GREAT NEWS!!! Actually I'm starting to like our B team more than our A because Jeff Niemczeki really call those players who deserved it from how they perform in the league, absolutely prohibited by our last three NT coaches.....and most important he's not under Juvisy's influence so NO Thiney!! ....wonderful .
I think they might still be a bit short in their fundraising (Coach Haley Carter's twitter suggests needing $65,000 before Jan. 15). The Afghanistan WNT's program has a GoFundMe set up, which is currently at ~$40,000 (maybe there are corporate sponsors that are not included there?). If you'd like to contribute: https://www.gofundme.com/AFFWomensFund.
Northern Ireland will also compete : At the end of February the senior team will be jetting off to Croatia to take part in the annual Istria Cup competition. http://www.irishfa.com/news/2016/december/women-s-teams-gear-up-for-a-big-year
The Istria Cup is changing game and will be called Adria Cup. This is due to some problems with the Croatia organisation last year and everyting will take place in Slovenia.
I spoke to one of the organiser while in Spain for a u17 tri nations tournament and he said the line-up is not finalized yet. Taipei should be one of the team competing.
So we might have France B, Croatia, Slovenia, Taipei, Afghanistan & Northern Ireland. Maybe two more, maybe 6 more if they have a 12 team tournament.
Afghanistan will be completely out of their depth at this tournament. Croatia, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Taiwan are all similar in strength (possibly 50th-80th globally - not using FIFA rankings here, because they're not accurate), but Afghanistan is way down, possibly around 180-190. If the Cyprus Aphrodite Cup is being held this year, this would have been a better tournament for them, with lower ranked teams from Europe competing (Malta, Cyprus, Latvia, etc. being around 100-130 globally). Afghanistan just lost 5-1 to India and 6-0 to Bangladesh - both of these teams would be ranked lower than 100, and so we can expect that the teams in the Adria Cup should be able to score 6-10 goals against Afghanistan. Their most recent matches before this also included a 6-1 defeat to Bangladesh, a 1-0 defeat to Maldives, and a 12-0 defeat to India. Put simply, this would be like putting India in the Algarve Cup.
Point of order: the FIFA Women's Rankings are actually very accurate for the first 30 or so, and still quite accurate within confederations even after 50th; their only problem (as with almost any system) is they're poorly tuned to compare when teams that rarely play outside of their local pools actually play out-of-pool matches. That said, completely agree that AFG is way out of its depth.
Agreed - FIFA women's ranking is OK at the top end - and is better than the men's ranking - because it uses the elo system, which is one of the better systems available. At the bottom end though, it is as good as useless - that's why I didn't use it, as I'm not comparing any teams from the Top 30. For example, they still rank Tanzania - who have shown consistently decent performances over the last few years - below Maldives, who have done nothing. My "provisional" system has: 61 Tanzania (FIFA: 116= out of 127) 77 Kenya (FIFA: 122 out of 127) 184 Maldives (FIFA: 116= out of 127) There is a huge difference - Tanzania 123 places ABOVE Maldives in my ranking, and level with Maldives in FIFA's ranking. Tanzania would probably be at least 10 goals better than Maldives in a one-off match. Kenya is even lower, despite qualifying for the 2016 AFCON and thus being in the Top 8 in Africa. Botswana at the very bottom of the FIFA ranking also makes no sense - they only lost 0-2 and 0-3 to South Africa last year - yet they are below Andorra, who has lost every FIFA-approved game they have played so far.
any update? If this is being played at the same time that the Istria Cup is played(early March), I have to believe everything has been sorted out by now.
Not yet, the only information I got was some games will be played in Croatia and some in Slovenia (in Koper I believe which is next to Croatia)
This link mentions 8 teams: https://translate.googleusercontent...ns-cup&usg=ALkJrhi5fxr7taEMtOP6jWeSOykyX-ROcQ Slovakia, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, France B, Hungary B, USA Select, Poland U-23 No Afghanistan mentioned. But this seems to be just the same teams as last year, so maybe they have not updated it for this year yet.
Slovenia FA reporting that it will be called the Istria Cup, and be in Croatia: Slovenia with Slovakia, Northern Ireland and Taiwan Other Group must be Croatia, France 'B' and others... http://www.nzs.si/novica/Zenska_reprezentanca_na_turnir_na_Hrvasko?id=44146&id_objekta=
I believe Poland & Hungary are sending a team. Might be the national teams or possibly their U-23 teams. That would be the 8 teams.
Group A is Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Slovakia & Taiwan. Group B is France B, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia & Hungary(U-23? B team?) Though one thing is odd. Poland's twitter account was linked to this, yet it doesn't appear they're participating. Poland is participating in the Gold City Cup in Turkey at the same time.
Hungary's team is their "B" team as their national team is now participating in the Cyprus Cup. FULL SCHEDULE March 1 GROUP A Northern Ireland vs. Slovakia Chinese Taipei vs. Slovenia GROUP B France B vs. Bosnia & Herzegovina Hungary B vs. Croatia March 3 GROUP A Slovenia vs. Slovakia Chinese Taipei vs. Northern Ireland GROUP B Hungary B vs. Bosnia & Herzegovina France B vs. Croatia March 7 GROUP A Northern Ireland vs. Slovenia Chinese Taipei vs. Slovakia GROUP B Bosnia & Herzegovina vs. Croatia France B vs. Hungary B March 9 placement matches
France B team called up are: GK: Munich (soy), Peyraud-Magnin (om) DF: Cissoko (psg), Dafeur (losc), Greboval (juv), Lorgere' (gui), Romanelli (mhsc), Saint Sans-Levacher (arras), Sissoko (asse), Torrent (mhsc). MF: Bilbault (juv), Bourgouin (soy), Diallo (psg), Jaurena (juv), Lavaud (asse), Le Garrec (gui), Morroni (psg), Tarrieu (ol), Thomas (mhsc). FW: Gauvin (mhsc), Le Bihan (mhsc), Sarr (psg). A very interesting young and talented team selected by coach Jean-Francois "Jeff" Niemezcki, I agree with almost all players call apart a few, overall he took in consideration how girls are performing in D1F and potential... even though some names like Mateo, Leger or Chaumette are missing but overall is a very strong France B team.
France B 0 Bosnia Herzegovina 2 ! Slovakia 0 Northern Ireland 0 with a last minute penalty save by Northern Ireland