UEFA Women's Champions League

[Levi Oakey]

I think Lawrence and Le Sommer have been the best on the pitch. Lawrence beat Buchanan to the header that had Cruz break free.

[mtlfan]

0-0 after 90 extra time 

I wish they would pass  more to  Lawrence, they always seem to only attack the right and center. 

Edited June 1, 2017 by mtlfan

[Levi Oakey]

PKs. Was a bit of a typical cup final.

[Greatest Cockney Rip Off]

Lawrence scored her pen. A real nice one. 

[Rheo]

That was heartbreaking...

[Unnamed Trialist]

Just to update, I think both Lawrence and Buchanan played the whole game. As said, only Lawrence did a pk, Lyon won in the end. PSG holding them the whole game and taking it so deep was to their credit. 

Incredible experience for two of our future stars, would be great to get a few more into top UEFA teams.

[rkomar]

Renard is so good.  I hope Buchanan learns a lot from her.

[Vic]

Although I'm sure it feels the opposite, the result really is a translated win for Lair and PSG - Lyon is a world all-star team.  To take them to PKs with many chances to win is quite an accomplishment.

Also makes for an interesting club/country comparison.  France now have four of the last seven Champions League trophies and three second places.

Number of medals France has won in World Cups and Olympics:  0

Lyon won their first Champions League title in 2010 after losing the final in PK's the year before.  Since then France have not medalled in the World Cup in 2011 & 2015 or the Olympics in 2012 & 2016.

Do you architecturally balance your league along the North American professional sports model (franchises, allocations, salary caps, etc) or do you follow the more prevalent global pattern of free enterprise, promotion/relegation, etc?

Put Division 1 Feminine into a balanced system and neither team goes far in the Champions League.  But how would the national team have done?  Better, worse or the same?

 

Edited June 2, 2017 by Vic

[Vic]

[Unnamed Trialist]

Vic, I am not sure why you think balancing out the French league would automatically hurt the two top teams. 

Are you saying another club would have to get more French talent, then spend for the foreigners? There is more foreign talent to be had, less top French talent, that is true. So you are arguing that splitting the national players would relatively weaken the top sides?

Which clubs in France are in a position to make a move on Lyon and PSG and would actually do so?

In Spain they are a step away from France and Germany, maybe even England, but I think they'll get close to a Champions final or take it in the next 3-5 years. But the league is more balanced, there are fewer blowouts and even top teams end up struggling to not relegate (Espanyol, a former champ). True, there are few top foreigners, but new sponsorship deals and tv will slowly alter that. 

My opinion is that the Women's Champions League has too few teams, they should add a round or deepen the group stage, however the cost, and get more clubs involved, widening the field and opportunities and raising the incentive for clubs.

[tc-in-bc]

^ [ 1 ]  I understood Vic's question to mean:  would the French Women's National Team /  Les Bleues  ( who have under-achieved internationally )  do better with a different league underneath it ?  In big games,  I think Les Bleues' scoring tends to let them down -- they fail to score the BIG goal  and  there's  usually a  lot of wasted opportunities. To me their usual  front line players:  Thiney, Thomis, Delie, Le Sommer  are merely good scorers but they  aren't great.scorers. They're not at the same level as Marta, Wambach and Sinclair. Perhaps these French strikers would be better scorers had they developed in a tougher league --  instead of playing too many easy matches. The NWSL is a competitive league , top to bottom, because the national team players of  Canada and the USA are somewhat evenly distributed, by allocation, among all the teams. So the question is asked: If D1F were more competitive, top to bottom, just  like the NWSL, then  would  France produce better strikers  in greater numbers ?  I have no idea, but redistributing the French Women's National Team players evenly throughout  the league could  weaken OL and PSG.

[ 2 ]  To me there is a small  sign  that D1F is becoming more competitive. Over the last three seasons the goals against stat  for relegated clubs seems to be going down. Lower table clubs may be making a better effort at resisting the top end clubs. Perhaps OL and PSG are pulling the quality of their league up.

[ 3 ] Anyway, I'm not counting France out in the Euros. This maybe their time to make amends.

[ 4 ] There seemed to be a lot  of  enthusiasm for Spain's league ( Liga Iberdrola ) this season. In late April, 17 000 people attended the Valencia Levante derby : 

- the match was a blow out: 

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

- but a charged atmosphere surrounded the event :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COOYHFScqa8

 

Edited June 5, 2017 by tc-in-bc

[Vic]

That's correct, I wasn't making any arguments just making an observation and asking a question out of curiosity.  It seems so odd that at senior they are by far the club-side heavyweights and have never punched a medal in a major tournament ever.  Is the French progress all on Jean-Michel Aulas and his investment and shaping the club environment?  Is the FFF wanting and poor at following what he has handed them?  Or are they to be commended for allowing him to do what he's done?  If players are not walking around in front of hundreds of cameras in raining glitter and carrying a trophy are you hungrier for majors?  So many questions.

Yes I believe this year has more parity in the bottom half of Division 1 Feminine but in the years prior it was pretty much templated year over year in terms of the composition and results.  The lions and the lambs and a lot of slaughter. At the top Juvisy always had an amateur basis and were hugely successful but have fallen off a bit as money permeates the equation.

"My opinion is that the Women's Champions League has too few teams, they should add a round or deepen the group stage, however the cost, and get more clubs involved, widening the field and opportunities and raising the incentive for clubs."

I hope whoever is in charge is as progressive and forward thinking.

 

[Blackdude]

I don't think that France's lack of success at the international level is because they are doing it wrong. They had great teams but couldn't deliver when push comes to shove for whatever reason. They are 3rd in the world according to the FIFA rankings and the FIFA women's rankings are no joke of a ranking. In 2011, they did well to finish 4th and lost to more experienced US and Swedish teams. In 2012, they lost to Japan on penalties and to Canada on a last second goal where they should have won the game. In 2013, that is probably the big shocker when they lost to Denmark. In 2015, they lost to a good Germany team. In 2016, they also lost to Canada in the quarters. 

I think that to have a good national team, you only need 4 national clubs that are better than the rest. Especially in women's soccer where most of the players on clubs are French, you have that with Montpellier, Lyon, PSG and Juvisy. Marseille could surpass Juvisy soon (I mean they finished higher than Juvisy this year but none were picked on the 23 for the Euro. Their goalkeeper is an alternate, but that's it.)

[red card]

All Canadian goal.

Huitema also had a clever assist on 1st goal.

 

 

[red card]

Second All Canadian goal of the day.

 

[Kent]

Outstanding! The national team needs goals. If they can bring this to the national team (especially Huitema who hasn't been as consistent for Canada as Lawrence has been) that would be massive.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Lawrence played 90, Huitema came on for the last five, PSG dominated Bayern but it was close, 1-2  in the end, in Munich. As I only saw the first half with PSG, playing away, up a goal, Lawrence was very comfortable and so were the visitors. 2nd leg of this quarter final next week. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Unnamed Trialist

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

22 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Huitema came on for the last five

Obviously Davies was in the stands and posted that moment on his Insta.

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 minute ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Obviously Davies was in the stands and posted that moment on his Insta.

I hadn't even thought of that.

The stands only had fans in the lower tier, but I see he went to an upper box where I guess press goes. I say this because if you watch Bayern men, the club board are usually seated in the stands, often not far from the team bench, not in a private box.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Juventus (Grosso) are home to Lyon (Buchanan) tomorrow. 

BTW in the other quarter final, Real Madrid-Barça, the hosts got an early goal and made Barça look bad all the first half, into the 2nd. When we got a rather dubious penalty, one of those that looks like a penalty in slo-mo but in real time did not. 

Ended 1-3, but overall that was one of the worst performances by Barça all year. 

Next Wednesday, over 80,000 tix sold for the return leg at Camp Nou. I was even hoping it would stay at 1-1 or 1-2, just to be able to see a better fought match next week.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Unnamed Trialist

[Unnamed Trialist]

Quite an interesting match in Turin, Juventus beating Lyon 2-1. 

It started with the French team dominating and scoring, and even one up La Juve had problems, could not put together 3 passes, not get out of their own end. It looked like the Lyonnais would just roll over them eventually. Buchanan was very strong and unbeatable. Grosso also started, first in a 5 woman midfield, on the left side, and then, slowly pushing forward to be the link with the attacker. 

The second half was more or less the same as the first, still 0-1. Grosso is very good on the ball, technical, but she still does not have the range, she covers little ground but I can see her technicality gets her out of tight situations and her passing is quite good. 

About m. 60 a long ball was misplayed by the Lyon CB, the Juve striker got away and was pulled down, red card. I think then, immediately, the Italians had a first good chance that hit the crossbar. Then they took out Grosso and the subs did well, they pushed. The Lyon keeper dropped an easy ball at her feet, lost it, and Juve scored. Then they got another late. Big win for them.

Another detail: they played at the main stadium, maybe there were 8-10 thousand in the stands, maybe more. 

In the other quarter final Wolfsburg scored first and early, Arsenal at home got one late to carry into the 2nd leg. All four matches, quite even, and you could even argue none of the favourites really ran away with anything.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Lyon eliminates la Juve, Grosso did not get on. Kadeisha with her usual 90 minutes. I did not watch. 15,000 in the stands.

Wolfsburg took out Arsenal, no Canucks. 

So the semis are Barcelona-Wolfsburg, OLyon-PSG. Both legs in the last 2 weeks of April. So from either of the French teams, we'll have Canadians in the final.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Unnamed Trialist

[Unnamed Trialist]

Buchanan vs. Lawrence, and maybe Huitema will get minutes, in the 2nd leg of the CL semi final, in Paris at 9pm local time. Lyon won 3-2 in the first leg. 

Winner will play Barça (up 5-1 in aggregate and their 2nd leg playing now), in Turin on May 21.

As a Barça fan it's pretty clear both the French teams are far superior to what we've seen in quarter and semi finals, either would be a major challenge. Perhaps FCB would be favourite, after last year, but only very slightly, I'd call either a 50-50 match.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Olympique Lyon go through to the final, winning 1-2, Buchanan only coming on late after having been the field player with the most minutes in this edition.

PSG broke the French club attendance record, some 43,000 and very noisy and chanting the whole time. I think the earlier match at Wolfsburg was also a record crowd for them.

Recap: Lyon get an early goal, and then a very timid reaction from PSG, with Lawrence an exception, more intense than most of her teammates. PSG  seemed to not get the urgency of the situation (lost 3-2 first leg). Players more worried about going to their spot on the field than thinking for themselves. Then in the second half more intensity, some good chances, also great saves from Elder at Lyon--and PSG tied it.  Lyon got one late as Renard headed over top Lawrence.

Huitema warming up on the sideline but not used, even though they needed more goals and had some players hurting.

Rumours this last week: since Kadeisha is out of contract this summer, she is rumoured to Real Madrid. Word is that she makes around 400,000 euros a year, so that would mean Madrid would have to break the bank for her. The top teams in Spain are not spending more than 3-4 million in salary, so not sure how the financing works for RM.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Champions final. Kadeisha doesn't start but Carpenter falls injured and she subs in m 14.

OL with a golazo by Henry early, great long shot.