I was thinking UEFA WNT, but then I thought there's no point in being exclusive. Point being more and more national teams are worth interest.
Chile women's team...best kept secret in Chile. Don't play for years then kill it at a competitive tournament. All that time for training and player identification was clearly spent wisely. No fluke, putting an exclamation on their coming out party with 4-3 over Scotland. Now likely in the final vs. Brazil.
They beat Canada too, but this game v Scotland (another upcoming TEAM) was a classic .... Unforgettable.
The success of Colo Colo probably hasn't hurt, either! =-) Between Chile and Columbia, I'm excited for CONMEBOL. Would be REALLY fun to see what happens to their ranking if they beat or even tie Brazil in the final game. They're currently ranked #118 due to having been inactive, but their rating is good for #44, and they've just beaten #7 and #20. Heck, even if they lose to Brazil again, I bet they'll be in the upper-30's at the very most just thanks to those two wins (and the fact that Brazil is technically playing at home, which skews those losses) when the March rankings come out.
two of my favorites(that don't have their won threat) are New Zealand & Switzerland here's New Zealand probable starting lineup with club that they've play for gk; Naylor(?) df; Percival(Jena), Stott(?), Erceg(Jena), Riley(Malmo) md; Yallop(Vittso), White(UCLA), Longo(Sydney), Gregorious(Liverpool) fw; Wikinson(Tennessee), Hearn(Jena) one of only 2 teams to of tied the unbeaten USA this year(#2 Germany being the other) and winners of the Valais Cup where they defeated #4 Brazil. and tied #3 Japan in Tokyo Switzerland' gk Tallman(?) df; Marits(?), Abbe(Freiburg), Kiwic(Kriens) md; Waiti(Potsdam), Bachman(Malmo), Moser(Wolfsburg) Benauer(Coppenburg) fwd; Cmogorcevic(Frankfurt), Dickenmann(Lyon), Burki(Bayern Munich) only #22 in the world, a weaker backline, but otherwise ta strong mid/fwd featuring Bachmann, Swedish League mvp of this year, plus partime Lyon starter, Dickenmann and several really good Bundesliga players. Couldn't make it to Euro's this year but at the top of their group for wc qualifiers with wins all ready against faves Denmark & Iceland
Chile aren't actually that "mysterious" when you take a closer look back over the past several years. They were literally one goal away from qualifying for the 2011 WWC, and their league has been the only one to provide a real challenge for the Brazilian league in continental club competition (started in '09), first with Everton and now Colo-Colo. So, to answer your question: just look for a team that is historically on the cusp of qualifying for big competitions and see if it has a strong-ish league. As of right now, I don't think there are many 'unknowns' like that, unless you want to counter weaker "knows" like Mexico and Switzerland. I don't know how many African countries actually have leagues, but there's definitely the potential for breakouts from CAF. South Africa has a league (I think?) and has been in the top three for the past four African Championships, giving them a good possibility of making their WWC debut this cycle. Cameroon has also been in the top 4 for the past three CAF Championships.
Looking back, 2008 was a key year in the Chilean women's football. That year was the U20 WWC and started the First Division league. That U20 tournament was broadcasted in national TV and even if the sport not caught the mass interest and the results were dissapointing, many girls were inspired to play football. So the NT U17 was the first women's team to Qualify to a World Cup (Trinidad y Tobago 2010). The results were again disappointing losing all the three games but the experience won was big. The core of the actual NT, with an average age of 21-22 years, are these 2008 U20 and 2010 U17 teams, and I feel that the girls are eager to play against the best players in order to build experience and improve their game. The Colo Colo's coach said after the game that his team lost against INAC in the Mobcast Cup (first defeat of Colo Colo in two years), that he feel there was almost no diference between the quality and technic of the players of both teams, and that the main difference was the quality of the local competition.
Chile NT, December 2013 1 Christiane Endler GK July 23, 1991 22,4 U. of South Florida, Tampa (USA) 2 Javiera Guajardo DF September 26, 1989 24,2 Audax Italiano 3 Tatiana Pérez DF October 23, 1988 25,1 Santiago Morning 4 Su Helen Galaz DF February 27, 1991 22,8 Everton 5 Leticia Torres DF May 30, 1994 19,5 Universidad Católica 6 Yorky Arriagada MF May 31, 1993 20,5 Audax Italiano 7 Gabriela Aguayo FW May 24, 1995 18,5 Universidad de Chile 8 Daniela Pardo MF May 9, 1988 25,6 Santiago Morning 9 María José Rojas FW December 17, 1987 26,0 U. of Texas, San Antonio (USA) 10 Fernanda Pinilla MF November 6, 1993 20,1 Audax Italiano 11 Fernanda Araya FW October 12, 1994 19,2 Universidad de Chile 12 Romina Parraguirre GK September 22, 1990 23,2 Santiago Morning 13 Iona Rothfeld MF January 19, 1993 20,9 Without Club 14 Bárbara Muñoz DF January 2, 1992 21,9 Audax Italiano 15 Valentina Lefort MF January 20, 1988 25,9 U. of Texas, San Antonio (USA) 16 Sofía Hartard MF March 6, 1996 17,8 Universidad de Chile 17 Rocío Soto MF September 21, 1993 20,2 Colo Colo 18 Yanara Aedo MF August 5, 1993 20,3 Colo Colo 19 Claudia Soto MF July 6, 1993 20,4 Colo Colo 20 Yessenia Huenteo FW October 30, 1992 21,1 Colo Colo 21 Francisca Moroso FW March 30, 1993 20,7 Colo Colo 22 Francisca Lara MF July 29, 1990 23,4 Colo Colo 23 Carla Guerrero DF December 23, 1987 26,0 Colo Colo 24 Camila Sáez DF October 17, 1994 19,1 Colo Colo Average age is 21,9 years
In another thread I expressed the wish that Chile qualifies for WWC 2015, and I've been answered that their main rivals, apart from obvious Brazil, will probably be Colombia and possibly Argentina. Someone said that probably the South American teams at WWC could be Brazil, Colombia and Chile, but in fact, if I am not wrong, one of the South American teams will have to play-off with a CONCACAF's team for the third berth. Are North/Center-American teams so weak that the South American one should anyway make it and qualify? In fact, if I remember well, Canada, being the host, opened another spot for CONCACAF, that will have 3.5 berths beyond the host spot: this should mean that USA and Mexico are lock-in; the third one should probably be Costa Rica. And so Chile or Colombia would have to play-off with the likes of Guatemala or such hopeless teams? (I say "hopeless" because I saw USA thrash them with an uncountable number of goals in the last CONCACAF tournament, one or two years ago ; if I am, not wrong, US Ali Krieger was injured in a match vs Guatemala and was subsequenly out for a whole season)
if you go with FIFA's current world's ranking(which unfortunately is how they choose the spots( you can see how they hold the CONCACAF in higher esteem than SOUTH AMERICA CONCACAF.................................SOUTH AMERICA #1 USA ...................................................#4 Brazil #7 Canada #25 Mexico ...................................................#29 Colombia #40 Costa Rica #60 Panama # 66 Trinidad & Tobago ...................................................#68 Uruguay #72 Guatamala #86 El Salvador #90 Honduras #114 Belize tied at #118 for being inactive; Chile, Argentina, Paraguy, Peru, Equador, Venuzuala, Bolivia I'm sure Chile will rise after their upsets of Canada & Scotland, but we'll have to wait till March for FIFA's new rankings. I am expecting Argentina to be contenders in the SA too since they've been able to make the u20 wc last time and are currently positioned in 2nd for next year's.
....do you realize how backwards that statement sounds? Now, just for funsies... Even if CONCACAF pans out exactly like the ratings would predict, T&T would get a hell of a playoff against any of Colombia, Argentina, or Chile. And if there's an upset in CONCACAF for that fourth-place slot.... the playoff will be a slaughter.
How does it sound 'backwards'? All you're saying is gibberish. hotjam said there's preferential treatment which I rightfully dismiss because there's no subjectivity in the ranking calculation. I agree that Chile would handle whomever is in the CONCACAF playoff...unfortunately for you it is irrelevant to this conversation, you have no point. When you don't play it's naive to expect your ranking not to suffer. There are 3 active teams in COMNEBOL (4 next ranking) and 15 active teams in CONCACAF. Panama was 118 as well due to inactivity and after playing a few games this year are 60. Chile will rise substantially. Next time you talk like a bratty know it all, try and make sure it's not so offensively daft.
The second half of my post, which was just a directly play on hotjam's post, was not meant to be an explanation to my response to you. Sorry if I forgot a convenient breaking line. It's "backwards" as your post sounded like it suggested "calculating" rankings based on opinions; maybe I read it wrong, but that's how it came off. This is not, by the way, what hotjam was suggesting in the first place, as they backed their statement up by stating the rankings themselves, removing subjectivity - CONCACAF was "held in esteem" just by holding higher spots, which were objectively calculated.
That game where Krieger was injured was actually against the Dominican Republic. Because of the expansion of the next WWC to include 24, instead of 16, teams, the CONCACAF will now get 3.5 spots. Since Canada host and automatically qualify, that gives 3.5 spots to the rest of the region. I personally don't think the CONCACAF merits 4.5 spots, but it'll only be for this wwc, or until CONCACAF hosts another cup. If I had to guess it'll be US, Mexico, and Costa Rica with either Trinidad and Tobago (had a decent WWC qualifying campaign in 2010 but their Olympic qualifying was lackluster; didn't make it out of the mini-tournament) or Guatemala. Regardless, Chile stands a very good chance of beating whoever would be playing in that playoff.
BostonRed, on the "Yank women on foreign WNT" thread, posted an interesting article about 2 USA players of Polish descent who have recently been called in their WNT: http://equalizersoccer.com/2013/12/...-city-nwsl-poland-professional-soccer-return/ I think that deserves to be posted here too, because the article gives also interesting insights about the women soccer movement in that country, and furthermore in the first comment a poster attached a youtube video of 17 yo. Ewa Pajor, the rising starlet of the polish women soccer...really impressive !
Bad news for Wales as Jarmo Matikainen returns home to Finland in March 2014. They had improved a lot under his leadership, so who knows what may happen. Wales do not compete in the Algarve due to cost involved.
[ Google-translated news from Chilean Football Association web page (www.anfp.cl/noticia/20152/seleccion-el-objetivo-es-santiago-2014) ] Thursday, February 6, 2014 13:43 WNT : THE GOAL IS SANTIAGO 2014 Ronnie Radonich , technical leader of the women's teams of Chile , view from courtside 1 Quilín Sports Complex practice of the national team. There are 22 players, divided into four groups , which perform sprints diagonally from corner pins to the center of the court. The three archers - Parraguirre Romina Fernanda Cardenas and do jobs Carolina Armijo - reaction in the north arch, under the supervision of coach Gonzalo Martinez.Female Red gets ready for his next big challenge . After a spectacular performance in the Four Nations Tournament in Brasilia in late 2013 ( defeated two of the best teams in the world , Canada and Scotland ), now the task ahead will be in country : Santiago Odesur Games 2014. Radonich not hide their conformity with the work of their target . "This group is running almost European levels . In our selections is the rule that any player who is two kilos over your ideal weight can represent Chile in a match , and in this case, all have been very careful , "said the coach.The working group has been rehearsing for almost a month . At 25 players currently in session , will be added in early March Christiane Endler , Leticia Torres and Maria Jose Rojas, from the United States. Who may not be in the continental is also "foreign " Francisca Mardones , as it is still in a recovery phase meniscal injury. Of the 28 , the coaching staff will select 18 who will represent Chile in Odesur .The DT is confident in the abilities of the team: "Right now , we can say that Brazil and Colombia are the only South American teams are a small step above Chile. This campus is neat, obedient and play very good football. Knows how to keep the ball in his possession and is extremely disciplined defensive aspects . I can assure that Chile will be very hard to beat in Odesur "he says.The Red meet in the coming days the group officially integrated into the Santiago 2014 Games . In preparing its agenda , the national team will face this Saturday (11 hours) to 16 male Magellanic sub in a friendly match to be played in Malloco .It is the preparation of the Women's National Team in Chile for the challenge to be housewives , all without opening the eyes of the South American Ecuador in November, where they will be in contention for adult tickets World Canada 2015 . [ info about ODESUR South American Games (March 7 to 18, 2014): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_South_American_Games ]