Spanish League and WNT

Sevilla, who was the championship's runner-up in 2006, has qualified for the promotion play-offs so they might return next year. Betis opened its women's team this year and currently play in regional categories. On the other hand, apparently Real Madrid is not interested. Apart from Athletic, Atlético, Barcelona, Levante, Málaga, Rayo, Real Sociedad and Valencia, Racing Santander is represented by Reocín, which wears its kit and badge.

Espanyol has uploaded some highlights from yesterday's match vs. Levante. No goals, but a fine game. Philly fans might enjoy Lohmann's (sic) shot, which would have been a terrific goal if it wasn't for Sandra Paños' great save (and Sara Serna's blunder). BTW, I don't understand how she is not a starter in Espanyol. Sanderson also had a fine chance, which Paños also saved. I'm rather hyped; she is still 19 and I think she is going to become a really good goalkeeper. Levante has some very talented young players (Paños, Andrea Esteban, Alexia Putellas...) and a solid core, it's a shame they lack a killer.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HWV2nTe5gQ"]20-4-12 Resum Femení A - 0 Levante 0 - YouTube[/ame]

There's also the goals from past week's Espanyol away win on defending champion Rayo Vallecano. Rayo scored first through Equatorial Guinea former international Jade Boho (you might remember how she was excluded from the World Cup at the last minute for a bureaucratic mistake), but Espanyol came from behind with Sanderson scoring two goals and Débora García making it a 1-3. Sanderson's first was great.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyA1R1JJYro"]Resum Rayo 1 - Femení A 3 - YouTube[/ame]

Lastly, here are the results, scorers and table from the past two weeks in case someone's interested. With Athletic's tie vs. Levante Barcelona is now even closer to the title.

Llanos Olivenza 0-4 Barcelona
· Ana Escribano 28, Sonia Bermúdez 37, Carol Férez 49, Olga García 68

Athletic Bilbao 3-1 Rayo Vallecano
· Nekane Díez 37
· Alexandra López 56, Irune Murua 72, Arrate Orueta 86

Espanyol 4-1 Sant Gabriel
· Sara Monforte 31, Brenda Pérez 60, Débora García 62, Mª Paz Vilas 79
· Esther Romero 63

Real Sociedad 1-1 Levante
· Ainara Herrero 28
· Alicia González 37

Atlético Madrid 3-0 Sporting Huelva
· Adriana Martín 45 85, Amanda Sampedro 50

Prainsa Zaragoza 4-0 Málaga
· Nuria Mallada 29, Bárbara Latorre 43, Cláudia Neto 47, Ana Borges 73

Racing Santander 2-2 Collerense
· Patricia Cano 25, Claudia Salas 48
· Ana Gómez (pp) 18, Patricia Mascaró 71

L'Estartit 2-1 El Olivo
· Carolina Mendes 18, Stefanía Maggiolini 86
· Claudia García 1

Valencia 3-0 Lagunak
· Marta Mateos 49 74, Gemma Gili 70


Barcelona 1-0 L'Estartit
· Miriam Diéguez 52

Levante 1-1 Athletic Bilbao
· Alexia Putellas 30
· Irune Murua 42

Rayo Vallecano 1-3 Espanyol
· Jade Boho 9
· Lianne Sanderson 29 69, Débora García 74

Prainsa Zaragoza 2-6 Atlético Madrid
· Mariela Coronel 13, Sara Sanau 26
· Adriana Martín 16 75, Nagore Calderón 50, Amanda Sampedro 66, Raquel Peña 74, Priscila Borja 89

Lagunak 0-1 Real Sociedad
· Maialen Zelaia 43

Collerense 4-2 Sporting Huelva
· Patricia Mascaró 42 46 49, Ana B. Hernández (pp) 65
· Ana B. Hernández 83 84

Sant Gabriel 4-0 Racing Santander
· Marta Cubí 13, Justine Haley 17 54, Marta Villagrasa 48

Málaga 0-1 Llanos Olivenza
· María J. Sánchez 42

El Olivo 4-1 Valencia
· Loreto Silva 7, Sara González 26, Claudia García 56 70
· Raquel Pinel 60


_1. Barcelona 79
_2. Athletic 73
_3. Espanyol 65
_4. Rayo 56
_5. Levante 54
_6. Atlético 50
_7. R.Sociedad 47
_8. Sporting 47
_9. Zaragoza 40
10. St. Gabriel 34
11. Olivenza 32
12. Collerense 32
13. L'Estartit 23
14. Lagunak 22
15. Málaga 22
16. Valencia 22
17. El Olivo 13
18. Racing 8

 

Past week's results. BTW, this was Adriana Martín's last match in Atlético having joined Western New York Flash this week. She has scored 25 goals in 28 matches.

Valencia 0-2 Barcelona
· Miriam Diéguez 24, Sonia Bermúdez 42

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Lagunak
· Irune Murua 48 55, Itsaso Nabaskues 86

Espanyol 0-0 Levante

Racing Santander 0-4 Rayo Vallecano
· Natalia de Pablos 36 65, Cristina Pizarro 64, Marta García 77

Atlético Madrid 8-0 Collerense
· Adriana Martín 5 9 23 34, Priscila Borja 16 60, María Vidal (pp) 26, Sandra Vilanova 28

Real Sociedad 4-0 El Olivo
· Sandra Ramajo 57, Gurutze del Ama 70, Marina Agoues 78, Aintzane Encinas 83

Sporting Huelva 3-0 Sant Gabriel
· Ana B. Hernández 62 66, Alharilla Casado 82

Llanos Olivenza 1-2 Prainsa Zaragoza
· Amanda Bodión 86
· Edite Fernandes 47, Mariela Coronel 67

L'Estartit 2-0 Málaga
· María Reche 7, Carla Puiggrós 74

Clasificación
_1. Barcelona 82
_2. Athletic 76
_3. Espanyol 66
_4. Rayo 59
_5. Levante 55
_6. Atlético 53
_7. R. Sociedad 50
_8. Sporting 50
_9. Zaragoza 43
10. St. Gabriel 34
11. Olivenza 32
12. Collerense 32
13. L'Estartit 26
14. Lagunak 22
15. Málaga 22
16. Valencia 22
17. El Olivo 13
18. Racing 8

 

The decisive Athletic-Barcelona will be played today, one hor and half from now. If Barcelona wins they're the champions. It would be interesting that Barcelona won the women's league just two days after Real Madrid won the LFP against the same team.

On the other hand, the draw for the promotion play-offs was carried out past week. There are two spots (the league is shortened to 16 teams next year). Sevilla/Oviedo and Albacete seem to be the favorites.

[Oiartzun - Sevilla] Vs. [Femarguín - Oviedo Moderno]
[Levante Las Planas - Albacete] Vs. [Tacuense - Torrejón]

Here are past week's results with the scorers:

Barcelona 2-0 Real Sociedad
· Sonia Bermúdez 21, Victoria Losada 84

El Olivo 1-6 Athletic Bilbao
· Sara González 43
· Itsaso Nabaskues 10, Elixabet Ibarra 20, Amaia Olabarrieta 45 65, Ana Durán (og) 53, Naiara Beristain 58

Lagunak 2-5 Espanyol
· Susana Bedmar 53, Eunate Arraiza 82
· Lianne Sanderson 38, Marta Torrejón 45, Brenda Pérez 48, Mª Paz Vilas 70, Joanna Lohman 80

Rayo Vallecano 5-0 Sporting Huelva
· Uxue Astiz 11, Sonia Burgos 44, Jade Boho 51 68, Natalia de Pablos 62

Levante 4-0 Racing Santander
· Alicia González 8, Ruth García 47, Maider Castillo 59, Andrea Esteban 66

Llanos Olivenza 0-3 Atlético Madrid
· Priscila Borja 28 39, Paula Serrano 41

Prainsa Zaragoza 4-0 L'Estartit
· Raquel Infante (og) 5, Bárbara Latorre 46, Sara Sanau 80, Nuria Mallada 88

Sant Gabriel 3-1 Collerense
· Adoración Apolo 18 44, Tania Moyano 91
· Pilar Espadas 89

Málaga 0-1 Valencia
· Marta Mateos 86

Clasificación
_1. Barcelona 85 (QCR)
_2. Athletic 79 (QCR)
_3. Espanyol 69
_4. Rayo 62
_5. Levante 58
_6. Atlético 56
_7. R. Sociedad 50
_8. Sporting 50
_9. Zaragoza 46
10. St. Gabriel 37
11. Olivenza 32
12. Collerense 32
13. L'Estartit 26
14. Valencia 25
15. Málaga 22
16. Lagunak 22
17. El Olivo 13
18. Racing 8 (MR)

 

Athletic has defeated Barcelona 3-1, so things get really interesting. If Barcelona loses against Espanyol and Athletic beats Málaga next week, the lionesses would get to the top with just two matchs remaining. 2-1 would have required Barcelona to fail in yet another match, but Ani Escribano scored an own goal in injury time that gives Athletic the goal average lead.

Athletic's second goal was a handball (I'm not sure it was deliberate) so it should have been disallowed, but they really deserved to win by such margin, they were great. It was an awesome match with a lot of attacks, intensity and skills, I hope there will be highlights since it has been shown on TV.

 

Espanyol has trashed (10-0) El Olivo, which was mathematically relegated before playing the game following Valencia's 2-1 victory over Prainsa Zaragoza. While Valencia has left the bottom positions just in time things look really bad for Málaga, which has lost 5-0 to Real Sociedad and has to beat Athletic or Espanyol to avoid relegation.

The remaining matches will be played tomorrow.

 

Bump!

The new season of the league, which has been reduced from 18 to 16 teams indeed, will run from September 2, 2012 to May 5, 2013. As Pozinho said Sevilla and Levante Las Planas (nothing to do with 4-times national champion Levante UD) are the newly promoted teams. Lagunak, Llanos Olivenza and Sporting Huelva (which has moved to nearby town Trigueros), which aren't backed by professional men's teams, have gone through some financial trouble, but it seems it will turn okay. Compared to the crisis of the women's basketball, handball and volleyball leagues the situation is fine.

Following the U-19 WNT silver several players are moving to top teams: Barcelona has signed Gili (MF), Torrecilla (MF) and Putellas (FW) and Atlético got Gallardo (GK), Carreño (DF) and Troyano (MF). On the other hand Athletic has signed international DF Landa (WNT captain Vilanova is also leaving Atlético) and Levante has signed two promising strikers, Casado and Buceta, to replace Putellas.

::: Signings
BARCELONA
Gemma Gili (Valencia), Alexia Putellas (Levante), Virginia Torrecilla (Ciudad de Palma), Esther Sullastres (L'Estartit)
ATHLETIC
Leire Landa (Atlético)
ESPANYOL
Yaiza Pérez (Sant Andreu)
RAYO
-
LEVANTE
Nuria Santiago (Atlético), Alharilla Casado (Sporting), Ana Buceta (El Olivo)
R. SOCIEDAD
Naiara Beristain (Athletic), Ainhoa Vicente (Añorga)
SPORTING
Chelsea Ashurst (Málaga)
ZARAGOZA
Diana Millán (free agent)
SANT GABRIEL
Carlo Gómez (Barcelona II), Mónica Orteu (Espanyol II), Berta Noguera (Espanyol)
LLANOS OLIVENZA
-
COLLERENSE
Maitane López (Ciudad de Palma)
VALENCIA
Aroa Matarredona (Levante), Katja Trödthandl (Landhaus), Sarah Wronski (Spratzern)
LAGUNAK
Esther Blanco (Osasuna), Esther Martínez & Alicia Munarriz (Ardoi)
SEVILLA
-
LEVANTE L.P.
Alicia Fuentes ( Málaga), Pamela Tajonar (Umea), Mónica Blasco, Bel Calero & Andrea Porta (Lleida), Laura Carriba & Sara García (Espanyol II), Paula Nicart (Barcelona II), Sandra Alberola (St. Gabriel II), Claudia Delgado (Ciudad de Palma), Cristina Becerra (Gimnàstic)

::: Retiring players
Sira Abad (Zaragoza)
Marta Docando (Atlético)
Estefanía López (Rayo)
Larraitz Lucas (R. Sociedad)
Noelia Megías (Atlético)
Cristina Molina (Levante L.P.)
Alba Montserrat (Espanyol)

::: Players moving of other leagues
Eli Sarasola (Barcelona -> Charleston Golden Eagles?

::: Players moving to the second tier
Cristina Estévez (Zaragoza -> Mislata)
Montse Tomé (Barcelona -> Oviedo Moderno)

::: Unattached leaving players
ATHLETIC: Elena Gangoiti, Andere Legina, Paula Mateo, Marta Moreno
ATLÉTICO: Constanza Cano, Sandra Vilanova
MÁLAGA: Esther González
R. SOCIEDAD: Esti Bajo, Eli Enciso, Sonia López

::: Managerial changes
RAYO: Joserra Hernández -> Dani Limones
R. SOCIEDAD: José Manuel Etxabe -> Unai Gazpio
LAGUNAK: Rubén Berrogui -> César Luengo
SEVILLA: María Pry -> Manolo Pineda

Source: http://nataliaarroyo.weebly.com/jugada-assejada.html

 

Athletic has signed Eunate Arraiza, who has scored 13 goals for Lagunak this season.

 

Like GK Nuria Santiago, DF Sonia Prim returns to Levante after two years in Atlético.

 

Rayo Vallecano has signed Patricia Mascaró, this season's 5th scorer (24 goals for Collerense), while Esther González (13 goals for Málaga, ex-U19) has signed for Sporting.

 

Spanish WNT captain Sandra Vilanova returns to Espanyol one year later.

 

The Copa Catalunya final, Barcelona - Espanyol, is being played now. Mari Paz Vilas has just scored for Espanyol after 5 minutes. You can watch the game here: http://www.esport3.cat/directes/esport3/

 

It seems it can't be watched online anymore. Olga García scored for Barcelona right after the break. Barça 1-1 Espanyol with 20 minutes remaining.

 

The game ended in a draw, and Barcelona won its fourth Copa Catalunya in a row on penalties.

I have created an article in the wikipedia with the competition's complete results; it's been contested by 28 teams: in addition to Primera's Barça, Espanyol and St. Gabriel (Llevant Les Planes withdrew) and relegated L'Estartit there were 7 other Segunda teams: EF Valls (former Gimnàstic), Lleida Esp., Cerdanyola, Sant Andreu, Badalona and newly promoted Bonaire and Lloret, plus 17 third-tier teams including relegated Europa and Atlètic Vilafranca. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Copa_Catalunya_(women's_football)



On the other hand the II Copa Euskal Herria's final was played yesterday; Real Sociedad surprisingly defeated Athletic Bilbao by 2-0. The goals were scored by ex-U19 internationals Naiara Beristain (just signed from Athletic) and Marina Agoues.