Player Of The Summer: Lineth Beerensteyn

The Women’s World Cup in France has come to an end and a number of players have represented FC Bayern Munich at the tournament. Some of them won’t be wearing the Bayern colours come next season while others will be heading to Munich this summer. Of course, we keep tabs a little bit closer on players who are affiliated with the red and white. Thus, we’ve come to our choice.

Jolle

July 14, 2019

From bench warmer to blazing starter

The two Dutch Bayern players haven’t gathered a whole lot of minutes at the World Cup. Despite the fact that both, Jill Roord as well as Lineth Beerensteyn, have made an appearance in every game from the first match of the group stage up until the final and showing solid performances while doing so.

Beerensteyn had been the number two choice as right attaking winger for five matches straight. The preferred choice goes by the name of Janice van de Sanden, shooting star of the European Championships and big contributing factor to the Netherlands’ upset title win, courtesy to her explosive high speed dribblings. Since then, van de Sanden has won the Champions League trophy twice with Olympique Lyonnais where she was a constant part of Sarina Wiegmann’s starting line-up. Unjustified, as it turns out.

Lineth Beerensteyn: Miasanrot Player Of The Summer — Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Because every time when Beerensteyn hit the pitch she instantaneously reinvigorated offensive play. Add to that her winner in the 2:1 bout against Canada and her presence in the final third, which had been missed badly up until that point. This was also recognized by Wiegmann. In the semi-finals and the final she preferred Beerensteyn in her starting line-up, who by scoring her winning goal was able to increase her goals-per-90-minutes statistic from 0.19 in league competition to 0.34 at the World Cup.

17 – Lineth Beerensteyn has been directly involved in a shot every 17 minutes this #FIFAWWC (7 shots & 3 chances created in 174 minutes), the best average among the @oranjevrouwen players. Threat. #USANED pic.twitter.com/1bMSWdDoMm— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) 7. Juli 2019

Beerensteyn pushing high

Coming from the bench, playing only a couple of minutes – in short: suffering from a lack of trust – and in spite of that to deliver a convincing performance in every game, in a way that her coach could not afford to bench her again, proves her mental strength. Every second of a football match, Lineth Beerensteyn is ready.

She might not be the ideal target player for headers being a 1.60m striker but she’s explosive on the first couple of meters and able to accelerate even more afterwards. Her control of the ball could be a little closer, and van de Sanden will always get more love from the crowd for her combination of spectacular body feints and sudden direction changes, but Beerensteyn keeps the ball in play. The way she finds gaps in tight spaces and keeps control under opponent pressure – remarkable. She heads for deep passes, distributes the ball in a way, so that her team can proceed higher up the pitch, first and foremost making constructive attacks possible.

Beerensteyn goes for the goal line, attempts to cross to then head diagonal into the box. She doesn’t pass up the emerging options during the dynamic. Her dribbling is never predictable and her decisions are never made stubbornly. And even when Wiegmann puts her up front in the final, she works the US-Girls tall backline, though she has to make countless runs without seeing much of the ball the entire game.

This makes her our Player of the Summer.

Player	Games	Minutes	Goals (Penalties)	Goals per 90 minuts without penalties	Assists	Old (new) Club	Nationality
Sara Däbritz	5	450	3 (1)	0,4	1	Bayern (PSG)	Germany
Giulia Gwinn	5	450	1	0,2	1	Freiburg (Bayern)	Germany
Fridolina Rolfö	6	349	1	0,26	0	Bayern (Wolfsburg)	Sweden
Lina Magull	5	302	2	0,6	1	Bayern	Germany
Lineth Beerensteyn	7	265	1	0,34	1	Bayern	Netherlands
Melanie Leupolz	4	208	1	0,43	0	Bayern	Germany
Verena Schweers	3	180	0	0	1	Bayern	Germany
Jill Roord	7	155	1	0,58	0	Bayern (Arsenal)	Netherlands
Kathrin Hendrich	2	135	0	0	0	Bayern	Germany
Amanda Ilestedt	3	132	0	0	0	Potsdam (Bayern)	Sweden
Linda Dallmann	2	76	0	0	0	Essen (Bayern)	Germany
Leonie Maier	1	47	0	0	0	Bayern (Arsenal)	Germany
Laura Benkarth	0	0	0	0	0	Bayern	Germany

Other Bayern players at choice

Fridolina Rolfö and the Swedes have advanced to the semi-final against Germany.
Lina Magull and Sara Däbritz have compensated the absence of Dzsenifer Marozsán on a high level and carried the German’s performances.
Däbritz even scored in three consecutive World Cup bouts. The last time a German Woman achieved such a streak was in the year 2003 – in the person of Birgit Prinz.
With two goals in about 300 minutes Magull reached a goals-per-90-minutes statistic of 0.6 and might have scored the goal of the month with her screamer against Sweden.
We’ll take the chance and say: Melanie Leupolz would have kept a clean sheet against Sweden.
Our MVP in the match against Spain is Verena Schweers.
In our mind, Jill Roord should have been allowed to replace the injured Lieke Martens a whole lot more than only 155 minutes. Because, in these minutes, she added extraordinarily to the Dutch offense.
As a newcomer, Giulia Gwinn played all matches from start to finish, being used as a right full back, a left full back and a right winger by Coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. Though her team exited the World Cup after the quarter-finals, she was named the tournament’s “Best Young Player”. Wow!