Dante’s Bayern II Faces Historic Start with Two Losses
The romance of Dante’s return to Munich has met a brutal early reality.
A week after a shock 1-0 home defeat to promoted SC Eltersdorf in their Regionalliga opener, Bayern II slipped again on Friday night, beaten 2-0 at Wacker Burghausen. Two games, two losses, no goals scored. For a club that prides itself on structure and succession, the numbers already sting.
They are worse than they look.
Including pre-season, Dante has now lost all six of his matches in charge. Four friendlies, two competitive games, a combined goal difference of 2-16. For a man who once marshalled Bayern’s back line on Champions League nights, that tally cuts particularly deep.
A First Bayern Didn’t Want
Since the Regionalliga Bayern was introduced in 2012/13, Bayern’s reserves have never opened a campaign with back-to-back defeats. The second team has spent two of those seasons in the 3. Liga, but in their regional home, they had always found a foothold.
Not this time. Two matches, zero points, bottom of the table.
The position itself in early August is largely symbolic. The trend is not. Add in the friendlies, and this is not a blip over 180 minutes; it is a pattern stretching across the entire start of Dante’s coaching career.
Overrun in Burghausen
At Burghausen, who finished eighth last season, Bayern II were second best from the opening whistle, especially in a first half that quickly turned one-sided.
Wacker pressed high, hunted in packs and forced error after error from a nervous, youthful Bayern back line. The breakthrough felt inevitable and arrived on 22 minutes, Felix Bachschmid finishing off sustained pressure to make it 1-0. It could have come earlier.
Instead of a reaction, Bayern sagged. Burghausen sensed fragility and went for the throat. Bachschmid struck again in the 38th minute, doubling the lead and effectively deciding the contest before half-time. The scoreline stayed there, but the damage to confidence had already been done.
Youthful Promise, Harsh Lessons
This is not a Bayern II side stacked with seasoned pros. The starting XI in Burghausen carried an average age of just 20, a deliberate gamble on potential that now has to withstand a harsh introduction to senior football.
To guide them, the club brought in experience: 31-year-old Benno Schmitz, formerly of 1. FC Köln and RB Leipzig, and 28-year-old Anton Heinz, who has turned out for clubs including Alemannia Aachen. On Friday, their presence brought more calm after the break, but not enough incision.
Bayern tightened up defensively in the second half and finally began to stitch together attacks. There were half-chances, more control, a sense of structure. The game, though, never truly caught fire again. Burghausen sat on their lead, Bayern pushed without reward.
“After the break we adjusted a few things and then it was significantly better. Unfortunately, we didn't reward ourselves with a goal,” Dante said afterwards. “Even so, we have to keep our heads up – it's important to me that we learn from this match.”
Learning, though, must now run alongside results.
Pressure Behind the Scenes
No one at Säbener Straße will publicly talk of crisis after two league games. It is too early for that. Inside the offices, the tone will be different: not panic, but concern.
The second team is not a vanity project for Bayern. It is a strategic pillar. The club wants its best talents playing as high as possible, ideally in the 3. Liga, to bridge the gap to the first team. The Regionalliga is already the minimum acceptable level.
Drop to the Oberliga and the pathway fractures. The jump from youth football to the Bundesliga becomes steeper, loan strategies get more complicated, and the entire development model feels the strain. That is why these early warning signs, when added to the pre-season form, cannot be brushed away as mere teething problems.
Dante’s Euphoria Meets Reality
When Dante returned to Munich after ending his playing days at OGC Nice, the mood around him was almost contagious. A treble winner from 2013, back at his old club, stepping into coaching with the reserves of the team he once helped dominate Europe. It felt like a story that would write itself.
“I want us to play with joy,” he said shortly before the season. Young players, he insisted, should relish “putting their foot down” and feel happy when they leave the pitch. But he added a clear condition: that only comes with hard work and discipline.
The joy has been hard to find so far. The work now has to intensify.
Dante is not panicking, at least not outwardly. He speaks of learning, of adjustments, of keeping heads up. Yet even for a man of his experience and charisma, six straight defeats at the start of a first coaching job leave a mark.
Schweinfurt Looms Large
Next up is 1. FC Schweinfurt, relegated from the 3. Liga, visiting on Saturday. On paper, another stern test. In reality, it already feels like a junction.
A win would not erase the nightmare start, but it would change the air around the team and around Dante. It would slow the whispers, restore some of that early euphoria and give this young group proof that their work can translate into points.
Another defeat, and the story of Bayern II’s season might stop being about development – and start being about survival.
