Following up on Bayern Munich’s 14-1 friendly win over FC Rottach-Egern in Tegernsee, Vincent Kompany will now have a bit more to think about after the Rekordmeister drew 1-1 with FC Düren in a friendly and also lost new defensive signing Hiroki Ito to a broken foot in the 21st minute of play. Albeit it just a preseason friendly to get the legs moving and get more fitness under the belt, not being able to defeat a side that applies their traits in the Regionalliga West is not exactly what Kompany wanted to see and the Ito injury just rubbed salt into the wound.
To start from against Düren, Kompany fielded a starting eleven comprised of far more senior players than he started with against Rottach-Egern, as Adin Ličina was the only youngster in the starting lineup. Sven Ulriech, Kim Min-jae, Josip Stanišić, Ito, Eric Dier, Leon Goretzka, Raphaël Guerreiro, Sacha Boey, Bryan Zaragoza, and Mathys Tel rounded out the other 10 starting spots before everyone was replaced at halftime bar Ito, who came off in the 21s minute with his injury.
The second half saw a mix of youth and experience for Bayern, but it was a Nestory Irankunda goal in the 69th minute that sparred Bayern and Kompany what could’ve been massive blushes having gone 1-0 down in the 40th minute thanks to a goal from Düren’s Rafael Garcia.
After the match, board member for sport Max Eberl kept a level head, knowing that Düren was going to be well up for the challenge, knowing that Bayern is still without the core of their international players. “Although many players are still missing, you expect a game like this to be approached in a different way, and the level of willingness to be different. The second half was much better than the first. When the international players aren’t there, players actually want to put themselves into the spotlight – that didn’t happen today. The young players, on the other hand, are doing well. It was like a typical cup game with a highly motivated opponent – to whom I have great respect. Nevertheless, we should be winning the game. Most of the international players are still coming back and will be on the trip to Asia. Then we have a short time until the first Pokal game. We have to continue to develop automatisms and internalize the new ideas in this short time,” Eberl rationalized, giving plenty of credit to Bayern’s younger, fringe players (via @iMiaSanMia).
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With Ito’s broken foot, and both Matthijs De Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui still linked with summer moves away from Munich, Eberl was also pressed on the matter of potentially signing another defender. He did not want to make any promises, and answered as diplomatically as he could have in the situation. “First of all, we have a very good and very big squad. An injury happens. It happened during the transfer window, so the logical question is: will something else happen. We have a plan, and we’ll continue to follow it. We’ll see what things look like on September 1st,” he told Sky Sport (via @iMiaSanMia).
There is still plenty of time left in the transfer window, but for now, Kompany and Bayern will focus on the Audi Summer Tour in South Korea, where they will have friendlies against Tottenham Hotspur. It is during this tour that they can expect some of their international players to start returning to the squad.