Worldwide women's news

[Vic]

That's great.  Good for her, nice appointment.  Now if only Jamaica would splash some cash and start playing again.

She will be in Toronto the last weekend in January.

 

 

[Vic]

Alex Morgan joins Hegerberg up top for Lyon on a temporary loan. A nice shot across the bow to those with Champions League aspirations.

There is an extremely well put together UEFA embedded video of Ada Hegerberg's goals in that link above.  Worth the click and launch it full screen.

 

Edited January 1, 2017 by Vic

[Vic]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/world/asia/china-soccer-xi-jinping.html

Good read.  It will take them a long time to challenge for the men's World Cup, but with this funding and numbers they will ascend the women's ranking much quicker.  And if they're successful it will not be an easy job to usurp them.

[Toje]

The Czech Republic will be playing in the Cyprus Cup this year.

Group A - Belgium, Italy, North Korea, Switzerland

Group B - Austria, South Korea, New Zealand, Scotland

Group C - Czech Republic, Ireland, Thailand, Wales

The tournament runs from Feb 27th to March 9th.

[Toje]

The draw for the UEFA 2019 WWCQ

Preliminary round

Group 1 - Kazakhstan, Estonia, Georgia (host), Latvia

Group 2 - Greece, Albania (host), Malta, Kosovo

Group 3 - Israel, Moldova, Lithuania (host), Andorra

Group 4 - Turkey, Faroe Islands (host), Montenegro, Luxembourg

The groups will start on April 6th.  The draw for the qualiying round group stage will take place on April 25th.

Countries which didn't enter a team in qualifying

Bulgaria, Macedonia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Liechenstein, San Marino.

I follow Macedonia soccer (men's and women's) so I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see that they will not be playing in the qualifiers.  They have struggled a lot in the past, and women's football is not really developed at all in the country.

[The Ref]

Carli Lloyd has signed for Manchester City.  This article briefly mentions a 4 nations SheBelieves Cup to take place in the U.S. starting March 1st.  Anyone knows more about these games?

http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/us-women-s-soccer-star-carli-lloyd-signs-manchester-city

[Vic]

USA, Germany, England, France.  Games in NYC, Philly and DC.  Everyone plays everyone, no playoffs.  Best record takes the trophy.

http://www.ussoccer.com/womens-national-team/tournaments/2017-shebelieves-cup#tab-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_SheBelieves_Cup

 

[rkomar]

I'll have to watch that game again, but I recall that any team that started in the North end of BC Place at that time of day did poorly defensively.  The sun shines just there, and makes that part of the field a burning hell.  I'm not saying that that was enough to cause the Japanese to lose, but it's probably a reason for the large goal differential.

[Vic]

MC are strong in the back with Steph Houghton and Lucy Bronze but aren't really that strong at the other end.

Women signing in Europe is already so yesterday:
http://pulse.ng/sports/football/asisat-oshoala-in-china-for-big-money-move-id6141807.html

"In his daily sports show on Top Radio, Enakhena revealed that Oshoala will earn four times at her new club more than what she gets at Arsenal."

http://pulse.ng/sports/football/asisat-oshoala-pictured-in-dalian-quanjian-jersey-id6211520.html

"According to sources, the Super Falcons star will earn about £8,000 per week; at Arsenal Ladies, Oshoala was earning £25,000 annually."

Edited February 20, 2017 by Vic

[red card]

Australia wants a gold medal for 2020 and a 2023 World Cup win. They want the W-League to be the #1 in the world. How? 60@60 strategy.

Targets contracting 60 Australian players on a minimum of A$60k for the next four years.The addition of a 10th W-League team; introduction of a minimum $11,500 W-League salary and an increased FFA dividend from $50,000 to $175,000 per club.

 

http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/matildas-target-a-gold-medal-at-tokyo-olympics-as-part-of-ambitious-plan-to-overhaul-game/news-story/a96d7b3be6753ddf5df61375d868d1c9

[Vic]

My post was about people like Lloyd, Morgan, Dunn, Lawrence, Buchanan, etc.

[Vic]

On 2/21/2017 at 1:39 PM, red card said:

Australia wants a gold medal for 2020 and a 2023 World Cup win. They want the W-League to be the #1 in the world. How? 60@60 strategy.

Targets contracting 60 Australian players on a minimum of A$60k for the next four years.The addition of a 10th W-League team; introduction of a minimum $11,500 W-League salary and an increased FFA dividend from $50,000 to $175,000 per club.

Very interesting if they have the funding to execute on that.  The US$ is par with the CDN$.

Wondering where the money comes from.  Six 60@60 per team is $360k per team.  Another 20 players at even the minimum is $250k.  Throw in staff, facilities, travel, etc and your budget is well up there.  Getting another $125k will help a bit but is a small fraction of their needs.  Where do they get all the revenue to cover costs?

[Toje]

I assume no one is up or no one wants to watch but a live stream of Italy vs Czech Republic from Cyprus.  The match starts at 4am EST 

 

Edited March 8, 2017 by Toje

[tc-in-bc]

[ 1 ]  Curious item here about the New Zealand women's national team. 25 domestic-based Football Ferns and future Ferns  will be formed into a team that will play in a U-17 boys league  based in  Auckland, NZ:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11815409

[ 2 ] Speaking of NZ, found some video of Humphries-Priestman handing out medals in a NZ cup competition  (starts at the 12.12 minute mark )  :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hD956o6cH8

 

 

Edited March 24, 2017 by tc-in-bc

[tc-in-bc]

[ 1 ]  Carolina Morace's first action leading Trinidad and Tobago ( current FIFA rank of 46 ) was a goaless  draw with Venezuela ( current FIFA rank 60 ) ;  the first of 2 friendlies with la Vinotinto femenina. There's a bit of drama  surrounding the camp, as earlier in the week one player walked out and two other players were suspended.( Kennya Cordner, one of the suspended players, averages close to a goal a game for T&T.)

http://wired868.com/2017/03/26/morace-starts-tt-tenure-with-draw-against-venezuela-skirts-talk-on-maylee-mollon-and-cordner/

[ 2 ]  It looks like Tier One Trinidad players will now be  signing contracts with their football association (TTFA)  and are going to be paid TT$ 8000 per month ( Canadian $ 1580/month )  to play football.

http://wired868.com/2017/03/21/maylee-kennya-and-mollon-pull-out-as-fiery-morace-starts-reign-without-tt-stars/

[The Ref]

The 2018 women's Copa America will be hosted by Chile. 

Edited April 26, 2017 by The Ref

[Toje]

U17 Women's European Championship begins next week in the Czech Republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_UEFA_Women's_Under-17_Championship

[Vic]

Hope you can get to some of the matches.  A lot of fun looking for the next phenom.

Notts County women went under last week:

"I was extremely concerned that to operate Notts County Ladies for the current season was going to cost us approximately £500,000 - a figure principally made up of player and coaching salaries... our total projected incoming revenue from attendances and sponsorship was £28,000."

Unless you are a philanthropic saint with deep pockets or a true believer in the plight and making the world a better place for female footballers, there is a harsh reality that goes with being an early adopter in running leading edge programs.

[tc-in-bc]

^[ 1 ] Jacqui Oatley of the BBC expressed skepticism on twitter of   Notts County's numbers noting that there was no mention of the FA grant money for clubs ( which is presently £ 70 000 for WSL 1 sides)  and that any Lionesses on the team would also be on central contracts with the FA.

[ 2 ]  I think England's Women's Super League  gets a lot generosity and investment from the FA . In fact,  it's  going to be increased !  In  2018-19, the composition of the FA WSL ( with 10 teams up and 10 team down)  will be determined by licenses and not pro/rel from  the prior season. Along with this change, comes an increase in FA club grant money  to the tune £ 1 550 000 ( $ 2 800 000  cad )  annually made available to all the clubs.  This money does not include the cost to the FA for the central contracts.for the Lionesses who all play in the WSL.

https://mywomensfootball.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/the-fa-open-the-fa-wsl-licensing-from-2018-19-a-short-analysis/

[The Ref]

Our beloved Sydney Leroux is back in the U.S. team.

[Vic]

3/4 of the teams the Americans have played since last summer have been deep on the ranking table and gimmies (Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand, etc).  They played three of merit, all at home where they have a stunning record and just snuck by the Germans and lost to both England and France.  

Now they drop down the ranking table again against the Scandinavians.

Their roster isn't that strong at the moment with a lot of veterans by the wayside and plenty of youth getting a look and it's good timing with nothing major on the horizon for a while.  Especially in the middle and back.  You would think they'll need to start locking in players and grooming them for 2019 and 2020 pretty soon though.

 

 

[tc-in-bc]

[ 1 ] It's been out there for a while, but in September 2016, CONMEBOL made it a regulatory requirement that after 2019 only men's clubs with a women's team would be eligible for Copa Libertadores ( the prestigious South American annual (men's) club competition). Critics of the rule contend that small clubs with less financial resources would drop out of the competition or that some clubs would cynically just do the bare minimum.Anyway, the intent of CONMEBOL's  new rule is to drive up the growth of women's soccer in South America.

[ 2 ] In Colombia, DIMAYOR ( the sports organization who organize and operate professional soccer in Colombia) chose to be proactive to CONMEBOL's directive and to set up a pro league for the Colombian women: the 2017 Liga Aguila Femenina. Furthermore, DIMAYOR expressed the ambitious intent to make  the Liga Aguila Femenina  the best women's league in South America.

[ 3 ] Some key points about Liga Aguila Femenina:

- the cost of running the league would be shared by the clubs and DIMAYOR

- the league consists of 18 clubs divided into 3 groups, although there were a few notable absences: Millonarios, Junior, Medellin, & Nacional

- rosters were allowed to be between 20 to 25 players

- clubs were allowed to have up to 8 amateur trialists

- clubs were allowed to have up to 8 foreign professionals ( a number which will be lowered in future seasons) 26 Venezualans alone crossed the shared border to play in the Liga Aguila Femenina. Other nations with players in the league include: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador,  Guatemala, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, and the USA.

- the first matches began in February ( 2017 ) , with playoffs in mid May, and the Gran Final concluding just yesterday.

-select matches were broadcast by Win Sports TV

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liga_Profesional_Femenina_de_Fútbol_2017_(Colombia)

[ 4 ]  June 24, 2017 , Independiente Sante Fe femenino were crowned the inaugural champions of the 2017 Liga Aguila Femenina with a 3 - 1 aggregate victory over Atletico Huila femenino. The match winning goal in the second leg of the Gran Finale was scored by Leicy Santos in front of 33 300 enthusiastic fans!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYZh8ojzHgc

There was also a good looking  trophy ceremony ( something the NWSL needs to improve upon ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCM2-i80h_k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQPL16CfDLU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O48vxf38Rcg

[ 5 ] At times, the Colombian Women's National team can be quite ordinary. But occasionally, they do something notable like a 2 - 0 victory over France in group stage of the 2015 WWC:; or a 2 - 2 draw with the USWNT in group stage of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. And this was before the Colombian women got a professional league!   To me, the  professionalizing of their talent pool could take Colombia to the next level.

 

Edited June 25, 2017 by tc-in-bc

[Vic]

.

Edited July 12, 2017 by Vic

[Vic]

"I've played 89 times for the Mexican women's team during the last six years, giving my best effort to represent Mexico with pride," Perez wrote on Twitter on June 30 in Spanish. "And now I can't play in the Mexican women's league?"

http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/20113854/mexican-women-soccer-league-restricts-rosters-native-born-players-only

[tc-in-bc]

United WF 17 is a 6 team  pre-season  women's club football tournament  held in  Tenerife, Spain  which went from August 14 - August 18, 2017.

https://twitter.com/UnitedWF17?lang=en

The final was today, and  UD Granadilla Tenerife  ( of Spain )  won the tournament on penalties ( 9 - 8 ) over ZFK Spartak Subotica ( of Serbia ). Canadian Alix Bruch  successfully scored two penalties in the shootout for the losing side.  Canadian Jordyn Listro scored on  her lone  penalty in the shoot out for the winners.

Edited August 18, 2017 by tc-in-bc