Bundesliga team search
- kcottrell2012
- Oct 15, 2020
- 3 min read
Three games in, I'm still debating which German club I should devote the majority of my attention to for this season. I outlined how I generally think things will go in my "season preview" article, but this is about following one team in particular. With ESPN+ holding the league's rights now, I have access to every game for 6 bucks a month. I already discussed that whole situation, but the point here is any team is up for grabs. You then have the European competitions, which will be starting up next week, meaning 7 teams will play midweek fixtures. Those are much less viewable, unless you want to add on streaming services, namely CBS. There are games televised on TUDN and Univision, and I speak Spanish, so... Anyways, the point is I almost want to pick a team not in Europe. I also don't want to be bored to death watching Wolfsburg, or teams like that, so that's another factor.
Candidates (I'll rank them out of 10 for fun, in terms of how stoked I am):
Bielefeld- the main draw here is Arne Maier, plus the fact that it's a promoted side. Those are always interesting. From what I know of the 2nd tier last season, they aren't interesting to watch and won the league with an outstanding defense. They've won and lost 1-0, and drew 1-1, so I'd say that's carried over thus far. 4/10
Augsburg- I was listening to a podcast the other day and this club arguably won the transfer window. They've been floating along these past few years after qualifying for I think the Europa League. Yeah, they lost out to Liverpool prior to the group stages, if memory serves. Anyway, they play kinda boring football, but they have serious attacking depth. 7/10
Hertha- Out of the teams I've listed here, this should be the best. Squad wise, talent wise, they have the best players. That often fails to transfer to on-pitch success, however. 7/10
Cologne- I've followed them to varying degrees since the year they qualified for Europe, which was I guess 2016-17. The next year, relegation, was a 180. Everything went wrong. The next season was a bounce-back, and last year was a case of other teams being worse than them. They're yet to pick up a point so far, which doesn't bode well. I obviously follow Bayern, since that's THE German club, as well as Dortmund and Leipzig lately, but Frankfurt is the other club with Cologne I've kept up with. I kinda want something different. 5.5/10
Stuttgart- this was a team that shouldn't have been relegated when they were. Now, they're back, and from what I've seen, they should stay up. Just in terms of the talent in the squad, that is. 6.5/10
Union- the other Berlin club. Like Cologne, this is their second season up in the big time. They've done well in the market, so that's cool. Last year they only really scored from set pieces and crosses from Trimmel, slightly "overperforming" based on xG, though the style is becoming more watchable, which is always risk. 6/10
As of now, I'm debating whether on not to renew my ESPN+ subscription, as I'm getting a bit annoyed with the tinpot nature of Serie A, plus there's another unnecessary international break coming up. Also, having the European competitions and PL on TV will take up at least some of my football watching hours. This weekend, however, I'll be taking in each of these teams' games before my monthly pass expires, meaning I'll have at findings to report on by Monday.
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