Youth teams in autumn 2017 – part 3
October 19, 2017 U16s transform into U15.5s
Traditionally the U16s play in the U17s Bayernliga. This year they’ll face the U17s of FC Ingolstadt, SpVgg Greuther Fürth and TSV 1860 Munich. After the class of 2002 had a disappointing season compared to the other youth teams FC Bayern decided to take a radical step. Six players born in 2003 were promoted to the U16s: Lasse Günther, Christos Evangelou, Leon Fust, Micha Bareis as well as new signings Luca Denk (1. FC Nuremberg) and Torben Rhein (Hertha BSC Berlin). Recently, Roman Reinelt also joined the team permanently, which is jokingly called the U15.5s. Nearly all of these U15s prospects have secured a starting spot.
Four wins out of five games is the impressive record of this young squad. Neither SpVgg Bayern Hof (6-0), nor 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 (5-1), SpVgg Ansbach (4-0) and not even FSV Erlangen-Bruck (3-1) proved to be a serious challenge. Mind you, this is always against U17s teams, meaning some of the opposition players are at times two years older. The only loss came in the derby against the U17s of 1860 Munich, when a much younger Bayern team was on par with his opponent. Unfortunately, two goalkeeping errors prevented the team from gaining a point against the two years older Lions team, that cleverly made the most of their physical advantage.
U15s unchallenged in their league
Four games, four wins, scoring 19 goals and conceding 0 – the record of our U15s is very impressive. Although the seven best players of this class are already playing for the U16s, the U15s seem completely unchallenged in the Regionalliga Bayern. The prospects who got promoted to the U16s did so, because they’re physically developed further for their age, while the slightly slender players are competing with their contemporaries.
The class of 2003 has very good depth and width and could soon become a ‘golden’ one. In total nine players were called up for the U15s of the DFB. Only the class of 2000 achieved something similar, who won the German U17s championship as you may know. The groundwork has been done and this team could possibly bring us a lot of joy in the next few years.
U14s – U9s
The U14s of Bayern are top of the league, too. The team coached by Alexander Moj won the Bavarian U13s championship and got several intriguing additions in summer. They won their first three games with a formidable goal difference of 14-1. The goal is obviously winning the Barvarian U14s championship this year.
The U13s coached by Maximilian Knauer are having much more problems, losing all three games thus far. The second half of last season was already an indication, that this team might not have the outstanding class of its predecessors. Especially since the two best players are already part of the U14s. It’s now down winning a game and getting the team out of the mental low. Currently, the team is bottom of the table.
Whereas the U12s are more fun (27-1 goal difference after five games), who will play the Lions in the derby this weekend. The U11s of FC Bayern haven’t participated in any proper league in years and are only playing friendlies. The U10s have surprisingly lost to the U11s of ASV Dachau. They’re the only youth team sitting behind the rivals 1860 Munich. Our U9s are joint first in the table with the Lions, the championship will probably be decided by head-to-head record.
