OL women

[guignol]

nordby out for a month, so she'll miss all the group matches.

[Inara]

It's only halftime, but Lyon are already up 7-0 on Neulengbach (Austria). This game is taking place at the Gerland.

In the group's other match, it's Arsenal 3 - 1 Zurich at the half. They are playing on of the other pitches (#10?).

[guignol]

final scores were 8-0 for OL and 7-2 for arsenal, which gives us a goal differential advantage so far in case of a draw in our group match.

arsenal played in the suburbs at limonest municipal stadium; n°10 is OK for L1 or CFA matches, and probably would hold the crowd for a match like this, but UEFA probably requires 2 real stadiums to host the group. last year i think they used the municipal stadium in bron. these places are pretty good, about what a AAA high school football team in texas might have.

[Bonnie Lass]

Guignol, I think you mentioned this at some point in the past few months, but does OL's premium service show OL women's matches? Do they archive them?

And the premium service is pretty cheap, no? I think I saw it was something like 5 Euros a month? Or was I imagining things?

Thanks so much. I would love to see the OL-Arsenal match, if at all possible.

[Inara]

Yup, they broadcast the matches live for all women's Euro matches (they also broadcast the cup final last season). Not the league matches though.

But they don't archive the matches, they just have highlights available after the game is over.

[guignol]

thanks for the info inara, i actually had very little idea what was on the olweb premium OLTV...

OLTV used to be programmed on local cable channel TLM, and they'd show the men's matches the next day, plus a lot of women's and CFA matches (though never live), plus talk show and interviews (probably less than now though), but that was before olweb had the technology... little by little they've taken over and this season there's no OLTV on TLM at all. :(

[guignol]

i happened upon a local news site that seems to take the OL women seriously:

http://www.aufildelyon.fr/tag/football%20f%C3%A9minin (http://www.aufildelyon.fr/tag/football%20f%C3%A9minin)

http://www.aufildelyon.fr/tag/ol (http://www.aufildelyon.fr/tag/ol)

unfortunately their tagging is a bit haphazard so you can't get all the articles up at once... and of course you have to read french. but there seem to be some videos... i can't get them to work but that may be something on my end.

[Bonnie Lass]

But they don't archive the matches, they just have highlights available after the game is over.

Ah, thanks for that. I may give it a go then and try to record the match tomorrow, since I'll be on my way to work when it airs.

The price doesn't seem bad at all and would be worth it to see this particular match. (I pay $26 a month to see a few Toppserien matches and home NT matches through TV2.)

but there seem to be some videos... i can't get them to work but that may be something on my end.

They worked fine for me. Not sure what format they are, but maybe it just requires a plugin.

Good luck to OL tomorrow. It should be a very good match. :)

[Bonnie Lass]

Alright, I just subscribed. Granted, it took far more trips to Google translate than I'd like to admit, but I did it.

But I do have one quick question: After going to the OL site tomorrow, and clicking on OL Web Premium at the top, will it be obvious where I need to go after that? Or will I need to hunt around some more? I'm sure I'll find it, but I just wanted to make sure. :)

Thanks again. Y'all have been very helpful.

[Inara]

Once you are logged in, if you go to the main page, there should be a link to a video that says "OL-Arsenal" at the time the game is scheduled to take place. They'll probably post it 20 minutes or so before the game.

[Gnafron]

25 °C, sunny day: perfect for a great match tonight.

[guignol]

indian summer royale! this saturday was the most beautiful day of the year so far. one degree, one percent of humidity, or one km/h of breeze more, or less, would have been a shame. i even cancelled mowing the lawn out of respect for such pefection.

so i had a plan to take the family to the match tonight... which evoked no great enthusiasm from beloved wife and daughter dear: poor things labor under the misconception that there's more to life than football... peucheres!

so when i suggested a barbecue they had to acquiesce, vegetarianism or no! no? oh, he's a tricky devil that guignol!

[Inara]

Reposted from the Women's Soccer forum:

Final Score: Lyon 3-0 Arsenal.

The game was a lot of fun to watch, and I was pleased to see pretty, technical football being played. Lyon dominated the game thanks to their control of the midfield, and at times they simply outpassed Arsenal to death. Schelin had a good game, and Abily and Necib were especially good. Defensively, the team was solid, and Pons did a good job covering for Nordby the few times she was tested.

Arsenal were missing Kelly Smith, but they still should have done better. The players didn't know what to do when they didn't have the ball. They also seemed tired and often were outpaced by Lyon. The Arsenal keeper (Byrne?) definitely had a game to forget - she could have done better on the first goal and reacted slowly on the second.

Umea and Arsenal will meet in the next round, and Lyon will be facing Bardolino.

[Bonnie Lass]

The game was a lot of fun to watch, and I was pleased to see pretty, technical football being played.Lyon dominated the game thanks to their control of the midfield, and at times they simply outpassed Arsenal to death.

I've posted this here and elsewhere, but OL plays some of the prettiest women's soccer I've ever seen. I was really blown away by their passing game. It's the best in the world, by far. (Club or country)

I was impressed with everything I saw from them today. I can't praise the girls enough. I knew they were good, but ... Wow.

Arsenal never had a chance.

(And I'm really not trying to be a kiss-ass, FWIW. :D I did see them play against Umea last year, but I don't remember them looking this good.)

[Inara]

It's too bad that they play in a relatively weaker league. Like the men's side, the women's side isn't as attractive to higher profile players due to the lack of league strength despite the strength of the team itself. Aulas was fortunate in landing Schelin, but even paying her a lot of money, she's made it clear that Lyon is just a stepping stone to playing in the US. It's also doubtful how long OL's own players will stay - four of their players were drafted this year by the WPS, and the number will only increase.

[guignol]

what was the crowd like? on olweb they talk about "more and more numerous" but no figure; i'm curious because france tunisia was on TV last night too.

i was going to ask where you read about the stepping stone business but found something myself right here on BS.

there's a difference between saying "USA has always been my goal and in some ways it still is" and actually leaving lyon soon.

primo, the money. on the announced budgets no way the WPS can afford players like marta, smith or schelin

secundo, playing in the US is no longer the nec plus ultra of women's football, and if OL wins the UEFA cup she may find that she's already where the real action is.

ultimo, she made that statement before she'd seen lyon or even been to france. i've been to göteborg many times, it's quite nice. st. louis is a sister city to lyon so i can't say anything bad about it. but neither place is a patch on lyon: in my broad experience but biased opinion it may be the most beautiful and liveable city in the world*. neither my wife or i are natives, and we're both from pretty nice places (monterey ca. and avignon) but when we discovered la capitale des gaules we realized we would have to live here one day. players like claudio caçapa and sonny anderson kept their families here and called lyon home even while playing elsewhere, and lyon companies have no trouble at all hiring people away from paris.

*if i had a 7 figure bank account and a 6 figure income i'd probably prefer SF, but since i don't lyon is almost as nice. and certainly much better than concord or redwood city where san francisco's hoi polloi get to live.

[Inara]

Lyon is a nice place to live, but as we've seen numerous times with the men's side, even if OL offer competitive wages, it's the overall league strength that turns people off, and right now, Lyon are in a class of their own in France and will be for some time. Winning the UEFA Cup is a challenge right now, but if they do win it, it'd be understandanable that some would seek out new challenges.

The WPS right now won't offer Schelin the kind of wages she gets here, which is why she made the correct decision in coming here. But in two years, who knows? It's a new league that is attractive to players, so even if they offer her less, she still may opt to leave if she feels she is no longer growing as a player.

Also, Cacapa and Anderson were near the end of their careers, plus they are married with kids. Anyway, Malouda, Abidal, and Tiago all left Lyon despite admitting that it was a great place to live simply because they looked to their careers.

[Inara]

what was the crowd like? on olweb they talk about "more and more numerous" but no figure; i'm curious because france tunisia was on TV last night too.

It says 5000 here (http://www.foot69.fr/Feminines-l-OL-seduit-et-vire-en-tete-football-Europe-Rhone-_a1819.html) though it looked like a bit more to me. In any case, they were loud the entire time, and at times, it was almost like a full stadium. Aulas, Fred, Juni, and Puel were there as well. Piquionne and Hartock came to the Lyon-Zurich match.

[Bonnie Lass]

The crowd sounded very good on the Web cast. I was surprised when they did an overall and saw that only one side of the stadium was oped to spectators. It really sounded like both sides were filled.

[guignol]

well, the noise you get on any telecast is as much due to mike placement and equalizers as reality... unless you really believe that 1500 marseillais can drown out anfield!

for the biggest matches they open jean jaurès bottom AND top (about 10,000 seats), but they've never opened up jean bouin or the ends for the ladies... yet!

in the plans for OL-land there is what looks like a mini stadium that many like me assumed would be for the CFA and the ladies... the idea of a 6-8000 seater for this purpose is actually older than the big project. unfortunately i think i read somewhere that these teams and the academy will stay at gerland: which makes all those fields in the project seem excessive.