Yanks Gyau and Heider start with Yelldell on the bench and Enochs coaching one squad: Folgende Startelf schickt unser Cheftrainer Oliver Zapel heute gegen den @VfL_1899 ins Rennen! Wir sind startklar 😎💪 #Dorfklub #SGAVfL pic.twitter.com/bcSY4FJSav— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) April 5, 2017
And it looks like he scored: Die SG legt los wie die Feuerwehr und geht durch den von Röser in Szene gesetzten Gyau nach nur 2 Minuten mit 1:0 in Führung! #Dorfklub— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) April 5, 2017
http://www.starsandstripesfc.com/us...5/15201410/joe-gyau-goal-instagram-highlights Joe Gyau scores first goal in over two years, posts emotional Instagram message
The league put out a profile of him: http://www.dfb.de/news/detail/gyau-...ache=1&cHash=a4d5f4766dceba6eec9a7242bdf827d4 (in German) Today: Joseph-Claude Gyau, whose career had already ended and is now back at SG Sonnenhof Großaspach again.
Starts: Und das ist die offizielle Aufstellung unserer SG gegen den Tabellenführer @MSVDuisburg! Das Warm-Up kann losgehen 👌 #Dorfklub #MSVSGA pic.twitter.com/QMB5Qqywz7— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) April 8, 2017
With this defeat (they lost 2-1) Sonnenhof is 4 points away from the promotion playoff with six games left (for them) and one extra game in hand. Since the #2 & #3 have yet to play their matches at home and against weaker teams, it's likely they'll be 7 points from the playoff spot by the end of the week. Looks unlikely we'll be watching them next season.
Don't know many German examples, but a fair few of Leicester's title-winning team played in the lower divisions. They may be playing Atletico away in the CL tonight, but eight years ago it was Hereford away in League 1, in front of 4.5k. Andy King played that night and will probably play tonight. Schmichael dropped down to League 2 when he signed with Notts County and, of course, there's Jamie Vardy. The most interesting case might be Brett Ormorod. He joined Blackpool in 1997 from seventh division Accrington Stanley and went on to score for Blackpool in all four divisions in two spells with the Tangerines. The sell-on clause in that 1997 signing gave Stanley about 300k Sterling when he joined Southampton, which fuelled their rise to League 2. There are bound to be many examples from Germany - it's a bigger country with many more clubs - but the best example I can come up with is Fabian Boll who joined St. Pauli from SC Norderstedt in the Schlewig-Holstein Oberliga and climbed to the BL with them while holding down a full-time job as a police detective. Not exactly a successful BL1 player, but German-speakers would know other examples who established themselves.
just to add on to your point, gyau is a special case as he's already been on the field for a huge club (bvb)....he is not a total unknown, unproven player coming out of nowhere from the lower leagues. he has question marks, namely, his injury history, but if he can answer those, he would go a long way to getting back to where he was before. given that hes already played and played well for usmnt, bvb, hoffenheim, i think the cliche that "form is temporary and class is permanent" is apropos here.
It's fine to be hopeful but I think a lot of people overstate Gyau's accomplishments even before his injury. He made one appearance for Dortmund at a time when the team was tanking and found itself in the relegation zone. In using Gyau along with a few other young and inexperienced players, Klopp was trying to send a wake-up call to the team's underachieving regulars (similar to Kiesewetter's two lone Bundesliga appearances for a tanking Stuttgart). Gyau's 2 appearances for Hoffenheim came at the tail end of the season when it was neither in a push for Europe nor in a relegation fight. That was the last year of his contract and Hoffenheim made no effort to sign him after that season - letting him go for free During his loan to St. Pauli, the club had an option for a second year and gave notice to Hoffenheim well before the season was over that they had no interest in exercising said option. His two USMNT appearances were in friendlies. He wasn't in favor with the U.S. U-23 team and wasn't all that highly regarded with the U-20 team either. The whole "class is permanent" thing really distorts Gyau as some sort of top prospect. That really has never been the case, even when he was healthy. That being said, I'd be nice to see him make some sort of career for himself after the injury. It's awful to see a young player derail his career while representing his country.
i get all your points but merely making it onto the field at all for a team like dortmund means something, whatever the extenuating circumstances. i watched gyau live in prague vs czech republic...yes it was a friendly ...but there were a lot of established players in that game and gyau was one of the best on the field, in a US win....not so many times has the US won in europe...and gyau was a big part of one of those wins. he's "proven" himself in my eyes as a player that, at his best, is clearly in the USMNT picture. you could say the same about bobby wood who was almsot run out of the german second division without JK's help....I understand why everyone wants to look at club strength when they decide who should and shouldnt be in the USMNT picture...but i think with GYau...especially considering he was injured while playing for the US! - an exception needs to be made. if not for gold cup, at least for the upcoming friendly camp...its the least us soccer could do to help him resurrect his career beyond german 3rd division. call him in, see where hes at: it will be clear right away if he still has "it". i think he does. if not, so what...would it be so horrible if a player like wondo had to sit a camp out for someone like gyau???
I think it's safe to say Brian is not enamored of Mr. Gyau's potential. I do think that he might have been on the verge when he got injured in that friendly. It seemed as if he was playing with a ton of confidence and had the pace of a real winger. We'll never know sadly.
Perhaps now that he's shown he is healthy and still has speed, some BII teams will give him a try-out this off-season. Stranger things have happened.
Starts: In knapp 45 Minuten geht's los! 💪 Und das ist die offizielle Startaufstellung unserer SG! #Dorfklub #SGAFSV pic.twitter.com/ckCswnzGCm— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) April 15, 2017
This is football, so I suppose stranger things have happened, but it'd be extremely strange for him to go on a tryout. Since he joined Sonnenhof, they've played 14 games. He's played in all 14 with 9 starts, including 7 out of the last 10 games. He's a regular now, and anyone who's interested will have scouted him thoroughly. Sonnenhof won't accept a trial; it'll be a straight bid or nothing..
June 2018. Looks like they won yesterday against Mainz 2. They've been doing well of late, climbing to fifth in the table, on the back of strong home form. They're only 3 points behind second, but with a much-inferior GD. Maybe Joe could be in a better shop window next season?
Starts: Hier sind sie: die Aufstellungen für die heutige Partie FCMSGA! #Dorfklub pic.twitter.com/Ln3W6TMrdr— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) April 22, 2017
Not in the squad today: Hier sind sie - die Aufstellungen der heutigen Partie. #SGASVW pic.twitter.com/mIpV5XuIwJ— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) April 29, 2017
Starts: Folgende Startelf soll's heute beim Wiedersehen mit Ex-SG-Coach Rüdiger Rehm richten! #Dorfklub #SVWSGA pic.twitter.com/CPPnXqgYpd— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) May 6, 2017
Out in the 68th: 68. Zweiter Wechsel bei unserem #Dorfklub! Gyau geht - Röttger kommt. Alles geben 💪 #SVWSGA— DORFKLUB® (@sgaspach) May 6, 2017
No idea how league structure works down there, but Sonnenhof are in 7th after 36 games, presumably 2 more to play, and in typical German fashion the middle of the table is pretty tightly packed (15th placed Fortuna Koln could still catch Sonnenhof and Sonnenhof can still catch 3rd place Magdeburg, at least on points)