Many moons ago I would fight tooth and nail to avoid starting a new thread (though mostly to vex Moderator Bonnie, I must confess). But the schedule's out and I can't cope with the pressure of waiting patiently for someone witty to make an effort. So here it is - the new season of the Bundesliga, now without Conny Pohlers. Who'd have thought that would ever happen, eh? Teams are up for grabs. Any takers? And no, you're not all allowed to say "Wolfsburg".
Herford. *sigh* They've been promoted for the third time. Will they go down again unceremoniously for the third time too?
Verónica Boquete has signed for 1.FFC Frankfurt http://ffc-frankfurt.de/bundesligat...-anflug/674a98d1cf7438bd0c99643596f98bbc.html
AMBER BROOKS JOINS FC BAYERN ON LOAN http://www.fcbayernmunich.com/us/ne...-player-amber-brooks-joins-bayern-on-loan.php
Petermann Leaves UCF Women's Soccer http://www.ucfknights.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/090114aaa.html
that's the right decision. another year in college footy would have slowed her development. bundesliga competition does not.
Seems like Bayern is interested. If true, I don't get it. She is not better than Miedema or Stengel. When Lotzen comes back, she plays 2nd League. Maybe someone is homesick and will leave Bayern? College season is 3 months. She would have played like 20 matches. Perfect to come back for the 2nd half of the season. Was she unhappy in USA? I hope it works out for her.
Orlando is a cool place. I have family and friends in that part of FL and enjoy visiting. However, it may not be everyone, just as Germany isn't always the right fit for certain players. Nevertheless, Peterman had quite the summer! Hope everything works out for her in the future.
Huh.... really...? Besides the 2012 U-20 WC, I will admit I haven't seen too much of Stengel to directly assess her next to anybody else. However though, if I was to base it on the performances of both payers at similar stages in their international U-20 careers, I do find it really hard to believe Stengel's significantly better than Petermann.. The top of the Frauen-Bundesliga isn't the easiest place for the games experienced foreign creative mid's/strikers to excel within, so with Lotzen hurt (again..), I can totally understand Bayern's tentative interest in a former long time domestically developed striker like Petermann, when neither of their current forward options (Meidema or Stengel) are yet familiar to the environment, culture, or demands of German women's football. I think Silvia Neid's appearance at the U-20 final may tell you everything you need to know about Petermann's decision to come back home.... Because in a squad featuring senior certainties like Bremer, Däbritz, Magull, and Dallmann, Petermann not only held her own, but also took a prominent role within Meinert's new look team, in ways which probably made her a unique prospect to the on watching senior coach. Not as dynamic as Popp, not as incisive as Bremer, nowhere near as complete as Mittag, but maybe better suited to the lone forward role than Sasic.., Petermann currently displays a very different physical but equally intriguing technical skill-set to Nied's most likely WC lone striker options.
Maybe Katie Stengel wasn't impressive at U-20 WWC but since then she made huge progress. In 2013 and 2014 she was almost like a different player. She was the best striker for U-23s this year that lead her to getting first call up for USWNT. No to mention a big health issues that she had to overcome (which cut her great college career short). That's why I don't think you can compare her career with Petermann's. But now they both will be playing in Bundesliga and at the end of the season, we'll see who came on top. But of course for @Batfink and others she'll always have that one big flaw: she's American. As to Petermann's decision, I don't think she'll regret it. It's a great opportunity to play at home. Living for most part of the year overseas in a different environment, culture and dealing with different demands of US women's soccer is never easy, especially at such a young age
Why is that considered a flaw? and technically speaking this is only partly true since the name Stengel leads to the assumption she had German ancestors.
Yes, I know and I always wondered with some other Americans playing in Bundesliga in the past i.e. Hagen, Krieger did they seek out those players with German names on purpose?
Yeah I admit it does seem like it would be unequally harder for a girl with the name Hawthorne to get to ol' G. I wonder why....
Cool... I just rarely believe the hype when it comes to players making their names in the alternate footballing universe of the NCAA; but if you say she's improved from her near invisible 2012 U-20 level, it will be interesting to see exactly what that level Stengel reaches at Bayern this season. I still think Petermann's skill set (the team didn't need two #9's) was often a problematic factor for the much changed German U-20 WC team, but even so, her overall U-20 WC performance was significantly better than Stengel's, and this over a series of much tougher games too. So I don't think it's crazy for me to question RagingBull's assessments of Bayern's rather inexperienced striking options. Look, I know I've had various issues with the many douchebag USWNT supporters who show up around here from time to time.., but whenever I talk about questionable foreign talent going to the Bundesliga, believe me when I say this... my doubt stretches a lot further than the simplistic bias for females coming from any one particular nation... I mean damn, your talking to somebody who doesn't even think Fishlock or Boquete will be particularly special for Frankfurt this season, and yet your making out like my questioning of Stengel's potential is somehow... unfair lol. Anyway, I genuinely believe Petermann is the most American-German player I've ever seen lol, and with her previously playing with boys every week at Hamburg, I doubt the demands of the US college game were particularly daunting for her in the long term either. It's just playing U-12's endless subs rules in America, wasn't going to be enough for her moving forward. And not if she was serious about capitalising on a surprise U-20 WC call up, and her subsequent even more surprising tournament wining performances too. Few/no German girls currently offer the physical presence she does, and competing with the likes of Mittag, Sasic, Popp, and Bremer for a potential national team place, will require her adding a lot more finesse to her overall game, making Freiburg with all it's junior national team talent, a great stepping stone towards for making said adjustments correctly in the coming years.
Now you're making much more sense. Obviously I don't know how successful Stengel will be in Bundesliga. I'm not trying to hype her up either. I just don't like it when someone is automatically considered less of a talent just because she came from college woso. I'm not a huge fan of college soccer as a tool for developing players either. But I don't think the "endless subs" are the main problem. The best players on college teams are usually playing full 90 so that means they are up against players with fresher legs all the time. There are much bigger problems with this system but that's another story. At the end of the day coming to play in Bundesliga is a challenge for any foreign player, whether they're coming from USA, Sweden or Japan.
Thinking that Petterman can challenge Mittag, Sasic, Popp now for the NT seems to me... er... pretty over-optimistic. She had a good WC, yes (but in spite of the winning goal - which is very important of course - she didn't have a good game in Finale, sorry) but she is 10 times less powerful than Bremer. And even Bremer is not exactly in position to take the three formerly quoted players place I think. Let her the time to grow and mature. We have the same problem with our U20 girls in France. Many are really excellent as Lavogez, Toletti, Diallo, Diani. But only M'Bock can really pretend to take one of the current starter's place or at least be in the 14 or 15 top players. For the Mannschaft, I think that out of Leupolz and Däbritz who are already in the potential 23, only Bremer and Magull have serious chances to go back to Canada next year.