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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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) ** Sm ...

. 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 men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

with the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

. He also earned three caps with the U.S. national team in 1993.

Collegiate career

Peter Woodring played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

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 ...

, 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. in International Business. In 1989, during the college soccer off-season, Woodring played a single season with the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the

Western Soccer League 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 Alli ...

(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. It ...

(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 team mates 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 of the German

third division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

. Woodring played through the 1991–92 season with Wiesbaden, where scouts from first division team Hamburger SV 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 Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

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 curre ...

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 ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

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

football, this time with

SV Wehen SV Wehen Wiesbaden is a German association football club based in Wiesbaden, Hesse. Since the beginning of the 2007–08 season the club no longer plays its home games in Taunusstein, where they were originally located. In the summer of 2007 ''W ...

. 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 United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

. 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 acros ...

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 United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

. 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 The 1993 U.S. Cup was a round robin soccer tournament played in June 1993 and organized by the United States Soccer Federation. The United States hosted Brazil, England and Germany; all three of those countries were playing in their only U.S. C ...

loss to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

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 soccer players in Germany Soccer players from California 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 Sportspeople from Marin County, California Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards American soccer coaches Expatriate men's footballers in Germany