The Daily Bee: Dortmund U19 Advance in the Uefa Youth League.

Hello everyone and happy matchday! While Dortmund vs. Bochum is the main attraction today, the Daily Bee goes on like the slow crawl of time. Fortunately, our U19 team made some headlines yesterday.

Dortmund’s U19 Advance in the UEFA Youth League

Borussia Dortmund’s U19 team traveled to Edinburg to face Hibernian F.C’s U19 team, who are the reigning champions of the Scottish U19 league. Almost 8,000 home fans had the joy of watching their side blow a 1-0 lead in the last 20 minutes as the game ended 2-1 to Dortmund.

Despite Dortmund falling behind in the 26th minute off a set piece, they continued to dominate possession throughout the game. Hibernian’s resilient defending staved off Dortmund’s attack until the 70th minute when Julian Rijkhoff, Dortmund’s top scorer in the U19, won and converted a penalty. The 18 year old Dutchman has four goals and one assist in the Uefa Youth League so far this season. The game looked set to go to penalties until Paris Brunner, a 16 year old who joined the youth setup from VfL Bochum two years ago, decided it was his time to shine in the 90th minute. Brunner marauded down Hibernian’s right side, beat 3 defenders, and played a simple pass to Hendry Blank. The defender proceeded to tuck the ball away for the visitors.

The game still wasn’t over, however, and Hibernian almost equalized in the 97th minute after hitting the post. The ball was then parried out and the referee blew the whistle, confirming Borussia Dortmund’s victory. The U19 side are now into the round of 16 and are unbeaten in the league this year with 9 victories and 2 defeats.

The Links

• F.C Hollywood returns in Munich as Julian Nagelsmann and Manuel Neuer are having a very public dispute as the legendary goalkeeper is on the sidelines due to a broken leg. Nagelsmann had previously fired Neuer’s friend and goalkeeping coach, Toni Tapalovic, who joined Bayern from Schalke alongside Neuer. Now, Nagelsmann is threatening to strip Neuer of the captaincy and hand it to Joshua Kimmich. Regardless, this sounds like quite the drama unfolding and I’m a huge fan of it!
• Hoffenheim have hired Pellegrino Matarazzo as their new coach. I like this choice for them a lot. Matarazzo was an assistant coach at Hoffenheim during Nagelsmann’s tenure and now returns after a fairly successful period with Stuttgart.

The Daily Buzz

Do you follow Dortmund’s youth games at all? Are there any young players you are excited for at the momment?