How is that even possible? Yes. I thought its obvious when I said I dislike Potsdam. I'm not sure what game were you all watching because the game I watched was so boring. Despite few chances here and there the actual play wasn't good from both teams. Way too many miss passes for my liking. WOB can play much better than this. Potsdam were talking a lot about the crowed and how they want the maximum number of supports at the game but yet they disappointed big time. Did any of you watch the German cup final from last season between these two? That's what I call a good game. This must be one of the worst games that I've seen between these two in the last two seasons or so. The one in Potsdam where WOB played with their bench players is close second in terms of unattractiveness. Jocasta The TV coverage is not the ultimate measure. BUT, its an indicator. Why do the world cups, Olympics, or the Euros get so much media coverage? Because simply that's where the best football is played. The WCL has so many flaws that its so hard to ignore: 1- Half the teams in the competition play poor football and lose 9-0 or 12-0 2- Teams from a countries that have weak leagues AND weak NTs have the same exact number of spots as countries that have been dominating the competition for so long. 3- The first half of the competition teams play on week days. The second half of the competition the teams play on weekends. Why? 4- The kick-offs time of the games vary a lot. You'll watch one game on Wednesday 2 PM and then watch the next round on Sunday 7 PM. 5- UEFA let teams have the TV rights of their home games which I think is a mistake. See, that's what I don't get. Why do UEFA act like they're on a learning curve when they can easily imitate so many things from the men competition. Seeding, TV rights sold as a package, fixed days of the week for the competition, time of the kick offs, etc. Honestly, did you enjoy this season? To me personally, apart from 3 to 5 games, the rest were forgettable. Speaking of leagues, take the two German teams as an example. I bet both of them know its easier to play the CL final than win their domestic leauge.
since both games went 0-0, what happens in the 2nd legged game if the score is tied, let's say. 1-1. Would the away team win? or will it go to OT?
The one English commentator who did a quarter finals game called it a"a black eye for women's soccer" when one team was winning so decisively, and argued for just one game in the CL playoffs instead of the two legged system. I would agree with this; It's not like your going to have 70,000 screaming fans show up at the women's like at a men's game(where obviously that would be more of a home advantage) and let's even if you do get a size able crowd, their usually going to be more well behaved, than perhaps the notoriety of the fans at a men's game Potsdam won their away game against Lyon in Paris. In the US, Portland won their semi & championship games being the 'away' team. even a 'home' team(in an two legged series will not go out and attack because they got to worry about giving up a goal(which favors an away team if the series is tied)
Because I am French and not German, and that I just love Women's Football and all German Women's Football You can't just go and compare any Potsdam-Wob game in relation with last year's Pokal Cup Final which was just exceptional. It's too easy and not fair, because you perfectly know (as a Frankfurt fan ) that you will have 90% chances to be able to say "Phew..." It is if I was comparing all Germany-Italy (men) to the 1970 WC SF, or any France-Brazil to the 1986 WC QF. What's the point ? A game is a game, take it as it is. And this one, yesterday, I repeat it, was a very good one to my eyes. For the rest, about the CL itself. I am definitely against any idea of seeding. Under the pretext of making the competition more attractive, in reality its aim is to prevent the big clubs to be eliminated too early (as Lyon, PSG or Malmo were this year). But, precisely, that is for me the most attractive side of a Cup. The uncertainty. We are not in Men's Football where a small team can beat and eliminate a big one (well, with the formula of home-away games, it's less and less frequent, even in men's CL, but it is still in men's national cups most of the time, in France for instance). The differences between small and big teams in WF is very important, yes. But what people (like you, I suppose) want is a super-elite Cup or Championship, the kind that was planned some years ago, the famous "Super 14". Lyon's president Jean-Michel Aulas, was a fervent advocate and actor of the plan, because at the time Lyon (men) was what the women's team is today : monopolizing the title in France and one of the best 8 teams in Europe. Curiously, now that Lyon has become an ordinary club, not being French champion since 5 or 6 years, he became silent about this plan and doesn't act for it any more So, the idea, passed to WF, would be to have only the very best teams competing for the CL. And since there are not enough countries, just take 3 or 4 teams in each top countries, because Bayern Munich (#4 in Frauen Bundesliga or Montpellier #4 in France, are supposed to be — and probably are — better than most of the "small countries" champions)... Right ? That would mean that once you have 4 Germans, 4 French, 3 Swedish, 3 English, well.. no more Spanish, Italian, Russian, Norwegian, for instance, and no chance for them to improve, year after year, playing the best European teams... And take note that some people want the same thing in WC : no longer "small countries" in the qualifying groups, send the big ones straight to the final phase. But let me ask : how could the whole discipline progress in this condition ? Mixing different levels of quality is always giving a profit in long-term. But fans rarely think in long-term. They want immediate pleasure, immediate dose of adrenalin, they want "show". If the men's WC is the most watched sports event on this planet, it's thanks of small countries like USA in 1950, France in 1958, North Korea in 1966, Cameroon in 1982 or 1990, Bulgaria in 1994, Turkey, South Korea, Senegal in 2002, etc. who created surprises by eliminating or beating big countries... But also thanks to "big games" happening soon in the turnament, like (just one example amongst many) the World Champion Italy and the European one France in 1982, as soon as the last 16. What's the problem of having Birmingham-Tyresö instead of Lyon-Malmö, actually, if you're not a fan of those clubs of course ?
Yes,, 1-1 (or 2-2, etc.) would give qualifications to Potsdam and/or Birmingham. That's why a 0-0 at home is sometimes and strangely better than a win 2-1... If you won 2-1, and are led 0-1 on the return, you have to score once just to go to extra time and maybe pso... If you scored 0-0 on first leg and are led 0-1 on the scond, you just have to score one goal to qualify...
Very subtil protest from all four team about not being aired, it seem they alld ercided not to socre Misstake, in both cases you have as example they just need to score once to qualify. Home 2-1, away 0-1-> out on away goals Home 2-1, away 1-1 ->qualifies with 4-1 in points Home 0-0, away 0-1-> out with 1-4 in points Home 0-0, away 1-1 ->qualifies on away goals
Yes, of course i was mistaken on this one. Not on the other case. And you are not winning 4 points to 1, but 3 goals to 2. It's not a question of points but of goals, isn't it ?
If you win one of the game and draw the other? it don't really go down to goals do it? Maybe technically it does, but I haven't tought about it that way since if you win one game and don't loss the other you are always trough so the number of goals is not really of any importance.
Well, just try to win without scoring one goal more than your opponent What I wanted to say is that there is no count of "points" in Champion's League (or in any cup). It is only the number of goals. And if there is tie over the two games, then and only then, the away goals are counted double. If you win 3-1, then lose 0-1, the result is not 3-3. It's 3-2. But if you win 3-1 and lose 0-2, the result is 3-3, then 3-4.
What about the game in WOB from last season (2-1)? The fact that its a CL SF and there's a lot of games between these two that were better is bizarre. I thought its the CL; where the best football is played. Or not. .... I disagree with you about the smaller clubs. Lyon playing the Polish champions won't make the Polish team any better. They can play each other week in week out and it will still be 13-0 or so. What will make the smaller clubs better is their federations spending more money and working towards more professional leagues. You can't expect a team that train twice a week to play better in few years just because they played against the best in the continent. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that there shouldn't be teams from Italy, Spain, Norway, Greece etc. I'm rather suggesting that "some" of these teams should earn their places. UEFA already has a knockout qualifying rounds. Why not add the likes of Bayern and Montpellier to play these teams and the better will go through. This way each and every team will earn their place fair and square. Its beyond me how you're agreeing with this system. Its been awhile since the WCL been around. And yet its been dominated by ONLY four countries. What's the big deal if we add 3rd teams for those 4 countries? Nothing. It will only make this competition more watchable and enjoyable. Just imagine the men CL giving England 2 spots to help the smaller countries. You abandon the best teams/players in the continent so smaller teams will get better? Well, this system didn't help the smaller teams nor the competition so far.
You don't seem to understand at all how WCL (and CL) impacts the clubs in Europe that have no chanse of winning it. The Polish champions playing Lyon in WCL will probably make them better for that tend to attract spectators/media and most important sponsors.
All these things you mention are national team competitions. First and foremost, I would argue that watching a national team is simply, inherently, a different experience than the one of following a club. Second, as far as TV coverage goes, at the national team level and at these big tournaments, other factors (federations/corporate sponsors/media moguls/etc.) come into play. The Algarve Cup has started to get TV coverage too, and it's hardly the best football – it's not even real football. If you prefer to watch national teams, that's fine of course. I myself prefer to see a little diversity in playing styles, both on the part of individual players and on the part of teams. WCL is a good provider of that. 1. Sure. Just like every other broadly-inclusive tournament in the world, from WC qualifiers to in-country Cups. That the way big tournaments work. Personally, I also like it that Mexico managed to send a skier to the Winter Olympics, and I would rather watch him than the 111th-best German, even though the 111th-best German would probably beat him. 2. And they get eliminated, but meanwhile they draw interest. See JanBalk's post immediately previous. 3. I don't understand the relevance of this. 4. I don't understand the relevance of this. 5. As I am not formally educated in sports economics and the media, I decline to offer an opinion on why UEFA's media creatures do what they do. Again, I fail to see the relevance of having a fixed schedule. Yes, I have enjoyed this season. I was as shocked as anyone to see Lyon go out like they did; I was as saddened as any Hand Cream partisan to see LdB crash and burn so badly. And being a fan of the league as a whole, I'm maddened by the near impossibility that a team from Damallsvenskan will ever win this thing again. (Because of the spring to autumn season, I mean, but that's tangential rant at the moment.) But overall, yes, I think the journey to the final is more enjoyable than it used to be, when all the games leading up to the inevitable Umeå IK vs Frankfurt FFC final were mere formalities.
As for the TV rights, it would probably be a bad idea for UEFA to hold the rights in the women's competition, since everything UEFA and rights means money. Polish team Unia, sold the rights to their game against Wolfsburg in the previous tournament for a lousy sum of 1 Euro. I gather they wanted to have one of their WCL games aired, and have some spectators in front of the TV-sets. You would never get that with UEFA. There is NO money in the womens game, so convincing TV-companies to front some serious cash would probably result in zero games on TV. I would love to have more coverage of the WCL by Eurosport or by any company for the matter, but it is pretty expensive to send out a TV-crew, and since it is the womens Champions League and not the mens, it isn't all that appealing I'm afraid. Although Eurosport are represented in most countries in Europe, and broadcast beyond it, there are only 3 big markets of Eurosport that are somewhat self-governed, UK, Germany and France. So must likely Eurosport will broadcast games from those countries/territories. There have been exceptions, but they are few and far between, and it is up to the team and country in question to help with local/national broadcasters to get involved. If that gets resolved, you could then sell the access to the broadcast. But I say again, TV-coverage of the womens game is a pretty hard sell for TV-companies, because lack of audience, and money to be made on commercials. There are some exceptions of course. Germany reported that some of their womens NT games had about 8 million at most during the Euros, that's roughly 10% of their pop. Sweden had tops in about 2-2,5 million of a pop of 9,5 million, that's about 21-26% of the pop. CL games in the mens game are immensely expensive because of UEFA, and in those instances, most countries air those games on channels which aren't available for free. Yes, there are exceptions....Some countries like Poland have actually laws that says that X % of ALL BIG sporting events, must be available to all Polish citizens, which in real life means that those events are shown on government channels like TVP (equivalent: British BBC, Italian Rai and so forth). Don't know if Germany are just generous, but some of Borussia Dortmund's CL games are shown on channels like ZDF/ARD. But those channels, besides being Free-to-air (SAT and perhaps Cable), are government controlled as well. (Tell me if I'm wrong in this). Time of the kick-offs I can only speculate, and I believe that it's more latitude/a more relaxed approach to accommodate what UEFA "believes" is the target audience, families and younger people, hence the weekdays. But honestly, in Sweden, it's mostly men that go and watch the womens game. The mid-week games might only be for convenience, to squeeze in between the different leagues time schedules. Just pointing pointing out that I don't really know. Seeding: I believe more seeding, and avoiding big clashes between "better" teams should be avoided as far as possible, and I do agree that more teams of the bigger leagues should be allowed. Perhaps 3-4 from the bigger leagues. 3 directly qualified, and one perhaps in group qualifying. This can be done in different ways, but the point is NOT to diminish the rights of the smaller countries, but take into account, that winning the league in a "big" country, is a much bigger achievement, than winning it in a small country, and by the grace of god, avoid meeting the no 2 of Germany because you (example: Winner of Poland) have qualified for six or eight times in a row for the WCL, and the no 2 of France gets the no 2 of Germany, because no 2 of France is a newcomer in the French League. PS! Polish Unia won't attend for some time, since the club will be, or already has been dissolved because of their lack of funding. Pretty grim...
I'm not against what you're saying. My idea is quite different. Maybe I didn't word it correctly. I meant that there's teams that are granted their places in the WCL. And then there's teams that play the knockout out qualifying rounds. The Polish champions will still have their place and shouldn't worry about it. I'm just saying that adding teams to the K.O.Q.R will cause no harm. Quite the opposite. ... Personally, I didn't enjoy this season. I wasn't surprised that Potsdam knock out Lyon. Apart from that 5-1 game, the games between these two teams have always been intense. As for Malmo, they are a good team. But that's it. They lack the champions charisma. I would never put my money on them. Maybe in the future if they get better defense and start to believe in themselves more.
I agree with what you say. Just two infos that go your way... In France, the broadcast rights for France WNT was sold in a package (including men's U23) to D8 and D17 TV channels. At first, they broadcast the games of the girls and made the best audiences for TNT's channels (since the 2011 WC).. Then, those channels were bought by Canal+ who decided that they didn't need to show those gamee, because (despite the good audiences), they didn't get enough money from them (the frequent kick-off times, like 6 pm, being bad for them), so D17 just kept the right but stopped broadcasting most of the WNT... Never any more when they play away, and one out of three or four at home. But the rights are theirs, then they are blocked and nobody else can broadcast. Last game was shown on FFF's site (that was the second time that such a thing happened). But the next one (may 7th, again Hungary) will be broadcast on D17 (8.50 pm)... About the men's CL, as France is concerned... Not so long ago, the games (particularly those with French teams) were shown on TF1 which is a private TV, but free (a crap channel, but as crap channels, the most viewed ). The fact that the CL was shown on a free channel (even before TF1's creation, 40 years ago), was an intangible tradition, in the same way as all WC's games, or Olympics. It's no longer the case. Now, only the CL's Final is shown on Tf1. All the rest is on payed and coded BeIn or C+ (I even don't know which one, since I watch them from a streaming... when I watch them, that is from the SF only ). People protest, but everybody knows that is a lost cause and that the only thing to do is bless Internet...
They probably wouldn't either way, because before dissolving Unia was already losing to Medyk Konin in Polish League. It's time for new Champion
I phrased my opinion about Lyon unclearly. I wasn't exactly surprised that Potsdam (remember, they're the devil's own team) were able to beat Lyon, though I was surprised that Lyon lost (somewhat contradictory, yes, but not completely). But I meant more that yes, I agree that it was odd to have two such teams met each other so early; on the other hand, it meant we got to see good and surprising games relatively early on in the tournament. Malmö (though we must remember to start calling them FC Rosengård from here on out) is an excellent team with plenty of umph, which is apparent when you follow them through a domestic season. That said, having witnessed them lose their springtime WCL matches, I understand why you have your opinions about them, if those are the only games you've seen them play. Because they do stink, in March, and you should therefore certainly not put your money on them to win WCL as long as the current schedule holds. It's too bad if these are the only games you see them play, because when they start to get their act together, they can be (or at least they used to be, I haven't seen 'em yet this season) a joy to watch.
The Summer League teams certainly get caught by Winter League teams at the quarter-final stage as they are still rusty. Not to mention when squads have been completely overhauled during the winter.
Unfortunately, I can't find a way to watch the Swedish leauge. Most, if not all, of the games are geoblocked. Definitely a huge disadvantage for the likes of the English and Swedish clubs.
once again both games can be found on the Sports Lemon site. http://www.frombar.com look under 'women's uefa events' 7.45(my US central time) for Birningham City vs Tyreso 10.15 Wolfsburg vs Turbine Potsdam with both games tied at 0-0, I'm not sure if the home teams are too keen about opening up and going on the offense since if the away team scores just one goal, then the home team will be down 2 goals. But then again, women's soccer has a way of defying conventional wisdom!
Thank you For the Europeans, the time will be 2.15 pm and 5.15 pm. WOB-TP is broadcast Live on Eurosport (either trough the channel if you are wired, or through Eurosport Player if you're not). I think (I'm certain, actually) that Tyresö will attack, since it is its natural way of playing (with Marta, Boquete, Press...) and they scored 14 out of their 16 goals at home in CL... And Birmingham's natural strength is defense (zero goal taken in six games away)... Wolfsburg-Potsdam can be very different, because the two teams are able to attack strongly. It's a constant thing for Potsdam (who needs to score), and it's frequent (even if less constant than Turbine) for WOB. The main battle will be in midfield. Will Keßler be as brilliant as she was last week (the best player of the game by far) ? If yes, WOB will win. We should see goals, because I can't imagine those two teams playing two goalless games in a row !
Just a note re. availability: neither Eurosport UK or Eurosport Nordic seem to be broadcasting it, though it's listed for Eurosport Germany and Eurosport France.