Worldwide women's news

[The Ref]

Juventus from Italy won this year The Women's Cup at Louisville, Ky.  They defeated Palmairas from Brazil in the championship game yesterday.

 

 

[red card]

This will be the opening weekend of the USL Super League.

DAZN will be showing 2 of the 3 matches. Carolina vs DC on Saturday and Tampa Bay vs Dallas on Sunday. DAZN has rights in 13 countries including Canada. It's on Peacock in the US, ESPN in Central to South America/Caribbean and USL Youtube where no rights are held.

You may be able to watch matches free on DAZN as they tend to make some women's matches freely available. You'll need to register for a free account so that they can hoover up your data. Currently, USL SL matches aren't listed as free to watch.

 

https://www.dazn.com/en-CA/competition/Competition:2wrz2mhsfuouaofn3myivs1xb

 

Edited August 16 by red card

[red card]

From FIFA's mid-year report on transfers:

• $US6.8 million spent on international transfers in women’s football— 2x more from last year’s mid-year window 
• A record-breaking 1,100+ international transfers registered 
• On average, $71,400 is spent per transfer, with nearly 10% of moves generating a fee.

There were 7 transfers out of Canada - all due to being out of contract. England led with money spent at $2.33m. France led with money received at $1.1m. 

USA led in number of incoming transfers at 128. England & Spain tied for most outgoing transfers at 76 each. 

https://inside.fifa.com/legal/football-regulatory/international-transfer-snapshot/women

[red card]

A more balanced draw than last year for UWCL. Group B is the weakest while Group C is the strongest. Barcelona/Man City are the marquee matches. 

Canadians repped in 3 of 4 groups. Benfica didn't make it as it would have been 4/4. 

 

[red card]

The 2025 EA Sports FC player rankings are out.

Led by Bonmati, the top 3 women players are from Barcelona. Of the top 25, Spain & Liga F have the most representation with 6 & 8 players respectively. Followed by France and their Première Ligue at 5 and 7 respectively. Then, USA & Norway are tied with 3 players each. For leagues, WSL is next with 5 and then NWSL with 4.

Top Canadian player is Lawrence at 44. Then we have Sheridan #53, Buchanan #60, Gilles #104 and Sinclair #121. Schmidt & Scott are in the top 200. Viens & Fleming are in top 300. 

https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-fc/ratings?gender=1

[red card]

Opta released their first ever women's club ranking spanning 2000+ clubs.

No surprise here as Barcelona tops the list. In the top 10 there are 3 clubs from the WSL spearheaded by Chelsea. And 3 also from NWSL led by KCC. There are 2 from Frauen Bundesliga led by Bayern. 

Lyon is top French club at #2 overall. Roma is top Serie A club at #12. Tigres is top Liga MX club at #27. Benfica is #31.

Top Conmebol club is Corinthians at #33. Top AFC club is Urawa Reds at #61 but China's league is excluded. Top CAF club is FAR Rabat at #96 but Moroccan league is only CAF league included. Top Australian club is Sydney at #106. Top USL SL team is Carolina at #190.

League 1 Canada clubs are excluded despite playing international matches. Caps defeated #2247 ranked Santa Fe and unrated Alianza while they got blown out by #44 Club America.

Based on median club ratings, NWSL is the top league, followed by WSL, Serie A, Liga F and Bundesliga. If the current 16 clubs in UEFA Champions League are part of the mix, it has the highest median club rating. 

If you just watch the top 5 clubs of a league, WSL should account for most of your viewing as it has the highest median club rating. But it is very closely followed by NWSL. Then it is Liga F and largely a tie between Serie A and Bundesliga. 

Outside of the top 5 leagues are the ones for NSL to first target. These leagues are from France, Norway, Sweden, Brasil, Mexico and Portugal.

https://theanalyst.com/2024/08/who-are-the-best-football-team-in-the-world-opta-power-rankings/?type=womens

Edited September 28 by red card

[Unnamed Trialist]

12 hours ago, red card said:

The 2025 EA Sports FC player rankings are out.

Led by Bonmati, the top 3 women players are from Barcelona. Of the top 25, Spain & Liga F have the most representation with 6 & 8 players respectively. Followed by France and their Première Ligue at 5 and 7 respectively. Then, USA & Norway are tied with 3 players each. For leagues, WSL is next with 5 and then NWSL with 4.

Top Canadian player is Lawrence at 44. Then we have Sheridan #53, Buchanan #60, Gilles #104 and Sinclair #121. Schmidt & Scott are in the top 200. Viens & Fleming are in top 300. 

https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-fc/ratings?gender=1

As a Barça fan and having watched the team for years, I always find these surprising. Putellas has been mostly a sub and has not regained form since her injury, it's been months. This was also seen for Spain. For me she is in the 10-20 range, and for these ratings, her pace, speed, defense, have all dropped notably, as has her overall range and scoring prowess. 

Mapi Leon rates high as a defender when imo Paredes is far superior, for me she's a top 2-3 centre back in the world. But León got rated for NOT going to the WC and boycotting the Spain coach, which is a bit screwy. Both are very good.

Mariona Caldentey is probably better than Guijarro, a very solid well-rounded player, but Mariona is a key player for Barça's success and a huge loss for this season. She's incredibly versatile, can play win, mid, could play fullback, has goal. 

The ratings do go against voting for other prizes, which always sticks Lucy Bronze up high and Walsh too, here that is more balanced.

Cata Coll wins the World Cup for Spain and Champions, is very young, and is rated very low amongst keepers. She did not have a great Olympics, but the difference is too great, even Sheridan is ranked significantly higher than her. Even head to head vs. Olympique, Coll is not inferior to Endler.