Flying Kiwis – The State of Things
German Bundesliga & Frauen Bundesliga
As the first major league to get back into it after a pando interruption, the Bundesliga’s been enjoying some boosted support from footy fans around the world as it carries the torch. Sarpreet Singh’s Bayern Munich, to use the club’s full Aotearoa translation, have picked up where they left off with three wins from three to push themselves clear at the top of the table – including a crucial 1-0 win over Dortmund this morning. Singh hasn’t come close to featuring in any of those matches. He’s often picked up in training photos with the team but he didn’t make the bench in any of them, although that’s all par for the course, he wasn’t expected to either.
Before the pandemic Singh would train with the top side then play for the reserves but getting his third tier reserves reps hasn’t been an option lately. The same situation exists for the women’s Bundesliga which was also on an extended hiatus even after the to two male tiers in Germany had resumed. Money being a major issue there – keeping Meikayla Moore (MSV Duisburg) and Paige Satchell (SC Sand) out of action indefinitely as well as Jana Radosavljevic (Cloppenburg) a division down.
But there’s some good news on that front, folks. Not for Rado, because the second women’s tier has been cancelled... although with Cloppenburg sitting atop a five-team race to the bottom that’s not so bad for them. One point separated tenth from fourteenth but no teams will be relegated from the 2. Frauen Bundesliga this season so it doesn’t matter in the end. However both the third tier of men’s footy and the top tier of women’s footy have now been cleared to resume. There’ll be plenty of midweek games, especially for Singh’s Bayern ressies, as they try to cram everything into a tighter window but with correlating leagues around Europe being straight up cancelled they’re still in an enviable place. Germany’s done pretty well despite their geographical disadvantages and are ahead of the curve compared to most countries in that continent it seems.
Both leagues will begin this weekend, the final weekend of May. SC Sand are in a comfortable mid-table place with six games remaining although they do have a DFB-Cup quarter-final to play as well - that cup comp is still going ahead. Duisburg have more work to do. They’re only two points clear of relegation with seven matches still up their sleeve. As for Bayern II in the men’s third division, they can’t be promoted any higher since they’re a reserves team and they’re too good to be relegated so they’ll just play it where it lies. Singh has 7 goals and 6 assists from 20 appearances for BM2 so with eleven more matches left hopefully he can push those numbers into double figures.
English Premier League
Chris Wood’s just keeping himself busy. There are so many competing factions with the Premier League from the simple ones of players and fans to the more complicated issues of sponsors and broadcasters and owners and league officials... all of which is making it hard to come to some kind of consensus about where to go with this. They’ll resume the Premier League eventually because it’s too costly not to but expect plenty more debate before then. Things are slowly moving forwards though. Teams are close to returning to full contact training and are already in limited training with two rounds of mass testing undertaken. They’re apparently hoping for a late-June resumption, probably with neutral venues. Woody’s Burnley currently sit tenth on the ladder with nine more matches remaining. They’re four points off the European spots and 12 points clear of the relegation zone.
Down the divisions, there aren’t too many kiwis out there at the moment. Steven Old’s Morecambe were in a relegation battle most of the EFL League Two season but they did enough to finish third to bottom after the shakeout. The league was abandoned and the table decided on a points per game basis. Only one team was relegated instead of two as well so Morecambe were fine. Up a division in League One, Tommy Smith hasn’t actually played for Sunderland since signing and might not get to either. No decision has been made yet, it’s a bit of a contentious issue whether League One can be completed. Sunderland sit one point outside the playoffs as it stands so there’s a lot to gain from playing out the season... but other clubs naturally have opposing views.
English Women’s Super League & Championship
These leagues were cancelled as of 25 May with the prospect of trying to complete them ultimately too difficult to undertake. Decisions about champions and relegation will be decided on soon. This news directly affects Ria Percival (Spurs - WSL), Olivia Chance (Bristol City - WSL), and Katie Rood (Lewes - Ch) in that their seasons are over... but their various positions on the two tables mean they don’t have to worry about the intricacies of whether Man City should be awarded the title because they were ahead at the time the season was abandoned or Chelsea because they were only one point behind with a game in hand.
The closest one to that level admin nightmare was Chance’s Bristol City who had sunk to the bottom of the table for a while there but a 1-0 win over Birmingham in their final completed game lifted them up two places and into safety. Ebony Salmon scored the winner that day in the 74th minute, an enormous result at the time but with their final eight games unable to be played it’s now immeasurably more important. The Robins weren’t gonna get another chance to play Birmingham or Liverpool, the two bottom teams. They did stun Man United with a 1-0 win earlier in the season but they might not have gotten another win from any of those eight games they had left... relegation was far from avoided. But the timing of the pandemic means they’ll remain in the top flight, lucky buggers. Not sure what the contract situations are with all three of these Flying Kiwis, by they way. All three were regular names on the teamsheet for their respective clubs this season though so hopefully that’s just a formality.
Dutch Eredivisie
Got cancelled ages ago and nothing has changed since the last Flying Kiwis thing about that whole situation. Ryan Thomas is stuck in neutral having just gotten his PSV career really humming. James McGarry got the negative as his contract ran down and he negotiated an early release to come back to Aotearoa before the lockdown. And Michael Woud has landed in the positive as Willem II got a Europa League qualifying spot thanks to their finishing position (which they seemed unlikely to hold on to had the season carried on to its natural conclusion) plus what’s more is that their first choice keeper, Timon Wellenreuther, is leaving the club and a suitable replacement will be tough to find in this transfer market with travel bans and all that so ol’ Woudy might get very lucky indeed. Wellenreuther has been the starting keeper for the last three years but he’s confirmed the rumours in an instagram post that he’s off to take that next step in his career.
French Division 1 Féminine
Bit of an annoying one here because France canned their league in April, with the standings at the time of the abandonment ruled final. That meant that Lyon won yet another league title which was fair enough as they were three points clear of PSG having beaten them head to head back in November (they were meant to play again the first week that was abandoned). But Bordeaux (Erin Nayler) were only four points behind PSG themselves and playing great with an outside chance of making the Champions League... which now won’t happen. Erin Nayler had seemingly lost her starter’s spot by the end of things however and pretty sure this is the last year of her contract so not sure what’ll happen there. Lots of uncertainty as there will be all over the show.
Portuguese Campeonato Nacional Feminino
Hannah Wilkinson had scored 16 goals in 20 games in all comps for Sporting Lisbon this season but the Coronavirus caused an early end to that campaign and also an early end to Wilkie’s time in Portugal as she negotiated an early release to return to Aotearoa for lockdown. Guts to Sporting because they were tied for first place with Benfica, both on 42 points, although Benfica had a much better goal difference. No champion was awarded so it’s not like they were ripped off in that regard although Benfica did get the lone Champions League qualifying spot so that was a tad rude.
American MLS and NWSL
Mate, imagine living in America right now. Shambles. As you’ll not be at all surprised to hear, there’s no consistent idea about what’s going on with either of their top footy leagues either. The NWSL are being super ambitious about it all, they have a new commissioner this season and want to be the first major sports league to get back into things with a tournament style structure the current suggestion – like a World Cup with a group stage then knockouts, which would take place over June-July at a single venue. Except that there are still concerns about the idea and several USA national team players have reportedly said they aren’t interested in taking that risk, not with the Olympics next year. Also the games are set to be played in Utah at altitude on artificial pitches with the potential for short turnarounds between games so the injury risk is pretty substantial, to be honest. Safe to say there’s still some conversations to be had with this... Abby Erceg (North Carolina Courage), Katie Bowen (Utah Royals), Ali Riley (Orlando Pride), and Rosie White (OL Reign) are the four kiwis contracted to NWSL teams for 2020.
Update: It’s happening. And it seems like the players association did pretty bloody well to get the deal they did too, under the circumstances. Fingers crossed it’s a big success.
Similarly, the MLS is hoping to collect all 26 of its teams in Orlando, Florida at some point, split those teams into four groups, then play their own World Cup style tournament. Groups will be seeded just enough that the champs (Seattle), shield holders (LA Galaxy), cup holders (Atlanta), and hosts (Orlando) won’t have to play each other and they’ll also keep the East/West conference things. Teams would play five group games leading into quarter-finals and beyond. But, confusingly, they also want to play a proper regular season after this so the group games will also later on count as regular season games. An early June arrival in Orlando is the plan, followed by quarantined training, then the tournament would begin a month later. Although this is all still just a working plan at this stage. Similar health issues exist for players here too and the player’s association is busy in negotiations. Kiwis contracted for the 2020 MLS: Michael Boxall, James Musa, Noah Billingsley (Minnesota), Winston Reid (Sporting KC), Bill Tuiloma (Portland), Deklan Wynne (Colorado), Kyle Adams (Houston) & Elliot Collier (Chicago).
As for the blokes in the USL, they’re all still only allowed in limited training groups and nothing has been decided yet as to what form a 2020 season may take. Or, in the league’s own words: “all options remain on the table”.
South African Premier Soccer League
It’s all still in limbo in South Africa at the moment. Dan Morgan and Jeremy Brockie are waiting patiently to see if their Maritzburg United club can finish off their season. South Africa are still in the second strictest of their lockdown levels, although a government taskforce is working to find some solution for the football season over the next week or two. The PSL want to finish the season but teams still have 6-9 games left and nothing can happen until the government deem it safe to ease the restrictions. It’s a waiting game. Maritzburg had been on a great run of form prior to the pandemic and sit fifth just one point outside the third continental qualifying spot (for the Confederation Cup, the Europa League of Africa... which Jeremy Brockie made the final of with SuperSport a few years back).
Scandinavia
Sweden took a risk in playing it loose with the lockdowns and ironically they’re now having more trouble getting through the red tape to start their season than nations like Denmark or Norway. All of which have prominent kiwi players. Sweden had planned to kick it off on 14 June with fans in attendance but that target date was from a month ago and they’ve been struggling to get government clearance. The stadiums will almost surely be empty now as a compromise, just a matter of figuring it out. It’s hoped they’ll get the green light later this week for the top two divisions to go ahead, still with that mid-June start. Several kiwis play in the lower divisions in Sweden, with Matt Garbett at Falkenbergs in the topskees.
Over in Norway they’ve been going through all the sneaky procedures (cleaning footballs between training sessions, etc.) and if everything stays on track, the relevant restrictions should all be lifted by 15 June... with the football to resume the following day. No time to waste. Teams are already back in training and fixtures have been set. That season, like Sweden’s, runs through the European summer so they haven’t started yet. Joe Bell is there having signed with Viking. No word on the women’s top division yet – which last year featured Rebekah Stott and Victoria Essen (at Avaldsnes) while CJ Bott has signed with Vålerenga.
Denmark are even further ahead with football to resume this very weekend (and they want it all wrapped up by the end of July). There aren’t any kiwis in the top flight of Denmark (although Marko Stamenic had been on trial with FC Copenhagen when things got weird) but Nikko Boxall’s Viborg are battling for promotion with 13 more div two games to play and Matty Conroy is on the books of Vejle, the one team ahead of Viborg on the ladder (although he plays for the U19s).
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