BFW postseason breakdown: Favorite BFW Piece of the Year

At Bavarian Football Works, we take a lot of pride in being able to cover all Bayern Munich news from games to fights to transfers to injuries (all too many!). We also like being able to write commentary and foster discussion among the community.

Over the course of the season, we find ourselves trying to cover anything we feel like the BFW community needs to know or will enjoy. From Germany’s disastrous 2018 World Cup collapse and the “aftermath of arrogance” to Bayern’s rocky start under Niko Kovac, there was plenty to write about. We had the fallout from the “summer of Lewy” transfer saga and how he redeemed himself, Arturo Vidal’s son leaking his dad’s move to FC Barcelona on You Tube, James Rodriguez drama galore, Jogi Low placing the blame for Germany’s struggles on Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels, and Jerome Boateng, and a whole lot more.

Here are some of our favorites pieces of the year.

Chuck Smith

Over the course of the year, I read ALL of BFW’s posts and have to say I thorough enjoy everything on the site (even when the opinions differ from my own). I think about the effort and time that Tom Adams puts into covering the kit leaks or Ineednoname’s take on why James Rodriguez was the wrong man for Bayern Munich, or Berni15’s series of BFW Film Room posts, or John Dillon’s take on the crazy German soccer world below the top flight.

There was also Marcus Iredahl’s great tribute to Franck Ribery and his awesome piece on ultras. MiranKoFCB recently tackled what he thinks Niko Kovac needs to do to extend his future with Bayern, and LKChuggz told the world that Robert Lewandowski needs to take a back seat to Germany’s real scoring champion. Brian Burton’s piece on Uli Hoeness’ impact on Bayern’s business tactics was a great read as well.

We had Philipp Quinn taking a hard and serious look at Manuel Neuer (or his efforts at driving our Bundesliga preview), while Gopika CPB’s coverage of a simple news items gave me a clear and concise wrap-up to Rafinha’s Bayern career.

And while he didn’t write as much as others, Jake Fenner deserves a lot of credit for his effort with Bavarian Podcast Works, which gave us another outlet to communicate with you all this season. Same for NoVaBurgher, who is always a great writer to have around to hit news items when he is online.

I would be remiss to exclude the great fanposts we have received as well over the course of this season.

When it comes down to making a choice, however, I went with Marcus’s piece on the ultras.

Ineednoname

Marcus’s piece on Bayern’s ultras. In general, I love any piece that makes me think “oh, I learned something new here,” and Marcus’s piece really nailed it. Special mention to Berni’s Film Rooms. It’s by far the highest quality series on the site.

John N. Dillon

Chuck’s three-part series on Chris Richards was the result of Chuck’s own initiative and incredible access to the player’s family and coaches. It was a magnificent, honest look at the story of an American player who made it all the way to Bayern Munich. It was easily one of the best original stories BFW has ever run.

And since I’m the editor, I get to pick two: Patrick Pintaske represented BFW in the press box at Bastian Schweinsteiger’s testimonial and even interviewed Hasan Salihamidzic (and Ana Ivanovic!) in the mixed zone after the game. It’s a massive coup for BFW to participate directly in games like this. We’ve been closer to the club than ever before.

Phillip Quinn

There have been so many good articles written on Bavarian Football Works over the last year. I've tried to take my time to pick the story that I really loved, and I think I found it. For me, Marcus's farewell story to Franck Ribery was tremendous and my favorite for the year.

Berni15

This is a tough one, but I’d have to say Marcus’ piece looking at German football’s ultras was a fascinating read. It’s also representative of the depth and quality of the content here at BFW. I’m constantly impressed by my fellow writers and the thoughtful fanposts we receive.

LKChuggz

This one is sentimental. I began writing for BFW this season. A few months later a player from my hometown, Taylor Booth, officially signed with Bayern. I was able to write a piece introducing Booth to the Bayern fans. As a fan of soccer and a proponent of growing soccer in the US, I loved being able to spotlight a local kid signing with a European giant.

Marcus Iredahl

Well, I became a contributor for BFW this January, hence I will choose a piece made after that. I love all the Podcasts and I am still waiting to be a part of them (no pressure guys). Although, as a person who loves in-depth articles, I would say my favorite piece(s) has been Chuck Smith’s trilogy about Chris Richards. Fantastic piece of reporting that raises the bar for every BFW contributor.

Brian Burton

I’m pretty sure just the title does it for me: “More exciting details on grass replacement at Säbener Strasse.” In this epitome of great sports journalism work, Chuck Smith informs Bayern fans of the truly important news they need to know: what kind of turf the team plays on. Sometimes we get caught up on unimportant stories like transfers, injuries, and the like. Chuck does an excellent job in reminding us where our focuses really should lie.

We’ve laid out our favorites, tell us yours in the poll and in the comments?