Some updates and names, now that all pro teams resumed training: Hannover: Cherundolo was team captain and only player over full 90, while Casey did not play, in Hannover's first game of the year, a 7-0 win against D5 team TSV Havelse. Tomorrow Hannover hosts the Oddset Cup, an Indoor Tournament, in the Preussag Arena. They meet Osnabrück, Wilhelmshaven and Oldenburg in their group. Maybe Cherundolo plays, Casey rather not. Some speculations also about Casey: a paper from Hannover wants to know that D3 North first ranked team Rot-Weiß Essen is interested in him, while Hamburger Morgenpost links him with St Pauli. However, both news are very questionable as he is just on loan and Dortmund has to agree in a further deal. Cottbus: Berhalter has to pay a fine and will have to do some extra training together with Paulo Rink and Vragel da Silva tomorrow. Reason: all three returned too late from their vacation. Braunschweig: the irritating news in the local papers are history. He arrived meanwhile as he played in the first half against a D7 team and scored one goal (5-0) in a 19-0 win. Also Braunschweig takes part in the Oddset Cup in Hannover tomorrow (Group with Wolfsburg, Meppen and Arminia Hannover), but I don't expect that Thomas plays. St Pauli: also they are playing an Indoor Tournament tomorrow. They compete in Kiel with Hamburg, Lübeck, Kiel, Bremen and Bielefeld. I don't expect Gibbs to play though. Osnabrück: Enochs is currently a candidate in the fan poll to become "VfL Player of the Year 2002"; in 2001 he won this choice. They can be found at the Oddset Cup in Hannover tomorrow, Enochs might play. Same goes for the Indoor tournament in Bielefeld one day later (with Bielefeld, Frankfurt, Bremen, Lodz, Bochum) Bremen Ama: still nothing is heard about a possible contract termination with Salyer. Theoretically they dress some amateur players for the Indoor Cup in Kiel or Bielefeld, but Salyer is probably no candidate for this.
What did he do? Also..what is the deal with these indoor matches? THey can't possibly be like futsal/indoor soccer (ala MISL) can they? I would guess that they are regulation field inside a training complex...how wrong am I? If they are like futsal/indoor soccer is it just to give the boys some time running around, or some kind of charity event?
Re: Re: Winter Action YA and News, Germany [R] Cottbus: Berhalter has to pay a fine and will have to do some extra training together with Paulo Rink and Vragel da Silva tomorrow. Reason: all three returned too late from their vacation.
Re: Re: Winter Action YA and News, Germany [R] First question was answered by The Wanderer. Indoor Matches: I don't know about MISL. German Indoor Masters once were an official winter tournament for all pro clubs. Most coaches don't like it and for the top teams there are just peanuts to earn, so they got rid off the official series. So, today all is on a voluntary base, there are many single cups more or less on local base with less money to be earned (between 10 and 50 K for a pro team for one tournament) - but for smaller clubs still a good income source (e.g. Bielefeld play three indoor tournaments and that way they collect the money they spend for their winter training camp). It's played on a size of about a hockey surface, usually 2x10 minutes, 4 vs 4 plus goalies, substitutions always possible, two minute penalty additional to yellow and red cards, surrounded by boards (roll-in if the ball is over), penalty kick is nine meter, goals a little smaller. The Coaches usually dress the players with little playing time in the season games, and mainly the players with technical skills. Elninho: Nürnberg played the Entrium Cup on Saturday, that's right. Finished fourth of six, but Sanneh did not play for them. He's too tall and not technically skilled enough for indoor games I'm afraid.
Yes, Thomas won't play. He isn't in the squad for the tournament (most players in the squad are amateurs).
Sanneh is still with the US NT and will return on January 12 (that way he of course had no chance to take part in the indoor competition). Jamath Shoffner’s club Borussia Neunkirchen is rumoured to file a request for insolvency soon. The club is having massive debts and no sportive perspective in D3. In kicker’s winter check (conclusion: Borussia has to bring the season home with sportive fairness to restart in D4) Shoffner, 5 games so far, is mentioned as bad transfer and can leave the team if he has an offer. And most important: kicker confesses in two articles that Casey indeed is a hot topic in St. Pauli. Also the team mates Babacar N’Diaye and Jiri Kaufman are seen as possible loan players. All three would get the permit to leave Hannover. I am still insecure regarding Casey as you cannot simply loan something or somebody you loaned yourself without getting the permit of the real owner. Dortmund might agree though: for them it’s of no use if he doesn’t play in Hannover (and by giving the three forwards the permit to leave, it is more than probable that they decided on N’Kufo as number one backup for Bobic), so they got to be interested in playing time as high as possible. With St Pauli I got some problems though: they are very bad, but their exceptional player is forward Nico Patschinski, they’d rather need support in all other parts of the team as 42 goals against prove; also I don’t know if Patschinski and Casey fit together in one system, but admittedly I don’t enough about St Pauli to analyse this in detail. Anyway, it definitely makes no sense for them to loan three forwards (all three mentioned players are forwards).
the most important question about casey olaf is, "is he healthy? he has lost all the momentum he had when he played fairly regularly for hannover in d2. 1.is he healthy? and, 2.can he take the pounding that he seemed to seek out in d2 in d1? he seems to be injured so often this year.
I have no clue if he is healthy. I assume he is, otherwise he wouldn't be a topic for St Pauli I guess. St Pauli played the indoor tournament without Gibbs. Good for him, they got slaughtered 1-5 by D3 team Kiel and 2-4 by Bielefeld and can already drive home.
ouch. thanx for the quick response. about salyer. i thought that he had already gotten out of his contract. i think he is supposed to be one of the players available in the mls draft coming up very soon.
Thomas started in a friendly at FC Gütersloh 2000 (1:0), but was substituted at halftime. As Coach Reinders announced to stop experimenting with the starting lineup in the friendlies, this is quite a good sign for Thomas. The goal was scored by Daniel Teixeira, another forward (though rather a box player than a rival for Thomas). Sambo Choji, rather a rival for him, will miss the whole pre-season due to injury. Bad news for Joe Enochs: Osnabrück is one of several Regionalliga clubs being in massive financial trouble. This are old debts, but also in this season they are about 120 K below the calculation. As reason they say that one TV rate is still missing, but other clubs denied that as possibility as the money came in time. What's definite is, that Osnabrück still did not even pay the November salaries. Because of that there are heavy rumours that VfL is one of at least two clubs, for which it is a must-promote season now if they want to avoid bankruptcy.
No, I was busy in Osnabrück. Also, I did not really feel a need to attend a game at -8°C (17.5°F). The city even disallowed to sell standing tickets and so just 200 brave people (11 from Braunschweig ) found their way to the game (probably with a "Glühwein"-infusion, otherwise it's impossible to sit there and survive ; they even had to sit fifteen minutes longer as the ref's car did not start and he had to call his girlfriend to drive him) Something related and something different: Braunschweig Coach Reinders mentioned Thomas in a kicker interview, but not in a positive context: K: Directly before the winter break you said goodbye to your players with an angry speech and the threat to sort some out. Is the effect recognisable? UR: Jacob Thomas arrived late to the first training, Adama Niang still is not here as he is searching his passport in Senegal, and others presented in a physical shape that’s not worth a pro player… K: Sounds bitter. UR: Yes, slowly there is some bitterness. And that’s a harmless way of formulating it. K: What else? UR: I’m mad, it sucks. It is unexplainable for me that some don’t have something like pride. We have an average attendance of 14.000, often some thousand are accompanying us to road games – incredible what our fans are doing! But some don’t seem to be interested, they don’t think about club or fans. And then there are such alibi actions like saying thank you to the fans after losses. They shall show over 90 minutes that they are there for the fans. In Mainz the players sent them away from their curve, they should have done that much earlier. K: What can you do? UR: First I was silent, then I was loud. Nothing worked. Now I’ll make pressure with some amateur players. With Lars Fuchs and Samir Naja we have two young and hungry players in the training camp, with Marc Barton, Christian Lutz and Markus Küpper three further ones who were sorted out before, but want to play. Before it goes on like in the last games, I prefer relegating with the young ones. K: Your roster is promising more if you’re looking at the names – who is under special duty? UR: Rische or Dziwior have to show more, I’m hoping on Teixeira. He is an idol. Eleven of his kind and we wouldn’t relegate. K: Do you regret signing with Braunschweig? UR: If I had known about the problems, I surely would have needed three days more to think about it. I am thankful for this chance, that the people trusted in me as I delivered honest work in Braunschweig twelve years ago. I’m taking it as personal offence that some are trying to destroy this chance. I am embarrassed when I am walking in Braunschweig – in 30 years of pro business I haven’t experienced the things that are happening here at the moment. And I want to know what the agents told the players. K: What do you mean? UR: Some of our players think that they still have to play Bundesliga. But who wants someone of our players? Either the players finally realise how to fight for the existence, or many of them will sit in summer with their families, are unemployed and tell to themselves: if I only had given everything for Eintracht. Winter check on Elversberg: Payne and Mason were new, as all new players they were rated bad; Mason for putting himself into the offside with his two red cards. More is not mentioned about them, but the kicker outlook says that the roster is way too good for the position. If all of them play normal, they’ll reach a secure spot somewhere in the middle of the ranking. IMO it’s exactly this thinking that made them stay at the bottom (they wanted to be top 6).
No word by word translation possible I think. I'd translate 'it sucks' with "Das ist Scheisse" or simply "Scheisse" as exclamation.
LOL I think everyone knows what scheisse means. Let's congugate the verb: Ich schiß Du schist Sie schissen Wir schissen Sie schissen
True, but sometimes you already hear people say "Das saugt"... German hip-hop act "Fettes Brot" have the nice sentence "Du saugst wie'n Tampon" in one of their songs *g* Right now they are mostly joking and those people are using it, because they know that this literal translation is no standard German, therefore uncommon and more expressive...and that gives it more of a witty quality. ^^ But I'm afraid soon more and more people will use it without ever knowing that there has been a time, when this wasn't a common phrase.. ;-)
Berhalter started in a friendly against VfB Lichterfelde (D4 I think). The list I have did not contain any substitutions - which makes me think that it is wrong - but at least Berhalter was on the pitch when both goals for the 2-0 win were scored.
St Pauli's top striker Nico Patschinski suffered a torn ligament and will miss at least five weeks in the training, which of course includes the much needed physical requirements for the season. This might enforce a Casey-loan now.
Olafgb- Is it me, or does Casey's situation seemed to have worsened, even considerably, over past 6 months....I mean, end of last season, he had (apparently) won a starting job with his good play, on a team that was scoring tons of goals, and seemed to be playing at a lower Bundesliga 1 caliber...he had, in a sense, proven his quality... Granted, he hadn't played yet in the BL1, but certainly one would think he'd get an "off-the-bench" role for this year- the whole year. Granted injuries have played a role here...but the fact that he is now linked to a "will they or won't they survive" 2nd divisional team...well, I'd be a bit disappointed if I were Casey how things have turned out since last May. Looks to me like he is back to where he was (really worse) than before he first proved himself w/Hannover...at least Hannover was kicking ass (at the time)..if he proves himself at St. Pauli, won't it be more a "yawn" since they are not that good right now anyway. Where is the benefit in that? (for Casey's image). I do see the benefit in regular play, but seems like a weird choice on the road to regular BL1 play..
Casey had incredible bad luck with injuries. The first one at the beginning of the season surely was the worst. No 1 center N'Kufo could not convince and it might have been his big chance. Instead he was injured and Hannover loaned Fredi Bobic for this position. Really odd situation: imagine, Casey had been fit and scored once or twice, then maybe Bobic would still be watching Dortmund play from his seat (though for Hannover this would be bad). After the injury he made it to the no 1 backup and had 18 Bundesliga minutes, but then he got injured again. Afterwards he was frustrated a little, had to hear some criticism by the coach, before it got better. Close before being no 1 backup again he had his next injury that lasted until the winter break. His problem definitely is that Rangnick bought N'Kufo before the season. N'Kufo failed but was expensive and so Rangnick tries to at least give him some playing time in the hope that he score some day (all transfers Rangnick did, failed). For Casey a bad situation now. He might get some playing time in Hannover under Rangnick. If Hannover has a bad start though, then he'll have a new coach in February - also a lottery whether this one likes Casey or not. In Bundesliga he has no reputation yet, so he'll have to back to 2.Bundesliga if he wants to start again. I think it's important to note that injuries stopped him and not his performance - he's still very young and can make it, even if he goes back to 2.Bundesliga (or much worse: Regionalliga after the season). His problem also is: if he stays in Hannover and has six months without playing time, then it's almost sure that he'll have to return to Dortmund in summer; in case that he plays (Hannover or St Pauli; though in latter option he'll have to deliver), he has the chance to show up for other pro teams and might at least have the chance to play 2.Bundesliga also next year.
Mainz lost a friendly vs RSC Anderlecht 1-2. Both Duhaney (left back) and Gibson (left mid) played the second half. Halftime score was 0-0, but Coach Klopp was satisfied with both 45 mins. And I just turned on the TV. Berhalter is playing an indoor competition with Energie Cottbus. He's the first US player being chosen for the indoor roster. In their group Cottbus meets Widzew Lodz (game is on, currently 2-0) and SV Babelsberg. The other group 1.FC Nürnberg, Union Berlin and Dynamo Dresden.
Cottbus won 5-3, Berhalter with a +1 in the hockey +/- stats for being on the pitch at the 2-0. He had plenty of playing time, but oddly seven of the eight goals happened when he was sitting outside (which is not too bad for him being a defender).