It's not as if nations with longer track record of player development than ours never produce players who are only proficient with one foot. Both the aforementioned Robben and arguably the greatest player of all time are completely left-footed.
Being 100% left-footed is still a much higher advantage than being 100% right-footed. However, I agree with Balerion's limited observation. My own, limited, observation of Gyau showed that he was pretty extreme in his preference for his right foot. In fact, it was so bad in those YNT games that I can't see him making a BL1 squad with that habit. On that alone, I am ready to believe that he's gotten better. Like Scotty, given his training background, I find it hard to believe that he was allowed to grow up without learning to use his left. Hopefully we will all get a lot of opportunities to see him in action this year in the BL1 and I can change my opinion.
Well, he hasn't actually made a BL1 squad yet. Let's wait until he actually gets significant Bundesliga minutes. There have been lots of "the coach loves him, and he's just about to start very soon" insider reports here in the past; Bundesliga minutes until today: 0.
Off-Topic but I don't think it was harsh, they were Cinderella to me as well. Hindsight is 20-20. For US fans it was fortunate that a player of theirs had such a prominent role. Beasley had a nice spell in his first year at PSV. Nobody really expected them to come back vs. Milan the way they did, and they took out the French champions along the way in the knock-out stage too. Whether it be injury or lack of players, he brought a unique dimension to PSV and his teammates liked him. In hindsight, sure they had some very good players but back then, they were seen as very good Eredivisie players until they made the run. I think the few seasons before that, even with Robben, they struggled to adance out of the group stage so it was also like they got over the hump somewhat. Beasley had some good goals and filled in nicely when Farfan was injured. World beater, he was not - but he was a great pick-up for the club. If Gyau has his success but with Hoffenheim that would be very fortunate. But already their trajectories are a little different. I think Beasley was maybe 22 when he went to PSV, it was a few years removed from the World Cup. And Beasley spent his early career in MLS, which Gyau did not do. To me they are too different a player and path to really compare - I think Beasley speaks highly to the development of some players in the US. Gyau will too but since he is 19 and has spent a few seasons in Germany, that will have a significant impact.
The biggest difference is that Beasley has always been one of the smartest players on the field, anything but "tactically naive MLS player", and from a limited games that I've seen Gyau playing, he doesn't see the field and dribbling with his head down. And actually style wise (and I'm afraid that eventually and level wise too) he is much closer to Rogers than to Beasley. Although he is just 19, he might learn, who knows.
Yes, since Sal Zizzo also once made the roster of a Bundesliga team (as did Kamani Hill). But I wouldn't worry about the all right foot thing. If he fails it will be because of other reasons. Also, Gyau is at this point a lot younger than Zizzo and Hill, and should be technically stronger having worked his way up the system in Germany for years.
I repped your post, but I feel like it's worth pointing out that Beasley started 16 out of 34 league matches. Technically "fewer than half" but still a good role on a very strong team.
hopefully it leads to more opportunities to make the bench. Looks like Usami will be slotted into the starting lineup now.
Babel is dead meat at Hoffenheim anyways, no matter if this transfer happens or not. He's never been in their plans for this season, and his "name" is the only reason why they could still hope to get any money for him.
Gyau did not make the squad for Hoffenheim's cup game today, which they lost 5-0 to Berliner AK 07, a team in the Regionalliga Nordost.
This is probably good for Gyau. Losing that bad to that sort of competition will to some shake up in the starting lineup. I hope.
Hoffenheim Starting XI: 1 Wiese - 2 Beck, 29 Vestergaard, 15 Delpierre, 4 Thesker - 6 Rudy, 17 Weis - 7 Vukcevic, 31 Volland, 22 Firmino - 11 Derdiyok. That is pretty much most of the starting 11 minus Johnson and Williams.
Obviously a flukey match but still says alot about how much they mean to the side. Hopefully Gyau can consistantly make the bench this year. Its all I ask for this early in his career.
Yeah, no way that side should get smoked by a 4th division side. Flukey losses happen where the other team plays above its normal level and leaves with a scrappy victory, but there is something pretty wrong with having your ass handed to you by a club at that level. Reeks of not caring about the match.
The usual Hoffenheim disease. Nobody cares about the club, so why should the players care about it? Most of the usual mechanisms for motivation don't work. There aren't any fans who celebrate or boo. You aren't part of anything noteworthy, there's no history or any story at all. The "team" is a bunch of players who don't care about the club they are playing for; they wouldn't play for Hoffenheim otherwise. This club will always be prone to sluggish players.
well, that is a little hard to believe in that MOST players are playing for their careers, not Otto Klipslammer in the crowd. The Hoffenheim guys want good careers just like every other pro player.
I'm not naive, 98% of the players basically play just for themselves (=the money). However, just like any employees, they need some additional motivation to do a good job every day; and that's lacking at Hoffenheim. There's a difference between playing a cup game against a small club for Borussia Dortmund, with 10.000 away supporters on the stands, and you know that everybody on the street will hold you responsible for a disgrace for weeks; or for Hoffenheim, where nobody cares about the result of your game.
in the USA we have big baseball teams (Yankees, Red Sox) and small ones (Tampa Bay, Washington Nationals). Good players can play well for any team and then someday move on to a bigger team. I don't buy it. Hoffenheim are not garbage and most players start off at a lower level. Also, I think it is not "just" money, it is their career and dreams that drive them.
What was Hoffenheim's average attendance last season? Also, why don't the people care about the club? Is it that everyone in/around Hoffenheim already had a "favorite" top club when the team was founded?
Hoffenheim was an unusual situation that the founder of (SAP I think) who is a billionaire basically created a Bundesliga team out of nothing- he took control of a po-dunk small German lower tier side.....pumped in TONS of money (including building a shiny stadium in the middle of nowhere) and the team jumped up quickly from division to division- getting to the Bundesliga in just a few ago. In a country where tradition is very important to clubs and their fans (Bayern, 1860, Schalke, Moenchengladbach), Hoffenheim is a total...I mean TOTAL...outlier. Inch deep roots. Go google Dieter (whathisname), SAP, Hoffenheim..there are tons of article about the 'miracle' club he created there back in mid 2000's
The clubs been around since 1899 (formally founded after world war II). However as recent as the late 1990s, they were playing in the German 6th, 7th, and 8th divisions. In 2000 Dietmar Hopp started investing in the side. He couldn't technically "buy" the squad outright (because of the club ownership system). Since then, they've advanced to the Bundesliga and Hopp built them a stadium in the middle of nowhere. End result: most Bundesliga fans hate them because Hopps investment has created a "fake" club.