Schweinsteiger takes roller-coaster ride

FCBayernNews · News fetcher Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 1240 votes: 2

19.10.2006

Bastian Schweinsteiger has amassed a wealth of experience in a very short time as a professional, but the youngster can hardly ever before have ridden a roller-coaster of the emotions to match Wednesday evening's 1-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon, when the Bayern man blasted the winning goal from more than 30 yards, collected a wholly unjustifiable booking, and contrived to be sent off for a second yellow card offence. "I'm just happy we won, and that's the strongest feeling," the Germany international insisted afterwards.

The 22-year-old's evening began with a peach of a goal against home keeper Ricardo, who is rapidly turning into a lucky omen for the midfielder. The Munich man took aim from long range and blasted past the Portuguese number one, in a scene eerily reminiscent of the World Cup third-place play off just a few short weeks ago.

Top form against Portugal

"He struck it fantastically well. I reckon Ricardo will soon be having nightmares about Schweinsteiger. That's the fourth time a long-distance effort by Schweini has whistled past him and into the net," chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge joshed. The player scored twice with similar efforts in the third-place match, and provoked a Portugal defender into deflecting a third pile-driver past the unfortunate Ricardo for an own goal.

Coach Felix Magath reckoned psychological factors were coming into play. "Schweini should always be trying his luck from that range, because he's scoring a lot from distance right now. That's especially true when you've put one past the same keeper very recently. I believe it must be hanging around in the back of his mind somewhere." Bayern shot-stopper Oliver Kahn confirmed the suspicion: "If I'd have conceded a couple against a particular player a short time ago, I'd have a bad feeling about it somewhere in my subconscious. And I told Schweini that."

First yellow an error

The Bayern camp was unanimous in insisting the incident for which Schweinsteiger collected his first booking was not even enough to warrant a foul. "I really don't know what the Ref thought he saw," the player explained, after winning a clean tackle and putting the ball into touch. "The assistant started waving his flag as if he'd had 10,000 volts put through him."

By contrast, there was no debate about the second bookable offence just a couple of minutes after the restart. Schweini unnecessarily gave away possession on half way and chased back, seeking to make amends for his error. Instead, he clumsily took away Lisbon sub Yannick's legs. "That was definitely my mistake. It was still a severe punishment," the 22-year-old acknowledged.

Increasingly influential

Neither Rummenigge nor Magath voiced criticism of the player's gritty if uncontrolled determination. The club is aware of the increasingly influential role played by the home-grown youth product, with Bastian currently looking a very likely candidate to take over the playmaking duties vacated by Michael Ballack.

And then there is the player's nose for goal: Schweinsteiger already has four for Germany and three for Bayern this term. "I don't think that will be the last time he scores from a similar position. He's found his range now," Magath smiled.

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