Bundesliga Preview
Bundesliga Preview - By Brian McGuire
After a summer of triumph for German women's football in Sweden – and the record audiences that tuned in to watch the team take their sixth successive European title – the Bundesliga returns this weekend on something of a high. A spanking brand new three-year television-rights contract with Eurosport being one of the reasons the league has to be optimistic about the future. A series of intriguing signings between the clubs and in from abroad also means that arguably the 'best women's league in the world' may have just got a little bit better.
The Eurosport deal, as I understand allows the channel to air live games across Europe and not only in Germany....but at the same time it does not mean that all the different national Eurosport subsidiaries will take advantage. As of this moment, Eurosport UK do NOT have the games listed in their schedule.
The league kicks off with a stand-alone opening game at 1pm (CET) on Saturday the 7th September as Champions VfL Wolfsburg kick off against FC Bayern München (the rest play on Sunday at 2pm). If you are unused to German women's football, and not sure about what is a good game to watch, let me assure you...this game is a cracker!
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Such was the ultimate domination of treble-winning VfL Wolfsburg last season it is sometimes easy to forget that prior to their dazzling three trophies in 11 days last May the club had won absolutely nothing. Wolfsburg are relative newcomers to the top of the women's game and may find last season difficult to replicate. Sometimes retaining titles proves harder to do that to win them in the first place but Ralf Kellermann has strengthened his already strong squad with Euro-star and Swedish international Nilla Fisher alongside young Nigerian striker Desire Operanozie. Somewhat more controversially he has signed Almuth Schult to replace Alisa Vetterlein in goal, many feeling this was an unnecessary move. On the other hand when you have the likes of Lena Goessling and Nadine Kessler running the midfield and Conny Pohlers up front, you are always looking dangerous.
Having been dislodged from the top after eleven seasons the traditional old firm of Turbine Potsdam and FFC Frankfurt will be looking to get back on top, and failing that beat each other to the second Champions' League place. Frankfurt have a new manager, the Englishman Colin Bell, who has brought Celia Sasic (formerly Okoyino Da M'babi) with him to a club renowned for being an ensemble of national team players and international big names, but at times lacking as a team. Whether Bell can manage to fix the problem of Frankfurt's under-performances at crucial times remains to be seen but on paper the team has all the quality to challenge for the title.
Turbine Potsdam, however, is a slightly more mysterious case right now. Bernd Schröder did his business early, and arguably last winter. Apart from the as-yet-unconfirmed singing of Ingrid Wells from the NWSL, the squad has been in place for months. The Championship-winning team of 2012 has been largely shifted on and replaced with younger talent (and international talent) taking its place. Julia Simic has come in from Bayern, Lia Wälti from Switzerland but most of the focus this season will be on the 18 year old Norwegian talent Ada Hegerberg, who has a huge gap to fill in the Potsdam attack now that Yuki Ogimi has moved on.
The other issue is in midfield, where at times in the second half of the season there was a lack of real leadership when things were not running well. When Turbine click, they score a lot of goals...when the ground is sticky, they can look a little toothless. Perhaps the new midfielders and returning Jenny Zietz will stabilise that area.
Despite being a fan of Potsdam I fear that if FFC get their act together it might be a big ask for them to repeat the dramatic last minute charge to the Champions' League place.
Prediction: Champions: Wolfsburg, Second Place: FFC Frankfurt.
THE DARK HORSE
If last season's Bundesliga had been decided only by matches between the top four teams Bayern Munich would have been champions. They beat all three top teams at home and amazingly stunned Frankfurt at Brentanobad on the last day to cost the Hessen-team a place in the Champions' League this season. The problem with Bayern has been their inability to find consistent form when playing the lesser teams.
They have some serious talent in their squad, Lena Lotzen for one, but also the new singing Leonie Maier one of the most exciting young full backs in the game right now. I was tempted to place them in the next category (trouble makers) when Bayern failed to persuade Caroline Hansen to join them this summer but having acquired the services of breakthrough American Erika Tymrack, Bayern are a team who could really push into the top three or more, but also are capable of repeating last seasons solid but ultimately unsuccessful term.
THE TROUBLE MAKERS
There is no way on earth that SC Freiburg, SGS Essen, or Bayer Leverkusen will be at the top end of the table come May, simply not having the in depth quality to sustain a season long charge to the top But each of these teams have the talent and organisation to influence events above them, taking points off below-par big teams, and easily dealing with the teams below them. Freiburg have the exciting duo of Melanie Leupolz and Sara Däbritz from the winning German Euro team, but also Anya Hegenauaer with Irish-American Fiona O'Sullivan to score goals. Bayer Leverkusen, too, have gone for a young team, picking up many members of the junior national teams and in Isabelle Kerchowski have a young player with good experience to lead them.
Essen beat both Frankfurt and Potsdam at home last season and have a squad which will not be in any trouble of retaining first division status, and will play again in the new stadium in Essen that has cost the club quite a lot of money. It would be nice if a few good results could up the attendances over the coming season, but higher than sixth would seem a big ask for this squad.
THE NEWCOMERS
BV Cloppenburg and TSG Hoffenheim were promoted last season and have since gone about snatching up bargains and astute signings from some of the bigger teams and abroad. On deadline day Cloppenburg managed to snatch Sofia Jakobsson and Esther away from Chelsea, the duo having been much hyped at the start of the WSL season, but now bound for the Bundesliga. Hoffenheim have signed Treble winning goalkeeper Alisa Vetterlein and the Dongus sisters.
The result of this wholesale change is a huge question mark over both of them. It is difficult to see them troubling the top four teams at all, but they may be able to annoy the likes of Freiburg, Essena and Leverkusen. Certainly one of them will stay in the top flight, and maybe both will have the strength and talent to survive. Hoffenheim's young Japanese player Iwabuchi is one to look out for having joined the promotion push from Japan last winter.
THE STRUGGLERS?
What to make of USV Jena and FCR Duisburg? For different reasons they may find themselves drawn towards a fight at the bottom – possibly among one of the newly promoted to avoid the second-to-last relegation spot. Duisburg were battered last year by financial crisis and poor results. Having lost a good chunk of their team last summer, they resorted to something of a fire-sale in the winter to try and stay afloat. Financially it seems to have worked (for now) and the Danish Euro keeper has been persuaded to join the club from the Ruhr Area...but the squad is not exactly a daunting proposition.
Jena can on a given day get a good result against a decent team, but over the 22 games I fear the lack of proper in-depth quality will mean far more games are lost than drawn. In terms of the Frauen Bundesliga becoming a 'West German League Plus Potsdam' I am hoping our fellow easterners can grab enough points to remain in the league next year, but they will certainly need a lot of good fortune with injuries.
THE DOOMED
VfL Sindelfingen were relegated last season but were miraculously reprieved when SC07 Bad Neuenahr's insolvency saw them resign from the first division. The problem was, having already gone down, many of the better players had moved on, and when reinstated the squad was barely able to field eleven players. With a squad of 16 and 17 year old girls it will be a brutally hard season. The coach himself has written off their chances of staying up (which has been criticised by many) but in truth with the resources at hand it could be a very depressing goal-difference by the end of the season.
Written by Brian McGuire (@redbrian76)