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Donovan’s Bayern Bundesliga debut (Running Commentary)

Landon Donovan Bayern 3 (Getty) 

Landon Donovan has just made his Bayern Munich Bundesliga debut, coming on in the 77th minute with Bayern trailing Hamburg 1-0. Here is a running commentary of the action (Live on GolTV):

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FINAL– Hamburg 1, Bayern Munich 0. And Hamburg moves into first place in the Bundesliga standings. Toni misses a clear header that would have tied it midway through the second half.

How did Donovan do? Some good touches and movement. One nice pass to set up a dangerous Borowski shot.

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92nd minute-  A cross lands at Donovan's feet in the area but his shot is blocked away.

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91st minute– Altintop to Donovan on the right flank, he hits a nice cross in but nobody can get onto it.

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90th minute– Donovan can't get the ball and Bayern keeps falling short in possession.

Two minutes of stoppage.

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88th minute– Lucio races half the field but can't get his 18-yard shot on target. Great run, can't find the net.

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86th minute– Bayern is running out of time here as Hamburg is defending well at home.

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84th minute– Donovan has had some good touches, and a turnover. He definitely doesn't look overwhelmed.

Ribery is trying hard to drive the attack. Toni has a chance to find Donovan streaking down the right but loses possession.

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82nd minute– Ray Hudson just said, "Toni goes down like a big wet girl." Phil Schoen's reply, "Like a what?" Silence.

WoW, Bayern has a shot cleared off the line from Klose.

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82nd minute– Mladen Petrick almost draws a penalty as Hamburg applies the pressure looking to make it 2-0.

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80th minute– Donovan is working on the right flank, having replaced Bastian Schweinsteiger.

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78th minute– Wow, Donovan sets up Tim Borowski with a nice pass and Borowski misses by inches.

Comments

  1. Well, it appears that the Kicker and Bild decided that Donovan’s performance over the 13 minutes of play just did not cut the “senf” (mustard). For whatever reason they decided to grade him a D+/C-(a 4 out of 6). The comment below says he played good in his Bundesliga debut, with the caveat that he “must prove, without a doubt, and deliver,” in other words, he must score goals.

    So gut waren die Debüts der Neuzugänge – Kam gegen den HSV zu seiner ersten Viertelstunde in der Liga für Bayern. Sollte Belebung in der Offensive bringen. Die meisten Angriffe liefen allerdings ohne ihn. Debüt-Note: 4

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  2. Sorry Nicole. No more details other than what I read in The Kicker.

    Just got back from the Stuttgart-

    M-Gladbach match. Bradley played an incredible game all the way around, and although the Fohl had the better hand mmost of the match, less shots on goal, they lost 2-0.

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  3. What a terrible loss to swallow after the hype of stuggart! A draw would have been fair but it wasn’t a night for FCB. If the ref did not disallow toni’s goal, things would be different. One thing I want to comment is that coaches have a tendency to send in more strikers at the last 10 min when coming from behind and that never prove effective. I never saw any game when the behind team can equalize with more than two strikers. That was not necessary since in a full scale attack even a defender can score. Every strikers have unlucky night and landon should have replaced toni or klose, not schein. Would not make a difference anyway since borowski the sub missed narrowly too. But you never know, luck may change hands. What is the point of sending landon in as RM to cross balls into strikers that have been unlucky all night. Ribery and toni been heavily guarded the whole match, Klinsman should have sent someone in that will not be guared that much and might be effective. In the future, he should explore more right flanks attacks since every teams look to shut down ribery. So much that ribery switch to the right many times but still being locked down.

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  4. I wish Landon could have gotten subbed in at forward instead of RM. I think he could have had more of an impact, even in his limited minutes. As it is, I’m sure he was told to stay out wide – since there were about 45 players all crammed into the box. His teammates hopefully will learn to trust him more – there were times he showed for the ball and they went elsewhere with it.

    I also think Donovan looked the best of the 3 subs. Altintop was way too slow, subbed in at RB. He was getting torched repeatedly.

    He definitely looks like he belongs. I just wish he had more time to prove himself.

    Der Ami Kaiser – we all had no idea the Crew were over in Munich during the week. Nothing about it here in the U.S. Got any more details on it?

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  5. Ray Hudson is in serious need of Ritalin. His announcing style detracts from the game. Great to hear that Landon played like he belonged.

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  6. Glad to see Landy doesn’t look out of place. Ives I would love to see a best of Ray Hudson quotes segment. The man is brilliant

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  7. Brandon – Kicker actually goes as low as 6, believe it or not. Bradely once got a 5.5. Think of it as A, B, C, D, E, F. That’s also the grading system in the German school system. Typically you won’t see Kicker on line rate a player if he has not played at least 45 minutes. You can go the website and click on the match results to see. Donovan was not rated b/c of 13 mins of PT. Kicker also publishes mid-term “notes” or grades of all Bundesliga players in mid-March.

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  8. Vu – Couldn’t agree with you more on that one. Called it earlier this week on preious Donovan post. That’s Germany, but to be frank, that’s the quality of our players at this level. Maybe I got too excited after the last two friendlies, but I am still his biggest fan over here. Was he the best off the bench tonight?

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  9. You know, the sad part is that landon must prove it in 10 min plus or else while the rest of the team sucks. Hamburg clearly outplayed them today, more energy and urgency. Ribery (150 Euro?) BS. Toni was the only hard working player today but also missed a couple sitters. His call-back goal was good though. Well, nice slap in the face after the hype of stuggart. Landon should have been sent in as the first sub though but I guess his missedhit last game caused the caution.

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  10. Darn, missed the match tonight-was flying above the Alps on a plane back home from business in Italy.

    Bummer-Bayern lost. No one can say I didn’t call the 10-15 minutes of PT. That’s exactly what happened, but “keine Tor” (No goal/assist). That said, it sounds like Donovan played o.k. making an immediate impact on an assist to Borowski-but Borowski failed to convert–it all matters.

    Brett – “Klinsmann had better” what? “Donovan had better… when given the PT” is more like it. I am 100% behind Donovan and hope like hell that he gets a long term deal (that is up to him), but I am also a die-hard Bayern fan. Klinsmann knows what got the team to where they are at, and that didn’t include Donovan. I will put my money on it that “if” Donovan converts when it counts, he will be all smiles and laughing behind Hoeness’s back to the bank. The sooner Donovan converts or assists on goals that matter, the more likely his chances of a long term deal. His time is short–make use of it like a quality Relief Pitcher in the MLB. The ones that save games.

    The Crew were in Munich this past week observing Donovan. Anything more come of that?

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  11. did anybody else notice how pissed Schweinsteiger was when he had to come off for landon, he almost ripped lando’s hand off at the touchline.

    i thought it was an ok league debut for landon, there was a couple times he could have asserted himself more, try to combine with players or use his speed and take someone on, but he played it safe.. when your 1 – 0 down, you’ve got to take some chances.

    how does kicker rate players 1 through 5? 5 being excellent? if that’s how the ratings work, i’d give landon a 2

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  12. Good! I’m glad Bayern lost!!!!!

    Although I’m support Donovan 100% and hope he scores lots of goals, I hate Bayern and love it when they lose 🙂

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  13. LD did not look very aggresive…he needs more time to get comfortable in the game. He gets kinda lost on the right….looked like he wasn’t sure where to go on the corners…

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  14. I wish Hudson were on ESPN – he’d probably complain about the quality of play too much for MLS though.

    Donovan looked okay. He didn’t look uncomfortable, but he didn’t do too much either. That shot he had could have been taken better, but then again, Toni missed a wide open header. Maybe it will be like how he debuted in the friendlies – kind of okay the first game and then pretty dang good after that.

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  15. As always, there will be some unfair words said about Landon, but from what I saw he did well. He had a chance to be really dangerous at the end but he just drove the ball low into the mixer and it ended up harmlessly flying away. It looked like he had an angle to shoot, but I couldn’t tell if it was a mis-hit or not.

    Klinsmann is going to have to give him a better chunk of minutes before this is over, but he may be better served letting the loan end as scheduled and going elsewhere.

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  16. Donovan…well played-should have come on earlier-looked comfortable, excellent lay-off to Borowski…good cross, strike at the end had the exact right idea from that angle, hit it back across the front of the goal-got blocked by one of the 47 defenders Hamburg had in the box.

    Van Bommel is shyte and Lucio should be looking to dish that and Luca Toni missed the sitter of his career in this game.

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