different than last season, as key players such as Niklas Dorsch, Milos Pantovic, and Fabian Benko (to name a few) have all moved onwards and upwards in their footballing development.

A mixture of homegrown U-19 talents as well as external acquisitions took their place in the line-up and started the game off with a bang.

Adrian Fein barely waited until the ink on his recently signed professional contract had dried to open his account for the Amateure, finding the back of the net just two minutes into the game on a left footed shot from outside the box. Fein showed good control and patience to get the shot off, and he left the keeper no chance, as his shot traveled through a crowd of players before flying past the goalie.

25 minutes later, Eichstatt equalized after a mistake from Jonathan Meier. Meier, a left back playing center back, had trouble controlling the ball, and his turnover led to the cross that Eichstatt’s Philipp Federl would head into the back of the net.

In the 35th minute, Bayern retook the lead. After a shot by summer acquisition Paul Will could only be blocked back into the center by Eichstatt’s goalie, Wooyeong Jeong was there to smash the rebound into the back of the net to restore Bayern’s lead.

After the break, Bayern added another goal through Alex Nollenberg, who found the ball at his feet following a corner and made no mistakes, putting the ball under the bar with a right footed shot from 12 yards out.

Wooyeong Jeong added his second goal of the day in the 66th minute, though Fein was the one who made it possible. Fein dribbled past a number of players inside the box before crossing the ball with his left to find the head of Jeong, who only had to head it in from there. Jeong, though, did take a knee to the - uhhh, stomach? Yeah, let’s go with stomach - from a Eichstatt defender on the goal, and was down in pain for a few minutes. Luckily, the South Korean would carry on.

Otschi Wriedt capped off the day with a goal from the penalty spot, cooly putting it past the goalie with a left footed shot into the bottom corner for a final score of 5-1.

Random Observations:

• Christian Früchtl runs and acts exactly like Manuel Neuer when he’s on the field. The resemblance is uncanny.
• Adrian Fein was everywhere today. Though the Bayern Twitter account had him playing as a number ten, he often dropped deep to help the build up play seemed to be on the ball constantly. He offered virtually endless support and outlet opportunities to his teammates and ran the show. His early goal put Bayern on the front foot, and the assist to Jeong was just a nice. His role going forward will likely be as more of a number 8 or 6, and he should fill the hole left behind by Niklas Dorsch.
• Wooyeong Jeong played a very good game, even if you ignore his two goals. He made dangerous runs in behind the defense, showed good ball control, and was patient enough to not force the issue when he couldn’t. He’ll need to get a little bit stronger in the coming months to be able to better fend off defenders and protect, as this is is likely his first time consistently playing against men, but nonetheless, a great debut for Jeong.
• Eichstatt are likely a relegation contender, but Bayern looked very good and fluid throughout the match, working the ball out of the back and into dangerous areas quickly, with the ball going through 6-7 stations and players before ending up in front of the opposing goal.
• That being said, you could tell these guys haven’t been playing with each other long, and there were some communication issues at times. But those will undoubtedly go away as the squad has more time to gel on the field.
• How crazy is it that Bayern have a Ghanese international on their second team?

The line-up:

Christian Früchtl - Resul Türkkalesi (Kilian Senkbeil, 85’), Nicolas Feldhan (C), Jonathan Meier, Derrick Köhn - Maximilian Welzmüller, Paul Will (Max Zaiser, 77’) - Wooyeong Jeong (Matthias Lange, 73’), Adrian Fein, Alexander Nollenberger - Kwasi Okyere Wriedt