German Football 21/22 | The Boneyard

German Football 21/22

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I know most here concentrate on the EPL but the German Football season just started and that's my thing...

No major surprises in the 1st round of the DFB Pokal outside of Eintracht Frankfurt getting bounced and the Wolfsburg match being protested...

Week 1 of the Bundesliga had some surprises, but I'm sure things will shake out before long. We somehow hung on for dear life against Leipzig with basically half our bench on the field and our reserve team on the bench.

I'm thinking this might finally be the year BVB catches Bayern if they can hold onto Haaland for the complete season, so far neither Leipzig nor Wolfsburg have impressed me.
I'm expecting Fürth, Bochum, Bielefeld, and Augsburg to fight out relegation with Mainz and Köln hovering just above them. Everyone else will probably be jammed up in the middle.

The 2nd Bundesliga arguably has more Big Name clubs than the 1st division this year...

I finally got into the stadium yesterday for the first time in 1.5 years... It felt really good.
 
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American Jesse Marsch is also the head coach of RB Leipzig this year.
 
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American Jesse Marsch is also the head coach of RB Leipzig this year.
Yeah, listening to him give his Press Conference in German was painful. I wonder if that's how I sound...
 
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Will Haaland be with Dortmund for the entire season?
 
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...
The 2nd Bundesliga arguably has more Big Name clubs than the 1st division this year...
...

Things could change soon and likely will so I will take this opportunity to brag on Jahn Regensburg, currently leading the 2. Bundesliga and all those Big Name clubs. It helps Jahn to have Canadian national team player Scott Kennedy on the back line and Sarpreet Singh, a New Zealand international, on loan from Bayern, but they have a lot of solid teammates also.
 
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Will Haaland be with Dortmund for the entire season?
That's a good question; I think so because they just sold Sancho and I don't think they would want to decimate the front line. At least not until the Winter Break when they can restock. But Halland is a generational talent that you don't just pluck from a tree.

But as always, money talks...
 
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Things could change soon and likely will so I will take this opportunity to brag on Jahn Regensburg, currently leading the 2. Bundesliga and all those Big Name clubs. It helps Jahn to have Canadian national team player Scott Kennedy on the back line and Sarpreet Singh, a New Zealand international, on loan from Bayern, but they have a lot of solid teammates also.
They're usually pretty solid (end of last season not withstanding). Hopefully they can continue as a stable mid level club.
 
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No major surprises in the 1st round of the DFB Pokal outside of Eintracht Frankfurt getting bounced and the Wolfsburg match being protested...
And Wolfsburg has been forced to forfeit their win against Münster because of an illegal substitution. I guess I'm too cynical because I expected them to bend over backwards to look the other way.
 
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Dortmund-Bayern in the Supercup final today. Both teams trotting out top lineups
 
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Schalke is finding out that life in the 2nd Bundesliga can be tough on clubs accustomed to being in the top division. The Gelsenkirchen club was down 3-0 in Regensburg in the 81st minute before they got their one goal. Match ended at 4-1. That was the first goal scored against Jahn since the start of the season. I remember being in Regensburg in 2016 when they had a tough play-off to get promoted out of the Regionalliga up to the Third division. I hope the USL really does introduce promotion/relegation to the US.
 

Waquoit

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I hope the USL really does introduce promotion/relegation to the US.
How much difference will it make? You already have clubs relegating themselves.
 
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How much difference will it make? You already have clubs relegating themselves.
Competition is enhanced at the end of the season for teams trying to avoid demotion. Every game, even at the bottom of the league, is important to maintain their level. At the top of the league the competition is not just for the top spot, but also for second and sometimes third place for promotion, or a playoff with a team from near the bottom of the next higher division.

I have followed Regensburg as they dropped from 2nd to 3rd to Regionalliga and back to the top (at the moment) of the 2nd Bundesliga. Odd thing about being where they are right now, is that I have not yet seen fans talking yet about moving up to the Bundesliga, but many fans post about how we have 12 points in 4 matches toward the 40 points that seems to guarantee maintenance of a position in 2nd Bundesliga. It's called Klassenerhalt in German - maintenance of class - and is the first goal of most clubs. After being a yo-yo club in 2002-2003 and 2012-2013 Jahn has achieved Klassenerhalt in the 2. Bundesliga four times so far, but was actually in danger of demotion last year, finishing 14th, one above having to playoff with the #3 team of the third league for the privilege of playing in the second division this year.

American soccer has been slowly conforming with international norms for years - remember the countdown clocks and no draws and shoot outs? We can get to promotion/relegation some day also.
 
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I agree it would be nice to have rel/pro in US Soccer, but as Waquoit said it needs to start at the top. And that isn't happening.
 
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When we have 40 teams that are MLS caliber or better it might make sense. Most USL teams wouldn’t be able to make the jump sustainably.

Imagine if every pro sports team in the US only played soccer. Then it would make sense. Pro/rel is how you manage a huge number of pro teams.
 

HuskyHawk

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When we have 40 teams that are MLS caliber or better it might make sense. Most USL teams wouldn’t be able to make the jump sustainably.

Imagine if every pro sports team in the US only played soccer. Then it would make sense. Pro/rel is how you manage a huge number of pro teams.

Bundesliga is 18 clubs. MLS is 27. MLS could have pulled this off if they had stopped expanding. I doubt the owners would go for it.
 
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Bundesliga is 18 clubs. MLS is 27. MLS could have pulled this off if they had stopped expanding. I doubt the owners would go for it.

They would rather be in all the cities to get a bigger media contract
 

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