Julian Green’s purgatory at Bayern Munich has come to an end. For one day, at least.
Green earned his first competitive start for the German club in any competition on Wednesday, playing the first 62 minutes of a 2-0 UEFA Champions League victory over Dinamo Zagreb. Green was deployed as the right-sided attacker in a three-man front line, but came off after Roberto Lewandowski opened the scoring in the road match.
While Green was given the nod in a game that meant little to Bayern Munich given it had already all but won Group F, the appearance should still give the 20-year-old winger a boost in confidence. Green had been limited to just second-team matches prior to Wednesday, and has not played in a competitive match since suiting up for Hamburg on Nov. 29, 2014.
The U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team player had last represented Bayern Munich in an official match on Nov. 27, 2013, his only other appearance for the club’s first team.
What do you think of Green earning his first start and some minutes for Bayern Munich? Disappointed with his overall lack of playing time? Should he look for a loan away from the club this winter?
Share your thoughts below.
Green is perfect back sub Kiessewetter.
I need to go back and watch a replay (as soon as I, um, unearth it from my quasi-legal source) but from the tweets I was seeing during the game, essentially Bayern was completely avoiding his flank when attacking. And hey, if I had Ribery on the other flank, I’d probably do the same thing.
“Green had been limited to just second-team matches prior to Wednesday, and has not played in a competitive match since suiting up for Hamburg on Nov. 29, 2014.”
So the BMII appearances are all in non-competitive games?
I think he meant first team games.
He didn’t give too much to talk about which in itself it’s not a good thing for a player trying to break into the first team. Simply walking around the field without contributing it’s just not going to cut it.
Can only be a good thing for him to get that exposure. He is still very young, probably just as well for him that no one here expects much from him any more.
He had the least amount of touches on the ball than anybody in the first half. Including the keeper
Granted I didn’t watch the game, but I heard most of the attack came down Ribery’s flank. I’m sure this game was equally, if not more important to get Ribery back up to match speed as getting the youngsters (i.e. Green) game time.
I’m not reading much into this game, good or bad. Remember, when Green returned from Hamburg, he was so off form, Pep fully demoted him fromt he first-team picture, no longer even practicing with the first-team. The way I see it, Green is back to where he was prior to his loan; a talented prospect that Pep has his eye on.
Infomercial
I remember when Arsenal first signed Joel Campbell, a pretty much unknown player from
Costa Rica who was 19 and played in the CR league. It was back when Wenger wasn’t given any money to spend so he got him very cheaply. Campbell did nothing the first year or two, then was loaned out to Olympiacos, then saw some action in Cup play, then this season got a chance to play because of injuries to others. Now he seems to have become a fixture in the line up and had a good assist to set up a Giroud goal in today’s match. Now this is no guarantee that Green will turn out to develop as well, but it is instructive about how you have to be patient with young players. The fact that Bayern still thinks well enough of Green to give him a run out in play today is encouraging. I would imagine they have other youth players who haven’t yet been given this opportunity. And remember it’s not like the US has a lot of players playing for top European teams; only F Johnson comes close and he is what, 27 I think.
I don’t remember Campbell’s coaches having problems with his attitude.
The coaches that matter (Bayern) did not have issues with his attitude. I actually remember also being upset at Hamburg as well.
I saw the first half and he didn’t do anything great, but nothing too poor either. He ran at defenders a few times, but you got the feeling that he really didn’t do it with an idea of what he was going to do. His crossing wasn’t great, but neither was Ribery’s. He still has the habit of slipping and falling all over the pitch. With that being said, he just started a game for Bayern in the Champions League at 20 years old. They have to be seeing something in him to do that. He was also on the pitch for the first goal, so it can’t be said that he was subbed off and THEN Bayern started playing.
He still played with a very strong team. Ribery, Alonso, lewandowski, lahm, Martinez, boateng, etc. He ran at defenders with the ball at his feet. He still looks like an 18 year old playing amongst men. He was positive though, picking the ball up in wide left positions (never saw him on the right, though I only caught second half) and cutting inside to get the ball on his right foot, typical LW play. He just wasn’t very effective. Still, not many Americans in the history of US soccer can say they played a competitive european match with teammates of this calibur. Pretty cool.
Surely an optimistic step towards his development.
Regardless of the fact that Bayern Munich had little to lose in this match, giving Green an extended look versus quality competition is hopefully indicative of Green’s progression with BMII.
Pretty much invisible throughout.
Sad to say but…i’ll take “invisible”! That’s better than “awful” or that he stood out with how bad he played. Considering how his last year has gone, not bad!
I did not watch the match. Apparently neither did the author of this article because he gave no information on how Green performed. Anybody watch the match? How did he do?
That wouldn’t surprise me in the least.