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Gyau completes move to Borussia Dortmund II

Joseph Claude Gyau

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

Former U.S. youth international Joseph Gyau has completed a move to the second team of one of Germany’s giant clubs.

Borussia Dortmund announced early Monday morning that Gyau has signed for Borussia Dortmund II, the Bundesliga club’s reserve and Under-23 team that plays in the German third division. Dortmund II’s upcoming season begins on July 25.

According to reports out of Germany, Gyau played Sunday for Dortmund II in their first friendly match ahead of the upcoming season. Dortmund II won the match against local club Lüner SV by a 2-0 scoreline.

The 21-year-old winger has been with Hoffenheim since 2009, when he signed after finishing his time with the U.S. Soccer residency program. Gyau, however, only made three league appearances since joining the club and spent the 2012/2013 season on loan with FC St. Pauli in the 2. Bundesliga.

Last season, Gyau started 26 of 27 games for Hoffenheim’s reserves. He scored seven times, but never made a game-day squad for the first team.

An interesting twist to this story is that Dortmund’s reserve team’s head coach is David Wagner, a German-American who played eight times for the U.S. Men’s National Team between 1996 and 1998. Wagner also coached Terrence Boyd when he was at Dortmund II.

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What do you think of this news? Glad to see Gyau move to a new club? Do you believe he’ll get a shot with the Dortmund first team at some point?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I think this is the beginning of the end of young US players overseas. It just doesn’t work. other than dual nationals, there really have not been any players who have been successful overseas at a young age. Couple that with the amount of MLS players on the WC squad this cycle I think this is a sea change and in the future only the absolute best US players will venture overseas.

    Reply
    • you mean besides Bradley (18/19), Jozy (18/19), Gooch (20), and a few other guys who have built solid professional careers (Spector for example)? Listen, MOST prospects don’t live up to their hype of potential

      Reply
    • That’s a blanket statment. They’ve taken totaly different carrer paths. Unlike Adu, Gyau signed with a European team right out of the gate instead of MLS. Also, Gyau has spent his entire pro carrer up until this point with 1 team.

      Reply
      • The irony being then that Adu had some success at DC, beginning his international career, before squelching it with the money moves and periods of time where he rarely played. It’s debatable whether Adu with his size and modest athleticism and such would have made the junior-senior transition well, but he at least found his feet out of the gate and won some hardware before tripping over his feet chasing money thereafter.

        No, Gyau has bounced around a little on loans, we can act like that is one team, but that is your owner shipping you around seeing if you either (a) get it together at the next place or (b) at least show enough they can sell you. The ones they really like they keep, or they don’t loan out much.

      • Makes you wonder why the team would sign him and then not figure in any plans for the team. Same for other players like Shea for example.

      • Teams take flyers on guys like this all the time. There are hundreds of gyaus in the lower leagues we just give ridiculous scrutiny to the ones who are american.

      • The promotional and fanboy machine over here wants to act like teams are signing people to the first team to come over and dominate, when they may be youth players signed to an age group system with a few years to sink or swim. If you start to flail in the water they loan you out to get more PT and perhaps probe your value as a sale asset. If you succeed, you eventually make first team. But most of these teams have dozens of players wanting to make the same slots. They bring you in because you have promise, but you have to start fulfilling it……and then there’s coaching changes, system changes, team needs to sell people because of finances, etc.

      • Exactly, a lot of the time coaching changes spells doom for A LOT of players. You see coaches come in and bring in a lot of their own players. They even unseat established players.

  2. Who knows why he made the move. Maybe the depth chart at Dortmund at his position is more favorable than Hoffenheim. Maybe the coach has plans for him, maybe the money is better! Don’t forget this is a career for these guys they are not just players in a video game. Also consider the guy is only 22. That is the same age as many second-year (recent college grad) MLS players. I think it is a bit early to write the kid off. I am sure he has his reasons.

    Reply
    • Exactly. I would imagine he’s getting paid more and, like most athletes at this level, he’s probably very confident in his ability to break into the first team. Whether he actually can remains to be seen. Would be good for the USMNT obviously if he can.

      Reply
    • Agree with everything you said here, people sometimes forget this is their career and that they don’t know what’s best for the player…football-wise as well as monetarily.

      Not as easy as saying “go to such and such league, there you will play, develop, become a star and lead us to the World Cup!”

      Reply
  3. This is a good, better than good really, move for Gyau. Dortmund is on the same level of producing and recognizing young talent as Bayern are, maybe even better.

    Reply
    • I think he has the pedigree and the ability to play somewhere in Europe, but if he was serious about the next cycle, he could do worse than kick start his campaign here.

      Reply
  4. While it is a little strange to see Gyau switching clubs without much first team minutes I am still hopeful that this move will work out for him. Gyau has a lot of talent and potential. I hope he makes it into the 1st team and shows well.
    Gyau, Gatt, Green, and Agudelo are all players who should play a significant role up front over the next cycle.
    Yedlin, Brooks, Packwood, O’Neill, should all play significant roles in the back.

    Reply
    • Green I expect to be something. He has speed and raw skill. He’s young and just needs to mature some.

      Agudelo can hit a cross and has some athleticism, if he stays busy I could see him in the pool.

      Gatt, with repeated knee problems, we’ll see…..Holden.

      We’ll see on the backs. Brooks had the important goal but has often been swiss cheese. Yedlin has been given a role but is still pretty raw.

      In terms of future development, forward will be important, Dempsey, Donovan, EJ, and Wondo will all be gone by the next one. They need to look at DM because Jones and Beckerman will age out. I’d be looking for a couple CBs and a LB because you need some depth with Besler, and Beasley will age out and Chandler is not a natural left side player.

      Reply
  5. I’m confused by this. A move to Borussia Dortmund II?

    Unless he comes out strong in the next year, it will be tough for him to do much with this move.

    Does Dortmund II play in 4th division?

    Reply
  6. Gyau, Renken, Jerome, Martinez, remember when people salivated at the potential and everyone was filling up starting 11s with them along side Danny Szetela and Freddy Adu…. sigh

    Reply
      • Uncle Sam,

        I WANT YOU!… to calm down . We’re gonna be fine.

        A few weeks ago, someobody posted a link to an archived SBI 2010 about the projected 2014 roster a few weeks ago (sorry I am a little too tired to track it down right now but it’s still there somewhere). Even Ives’ guesses had plenty of howlers… and needless to say the comments were a complete demolition derby.

        Do not worry about this. The talent will be there. Focus on this one while the party is just getting good. . Four years to stress on a problem that is twice as likely to be solved as the Group of Death was.

      • It’s probably findable via google. It was really interesting to read and see how far off everyone was. Pretty sure whatever we think is going to be the 2018 squad today isn’t going to be similarly incorrect.

        Also, the pipeline is fine. Most prospects don’t pan out, that’s just the way it is but there’ll be enough that do.

  7. Am I not understanding the article? I ask because Gyau did play/dress for the Hoffenheim first team last season:

    “Gyau made his first team debut for Hoffenheim on April 26, 2014 coming on in the final 21 minutes of a 0–0 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.”

    “Joe Gyau dressed but did not play for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.”

    “Joe Gyau came off the bench and played 29 minutes for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.”

    I think SBI even had an article on it. Anyway, given he was pushing into the first team towards the end, I wonder if he had a serious chance with a new season. Hopefully he can work his way up Dortmund!

    Reply
    • Stop the presses! An SBI writer is pumping out a story without editing and fact-checking first?
      Truthfully, your research added more to the article than the writer did.

      Reply
  8. All I can say is, why? He had just broken into an off the bench role at Hoffenheim at the end of last season and seemed prime to get some starting minutes in the Bundesliga after years of fighting to make the first team. I respect his ambition to try and make it into the first team at an even better club, but he could’ve at least given himself a year to prove himself in the Bundesliga before moving. That being said, I wish him all the best, and hopefully we’ll see him and Junior Flores starting for Borussia Dortmund soon.

    Reply
    • Club football careers rarely follow a linear path. Players who broke in at the end of one season don’t necessarily maintain that status at the start of a new season.

      Managers will happily discard a fringe player if they can get a slight upgrade somewhere else and they’ll often be transparent about their intentions. Trust that gyau has the right information to make this decision.

      Reply
  9. This move doesn’t make sense to me. Unless he goes to Dortmund II and tears it up then I cant see his career ever hitting liftoff.

    Reply
  10. It will be much tougher to break into Borrussia Dortmund’s first team than if he stayed at Hoffenheim. But, we don’t know the whole story.

    He’ll be 22 in September. He’s old enough to where he should be getting first team football somewhere.

    Reply
    • A-dooo is how you say his name.

      Wagner may offer a somewhat more protective home for an American, but you’re talking about bouncing around the German minors for years while we move on to new prospects, eg, Green. He receded into the background for the U23 team, etc. He doesn’t necessarily have to come home, but this strikes me as going in circles. He can’t start his career on one II team, so he signs for another?

      Reply
      • He seems to be a limited player who is extremely fast and explosive off the first step, and does the same step over move almost every time.

        Reminds me of Johann Smith; look where that guy is now.

      • You can teach an athletic player to work on technique but you can’t make a slow technical one more of an athlete. Granted, if he doesn’t get it soon, he won’t get it. But he is unusually speedy and that buys him time to grow, so you hope he can get in a situation where he can develop.

        Not everyone in a pool has to turn out, but nor does everyone need to be the same sort of player. Stock in bulk and variety and see what happens. If he and Gatt got healthy and a little more technical……hoo boy.

    • FRANK, can you say Gedion Zelalem?

      Because if we get Zelalem, it more than makes up for all the “busts” that are discussed in the thread below.

      Zelalem is the real deal and will be a world-class player in the middle of the pitch for us.

      Reply

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