JULIAN GREEN'S SEASON-LONG LOAN to Hamburg SV was designed to get him first-team minutes that were near impossible for him at Bayern Munich. After earning just 111 minutes over five appearances, however, the situation has gone from bad to worse as he was reportedly demoted to HSV’s U-23 team.

A Bild report today quotes HSV sporting director Peter Knäbel, who says that Green, 19, should play at a level where he can impose himself.

The problem for Green, however, is that Hamburg’s U-23 team currently plays in the fourth-tier Regionalliga, which is where Green played last year for Bayern Munich’s U-23 team. The original purpose of the loan was to give Green a much-needed challenge. (He scored 15 goals in 23 appearances for Bayern’s U-23 team in 2013-14.)

Now that Green will be back in the fourth tier—which is not a fully professional league—the loan move to Hamburg seems like a completely wasted effort.

It's unclear if Green’s demotion will be for the rest of the season but it is abundantly clear that he will have to produce in the Regionalliga if he wants to climb back into HSV’s first team. HSV is currently in 12th place in the Bundesliga.

From the U.S. national team perspective, the move comes at a bad time for Green whose position on the team could be in jeopardy following Gyazsi Zardes' impressive display in January training camp. It is also possible that Green could now be shifted to the United States U-23 team, which recently hired Andy Herzog as its coach, as it prepares for Olympic qualifying in the fall.

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