Peter Woodring (born February 5, 1968) is a retired U.S.

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He spent most of his career in the lower U.S. and German divisions. However, he did spend one season in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

with the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

. He also earned three

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

with the U.S. national team in 1993.

Collegiate career

Peter Woodring played

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

, better known as "Cal", from 1986 to 1990. In 1987 and 1990, he was selected to the All Far West teams, and was the team's MVP in 1987, 1989 and 1990. He holds Cal's season record for most assists with 12 and is the school's fourth highest scorer with 22 goals. He received his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in International Business. In 1989, during the college soccer off-season, Woodring played a single season with the

San Francisco Bay Blackhawks San Francisco Bay Blackhawks were a professional soccer team which came into existence in 1989 as a team in the Western Soccer League (WSL). The Blackhawks spent time in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) and the United States Interre ...

of the

Western Soccer League The Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer ...

(WSL). The Blackhawks, along with several other teams in the WSL were essentially semi-pro teams and many top west coast college players played in the league when not playing NCAA soccer.

Years in Europe

When he graduated, the WSL had merged with the east-coast based American Soccer League to form the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. ...

(APSL). After briefly flourishing in 1990, by 1991 the APSL had less than half the teams remaining from the 1990 season. When one of his college teammates suggested that Woodring pursue a professional career in stable European leagues rather than in the United States he left for Germany for a fall 1991 trial with

SV Wiesbaden SV Wiesbaden is a German football club based in Wiesbaden, Hesse. The team was disbanded in 1994 as the result of financial problems, but was rebuilt and eventually returned to the Hessenliga (V). Their home games are played in the Helmut-Schö ...

of the German third division. Woodring played through the 1991–92 season with Wiesbaden, where scouts from

first division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

team

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

noticed him. In 1992, Woodring signed with Hamburger SV. However, he had difficulty finding regular playing time with the first team, seeing time in only six matches in 1992–93 and a few more at the start of the 1993–94 season. However, he played most of his games with Hamburger SV's amateur reserve team. With the possibility of finding regular playing time appearing low, Woodring moved to Danish club

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but curr ...

for the last half of the 1993–94 season and the first half of the 1994–95 season. His performances helped propel the club into first place of the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

championship, but Woodring left the club halfway through the season, before Aalborg BK eventually won the

1994–95 Danish Superliga The 1994–95 Danish Superliga season was the 5th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. The tournament was held in two rounds. The first round was in autumn 1994, and the second in spring ...

title. He returned to Germany to again play third division football, this time with

SV Wehen SV Wehen Wiesbaden is a German association football club based in Wiesbaden, Hesse. The club was previously known as ''SV Wehen'' but added ''Wiesbaden'' to its name during the summer of 2007. They left their previous ground, the Taunusstein, t ...

. He would play 11 games with the team through the end of the 1994–95 season.

Return to the United States

In 1995, Woodring returned to the United States. He played with the Hawaii Tsunami of the

USISL The United States Interregional Soccer League (USISL) was a semi-professional men's outdoor soccer league that played six seasons from 1989 to 1994. It was the first outdoor league to be operated by the organization known today as the United ...

. The

selected Woodring in the second round of the inaugural MLS draft (15th overall). He played 21 games, scoring 1 goal, in the 1996 season. On March 10, 1997, The Revs released Woodring during the 1997 preseason, despite his having scored a goal in an exhibition game three days before. After leaving the Revs, Woodring moved to

Marin, California Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

to become a financial analyst. While there, he became an assistant coach on the

men's soccer team starting in September 1998. He also briefly played with the Chico Rooks of the

United Soccer League The United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of various professional and amateur soccer leagues in the United States league system. It currently organizes its Championship, League One, and League Two for men, its Super League and W Leag ...

. In 2000, he scored four goals for the Olympic Club of the San Francisco Soccer Football League's Major Division.
/sup> In 2003, he played for the Marin Soccer League's Bolinas Team.

National team

Based on initial success with Hamburger SV, Woodring was called up for three games for the United States men's national soccer team, US national team in 1993. One game came as a substitute, at the 69th minute in the 1993 U.S. Cup loss to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Post-soccer career

Woodring is currently the Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Cephus Capital Management. Before that, he was a Vice President of research and trading at US Trust Company.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodring, Peter 1968 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni American men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players in Germany United States men's international soccer players 1993 Copa América players California Golden Bears men's soccer players California Golden Bears men's soccer coaches Western Soccer Alliance players San Francisco Bay Blackhawks players Hamburger SV players Hamburger SV II players AaB Fodbold players SV Wehen Wiesbaden players Major League Soccer players New England Revolution players USISL players San Francisco Soccer Football League players Hawaii Tsunami players Chico Rooks players People from Kentfield, California Soccer players from Marin County, California Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards American soccer coaches 20th-century American sportsmen