Bayern Munich Resurgence Sets James Rodriguez on World Cup Footing

The ball was sailing through the air towards James Rodriguez, and he quickly decided what he was going to do with it.

As it arrived at chest height, he stepped forward to meet it, his back straight, his arms raised for balance, only his toes making contact with the turf. He controlled the ball on his chest, sending it up in front of his face in a gentle arc, and watched it descend before unleashing an immaculate left-foot volley that flew past the goalkeeper and into the net.

He sped to the right-hand corner flag in celebration, spreading his arms wide to take the crowd's acclaim.

The date was February 3, 2018; the venue was the Opel Arena in south-west Germany. Rodriguez had just put Bayern Munich 2-0 up in a Bundesliga game at Mainz to keep Jupp Heynckes' side chugging towards the title. He was standing near the edge of the six-yard box when Corentin Tolisso's cross reached him, but what happened next—the chest control, the purposeful step forward, the vicious volley—recalled his unforgettable strike for Colombia against Uruguay at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Four years on from that life-changing night at the Maracana, Rodriguez has another World Cup in his sights, and after the steadily accumulating disappointments of his three-year stint at Real Madrid, he has been rejuvenated at Bayern.

Having signed from Madrid on a two-year loan deal with a €42 million option to buy, Rodriguez has played a starring role in Bayern's sixth consecutive Bundesliga triumph, scoring six goals and amassing a tally of 10 assists that is only bettered by Augsburg's flying left-back Philipp Max in the German top flight.

He has been decisive in the Champions League, too, most recently coming off the bench to inspire Bayern to a 2-1 win over Sevilla in the first leg of their quarter-final tie, which concludes in Munich on Wednesday.

Rodriguez has made a success of his first season with Bayern despite a fraught start to his experience in Bavaria. He split up with his wife of six years, Daniela Ospina (sister of Arsenal goalkeeper David), last summer and missed the first month of the campaign after sustaining a hamstring injury in pre-season. Just as he was finding his feet in the team, Carlo Ancelotti was sacked.

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Ancelotti had been in charge at Madrid when Rodriguez arrived from AS Monaco in the summer of 2014 and succeeded in coaxing from the Colombian the best season of his three-year stay in the Spanish capital.

Ancelotti had been instrumental in bringing Rodriguez to Bayern, and the playmaker could have been forgiven for worrying about how his former mentor's departure would affect his standing at Sabener Strasse.

But Heynckes, Ancelotti's replacement, has found common ground with Rodriguez, thanks in part to the language skills the veteran coach acquired during his spells in charge of Athletic Bilbao, Tenerife and Real Madrid.

"Heynckes speaks excellent Spanish from his time in Spain and has always had a connection with the Spanish players that he's coached at Bayern," said Felix Haselsteiner, a Munich-based football author and blogger. "I think that made the whole transfer from Ancelotti to Heynckes a lot easier for James."

Perhaps Heynckes' most important move with regard to Rodriguez was his decision to deploy the 26-year-old in a deeper midfield role.

Rodriguez played in attacking midfield positions in his few appearances under Ancelotti, and Heynckes initially followed suit, even trying him out as a false nine in a Champions League group-stage win at Celtic in late October.

A 3-1 victory at Borussia Dortmund the following month established a blueprint for Rodriguez's role in the team. Bayern's No. 11 excelled as a member of a three-man midfield in a 4-3-3 formation, laying on assists for Arjen Robben and David Alaba, and he has since made the position his own.

Rodriguez has given Bayern a threat from distance—both in terms of shooting and passing—that they lost with the retirement of Xabi Alonso at the end of last season.

He has brought his attacking gifts to bear in particularly effective fashion in the last few weeks, masterfully orchestrating Bayern's huge 6-0 win over Dortmund and contributing a goal and an assist in the 4-1 victory at Augsburg last weekend that secured the title.

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His commitment to defensive duties has been equally important in giving balance to Bayern's football.

"James is a very underrated defensive player," Haselsteiner said. "If you look at his defensive stats, they're quite impressive, and in games you often see him stealing the ball in offensive zones. From that moment [the win at Dortmund], Heynckes saw that was a quality James could bring to Bayern's play."

Heynckes has described Rodriguez as a "godsend," and Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has said there is "no hurry" for the club to exercise the right-to-buy option in his contract.

Should a permanent deal be completed, the transfer fee will pale in comparison to some of the sums that have changed hands in European football over the last 12 months (even accounting for the €13 million loan fee), and Bayern's decision-makers will be able to congratulate themselves on yet another prudent piece of business.

Rodriguez's transfer would eclipse last summer's club-record €41.5 million move for French midfielder Tolisso—but only just.

In Colombia, there is hope Rodriguez's return to form with Bayern will set him up for another sparkling World Cup, following his success in winning the Golden Boot at the 2014 tournament.

He was the standout performer for Jose Pekerman's side in qualifying, his six goals and four assists accounting for 48 percent of the team's overall goal tally, but the campaign was not without its difficulties.

There were calls for him to be dropped after a lacklustre display in a 1-0 win at home to Bolivia in March last year, and days later, he found himself plastered across the newspapers in his homeland after flashing his middle finger at journalists and photographers waiting outside the team hotel in Bogota, Colombia.

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His problems with the national team overlapped with his difficult final season at Madrid, where Zinedine Zidane's preference for other players restricted him to only 13 starts in La Liga.

The South American did not make the matchday squad for Madrid's win over Juventus in the Champions League final in Cardiff, Wales, having watched from the bench 12 months earlier as Zidane's men defeated Atletico Madrid on penalties in the 2016 final in Milan.

"He struggled at times [in World Cup qualifying], but he was still Colombia's best player. They relied upon him so much, and I think that was half the problem," said Carl Worswick, a British football journalist based in Bogota.

"I went to most of the home games, and you could see that he'd quite easily get frustrated. He'd start shouting at his team-mates, and he was always in the referee's face.

"You could tell he was really enjoying playing football during the 2014 qualifiers and the World Cup finals. I didn't get that impression during the last qualifiers."

Nevertheless, Rodriguez scored the goal that sent Colombia to the World Cup—an uncharacteristic right-foot effort in a 1-1 draw away to Peru in October's final round of qualifying—and two months out from the tournament, he says he will go to Russia in optimal form.

"I'm at the same level I was [in 2014]," he said in March, according to Bundesliga.com. "I played well because in that year I was playing regularly too. In France, I was playing, now at Bayern I'm always playing and I think that's good to arrive [at a World Cup] with a good rhythm."

In 2014, Rodriguez had the world at his feet. The four years since have not lived up to the expectations generated by his scintillating performances in Brazil, but having found a new lease on life at Bayern, he is ready to take on the world once again.

All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.