Huskies Top Bayern Munich Reserves, 3-0, In German Opener

MUNICH, Germany (May 17) – The University of Connecticut men’s soccer team opened its tour of Germany on Tuesday afternoon with a 3-0 victory over the Bayern Munich Reserves. The Huskies arrived in Germany on Saturday and are playing three games on the foreign tour.

The game was evenly played for the first 10 minutes.  UConn was attacking down the left hand side with Kevin Burns (Greenfield, Ind.) putting Ryan Cordeiro (Highland Mills, N.Y.) in behind his defender several times. At the 10-minute mark one of these attacks down the left hand side allowed Cordeiro to chip it in front of the goal to David Fromayan (Bay Shore, N.Y.) who hit a blistering header to the left of the keeper for the first goal of the game.  UConn’s tally woke up the Bayern Munich U-23 team who used a possession style of play to keep the ball in the Connecticut end. Most of the Huskies’ play consisted of long counter attacks from the back to a lone striker Bonginkosi Macala (Pretoria, South Africa). 

UConn took a 2-0 lead at the 29th minute as Willis Forko’s (Houston, Texas) cross to the far post where an onrushing Fromayan headed it back to Burns who slipped it on the ground passed the goalkeeper.  Bayern had their best chance of the half at the 37nd minute when a shot of theirs hit the post, but rebounded directly to Connecticut goalkeeper Adam Schuerman (Brookfield, Wis.). (Pictured to the left)

In the second half a crowd of 1,500 loyal Bayern Munich fans lined the endzone behind Schuerman.  An early substitution in the second half was the key to the Huskies’ play as Chukwudi Chijindu (Fontana, Calif.) came in as a front runner replacing midfielder Moshe Shalchon (Rishon Lezioh, Israel) at the 50th minute. This provided more attacking opportunities for UConn with two forwards in the game. 

In the 71st minute, Macala worked hard to gain possession of a ball at the midfield then laid it forward and to his right to Chijindu who had a one-on-one situation. Chijindu dribbled his defender, dragged the ball through his legs and shot it low and to the right side of the goal from 15 yards out.  For the final 20 minutes of the game UConn substituted freely to allow opportunities for upcoming players.  Schuerman and the defense held on to preserve the shutout.

UConn will next travel to Aschheim to take on FC Aschheim on Thursday, May 19.