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Canadian international Alphonso Davies keeps raising the bar.
On Tuesday, the 19-year-old Bayern Munich fullback had a roller-coaster ride with more ups than downs. Davies set a Bundesliga speed record, was sent off and then celebrated Bayern’s eighth consecutive league title in a 1-0 win at Werder Bremen.
It all came in a week that saw the Canadian hit one million followers on his Instagram feed and be voted Bayern player of the month for May, not to mention being named Bundesliga rookie of the month for May last Friday.
Davies showed his threat down the left flank in the fourth minute Tuesday but his low cross from just inside the penalty box just missed a teammate — and was ruled offside.
He was clocked at 36.51 km/h in the first half, according to the Bundesliga. That erases the fastest recorded speed in league history (36.19 km/h by Dortmund’s Achraf Hakimi) since detailed data collection began in 2011.
“I just do my job, I guess,” Davies told bundesliga.com after the game. “I don’t know when it happened (breaking the speed record) but I just do my job defensively, trying to get the ball back, but I’m happy that I can break a record.”
Teammate Thomas Mueller dubbed Davies “the Bayern Road Runner” earlier this season.
Davies was cautioned in the 19th minute after a clash with Leonardo Bittencourt, pushing off the Bremen player after the two made contact seconds earlier.
Late in the game, he was judged to have impeded Milos Veljkovic. It seemed a harsh call with Davies guilty perhaps only of sticking his backside out a tad as the Serbian went past.
It was the first sending off of his Bundesliga career. But not his first ejection.
Davies saw red in Canada’s 2-0 friendly win over Jamaica in Toronto in September 2017.
Davies, then 16, was sent off in the 75th minute for kicking out at Jamaica’s Damion Lowe after the two went down in a tangle in the corner at BMO Field. Lowe had seemingly precipitated the incident by shoving the Canadian.
It was unclear what contact Davies made with his boot but Lowe clutched his face and Costa Rican referee Ricardo Montero pulled out the red. Davies exited, pulling his jersey over his face in seeming embarrassment as he walked off.
“To be honest it happened so fast, I didn’t really know what was going at the time,” Davies said in a brief media scrum after the game. “I’ve just got to go back and reflect on what happened.”
He was more forthcoming later on Twitter, saying: “I just want to apologize to CanadaSoccerEN for my breakout on the field earlier today, and to the people that came to watch the game.”
The tweet was accompanied by a GIF subtitled “I’m sorry.”
Tuesday marked Davies’ 28th Bundesliga appearance of the season.
A winger with the Vancouver Whitecaps, Davies was moved to fullback because of injuries at Bayern this season. Austrian international David Alaba was shifted to centre back from left fullback to fill an injury hole at the heart of the Bayern defence.
Alaba proved to be more than capable cover and Davies, with his speed, proved to be dangerous on the flank. The Canadian has kept Lucas Hernandez, Bayern’s record transfer at 80 million euros ($122 million) on the bench, with talk that the French international may be on the move again.
Davies cost Bayern $22 million in July 2018, then an MLS record transfer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press